Pocomoke City, Maryland

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Pocomoke City, dubbed "the friendliest town on the Eastern Shore", is a city in Worcester County, Maryland, United States. The population was 4,098 at the 2000 census.

Contents 1 History 2 City events 3 Geography 4 Demographics 5 External links

[edit] History

Pocomoke

Historical Sketch of Pocomoke City, by Bob Jones

Pocomoke City owes its name and very existence to the deep navigable river on whose southern bank it took shape. As early as 1630, trappers likely met Indians there on the "Hill" to trade with them, interested above all in their pelts. A shipment that went out (at a much later date, obviously) contained pelts of nine bear, five cubs, 42 beaver, 70 otter, 445 fox, 893 mink, 20 wildcats, 2,084 raccoons, and 239 dozen muskrats. Trappers, settlers, and traders traveling north and south needed to get across the river, so, no later than 1695, a ferry came into existence when the County Court named Edward Stevens to be ferryman of Pocomoke River. Edward and his two brothers owned 600 acres northwest of the river, and that was where the northern landing was presumably built. The site of the landing on the south side was likely not far from the foot of the "Hill." Earliest records hint at a meeting house (church) near this ferry landing; later records clearly show that by 1716 there was a "meeting house" in use, and also located on Stevens property. True, there is the tradition of a very early (c 1687) Presbyterian meeting house at Steven's Ferry, but no record has been found to substantiate the claim. However, the Presbyterian church at Beaver Dam, four miles away, was clearly functioning even prior to 1750, though the one-acre lot, part of "Cherrystone," containing the meeting house, was not willed to the congregation until 1799. To salvage the theory of a primitive meeting house at Stevens Ferry -- after all, for a period, the name was even changed to "Meeting House Landing" -- it is logical that the primitive structure was abandoned when a new one was erected at Beaver Dam, perhaps as early as 1700.

So, in days prior to 1790, when no hamlet existed, the ferry site was, depending on the era, known as either "Stevens Landing," "Meeting House Landing," or "Warehouse Landing," and it was from here that, in the earliest days, the chief crops of the era were exported, namely, tobacco and timber. Slowly, shipping trade became an extensive business, mostly coastal or to the West Indies. The ships that hauled off pelts, tobacco, and white oak, as well as barrel and hogsheads staves, came back from southern ports loaded with molasses and sugar, and with coffee, rum, and tropical fruits. By necessity, a trading post, as well as three or four dwellings, came into being at Stevens Landing. Since tobacco soon became legal tender, the colonists built, c 1700, a tobacco warehouse on the "Hill" next to Steven's Ferry Landing. It acted, more or less, like a bank, where planters could put their tobacco on deposit, as it were, then, write drafts against it to pay off debts, to buy land, to build and support a church, or do whatever they needed. When the U.S. government formed and created the dollar as legal tender, the warehouse lost its purpose. The name "Warehouse Landing" fell out of use by 1790, and the old building itself fell into disuse and was left to decay, though still standing as late as 1820.

The land on which Pocomoke City is located originally came from five tracts, four of which appear to have formed a common corner near the ferry landing. An important one was a tract known as "Wooten Underedge," patented in 1682, but it was over 100 years later -- in the 1790s that about ten small lots were carved out of it and sold; then, about 28 lots were sold 1800-1809, a period of time when, also, about nine lots were sold from an adjacent tract of land, patented in 1670 as "Newtown." There was a third much smaller tract, not patented until 1793, and known as "Recovery," that was sub-divided into about seven Newtown lots. Its very name suggests that it started out as unusable land that perhaps got filled in and smoothed out. The fourth important tract was "Cowley," adjacent to the fifth tract, "Winter Quarter," and sometimes confused with it. "Cowley" was patented in 1689 for 800 acres and was held mostly by the Brittingham family till about 1750. A sudden spate of subdivision between 1800 and 1810 resulted in some 26 lots being partitioned and sold from "Cowley." As for "Winter Quarter," it was patented in 1674 for 300 acres. By 1800, it had been divided into five or six tracts, the smallest being 18 acres; it was not until after 1900 that, except for the Hearne house and a farm house, the first residences were built.

The first small lot that was sold on the site of present-day Pocomoke occurred in 1783 when John Dorman sold two acres to Daniel Young, but the real, small-lot, selling boom occurred from 1800 to 1810, no doubt inspired by confidence in the newly formed government and the protection and stability it offered its first generation of Americans. By 1810, about 80 small lots had been parceled and sold in the vicinity of the ferry crossing. A new town was in the making. No surprise then that in 1820 the new government in Washington viewed Newtown large enough to warrant a post office.

Despite several theories that have been offered to explain why "Newtown" was chosen to replace the older names, one clearly has to go no further than the name of the tract called "Newtown," an ideal name since the syllable "town" was embedded it in. From the land records, it is obvious that, prior to 1790, no town existed on this site -- not even a hamlet -- for none appears on a map drawn in 1794, when nearby hamlets such as Horn Town, Stockton (Sandy Hill), Welbourne (Big Mill), and Lindseyville (Klej Grange) were larger. Horn Town, Virginia, had a post office by 1792, but all that existed on the future site of Newtown in 1792 was a landing and no doubt a trading post.

James Murray, in his 1883 history of Pocomoke, tells us that, by 1820, the hamlet of Newtown had but 150 inhabitants, with perhaps 28 dwellings and seven or eight places of business. The houses were mostly of one story, some with nice panel work inside, some lathed and plastered, but many never finished at all. They were clustered around the "Hill," that is, the Public Square, which roughly occupied the area between the present-day Duncan Garage and Sturgis Schoolhouse, on the west, and the building where Dr. Staubs' office and the Veterans Administration Office are housed, on the east. In the olden days, there was a definite rise in that location, and it was there that four roads converged: (1) the Virginia Road, which was ultimately called Market Street; (2) the Cedar Hall Road that fed into the "Hill" via present-day Second Street; (3) the Snow Hill Road, which meandered along a course now taken by Linden, then snaking around to follow Front Street; (4) the Bridge Causeway, originally known as the Somerset Road, led but a short distance from Front Street to the 28-foot wharf, where Stevens Ferry took passengers and carriages across the river. The ferry and the first bridge (1883) were not located at the foot of Market Street; they were rather in the vicinity of the new US #13 bridge.

It was, finally, timber that put Newtown on the map and an outsider who got the ball rolling. Until the 1840s, the main businesses in Newtown were dry-goods merchandising, tanning and currying, house- and ship-carpentry, boot- and shoe-making, haberdashery, tailoring, black smithing, and coopering. The year was 1844. A northerner by the name of Ezry B. Risley happened to be in a New Jersey port one day when he came upon a vessel loaded with a cargo of fine fence-rails of cypress, lumber noted for its durability both on land and in water. He was so impressed by the quality of the wood that he inquired as to its origins and promptly made a trip to Newtown to prospect the stands of old-growth cypress timber some towering up to 110 feet, in the surrounding swampland

A year later, Risley returned with a partner, a large bank roll, and some Jersey wood-choppers. They also hired many local men and proceeded to put up the area's first large steam sawmill (a small one had made its appearance in 1839). Profits were good, so Risley paid good wages. Coins began to jingle in local pockets, and the whole area was as if galvanized by this new infusion of commercial activity. Old stores were expanded, new ones were erected. Risley built a second sawmill and hired more local men. Because additional ships were needed to haul the lumber and cypress shingles to market, the ship-building business began booming. Risley bought up nearly all cypress swamps below Newtown. The whole area came alive, and Newtown, at its center, was finally on the move. Very little would hinder it for at least a century.

Churches, too, were late arriving in Newtown, it seems. Since we can make no definitive statement about the putative 1693 Presbyterian meeting house on the Pocomoke River (at the lower side of present-day Willow Street, according to theory). There was no church in Newtown as early as 1772 when Stockton's Episcopal church is first alluded to in the records. As early as 1790, however, Methodist circuit riders were active in the area. It is thought that it was in 1808 that the first Methodist Church (later, Salem) was erected in the country on present-day Third Street. It was a rough building, 30 x 32, that was not lathed and plastered until 1840. A circuit rider preaching there in the 1820s reportedly declared from the pulpit: "I have many times had the joyful pleasure of preaching in the Lord's house, but this is the first time I have preached in one of his barns." By 1844, the Newtown Presbyterian congregation had formed and built a frame structure, replaced by the present one in 1884. The Baptists put up their first building in 1854, the present one in 1891. A second Methodist church, the forerunner of Bethany, was organized in 1832. Its original 1834 structure was replaced in 1838 by a new church and belfry, in which hung Newtown's first bell. A still larger church, 40 x 70, went up in 1853. In 1845, the Episcopalians organized and set up St. Mary's with 85 members.

Since the prevailing custom was for churches to be built out of town, two of these early churches, the Episcopal Church and the Methodist Protestant (Bethany) Church, chose sites at the edge of a large Veasey farm on the northeastern side of Market Street. The earliest name for Third Street was therefore Church Street. Before the Civil War period, there was also open farm land southeast of Second Street and northeast of Linden. In addition, the land along the river, all the way from Walnut Street to the Salem Cemetery, was scrappy and rough, bristling with gullies, branchy ravines, groves of trees, and swampy areas. From the river bank all the way to present-day Clarke Street, the whole area appeared unusable. By the time of the Civil War, there were five lanes, with houses scattered on them, running from Second Street to the river. These lanes eventually became Willow, Maple, Cedar, Walnut, and Laurel. Vine Street was then known as Tan-Yard Street, as it led to the tan yard, then located on the site of the present-day lots where later would be built the Scott House and the M. Veasey House.

In early Newtown, as throughout colonial America, the custom of drinking hard spirits was quite common within families, in social gatherings, and in business life. When men from the surrounding country would come to Newtown on Saturday, they would congregate at the stores where someone, generous enough to order a pint of liquor, would call out, "Come up, gentlemen, and help yourselves." This early period in Newtown's history was characterized by fierce wrestling and boxing matches, and by cockfighting, events that easily ended up in drunken brawls. In the years before the temperance movement had swept the nation, Newtown was thought of as a rough place. The nation had not yet been swept by the temperance movement. At home, the citizens would take their toddy, and when friends would visit each other, a tray with a decanter of liquor, glasses, sugar, and water would be set out, and an invitation given to "Come up and help yourselves." The earliest stores in Newtown were often an integral part of the dwelling, and, to be successful in merchandising, it was considered absolutely necessary to sell liquor. Therefore, all of the Newtown merchants who engaged in the sale of goods, without an exception, sold spirituous liquors. There was no change in this state of affairs until about 1835 when an eloquent anti-alcohol sermon was preached in town. The next year, William Townsend opened the first store for the sale of goods, without spirituous liquors. Slowly, others followed suit, and, by 1882, when there were thirty-two business houses in Pocomoke City, not one sold liquor except for the apothecaries who sold it as a medicine. The only two places in Newtown where one could enjoy a drink were the saloon and the hotel bar.

The earliest school house (1838), which lasted 29 years, was sixteen feet square and had two doors and two windows, a writing desk that nearly reached across the room, and plain benches for the pupils to sit on. Murray tells us that the school was on a lot facing Second and Cedar Streets until about 1838, when it was moved, and the Newtown Academy was built. Joseph L. Polk was teaching in the Academy in 1867 when the two-story high school, 40 x 56 feet, came into being on a three-acre lot. With its principal and five teachers, and its six classrooms and two large vestibules, it could accommodate 300 pupils, some of them coming from Somerset and Accomack Counties. A second school had been set up in 1855 mostly for girls and smaller boys who could not be accommodated at the Academy. Also, the Episcopal Church ran a school for a while starting in 1847. The 1867 high school building served the town for over sixty years, that is, until 1930.

By dint of studying the proliferation of businesses and the growth of schools and churches throughout the nineteenth century, it becomes apparent that Newtown was a little town ever on the move. Its first newspaper, the "Record," launched by Albert J. Merrill, appeared in 1865. A year later, a new bridge across the river led to further growth of the town.. By now, three carriage factories were in operation, along with seven house-carpenter shops and ten blacksmith shops. In 1867, an act of incorporation was secured, and Newtown finally had a charter. Town commissioners then had power to direct the common good. Soon, the streets are widened and lit. The town had its first elevator in Stevenson and Co. in 1878, the same year that the citizens decide to changed the name from Newtown to Pocomoke City.

It is truly the year 1880, however, that ushered in the golden age of Pocomoke City, this, thanks to the railroad bridge over the river. Already linked to the bustling harbors of Baltimore by Bay traffic, Pocomoke now found itself on the main artery bearing travelers and merchandise between Norfolk and Philadelphia. The town Commission had already extended Newtown on three sides about three-quarters of a mile, and, by 1880, there were 225 houses, including shops, churches, and a varied array of businesses: several milliners and dressmakers, six boot and shoe shops, three tailor shops, two cooper shops, and one phosphate factory, to name but a few. There were now at least 1500 inhabitants. By 1882, there is a daily train to Philadelphia in addition to one or two steamboats (beginning 1869) to Baltimore, and there are eight large vessels engaged in Bay trade. One could then count seven steam saw mills (some outside of town), three ship yards, and two marine railways, all employing some 160 workers. In addition, there were eight physicians and surgeons; and flour, grist, and planing mills were humming. Many of Pocomoke City's finest homes were built in this period of boom that would have but minor interruptions right up to the 1950s.

Devastating fires of 1888 and 1922 destroyed some of the oldest and perhaps the best homes erected in Newtown. Today, Pocomoke City does have a dozen or more fine houses, though none on the grand scale of nearby Beverly or of the Governor Smith House in Snow Hill. The most notable ones, which are fine examples of styles such as Federal, Second Empire, Victorian Italianate, and some Queen Anne influence, include the Hearne Winter Quarter House (c 1840), the Atkinson-Young House (c 1860), the L.T. Clarke House (c 1860), the Young-Sartorius House (c 1860), the I.T. Costen House (c 1876), the D.J. Crockett House (c 1883), the E. Fontaine House (c 1885), the J.K. Riggin House (c 1898), and the Scott House (c 1909). They and a dozen others are amply described in Paul Touart's "Along the Seaboard Side."

While these signature houses remain, along with many other remnants of the past, today's Pocomoke City is no longer limited to timber, ship building, and serving as a commercial center for the surrounding agricultural/poultry economy. For the first half of the 20th century, Pocomoke City's growth proceeded unimpeded, except for the 1922 fire. It was, after all, at the center of a rich agricultural region whose farmers had large families and relied on Pocomoke City for all their provisioning. In a 20-mile radius, there were some 20,000 people, and their shopping expeditions to Pocomoke for groceries, clothes, and agricultural supplies were the town's "bread and butter." In 1935, government reports showed that Pocomoke City had the greatest purchasing power -- $699 per capita -- of any Maryland town under 10,000. In 1936, the town built a modified-Georgian-Colonial Municipal Building (as a PWA project), and made sure it had a meeting room and rest room to cater specifically to its shoppers. Long a dream, Pocomoke's country club was built in 1950 when E.W. Ross was mayor, and a 9-hole golf course was later added.

During World War II, a sewing factory operated in Pocomoke, and, in 1942, the Birds Eye Division of General Foods Corp. constructed a chicken-processing plant which soon had up to 800 employees. The Chincoteague Naval Air Station at nearby Wallops Island relied heavily on Pocomoke City for housing and shopping and likely added much to the establishment of the first Catholic Church in 1943, first meeting in the Armory.

As the 1940s ended, the town seemed unstoppable, and no one could predict that vast changes would soon be afoot. New and better highways and highly mechanized farming practices played a big role in reorganizing the local economy. Trucks replaced trains and ships, and one industrial-age farmer replaced 20 pre-war tillers of the soil. Pocomoke's train station and the docks along the river took on an abandoned look. Then, Pocomoke took a big hit when the Navy base on nearby Wallops Island closed in the late 1950s. Birds Eye suspended operations in 1965 after 23 years, a victim of the decline in frozen chicken business and a shift to TV dinners. Campbell Soup bought the facilities and kept 300 employees on the payroll, matched by the 300 workers at the chip mill just across the river. But, area farms were being abandoned and sold off to "big farmers," and, increasingly, people were willing to drive to Salisbury for shopping and to see a movie, though the Marva Theater, with two films a week, did not finally close until 1997. Empty farm houses and barns began to mark the Eastern Shore landscape. The "old way" no longer worked for the new society, and upheaval was inevitable. Pocomoke City fell into a period of severe economic distress.

The razing, in 1976, of the grand old Veasey Building on the corner of Market and Clarke was symbolic of the fate of Pocomoke City's downtown in the second half of the 20th century. When it was constructed after the fire of 1922, it was looked on as one of the Shore's major merchandising centers. It eventually housed, in front, J.C. Penney's, and, in the rear, Montgomery Ward's, both vacating in the 1950s when the Naval Air Station on Wallops Island closed. On a portion of the lot where it stood, the town built a charming miniature municipal park with a fountain reminiscent of the one that had ornamented the "Hill" in days of old. The balance of the lot became parking space.

The town was fighting for its very survival when, in 1975, the Council hired Russell W. Blake, a professional city manager from Arizona, who brought progressive plans for the Pocomoke. Slowly, things began to improve. In the 1970s, for example, there were two new schools, new subsidized housing, a new nursing home, an industrial park, two new parks, a new downtown dress shop, and, on the edge of town, Ames' Department Store, Grant's Department Store, and Safeway Groceries. In addition, there was the opening of the historic Costen House, new quarters for the library, a new water tower, and new docks and finger piers along the riverfront. Trees were planted and landscaping was carried out in the downtown area. Wallops Island ultimately came back to life when the base was diverted to meet the needs of the United States` aerospace technology interests and science research.

Programs such as its orbital and sub-orbital payloads placed Wallops Island at the center of NASA`s space and Earth sciences. The array of programs at the facilities there, combined with the various private contracting groups associated with them, are now responsible for some 1500 jobs in the area. The State Correctional Institution (ECI) at nearby Westover, in Somerset County, created hundreds of jobs when it opened in 1987, and Pocomoke City remains a popular housing choice for people who work at both Wallops and at ECI.

In the 25 years since the initiatives of the 1970s, the town's progress has been marked by reversals and spurts. Unemployment for the unskilled remains a major concern. For a long time, downtown Pocomoke City's biggest problem came from people's perception -- not necessarily correct -- that prices were lower in Salisbury where stores were bigger and more competitive. Now, with Wal-mart and the usual satellite cluster of service businesses on the edge of town, locals are saved the trip to Salisbury. But very few actually enter old Pocomoke City. That will soon change, however, with the imaginative and innovative plans for the restored Marva Theater and the new Discovery Center (with riverfront restaurant), both within a short walking distance of the Isaac T. Costen House and the Sturgis One-Room School Museum. With so many initiatives aimed at a resurgence of the downtown area, it was fitting that Pocomoke City was recognized by the nation's longest running and most prestigious civic recognition program: an All-America City award by the National Municipal League. For the year 1984-85, Pocomoke City was one of the nine Finalist Communities.

The town's Industrial Park, which has 60 acres available, is served by all municipal utilities and a community rail dock on Eastern Shore Railroad line. Within its 98 acres, seven businesses are now operating, providing some 300 jobs for the local work force. Pocomoke expects to welcome, as early as this summer, a new upscale restaurant and a big-box retail store in the vicinity of the Holiday Inn. Sewage treatment is a hot subject, and the town expects to complete a four-million-dollar upgrade by this summer and extend city sewer service along Route #13 as far as the Maryland - Virginia line. In an initiative to attract businesses, a new organization (M.I.S.T.) has been formed, consisting of local and state participants as well as people from area universities and from private engineering firms. Finally, plans are in the pipelines for various residential developments: one with 110 townhouses, another with 47 home sites, and still another with, ultimately, up to 400 homes, many of them maintenance-free duplexes.

Surrounding Pocomoke are twelve thousand acres of open forest, where 127 species of birds have been sighted. Beautiful Shad Landing State Park and Milburn Landing State Park are but six or seven miles away. Pocomoke City, with its 4100 inhabitants, is a pleasant place of shady, quadrilateral streets with comfortable, white, weather-boarded houses. The compact, old, business section hugs the river's edge and leads to the picturesque drawbridge, with its quaint hexagonal bridge-tender's loggia -- a perfect symbol for the town and its understated, unhurried, uncrowded, and unspoiled charm. Pocomoke City, "the friendliest town on the Eastern Shore," is an enviable blend of old and new, leisure and bustle, history and progress -- that's what the old town offers, the old town that is on its way to being a "New Town," which is the name, ironically -- and perhaps regrettably -- it left behind 125 years ago.

I am indebted to six sources for most of my historical facts: Torrence, Old Somerset, 1935; John T.B. McMaster, short article, 1876; Murray, History of Pocomoke, 1883; Eben Hearne, long article, c 1940; Truitt, Worcester Co., 1977; Paul B. Touart, Along the Seaboard Side, 1994.

History researched and written by Dr. Robert F. Jones, 13 April 2004, bobjones@EZY.net 216.231.141.4 20:12, 22 February 2007 (UTC)Robert F. Jones

TODAY:

Today, Pocomoke has a population of over 4000 residents, one of the larger municipalities on the Lower Shore. It is also a large commercial hub, having an industrial center, retail outlets, cultural centers with its historic downtown, a museum, and scenic waterfront that includes a drawbridge, cycling and walking trails, parks and public docking facilities. Some of the companies that have facilites in and around the city are Benelli (shotguns), Beretta USA (handguns), Bel-Art (plastics), Mid-Atlantic Foods (seafood products, recently closed), and Ricca Chemical Co., among others.

Pocomoke City also held a franchise in the Eastern Shore Baseball League, at times hosting the Salamanders, Red Sox, and Chicks.

[edit] City events

In May, a Native American Festival and Pow Wow is held, with tribal groups from across the area coming to sell their wares and perform traditional dances.

Two large events, the Cypress Festival and the Great Pocomoke Fair, bring together much of the city and surrounding areas. The Cypress Festival is held yearly in June in celebration of the Pocomoke River Swamp which (along with the Battle Creek Swamp of Maryland's Calvert County) is the northernmost baldcypress swamp in the United States. Rides, vendor booths, live music, and fireworks make this event one of the liveliest in the city. In August of every year, the Great Pocomoke Fair is held, featuring rides, tractor pulls, horse racing, and other traditional fair events.

In very late November or early December, Pocomoke holds its annual Christmas Parade, which makes its way down Market Street ending in the downtown area, and is said to be the largest night-time Christmas parade in the state. Many organizations have floats in the parade, and bands from local high schools march and perform. Local fire departments send delegations of fire trucks and ambulances, usually decked out in holiday decorations, as well.

[edit] Geography

Pocomoke City is located at 38°4′8″N, 75°33′42″W (38.068904, -75.561718)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.5 km² (3.3 mi²). 7.9 km² (3.0 mi²) of it is land and 0.6 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (7.60%) is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 4,098 people, 1,596 households, and 1,058 families residing in the city. The population density was 520.5/km² (1,346.5/mi²). There were 1,764 housing units at an average density of 224.0/km² (579.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 50.73% White, 46.36% African American, 0.46% Native American, 0.46% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.34% from other races, and 1.61% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.05% of the population.

There were 1,596 households out of which 35.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.6% were married couples living together, 24.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.7% were non-families. 29.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 3.11.

In the city the population was spread out with 30.5% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 19.1% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 83.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 74.7 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $28,938, and the median income for a family was $34,722. Males had a median income of $32,175 versus $19,362 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,301. About 13.6% of families and 18.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.8% of those under age 18 and 13.2% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] External links

• Pocomoke City Chamber of Commerce
• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 38.068904° -75.561718°
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