This last stop on the Havre de Grace leg of our tour brings us to where it all really began for Harford County. Captain John Smith is a familiar name to most, but there’s more to his story than is generally known. For example, he was 16 in 1596 when he went to sea following the death of his father. By the time he was 24 he had been wounded, knighted, sold as a slave, and purportedly given as a gift to the Greek mistress of a Turkish nobleman. Smith escaped and returned to England in 1604. By the time he landed in Jamestown in 1607 he was due to be hung. However, when a letter from the …

This sign tells a more human tale of history than others have. It’s located at the cemetery of Trappe Missionary Baptist Church. As you may recall from a previous sign, Lafayette at Rigbie’s House, Gen. Lafayette’s troops marched through the area in April, 1781, on their way to fight the deciding battle in the Revolutionary War at Yorktown.  Two of the men in these troops were Capt. Angus Greme and Capt. Jean Gimat.  When they reached Trappe on their journey, the friends were so taken by the beautiful, rolling landscape that they vowed then and there to return to America after the war was …

Although I've written about the travels of Gen. Rochambeau in Harford County, there's still another story  to tell. As part of the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail, which is roughly 600 miles long and traces their route from Newport, RI, to Yorktown, the significance of their travels can't be overlooked. Rochambeau crossed the Susquehanna River, coming from Elkton, at Susquehanna Lower Ferry (Havre de Grace) with his infantry. Because there weren't enough ferries, his baggage train was obliged to cross at Bald Friar (near Glen Cove). This sign marks …

The next stop on our tour brings us to Churchville. As the sign states, the community was once called Lower Cross Roads. This name set it apart from Upper Cross Roads—which is the present intersection of Routes 152 and 165—and Hall's Cross Roads—which is located on East Bel Air Ave. in Aberdeen. The area wouldn't be known as Churchville until 1825. Our early roads were Indian trails. They led from the Susquehanna River into the countryside. The early settlers took advantage of these for the sake of easy travel. It wasn't until after the Revolutionary War, in 1783, that Harford County had any …

The Marquis de Lafayette was a wealthy man with a passion for freedom, and he spent his life fighting for it both in France and in America. He was considered a “hero of two worlds.” In fact, he used his own money to buy a ship so he could sail to America in 1777 to help fight in the Revolutionary War, defying orders from King Louis XVI.  The Continental Congress made him a major general and he served as an assistant to General George Washington. In 1779, he returned to France to appeal for support in the cause of the Americans. He found himself arrested, but his detainment didn’t last long …

The Havre de Grace Racetrack, better known as The Graw, opened in 1912 and it drew people from all over the East Coast. They arrived by train, filing in by the carload to partake in the sport of gambling. At the time, pari-mutual betting was not legal in New Jersey, New York or Connecticut. However, Havre de Grace was not so inclined and they also offered a Roulette wheel as well as dice tables at the racetrack. According to an article in Time, dated Jan 22, 1951, the city was referred to as having been a, “relaxed and hospitable town.” It was also sometimes referred to as, “Little Chicago.” …

Information from the Maryland Historical Society was used in this report. --- On June 18, 1812, a mere thirty years after America won independence from England, we declared war on them.    We had several reasons, but chief among them was because England failed to recognize the sovereignty of our new nation and interfered in our dealings abroad as well as on our shores. The British decided to search American ships for deserters from their Navy and in the process they press-ganged American seamen into their service because they were running low on volunteers to fight in the Napoleonic War …

  Who was this man, and why does he have a plaza named for him in the middle of downtown? As you may recall from the previous sign, Count Rochambeau was a distinguished figure of the American Revolution. He served with Gen. George Washington at the decisive Battle of Yorktown in 1781. And, here's the rest of the story: Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, was born on July1, 1725, in Vendome, France, to a family with a military tradition dating back to the Crusades (1096-1270). Although he had been studying for the clergy, he went to the Officers academy when he was 15-years …

Count Rochambeau was a French Brigadier General who came to America at the request of King Louis XVI. France wasn't so much in favor of the Colonies as it was against the British for having seized French colonies in America. Since the Old Post Road was the main thoroughfare for travel on the Eastern Seaboard, from Alexandria, Va., to Philadelphia, it only makes sense that when Count Rochambeau moved his troops from White Plains, N.Y., on his way to Yorktown, Va., he would have used this road after crossing the Susquehanna River at Lower Ferry (which would become Havre de Grace). By the time …

When we left our last adventure, we were at Rock Run Landing, where the sign mentioned the owner's house.  Just up the hill from the mill, on Rock Run Road, there's a sign for Rock Run, by the Carter-Archer House. The 13-room house was built in 1803 by John Carter. He was the co-owner of the mill, along with John Stump, Jr.  When Carter died in 1805, his son, Sam, sold the interest in the mill and the house to Stump. When the enterprising Mr. Stump died in 1816, it's interesting to note that he was worth $250,000.  How many millions would that be today?  As a part of his estate, he left the …

  Originally, this area was known as the, "Land of Promise," tract, which was deeded to Thomas Taylor in 1684. The 2000 acre land grant was given by the second Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert, 50 years after the Maryland Colony was established. Due to its geographic location, and most certainly because of the Susquehanna River, the area grew and prospered as more settlers ventured here from St. Mary's county. As the sign states, this was a center of trade and was a primary hub of commerce between the North and South. The first gristmill was constructed in 1760, about a half a mile upriver from …

This is the first in series of columns in which I'll track down the historical markers dotting the town and give you a glimpse of the larger picture and try to put them into perspective. Odds are you've never had the chance to actually read them. If you're like me, you've read the first line any number of times, and then the stop light changes or traffic starts to move and that's it. So, let's get started. I'll begin at the beginning, with the oldest site. Once upon a time, before there was a Havre de Grace, the name of the area was Harmer's Town (1658), then Stockett's Town (1659) before …