The Caroline County Historical Society

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Caroline History & Culture Events

Anna Murray Douglass Presentation

Anna Murray Douglass Presentation

Dr. Celeste-Marie Bernier presentation. Brought to you by the Frederick Douglass Society of Easton, Caroline County Public Libraries, and the Caroline County Historical Society.

Friday Night Collectibles

Friday Night Collectibles

Enjoy an hour of sharing antique fire memorabilia from the collection of Fred Spence – with Cathy Spence and Cameron Wynn. November 10, 5:30-6:30 pm.

Paranormal Night at Linchester Mill

Paranormal Night at Linchester Mill

Invitation to a Special Fundraising Event October 30-31, 8 PM to 3 AM Spend a night with Caroline County Paranormal for their return investigations of Historic Linchester’s buildings of the 18oo’s. Hear local history and stories of the Mill and a Linchester home near...

Hear Our Stories

Leaders for Freedom & Civil Rights

Bishop Alexander W. Wayman, founding AME Bishop, was raised in Tuckahoe Neck.  Underground Railroad conductors Daniel Hubbard and Arthur Leverton barely escaped lynching. The parents of William Still, “Father of the Underground Railroad”, were born into slavery near the Choptank River. James H. Webb, a free black, farmed here before the Civil War.

Our African-American Legacy >>

Courageous & Creative Women

Nettie Dean Carterprominent teacher, suffragette, and businesswoman – a century ahead of her time.  Enolia McMillan, NAACP’s first woman president, started her teaching career in Denton.  Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad ran through the heart of Caroline County.  Anna Murray of Tuckahoe Neck helped Frederick Douglass escape north before they married and raised a family.

Our Women’s Legacy >>

War Heroes

Capt. Quentin Walsh, USCG, captured the French seaport that secured D-Day. 2LT Louise Hollister was Maryland’s only Army Nurse casualty in WWII.  Col. Peter Adams commanded Maryland troops at Yorktown. Col. William Richardson, “Father of Caroline County”, also saved the Continental Treasury from the British.  Cpl. William H. Carney, 38th US Colored Troops, was laid to rest at Union Church after the Civil War.

Our Wartime Legacy >>

Everyday Citizens

Captain C.C. Wheeler was illiterate yet built and operated a successful steamboat line. George Swartz and his mule loaded sailing vessels in West Denton in the 1930s.  The Two Johns were vaudeville actors whose riverside theater scandalized the locals.  Georgist Tax Rebels planned a colony at Gilpin Point. Robert Jacobs was a modern blacksmith at age 14.

Our Common Legacy >>

Historic Buildings Preservation

The Historic Landscape of Caroline County

Caroline County Mapped:  1670-1950

Caroline County Mapped: 1670-1950

Historical Maps from the David Rumsey Collection Maryland's Eastern Shore and what later became Caroline County were first mapped by Augustine Hermann in 1670. Many of the maps which show the Eastern Shore since 1670 have been preserved and digitized by the David...

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1897 is a Certified True Copy of the Original

1897 is a Certified True Copy of the Original

We can see the Caroline County landscape in 1897, thanks to the efforts of two county citizens working 72 years apart. I found no reference to M. L. Saulsbury's mapmaking in the Denton Journal around 1897.  So I'm not sure why this map was made.  And I haven't seen an...

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Segregated White Schools

Segregated White Schools

The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified historically segregated white schools in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. In the map shown on this page, use the toggle at...

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Segregated White Churches

Segregated White Churches

The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified historically segregated white churches in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. In the map shown on this page, use the toggle at...

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Segregated Black Schools

Segregated Black Schools

The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified historic black schools in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. In the map shown on this page, use the toggle at the upper left to...

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Sawmills and Grist Mills

Sawmills and Grist Mills

The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified and mapped the historic locations of sawmills and grist mills in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. In the map shown on this...

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River Landings and Railroad Stations

River Landings and Railroad Stations

The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified river landings and railroad stations in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. In the map shown on this page, use the toggle at the...

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Post Offices

Post Offices

The Historic Landscape of Caroline County We identified historic post office locations in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. Below the map are lists of post offices which appear in...

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Towns, Crossroads, and Named Settlements

Towns, Crossroads, and Named Settlements

The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified these named settlements in the Choptank River Heritage area: Crossroads Houses Immigrant Settlements Native American Settlements Plantations Towns We identified these sites primarily by georeferencing the 1875...

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Museum Exhibits

Taylor-Brown House

Built for merchant-broker Solomon Brown in 1819 and later owned by the Taylors, an African American family. This house was moved twice by mule cart and survived the fire that leveled most of Denton on July 4, 1865, when balls of candlewick and kerosene were flung in celebration at a Civil War reconciliation picnic.

Painter’s Range

One-room dwellings were so common at the end of the 18th century that they housed roughly 85% of the inhabitants of southern Delaware and the lower Shore. They became less popular by the mid 1800s. By the time the log dwelling was built on Painter’s Range about 1828, one-room houses in rural areas were associated with “subsistence farmers”; i.e., a family scratching out a living on fifteen to thirty acres.

Chance’s Desire

Typical home of a “middling planter,” circa 1787, Chance’s Desire was a classic hall-parlor dwelling in which there were two rooms aligned end to end on the ground floor with a fireplace at each gable end.  Parlor room with large “chimney breast” with thirteen hand-carved raised panels over the fireplace. Overhead were decorative floor/ceiling joists carved from local poplar trees.

Skillington’s Right

Skillington’s Right was built circa 1795, home of the Fraziers, a wealthy planter family.  Once said to be the finest specimen of colonial architecture on the upper Choptank.  The area along the Great Choptank River between Skillington’s and Edmondson’s Creeks has long been known as “Frazier’s Neck.”  It was first surveyed in 1663 for John Edmondson.

WWI - The Great War

Built for merchant-broker Solomon Brown in 1819 and later owned by the Taylors, an African American family. This house was moved twice by mule cart and survived the fire that leveled most of Denton on July 4, 1865, when balls of candlewick and kerosene were flung in celebration at a Civil War reconciliation picnic.

WWII - Lost Lives

In the Lost Lives exhibit, visitors will recognize the names Corregidor, Cuadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Normandy, Tripolis Мопtе Cassino, The Bulge, Guam, and others. Together with the Letters Home and Romance, our WWII exhibits give visitors compelling and straight-forward insight into how World War impacted Caroline County families.

Sea Stories

Caroline County captains, sailors, and shipbuilders in the Age of Sail and the Age of Steam.

FDR on the Denton Courthouse Green

FDR’s visit on Labor Day 1938 was more than just a big day for Denton.  It was also a carefully planned and orchestrated event in FDR’s battle to secure the New Deal.

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of Caroline County

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Caring, Sharing, Giving

The CCHS depends on your generous contributions to continue to promote and protect Caroline County’s rich heritage. Funds are used to operate the Museum of Rural Life, sustain our programming, and restore and maintain historically significant structures throughout Caroline County.

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