Cecil County embraced steamboats right from the beginning in 1813, when Frenchtown served as terminal for passengers and freight of the Union Line’s Chesapeake, the first steamboat on the Bay. Through most of the nineteenth century, steamboats routinely hauled products in and out of Port Deposit, Perryville, and Elkton. Chesapeake City hosted excursion boats from Baltimore and steamers heavy with freight traveling the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. In rural areas, wharfs and landings, scattered along navigable rivers and loaded with produce, awaited arrival of steamboats. Even the railroad relied on a steamboat ferry to carry train cars across the watery gap between Perryville and Havre de Grace.
Faster moving trains using iron pathways that extended their reach beyond the rivers held the advantage over steamboats. Still, the steamboat remained a viable alternative carrier of people and freight for those communities along the Chesapeake Bay and its larger tributaries bypassed by the railroad, or where railroads and steamboats provided complementary services. The swarm of steamboats in the Bay rose to their highest number in the first decade of the twentieth century, and then fell in a steady decline until the end of the steamboat era on the Chesapeake in the early 1960’s (Holly, Tolchester, 9).
The appeal of the steamboat during the transition from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century and then its rapid decline is reflected through the history of the Tolchester Beach Improvement Company. And just as Cecil County heralded the beginning of the steamboat era on the Chesapeake Bay, it was a precursor of its ending.
THE TOLCHESTER BEACH IMPROVEMENT COMPANY
Not all steamboats were designed for serious work. From the earliest days of the steamboat, excursion boats accommodated passengers seeking a pleasurable jaunt across local waters, but in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, steamboats strengthened their association with recreation. Amusement parks and bathing resorts grew in popularity during this period, and steamboat companies seized the opportunity to promote greater use of excursion boats, linking these excursions with recreation areas along the shores of the Chesapeake. In 1878, the Tolchester Steamboat Company was incorporated to capitalize on the public interest in amusement parks. In 1887, a related company, the Tolchester Beach Improvement Company was formed to develop a resort at the Tolchester Steamboat Company property at Tolchester Beach in Kent County (Holly, Tolchester, 31-32; 90). This resort on the Sassafras River started with a hotel, restaurant, bathhouses, some amusement park attractions, and picnic grounds. After completion of this first set of features, the resort was heavily advertised in Baltimore. The effort quickly paid off, and Tolchester Beach became a popular destination for Baltimoreans. Within a few years, the appeal of a bay cruise, bayside beach, amusement park, and picnic grove drew crowds from all areas of the region. With business growing through the turn of the century, the company continued to add attractions, including “the most fearsome roller coaster on the Bay,” and a reduced scale steam railroad that proved as popular with adults as it was with children (Holly, Fleet, 131-132). For those looking for extended vacations rather than weekend get-a-ways, Tolchester steamboats included a stop further up the Sassafras River, at the resort town of Betterton.
In 1899, in a move to improve profits with a better allocation of resources, four interlocking companies, the Tolchester Steamboat Company of Camden, New Jersey; the Tolchester Beach Improvement Company of Kent County; the Chesapeake Steamboat Company of Baltimore City, and the Port Deposit and Havre de Grace Steamboat Company of Baltimore City combined under one name - the Tolchester Beach Improvement Company. Purchase of the Sassafras River Steamboat Company the same year further enlarged the company, adding wharfs, an established route, and two steamboats, the Sassafras (renamed the Annapolis), and Van Corlaer the Trumpter (Renamed the Kitty Knight).
CECIL COUNTY OPERATIONS
Sept. 13, 1900, CECIL COUNTY NEWS
PORT
DEPOSIT
Last
week the Kitty Knight ran instead of
the steamer Susquehanna, which was
being repaired for her fall work. Our people were not very well pleased with
the Kitty Knight, but on Friday some
few thought they would go to Baltimore and try her. This boat used to be the
old Trumpeter. They arrived in
Baltimore at one thirty. Coming home a storm came up so it was thought best to
land at Grey’s Landing; here they stayed three hours. The captain and the crew
did all in their power to make the passengers comfortable. At nine o’clock a
supper was prepared, for them, and which they did justice to. At two o’clock
the boat landed at Port Deposit, and even though it took them ten hours to get
home, not one of them would have missed the trip.
Understandably, the regular customers out of Port Deposit preferred the newer and larger Susquehanna to the substitute Kitty Knight, an antebellum side-wheeler constructed in 1860. The company sold the older ship in 1913, and it was later abandoned at Rock Creek, in Anne Arundel County, (Holly, Tolchester, 312), not far from Grey’s Landing, where it took refuge in 1900.
The Kitty Knight was better known to the residents along Cecil’s southern border, where she originally operated for the Sassafras River Company and then the Tolchester Beach improvement Company. Kitty Knight was just one of an active fleet of Tolchester ships making regular calls at Fredericktown and neighboring Georgetown on the Kent County side of the Sassafras, as well as smaller landings on both sides of the river (Holly, Tolchester, 58). In addition to Fredericktown, Tolchester ships used Cassidy’s Wharf, as their one other landing on the Cecil County side of the river. Located in an isolated agricultural area south of Earleville, the wharf probably filled more with produce than people. County road maps still preserve the name, and Cassidy’s Wharf is also identified in the 1877 atlas of Cecil County. The smaller stops like Cassidy’s Wharf became unprofitable and were dropped by the 1920’s (Holly, 134). Tolchester steamers may have also made a few exploratory calls at another near-by Cecil County shore, Chesapeake Haven, located on the Bay near the mouth of the Sassafras. Pictorial evidence shows the Susquehanna docked at least once at Chesapeake Haven (Clements, 44-45), but neither Holly nor Burgess mention Chesapeake Haven in their extensive histories of steamboating on the Chesapeake.
The Susquehanna was built in 1898 primarily for service on her namesake
river. Just shy of 158 feet long, and designed for work as well as play, she
could carry around 1000 passengers along with freight. “She had ample space on
her lower freight deck for a cargo of bagged wheat, grain, and fertilizer,
barreled and crated products, farm machinery, tobacco hogsheads, and household
furniture” (Holly, Tolchester, 25). With a steel hull and a propeller rather
than a paddle wheel, the Susquehanna
proved sturdy enough to serve as the company’s icebreaker when ice made the
cold weather trips difficult for the older side-wheelers (Holly, Tolchester,
98-99).
The
Susquehanna and other Tolchester
ships serving Port Deposit over the years,
tied up at Campbell’s Wharf, located in the center of the elongated town.
Campbell’s Wharf was at the warehouse site of J. M. Campbell & Company. “It
was located on the river from the current post office to the office for Tome’s
Landing. The road leading to the wharf was on the north side of the post
office. Coming down Center Street one would turn left on Main Street, then
right and ride unto the wharf” (Brannan). The Tolchester Beach Improvement
Company rented the pier for 450 dollars a year, and in October 1905, bought the
wharf for 4500 dollars (Holly, Tolchester, 140; 276).
One can
visualize the scene at Port Deposit. The crowd gathers at Campbell’s Wharf,
laden with picnic baskets, and beach paraphernalia. Anticipation builds at the
sound of the ship’s whistle - the Susquehanna’s
distinctive silhouette is sighted, and no doubt children in the crowd excitedly
relay the news. The crowd compacts itself along the dock, ready to alleviate
the sultry heat and escape routine for a day of fun at Tolchester, or perhaps
take a longer vacation at Betterton Beach. Curiously, picnickers boarding from
Port Deposit pass picnickers from Baltimore who depart the ship to picnic on
the bluffs overlooking Port Deposit.
Or
perhaps the scene, repeated in Perryville and Havre de Grace, is an evening
scene, with fewer children, less encumbrances,
and more romantic embraces. After boarding the Susquehanna, an onboard orchestra plays, and the dance floor fills
with couples. For a few hours, the ship wanders aimlessly over a moonlit bay,
with “strains of popular music [drifting] over the river “ (Jackson,
31).
The Susquehanna’s service in the region
abruptly ended in 1923. The company sold the boat to New Orleans to invest in a
steamer to ferry automobiles across the Bay. The Susquehanna then changed ownership a number of times. After service
in New Orleans, she was sold to New York. The ship was resold in the early
1940’s, once again entering Bay service, this time with a new name, Francis Scott Key. She returned to New
York in the mid-1940’s, yo-yoed back to the Chesapeake in 1947, relocated in
Boston, and then ended its career as a crumpled pile of scrap at Bordentown,
New Jersey in 1952 (Burgess, 193). It would be understandable if some speculate
that the ship died of metal fatigue.
Other Tolchester steamboats, Louise, Annapolis (former Sassafras), and Emma Giles also made scheduled runs on the Susquehanna and Sassafras. The company also took advantage of opportunities to offer special trips, as indicated in a Cecil Democrat ad from August 19, 1905: “Special Excursion to Great Kent, Queen Anne’s and Cecil Co. Fair at Tolchester, Thursday, August 31, 1905. Steamer Emma Giles leaves Fredericktown […].”
Not all
citizens of Cecil County held a romanticized view of steamboat travel. Some
residents of Port Deposit would not be welcomed aboard the Susquehanna, and some residents of Fredericktown would be barred
from coming aboard the Emma Giles
when it docked in town for the special excursion to Tolchester. The August 20,
1904 issue of the Cecil Democrat bluntly identifies the reason
in an article titled, “Prefers a Cell to a ‘Jim Crow’ Car.” The news item
accounts the first arrest in Cecil County for violation of the state’s ‘Jim
Crow’ law concerning public transportation, passed earlier that year. In this
instance the violation was on a train, but the law also applied to steamboats.
Because of segregation laws, an African-American family living in Port wanting
to take a steamboat excursion, would be required to bypass the ship they see docked in their own hometown and travel
to Baltimore to board a separate steamboat headed for a separate beach like
Brown’s Grove on Rock Creek. For a black family living under the “separate but
equal” doctrine of the time, the “separate” was painfully obvious and the
“equal” was open to serious debate.
THE ERICSSON LINE
The Baltimore and Philadelphia Steamboat Company or Ericsson Line, founded in 1844, operated between Baltimore and Philadelphia through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and was Tolchester’s major competitor at Betterton. In Cecil County, Ericsson ships made regular visits at Chesapeake City and Town Point.
ADVERTISEMENT
Special Moonlight Excursions
Wednesday and
Saturday Evenings
Boat Leaves wharf at 8:00 o’clock
All Day on the Chesapeake Bay
PALATIAL STEAMER
Home in the Evening
“Carmenia”
Commencing SUNDAY, JULY 2d, will leave Elkton, Md., SUNDAY, 10 A. M., DAILY at 9 A. M. for Betterton, Chesapeake Haven and Town Point. Return trip leaves Betterton at 4 P. M.
Fine Bathing, Boating, and Fishing
Eight o’clock day boats from Philadelphia connect with Steamer “Carmania” at Betterton to return same day via Elkton.
F. S. GROVES, Agent,
Ericsson Line
Pier 3, S. Delaware Ave.,
PHILADELPHIA
Eying the initial success of Tolchester’s operations on the flanks of Cecil County, the Ericsson Line, hoped to make Elkton a debarkation port for bay beaches, including stops at Chesapeake Haven on Grove Point, a community aspiring to rival Betterton and Tolchester Beach (Clements, 49). The above ad for the Carmania appeared in the Cecil Whig during the months of July and August in 1916. The venture failed; a combination of not enough customers, and concerns over a constant need for dredging on the silt-clogged Elk River caused the Ericsson Line to drop the plan.
DECLINE IN STEAMBOATING ON THE BAY
The
number of steamboats on the Bay peaked in the first decade of the twentieth
century. Examination of that decade reveals events contributing to the decline
of steamboating. In 1904, the burning of the New York steamboat General Slocum
with its loss of over 600 lives prompted the enactment of federal safety
regulations. Implementing these regulations pushed operating expenses higher,
while at the same time, some people remained unconvinced that steamboats were
safe and would no longer board them. In the same year as the General Slocum
tragedy, the Great Baltimore Fire caused heavy financial losses for steamboat
companies operating out of the Baltimore waterfront. Hit by the combination of
new expenses and lost revenue, several Chesapeake steamboat companies did not
survive the decade (Holly, Tolchester, 277-278).
Increased expenses eliminated the weaker steamboat companies, and later, economic depression would cause more companies to fail. However, it would be tougher competition brought by changes in technology delivering the fatal blow to steamboating. In their own bid to survive the new competitor, railroads pushed their competitive edge over steamboats, heavily advertising their own recreational excursions. The Pennsylvania Railroad even competed directly with steamboat companies by operating its own fleet of steamboats on the Chesapeake to combine rail and steamboat service. But a new vehicle threatened steamboats and trains alike; the roar of the internal combustion engine grew louder. By 1910, the number of automobiles, trucks, and hard surface roads began expanding steadily. The number of Maryland automobiles climbed from about ten to around ten thousand in the first fourteen years of the new century. In 1908, under the administration of Governor Austin Crothers, Maryland became the first state to develop a highway system. By 1915, hard surface roads linked every county seat in the state. Close to 700 miles of state-maintained roadways in 1912 jumped to 2,600 by 1926. By 1929, 300,000 cars, trucks, and other motor vehicles operated in Maryland (Brugger, 428-431; 790). Merchants, manufacturers, and farmers wanting to move freight now had the option of trucking. Individuals and families wanting to vacation now “motored” to an area beach (and for others, air travel to distant locations became more feasible). Construction of new roadways and bridges carried increasing numbers of trucks and automobiles – by the middle of the twentieth century, the internal combustion engine established its dominance. By the 1950’s, why settle for a bayside beach when it was now an easy drive “down the ocean.” In the American quest for speed and convenience, the steam-powered boat was obsolete.
CECIL MIRRORS THE DECLINE
The
steamboat era did not fully end until the 1960’s, but for the Tolchester Beach
Improvement Company and for Cecil County, the steamboat era did not survive the
Great Depression. After the sale of the Susquehanna,
the Tolchester Company employed the Emma
Giles to make the Susquehanna
schedule. The Emma Giles was no
stranger to the area, having the Havre de Grace / Port Deposit service prior to
the Susquehanna (Holly, Tolchester,
98). The Emma
Giles also replaced the Annapolis,
on the Sassafras route. In 1925 the Baltimore to Havre de Grace, Port Deposit,
and Betterton circuit was made every Monday, Thursday, and Sunday. On Tuesdays,
the Emma Giles limited its operation to the Sassafras River, stopping at Betterton,
Fredericktown, and Georgetown (Holly, Tolchester, 279; 66). Initially, the northern Bay schedule proved
profitable, and the schedule was expanded in
1926 to include Havre de Grace and Port Deposit on Tuesdays. In 1930 and 1931,
the economic climate changed with the Great Depression and the Emma Giles’s trips to the Susquehanna
dropped to once a week, on Thursdays. In 1932 and 1933, the Tolchester Company
tried expanding the runs again with Sunday excursions, but the amount of
business no longer supported the effort (Holly, 66; 138-140). The Tolchester
Company struggled to stay afloat, as operating expenses and repairs outpaced
income, and competition became more pronounced. Routes were cut and moves made
to raise more cash, including selling the company property at Fredericktown.
(Holly, Tolchester, 284). Port Deposit visits
ended in the summer of 1933, along with service to Fredericktown and
Georgetown; in the same year, the national economy hit its lowest point. But
the Depression was not the only culprit to strangle the struggling
steamboat-recreation business out of Port Deposit and other Cecil County
communities. As noted earlier, Cecil reflected technology changes and
concomitant cultural changes affecting summer recreation.
Surveying
county newspapers from the period reveals the changes taking place that would
doom steamboat excursions. Around the time the Susquehanna ended its trips to Port Deposit, social news for Port
Deposit and surrounding communities contained references to families “motoring”
off to Betterton, Ocean City, Maryland, Jersey beaches, and other locales that
could now be easily reached by automobile during the weekends. Those looking
for alternative places to visit by public transportation could find ideas in
the weekly Pennsylvania Railroad ads that touted different get-away spots each
week. When the ads highlighted the list of Jersey beaches accessible by the
railroad, popular Atlantic City was often prominently featured. For vacationing
variety, the ad would occasionally offer destinations to recreation areas like
the Pocono Mountains.
The Cecil county newspapers also give evidence of another rival for summer entertainment. For those seeking less expensive entertainment closer to home, ads listed a variety of movies playing in area theaters; Mom, Dad and two children could attend the New Theater in Elkton for 90 cents (not counting visits to the concession stand). A July 13, 1934 movie ad in the Cecil Whig boasts of yet another incipient technology boosting the appeal of summer movies; the State Theatre in Havre De Grace headed its ad with “keep cool at the State” as air conditioning offered escape from the hot muggy days of summer. On a list containing a widening selection of vacation and recreation options, steamboats lost ground.
A summer issue of the Cecil Whig carries one last ad for a Tolchester steamer out of Port Deposit.
August 18, 1933, Cecil
Whig
BETTERTON CASINO
AND
AMUSEMENT PIER
Offers
A FREE TRIP WORLD’S FAIR
At Chicago
SOME patron will receive a ROUND TRIP TICKET with Pullman accommodations –Good for ten days.
Each
person purchasing a ticket at the value of 25 cents at the DANCE CASINO, BATH
HOUSE, BOWLING ALLEYS or Moving picture Theater
Will
be given a number.
On
the evening of Sept. 4th the LUCKY NUMBER will be drawn by a
representative of the Public press.
EACH
patron has a Chance for the TRIP
Further
information regarding this offer may be obtained at any of the above places of
amusement.
Tolchester Co. Steamer will run an Excursion to Betterton from Port Deposit and Havre de Grace on August 14th and 21st.
Betterton Casino & Amusement Pier
HOWARD TURNER, Prop.
The following summer, Port Deposit is named in the ad for an excursion by the New Castle Terminal Company, also known as the Baltimore, Crisfield, and Onancock Company. Using a new boat, the Chippewa (misspelled in the ad), the New Castle Terminal Company hoped to capitalize on the route abandoned by the Tolchester Company, but discontinued the route after 1934 (Burgess, 144).
July 13, 1934, Cecil Whig
MOONLIGHT EXCURSIONS
TO BETTERTON
Every Monday Night
Starting July 9th
Leaving Port Deposit
7:00 P.M.
Leaving Havre de Grace
7:30 P.M.
Dancing Refreshments
Music by Maryland Free
Staters
New Steamer Chittewa [sic]
Excursion Steamers by charter
New Castle Terminal Co.
V.W. Hendricks, Rep.
410 Union Ave.
Havre de Grace
Phone 198
On July 20, and for the rest of the summer this ad continues to appear, with some variations. The most noticeable change on and after July 20 – reference to Port Deposit is dropped. Ironically, in the same July 20 issue, a local theater advertises for the movie “Cross Country Cruise.”
Cutting excursions from the upper Bay and other attempts to reduce costs proved unsuccessful. The Tolchester Beach Improvement Company did not survive the decade; after a year in receivership, the company was bought out in 1937 (Holly, Tolchester, 288-289). The vestiges of the Tolchester name continued for a few more decades in a new company, a steamboat, and the original bayside beach. In 1969, when the auctioneer banged a close to the bidding, the Tolchester Beach of popular memory was no more. Nor was the steamboat era.
Brannan, Malinda Campbell.
Interview by Nancy C. Roberts. 8 Aug. 1994.
A copy of this interview is
available at the Port Deposit Branch of the Cecil County Public Library.
Brugger, Robert J. Maryland: A
Middle Temperament, 1634-1980. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press in
Association with the Maryland Historical Society. 1988.
Burgess, Robert and H. Graham
Wood. Steamboats out of Baltimore.
Centerville, Maryland: Tidewater Publishers. 1968.
Clements, John Russell, The
Grove: A 20th Century History of Grove Point, Md. Grove Point,
Maryland. Published by the author. 2000.
Holly, David C. Chesapeake
Steamboats: Vanished Fleet. Centerville, Maryland: Tidewater Publishers.
1994.
Holly, David C. From Steamboat
on the Chesapeake: Emma Giles and the Tolchester Line. Centerville,
Maryland: Tidewater Publishers. 1987.
Jackson, A. Raymond. A. Raymond
Jackson Recalls: Perryville, Maryland, 1900-1913, as told to Jerre Garrett.
Elkton: Historical Society of Cecil County. 1994.
Newspapers. Citations are given within the article.
A Reflection on
Steamboats
A few years before the formation of the Tolchester Beach Improvement Company, a writer to the Cecil Democrat described the appeal of leisurely steamboat travel and recognized the American desire for speed threatened to bring that mode of travel to an end.
Letter to editor, Cecil Democrat, June 1, 1872
Dear Democrat – Few of your readers are aware of the beauties of the Elk, Cecil county’s own stream, flowing entirely within her own territory. In the good old days, when steamboats were considered rapid modes of travel, Cecil countians were accustomed to visit both Baltimore and Philadelphia by the Union Line, and a trip down the Elk and Bay was considered a real pleasure. But since the iron horse has been put upon the course and tracks have been laid for him, not only from river to river, but across rivers and through mountains from ocean to ocean, water lines have gone our of fashion, and the glory of Fulton has paled before the fame of Stephenson, except on the mighty ocean itself, where the steamship is monarch. The fast age in which we live will not content itself with comfort at twelve or fifteen miles an hour, but demands thirty, forty, and would be delighted at sixty- and would then pine for a trip to San Francisco or Japan by the wires.
But elderly gentlemen who remember a happy boyhood and a first trip on the “George Washington” from Frenchtown to Baltimore may be excused for a lingering preference for water routes. As we grow older we are not in such haste to reach our journey’s end, and do not consider time lost that is enjoyed so thoroughly as one may enjoy the quiet hours of a summer’s day on the “Cyrus P. Smith,” as she steams down the Elk and the majestic Chesapeake to Baltimore
.
The Elk River is a water gem of rare beauty, as she winds between her green sloping banks and hillsides. We who live so near her, and yet have never floated upon her bosom, are ignorant of what should really be the pride of our county.
After a trial trip, we can safely recommend to all who wish to visit Baltimore, and are content to live leisurely enough to enjoy life, to eschew the cars and their dust and sparks, for once at least, and see if they are not amply repaid for lost time, as some call it, by seven hours of thorough entertainment.
On the “Smith” you can be at home and at the same time moving onward to the desired haven. You can read, talk, walk, look, think, write or sleep just as you elect. A day of happiness is a day forever.
OLD STAGER.