Originally published by the Cecil Whig
The thoughts of an acquaintance of mine were the genesis of this article. It’s an attempt at an “Elk River 101” story for those of us who have not lived in Cecil County very long or just want to brush up on our local history! So here goes.
Captain John Smith of Jamestown, Virginia fame, minus Pocahontas, “discovered” the 15 mile long Elk River, the northern most navigable tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, in 1608. He liked it so much he didn’t return, but he did draw a picture of it and published it as a part of his 1612 map of the Chesapeake. The truth is, Native Americans “discovered” the Elk River long before Capt. Smith. Archaeological digs done along and in the vicinity of the river and its tributaries reveal that they lived in the area for many millennia, using the river both as a means of transportation and a location to build trading posts and communities.
It was one of those Native American outposts that attracted Johann Steelman, a Swede living in New Sweden (Wilmington, DE) to move westward in 1690 and settle where the river breaks into the Big and Little Elk Creeks at what is now Elkton.
Zoom past the rest of the 17th century and as we head into the 18th, settlement increases along the Elk River. Soon there are numerous trading posts, mills, and farms dotting its shoreline. And working many of those farms were African American slaves. Commerce begins between European settlements as Elk Landing, under the watchful eye of the Hollingsworth family, becomes a port of call for the exchange of goods from as far south as Savannah, Georgia on their way overland to northeastern Maryland, southeastern Pennsylvania, and into Delaware.
The peaceful waters of the Elk River were not always that way as war came four times during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Britain’s General Howe paid a visit along with 17 thousand troops on their way to Philadelphia in 1777. Generals Washington and France’s Rochambeau marched through on their way to Yorktown, Virginia four years later. And finally, twice during the War of 1812, the British anchored at Turkey Point and sent barges of troops up the Elk River to plunder public wharfs and store houses most notably one at Frenchtown which , a day later, resulted in a small battle at Elk Landing involving the Cecil Militia at Fort Hollingsworth.
Finally, in the 1820s, the history as well as the geography and economics of the Elk River changed with the digging of the Chesapeake and Delaware canal between the Elk and the Delaware Rivers. The result was a slow decline in commerce for the northern reaches of the Elk River. However, industries of other kinds came and went including ship building, tourism, government, farming, various service industries, and transportation.
Several notable men and women were born, raised, lived, or died near the river. They include numerous generations of the Hollingsworth family, U.S. Senators James Black Groome and J.A.J. Cresswell, the Rev. William Duke, Hetty Boulden, Col. Isaac Davis, Judge Thomas Jefferson Samples, Bernard Purdie, and many others too numerous to include in a “101” article!
For more information see the Historical Society of Cecil County’s web site at www.cecilhistory.org.