Originally published in the Cecil Whig
Family lure says that Uncle Harry’s great grandfather had a mill up along the North East River, but no one remembers where. One place to look for it is the Historical Society of Cecil County’s Cecil County Road Books. The books were recently reviewed and indexed by a student from the University of Delaware’s Museum Studies program, Angela Schad of Texas.
Angela says the name “road books” may be a little misleading because they contain much more than the history of county roads.
“There are 6 county road books dating from the 1760s to the 1890s. They contain hand drawn maps along with petitions for road changes over the years. Some surveyors,” Angela points out, “drew in little houses and marked each person’s property with their name. Some are really beautifully drawn in great detail showing rivers and creeks, including each little bend of the waterway.”
The books are the result of petitions to the county to make changes in existing roadways. Each time a request came in and the work was approved and done, the road books reflected the change. Angela says these changes are contained in multiple volumes.
“Volume one is all maps, about 23 of them, some oversized to as large as 3 feet. Volume 2,” she explains, “has 8 large maps with the rest hand drawn on the book sized pages.” Volumes 3 through 5 contain between 30 and 40 book page size maps. The last volume, number 6, has only a few maps.
Angela also believes the maps could have multiple uses.
“They could be used by archaeologists, genealogists, and could especially be used by municipalities which want to determine how their communities have changed over the centuries.”
Angela says while the maps are full of useful information, don’t count on them for determining distances.
“The surveyors used surveyors’ chains to measure distances, so the maps don’t show kilometers or miles,” but, Angela continues, “they are nearly as accurate as modern maps of the county.”
Following her review of the road books, Angela produced both a finding aid and an index of the maps. “The finding aid shows what the volumes are all about and gives the reader an orientation showing what years are in what volume and where the volume is physically located at the Society.”
Next, Angela indexed the books.
“The indexes help individuals locate specific properties such as civic structures, ferries, mills, taverns, and other places of interest. For example, an investigator,” Angela points out, “can be looking for David Smith’s property. He or she can go to the index, look up David Smith and see that his property is on map number 12 in volume one.”
Angela says while the road books are in stable condition, they should be handled with care. She hopes that her finding aid and indexes will decrease the handling of the books and increase the ease of research. “They are readable now. We hope to keep them that way.”
Both the road book finding aid and the indexes are posted on the Historical Society of Cecil County’s web site at www.cecilhistory.org under______________________. The books are available for examination at the society during business hours which are also listed on its web site.