St. Michaels Map and History

© John Norton

On the broad Miles River, with its picturesque tree-lined streets and beautiful harbor, St. Michaels has been a haven for boats plying the Chesapeake and its inlets since the earliest days. Here, some of the handsomest models of the Bay craft, such as canoes, bugeyes, pungys and some famous Baltimore Clippers, were designed and built. The Church, named “St. Michael’s,” was the first building erected (about 1677) and around it clustered the town that took its name.

For a walking tour and more history of the St. Michaels area visit https://tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/st-michaels-maryland/.

Isaac Singer abandoned them for life on the stage with the Baltimore Strolling a “scamp.” That was about her Players. Straying with the travelstrongest term of disapproval, but ing troupe began 25 years with acit was hardly adequate to describe tress Mary Ann Sponsler, who ultiMr. Singer. In an article written mately bore him 10 children. Over for American Heritage, Pete Lyon the duration of these simultaneous wrote of Singer’s “spectacular de- relationships, his inventions made pravity.” One of several Mrs. Sing- him a wealthy man ~ so wealthy ers called Isaac a “most notorious he was able to install his Sponsler profligate,” emphasizing that “a family in a Fifth Avenue mansion, more dissolute man never lived in where they employed Mary McGoa civilized country.” nigal.

She and several of Isaac’s con- One day Mary Ann, who fashtemporaneous intimates were ioned herself as Mrs. Singer, was named Mary or a close variant. riding out on Fifth Avenue when His first marriage, to 15-year-old her carriage came abreast another Marie Haley, lasted 30 years and from their household, wherein sat produced two children before he Isaac with Mary McGonigal. Mary

Ann had Isaac arrested for bigamy. Released on bond, he fled to London with McGonigal, who ultimately bore him seven children. In the course of untangling Isaac’s obligations, it came to light he’d fathered a daughter in Lower Manhattan by another employee, Mary Walters, a machine demonstrator. (Because women were widely assumed incapable of operating machinery, female demonstrators in shop windows exhibited the ease of sewing while peddling a Singer.) Despite his wealth, New York society refused to welcome Singer. They never could forget his fleeing in disgrace amid the Sponsler/McGonigal scandal. His meteoric rise The CRAB CLAW RESTAURANT

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from poverty to wealth may also have been resented by established gentry. Born at Pittstown, New York, into a German millwright’s failing marriage, he was youngest of eight children and was apparently unmissed after running away. At the age of 12, he found a lowly job in a machine shop. While exhibiting aptitude for the work, he dreamed of labor-saving devices to permit his avoiding soiled hands. Given the chance, he readily swapped a steady income for a slot with the Baltimore Strolling Players. When they ran aground in the Midwest, he was forced to find another job.

Working with his brother digging a waterway, he devised a rockdrilling machine. With a financial backer, he succeeded in obtaining a patent. This he sold for $2,000 to finance his own theater troupe, the Merritt Players. He returned to the stage as Isaac Merritt, along with “Mrs. Merritt” (Mary Ann Sponsler). Though he was practically illiterate, an exceptional memory enabled him to do Shakespeare, as

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