The 1700's

A final completion date extension of 1805 for the Susquehanna Canal had been given in 1797. This time the Canal was finally completed, ahead of final schedule, in 1803 and put in operation. It had issues of swift moving water and heavy siltation due to mills, though.
In 1803 mails for Brick Meeting House, Rising Sun, Unicorn, Black Horse and Sorrel House closed every Friday at 12 o?clock noon, according to Alice Miller?s Cecil County A Study in Local History published in 1947. Sorrel House or Sorrel Horse, as it was also known, was built before 1803 and is located on North Main Street.
State election laws are changed in 1801 establishing white manhood suffrage, while prior to this time some Free Blacks who met state property qualifications were allowed to vote.

Sarah Ewing Hall of Rowlandsville published Sketch of A Landscape and the bestseller of its time, Conversations on The Bible.
Granite quarries were officially opened in what is present-day Port Deposit.

Cecil's population was 13,006 with slaves making up 20% of the population and 7% of the population being free non-white persons. There were also 50 sawmills in Cecil County, one blast furnace and five iron forges.
Jacob Tome, the man who would become Cecil County's first millionaire, and one of Port Deposit's most influential citizens, is born in Manheim Township, York County, PA., August 13, 1810.

On December 5 Gov. Levin Winder signed a bill changing the name of Creswell's Ferry to Port Deposit for "it has become a port of deposit, why not call it as such"?
On December 5, 1813 Governor Levin Winder signs a bill changing the town's name from Creswell's Ferry to Port Deposit, "as it had been a port for ocean ships and arks and rafts coming down the river." The town is now officially a town only requiring elections to form a government.
May 3, 1813 the British, under Rear Admiral George Cockburn, visited the Susquehanna River with 19 barges at Havre de grace starting a tremendous fire of shot, shell and rockets. Ferryboats and fishing craft were destroyed and farmhouses plundered and burned. A detachment went to Bell?s Ferry where a vessel and warehouse were destroyed by fire, but Port Deposit, across from Bell?s Ferry, was not visited. On May 6 they set said for the Sassafrass River with 150 Marines.
Gerry House, S. Main Street, Port Deposit, was built.
The site for the first Susquehanna River Bridge was surveyed at Port Deposit in 1813.

Falls Hotel was built prior to 1818, possibly in 1815. It was originally known as Farmers and Commercial Hotel in Port Deposit.
The Baltimore firm of Charles Reeder built steam engineers for two of Baltimore's first four steamboats between 1815 and 1816.
U.S. Jurist David Davis was born in Cecil County in 1815 and went on to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court from 1862 to 1877, during the Civil War. He also served as a U.S. Senator from 1877 to 1883. He died in 1886.
According to historian the late Morton Taylor a Boys' Academy was held in the old stone house at the corner of St. Mark?s Church Road and Route 222 in Perryville.

The Port Deposit Bridge and Banking Company was incorporated in 1816. Dr. John Archer, of Harford County renowned, was President, with Thomas L. Savin as cashier.
The Port Deposit Post Office was also established by the federal government in 1816.

The Susquehanna Canal, a disappointment to investors, was sold at a great loss in 1817. It closed altogether in 1836.
Some $1,870,000 worth of goods passed through York Haven en route to Port Deposit. From April 1 to July 5, 1817 there were 343 arks and 989 rafts recorded in the river.

Construction on a bridge between Port Deposit and Lapidum in Harford County was begun in 1818 near the present-day VFW, on piers. It was for these piers and the construction of this bridge that the Port Deposit quarry was opened. The covered bridge was built by a Mr. Burr.
Port Deposit Bridge & Banking Company incorporated.

A total of 525 arks and 925 rafts reached Port Deposit carrying goods totaling $1,121,000 value.
The Paw Paw Building was erected in Port Deposit as the first church edifice of any denomination in the town. It was built by the Methodist congregation.
James Touchstone was born October 11, 1821. A Port Deposit resident and blacksmith he served as First Lieutenant and Quartermaster of the 6th Regiment of Maryland Infantry, made up primarily of Cecilton area men, during the Civil War and later served two terms as a member of the Maryland Legislature.

Talk begins for a still-water inland canal from Havre de Grace to Baltimore.
Fire on Rock Run Toll Bridge on New Year?s Day occurs when an iron-shod sleigh driven too rapidly across it causes sparks and puts the bridge out of use.

The citizens of Port Deposit entertained General Lafayette on his way from Philadelphia to Washington November 6, 1824. The committee met him at Kelligher's Crossroad and escorted him to town. He was entertained at the Washington Hotel with Mr. McGraw acting as Master of Ceremonies. Lafayette boarded a steamboat in Frenchtown at 2 a.m., October 7, 1824.
The first election of Town Commissioners was held at Daniel McGredy?s tavern on the last Monday of February 1824 wherein the town was authorized to elect "five discreet and judicious persons, commissioners for said village."

Port Deposit's first charter was granted January 17, 1825 and was signed by Governor Samuel Stevens.
A lot was conveyed in trust to build a Church for the Methodist Society near Jackson's Schoolhouse, near Asbury and Craigtown, in 1825

The first recorded steamboat servicing the lower Susquehanna, and bearing the name Susquehanna, was built in 1826. She was wood hull and stern wheel and constructed in Baltimore. She was 82-feet long and had a 26-inch draft.
1,500 arks arrived in Port Deposit with lumber, anthracite coal, flour, potatoes, grain and whiskey for Baltimore markets.
Maryland adopted legislation allowing Jews access to public office holding and equal rights, a privilege previously enjoyed only by Christians.

Authorities differ as to when the first quarries were in operation. One states it was 1851, another says 1887, but history emphatically records it in 1829 when the Old Maryland Canal Company operated a quarry at the north end of Port Deposit. This was the beginning of the trade in granite, which has added so much to the prosperity of the town.
The Port Deposit Town Commissioners of 1829 were Cornelius Smith, President; John Creswell, Secretary; A. Crandall, Charles W. Newlands, Isaac Nowland, and James Barney as Bailiff, Harbor Master and Collector.

Restoration work on the burned Port Deposit Bridge, or Rock Run Bridge, continued from 1829 to 1830, when work was completed by a Mr. Wormwag, and the bridge was thrown open to the public again.
According to historian Morton Taylor the first Presbyterian church service in Perryville were held at Rodger's Tavern in 1830 where Mrs. John Stump and Mary Alicia Mitchell Stump, held a Sunday School.

1830 to 1850 is the 20-year period of Port Deposit's greatest prosperity.
In 1831 the General Assembly adopted legislation prohibiting non-resident free blacks from entering the state of Maryland.

May 6, 1834 land for Battle Swamp Road was donated to the Town by Cornelius Smith, Samuel Rowland, J.W. Abrahams and others, with Cornelius Smith contributing the lion?s share of the expenses for labor.
The Port Deposit Bridge & Banking Company built what would become known as the Old Bank House at 20 N. Main Street. Later wings would be added to it and it would become the Junior School for Jacob Tome Institute, dedicated as Jefferson Hall in honor of President Thomas Jefferson.
There were two newspapers published in Port Deposit in this year - the Central Courier by L.A. Wilmer and the Port Deposit Intelligence by Herbert Gerry.
Maryland chartered the Tidewater Canal Company in December 1834.

Pennsylvania chartered the Susquehanna Canal Company in April 1835 after Maryland chartered the Tidewater Canal Company in December 1834.
The Hosanna A.M.E. Church in the Berkley Crossroads, Darlington Section of Harford County, dates to 1835 or earlier, and has a cemetery associated with it.
David C. Rinehart, a lumber merchant from Marietta, Pa., and Jacob Tome form a partnership for lumber business in Port Deposit in 1835. By 1851 Rinehart?s $5,000 investment in the firm had multiplied many times over.
The Cecil Whig & Port Deposit Weekly Courier is published in Port Deposit in 1835 and 1836.
To cross the Susquehanna River, the railroad cars were ferried across on boats beginning in 1835 and continuing to 1866 when a railroad bridge was built.

The Susquehanna Canal, which had been sold by disappointed investors in 1817, closed in 1836.
The Baltimore & Port Deposit Railroad built tracks to Havre de Grace in 1836 later becoming the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company.
The first edifice for the Port Deposit Presbyterian Church was erected.
Col. John Creswell died and leaves most of the land on the upper side of the street as far as Rock Run from Center Street to his widow Rebecca E. Webb Creswell, including the home at 1 Center Street.

Gill nets were introduced in commercial fishing and revolutionized this prosperous industry on the Susquehanna and Chesapeake Bay.
Frederick Douglass boarded a train in Baltimore bound for freedom in Philadelphia and crossed the Susquehanna on the Maryland railroad car ferryboat.

The Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal was opened to water in 1839 but damaged by heavy rain and floods and had to be repaired. It opened to traffic in the spring of 1840.
Cecil's population was 17,232 with 13,329 white, 2,551 free blacks, 1,352 slaves. There were 2,205 people working in agriculture, the majority occupation, with only about 30% of the population in non-agricultural employment.

Free and escaped blacks, skilled artisans and mechanics, were living at Snow Hill in Port Deposit with church services at the Old Factory Building and Still House Hollow. These courageous people had their own fully functioning community they had erected of their own skill, although they did business in Port Deposit as well.
Upon the resolution of Jacob Tome, Treasurer of the Town Commissioners, the Commissioners were ordered to pay Cornelius Smith and James L. Maxwell $30 expenses for lobbying at Annapolis for the passage of a bill granting permission to raise money to build an outlet lock at Bell?s Ferry opposite Port Deposit on February 20, 1843.
A $100 reward is offered for the discovery and arrest of persons who caused the fire that destroyed the shop and dwelling of Elijah Reynolds, dwelling of Alonzo Snow and M.E. Church Parsonage, Saturday Morning, July 29, 1843.
A town meeting was in Port Deposit held petitioning the commissioners to buy fire apparatus on August 7, 1843

The first fire engine was purchased by Jacob Tome by order of President and Commissioners from J. Shannahan and Sons, Baltimore, Md. The engine cost $400 and had 100 feet of hose with two nozzles, for a cost of $57.50 on August 30, 1844.
Mount Welcome at Octoraro was used as a military and Naval headquarters by Lafayette and again in 1844 by Commodore David Connor.
St. Mark's Episcopal Church was built in 1844 at Perryville. The graveyard antedates the Church and was the original burial ground of the Gale family where George Gale, delegate to the First U.S. Congress from Maryland, is buried.
Mr. and Mrs. John Stump donated part of their estate, Perry Point, for erection of a Presbyterian church in Perryville.

A petition was delivered to the Port Deposit Town Commissioners requesting they build an engine house.
Rebecca Creswell owned in 1845 a wharf, tavern, storehouse, nine vacant lots and 255-acres of land in Port Deposit, for which she collects rents. When she later marries Dr. Thomas Murphy and has her son, Attorney John A.J. Creswell, draw up a prenuptial agreement so she will retain ownership of her family property.

Magnetic Telephone Company of Washington, D.C., made application to be allowed to establish an office in Port Deposit on November 28, 1849.
Jacob Tome organizes, with others, a steamboat company to run steamers between Baltimore and Port Deposit in 1849.

Magnetic Telephone Company of Washington D.C. granted permission by Town Commissioners to establish an office in Port Deposit on February 18, 1850. This is the first telephone office in Port Deposit.
Congress petitioned to make Port Deposit a Port of Entry on April 15, 1850.
In this year the lumber industry in Port Deposit has declined enough that the business of Port Deposit granite has become more significant than the business of lumber.
Jacob Tome's great mansion, Hytheham, is built, along with his carriage house, gardens, cistern, terraces and gashouse. This is also the year that Jacob Tome establishes his bank, Cecil National Bank, in the basement of his home with a capitalization of $25,000.
Cecil's population was 18,939 with 15,472 or 81.7% white; 2,623 or 13.8% free blacks and 844 or 4% slaves. Port Deposit?s population was 1,008 people with 788 whites or 78.2% and 220 free blacks or 21.8% and no slaves.

Howard Methodist Episcopal Church's congregation of freed slaves built their church in the area of Center Street in 1853 and was very active in the Underground Railroad.
During the hard winter of 1852-53 the Susquehanna River froze solid and railroad tracks were laid on the river between January 15 and February 24, 1853, to haul 1,378 cars loaded with freight and passengers on the frozen surface. This total counts for some 10,000 tons and no accident of any kind occurred, with all material removed without the loss of a cross tie or bar or iron before the ice finally broke.

The Rock Run Bridge, rebuilt in 1829/30 following a disastrous fire, was destroyed when a drove of cattle being driven across it broke down two spans.
In June 1854 the Armstrong family, consisting of three brothers, formed the Armstrong Stove Works, Inc., in Port Deposit, in what became known as Foundry Hollow along Center Street.

Jacob Tome forms a partnership with Thomas C. Bond in 1855 in the lumber business, which proves to be yet another successful undertaking.
Blythedale, between Perryville and Port Deposit, was known as Whitaker's Mill in 1855 when William Taylor opened a general store there. The village was later called Independence. The Taylor store housed the Blythedale Post Office and was operated by the Taylor family for 95 years and the building now stands on Jacob Tome Highway beside Cummings Tavern.

Stove manufacturing in Port Deposit was begun in 1856.
On May 12, 1856 Solomon was ordered to survey the town with his survey accepted October 12, 1856.
The Presbyterian Manse as 23 S. Main Street was built on Oyster Shell Alley by lumber magnate James H. Rowland, who lived there until 1904, when the Presbyterian Church bought it for their manse.

The three-story brick Vandiver House, 20 South Main Street, Port Deposit, was built by Benjamin Vandiver as a hotel and restaurant.
Rock Run Bridge was destroyed in a terrible flood and ice gorge.
The Touchstone House was built at 46 S. Main Street and the rose garden, tended by three generations of Touchstone?s with a Touchstone still in the home now in the 21st century, was begun. The graceful iron fence to the property was made by great-grandfather Touchstone at a neighboring foundry. During the harsh winter of 1857 Amelia Caroline and Ella Virginia Touchstone died during a flood and ice gorge of Port Deposit. For this reason James Touchstone built his house so floodwaters could floor through a first floor designed only for storage with the living quarters on the second and third floors exclusively.
John A.J. Creswell marries Hannah Richardson at Elkton on May 17, 1857.

Conowingo Bridge, a covered bridge seven miles above Port Deposit, opened. During the Civil War troops guarded this new bridge and also plugged it with dynamite as defense.
Robert Smith took over as owner of the Farmer?s & Commercial Hotel and renamed it Smith's Hotel.
July 11, 1859 $525 was paid to purchase a second fire engine, reel and 1,500 feet of hose.
Asbury Methodist Church was built at Craigtown in 1859.

A meeting was held in Elkton where it was resolved, "Let Maryland do what she will, Cecil County will not secede". There were 800 people in attendance at this wholly Union meeting, many of them hailing from Port Deposit.
In the spring the Federal government took over Perry Point, forcing the owner, John Stump, a slave owner, to go to Harford County. Perry Point, under General George B. McClellan's order, became the great Civil War Mule School and by the winter of 1861 there were 1,600 troops at Perry Point.
Snow's Battery B, 1st Maryland Light Artillery, was organized at Port Deposit by Captain Alonzo Snow, 1st Lt. L.A.C. Gerry, 1st Lt. James Kidd and 1st Lt. Theodore J. Vanneman in August through October 1861. The battery served for nearly four years and took part in battles of the Peninsular Campaign.
Captain Taylor and Lieutenant Wiley ordered to prepare a list for patrol duty in northwestern Cecil County.
Some 1,600 troops of the 11th and 14th Regiments of the U.S. Infantry prepared to winter near Perryville in 1861, as well.
John A.J. Creswell assumed his post as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1861 and on February 17, 1861 is named Captain of the Cecil Guards 49th Regiment Maryland Militia.

Snow's Battery joined the Army of the Potomac in the Virginia Peninsula Campaign May to August 1862 and fought at New Bridge June 5, Seven days before Richmond June 25 to July 1, Battles of Mechanicsville June 26, Savage Station on June 29, White Oak Swamp on June 30 and Malvern Hill on July 1. September 14 they participated in the battles of Crampton?s Pass, MD.
Snow?s Battery fought with great distinction in the bloodiest day's battle of the Civil War at Antietam September 16 & 17, 1862, losing only one horse in the bloody fray.
At the Battle of Malvern Hill in 1862, Sergeant Edward T. Thompson of Snow's Battery, had a mini-ball pass through his hat cutting his hair off close to the temple but doing no other damage. He bore the scar for the rest of his life, with a streak of white hair, until his death at his home in Port Deposit in 1898.
Each of the Port Deposit Town Commissioners donated one-fifth of their salary to the ladies of the Union Relief Society on July 11, 1862.
200 teamsters were sought for Perry Point mule school at $25 a month. On March 29 the school moved south to be closer to the lines and a huge auction of mule school equipment was held at Perry Point on May 26.
David R. Armstrong, son of pioneer Port Deposit stove manufacturer Thomas Armstrong, was born March 27, 1862 in Port Deposit. He served many times as mayor and devoted his time and money to the common interests of his hometown and was known as being "ripe with historical facts of his native community".

Port Deposit's John A. J. Creswell became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1863 to 1865.
Sarah Collins Fernandis was born in Port Deposit in 1862. An educator, author, poet, social worker and prominent Black Club Woman, she was the first African American woman employed in a public welfare agency in Maryland. Her campaigns in Baltimore brought settlement houses, trash removal, sanitary stores and milk to the Black communities.

Snow's Battery took part in the campaigns in western Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 as they were occupied at Harper?s Ferry, West Virginia until April 1864. While engaged in battle in Virginia on May 28, 1864 the battery suffered five casualties as they fought with Siegel's Army. Lt. L.A.C. Gerry commanded Snow's Battery as Captain Snow was in command of the Maryland Artillery. They participate in the Battle of New Market May 15 and Hunter's Raid on Lynchburg May 24 to July 1.
A Town meeting was held to relieve the condition of the poor in Port Deposit on January 4, 1864.
The Port Deposit President of Commissioners was ordered to employ the County Surveyor to survey the Town in accordance with the Acts of 1864, on December 6, 1864.
Abolitionist spokesman and escaped Maryland slave Frederick Douglass was scheduled to speak in Havre de Grace in 1864, but civil authorities prevented the appearance, fearing a riot.
J.G. Larkin wrote a letter inviting Port Deposit's commissioners to consult with him at his office in Havre de Grace in regard to location of draw of the P.B.&. W. Bridge on June 1, 1863.
Jacob Tome was elected to the Maryland Senate in 1863 and became chairman of the Finance Committee.
Two dozen men of Snow's Battery B were captured while watering their horses at Mason's Cove and transported to Rebel prisons at Andersonville and Millen, Ga., and Florence Stockade in South Carolina, where many perished.
Cecil County troops were engaged in the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, during the Civil War on October 19, 1864.
The Cecil Democrat reported that 25 African-American men enlisted at Port Deposit to fight in the War Between the States and they are credited toward Philadelphia?s total in 1864.

John A.J. Creswell was a member of the U.S. Senate from 1865 to 1867.
January 2, 1865 permission was given to the Columbia and Port Deposit Railroad Company to pass over any street or public property other than Main Street, providing that they do not occupy more than 30-feet and paid all damage done to private property. The Committee representing the railroad consisted of C.F. Kaufman and J.A. Sheaf, while Jacob Tome represented the Town. This is the year that the Columbia and Port Deposit Railroad first began activities.
The services of Snow's Battery were dispensed with and disbanded in Baltimore on July 8, 1865.
At a special meeting it was ordered that a pavement be laid from M.E. Church to Mrs. Murphy's Corner to cost $1.68 per foot on the east side of the street, with the sidewalks made of Port Deposit granite, many sections of which still exist today.
Captain Vanneman's steamship Alice was chartered on July 4, 1865 to make a trip from Port Deposit and Havre de Grace to Annapolis at a cost of $1 round trip.
Cecil County officially welcomed her soldiers home on Friday, July 28, 1865 with celebrations in Elkton. The soldiers and councils all marched to Landing Lane where they met the steamboat that took them to Port Deposit for their noon celebration.

John A.J. Creswell served in the U.S. Senate, a post he has held since 1865 and continued to hold until 1867.
The Railroad ferry was replaced with the first railroad bridge across the Susquehanna at Perryville in 1866 and Perryville begins to establish itself as a railroad center. However, there is a setback when the railroad bridge is wrecked by a tornado July 25, 1866.
In 1866 a convention of Southern Delegates loyal to the Union meet in Philadelphia to discuss plans for reconstruction with Sen. John A.J. Creswell among the leading Republicans. He authored a public address that was highly praised and unanimously approved, which set forth the adoption of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The first train to Port Deposit arrived on December 17, 1867, and came as far as Stillhouse Hollow with Captain Donaldson serving as conductor. The Captain called the town Bloomingdale in honor of the number of pretty girls who came to meet the train.
The cornerstone for St. Teresa's Catholic Church in Port Deposit was laid.
The Registrar of Wills for Cecil County reports in 1867 that since November 1864, 142 black children had been bound out.
The Hosanna School, built with the help of the Freedman's Bureau in 1867 by local residents, is part of the Berkley Crossroads neighborhood of free African Americans who established their own church, cemetery and the school.
The first Methodist Church in Perryville was built between 1866 and 1867.

In 1869 the trains to Port Deposit came as far as McGrady's Stone Wharf, just north of the center of town.
John A.J. Creswell was appointed U.S. Postmaster General in the Cabinet of President Ulysses S. Grant from 1869 to 1874, the only Cecil County to earn such a high rank.

The Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal profits reached their peak the Pennsylvania section closed in 1890 and the Maryland, or lower section, closed circa 1900.
Black men began to vote in Cecil County after the 14th and 15th amendments helped kill Jim Crow suffrage locally.
Cecil's population was 25,874 with 84% or 21,860 whites and 16% or 4,014 lacks. Port Deposit?s population reached 1,839 people with 73.5% or 1,352 being white and 26.5% or 487 blacks.
Port Deposit's Jacob Tome, along with three other stockholders in the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, which passed the site of Ridley Park, Pa., drew up plans for a suburban real estate development and incorporated the Ridley Park Association for this purpose in 1870. There is a Tome Street named for him and a Tome Street School in Ridley Park, PA., to this day.

Jacob Tome of Port Deposit received the Republican nomination for Governor of the State of Maryland, but does not win the election, even though he had served in the State Senate on the Finance Committee during the Civil War.
The Woodlawn Camp Meeting, an annual event for two weeks in August until 1913, began off the Old Post Road near Port Deposit in 1871 and was established by the Methodist Episcopal Church with Rev. John W. Weston, pastor of the Rising Sun Circuit, in charge.

The Port Deposit Presbyterian Church was re-built - it is now the 1st Baptist Church of Port Deposit.
The Tome Memorial Methodist Church, North Main Street, Port Deposit was built in 1872 as a gift of Jacob Tome costing a total of $65,999. It was dedicated October 30, 1872.
Funds are received from the General Assembly for the first time to establish schools for black children, as prior to this schools for black children were built and run with private funds, like a school funded by Jacob Tome in Port Deposit. One of these new schools was Conowingo School No. 5.
Vanneman's lumber inspection report shows a schooner sailed from Port Deposit to Washington with 693,000 feet of lumber in 1872.

The Pennsylvania Railroad built a single-track bridge over the Susquehanna River at Perryville.
An iceboat first asked for by the committee consisting of Jacob Tome and John McClenahan on February 10, 1873. The officer in charge refused to allow the iceboat to come into the river unless the committee gave personal bond.
Port Deposit's John A.J. Creswell, as Postmaster General of the United States, introduced the penny postcard, or one-cent plain, in America in May 1873.
The Woodlawn Camp Meeting grounds, gently sloped and thickly wooded, were purchased on October 14, 1873 from F. Marion Rawlings and Theodore J. Vanneman.

Perryville decoy carver Henry Davis was born in 1875.
Ice harvesting began in Perryville about 1875 and become a mainstay of the town's economy with at least 100,000 tons of ice harvested each winter.

A special levy of 15 cents was made to pay the claim of Fesperus Watts who fell in a ditch and broke his leg, by order of the Circuit Court of Cecil County with the total cost being $694.66, on December 8, 1877.
The first train passed over the Columbia & Port Deposit Railroad tracks on, appropriately enough for the predominantly Irish workers who built it, St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1877.
The Household of Faith Church was organized at Blythedale on October 3, 1877, and built largely through the efforts of Edward Jackson V.

Cecil County's population was 27,108.
The Philadelphia extension of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is built through Cecil County in the 1880s. At this point Perryville, even as a railroad town, had a population of only 250. The population of Cecil County, as a whole was 27,108, with the population reaching a high point in the number of African-American inhabitants. After 1880 the African-American population of Baltimore City nearly doubles while outlying areas lose many of their African-American citizens.

Even though the population of Perryville stood at only 250 the January session of the Legislature in 1882 found the officials incorporating the town, six-years after it had become a railroad junction, on May 3, 1882.
The Water Witch Fire Company of Port Deposit was incorporated August 31, 1882.

Port Deposit's Commissioners protested to the Superintendent of the Railroad against Sunday excursions. The Superintendent replied he had never intended to run Sunday excursions so the matter was dropped, May 29, 1883.
William K. Brooks records nearly 15 million square yards of Susquehanna River Oyster Beds in 1883.

On July 21, 1884, S.C. Rowland made application for the Overland Telegraph and Telephone Company, to obtain permission to use the street for poles, which was granted.
On August 18, 1884 a committee was appointed to erect a firebell in Port Deposit, it still stands in front of the fire house on North Main Street.
After the death of his first wife, Caroline Webb, Jacob Tome marries Evalyn S. Nesbitt on October 1, 1884 in Port Deposit, when he is 74 and she 29.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Bridge across the Susquehanna was built in 1884, according to the late historian Morton Taylor.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, or B&O, built their own bridge over the Susquehanna.
The disastrous flood of 1886 destroyed most of the early records of the town, obliterating documentation on the early town commissioners.
The Port Deposit Call began publication October 24, 1886.
The first Baltimore & Ohio Railroad passenger train passed through Frenchtown, later called Aikin and now a part of Perryville, on May 25, 1886.

S.C. Rowland asked the Commissioners for $150 to fight in court against the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Bridge, with Rowland to supply any additional funds needed, on May 7, 1887.
George Johnston's The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland was published by the editor in 1887.
The development Jacob Tome started in 1870 at Ridley Park, Pa., was chartered as the borough of Ridley Park, Pa., on December 12, 1887.

May 12, 1888 the Port Deposit commissioners paid $78 for use of the tug Baltimore to break the ice.
The Nesbitt House was built in 1888 by Henry Clay Nesbitt, whose parents lived next door to this home at 42 S. Main Street. It is the best example of Victorian Queen Anne architecture in the town of Port Deposit.
Port Deposit Electric Company was given permission to erect poles and stretch wires and conduct business in the street on July 27, 1888.
The Presbyterian Church at Perryville was incorporated on October 10, 1888.

John A.J. Creswell and others gave a deed dated October 11, conveying to President and Commissioners a certain street "25 feet wide from Main Street to the land of the Baltimore & Susquehanna Steamboat Company", on November 11, 1889.
The Jacob Tome Institute was incorporated by the State of Maryland.
The Port Deposit Town Hall burned to the ground on March 2, 1889.

The Port Deposit Electric light plant burned November 1, 1890. The population of Port Deposit reaches 2,347 and there are 52 places of business in the town.
The Pennsylvania portion of the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal closed.
The population of Perryville stood at 344 residents.
Perryville, incorporated in 1880, had 344 residents a decade later in 1890.
Cecil's population declined to 25,851 while the population of Port Deposit continued to grow, reaching 2,347 in 1890 with 52 places of business.

In 1892 the name of Smith's Hotel, which was known as Farmer's & Commercial Hotel when it was built circa 1815, is officially changed to Falls Hotel by the new owner, John Falls. It is most commonly referred to as Falls Hotel today.
Elizabeth Foreman Lewis is born in Baltimore, May 24, 1892, and will be educated and graduated from Tome School. She goes on to become supervisor of the Chunking, Szechuan District School in China and earns the John Newberry Award in 1932 for youth writing.

September 14, 1894 the Jacob Tome Institute opens its doors to pupils for the first time with 250 expected, and over 400 arriving, for the glorious opening day exercises that shut down traffic in the streets.
The Port Deposit Press began publication.
The Silver Canning Company is established by W. Scott Silver in 1894 in Colora, with factories in both Colora and Rising Sun specializing in cream-style corn. The family-run operation continued until the late 1950s.
Mrs. Woodward Abrahams gave the Order of the King's Daughters and Sons in the State of Maryland the Silver Cross Home in January of 1894 and by June 30, 1894 it opens as the Silver Cross Home for Epileptics. The home operated for 50 years until it was sold and moved to Reisterstown, Md.

October 9, 1896, permission was granted to J.M. Johnson of Millersburg, Pa., to lay water pipe through the streets of Port Deposit. The permission, which had been given to Jacob Tome in 1893, for a "water works" was rescinded.
The present Perryville Methodist Church was dedicated June 28, 1896 and rededicated December 17, 1915, after a Sunday School auditorium and classrooms had been added.
The Armstrong Stove Co., by then moved from Port Deposit to Perryville, received an order from Johannesburg, South Africa, for 50 ranges, December 25, 1896.

The water company completed their plant on February 8, 1897 in Port Deposit.
On April 28, 1897 Stephen Krauss caught an 8.7 pound shad at Port Deposit on the shore along the Susquehanna.

A propeller-driven steam vessel named the Susquehanna was built by Charles Reeder of Baltimore for the Tolchester Beach Improvement Company.
The Jacob Tome Savings Bank was organized by students of Jacob Tome Institute in 1898. There are 600 students at the school when it re-opens for the spring term.
Jacob Tome died March 16, 1898 leaving a multi-million dollar estate. The Maryland Legislature passes a resolution in honor of Tome on March 22. Jacob Tome Institute and Tome Memorial Methodist Church are draped in mourning for 30 days. His widow, Evalyn S. Tome, is elected Director of the National Bank of Elkton and President of Cecil National Bank, to succeed him.
Port Deposit and Cecil County dug out under a very severe blizzard in 1898.
Port Deposit?s elected officials announced plans to install a watering trough for horses in town-square in 1898.
A memorial service was held for the naval officers and sailors of the ill-fated Battleship Maine at St. Teresa's Catholic Church in 1898. In May of this year, George E.M. Stengle, editor of the Port Deposit Press, enlists in the Delaware National Guard and turns over management of the paper to Herbert N. Gerry.
James A. Harding, of Port Deposit, was granted a patent for a device to fasten numbers on jockey's arms March 3, 1898.
Robert C. Davidson, former Mayor of Baltimore, whose sensational elopement caused a stir in Cecil, sues to divorce his wife, the former Miss Laura Noyes of Port Deposit, on June 16, 1898, on grounds of misconduct. At the time of the divorce filing Mrs. Davidson was 46 and her husband is 72.

The Old Bank building was remodeled by Tome Institute with wings added and taken over for kindergarten and primary classes.
Tome Institute's Board of Trustees hires James Cameron MacKenzie as their Headmaster to oversee construction of the new Tome School for Boys and develop plans for the institute after the death of Jacob Tome in 1898. MacKenzie immediately goes to Europe to tour schools for inspiration and in November submits his recommendations to the board. The Committee for the school also hears a report from Frederick Law Olmsted on site recommendations for the campus, including one along the river that Mr. Olmsted prefers, and the old Abraham?s farm on the bluff. The farm was chosen.

Architects Boring & Tilton, who had recently completed the main building of the Ellis Island Immigrant Station, were selected to build the campus of the very exclusive Tome School for Boys on the bluff above Port Deposit. Construction of the Tome Inn, later called Van  Buren House, is begun in mid 1900 and completed in December 1900, it is furnished and occupied by March 5, 1901.
The lower, or Harford, portion of the Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal finally closed down completely. It is merely abandoned and quickly becomes a stagnant harbor for mosquitoes and malaria.
There were 770 residents in Perryville in 1900 and in Cecil as a whole there are 24,662 residents, and Port Deposit had 1,575 residents, down from 1,908 in 1890.
The first reported sighting of an automobile in Cecil County occurs in April 1900 when a ?horseless carriage? rumbled through Elkton startling a horse named Poor Excuse.The National Bank of Port Deposit commenced business November 12, 1900.

Construction began on the major structures of Tome School for Boys, designed by architects Boring & Tilton who had recently completed the main building of the Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York. Tome School for Boys would be their ?second most famous? work.
The McClenahan Granite Company in Port Deposit employed 300 men for the work.

The Port Deposit Presbyterian Church (44 South Main Steet), also designed by Boring & Tilton while they were in Port Deposit for the Tome project, was erected largely from the generosity of the Rowland family.
Evalyn Nesbitt Tome bought the Nesbitt-Ryan House and added the bay window rooms and tower.
As late as 1902 a trip to the floats anchored midstream in the Susquehanna River for commercial fishing, was a favorite spring excursion.
The Tome School for Boys opened on the bluff above Port Deposit after two years of hurried building. Also the football field is completed, two steps of steps are built from the palisades to Port Deposit and at this point the Director's Residence, Monroe Hall, Madison House, Infirmary and three master's cottages are done. 
Likely started in 1900, the Tome Steps were completed by 1902. The stairway next to 66 S. Main Street, consists of 75 steps from Main Street to High Street and used to carry workers to the bluffs for construction of the Tome School for Boys Campus. Later the steps of Tome School boys graced the steps and still later, when they became known as the Steps to Liberty, it was U.S. Sailors who traversed the courses.

The Beach Fountain was erected in Center Square by Martha Beach of Connecticut, "In Remembrance, Miranda E. Beach, 1903." Miranda, a Port Deposit teacher, was Martha. mother and held her exclusive school on High Street. The fountain was constructed to refresh horses, cats, dogs, man and birds and is made of three massive pieces of Port Deposit granite. It was completed and accepted by the town in 1904.
Jackson House Dormitory at Tome School for Boys was completed, as is the Harrison House dormitory and by next year three more master?s cottages will be completed. At this point Memorial Hall is dedicated in a formal ceremony with the installation of a pipe organ in the chapel.

The train station was built in Perryville.
Adams Hall was built at 64 S. Main St., for a lower gymnasium for the Jacob Tome Institute. The structure now serves as the Town Hall and Library.
Cecil National Bank was built in Town Square of Port Deposit granite faced in Indiana limestone.
Port Deposit Water Company's stock purchased by the town January 25, 1905.
The last legal execution in Cecil County occurred October 20, 1905.
The indoor swimming pool is added to Monroe Hall at Tome School for Boys and the golf links are accepted by the Trustees who also accept the new dining hall plans of Wyatt & Nolting.

The Pennsylvania Railroad erected a new bridge over the Susquehanna and their old one was converted to a highway bridge. The single track bridge built in 1873 was taken over, at no cost, by seven men who converted it for auto use, investing $100 each. They made $700,000 in tolls their first year on the "Gold Mine Bridge", that was extremely narrow and double-decked going one-way on each deck. They later sold it to the state in 1923 for $585,000.
The new dining hall, attached to Van Buren House, was completed at Tome School for Boys.

Part of the Conowingo Bridge was destroyed by fire in 1907, but quickly rebuilt.
The batting cage was added to Monroe House gymnasium as designed by architects Parker and Thomas.
Edmund W. Parker, who was born and educated in Port Deposit in 1860, was appointed to the 11th Census and in 1891 became Statistician of the United States Geological Survey. In 1907 he was advanced to the office of the Division of Mineral Resources.
In 1907 a section of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Bridge between Havre de Grace and Perryville collapsed hurling 11 cars of coal into the river. A new bridge was started that same year and completed in January 1910.

Austin Lane Crothers, of Cecil County, was elected Governor of Maryland in 1908 and served one term, until 1912.
Port Deposit protested against Governor Crothers signing a bill to transfer the abandoned P.B.&W. Railroad Bridge at Havre de Grace to the Havre de Grace and Perryville Bridge Company on March 28, 1908.

Landscape architect Charles W. Leavitt adds landscape touches to the golf links, tennis courts and other areas of Tome School for Boys campus.
One time general store keeper and postmaster of Blythedale, at Taylor's Store, E. Kurtz Taylor was elected Cecil County treasurer in 1909.

The most destructive ice gorge in the history of Port Deposit destroys homes, washed out streets and mostly all of the records of the town are destroyed when it arrived on January 23. Mrs. M.N. to Miss Clara L. Gable of Baltimore on an "ice jam" postcard of 1910: "I am still in Port Deposit and feeling much better. I wish you could come down and look at this stricken town. No pen could describe what it looks like. It is an awful sight. I hope this card will find your mother, Nellie, and you well." Miss Mayme Pierce, in a card of a wrecked house, wrote: "Am writing this in a big hurry, Don't know if can read or not? this house was carried in the middle of the street and then on down. Had big coal fire in it when it started." The legislature of Maryland appropriated $20,000, the County Commissioners $1,200 and public subscriptions brought in $2,300.
The punt gun, a large barreled gun that could kill 30 or 40 ducks at a time, is outlawed in Maryland in 1910.
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company erected a new double track bridge across the Susquehanna in 1910.
The founder of Port Deposit Heritage Corporation and the Paw Paw Museum, Grace Humphries, was born February 25, 1910.

Maryland bought the Conowingo Bridge and ended the tolls.
William Winchester bought Winchester Hotel in 1911 and used it as a double dwelling with a candy-making business on the north side and later a soda fountain. It was frequented by Tome Boys and later Sailors, all of whom called it ?the Winnie.?
The congregation of Bethel A.M.E. Church moves to 196 N. Main Street, the old Presbyterian Church, in 1911.
The Seventh Day Adventist Church at Blythedale was organized in 1911.

A huge centenary celebration was held in Port Deposit.
Howard M. Ernst was Cum Laude of the Class of 1912 at Tome School for Boys. He went on to found Ernst & Company, of which he was a senior partner until 1964. He also wrote numerous articles on horticulture, angling, finance and travel.
St. James Episcopal Church purchased the former "White House" at 33 High Street, Port Deposit, and added a stone section to square the house, which was used as the church rectory until 1951.
The Havre de Grace racetrack, The Graw, opened to horse racing on August 24, 1912, bringing economic success and the nickname of Little Chicago to the area.

A celebration for the naming of the Town of Port Deposit was held this year with a special speech on the history of the town researched and read by then-Mayor David Armstrong.
In the Port Centennial parade of July 1913 an automobile carried "the first women's rights banner through Port Deposit", with Miss Gertrude Brady, Miss Elizabeth Rowland and Miss Emily Rowland in the vehicle. Also Miss Virginia Bond drove Old Dick, the oldest and best-known horse in Cecil County, in the parade.

John S. Knight attended Tome School for Boys from 1911 to 1914 and would later earn the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing, while the Detroit Free Press, one of his many newspapers, earned the Pulitzer for local reporting and a cartoonist for another Knight publication won for editorial cartoons - the first time in history of the Pultizer that one publishing group took three awards.
The first public school to operate in the Perryville area was at Frenchtown and called Oakhurst Private School, conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Currier of Blythedale in 1914, with two students graduating that year.

Jim Rice, born into slavery at Perry Point circa 1829, passed away in 1916 and was buried with great honor and respect at Cokesbury Methodist Church, Port Deposit.
Quarries operated and owned by Port Deposit Quarry Company through to 1922. Prior to this time, since 1865 to 1914 the McClenahan?s dominated the business.

A number of Port Deposit women form a branch of the Woman Suffrage League of Maryland with Mrs. C.I. Benson as President in 1917.
George J. Liddell and Brother Canning Company was started in Colora in 1917, canning corn and tomatoes.
The Pennsylvania Railroad now employs over 300 people, although the number will drop some in the 1920s, but increase again with the building of the Conowingo Dam.

June 19, 1918, Thomas Fields Sr., a black man from Port Deposit who likely worked at the quarry, was inducted in to the army along with fellow black men Oscar W. Giffin and Edward Jones of Port Deposit and Charles H. and Ernest L. Boddy of Conowingo. They were all sent overseas to serve in the Meuse-Argonne region of France. As evidenced by the large number of black expatriates who went to France in the 1930s, blacks were treated there more as equals than they had been in the U.S. When Fields returned from the war he began working for the Pennsylvania Railroad and therefore received a free travel pass. He loved baseball and frequently traveled to Philadelphia and Baltimore to attend games. In the late 1920s he, with fellow WWI veterans, organized a black baseball team in Port Deposit borrowing the name of his favorite Baltimore ball Club and calling them the Port Deposit Black Sox. The players included names like Griffin, Stewart, Boddy, Jones, Henry and McMullen.  Many of the players on the original team worked at the quarries.
The first artillery was fired at Aberdeen Proving Ground on January 2, 1918, with APG firing 416,294 rounds in 1918.
Armistice Day found 4,905 troops and 6,000 civilians at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
The Gunpowder Neck Reservation was renamed Edgewood Arsenal in May.
On February 16 the Federal government purchased the Stump family?s Perry Point and leased it to Atlas Powder Company to make ammonium nitrate.

Senator Joseph I. France, former Tome School teacher and owner of Mt. Ararat, lead the fight and spoke against Jim Crowism in Washington D.C. on December 16, 1919, when he introduced his amendment to the Cummins Bill, known as the Jim-Crow Car in interstate commerce. The bill was to do away with the separate car system for blacks and whites.
Water Witch Fire Company formed a committee in January to get information in regard to various hose connections used by Perryville, Havre de Grace, Perry Point and the Jacob Tome Institute Fire Departments. This was a major step in developing good mutual aid relations.

Prohibition in effect from 1920 to 1933 but local law enforcement refused to enforce it.
Albert C. Ritchie, Democrat, served as Governor of Maryland from 1930 to 1935 ? the first Governor to be re-elected since 1838 ? he served 4 terms. He favored state's rights and opposed both prohibition and the New Deal.
1 Center Street, known as Mrs. Murphy?s Hotel, and the birthplace of John A.J. Creswell, was sold to Dr. G.H. Richards Sr., in 1920. He added the large wing to turn it into a hospital, which was kept quite busy during the construction of the Conowingo Dam a half dozen years later.
Women finally earned the right to vote, courtesy the 19th Amendment in 1919, although there were mixed feelings about women voting in Cecil County. Still almost 1,000 Cecil County women registered the very first day, although the novelty soon wore off.
Havre de Grace's Millard E. Tydings, 1890-1961, sponsors the bill that created the University of Maryland in 1920. He went to Tome School for Boys.
Seventh Day Adventist Church at Blythedale dedicated in 1920.

Water Witch Fire Company bought an American La-France pumper for $10,500.
Port Deposit Quarry Company purchased by Mr. George W.M. Shaffer, who sold it to the Port Deposit Granite Company in 1926.
The first smoke mask purchased for Water Witch Fire Company, which had been in operation since 1880.
A native of Port Deposit, author, poet, and pioneering social work, Sarah Collins Fernandis? article Inter-racial Activities of Baltimore Women is published in the October 22, 1922, issue of The Southern Workman.

The steamer Susquehanna made her last trip.
M. Virginia Foulk, who attended Jacob Tome Institute from 1903 to 1904, was the granddaughter of T.C. Bond, President of Port Deposit?s Cecil National Bank and on the Board of Trustees of J.T.I. Foulk became the first female county superintendent of schools in Cabell County, W.Va., in 1923. The Bond family farm was The Maples, which was on the property now known as Bainbridge.
For the 21st consecutive year in a row C.A. Morrison is elected President of Water Witch Fire Company On Sat., October 12, 1923.
The seven investors in the Perryville Gold Mine Bridge have made $370,000 in tolls off of their cheap investment and in 1923 sold the bridge to the state for $585,000.
A very "warm" campaign for Port Deposit postmaster is reported in the papers between Lizzie Atkinson, sister of the present postmaster, and Edwin Boynton, Thomas Bond Jr., Theodore Vanneman and William R. Coulson in 1923.
Following land condemnations, application was filed by Susquehanna Power Company to build a 360,000 horsepower hydroelectric dam across the Susquehanna in 1923. That is 20,000 more horsepower than produced at Niagara Falls at the time.
The Community Fire Company of Perryville organized September 13, 1923.
The Captain Jeremiah Baker Chapter, Daughters of the American Legion, was organized at Perryville by Mrs. Cordelia Jackson Simmons in 1923.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then Undersecretary of the U.S. Navy, was one of the more prominent guest speakers at the Tome School for Boys this year.

Walter P. Andrews, Tome School for Boys 1924, of Tenerife, Canary Islands, worked with Chase Manhattan Bank until his retired in 1932. He was Treasurer of the alumni organization that tried to keep the boarding school going by purchasing the property from the corporation.
There were so many students lined up to attend Jacob Tome Institute, and on an extensive waiting list, that the Board limits day pupils to Cecil County residents only in 1924.
Tome School's annual track and field meet drew hundreds of spectators to the state-of-the-art cinder running track.
The Federal Government attempted, quite unsuccessfully, to change the name of Perry Point to Federal Park, amidst strong public outcry.

Two volumes of Sarah Collins Fernandis poetry were published in 1925. She was born in Port Deposit in 1863.
A new siren for Water Witch Fire Company is purchased from F.S. Semle Co., at a cost of $414.
The George J. Liddell and Brother Canning Company at Colora, established in 1917, burned in 1925, but was rebuilt.

The $52 million Conowingo Dam and Hydroelectric Plant is begun about five miles from Port and it furnishes electricity for the area, with work continuing until 1928. Some 3,800 workers live in construction camps around the dam.
The returns from the 1926 election showed an overwhelming Democratic victory. Cecil Clyde Squier, a Port Deposit Democrat earned 3,852 votes against John Wallace Scott, Republican for Senator at 2,351. The State Legislature is overwhelmingly Democratic. Apparently, 22 of the 29 members of the State Senate are of that party, and it is expected that complete returns will show that the Democratic majority in the House of Delegates is almost as large, according to the Midland Journal.
In 1926 Tome School graduate Milward Simpson ran as a Republican candidate for the State Legislature in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, on a staunch anti-Prohibition ticket. When asked by a woman his view on prohibition he said, "Madam, if I were any more wet, I?d ripple if you blew on me." He won the election handily but retired after one term.
The Community Fire Company of Perryville built their first firehouse, now the Town Hall, in 1926.
The Aiken Homemaker's Club was organized in 1926 near Perryville.

Water Witch Fire Company organized a band from the membership roll. Second hand instruments are purchased from Conn Co. in Baltimore for $693.
The Conowingo Dam began commercial operation in 1927.
Havre de Grace's Millard Tydings elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served for 24 years until 1951. He was destroyed in the 1950 election for allegedly being soft on communism.
The 1877 Household of Faith Church at Blythedale was sold by receivers in 1927 and is now apartments next to the old Blythedale Public School.
Port Deposit citizens fought increasing of the railroad grade through town by the Pennsyvlania Railroad, which would put the town in a big ditch.
Chester Tome Kimble bought the Nesbitt-Ryan House and converted it to three apartments with addresses on two separate streets, South Main Street and High Street.

Conowingo Bridge finally destroyed by dynamite to make way for the Conowingo Dam.
March 1, 1928 the Conowingo Dam is finally completed and is operational as one of the largest hydroelectric plants in the nation.

During the Great Depression (1929 to 1933) Maryland?s per capita income dropped 45%, industrial production dropped 60% and construction declined 87%.
A switch is installed in the telephone exchange to operate the fire siren for Water Witch in August. The siren is also tested every Saturday at noon to show that the fire department is standing by at all times.
The old  Perryville High School was built in 1929 along Aiken Avenue at Route 40, and was enlarged several times over the years.

After World War I the Atlas Powder Company buildings at Perry Point were converted into a rehabilitation center and psychiatric hospital for veterans, called Perry Points Veteran?s Administration Hospital and dedicated in 1930.
Water Witch Fire Company holds their first Tag Day Fund Drive on June 21, 1930.

The Port Deposit Black Sox built a new field on the old log pond of the Susquehanna Canal.
In July black citizens of Port Deposit send a petition to the Cecil County Board of Education asking for a new elementary school as the old school of the same name was falling down. This old wooden schoolhouse was located on Main Street, just north of Center Street and had two classrooms and an outhouse, making it dangerously overcrowded.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlawed the sink box in Chesapeake Bay water fowling.
Water Witch Fire Company receives its first donation from the County Commissioners in the form of $400.

The Conowingo Dam, 115 feet high, crest peaked at 108 feet, a record that stood until Hurricane Agnes in 1972.
The Tome School for Boys swim team, most of whom were from New York on scholarship, won the Harvard Interscholastic meet. "Red Hot" McDermott was the Captain of the Swim Team and was so good he was hand selected to replace Johnny Weismuller as Tarzan, but declined the offer to finish his education at Tome.

The Port Deposit Colored Elementary School built on the hill just north of the Town of Port Deposit. The granite structure was completed during the Christmas Holiday sin 1937. It had three classrooms and indoor bathrooms and had taken two years to complete. The construction provided a new school for black children but also provided jobs for many local citizens through the Works Progress Administration, WPA. By using native Port Deposit granite many local citizens were able to get through the depression. The total cost of the school was $27,772.06 with WPA funds covering $11,760.45 and the Board of Education paying the remaining $16,011.61.
Susquehanna Post #135 American Legion at Perryville organized October 11, 1937.

The Trustees of the Tome School or Jacob Tome Institute, offer the hill campus of the Tome School for Boys for sale due to depreciation in the Institute?s holdings. The alumni of the school bought it but could not make it financially viable either.
William Thomas Duff, a Tome School graduate and resident at 75 S. Main St., is appointed Constable-At-Large for Cecil County and serves as Deputy Sheriff, and he is appointed by Governor O? Connor Special Officer to the Maryland State Police during World War II.
John C. Jaynes purchased the old Port Deposit School for Black Children for $300 in 1938, built upon land donated for the purpose of erecting a school for black children back in 1877 by Jacob Tome.

War production began and soared for six years as the economy never stopped growing, to recruit workers to Cecil's munitions plants, etc., leaflets were dropped from planes over West Virginia and other areas.
Glen M. Wiley of Lancaster, Pa., founded Wiley Manufacturing Company in Port Deposit in 1939.
Mrs. Laura J. Haskins is hired as a teacher for the Port Deposit Colored School August 22, 1939.

The closing of the Tome School for Boys was announced.
Major Ernest Lee Bannister, a JTI graduate in the class of 1932, and a 1937 graduate from University of Delaware as a Chemical Engineer, entered the U.S. Army in December of 1940 as First Lieutenant. He was a member of the Officers? Reserve Corps and was commissioned a second lieutenant in May of 1937. He served in the Coast Artillery, Anti-Aircraft. He served 31 months overseas in Africa, Sicily, Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, France, Germany and Austria. He advanced from time to time to become a Major. He has five battle stars for Tunisia, Sicilly, Rome-Arno, Rhineland and Germany. He was awarded a bronze star for meritorious service in Italy and France. He acquired 130 points. He was returned to inactive duty in January of 1946.
April 10, 1940, the Ladies Auxiliary Unit of the Water Witch Fire Company is formed with Malinda Brannan as President.
The Susquehanna River Toll Bridge on U.S. Route 40, Pulaski Highway, opened to traffic August 28, 1940.

Final commencement exercises are held for Tome School for Boys on June 9, 1941.
March 11, 1941 Mt. Zoar Colored School closed and the students bussed to Port Deposit Colored School. Bella Mae Boddy is hired as a teacher for the Port Deposit Colored School on June 12, 1941. Mrs. Ada J. Berry is hired as a teacher for the Port Deposit School on July 8, 1941.
In August of 1941 the federal government had over $1 billion worth of contracts with Maryland companies for war production, with one of these companies being Port Deposit?s Wiley Manufacturing.
The dual highway, U.S. Route 40, was formally opened in 1941, bypassing the towns of Perryville and Port Deposit but hotels, restaurants, gas stations and other businesses quickly popped up to support the new highway.
US Navy took over Tome campus and 72 farms and construction of a Navy city ? USNTC Bainbridge ? began.

On October 10, 1942 the first recruit to NTC Bainbridge, Damon Sutton of Pittsburgh, Pa., was welcomed aboard.
Navy declared martial law in Elkton due to the number of sailors and war workers flocking there to find entertainment.

The Port Deposit VFW would be named in 1946, for Jerry Skrivanek, who was a Private killed in Sicily during World War II on July 23, 1943. He was the first Port Deposit man to lose his life during WWII.
Water Witch Fire Company was re-incorporated and phones installed in June in Nick Tyson?s and Jim Charsha?s homes that connected with the fire phones.
An accident at Triumph Industries in Elkton, in the midst of heavy war production, in May of 1943, kills 15 and injures 100.
The old PW&B Railroad Bridge converted to a vehicular and pedestrian Gold Mine Bridge, stood until 1943 when it was demolished for the war effort. The piers of the bridge, however, still stand.

December 1, 1944,  Cokesbury Colored School consolidated with Port Deposit Colored School and the school begins operating at full capacity with three teachers and all three classrooms in use.
In April 1944 NTC Bainbridge was re-designated a Naval Training Center with a Center Command and four subordinate commands: Service School, Recruit Training, Naval Hospital and Administrative commands.
The Perryville Lions Club was organized in 1944, with one of their major projects being the erection and dedication of the Honor Roll Board on the Perryville High School ground, listing those who served in the armed forces during WWII. The Board was replaced in 1950 by a permanent monument erected by a community committee and sponsored by Susquehanna Post No. 135 of the American Legion.

The Port Deposit News was published in Port Deposit in 1945.
By 1945, the end of World War II, USNTC Bainbridge Recruit Training Command  had trained and mustered out 244,000 recruits.

The late Alice Miller's book Cecil County -A Study in Local History was published posthumously by her sisters.
Port Deposit's Ernest Burke pitched for the Elite Giants a Baltimore black baseball team, after being scouted from the Port Deposit Black Sox, in 1947 and 1948. Roy Campabella pitches for them in 1937 and 1945, and then went to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946, shortly after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.
The Navy recruit training center was deactivated on June 30, 1947 and the base goes into ?caretaker" status.
The worst airline crash in U.S. history, at the time, occurs on the hill above Port Deposit May 31, 1947, with 53 people killed including a ballerina and a man who had previously faked his own suicide. USNTC Bainbridge sailors clear the bodies away and Dr. R.C. Dodson calls for a mass burial, although this doesn't occur.

The remains of Jerry Skrivanek, the fist Port Deposit man killed during World War II on July 23, 1943, were laid to rest at Harmony Cemetery on August 4, 1948. VFW Post 8185 is named in honor of Skrivanek and maintains perpetual care of his grave.
Jacob Tome's mansion, Hytheham on South Main Street, was razed.
From 1948 to 1951 William Thomas Duff of Port Deposit served as Port Deposit's Town Police and also was in charge of maintenance, including all trash pick-ups. On the weekends, from 1942 to 1948 and again from 1951 to 1958 he worked for Calary Bus in Port Deposit driving Navy personnel to Baltimore and back to Port Deposit.
Port Theatre shows the much anticipated movie, The Long Night, starring Henry Fonda, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak, Cass Timberland, Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner May 22, 1948.
Hopewell United Methodist Church dedicated its new organ and cathedral chimes June 2, 1948. On July 18 they hold their 100th anniversary with flowers presented in memory of relatives by members of the congregation.
The Susquehanna River at Port Deposit is declared "ideal" for Olympic rowing and spring distance events in 1948.
Back Creek Construction of Elkton takes the State Highway, Route 222, from the former Tome School for Boys campus through Port Deposit for $40,000 in 1948. Massive opening exercises for the road are held with a parade and prizes for attendees.
Under the leadership of Scoutmaster Prince James and Assistant Scoutmaster James Griffin the "Colored Boy Scout Troop of Port Deposit" is organized with Rev. St. Paul Freeman as President on June 30, 1948.

Jack Eaton, at Tome School for Boys from 1907 to 1908, produced Aquatic House Party, a Grantland Rice sportslight series one-reel short subject that earned the Oscar at the 22nd Academy Awards.
The Port Deposit Lion's Club begin what will be called the "greatest philanthropic and volunteer work to date in the state of Maryland" by the Baltimore Sun, when they dig out the old basement of Jacob Tome's destroyed mansion to build a community swimming pool known as the Tome Pool.
The Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church in Perryville, a former surplus Army Chapel at Aberdeen Proving Ground, was re-erected in Perryville in 1949 and enlarged in 1966-67.

The Port Deposit Colored School begins dealing with overcrowding issues as 107 students were attending classes. Enrollment had doubled since the opening of the school in 1938, and although additional classrooms were approved in 1955, they were never built. Enrollment would reach a peak in 1958 with 109 students but by 1963 only 80 students were attending the school.
Between 1950 and 2000 the population of Cecil County grew by 225 percent while Harford?s exploded by 524 percent.
Congress prompted to order the Senate Armed Services Committee to investigate Joseph McCarthy's charges of communists working in the State Department, with Senator Millard Tydings of Havre de Grace as Committee Chair.

The once booming Havre de Grace track, opened in 1912 and known as The Graw, was shut down and sold in 1951.
NTC Bainbridge was closed in 1947 but is partially reopened in 1950/1951 as a WAVES Training Center and a Naval Academy prep school, in response to the Korean War. During the Korean War NTC reached its peak population of 55,000 people.

1907-1908 Tome School for Boys student Jack Eaton produced Athletes of the Saddle, in 1952, a Grantland Rice Sportslight one-reel short subject film for Paramount that was Oscar nominated.
A hose tower was contracted to be built for Water Witch Fire Company by H. Martindale for $1,400 in 1952. This building was completed and put into service in February 1953.
10 members of Water Witch Volunteer Fire Company receive formal training for the first time, as they complete a University of Maryland Section I Basic Fireman?s Course.

First Port Deposit VFW Member selected into the Military Order of the Cooties in the form of Delbert Taylor on August 14, 1954.
Monday, February 22, 1954 election of Ralph Winchester, Lee Henderson, Jay C. Emrey, Chester Kimble, Frederick Drexler,  and William Calary. The Mayor is Hubert F. Ryan.
October 16, 1954 Hurricane Hazel brought near 100-mile per hour windows to Port Deposit and left behind tremendous damage, particularly along the Susquehanna and Chesapeake Bay.
The Cecil County Board of Education signs a lease with NTC Bainbridge to rent a building to be used as a public school, which contained the military?s standard provision against discrimination. The State Superintendent of Schools, therefore, refused to sign the lease and asked to have it cancelled, seeking a new lease allowing segregation. The new lease was signed by the Undersecretary of the Navy allowing local officials to determine if segregated activities would be allowed.
Tome School graduate Milward Simpson was elected Governor of Wyoming and is considered, upon his death in 1994 to be the last of the links to the Old Wild West. Born in 1897 in a Jackson, Wyoming, log cabin, his grandfather Finn Burnett was a famed Indiian fighter and his father was friends with Butch Cassidy, although as a County Attorney he had secured Cassidy?s only conviction. One of Simpson?s first memories was watching an aging Buffalo Bill Cody toss glass balls in the air and blast them with a shotgun.
Pilottown School was the last traditional ?one room? school to close in Cecil County in 1954.
The Statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the grounds of Good Shepherd Church in Perryville was dedicated in 1954, a gift of service men and women at Bainbridge Naval Training Center.

On January 11, 1955 the present location was rented and a home was found for the Port Deposit VFW.
February 7, 1955, The Ladies Auxiliary Charter for the Port Deposit VFW was issued by national headquarters. There are 21 names on the charter with the first elected president of the auxiliary Mabel Auman.
The Skipjack Martha Lewis was originally built in 1955 by Bronza Parks in Wingate, Maryland.
Hurricane Diane inundates Cecil on August 18, 1955, causing terrible flood damage in Port Deposit.

Port Deposit VFW Post started Teenage Dances at the Post Home, after the 1956 addition that was the Post Hall and is now the Canteen.
Friends of Rodgers Tavern, sponsored by Susquehanna Post 135 of the American Legion, was organized January 10, 1956 to work for the restoration and preservation of Rodgers Tavern as a monument to George Washington.

Queen Elizabeth II traversed Cecil County by Baltimore & Ohio Railroad on October 21, 1957.
The Baptist Church in Perryville began in 1957 as a mission of the First Baptist Church of Havre de Grace.

Two-day snowstorm March 19 and 20, 1958, dumped 42 inches of snow on Cecil County.
Susquehanna State Park was established.
The Parochial School at Good Shepherd in Perryville opened in 1958.

A bomb shelter still exists in the Nesbitt-Ryan House, 42 S. Main St, a relic of the 1960s Russian-U.S. Confrontation over Cuba.
J.T.C. Hopkins III, Post Commander of Port Deposit VFW, dies after only two months in office.

Commander Rodney Sentman selected All State Commander, the first in the history of the Port Deposit VFW. He was also selected by the National Organization as an All American Commander, the only Post Commander to attain such honors for Jerry Skrivanek Post 8185 for 50 years.
The Route 40 demonstrations of 1961 pitted the federal government against segregationist practices in Harford and Cecil Counties, where Route 40 businesses often denied service to blacks. The Kennedy Administration went to war with this practice and put the Maryland highway service system to the test on June 26, 1961 sending Ambassador Adam Malick Sow of Chad down the highway. He stopped in Edgewood for gas and tried to get a cup of coffee, but was denied service. Under pressure from Kennedy Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes issued a formal apology to Sow.
September 5, 1961 three black Americans from Philadelphia stopped in North East on Route 40 and were denied service at the Bar-H Chuckhouse and were subsequently arrested for violating the state trespass law. They refused to pay a $50 fine, post bail or eat. Their hunger strike lasted 17 days until their fines were suspended when brought to trial for time already served.

Port Deposit VFW Post 8185 begins the Post Honor Guard and is able to burn their mortgage with Cecil National Bank President Pierre LeBrun. The Ladies Auxiliary also won a community service trophy and two membership awards this year. In addition the post leased property to their north along Route 222 from Conowingo Power giving them a ball field.
In 1962 the Nuclear Power School comes to USNTC Bainbridge.
The Town of Perryville, incorporated in 1882, was enlarged to include Aikin, Gotham Bush and Frenchtown in 1962.

Commander Lloyd Leonard was the first member of Port VFW to receive a National Aide appointment from National Headquarters and was another All State Commander.
Interstate 95, one of the east coast?s major arteries, was completed in November 1963, further bypassing small towns. Also completed was the Senator Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge carrying I-95 across the Susquehanna River.
The Maryland State Legislature passed an open accommodations law for Baltimore and 12 counties, including Harford and Cecil and in 1964 the entire state was included, in an effort to stop denying rights and service to African-Americans at business establishments and to put forth the federal government's goal of "Desegregating Route 40".
In 1963 the Naval Reserve Manpower Center is established at USNTC Bainbridge.
Good Shepherd Church at Perryville used the school auditorium for a memorial service on the evening of President John F. Kennedy's funeral in November 1963. A framework of wood in the auditorium was completely covered with a black pall and six candles burned around it.

July 14, 1964 the Board of Education unanimously voted to close the Port Deposit Colored School due to desegregation. Teachers were transferred to Bainbridge Elementary School and the students were placed in different schools according to boundary lines.
The first ambulance was purchased in September 1964 with a $1,000 donation from Wiley Manufacturing Company of Port Deposit to Water Witch Fire Company. The first ambulance was an Oldsmobile bought from the Union Fire Company of Oxford, Pa., for $600. An additional $250 was charged for the two-way radio left in the unit. An Ambulance Club was started for the residents of the Port Deposit area with annual dues at $3.
One of the largest ships built at Wiley Manufacturing in Port Deposit was MN Miss Circle Line, built for Circle Line-State of Liberty, Inc., of New York. This 152' ferry could carry 1,037 passengers and took over 8 months to build in 1964.

W. Dean Haggerty, Tome 1962-1965, got his diploma in 1968. He moved to the west coast a few months before graduation. He graduated Chelan, Washington and enlisted in the Army and served in Vietnam. When he came back to the states from Vietnam he went to Tome and was awarded a diploma from the school by Ralph Hostetter and Dr. William Hogue. He became the first recipient of an honorary diploma in Tome history.
Port Deposit Colored Elementary School was used by the County Civil Defense Department to house a field hospital.
Port Deposit VFW exceeded 200 members in 1965 for the first time and the Ladies Auxiliary is named the Best All-Around Auxiliary. This year Memorial Day services began at Harmony Chapel at the graveside of Jerry Skrivanek, starting a yearly tradition.
For the first time a Commander was installed at Port Deposit VFW who was still on active duty in the form of Commander Fred Burke in 1965. His tour was short due to transfer from the area by the U.S. Navy. Also the Post donated a 220-pound piece of Port Deposit granite which was polished and engraved with a bronze plaque, to Florida as the State of Maryland?s contribution to the VFW Memorial in Lakeland, Fla. The stone is within a memorial pyramid of stones from each state in the Union, it is a base block.
In 1965 the Historical Society of Cecil County joined the Port Deposit Hytheham Club?s past efforts and stepped in to save the 500-year old Richard?s Oak.

Nov. 6, 1966, Bethel AME Church was completely gutted and everything destroyed by fire. One year later reconstruction of the church began. Reconstruction was completed in 1970 under Rev. Leon Anderson.
Water Witch Fire Company purchased the old Emery Buick garage in town at a cost of $14,000. This building was remodeled by Samuel Aiken Jr., a contractor from Perryville. A radio room, recreation room, engine room and two small storage rooms were built downstairs. A modern kitchen, office, restrooms and banquet hall were built upstairs. A loan of $12,000 from Cecil National Bank of Port Deposit was acquired to complete the remodeling. The new fire station at 15 North Main Street was put into service in May 1968.

Rock Run Hollow: Four Seasons from a Farm Window, written by Isaac B. Rehert and Illustrated by Ingrid Cromel Rehert is published. Though he was born in and grew up in the city, Rehert spent a third of his 45 years, at the time, on a farm. He served in World War II and spent several years, as he put it, ?trying to discover what was worthwhile in the world.? His search ended when he came to a 63-acre farm in Rock Run Hollow, near Port Deposit. He ran a one-man dairy farm for the first eight years but gave up cows for a spell of general city reporting as a staff member of the Baltimore Sun. His regular Saturday stories of life on the farm were a feature of the paper.
The first Miss Fire Prevention Dance and Contest was held on October 25, 1967 and was won by Miss Port Deposit ? Miss Helen Matthews.
The Naval Hospital at Bainbridge suffered from budget restraints and was replaced by a base dispensary in 1967.

President of the Board of Trustees of J.T.I., Ralph Hostetter was a delegate to the Maryland Constitutional Convention, which revised the state?s 100-year old constitution in Annapolis, along with his nephew Gene P. Ward, Tome Class of 1949, who was editor of The Whig.
Linda Randolph Anderson  died in 1968 ending nearly 70 years involvement with Tome. Her family moved to Port so the kids could go to Tome, she then went onto Normal School and eventually came back to teach at Tome?s lower school, becoming Principal. She lived across the street from the school itself.
The Service School Command at USNTC Bainbridge was shut down in 1968.
The present Community Fire Company of Perryville Fire House, on Route 7 in Perryville, was built and dedicated November 30, 1968.

The Junior School of Tome School or Jacob Tome Institute burned in a towering inferno in January 1969. The building is known as Jefferson Hall.
1969 was the best membership year ever for Port Deposit VFW with 385 members. The VFW also began the policy of bringing Perry Point Veterans to the post one Sunday each month for dinner and entertainment.

By the year 1970 only 6% of Cecil?s workforce was employed in agriculture.
In 1970 the Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace and the Steppingstone Museum were established.
The population of Perryville in 1970 was 2,091 with the town covering an area of two square miles.

Jacob Tome Institute moved to North East and the name is changed to The Tome School.
The Recruit Training Command for Women at USNTC Bainbridge was removed from Bainbridge, Md., to Orlando, Florida, in 1971.

Hurricane Agnes, June 23 to 24, 1972, dumped 10-inches of rain in a 24-hour period with 650 billion gallons of water, silt and mud going through the Conowingo Dam. For the second time in history all 53 flood gates were opened. The crest peaked at 111.5 feet on the 115-foot dam at 3:30 a.m. on June 24.
In June 1972 Board of Education sold Port Deposit Colored School and seven acres of land to the County Commissioners for $1. The County then sells three and one half acres to Carter Management Company in 1982. Carter Management Company then built a low-income housing project.
The west fish lift is installed at the Conowingo Dam to help the native shad population migrate up river.

Canteen is repaired enough at Port VFW to get back in business and plans are started for an addition. The Post also received Perpetual Charter on March 27, 1973, with the signing of the 25th life member.  Under Commander Arthur Whitey Ford from 1973-74 plans were finalized for repairs and an addition to the building. The Post Hall was converted to a canteen and a much bigger Post Hall added. There were areas for storage and a TV room.
The County Tri-centennial celebration is held, which combined with the devastation of  Hurricane Agnes, sparks restoration initiatives in Port Deposit.
The Captain Jeremiah Baker Chapter, Daughters of the American Legion, organized at Perryville by Mrs. Cordelia Jackson Simmons in 1923, held their 50th anniversary in 1973.

Port Deposit Heritage Corporation organized and the Paw Paw building acquired for restoration into a museum and library.
The Tome School in North East sold Washington Hall, Adams Hall and the riverside athletic field to Dombrico, Inc., parent company of Wiley Manufacturing in March 1974. They also sold the fire gutted remains of Jefferson Hall to another purchaser.

Port Deposit Heritage Corporation was organized in 1975 and the Paw Paw building was purchased for restoration to house a library and museum this year.
November 10, 1975 the Fire Prevention Unit of the Water Witch Fire Company was formed.

USNTC Bainbridge was officially closed on March 31, 1976. When the doors closed over 500,000 sailors had received recruit training and thousands more had received specialty training.
A 1952 U.S. Government surplus jeep was received from Civil Defense. A 65 gallon tank with a 10 gpm rotary gear pump was installed by members on the unit designed to fight brush fires. One year later, in 1977, a 1953 three-quarter-ton four-wheel drive weapons carrier was obtained from Civil Defense. A 200-gallon tank, a 250gpm Hale portable pump and other equipment were installed by members.

Exterior restoration of the Paw Paw completed.
On December 29, 1979 Mr. Warrick Sherrard and wife Anne donated approximately six and one half aces of land to the Water Witch Fire Company. This land is on Old Campground Road off Jacob Tome Highway. House 2 was built on the spot.
The Royal Bar, often made into a drive-through because of its precarious position at the bottom of the hill at Center Street, was gutted by fire in October 1979.

Wiley Manufacturing expanded to build tunnels under Baltimore Harbor to Fort McHenry. They demolish J.T.I. Building #1, Washington Hall, for parking.
In 1980 the Port VFW pays for painting the roof of Harmony Chapel.

Wiley Manufacturing shut-down and left Port Deposit in financial ruin.
Port Deposit Heritage Corporation received the Gerry House for restoration.
Cecil National Bank merged with First National Bank of Maryland.

Adams Hall renovated to be used as municipal offices, a library and meeting room after it was given to the town by Wiley Manufacturing Company.
The Boniface family?s Bonita Farm in Darlington was home to the 1983 Preakness winner, Deputed Testimony.

First National Bank of Maryland gave their Cecil National Bank building to the town of Port Deposit as a gift, after their closing four years earlier.
Port Deposit VFW began using POW MIA Flags, chains and vacant seats in their meetings as ritual support of our POW MIAs.
Catfish takes in Maryland rose from 110,500 pounds in 1980 to over 1 million pounds in 1986.
The Havre de Grace Decoy Museum was opened in 1986.

Legal slot machines come to Port Deposit VFW when two arrive, but by October two more are brought in and in June 1988, a fifth is brought in to reach the legal limit.  The post also wins a plaque for support of Korean War Memorial.
Blues guitarists Gary Moore of the UK and Albert Collins of Las Vegas, and their film crew NFL Filming of New Jersey, chose the Main Street of Port Deposit to produce a music video entitled Too Tired with many scenes featuring local residents including Maurice Harris, Dot Ryan and Jean Schaeffer.

The Perryville Train Station re-opened as a passenger platform for MARC.
Dedication of the Creswell Marker on Main and Center Street in Port Deposit is held in March 1991 with Glen Longacre, President of Port Deposit Heritage Corporation as Master of Ceremonies.
The east fish lift is installed at the Conowingo Dam to help the native shad in their migration.
A 500 slip marina was deemed ?essential? for Port Deposit revitalization and town residents cram into Town Hall to learn of a plan to revitalize the declining town and Bainbridge on August 14, 1991.

Donald Harvey Cunningham Jr., Post Commander for Port Deposit VFW, is elected District 10 Commander, the first to achieve the status from the Post.
The Perryville Railroad museum was opened in 1996.

Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway organized to promote heritage, natural resources and tourism.
The Tome School Clean-Up Volunteers formed with volunteer group clean ups of the old Tome School for Boys property continuing on weekends for two years beginning on April 21, 1997.

Maryland State Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein tours Port Deposit, Tome School for Boys and Principio Furnace with Delegate David Rudolph, local historians and a delegation from Port Deposit March 8, 1998. Senator Paul Sarbanes follows suit and tours the town and Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway, including Perryville, on April 23, 1998.
New historically-inspired street signs are ordered and placed throughout the town in April 1998.
The second floor of the Paw Paw building in Port Deposit is renovated and restored to house a curatorial office, museum collections and a meeting room. It is opened and dedicated in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Henry E. Roberts on April 24, 1998.

The total economic impact of Aberdeen Proving Ground on Harford County is estimated at $520.9 million.
Port Deposit Artist Susan Grover appeared in an episode of Homicide and created posters of Port Deposit architecture.

February 14, 2000 a special ceremony was held at the main gate parking lot at the former NTC Bainbridge where turn-over ceremonies were officially held, turning over the old base, including the old Tome School for Boys, from Federal property to State hands for redevelopment through a local management board.
Until the 2000 census the largest black community in Cecil County, since 1950, was in Port Deposit.
The Boys and Girls Club of Cecil County opened the Port Deposit Unit at the old Freeman Hall Colored School in June of 2000.
Candlelight Tours resumed by Port Deposit Heritage Corporation under the leadership of Chairperson Kimberly Flayhart.

The Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway became a Certified Heritage Area.
The Havre de Grace Maritime Museum was opened in 2001.
The status of the Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway was upgraded to a Certified Heritage Area.
In 2001 more than 185,000 shad passed over the Conowingo Dam by Memorial Day, courtesy the fish lifts installed in 1972 and 1991, with a total of 200,000 by the end of the season.
History Matters! A local history resource by the Maryland Humanities Council on the Lower Susquehanna area was completed.