Eddie Mulcahy

 My Father
   I don't post much of a personal nature in MM so you readers looking for the stuff I usually provide will have to wait until tomorrow. (The stuff I usually offer is difficult to characterize and that is why I had to resort to calling it "stuff.") This post is simply about the death of my dad. 
  I thought about him because he died fifty years ago, while on vacation. I have had many more vacations than he, and have already lived many more years. That is rather unfair; he was a much better father than I was a son. 
  In 1974 the small town in which he lived still had a local newspaper and since Eddie had been the proprietor of "Eddie's Restaurant", his passing was noted on the front page. I see that the "Wilson Funeral Home" held the service. I remember when the owner used to come into "Eddie's", one of the guys sitting and lying in a back booth would usually say, "Here comes the 'Buzzard'." There were nicknames for everyone and it could have been "Hacksaw" Payne who referred to the mortician. 
  I was unable to go to the funeral, so I probably last saw my father around fifty-two years ago. My children will have no recollection of him, nor the grandchildren who never met him. Below, they will at least see a trace of his existence. The front page is provided along with the article. 

 

  Here is one of the ads that appeared in the Marylander and Herald. It was continued by the Somerset Herald, which ceased publication in the mid-1980s.  At least digitized copies still exist. My father, and my mother, are both buried near the Legion home mentioned. 

   Princess Anne is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In the early 1950s, a trip to the Western Shore and the mainland was made easier when a bridge across the Chesapeake Bay was constructed. (See, "The Eastern Shore.") 

Have a Merry Christmas.   

Surely You Joust

   You will likely be surprised to learn that jousting is Maryland's official state sport and has been since the early 1960s. There were jousting tournaments long before and they still exist in the form of "Ring Tournaments." Instead of tilting toward another knight coming from the other direction, one attempts to put the lance through a suspended ring while galloping at a high speed. Valour may have been sacrificed for safety reasons, but fine equestrian skills are still required and chivalrous behaviour expected.
   This form of mediaeval activity still exists in the mid-Atlantic states and farther south and during this time of "culture wars" some may characterize such activities negatively, as most activities are, since something about them will be upsetting to someone. Instead of tilting at ring tournaments I will present here a description of one from the last century when Maryland planters appreciated the "good things of life -- wines, handsome furniture and plate, fine clothes and blooded horses." Pomp and pageantry are displayed and one can simply regard it as a prom in a pasture which people of all ages could dress up for and enjoy.
    

                                    Ring Tournaments

   This description of a ring tournament held in Maryland in the early 1940s is found in Hulbert Footner's, Maryland Main and the Eastern Shore. It appears in the chapter, "Calvert", which is the county in which he lived and, as the last sentence indicates, loved. One reviewer notes that it is a book "with a quite particular charm" and another that it is "a handsome tribute to one of our most civilized states..." Footner had, a few years before, published the book, Charles' Gift" which was about his Calvert county house, and a couple of years later he finished Rivers of the Eastern Shore: Seventeen Maryland Rivers. They were well received, as well, and a new edition of the latter one has just been released by Schiffer Publishing. Perhaps someone should do the same with Maryland Main...

[caveat lector. If you are the type of reader who gets upset by the racial terminology used in the past, you should skip this part, since the one minor occurrence may be a major one for you.]

"The most picturesque fiestas in Maryland are the tournaments. Formerly held in all parts of the state, they are now pretty well restricted to Southern Maryland, though I hear occasionally of one in Harford and there have been sporadic attempts to revive the custom on the Eastern Shore. When a smart society is in the ascendant, tournaments are quickly abandoned; it is only in the unfashionable parts that they flourish. I have asked many of the old men how they started and the answer is always the same; they didn’t start, they have come down uninterruptedly from medieval times. I am inclined to suspect that this is a myth; nevertheless, the rite is an ancient and gallant one. 

   Each little community holds its tournaments once a year, generally  in the month of August. The proceeds are devoted to the local church.  A flat pasture field is chosen and measured off and three wooden arches erected in line. From the middle of each arch depends an iron rod with a claw in the end which holds an iron ring  of the sort you snatch at from the hobby-horse of a merry-go-round.  Meanwhile every boy has been practising assiduously on his own farm. Nowadays they don’t tilt at each other but at the rings. The boy who spears the most rings on the point of his lance is privileged to crown the Queen of Love and Beauty; the runners-up crown her Maids of Honor. 

  The tournament I saw at Mutual last week differed little from the first one I saw more than thirty years ago. True, the slick automobiles, all so much alike, were a poor substitute for the quaint family chariots, some of which dated from the Civil War. They have all disappeared; they ought to have been preserved in Museums.  The Marshal  and the Herald, fearful of appearing ridiculous, no longer stick the wife's willow plume in their old felt hats, or hang the parlor lambrequin over a shoulder. On the other hand, the riders are beginning to dress up again. They wear striped silk jockey caps and gay scarfs across their breasts; most of them have achieved riding breeches and boots. It is remarkable how many of these plain farmers boys still contrive to keep a good riding horse.

  Mutual is not even a village, but only a scattered community. Their tournament is always the best because they put their hearts in it. The people of Prince Frederick are becoming too worldly wise. How the women of Mutual work to prepare and serve the supper! And what a supper! Country-cured ham, fried chicken, deviled crabs, and fixings. They have adopted the cafeteria style of serving which I deplore, because it deprives you of the opportunity to exchange a bit of persiflage with the charming waitresses, but of course, it is a great saving of labor. Tom Mackall runs the soft-drink stand both afternoon and evening, the hottest and most thankless job of all; Dr. Everard Brisco manages the whole show and is everywhere at once.

The scene on the field is an animated one. The long straight course is roped off and the automobiles are lined up two or three deep. The modern steel body permits those in the rear to sit on top of their cars. On a very small scale, it is like the famous painting of “Derby Day.” Midway a little judges stand has been built with a few dignitaries down in front and a band of five or six pieces behind. Up at the start the horses are held by colored boys while the knights await their turn. Up at this end, the real sports are always to be found kneeling in a row with bills between their fingers watching the track and offering odds in low voices, for fear the parson might overhear. The Marshall and the Herald patrol the course on horseback. Of late years it has been customary to furnish the Herald with two of the prettiest girls as pages, an innovation I endorse.

  To equalize their chances, the contestants  are divided into novices, amateurs, and professionals. There are crowns for novices and amateurs and usually cash prizes for the professionals.  Each knight adopts a pseudonym for the riding, the name of his home place, such as Knight of Preston, Knight of Parrot's Cage; Knight of Tulip Hill; or  a fanciful appellation, as Knight of Nowhere, Knight of Last Night, Knight of Failure. In choosing such names the lads, without knowing it, are upholding a  tradition of their earliest forbears, who were fond of calling their plantations "Dear-Bought," “Happy-be-Lucky,” “Penny Come Quick” and so on. 

The band plays a few bars and the Herald bawls out his first command: “Knight of Rousby Hall, on deck!” Somebody lately pointed out the absurdity of this order, so now he has changed it to: “Knight of Rousby Hall, get ready!” The next order follows shortly: “Knight of Rousby Hall, prepare to charge!” Then: “Charge, Sir Knight!” and he comes thundering down the track. He leans far over his horse’s neck with his eye trained along the lance and the true knight’s expression of derring-do. If he takes the rings the band blares a few more triumphant notes; Marshall, Herald, and pages gallop to meet him and escort him back to the judge’s stand. If he misses, there is silence, and he generally makes a detour back of the spectators to the starting point.

So it goes throughout the long, sunny afternoon. The star riders of other years bring their wives and babies to the field; each year there is a new crop of skinny youngsters to take their places. Each knight takes three tilts at the rings. At the end there are always ties to be ridden off, and this furnishes the most excitement. I have seen it take an hour to settle a tie between two tight-lipped boys. They put up smaller rings and when that fails, rings only a half-inch in diameter. This provides a marvelous exhibition of skill. 

When the riding is over, there is a free-for-all back to the Mutual Hall for supper. It used to be served out-of-doors, but the meal was so often interrupted by a thunderstorm that now the tables are set in the hall. But you can still carry your food outside if you like it that way. Following this delectable meal, after an interval to give the girls time to change their dresses, comes the ball. The tables have been whisked out; the brass band transforms itself into an orchestra. Calvert County is famous for its pretty girls, and each year, I swear, they grow prettier. 

There is a deal of oratory spilled on these occasions. Political aspirants are always to be had; one is invited to address the assembled knights in the afternoon, another (of the opposite party) to open the ball. The speeches bear a strong family resemblance with frequent reference to “our brave knights and fair ladies; the ancient chivalry of Maryland” and so on. It is a pretty sight to see the successful knights and their crowned ladies lined up in front of the platform. The crowns are fillets of wax orange blossoms, becoming to every feminine head. Everybody heaves a sigh of relief when the orator finishes his peroration. The first dance, “the royal set,” is reserved to the knights and ladies.

“Tou’nament Day” provides Calvert County with its grand opportunity of the year to get together. All the sons and daughters who have gone out into the world try to get home for that day. In the afternoon there is continual visiting from car to car; in the evening the older ladies sit around the stifling hall, fanning themselves, and of course, you must speak to them all. It is wonderful for anybody like me, brought up in an unfeeling city, to have a community where I belong.”

[pp.284-287. The above was all typed by me. Anyone using it should check the original.]

Sources: 

Here is the website of the Maryland Jousting Tournament Association. 

See this good article in Atlas Obscura. 

It appears as though you can see real jousting at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. 

Canadian Content:

  Canadians will want to know that LACROSSE is the official team sport of Maryland. 

The Eastern Shore

Another Chesapeake Bay Bridge

  My last post, which was about an event that happened on the Eastern Shore of Maryland back in 1933, included a map like the one above, minus all the red lines. Those red lines are the potential locations for the proposed new bridge which is needed to ease traffic congestion. When one is built it is likely to be beside the other two which are located on the map in the middle between Annapolis and Queenstown. 

   Prior to the early 1950s, the peninsula was more isolated than it looks and, before the arrival of TV, the residents on it were more insular than they now are. I was born there and those of us who were, did not sound like those on the Mainland when we talked and we were perceived to be, and generally were,  more southern in orientation. Harriet Tubman was also born there. 

   The geographical and social isolation caused by the Bay, meant that those on the Shore had to either drive many miles to catch a ferry, or drive many more miles all the way up to the top of the Bay and then go back south to get to Baltimore or Washington. It was somewhat like driving from London, Ontario to Cleveland, Ohio.

As a ferry leaves its slip, a motorcade crosses the new Chesapeake Bay Bridge after dedication, July 30, 1952. In the lead cars are then-Maryland Gov. Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, Delaware Gov. Elbert Carvel, former Maryland Gov. William Preston Lane Jr. and their wives. Prior to the completion of the bridge, a ferry brought passengers and about 50 vehicles across the water, from Annapolis to Matapeake. The trip took about 45 minutes, although lines to get on board often backed up hours, especially in summer. (Photo: AP)

As a ferry leaves its slip, a motorcade crosses the new Chesapeake Bay Bridge after dedication, July 30, 1952. In the lead cars are then-Maryland Gov. Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, Delaware Gov. Elbert Carvel, former Maryland Gov. William Preston Lane Jr. and their wives. Prior to the completion of the bridge, a ferry brought passengers and about 50 vehicles across the water, from Annapolis to Matapeake. The trip took about 45 minutes, although lines to get on board often backed up hours, especially in summer. (Photo: AP)

   The trip was made easier in 1952 when the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was built. We could head off to the cities without worrying about ferry schedules and the urban folks could visit Ocean City. Problems remained, however, since the much larger number of cars had to travel on two-lane roads and bridges and through the streets of small towns. Heading out of Baltimore on a Friday for the beach at Ocean City quickly became problematic, and equally so on the return trip Sunday night. It was somewhat like travelling from Toronto to Muskoka.

   By the early 1970s it was clear that another bridge was needed and it was built next to the other one. Highways were also improved on the Shore and bypasses were built around the towns. Ocean City grew, along with the size of the waterfront lots along the many rivers. The charms of the Shore lured many to the counties closest to the bridges which are now clogged with those trying to get to work in Baltimore and D.C. 

   Now, because of repair work on one of the bridges there are again major traffic jams. A third span is required and there will soon be construction along one of those red lines. Many Marylanders are in favour, particularly the daily commuters and hotel and restaurant owners in Ocean City. Some in the small towns, like Saint Michaels and Easton, which have been gentrified and already have too much traffic, are not. I am not sure how the Lower Shore watermen and farmers feel, but they will probably not benefit from what is gained and feel most what is lost. 

Sources:

There is a web site for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (with some live cameras) and a Wikipedia entry.

For an article about the proposed new bridge see: "A New Bridge Close to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Would Provide the Most Traffic Relief, Study Says," Katherine Shaver, Washington Post, Aug. 27, 2019.

Post Script:

 At the southern tail-end of the peninsula one also had to take a ferry to get to the Mainland until 1964 when a bridge-tunnel was built. The bridge goes out into open water to some artificial islands and then goes under the channel. The distance across is about 28km as opposed to the 7km of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. 

The Last Lynching

   I grew up on the Eastern Shore of the state of Maryland, on a peninsula that is separated from the mainland by the Chesapeake Bay. The distance to the more civilized counties, and the cities of Baltimore and Washington, is farther than it looks and the attitudes held by those who lived on the Shore were typically more ‘southern’ than the latitude suggests.

   Apart from reminiscing about a fine and warm mid-Atlantic childhood spent along the rivers and between the Chesapeake and the Atlantic, I have often told stories about the society on the Shore which was a segregated one. I went to an all-white school and our parents had a restaurant that did not serve blacks.  Even though my small town had a small all-black college and a sizeable black population, they existed in a situation that was separate and definitely not equal. We generally co-existed peacefully, but a black person had been lynched not long before I was born and it was an event not discussed. I remembered that a good friend and classmate wanted to write an essay about the subject, but was told not to do so. I didn’t think he did.

   My memory was incorrect. Although I am sure many people tried to discourage him, he did in fact choose the lynching as a topic for the“Old Home Essay”, which those of us in our senior year were expected to write in 1961. The title of his essay is: “Princess Anne Ties A Noose.” Given my faulty memory, I will tell the rest of the story using the facts I have found and choose to use. Keep in mind that the ‘facts’ surrounding such an event are many and some are likely to be fictitious.

The Crime

It is a fact that George Armwood was lynched in Princess Anne, Maryland on October 18,1933. One is less certain about the crime he allegedly committed. A local newspaper close by described it this way:

The attack which was a very brutal one, occurred early Monday morning as Mrs. Mary Denston was walking back to her home near Manokin after a visit at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Albert Wagner. As she passed a wooded spot the Negro seized her, dragged her into the woods, stripped her clothing from her body and brutally attacked her. In her desperate struggles against him, Mrs. Denston was badly bruised and lacerated and her condition is regarded as serious.

There seems to be little doubt that Armwood attacked the woman, but the nature of the attack and the reasons for it remain unclear. It has been suggested that his white employer was somehow involved, but most accounts report (as most such accounts do) that he raped her.

The Lynching

   While one does not know what George Armwood did, it is known what was done to him. Three reports follow and the first one was authored by an employee of the Associated Press.

“Boy Slashes Negro’s Ear” New York Times, Oct. 19, 1933.

   “The march to the scene of the lynching of Armwood was wild in the extreme. The mob members seemed crazed, continually leaping on the Negro, even after he fell to the ground and was unable to rise. One boy, apparently about 18 years old, slashed the Negro’s ear almost off with a knife. Under the oak tree, despite the presence of women and children, all the victim’s clothes were torn from his body and he hung there for some minutes nude.”

   A more detailed account appeared in the newspaper published in the small town of Crisfield just south of Princess Anne. 

“Mob Storms County Jail Wednesday Night: Lynches Negro Accused of Attacking White Woman Monday: Crowd of Several Thousand People Drag Body of George Armwood Through the Streets After Battling With Guards: Captain of State Police and Eight Other Officers Were Injured in the Attack," Crisfield Times, Friday Oct. 20, 1933.

Judge Robert F. Duer drove to the scene and in a speech to the crowd entreated them to go to their homes and let the law take its course. The Judge stood on the running board of his car and urged the people to allow the Negro to remain in the jail. He promised that the grand jury would meet Monday and that Armwood would have a speedy trial. He was met with derisive shouts.

   Following Judge Duer's speech the mob again attempted to storm the jail, but were met by a hail of tear gas bombs which momentarily checked them. Bricks, stones, and other missiles were hurled at the officers and many of them were injured. Several poles were secured by the attackers

which were used as battering rams with which to beat in the door of the prison.

   After securing entrance they dragged the Negro forth with a noose around his neck. He was dragged for a considerable distance through the streets of the town while the ring leaders debated the question on where to hang him. It is doubtful if the Negro was still alive when the question was finally settled.

   Several members of the mob wished to hang the man from a tree on Judge Duer's lawn, but they were outvoted. A tree was finally decided on in the lawn of Mrs. Thomas H. Bock on the Main Street. A rope was thrown Over a limb and the Negro hoisted several times and allowed to fall.

Tiring of its sport after a time, the mob then dragged the body to a spot near the Court House where a quantity of gasoline was poured over it and set afire. It was reported that the local undertakers refused to remove the body, but after several hours a truck arrived and the body carted away by State officers.”

   The lynching of Armwood was not reported at the time in the Princess Anne newspaper, The Marylander and Herald. To my surprise the lynching is vividly described in that paper by my friend and classmate in his "Old Home Essay" in 1961. 

 He [Armwood] was dragged from his cell, down the stairs of the jail, and thrown to the mob outside.  During all this, Armwood made no statement and offered little resistance. He was severely beaten while still in the jail, and one ear was razored off. When he was thrown to the crowd, he was beaten and kicked and stabbed several times around the head and shoulders. Then a rope about thirty feet long was brought up, and a noose tied around his neck. Then, with as many hands as could find a spot on the rope, he was dragged to death up Broad Street. Dead by the time his body reached Main Street, he was dragged about a half mile up Main to the home of Judge Duer, where he was hung from a tree on the lawn of Mrs. Thomas Bock, next to the judge’s lawn. By this time, the mob had grown to a size estimated at three thousand. Their frenzy had reached a zenith, and after hanging for a few moments, the body was cut down and dragged back up to the center of town past the crowds which lined the sidewalks. The corpse was reviled and cursed as it passed, and when the ringleaders reached the traffic light in the center of town, the body was strung up over the light cable, and a fire built beneath it. The body burned for a short time before the kerosene fire ate through the rope and the body fell into the flames. A plan to cut up the body and distribute it throughout the Negro section of town apparently in an effort to emulate the Williams mob in Salisbury, never developed. The body of the dead man lay in the street as the mob broke up as quickly as it had formed. There it lay until midnight when the town garbage truck came and hauled it to a nearby lot. Attempts to receive the help of a Negro undertaker in order to bury the body proved fruitless. M&H, June 9, 1961, p.3.

More reports can be found and sometimes details differ, but there is no doubt or disagreement about the fact that George Armwood was lynched.

The Prize Essay - "Princess Anne Ties the Noose"

   I misremembered the fact that my friend had actually written about the lynching in 1961. A further indictment of my memory can be levelled since I also did not remember that the essay was deemed the “Prize Essay” and was published in The Marylander and Herald and contained an actual lurid account of the event. Although it was written twenty-eight years after the lynching, many of those involved were still around, the society was still segregated and racial problems were simmering.  If there was much of a reaction, I don’t remember. But, I can tell you about what he wrote.

   It may seem odd to have begun this section with a picture of Martin Luther King; a picture which I do recall having been shown around town in the early 1960s. Perhaps it will seem even odder that “Princess Anne Ties The Noose” begins with this quotation from Karl Marx:

“Communism must be taken to, and if necessary, forced upon the world. Our plan is not one of negotiation, but action; not dependence on time but on violence and chaos.”

   It ends with the suggestion that the lynching “vividly demonstrates the means by which the Communist party achieve their avowed ends. Their constant goal is to tear down orderly government processes in any way possible. They also desire to stir up people, and cause them to commit acts of unlawfulness; racial hatreds are eagerly seized upon by the Communists as weaknesses of a nation and are exploited to their fullest."

    Lest you think my classmate held rather extreme views, I can offer in his defense the facts that it was believed both, at the time of the lynching and at the time of the writing of the essay, that communist influence was involved, and there is some truth behind the assertion. In a couple of other racially charged crimes on the Shore, the International Labor Defense League and Bernard Ades had worked hard to defend the Negros involved. The ‘communist front’ International Labor Defense League represented the Scottsboro boys and Ades was a white communist lawyer from Baltimore. A letter writer to The Marylander and Herald right after the event "Lays Blame For Lynching on Shoulders of Bernard Ades and The Communists” and there were many headlines suggesting socialist influence, such as this one from the Los Angeles Times: “Lynching Stirs Socialists’ Ire: Maryland Party Demands Ritchie’s [the Maryland Governor] Impeachment; Communists Asks Arrest of County Authorities, Governor Says Safekeeping of Negro Promised.”  It should also be noted that my classmate does not offer this reason as an excuse and says clearly that the lynching was abhorrent, a “display of human brutality and inhumanity.”

   An economic rationale for the lynching is also offered and the times were not good for most blacks or whites during those depression years. My friend notes that “this story evidences to the sociological fact that when economic conditions in an area are particularly bad, the incidence of crime, and especially crimes of mob violence goes up considerably." He also reports that “It was also the opinion of most Princess Anne citizens that the mob was led by outsiders from Virginia…”, but I am sure he doubted that was true.

   The real villains, it was contended, were other outsiders, those in the more civilized areas on the Mainland. In two episodes just prior to the Armwood lynching, the Negros involved had been taken, for safety reasons, to Baltimore where they were defended by the communists, and considerable money was wasted during hard times to prove the obvious. Armwood had also been taken to Baltimore, but was returned because of pressure from those on the Shore and because Judge Duer promised he would be safe. The Baltimore press was hostile and Mencken in particular berated the morons in “Trans-Choptankia” and ridiculed “Eastern Shore Kultur”.  An editorial in The Marylander and Herald asked the question: “Who Took Armwood to Baltimore?” “In the answer to that question, will be found in our minds, the cause of the lynching."

  The hostilities between the Shoremen and the Mainlanders were real and significant and the condescending attitudes toward the Shore morons led to attacks as this headline from The Marylander and Herald indicates: “Sunpapers [published in Baltimore] Are Unpopular Here: Incensed Citizens Confiscate and Burn Bundles as Rapidly as They Arrive.” Taunted, poor and angry, some Shoremen felt they could better take care of their own business and lynch more cheaply those who would be hanged by the State in any case. (One of the blacks who had been tried and re-tried on the Mainland was ultimately hanged.)The essay acknowledges the emotions which were at high tide on the Eastern Shore:

"And finally, this story makes it clear to us on the Eastern Shore that while heritage and self-reliance are valuable and to be cherished, we, or any group under like conditions of environment, must not let these admirable aspects of our lives degenerate  into a clannishness which disregards those laws made for the common good. An incident like that of the Princess Anne lynching must never again enter into the annals of Eastern Shore history."

The Aftermath:

   The Armwood lynching was the last in Maryland. There were some investigations, but those responsible were never held accountable:

“The grand jury issued its report to Judge Duer, and the Armwood lynching case was over. The Armwood lynching may be the only one in the history of the United States in which nearly a dozen lynchers were identified based on the sworn affidavits of police officers, and in which four lynchers were arrested by the National Guard, and yet still no indictments were issued. And so the nine men identified by state police officers as leaders of the lynch mob lived out their lives, several in Princess Anne, for years thereafter, suspected by blacks and whites of being the men who lynched George Armwood and known, more importantly, as a symbol of the legal system’s shameful alliance with white supremacy.”

   In the 1960s the arrival of integration led to violent racial encounters and race riots. In 1964, some students from that small black college attempted to eat in the local white restaurants and were refused service. Police using K-9 dogs and volunteer firemen using hoses clashed with the students. An editorial in the Saturday Evening Post had the title "Nazi Tactics in the 'Free State." An editorial in The Marylander and Herald responded to the comparison of the Maryland State Police to Nazis this way: 

"In an editorial entitled "Nazi Tactics In the 'Free State' the Post gives, as the gospel truth, its own interpretation of what happened in Princess Anne. If the Post had happened to be right its editorial conclusions would have been right. But it was dead wrong, just as dead as a number of persons would have been in Princess Anne if police dogs and fire hoses had not been used. The only alternative to that degree of force would have been guns in self defense. The State Police, with  their K-9 dogs, and the Princess Anne firemen, and their use of water by restraint, to quell but not maim by the use of their hoses, are to be commended and not condemned.”

   By then both the author and I had left the Eastern Shore. I do not know how the racial  relationships are now, or to what degree integration has been achieved.

Digging Up Dirt on the Eastern Shore

It is Black History Month, but I re-visited this event and those times because of the recent publicity generated by the efforts of the Equal Justice Initiative and the establishment in Montgomery, Alabama of what is informally known as "The National Lynching Memorial." One initiative is to collect soil from the places where lynches occurred, so as to increase awareness of what transpired.
The soil has been collected from such sites in Somerset County. In the adjacent county, where there was a lynching in Salisbury just before the one in Princess Anne, they have established "The Wicomico Truth and Reconciliation Initiative." For more details see:"Eastern Shore Lynching Victims Remembered in New Memorial," Jeremy Cox, Delmarva Today, April 30, 2018.
See also the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project. For more about the National Memorial for Peace and Justice which is also known as the National Lynching Memorial see: https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/.

Sources:

The local newspapers have been digitized and made available and the quotations from The Marylander and Herald  can be easily found. 

The "Old Home Prize Essay" by David Pusey is in the issue for Friday, June 9, 1961.

The account of the lynching from The Crisfield Times will be found on Oct. 20, 1933.

The quotation about the lack of consequences for the lynchers is found in: On The Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-first Century, Sherrilyn A. Ifill.

The Saturday Evening Post editorial about the incident in 1964, is in the issue of  March 28, 1964.

There is a Wikipedia entry for "The Lynching of George Armwood" and one for Bernard Ades.

There had been other lynchings in Princess Anne. Canadians would have read about this one:
                    "A Lynching in Maryland," The Globe and Mail, June 10, 1897.
"Princess Anne, Maryland, June 9.
Wm. Andrews, the young negro accused of felonous[sic] assault upon Mrs. Benjamin T. Kelly, was taken from the Sheriff here today and beaten into insensibility and then hanged to a tree by an infuriated mob immediately after having been arraigned in court and sentenced to death for his crime."

Post Script:

You may wonder why I don't just clarify all of this by asking my old friend David Pusey, the author of the essay. During the Viet Nam war, David served in the U.S. Navy where he was injured on a ship in the Pacific. He was in a coma for years and passed away a few years ago. He was a fine fellow.

The Bonus Material
Recently, John Stormer, the author of None Dare Call It Treason, also passed away. The following is from the obituary which appeared in the Washington Post on July 16, 2018:
"The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 did not blunt Mr. Stormer’s concern about spreading communism. He said front groups in America and elsewhere continued to promote a subversive, pro-communist agenda.
In an interview on America’s Survival TV in December 2014, he cited claims by police of communist-instigated protests in the wake of the police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., of Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014. “There were hundreds of people from all over the country put in hotels and organized those protests,” he said. They were, he added, “looking ultimately to bring about revolution.”

Tundra Swans

Ontario Swans

 Last week we drove a few miles from where I now live to see a large 'flock' of swans. (They were observed from a viewing stand which had a sign telling you what a large group of swans is called, but I forgot to write it down.) In fact, there are two places close by (Aylmer and Thedford) where one can see something very much like this.

Maryland Swans

     If I had gone looking for those same swans a few months ago I would have found them not far from where I grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Just a few miles outside of Princess Anne, Md. they could have been spotted in a field much like the one pictured below.

Migration

     After spending the winter in the relatively balmy weather along the mid-Atlantic coast they were just passing through on their return to the breeding grounds in the far, far north. The path they take looks something like this one and we are located at the first point where the line veers toward the northwest.

     As I mentioned back in a post about the “arrow storks”, a lot is now known about migratory routes and the migrants are often tracked using sophisticated technologies. Julia, the fine specimen pictured below wearing a cravat was, for example, banded back in 2006  on the Colville River Delta and scientists have been tracking her.

Sources: 

Aylmer Wildlife Management Area

Town of Aylmer

Discover Southern Ontario

Lambton County Museum
This location holds a Return of the Swans Festival which was held this year from March 10 to the 18th.

     There is some indication that the swans may be facing problems in Maryland. See:Chesapeake Bay Foundation
“While the numbers of tundra swans appear to be healthy across the continent, fewer and fewer are wintering in the Chesapeake Bay. This may be in part because the underwater grasses and soft clams they normally eat are being killed by pollution and other problems, Hindman said. As a result, more swans are feeding in farm fields. Others are skipping the Chesapeake region altogether and flying farther south.

 “Northern Alaska’s Tundra Swans Have a Long Haul for Winter Break:Every Year, the Birds Make a Months-long trip to Feast at the Chesapeake Bay,” Ann Cameron, Washington Post, Feb. 5, 2018