December Tide Table

OXFORD, MD DECEMBER 2021

HIGH LOW AM PM AM PM

1. Wed. 2. Thurs. 3. Fri. 4. Sat. 5. Sun. 6. Mon. 7. Tues. 8. Wed. 9. Thurs. 10. Fri. 11. Sat. 12. Sun. 13. Mon. 14. Tues. 15. Wed. 16. Thurs. 17. Fri. 18. Sat. 19. Sun. 20. Mon. 21. Tues. 22. Wed. 23. Thurs. 24. Fri. 25. Sat. 26. Sun. 27. Mon. 28. Tues. 29. Wed. 30. Thurs. 31. Fri. 12:05 12:56 1:48 2:41 3:35 4:30 5:27 6:25 7:26 8:31 9:37 10:44 11:48 12:25 1:08 1:52 2:35 3:18 4:00 4:42 5:25 6:08 6:55 7:46 8:42 9:40 10:40 11:40 12:27 1:02 1:54 2:46 3:38 4:30 5:24 6:19 7:16 8:13 9:09 10:03 10:53 11:40 12:46 1:37 2:21 3:00 3:36 4:10 4:44 5:20 5:57 6:37 7:20 8:05 8:52 9:42 10:35 11:30 12:38 1:35 6:46 7:25 8:08 8:53 9:43 12:05 12:59 1:52 2:45 3:36 4:25 5:11 5:52 6:29 7:02 7:34 8:06 8:40 9:17 9:55 12:13 12:48 1:25 2:01 2:39 3:17 3:55 4:35 5:16 6:01 6:50

8:08 9:13 10:13 11:10 10:37am 11:35am 12:38 1:46 2:59 4:14 5:28 6:38 7:42 8:40 9:31 10:17 10:59 11:37 10:36am 11:18am 12:03 12:53 1:49 2:56 4:14 5:36 6:54 8:04 9:06

SHARP’S IS. LIGHT: 46 minutes before Oxford TILGHMAN: Dogwood Harbor same as Oxford EASTON POINT: 5 minutes after Oxford CAMBRIDGE: 10 minutes after Oxford CLAIBORNE: 25 minutes after Oxford ST. MICHAELS MILES R.: 47 min. after Oxford WYE LANDING: 1 hr. after Oxford ANNAPOLIS: 1 hr., 29 min. after Oxford KENT NARROWS: 1 hr., 29 min. after Oxford CENTREVILLE LANDING: 2 hrs. after Oxford CHESTERTOWN: 3 hrs., 44 min. after Oxford 3 month tides at www.tidewatertimes.com 43

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museums also hope that you will visit, explore, enjoy, attend events and programs, volunteer and donate historic treasures for preservation. DCHS is a qualifi ed 501(c)3 nonprofi t organization. We all thank you.

A day trip destination awaits you in this peaceful setting that also functions as a repository for Dorchester County, Eastern Shore and Chesapeake Bay regional history. The educational and entertaining exhibits, relics, artifacts, textiles, art, tools and dioramas depict a broad range of time periods and cultures, beginning as far back as the early Native American inhabitants in the area to a new, current exhibit of baseball memorabilia.

The DCHS not only resides at the site but is a cultural, nature, art and research center. It hosts numerous events, activities and programs that are open to the public. My introduction to the Heritage Museums was by way of a delightful “play date” with my friend Rita Connolly.

Amateur artists ~ or, should I say, budding artists of a certain age ~ we attended a wood painting workshop hosted by the museum. All supplies and instruction were provided. We came home with treasures. Rita’s was a wooden sign painted with the word “Family” that she’ll hang photos on. Mine was a painted wooden buoy that decorates a corner in my favorite room. We did a bit of museum browsing during our visit and vowed to come back. I joined the museum after that positive experience and exposure to their attractions.

My next Heritage Museum experience was a lecture I attended

A Hidden Gem The group shared that DCHS was founded in 1953 to promote an apwith my husband, John, about our preciation of the rich history and garden friends, the bees. So popular traditions of Dorchester County was the offering that we were put on and the region. DCHS collects and a waiting list for a second lecture exhibits artifacts, maintains and by two Master Gardeners, as the operates the museums, maintains first lecture quickly filled. We were archives, makes collections and given valuable information about the documents available for research, 430 bees found in the Mid-Atlantic provides interpretive and educaregion, handouts and bee houses tional opportunities and advocates for sheltering and nesting (see the for the preservation of other historic Tidewater Times article “Bringing resources in the county. The DCHS Back the Bees” in the September seeks to celebrate the area’s heri2020 issue.) tage, rich past and various cultures,

With the DCHS campus newly including Native American, African reopened after its closure during American, Colonists, families, inthe peak of the pandemic, John and dustries, sports and other interests. I were warmly welcomed for my third Dorchester County was formed visit by DCHS Administrator Mitch way back in 1669 and was named for Anderson and a group of volunteers the Earl of Dorset, a family friend of and board members: Carol Towers, the Calverts (the founding family of Charles Pax, Terry Cranell, Shirley S. Maryland). It is the largest county by Jackson, Jane Weeks and Donnie Da- total area on the Eastern Shore. The vidson. Though pouring buckets of rain and chilly outside, it was warm and inviting inside the Robbins Heritage Center/Neild Museum surrounded by exhibits and dioramas.

mighty Chesapeake Bay cradles its eastern shoreline, and the Choptank River forms part of its northern border. These, along with numerous tributaries, provide the county with 1,700 miles of shoreline. As a result of its natural bounties, many Dorchester residents have been farmers and watermen.

Mitch took us on a tour of the campus and shared details about the buildings, exhibits and gardens. In 1959, with the help of a donor, the DCHS purchased the Meredith House, a two-and-a-half-story Georgian style Flemish bond brick home. The crown jewel of the campus, the c. 1760 major house formerly known as LaGrange originally housed all of the society’s collections.

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A Hidden Gem with one of the young Smith boys, as well as signage, are displayed. Mitch The house now functions as a shared that he met one of the Smith museum and is furnished to reflect sons. The visitor fondly remembers local history. Each room contains the house and Ms. Cornish. Mitch furniture, portraits, paintings, tex- plans to record a future interview tiles and documents that emulate the with Mr. Smith. lives of Dorchester residents. The Governors’ room displays

I have two favorite rooms in the the state flag and includes donated Meredith house. One features wom- furnishings, portraits, documents en’s fashions, clothing and accesso- and other memorabilia of the seven ries from various historical periods. Maryland governors from DorchesDelicate silk, velvet and linen gowns ter. Other rooms showcase attracdraped on forms with parasols, hats, tive furnishings from the Federal purses and shoes grace the room and Victorian periods, handmade along with men’s and children’s gar- quilts, children’s toys, portraits of ments. A spinning wheel and sewing people who once lived in Dorchester items are also on display. County, textiles, china, glassware,

My other favorite room recreates silver, handmade miniature furnithe bedroom occupied by the last Af- ture, clocks and other collections rican American servant, Annie Cor- and accessories. nish. Ms. Cornish was hired by the A modernized kitchen is used Smith family in 1922. A bed, cloth- to prepare the afternoon teas that ing, accessories and a photo of her are sometimes scheduled. There is so much to see and understand that I feel the need to return on another day to spend more time in each room. I found that true of the other museums we visited on the campus as well. Structures on the campus between the Meredith House and the museum buildings include the brick Goldsborough Stable (c. 1790) with vehicles used through the early 1900s, including wagons, sleighs and a sulky. It also houses exhibits explaining the work of blacksmiths, saddlers and wheelwrights. The stable was moved to the campus in

A Hidden Gem country store, a barn interior, a 1920s kitchen, an interior church the mid-1980s from Shoal Creek setting, a schoolroom and a screened Manor, the last remaining building front porch. There is even an exhibit from the estate of Governor Charles about one of Dorchester’s notables, Goldsborough. world-renowned markswoman An-

The oldest building on the campus nie Oakley. The museum also inis said to be the Stronghouse, where cludes a gift shop with old and new food was stored and where Mitch objects, books, crafts, jewelry, china found evidence that it may have been and artifacts, with all proceeds going a smokehouse, too. The Stronghouse to the DCHS. anchors the colonial herb garden The adjoining Robbins Heritage and stands of mature trees main- Center was added in 2007, when tained by DCHS volunteers. Brick additional space was needed for the walkways crisscross the campus, burgeoning collection. The center inand a waterfront walkway leads to a cludes a timeline of county and also lovely waterside garden overlooking features a Native American history peaceful Shoal Creek. exhibit with arrowheads, projectile

After outgrowing the Meredith points, stone tools, beadwork and House, the Neild Museum was pottery, as well as a wooden dugout added in 1981 to house artifacts and canoe as a centerpiece. dioramas depicting various periods I spoke to a volunteer who curates of history in Dorchester. Mitch said the exhibit. He has a passion for the museum highlights the con- collecting arrowheads and attends nection between work and family. other Native American heritage Exhibits include agricultural imple- events in the region. The exhibits rements displayed inside and outside flect early county life and industries for planting and harvesting tobacco, from the 1600s to the present corn, tomatoes and other crops and Additional exhibits in the Robbins waterman’s equipment for oystering, crabbing and fishing.

Charming dioramas present a

Heritage Center include interpretations of life for early colonists and for indentured and slave cultures, including Harriet Tubman, escaped slave and hero of the Underground Railroad. There’s also a headstone marking the slaves’ final resting place, which Mitch says is unusual for the times.

Displays also represent the canning and timbering industries as well as hunting, trapping and carving. One highlight is the recreated, original workshop of fRonald Rue, a famed local master decoy carver, in which John was particularly interested.

Both of us enjoyed talking to volunteer curator Donnie Davidson in the museum’s newest exhibit, Baseball in Dorchester County. The exhibit features various baseball teams, including a tribute to baseball’s Negro Leagues. On display are trophies, uniforms, photos, plaques, posters, ticket stubs, gloves, autographed balls and more. It is a funfilled exhibit about one of America’s favorite pastimes.

Mitch also showed us the Todd Research Center in the Robbins Heritage Center, which contains the DCHS Research and Family History Department. The research center houses an extensive library that features a large selection of reference materials, including books (some out of print), atlases, compilations and transcriptions, photographs, ledgers, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, land transfers and more. John asked to look at a volume on a shelf and was impressed to find a document transferring acreage on James Island, in the Chesapeake Bay.

The research center is helpful to those searching for family or regional history. It also includes donated collections, family genealogies and histories and is an important

genealogy research hub that attracts researchers from all over the United States. Researchers are welcome to search in person during regular hours. Volunteer staff are available to assist.

Requests for information and assistance can be made to the DCHS. Their website, which is noted at the end of this story, includes more information on available research material, such as a book list, newspaper collections and genealogies. Mitch also took me to an upstairs climate-controlled room where precious documents such as family bibles are stored. Shivering a bit, we looked through a few sacred books bound in leather and embellished with gold. to visit post-pandemic shutdown, comprised “forty bright minds” who came to learn about their heritage and community history. “…it was our greatest pleasure to spend time with them,” he said. The children experience hands-on activities such as churning butter, doing laundry with a washboard and grinding corn by hand.

Other educational opportunities include traditional and heritage craft workshops for adults: jewelry making, furniture restoration and paper making, among others. My painting class was one such workshop. The recent decoy carving class with carver Zeke Willey is another example. Lectures are also held periodically, such as the one on bees.

Fundraising events include Recycle Dorchester in spring and fall (yard sale), with quality treasures of furniture, linens, quilts, glassware, china, plants, books, etc. for all to discover. Workshops and lectures also bring in income, as does the decoy raffle drawing currently underway.

During the summer, DCHS offered its second annual Bay Country Region Antique Car Show. More events will be planned with pandemic restrictions are lifted. I am looking forward to attending the afternoon teas at the Meredith House when they resume!

To help DCHS continue its good work and fulfill its mission, please visit dorchesterhistory.com to learn how you can donate, volunteer and/

Mitch talked about his delight in sharing the museum exhibits with visiting schoolchildren every year. DCHS works closely with the school board to offer tours and expose students to history in a fun way. He said that the first school group

or become a member. The organization receives very little funding from local, state or federal sources to fi nance operations. The general expenses of utilities, payroll, campus maintenance and insurance are covered through membership dues, donations, admissions, event income and sponsorships.

The Heritage Museums are currently open Wednesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1003 Greenway Drive, Cambridge, MD, 21613. Onsite parking is available.

Be sure to check the website for opening times before your visit and for special events and possibly an upcoming holiday event. Admission is $5 but is free for members. You may contact DCHS by telephone at 410-228-7953, via email at dchs@ verizon.net.

Bonna L. Nelson is a Bay-area writer, columnist, photographer and world traveler. She resides in Easton with her husband, John.