Category: Maryland

Havre de Grace Provides Historical Public Records Online

Local government records are essential for studying the past. These primary sources document governance, along with the history of communities, institutions, and people.  

With state and federal agencies the process of accessing the items usually works efficiently. But when municipalities retain files, there are often challenges in locating the aging volumes as they rarely have dedicated archivists to keep up with the flow of old documents. Plus, the local custodians have limited resources to preserve, organize, and store files of permanent value.

Municipalities have a patchwork of approaches. Sometimes the old records have been transferred to a state archives, but frequently the town clerk has retained guardianship. Over the years, I have climbed through attics of town halls, searched through dark, damp basements, and combed through boxes stashed in out-of-the-way closets or old vaults searching for primary sources. This disarray is compounded as valuable materials are often lost to the fog of the past as decades slip by.

City Clerks do the best they can as custodians of public records, struggling with limited time and resources as they juggle multiple responsibilities.  I have been helped by many of these keepers of public records.  Plus, sometimes I find that the local bodies have digitized its archives, making them available online.  This makes my work much more manageable, increases efficiencies for agency staff, and reduces custodial and preservation problems as paper ages and becomes fragile. 

While working with municipal records across the mid-Atlantic, I recently discovered that the City of Havre Grace had established an online repository for its public records, the city minutes starting in 1800 while the ordinance books begins in 1879.  The user-friendly web portal permits a curious type to easily access the records and view digital copies of the original, primary sources.

Thank you, City of Havre de Grace for ensuring that the public records of the City are retained, organized, preserved, and made available.  Anyone studying the past in this old Maryland City will find this to be a helpful resource.

Click here to access eCode360, the repository for the public records of the City.

The Bicycle Ordinance for the City of Havre de Grace
Minutes from 1862

Effort to Save Levi Coppin School Continues as State Reopens Review Process

CECILTON – September 2, 2020 – The demolition plan for the Levi Coppin School in Cecilton is being reassessed as a “post-review discovery” under section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, according to the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).  Some months earlier, a determination had been made that the demolition of this African-American landmark would not adversely impact the community.

But with the clock ticking advocates heard that it was going to be razed so they stepped forward to provide significant information that hadn’t been discovered when the first 106 review was completed.  Some of these new insights came from former students at Levi Coppin, while other evidence of important traces of earlier times came from a thesis, and a Google search that located blog posts, and articles published in the Cecil Whig in recent years.   

Levi coppin school
The Levi Coppin School in Cecilton in the first half of 2020

For the moment the demolition is on hold in light of extra evidence of significance offered through petitions, letters, and the web as the State has opened the process to review the original determination.  One of the steps in reconsidering the original declaration took place this afternoon in a former classroom at 233 Bohemia Avenue as people interested in making remarks about the adverse effect and potential mitigation of the proposed demolition offered comments for consideration and the public record. 

Sixteen people attended this meeting.  Representatives from the town, county, and state, along with the developer, townspeople, faith community representatives, and historic preservationists, were present.  Joining by phone was the executive director of the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture, Chanel Compton, and Beth Cole from the Maryland Historical Trust.

The Cecil Historical Trust, a countywide preservation advocacy organization, sent a letter, saying that “due to the important history of the school and that period of transition to desegregated schools in the 1950s,” the group wanted to express support for preserving the building and revitalizing it for appropriate community use. 

In the weeks leading up to this public hearing, the Maryland Historical Trust wrote a letter to Kyle Dixon, saying that “Based on the information you provided, we informed DHCD that the historic structure slated for demolition is the former Levi Coppin School, which was constructed in 1950, served as the school to educate African-American children, and continued to operate as a segregated school until its closure in 1965. The Cecilton school may be significant in the context of efforts toward school reform in the immediate postwar period, and for its association with school desegregation. The construction of the school apparently was motivated by the findings of a federal school survey; its architecture may reflect standards for “separate but equal” facilities of the period. While the school has not been formally inventoried or evaluated for its eligibility in the National Register of Historic Places, Section 106 regulations allow the agency official, in consultation with the Trust/SHPO, to assume that the newly identified property is eligible for the National Register for purposes of Section 106 consultation [36 CFR 800.13(c)]. We have advised DHCD that it would be appropriate to assume that the Levi Coppin School is eligible for the National Register.”

This is the first step in the review process, as advocates for preserving the building and its history stepped forward. 

Levi Coppin School in 1971.
The Levi Coppin School in 1971 (Source: Cecil Whig)

Also See

A petition to Save the Levi Coppin School.

Leading up to the reopening of the State’s review process, interested parties circulated virtual and paper petitions. About 630 people ask that the dcision to demolish it be reconsidered.

Remembering a Bel Air Police Officer Who Died 94 Years Ago While Protecting the Community

George Noonan
The Gettysburg Times, June 20, 1920, reports on the injured officer, George Noonan

Occasionally while researching some criminal justice history matter I find a hint in old records about a long forgotten, undocumented fallen police officer.  When that happens, I pick up the evidentiary fragments and trace the trail back through time to make sure the officer’s ultimate sacrifice isn’t forgotten in the mist of time.

Over the decades I have found officers in Wilmington, Clayton, and Crisfield who fell in the line of duty, but were never listed on national, state, or local memorials or remembered in their community.  When the tragic occurrence is pointed out and the facts around the incident have been gathered, an officer or retiree from the department usually picks it up from there, making sure the hero is honored and the sacrifice is remembered by the agency and the community.

A few months ago while working on an investigation, I happened across some records about a Bel Air, MD police officer falling in the line of duty in 1920.  So today I picked up those fading traces, doing some fieldwork in Harford County.

Here is the narrative on this tragic occurrence:

Bel Air Town Minutes from 1920
Bel Air Town Minutes for 1920. Source: Town of Bel Air

A group of rowdies were making “life miserable for Bel Air’s quieter citizens by bombarding the town with torpedoes at all hours of the day and night” in the summer of 1920, according to the Aegis.  These wayward types had grown so daring as to toss firecrackers beneath the feet of ladies, causing them to stay clear of downtown streets.  All week-long these “hoodlums” had been making life difficult “for the nervous and scaring horses by exploding the torpedoes as an advanced celebration of the Fourth of July,” the Gettysburg Times remarked.

On Saturday night the racket in the business section was worse than ever so the town officer, Bailiff George Oliver Noonan, prepared to crackdown and bring a halt to the booming blasts of high-powered firecrackers.  But things reached a climax that weekend as he butted heads with the ruffians.

The disruptive gang had purchased“ a generous supply of torpedoes,” and were  using them when the officer confronted the rowdies on June 26.  When he warned them to stop igniting firecrackers, someone lit the fuse on one and dashed it down at his feet.  So he “divested some of the boys of their fireworks,” placing the torpedoes in his pocket.   But at least one of the revelers wasn’t happy with that and so Bailiff Noonan arrested Billie Trundle.  Trundle resisted and in the scuffle, the officer was either “tripped or thrown heavily to the ground,” causing the torpedoes to explode with terrible force, the Midland Journal reported.

His clothing was torn to shreds and the officer was seriously burned and bruised.  He stumbled into Richardson’s pharmacy where Dr. Charles Richardson determined that his injuries were serious.  By Sunday he was failing, and a consulting physician, Dr. Charles Bagley, ordered immediate admission to the Church Home and Infirmary in Baltimore.  In the hospital he steadily grew worse, until Monday night when death occurred (June 28, 1920).

Mr. Noonan was 34 years of age and died “from injuries sustained while making an arrest.” newspapers reported.  He was survived by a widow, formerly Miss Lulua Carr.  Funeral services were held at his residence and interment was in the Quaker Cemetery at Broad Creek. He had been bailiff for several years and was regarded as an excellent and hardworking officer, the Gettysburg Times reported.

At a meeting of the Bel Air Town Council on June 30, 1920, the town took action to replace their loyal and dedicated officer, the minutes reading:  “Mr. Paul H. Carroll was appointed bailiff to succeed Oliver Noonan, deceased.”   At the next meeting, Mr. Carroll declined the position and Samuel S. James was appointed Bailiff.

Additional Photos about Bel Air Police Officer George Noonan

George Noonan World War I draft registration card
George Oliver Noonan’s World War I Draft Registration card notes that his occupation was Bailiff for the Town of Bel Air.

The Flickr Commons Has Many Old Photographs and Postcards

The ferry running between Pennsville, NJ and New Castle DE. Source: Boston Public Library, Flickr Commons

As a result of developing research materials for centuries many of the nation’s largest public libraries have vast collections of photographs and postcards from earlier times.  These items, which are helpful to those digging into the past, have always been available, safely preserved and stored away for visiting patrons.  But now access is greatly enhanced as many of these institutions implement online sharing platforms that support the organization’s mission by increasing access for education, research, and personal enrichment.

The Boston Public Library (BPL), following the example of the Library of Congress, is one of the institutions that has embraced this approach.  It has about 86,000 images on the Commons.  BPL’s photostream is organized into collections and sets. clustered by major topic and state.  It has many historical treasures, including posters, postcards, labels, sheet music, trade cards, and much more.   There are 189 Delaware and 380 Maryland postcards, for example.

The goal of the Flickr Commons is to increase access to publicly held photograph collections and provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge.

Check it out.  You will find images there that will catch your interest as more institutions find innovative ways to share holdings found in the “world’s public photography archives.”  Beyond making the images available on the Internet, visitors are invited to contribute to the public knowledge by adding tags and leaving comments.

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Flickr, Google and Others are Out to Catalog the World’s Public Photo Archives.

The blog Indicommons has a lot of additional information about the the Flickr approach.  Check it out for details, but here are some points the site makes

  • “The Commons . . . expands creative freedom and enriches culture by pushing cultural media outside of the confines and limitation of physical media and by making this media available . . .”
  • “Participating institutions benefit from greater exposure of its collections through Flickr’s high profile and it’s large user base.”
  • “The Commons also allows participating institutions to harness the limitless power of the crowd to mine otherwise inaccessible data.”
  • “The Commons provides educators and their students a wealth of historical imagery and information from around the world. It also allows educators and their students to participate in the historical research and tagging.”

A Dover, DE postcard from the Boston Library

The Boston Library’s Flicker Commons