Oxford Map and History

Oxford is one of the oldest towns in Maryland. Although already settled for perhaps 20 years, Oxford marks the year 1683 The Strand Tilghman as its official founding, for in that year Oxford was first named by the Maryland General Assembly as a seaport and was laid out as a town. In 1694, Oxford and a new town called Anne Arundel (now Annapolis) were selected the only ports of entry for the entire Maryland province. Until the American Revolution, Oxford enjoyed prominence as an international shipping center surrounded by wealthy tobacco plantations. Today, Oxford is a charming tree-lined and waterbound village with a population of just over 700 and is still important in boat building and yachting. It has a protected harbor for watermen who harvest oysters, crabs, clams and fish, and for sailors from all over the Bay.

For a walking tour and more history visit https://tidewatertimes. com/travel-tourism/oxford-maryland/.

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Annie Oakley boys and Sioux, plus horses, buffalo, elk and mules. an arena, her long chestnut hair One chilly day, Annie saw a flying in the breeze. As she dis- wide-eyed youngster shivering as mounted, her athleticism animated he watched the parade. She stopped every movement. Annie’s special her wagon, got down to wrap him gift was not seeming to aim, only in her shawl, and pressed money to point and shoot. Shotgun, pistol into his hand. Reputedly, she gave or rifle. Target, trap or gimmick away much of a $150 weekly salary. shot. Left-handed or right. Face-to She said, “If I ever spend one dollar or at mirrored reflection. Hitting foolishly, I see the tear-stained facaces dead center or splitting their es of little helpless children, beaten profiles. Afoot or riding a bicycle or as I was.” horse (sidesaddle, never astride). Before Annie joined Buffalo Bill’s Exiting an arena, she gave a saucy Wild West, Sioux Chief Sitting Bull little kick and left audiences agape. had asked to adopt her after seeing

Arriving at each destination, her stage performance. He felt AnWild West cast members paraded nie was touched by a higher power. into town from the railyard to the She was the age of his late daughshowground: Rough Riders, cow- ter. Later he left the reservation to

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tour briefly with Wild West. Annie observed him giving to urchins and shared his confusion at a “civilization” that neglected its young. Sitting Bull returned home before long, saying the noise and multitude of men sickened him.

Had Annie finished writing her memoir, she could have filled volumes with travel adventures. On one European trip, the Wild West’s animals and cast of 750 were adrift in the mid-Atlantic for more than two days in a rudderless ship. But that wasn’t the trauma Annie said turned her hair white overnight. As the show headed for Danville, Virginia, in 1901, a freight train pulled into their train’s path. The two engines entwined, derailing and splintering wooden cars. Many people were injured, but none fatally. Frank carried Annie from their overturned car, unconscious and partially paralyzed, to eventually recover after spinal surgery.

Dead and distressed animals were trapped inside or strewn along the track. Cody told his cowboys, “Get your guns and we’ll do what we have to do.” He lost a hundred horses, including his personal mount, Ole Pap. Only two horses survived, one of which Cody gave to the crash site’s owner, who housed and fed the crew in his barn and pastured surviving animals until Cody could provide for them.

In her early forties, barely recovered, Annie received another blow

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Annie Oakley nie was jailed in Chicago for selling a man’s trousers to support her cocaine habit. Annie and Frank were actually in New Jersey. Jailed in Chicago was a burlesque performer stage-named Any Oakley. Careless newspapers picked up the story nationwide. Feeling she was again losing control of her life, Annie said, “The story nearly killed that would consume the rest of the me.” Raised in Quaker traditions decade. In 1903, multi-millionaire and protective of her image, she William Randolph Hearst’s news- couldn’t endure being labeled a papers headlined a story that An- drug addict (not to mention a bur-

lesque act assuming her persona).

She would not be victimized, even by America’s most powerful men. Goaded by Hearst’s sending a detective on a futile search for dirt in her background, the demure middle-aged plaintiff sued 55 publications and won 54 suits. No richer but vindicated by 1913, she and Frank agreed to curtail their travels.

Having enjoyed playing Cambridge, they opted to build a house on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Annie is remembered for three specifications: the kitchen sink shouldn’t be too high; closets shouldn’t protrude into rooms; and a deck should overlook the Choptank. When completed, the Hambrooks Bay home befitted a five-foot-tall woman, accustomed to living out of a trunk, who loved to hunt waterfowl.

Annie and Frank enjoyed the company of kindred spirits. Cambridge sportsmen gravitated to Samuel Hubbard’s Hardware, where the Butlers were welcome

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additions. One day the unassuming lady brought in a basket full of medals, saying she was “tired of carting ’em around.” She wanted them melted for their metal value. Among the down-and-outs she helped was Bill Cody, ruined after the train disaster.

Admittedly no homemaker, a restless Annie said, “For me sitting still is harder than any kind of work.” The Butlers performed benefits for an actors’ home, Girl Scouts and the Red Cross. During World War I, they frequently traveled entertaining troops. They wintered at a hotel in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where Annie instructed ladies to handle firearms. Advocating confidence and selfpossession through shooting, she prepared women for self-defense, likely haunted by memories of the he-wolf.

The Butlers sold their Cambridge house in 1922. Later that year, they were passengers in a Florida car accident. After weeks recuperating from a fractured hip and ankle, Annie left nursing care walking with a heavy brace. As her health declined, the Butlers returned to Annie’s birthplace. She died among family on November 3, 1926 of pernicious anemia. Frank died 18 days later.

In tribute, Oklahoma humorist Will Rogers said of Annie, “I heard cowboys who had traveled with the Buffalo Bill show speak of her almost in reverence. They loved her. She was a marvelous woman--kindest-hearted, most thoughtful, a wonderful Christian woman.”

Forty-some years ago, A.M. Foley swapped the Washington, D.C., business scene for a writing life on Elliott Island, Maryland. Tidewater Times has kindly published portions of one upcoming work, Chesapeake Bay Island Hopping, along with other regional musings. Foley’s published works are described at www.HollandIslandBook.com.

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