Originally published in the Cecil Whig
A million years ago when I was in Boy Scouts, I remember working on “orienteering” requirements. Orienteering was, among other things, about learning how to use maps. In those days, we used maps to go from point “A” to point “B”, or to learn about the topography of a geographical area: how high were the hills or how low the valleys. Easy. But that was a very limited use of maps. Then, and now, maps can be used for finding your way, but they are also useful genealogical tools.
For example, at the Historical Society of Cecil County, located at the entrance to the Eva M. Muse library, there is a wide chest of drawers that house a collection of maps dating back over one hundred years. While, yes, many of these maps can tell you the route your great, great grandparents rode their horse and buggy to church on Sunday, that same map can also tell you where your great, great grandparents lived! Some of the society’s maps list land plots with the names of the owners. Sometimes, those notations say if the owner was white or African American. And if you’re really lucky, you will come across a tax assessment map, which may have a crude drawing of structures on each property telling you if Uncle Harry had a house, barn, livery, or sheds on his property.
The most popular and accurate of the Society maps are the Sanborn Maps. These maps, created by the Sanborn Company starting in the middle of the 19th century, were originally created to determine fire insurance assessments. Sanborn map surveyors were sent to urban areas of the nation to ascertain fire liability for insurance companies. As a result, they included information, not only about the location of a business or residence, but the size, basic content, and ownership of properties.
Another example: the 1904 map of Perryville will tell you that the American Ice Company had offices and warehouses along the Susquehanna River. But across the Pennsylvania Rail Road tracks which ran parallel to the river, the map also indicates that there was a 3 story structure which was used for flask making and the storage of patterns. All three floors are also clad in asbestos.
The Sanborn map of Chesapeake City from 1907 shows where the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Pumping Station was located, just south of the canal. It will even tell you in which direction the water flowed. By 1933, the map for that year will indicate the “Old Pumping Station,” is no longer used for that purpose and is instead now a garage and storage shed.
Many of the maps, especially the older ones, show structures that no longer exist. Staying in Chesapeake City, the map reminds us of the days of segregated schools as it shows the location of a “Negro School” and a “Public School” just blocks apart. The Elkton map shows where the old Court House stood at Main and North streets and the Elkton Academy also on North Street at the railroad tracks.
Finally, the Society also conserves maps that have a very practical purpose, that of determining where our water lines are located! The 1999 Elkton Water System Map drawn in October of that year, shows where all the municipal water lines flow across town. It even shows the diameter of the pipes and where wells and water towers are located.
This is just a smattering of the map resources housed by the Historical Society of Cecil County. There are also some much older and diverse maps both in our library at 135 East Main Street in Elkton, and on line at cecilhistory.org/map Feel free to contact us through our web site for more information.