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I often have the opportunity to investigate rich, deep, and varied narratives about the past in unfamiliar towns and communities.  The distinctive heritage of these places, along with the complex forces that connect communities and families to their roots, is something I enjoy digging up during my research.

One unconventional technique I have honed over my decades of rummaging around new, untraveled territory while researching the past is to find a police officer right away.  It isn’t because there is some trouble brewing mind you, and I’m not looking for your average 20-something beat officer.  No, I need someone special, say an 80-year-old who worked the streets and back alleys day and night for at least a generation.  When these old-style lawmen weren’t busy taking care of wayward types and carting drunks off to jail, they kept an eye on everything on their beat.  This way I get a unique perspective, a cops eye view of the day in and day out goings-on from someone who knew their beat and town like no one else could.  This often makes my work much more complete as I try to understand the essence of happenings long ago.

As an example, once when I was on the Lower Eastern Shore, my work took me to Crisfield, MD.  I stopped by city hall to see if I could find some leads and the clerk put me in touch with 82-year-old Jesse Carmine. Still, on the payroll, he had worked for the city for over a half-century, most of it as a police officer.

They called the building inspector on the radio and it wasn’t too long before the public works truck pulled up.  After explaining my purpose, we talked.  He was born in 1921 in Crisfield and after serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II the young sailor returned home to start working as a patrolman in 1953.  Serving on the force until 1991, he was promoted to chief in 1977.  But after retiring from police work the city still needed his service, so he returned as acting chief for a period in 1997 and served as an inspector in public works for a number of years.

We climbed into the city pickup and retired Chief Carmine took me on a revealing, insightful tour of Crisfield, a place he knew so very well, having grown up there in the decade before World War II.  He shared stories about the passage of the 20th century in the watermen’s town, and accounts of nearly 50 years of prowling the night, chasing speeders, corralling troublemakers and putting jailbirds behind bars.  It was a time when policing was far different.  He talked about an era when the officers walked a beat as they was no patrol car, special training wasn’t required, and the challenges the men faced were far different.

I thoroughly enjoyed that summer afternoon some years back and each time I returned to Somerset County I would ask about Chief Carmine. As the years passed by he finally retired from his job in public works. In the summer of 2008, I stopped by the Tawes Museum and the volunteer on duty mentioned that he passed away over the winter. As I pulled away from the museum, the memories of that meeting some years earlier were still very fresh in my mind.

I was fortunate to have met Mr. Jesse Carmine, and be able to learn about a different time and place in a changing Maryland community.  His were rich stories and to some degree, they were accounts that were going to fade, as one generation gave way to another.  Coming from a lawman who touched the past in Crisfield in many ways, the old stories and nearly forgotten memories, were narratives that deserved to be remembered.

The Wilmington Library, established in 1788, has been collecting Delaware materials for centuries, and the reference department has many useful resources.  But one gem that should not be overlooked is the “Delaware Index,” a unique pre-computer age catalog of 3 x 5 cards and vertical files with materials from 1922 to 1977.

For the better part of the 20^th century the Wilmington librarians cut out and indexed articles about local subjects and people from a number of periodicals.  Included were newspapers, such as the Delaware Republican, Morning News, Evening Journal, Journal Every Evening, and Sunday Morning Star.

These files, which are professionally arranged for easy, logical access by patrons, include newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, letters, speeches, maps and ephemera.  It is arranged by subject so when researchers check on something they can easily find materials published in the era before e-text searches made access almost effortless.   Although the staff doesn’t add to these files as databases have replaced this old method for accessing information, they continue to maintain the catalog and the vertical files.  This is particularly important here because Delaware newspapers from this era haven’t been digitized yet.

This storehouse of information, a card catalog full of index cards and file cabinets packed with aging materials, is an excellent starting place for the genealogists or anyone puzzling together narratives from the past in the First State.  So be sure to check out this unique special collection if you’re doing some digging into earlier times.

Remember to use it for your local and family history projects all around the state, as the librarians indexed the Delaware newspapers, which thoroughly covered their beat, the First State. I often find nuggets of information that would require hours starring at microfilm readers or paging through newspapers, practically making the data inaccessible because of time constraints.  Once I have this information as a foundation I can build on my research and seek out additional sources, depending on the purpose of my study.

Of course, the Wilmington Public Library also has other local history resources.  These include Delaware newspapers on microfilm, city directories beginning in 1814, maps, the Delaware Census and a large collection of books.  Often this information is a key to opening the door to the past, a springboard to understanding and deeper examination, and I am usually pleased with the results from the Delaware Vertical Files.

A mere 17-miles over the Mason Dixon Line there is the quiet Pennsylvania borough of Christiana with about 1,100 residents.  In the 21^st century it is an idyllic, tranquil community on the northeastern edge of fine Lancaster County farm country.  However this modern  scene differs sharply with the disturbing violence that took place there a decade before the Civil War tore the country apart.

The town is off Route 41 and I have passed it many times, but never bothered to get off the highway.  However on a fine early autumn day it was time to spend some time in Christiana doing fieldwork to enhance classroom lectures on the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

The controversial Congressional Act strengthened the position of slave owners seeking to capture runaways, making it a duty of local authorities to arrest anyone suspected of being a runaway.  Areas along the Mason Dixon Line saw increased activity and in 1851 a Maryland slave owner, Edward Gorsuch, arrived at a home seeking to capture four fugitive slaves.  Accompanied by a posse and a federal marshal the group surrounded the farmhouse of William Parker, an African-American, but news of the confrontation spread and dozens of local people showed up.  When a skirmish broke out Gorsuch was killed and two other Marylanders were wounded.

In the aftermath of the Christiana Resistance, a detachment of marines were dispatched to this corner of Lancaster County, the town was put under martial law, and 141 people were arrested.  The Federal Government charged about 41 of them with treason under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act.  Southerners demand the hanging of those responsible, accusing them of making war on the United States.  The defense team led by Thaddeus Stevens defended the first case and after the jury deliberated for fifteen minutes a verdict of not guilty was returned.  By the end of 1851, all charges were dropped against 38 black men and 3 white men.

The incident did much to polarize the national debate over slavery as the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was tested for the first time.  Today the Borough recalls this history in many ways and street banners for the municipality say “Christiana – Freedom began here.”  There are also many resources to help anyone interested in this disturbing incident and the local library has a strong collection of materials.  There is also the Christian Underground Railroad Center at Zercher’s Hotel, a building that played an important role in 1851.

 Moore’s Memorial Library, Christiana, PA has a local history collection related to the Christiana Resistance 

William Parker wrote about the incident in Atlantic Monthly in February 1866.

The Christiana Riot and the Treason Trail of 1851:  An Historical Sketch; by William U. Hensel, 1911, digitized by Dickinson College Archives & Special Collections

Christiana Underground Railroad Center at Historic Zercher’s Hotel.

Christiana, PA.– From Lancaster County Tourism

Whenever I start a new investigation one of my first stops is the local library as I begin the process of learning about a community and its history.  These unique institutions contain an astonishing variety of materials that help anyone puzzling together evidentiary traces of earlier times.  No matter how small, they always have local titles and a knowledgeable staff able to direct me to special resources and subject matter experts.  Many also have a room or stacks dedicated entirely to the region’s genealogy and history.

So whenever I am working on a Delaware project, I visit the many fine libraries from Claymont to Delmar and every place in between.  These institutions provide superior patron services, the materials are of great help, and I am often surprised by the treasures in special collections.

Recently the State Division of Libraries produced a video highlighting the ways the First State’s libraries help anyone delving into Delaware’s past, whether it is for a school paper, family history research, or something else.  There are plenty of treasures in those stacks and I was pleased to talk with the videographers at Content Delaware about the valuable resources I have used for my research while puzzling out the story about the past in our communities.

Community libraries are one of the great places to start when you need to know your history.