Grandbrothers
As I steered the family car into the tiny town of Oxford (population about 600), I immediately began to relax. My breathing slowed, my body slouched and when I turned to glance at my wife Fyllis seated beside me, she was having the same reaction.
Welcome to one of the miniscule municipalities scattered about the Old Line State´s Talbot County. While most of us learn about early U.S. history on the page and on the screen, those who visit this historic corner of the Chesapeake Bay´s eastern shore, just under an hour and a half´s drive from Baltimore, are immersed in bygone days in a more up-close-and-personal way.
Fyllis and I quickly realized that given their hometown drawl, locals pronounce the name of their county several ways. We heard it called "Tahl-but," "Tall-but," and "Taw-but." Whatever they say, the destination offers a deep dive into intriguing chapters of our country's past.
As elsewhere in the what is today the United States, tribal peoples such as the Choptank, Nanticoke, and Susquehannock were gradually displaced by English settlers who started arriving in the the 1630s, first establishing tobacco plantations and finally formally creating Talbot County in 1662, Tnamed for Lady Grace Talbot, sister of the second Lord Baltimore, who instituted freedom of religion and separation of church and state. Many early immigrants were Quakers or Puritans seeking a haven from persecution, or people from Ireland and Scotland transported to the colony as indentured servants. Adding to the mix were both free and enslaved African-Americans.
We soon learned that a more meaningful way to steep ourselves in earlier centuries is by exploring the sites, which surrounded us. Each town has its own memories to share, and together they weave a fascinating account.
Easton (population about 17,000) is the capital and "big city" of Talbot County. The Third Haven Meeting House was built in 1682. Among notable Quakers who have worshiped there was William Penn, the English religious thinker who founded the province of Pennsylvania. And the town's Hill Community has been home to free African-Americans since the 1780s.
Much smaller (pop. 1,100) St. Michaels dates back to 1677, and served as a trading post for trappers and tobacco farmers, and later as a hub of boatbuilding. One major claim to fame relates to the British navy's bombardment during the War of 1812 when, according to a contemporary report, "several houses were pierced" by cannon balls. The townspeople escaped serious damage, the story goes, by turning off house lights and hanging lanterns in nearby trees, at which the Brits aimed their fire. That little trick resulted in St. Michaels becoming known as "the town that fooled the British."
Victor Block
Then when we crossed the short drawbridge which connects the mainland with the tiny authentic waterman’s village of Tilghman Island (pronounced Till-man), we were retracing the route of spans that have existed at that site since the late 1600s. We were greeted by a 10-by-40-foot mural titled "Pride" (above) covering one side of a building. It depicts a waterman in his boat, other vessels docked nearby and displays of the seafood for which Talbot County is rightly famous. A plaque pays tribute to the people “who have been working the Chesapeake Bay waters since the 1800s,” demonstrating and facing “Endurance. Perseverance. Hard Work. Ingenuity. Danger. Drive. Respect for the natural world.”
Lei Xu/Dreamstime.com
We were also delighted to learn that each town has a museum which relates its historical tale, along with other collections that focus upon specific parts of it.
The Tilghman Watermen's Museum celebrates the work and culture of people who long have earned their livelihood fishing and crabbing on rivers and bays. Occupying what once was the island's barber shop, the museum brings their stories to life with videos, boat models, tools of the trade and art.
The centerpiece of the Oxford Museum is a lighthouse lens named for Augustin-Jean Fresnel, a French engineer who in the 1820s came up with the idea for a light that produces a very strong beam. Other exhibits are devoted to oysters, ducks and watermen.
This area also is home to the oldest continuing free black community in the United States, so it's not surprising that there are museums, trails and other references to this part of its story. The Water's Edge Museum, also in Oxford, portrays the lives of Black farmers, watermen, sail makers and others who played important roles in the area's commerce and culture.
The crown jewel of the collections is the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (above), in St. Michaels, an 18-acre campus that has evolved from a humble beginning into a world-class display. It offers a variety of historic structures, more than 100 boats and boat models, decoys, a classic Chesapeake Bay lighthouse which was moved there and much more.
Alan Kolnik/Dreamstime.com
Fyllis and I chose Oxford as our home base for a variety of reasons, including its serene setting. Officially established in 1683, although it had existed earlier, this is a charming hamlet of brick sidewalks which lead past white picket fences enclosing elegant historic homes. In colonial days it developed as a booming port, and later an active boat building business thrived there. Much later, the author James Michener chose it as the place where he wrote his novel Chesapeake.
Victor Block
Oxford also is notable for two other reasons. One is The Robert Morris Inn (above), built as a home in 1710 since 1800 operating as a hotel. Prominent dignitaries who have slept there include George Washington and Robert Morris, a British-born merchant and banker who moved to Colonial America, personally helped to finance the Revolution and signed the Declaration of Independence. The original wood paneling and oak timbers were hand-made by ship carpenters and bricks in the fireplaces were brought from England as ballast in vessels.
Joe Sohm/Dreamstime.com
The town also is home base for the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry, the USA´s oldest privately owned ferry boat. It began transporting passengers in 1683, and now also carries vehicles, trailers, bicycles and motorcycles across the Tred Avon River.
Linda Mamahon/Dreamstime.com
Talbot County has more than 600 miles of shoreline, and we were never far from waters of rivers and the Chesapeake Bay which are dotted by marinas and moorings, and plied by both working and pleasure boats. This provides a perfect backdrop for sightings of eagles, ospreys and other resident and migrating birds; a long list of fish species, and occasional encounters with otters and harbor seals. Alan Gignoux/Dreamstime.com
For more information log onto TourTalbot.org.
Comments