WICOMICO COUNTY 1867 UNLIK IKE the other Eastern Shore counties, Wicomico, youngest of the nine, was created by a Constitutional Convention, the act of which became operative when ratified by the voters in the territory affected. Four of the twenty-three Maryland counties were created by Constitutional Conventions; two, (Washington and Montgomery), by that of 1776; one, (Howard), by that of 1851, and the fourth, (Wicomico), by that of 1867. That this section of the old Counties of Somerset and Worcester was becoming so thickly populated as to justify the forming of a new county has been borne out by the recent growth of Wicomico and its county-seat, Salisbury. Wicomico is easily accessible to the Chesapeake Bay, but has no extensive bay frontage like six of its Eastern Shore sisters. Caroline is the sole inland Eastern Shore county, and Worcester lies on the ocean. Indians held full sway in this forest-covered part of Maryland when the charter of 1632 was granted to Cecilius Calvert, and after the early settlements were made on the "Eastern Shore" they traded with the Swedes on the Delaware and brought beaver, wolf and other skins of wild animals down the Wicomico and Nanticoke Rivers to the old settlement of "Green Hill," the erection of which into a town was later authorized by Act of Assembly, (1706). Little of the geography of the country was known to the first colonists, and the rivers. were their only routes of communication in that densely wooded locality. Not until 1760 did the present line between Sussex County, Delaware, and what is now Wicomico County become fixed, and in 1763 Mason and Dixon began to run the line between Maryland and Pennsylvania and Delaware. The part of the old County of Somerset now embraced in Wicomico is co-extensive with the western and southern bounds of two of the old civil divisions of Somerset, once known as Wicomico and Nanticoke Hundreds. Then, too, these bounds are almost identical with the bounds of Stepney Parish at the time it was laid out. Upon the assumption in 1692 of the government of the Province of Maryland by the English Crown, Sir Lionel Copley was sent as the first royal Governor and he at once had an Act passed by the Assembly establishing by law the Church of England in the Province, and in accordance with this law each county was divided into parishes. Of the thirty laid out in the Province four were in Somerset County. Stepney Parish was one of them, and its bounds were about the same as the bounds of Wicomico County. When the freeholders assembled to lay out the parish they met at the house of Rev. John Hewitt, who was the first rector. Prior to the making of the Church of England the established church of the Province all worship had been free and churches had been supported by voluntary contributions, but then all "taxables" had to contribute to the extent of forty pounds. of tobacco per poll to maintain the establishment. Protestant dissenters and Quakers were allowed their separate meeting houses if they paid the tax. When "Green Hill" was made a town it became a port of entry. It was laid out in 100 lots and on Lot 16 Green Hill Church was built in 1733. One of the chapels of ease of this parish was known in 1768 as Goddard's Chapel, and as it had become unfit for use it was ordered torn down and rebuilt on "two acres of land on the south side of Wicomico River and above the branch whereon the mill of William Venables is built." This is the present site of the Episcopal Church in Salisbury. Salisbury was laid out according to Act of Assembly in 1732, and is now the largest town on the Eastern Shore, and has many industries that insure its still further growth in the future. Situated on the Wicomico River, it presented to the observer a very unique position prior to 1867. inasmuch as Division Street of the town was the dividing line between Worcester County and Somerset County. Those living on the east side of the street were obliged to go to Snow Hill to attend to court matters, while those on the west side of Division Street went to Princess Anne. This condition obtained for many years prior to 1867. Tired of it and vexed by its annoyances the MARYLAND'S COLONIAL EASTERN SHORE people of Salisbury, led by the Grahams, Leonards, Todds, Toadvines and Jacksons, succeeded in carrying the election in favor of forming the new county. No company of old soldiers at a reunion can grow as animated in reminiscence as can a party of Wicomico countians, who took part in that memorable campaign of 1867, when discussing its strenuosities. All the allied eloquence, craft and political sagacity of the leaders of all parties in both Worcester and Somerset were arrayed against the "upstarts" of this section, which wanted to deprive them, each, of one-third of their territory, and set up the presumption that Salisbury could possibly be in a class with either Snow Hill or Princess Anne. Geographically speaking, brother was arrayed against brother. The Franklins and Joneses and Crisfields and Dashiells were fighting the Grahams and Leonards and Todds and Toadvines and Jacksons. The names of Wicomico's first officials are of men known to every Wicomico countian. Thomas F. J. Rider was chosen the first Clerk of the Circuit Court-his name is interwoven with much of the county's subsequent history. Salisbury's then leading merchant, William Birckhead, was chosen the first Register of Wills, and no man could have inspired greater confidence. To Barren Creek District went the shrievalty, William Howard, being the county's first Sheriff. Who can even think of the earlier days of the Salisbury Advertiser without linking in the same thought the name of Lemuel Malone, its editor, afterward by an appreciative Governor given the title of "Colonel"? To him was given the honor of being the county's first State Senator. Ritchie Fooks and George Hopkins were its first Delegates to the General Assembly. For a number of years the county had neither court house nor jail, these being built in 1878. Terms of the Circuit Court were held in Jackson's Opera House, the various county officials having offices in nearby quarters. The names of many living at the time the county was formed are of men who stood for what was best in civic, social and religious life, whose very living at that time, with their active participation in its stirring events, presaged successful and conservative business administration for the new county. There was Purnell Toadvine, a man of affairs, who left large impress upon his community; and there was Gen. Humphrey Humphreys, of whom the same may be said, and Col. William J. Leonard, William Birckhead, whose name stood not only for business success, but for personal probity; Milton Parsons, and the tall, angular, honest John White; Hugh Jackson, and his sons, Elihu, William, Wilbur Fisk; Col. Samuel A. Graham, Drs. Marion F. and Albert Slemons, Dr. H. Laird Todd, Dr. Kerr, Josephus Humphreys, William Howard. James Gillis and Beauchamp Gillis, William Levi and James Laws: Andrew and Nelson Crawford; Elijah, William and Peter Freeny. King V. White, Isaac H. Dulany, George Lowe, George Hitch. These men stood for much in their county and verily their deeds do live after them, and they have left a goodly heritage to the old and middle-aged men and women of today, their sons and daughters. No cosmopolite character enters into the class making up Wicomico's citizenship. Most of us know who was the grandfather and the great-grandfather and maybe the great-great-grandfather of nearly everybody else, and what he was and did and whence he came. And we are proud of the knowledge both of what we are and who we are, and what and who our neighbors are. No community, so constituted. ever goes far wrong. Two decades after its organization, Wicomico added a Governor of Maryland to the Eastern Shore list. Elihu Emory Jackson, elected in 1887, was inaugurated January 11, 1888, and remained the State's Chief Executive until January 13, 1892. The original territory of Somerset has furnished two other Governors. Levin Winder, of Somerset, held the office from November 25, 1812, until January 2, 1816, and John Walter Smith, of Worcester, was Governor from January 10, 1900, until January 13, 1904. D. Irving Pollitt LD Green Hill" Church, was built in 1733 and stands on the banks of the Wicomico River, partly hidden from view of passing boats by the great oaks that surround it. It was the parish church of Stepney Parish, one of the original thirty laid out in 1692. The first vestrymen of this parish were James Weatherly, John Bounds, Philip Carter, Robert Collyer, Thomas Holebrook and Philip Askue. The land on which this relic of colonial days was built was sold to the vestry of Stepney Parish on April 19, 1731, by Neal McClester, and is described in the deed as "all that lot of land lying in a place in the county aforesaid called and known by the name of Green Hill Town which by the commissioners for laying out the said town was numbered sixteen. The chapels of ease of the parish were "Goddard's Chapel and "Spring Hill Chapel." The first of these had become so dilapidated that the assembly authorized the vestry of Stepney Parish "to purchase two acres of land on the south side of Wicomico River and above the branch whereon the mill of William Venables is built" and |