history

Heroes and History

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I wanted to dedicate an entire blog post to the Members of the Armed Forces. We have come across many, many military graves located around the county. For such a small area we have certainly produced a proud number of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines.

In addition to the hundreds of World War I and II service members laid to rest in Dorchester County, there are a notable number of military gravestones from Vietnam, and Korea, as well as campaigns as far back as the Spanish American War, the Civil War, the War of 1812, and even the American Revolution. The Revolution graves are usually marked with a medallion so as to be properly identified.

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Christ Church in Cambridge has a row of such graves. The medallion reads SAR 1775. Sons of the American Revolution.

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The monument on the left is for a French born sailor who served in the Spanish American War and the monument on the right is for the first man from Dorchester County to die in World War I. His ship was torpedoed off the coast of Scotland and he died on a life raft a few hours after the explosion from his injuries and exposure. He volunteered for service.

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This crypt is for a young man who died in Coblenz, Germany during the United States Marine Corps campaigns during World War I. A fact of note is that this is the only above ground crypt in the entire graveyard.

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This graveyard is the final resting place for what appears to be three brothers who all served in the War of 1812. The 1812 Service Members are also identified with a marker. Sadly no further information is available for this family. I will have to do some more research and hopefully bring more of their narrative to light.

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Everyone has heard the phrase “Brother against Brother” when speaking about the Civil War; Dorchester County had Father against Son.

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 This humble stone is the marker for Lieut. Colonel Thomas Woolford, leader of the 4th Maryland Regiment during the American Revolution. Wounded and taken prisoner in the Battle of Camden, SC, he was also part of the campaign to free Charleston from the British.

All of these stories are either amazing, heroic, tragic, or moving. They all deserve to be told. And yet, this is just a handful of the monuments around the county. This project has only covered about half of the area of the county, so there are still a great many more resting places as yet unmapped.

All of the information for these brave soldiers was gleaned from the monuments themselves or from 5 minutes on Google. If this much information was uncovered in such a short amount of time I would love to see what could be accomplished by a dedicated researcher.

Back in Action…

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Well it has been a couple weeks since our last post. Apologies, I was on vacation last week so I did not get a chance to post the pictures from the previous weeks collection. Now I am two weeks behind. Sigh….  However I am very excited about the sites located during the last outing!

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Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank some of the locals in the area who have taken time out of their afternoons to be our field guides on this project. Most of the sites located were on private properties or farmland and we would never have been able to get out to the sites without the permission from the owners, and our field guides knew exactly who to call to get these clearances. So I would like to thank them for their time and efforts in assisting with this project.

Additionally this adventure has been humbling as I have realized that even though I was raised in one of the most rural counties in the state, I am not the well rounded country girl I once believed I was.  As we were trekking through various corn and soybean fields it suddenly occurred to me the very real possibility of running into slugs, spiders, snakes or any other brand of creepy crawly. Just about the time I gave myself a pep talk and was enjoying my new found courage, my field guide pointed out the holes and burrows surrounding the grave sites and told me the groundhogs or foxes would not be too pleased if we stepped on them… Oh, and they bite. So much for courage…

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Exhibit A:  It’s like Whack-a-Mole, if the moles were vicious, man eating, carnivores.

Low Hanging Fruit

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After spending a few days in the field last week I have decided that I am definitely going to mark the easiest locations first. It has been nearly 90 degrees out lately and I have been warned about the dangers of the indigenous wildlife. Ticks. I have been advised to wait until the fall unless I would like to become part of the food chain. So, that being said the posts and photos for the next month or two will be churchyards, cemeteries, and other maintained plots.

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Pictured: Non-threatening indigenous wildlife.

Churches and Churchyards

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I’m sure many of you are wondering why I am listing and photographing churchyards that are still active and in good condition. The answer very simply is that if I’m going to tackle such an undertaking, that I want to make sure that EVERY burial site in the county is accounted for. For future records.

These churches and churchyards may still be in use and still accepting new… residents, but that may not always be the case. There are several locations around the county where a church once stood but burned down, was lost to storms, or was otherwise destroyed and never rebuilt. The grave sites however are still located on these properties.

The graveyards that are part of a still active church are some of the luckiest in the county as they are well maintained and cared for. The ones where the church is no longer standing could stand some extra attention. When photographing one location there was quite a bit of garbage around the property and the woodlands were encroaching and would benefit from a trim.

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If I had the supplies I would have attempted some of the clean-up myself the day I visited, but sadly I was unprepared. My next step is locating the caretakers of these properties as I go along and perhaps helping them to organize volunteers to clean up the graveyards. If you are, or you know who the responsible parties are, please email us at dorchestergraves@gmail.com and perhaps we can work out some volunteer cleanup activities.

 

The Search for Those that are Lost or Forgotten.

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This site is dedicated to all the lost souls of Dorchester County, Maryland. My family has been living here for well over 300 years and sadly finding their final resting places has been more of a challenge than I originally thought. In addition to the numerous unmarked family plots scattered across the county, there are also many locations that are now lost to time and tide.

Erosion has wiped away many of the smaller plots resting on creeks, branches, or river banks. Those on many of the smaller islands, the most famous of these is the now sunken Holland Island, are also slowly being washed away over the years. It is my goal to locate as many of these plots as possible and to map them, so that even if we gradually lose the fight with the Bay, we will at least be able to see where these souls were once laid to rest.

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