­­The following is a transcript of the oral history recording done by  Arthur S. Hock, Sr. in 1976

Here we are at the old steamboat wharf.  The building to the right is the warehouse and grain storage.  The building to the left is the home of the wharf master, Mr. Folk.  The boat tied up to the wharf is the Corsica which makes two trips a week from Baltimore to Crumpton, stopping at many other wharfs between here the Bay.

We will continue walking up the causeway towards town. We are now at the corner of Front and Broad Street. The old remains of that old building to the right was once known as the Cruser house.  The Cruser house was last occupied by Mr. Ben Hartley. 

Continuing up Broad Street we come to this large 3-story storage building which is the old Crumpton Hotel. Over the years it has had many owners, a very successful operation. The porches are the most pleasant place to sit in the summer and look out across the water.

After leaving the hotel we will continue up Broad Street, but I must tell you who lives in the different buildings. The hotel is now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Perry Lynch and their daughter, Neva. A portion of the house is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Cannon who are merchants. 

The next house, on our right, is the home of Miss Gertie Lynch.

Then we come to the home of Mr. Burt Sheppard and his wife, Mary.  Mary Shepherd is quite a poet and very active in state politics.

The next house is the house cornering on Fourth Street and Broad.  It is the residence of Dr. Stack, in addition to being a medical doctor, Dr. Stack is also a magistrate and takes care of regular legal business for people of the town.  

Crossing the street we come to a 3-story building.  This building has quite an historical background.  During the Civil War it was known to have one of the largest stocks of merchandise of any establishment in the county.  It was the property and operated by the Harrison Brothers. It is now owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Cannon.

But, continuing up the street, is the Goodhand house.  Mrs. Goodhand and her son live here while Mr. Goodhand is on the road as a farm equipment salesman. 

The next house is the home of Mr. Tyce Lee and his wife. Mr. Lee has one son and one daughter.  Foster is the son and Ruth is the daughter. 

The next house is the Milbournes. The Milbournes are truck farmers. 

The next house we come to is that of the Daughertys.  Mr. Daughterty operates a small store in a portion of his residence.

Now we are in front of the home of Mr. Clay Henry.  Mr. Clay Henry is a quite elderly gentleman and Mr. Clay Henry has held some important posts in county government.  

We are now coming. . .  at the end of that block we are standing in front of the millinery shop of Miss Eva Armstrong.

Crossing this street, we will come to the house of Mr. Spencer Merick.   Mr. Spencer Merick owns a very successful factory and farm land. 

Continuing up Broad Street, to the corner of Fourth and Broad we come to the home of Mr. Cooper Tarbutton.

The next house is that of Mr. Nate Coleman and his son, Spencer. 

A little further up the block we come to the home of Captain Gilbert Brown.  Captain Gilbert Brown, a retired sea captain.   

The next house is that of Mr. Will Stevens.  Mr. Will Stevens operates a florist establishment and grows early plants for the surrounding territory.    

Now we are coming to the home of Mr. Able Biddle.  Mr. Biddle is also a truck farmer. 

A little stretch to go and we are in front the Crumpton School.  Crumpton School, when I first knew it, its principal was Miss Edith Harrison.

Now it’s quite a stretch between here and the road, a crossroads we’ll speak of it as a fingerboard. Turning right again you can go to Chestertown, turning left you can go east to Millington.

We will cross the road now to Crumpton Cemetery.  Crumpton Cemetery is beautifully cared for. Crumpton Cemetery was at one time moved from a distance about ½ mile west of here.

We will return to Crumpton now, on the east side of Broad Street, after leaving the Cemetery.  The large house and farm on the right are the property of Mr. Boggs and Mrs. Boggs, Will Boggs.   

We’ll stroll on down a distance of about a quarter of a mile we come to the Jarman home. The Jarmans operate a small dairy and supply a great deal of milk to the residents of Crumpton.

The next home is that of a Mrs. Wallace. Mrs. Wallace, as I have understood, was the mother of Mr.George I. Harrison.

Now we are coming to the home of George I. Harrison and his daughters, Edith and Anna. He has a son, Roland, but Roland, at this time, is away working.

Now we come to Mr. Pete Cresswell’s home.  Mr. Pete Cresswell a waterman, fisherman, boat builder.

The house with the surrounding porch is that of Mr. David Clements.  Mr. David Clements operates a hardware store.

The next house is that of Mr. Arthur Story, and his wife Carrie and son, Avery.  Mr. Story is a retired police officer from the City of Baltimore.

Now we are coming to the home of Mr. Butler. Mr. Butler is a wagon builder and that is his shop that we pass.

Now we are standing in front of what was at one time the old carriage factory built in 1859 by Maurice Welsh.  And carriages were built here for a long time and it has been used for many other things during the years.  It is now the hardware store of Mr. Will Bradley.

This next house we come to is that of Mrs. Elmer Spry.  Mrs. Elmer Spry is a widow lady who moved here from Kent County when her husband retired from farming.

Now we are at the home of Mr. Will Sparks.  Mr. Will Sparks is an undertaker.

We are coming to the corner of Mechanic Street now. This house on the corner is that of Mr. Jim Bowers.  Mr. Jim Bowers is a carpenter.

The building on the corner, with the storefront, was once the drugstore of Dr. Wallis.  Dr. Wallis has passed away and his sister, Katie, is operating the store at this time.

Next is a double-house. The first one is the home of Ms. Katie Wallis.  I would like to tell you more about the Wallises because it is an interesting background, but I failed to get more background on   ---- Ms. Wallis. Wallis is spelled W-a-l-l-i-s and it is understood that the early Wallises came here in association with the Comegys family.  I’m sorry I don’t know more about it because to me it sounds very interesting.

Now the next house is the home of Miss Bidding, a maiden lady, living, sharing in half of that double house.

The next house is the studio of Colonel South.  Colonel South is a veteran the Civil   War and has become the recognized photographer in this area.  He has a studio on the second floor of this house.

Continuing now down the street…we now … this is the home of Mr. Clark, George Clark. He did some shoe repairing and also had a candy store and a few items in the grocery line.

The next was known then as The Bradley building.  It was not long after I came that a fire took place in this building and damaged it to quite some extent.

The next building on the right was a hardware store operated by Mr. David Clements .

The next home was that of Harriet Hartley, his mother, known as Ma Hartley and also his brother, Poe Hartley, was also living there and daughter, Betsy, who was away at school. The cottage to the rear was spoken of as the Rose Cottage.  I do not remember who was occupying it at that time.

The next house was the house of Mr. Ed Walls.  Mr. Ed Walls had an ice cream store in there for a while.

Comin’ on down the street there was a building in the lot between that and the grocery store. That building has been used for practically every line of business that was known.

Now we come to the grocery store.  The grocery store, at that time, was operated by Mr. Hackett Emerson. Mr. Hackett Emerson was there during the early twenties.

The next building was a little shop known as Sam Klugh. Sam Klugh at one time served some food, among which was a turtle stew that he made.  I’ve heard it said that when he heard a carriage coming across the bridge that he would add so much warm water to the stew.

And the next house on that side was the home of barber Burris.   Barber Burris and his wife living there but he operated a barber shop to the rear of the Harrison’s – what was once the rear of the Harrison’s store, now the store of Ralph Cannon.       .

Next large house was the house of Mr. John Harrison, and his wife and her father. Her father was known as Mr. Perry Ruth.  He was a retired gentleman from Baltimore.

Going on down the hill we come to the blacksmith shop. It was at this time the property of Mr. Bob Godwin.  Mr. Bob Godwin had quite a bit of machinery there; and they at that time they had a track where they could take the boats from the water and they were worked on.

We are now at the foot of the hill and we will go out First Street.  The first house on the right, going out on First Street, was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hick Stradley.  With him lives his daughter, Mrs. Hobson, who had two children.

The next house was the house of one of the Walls’, just for a short period, but, it became the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Gale, them moving over there from Galena.

The next house, on the right, was that of Mr. Stump Walls and his son, Alday, his daughter Neva and his daughter Sue.

On the left side, we will cover them as we go along, was the home of Mr. Farmer Williams.  Mr. Farmer Williams was the father of Mrs. Willard Biddle.

The next house was the home, on the left, was the home of Mr. Charlie Nickerson.  Mr. Charlie Nickerson at time was operating a mill.  He also operated a  thrashing rig with the help of his son, Lester.  His housekeeper was Mrs. Woodall.   Mr. Nickerson’s wife had passed away.

Now we come to corner of Caroline and First Street. This house on the corner is the home of the Anthonys.  Mrs. Anthony lived there while her son, Jake, was away as an engineer on board a merchant marine ship.

We continue up on the left side of the street. We pass a house in the middle of the block that was known as the Fennimore home.  [It] had very beautiful little gardens, it was these gardens that Mrs. Mary Fennimore Sheppard wrote the poem, “In a Monastery Garden”. Mrs. Sally Fennimore lived there, as first I remember, she was the mother of Mary Sheppard, Hattie Rubsamen,and Garret Fennimore.  She had lost one son, Woodall, during the flu epidemic in 1918.

Now let’s cross the street now to the right side. In that house lived Mr. Will Hudson.   Mr. Will Hudson was married to Miss Susie Walls.

Following the Hudson house is the house where Mr. Willard Biddle and his wife, Fiona, lived.

Further up on that side, we come to the corner house which was known as the home of Mr. and Mrs. Walsh Lloyd.  Their livelihood was made mostly by picking huckleberries and selling them.

To right, down that street, was Mr. John Fennimore.  Mr. John Fennimore raised quite a bit of poultry.

On the opposite side, is known as the Cherokee Cottage was the home of Mr. Henry Coleman   Mr. Henry Coleman, his daughter, Susie, and her husband, Palmer Hemmons, lived in that house.

Continue on down that block, on the right, was the home of Jerry Godwin.  Jerry Godwin was of the old family who operated Godwin’s Mill but he retired to Crumpton and trained bird dogs for wealthy people; had a great collection of Indian relics.

Now we come to the house known as the Charlie Wiggan’s house.  Charlie Wiggan was quite a character. A drink or two and he had his derby on; if he had his derby on and a drink or two, he had his mouth organ. I know he could compose the greatest songs you’ve ever seen. He took care of an old lady whose name was Carrie.  I remember him singing a song -- there on the banks of the Chester River where me and Carrie go   …we had many good times together sometimes we raised H.

Now we are … old houses on that street . . .  we are coming towards Market Street. We are now at the corner of Market Street and First Street, looking down the hill, there is a fishing shack down there belonging to Mr. Johnny Stutz.  Mr. Johnny Stutz was quite a fisherman. He drags a seine. There are very few people left doing that. Mr. Johnny Stutz often supplied fish for many of the farmers around. I’ve seen as many as six and seven carriages tied at the top of the hill while farmers were standing at the foot of the hill with a basket in their hand waiting for Mr. Stutz to come in with his catch.

We come up, then turn left on Market Street and Front.  This house Mr. Bob Fennimore rented from a man named Bishop.   Mr. Bob Fennimore was a blacksmith at that time. He had a wife, Helen, and three daughters. He later moved to Wilmington and I lost track of him.

We come to Second and Market Street and a very nice house on the corner was that of Mr. Johnny Stutz.  Mr. Johnny Stutz was a good mechanic and kept his home in a beautiful condition.  

We will turn left, down Second Street now, there is an old building in a cluster of trees, on the left, in that block between Market and Merchant.  At this time it had hay stored in it so it was gone beyond the point of habitation.

Continuing on down that block, to the right, is a block, the 1st block of lots that I bought, between First and Second and Pine and Merchant.  Then, the next block, between Pine and Caroline, there was a double-house.  It was occupied by the newest people during the first years I was in Crumpton.  Mr. Clough, the father of Mrs. Stutz, lived there. -- the most vivid in my memory, he and his wife.

Now we come to the next block, between Caroline and Broad, on the left corner, is the Brinsfield home.  They had not lived there that long as they had moved from Kent County.

On the right hand side of that block was the parsonage, belonging to the MP church. The MP church was an attractive old church with most beautiful colorful windows I’d ever seen.

Next was the home of Mrs. Register. Mrs. Carrie Register was the widow of a retired Kent County farmer. She and her son, George, lived there.

Next was the home of the Rylands. Now, Mr. Jessie Ryland and his uncle and his wife and Mr. Jessie’s sister lived there.

Now we come to a double house, on the right.  That double house  ----  I just can’t remember who were the occupants at that time.  One time, later, Mr. Dutch Walls lived there.

Well, the next house on the right, was a 3-story building; quite a large, roomy    place. Mr. James Walls lived there in my early times in Crumpton.  Mr. James Walls also owned a farm out towards Millington.

Now we are back at barber Burris’s barber shop in the rear of the Bob Cannon’s  store.

So we’ll make the loop up Cross Street to Third. Turning at Third Street, we will walk down and in the center of the block, between Broad and Caroline, is the Methodist Episcopal Church and parsonage.

And the next house, between the parsonage and Caroline Street, is the home of Captain Tom Ware. Captain Tom Ware was a man with a most interesting background.   He knew much about the early days of Crumpton.  I wish I had talked to him more.

So, that about finishes, there are no further houses on Third Street between that        and Market, so we’ll go back up to Fourth Street, turning right.

Going up Fourth Street, the first house on the left was the house of Mr. Harry Robinson and his wife, Nellie.  Later it became Cora Reed property.

Continuing on down that road, we come to the Harrison house where Earl and his brother, Paul, lived.  They did some farming; always raised some nice hogs and a lot of chickens.

There was a house next to it known as the States house.  It was not long after that that the States house was torn down.  The States had a daughter, Eva, and a son, Jimmy. They moved to New York.

From there on out Fourth Street, until we take a turn - we strike a turn in the road called Pine Tree Road.  There were two lots there that were occupied by a man named Frank Walker.  Frank Walker lived in one shack, half under the ground, just a board overhead.  

That is as far as Crumpton went at that time.

Let’s take a stroll down Market Street towards the river again.  On the left is the Bowers’ home. The Bowers is a family of folk who bought this land as a summer place.  They were carriage builders and had been very successful. They also bought a vast acreage on the other side of Pearl Creek on which they put in quite an orchard with fruits that had never been known in this neighborhood. They at one time they had pilings driven in the Pearl Creek in hopes of building a bridge from a point on Pearl Creek into the town of Crumpton, but it was never completed. Pearl Creek is the creek that Mary Sheppard wrote her poem from. 

Captain Tom Ware was an elderly gentleman when I came to Crumpton.   He was a man with a lot of interests. Information he gave me regarding the crossing of the Chester River from Crumpton as he had heard it, not as he had seen it, but it had started far back, and the raft with which they crossed was constructed of logs, surfaced with planks.  Planks had been cut by the old form of up-and-down saw, of which there were two in the locality of Crumpton. To get to the ferry there was a portion, a small portion, of marsh which had to be crossed by corduroy road.   The barge was operated by Mr. Callister. There was a question as to whether it was Callister or McCallister, anyway, he came here through the influence of some decedents of the Comegys family.

Let’s go down the river now to the island.  It is a small island laying at a point off Pearl Creek but closer to the Kent shore. Mr. Coleman told me that at one time that this island had tillable land to the amount of 14 acres.  There was also a house on it. The farm was mostly tilled by the Kent County farmers because they could drive across at low tide and carry their teams and equipment.  Mr. Coleman said that as a boy he remembers the largest tobacco he had ever seen in his life growing on that island.  And they ‘oft time had bumper crops of corn.

Now let’s continue up the main street of Crumpton until we come to Fingerboard.   We will turn left in a matter of a half mile; we come to the property formerly known as Godwin property now the last few years it’s been called the Bourne place.  Now the old mill on the left, at the water’s edge, was a grist mill.  The grist mill was operated by a race coming from what is known as Red Line Branch   The water was flushed under a road, through a sleuth, to the mill.  The pressure from that water operated the mechanism.  I have talked to Mr. Bob Godwin.  Mr. Bob Godwin is a descendant of the folks that owned it many years back.  Mr. Bob also said there was also connected to that mill, just a few feet north of it, was a saw mill. The mill lays on a little strip of water called Mill Creek. Mill Creek comes out back of Crumpton and was a place where many mussels were found. At a certain period, at the beginning of the century, some local people opened those mussels for pearls. I was at one time shown a pint jar half full of small pearls.  It was then in possession of Mr. Poe Hartley.  They say that Tiffany & Company bought most of the pearls, they were small, and occasionally there was a larger one, for a fairly good price.    

Let’s come down the shore from Mill Creek to the principle part of Crumpton again.  At the foot of what is known as Mechanic Street [now named Shoal Street] there was an ice house where the ice was stored in the winter to be used and was often still available from the last of June until the first of July.

Coming along from where the Ice House had been, we will walk up Mechanic Street to Broad Street.  The site to the left, it is said that at one time there was a foundry here.  Some of the oldest houses in Crumpton were lived in by those folks connected to this foundry.

Now we are out to Broad Street again.  The area laying to the left of Mechanic Street, as we come . . as we approach Broad Street, was excellent truck land and was tilled, when I was there, by Mr.  Donald Coleman.   We have found many, many arrow heads here, each year after the plowing is done and a few rains have fallen one could almost always pick up a few arrow heads, which were of great interest to the people.  It must have been great hunting country for the Indians because the same thing seems to be the case all the way down the shore on the south side of the river. I do not know much about the north side.

We are going down Broad Street now to First Street.  We will turn left at First Street continuing out towards Market Street, but the first block out where Caroline crosses Front Street there is a white building known as the creamery.  I can remember being told by Mr. Ulie Smith, who was raised down the river, that as a boy he rowed a boat from the other side of Pearl Creek up to the shore below the creamery and carried cans of milk to the creamery to have butter made from it but in place of carrying home empty cans they filled it with buttermilk for the pigs which were at the farm, and he would row it on back down the river to his residence below Pearl Creek.

We will continue out Front Street now, crossing Pine and approaching Merchant Street.  Mr. Jerry Godwin lives between Front Street and the river at a point near Merchant Street.  Mr. Jerry Godwin and his family had what was called (drag -seine) and it was on their shore that they would haul the catch of the local fishermen.  At top of the hill there would be a row of fish peddlers, some of them sleeping all night, waiting for the catch of one man in particular.  Mr. Will Spence told me, that as a young man, he drove from Dover to Crumpton, slept under a tree, that he pointed out, and waited for a load of catfish the following morning.  The catfish would come in and he would sit in the back of the wagon with a lantern and between Crumpton and Dover he would skin catfish and would stand on the curb in Dover on the following day and sell Crumpton catfish to the passing public.

We will continue out Front Street now, stopping at the top of the hill at Market Street, look down to Mr. Johnny Stutz’s fishing shore. I mentioned this before, but this is where the folks tied their horses and wagons while they went to the shore to get fresh pulled fish from Mr. Stutz.     

Let’s walk Market Street and wander on along Piney Shore. It is a beautiful spot. It moves right along [the] Chester River for a matter of 1,000 to 1,200 feet, then as the shore turns up Pearl Creek. You can stand here at the reeds now. Looking across Pearl Creek you can still see some of the pilings that were left from the efforts of Mr. Bowers to build a bridge across which never materialized. The cottage across Pearl Creek still stands, but in very dilapidated condition.

We will continue up Pearl Creek until we come to a parcel of land known as the  Holiday lot.   It was later owned and worked by Mr. Thomas Jefferson, a local produce farmer and peach orchard operator.

We are back out now on Pine Tree Road.  Turning to our right, we will continue out until we come to the Chestertown / Millington Road.  We will stop here and look to our right where you will see quite a hill.  That hill is called Coleman’s Hill. The stream of water which flows under the bridge there is really… is the head of Pearl Creek.

I think it would be a good thing now if we would reverse our walk and return to Crumpton while I tell you about some of the things down Pine Tree Road.

This small house, to the right here, when I first came to Crumpton, it was occupied by a colored man.  I do remember one thing about him - he always kept a good looking team; drove a good looking horse to a break cart and had to have a derby.

And going on down Pine Tree Road, I will tell you about the strip of woods to my right. In the center of these woods is a large peat-bog farm.  I have been told that many years ago, during the draught, this peatmoss-bog caught fire and burned for months and months and months. 

Now we will walk on back toward town passing what I mentioned a while ago, known as the Holiday lot. At this time it was tilled by Mr. Jefferson.  Mr. Jefferson had a brother-in-law who lived with him and helped him.  John, he was called. He was an immense man and it was no trouble for him to grab the cultivator and walk quite a distance to clean up a part of the farm, and I had seen him do it.

Now we are coming to the corner of Market Street and Pine Tree Road.  The old top of the shack you see to your right was the last place that Frank Walker grew.  Now to the left, about 100 yards, you will find the ruins / the remains of an old shed. I went into it one time when Frank Walker was growing. 

We continue on through this one horse road, wagon-track wide, which was laid as a shortcut into Crumpton by farmers who were coming from Chestertown Road to go over into Kent. 

We will continue up Fourth Street and on our left is a boatyard belonging to Mr. Elwood Coleman.

The next place on the left and the right is the truck patch of Mr. Clay Hendrix. If you will notice, off to the right, there is a plum tree. Those are the finest plums I think I ever ate.

We will cross this ditch between here and Broad Street. This ditch dries up in the hot summer and most always there can be some water reached if you dig down a few feet.

Well, we are back to the corner of Fourth and Broad Street. Let’s walk across to the Bradley Store and we will sit on curb there.  I see Mr. Abe Crew there and Mr.  Biddle.   Mr. Bradley still sits in his chair on the porch of the hardware store.

I want to try to tell you some of the interesting tales I had in Crumpton.  The large store, two blocks down on the left, which one time [was] the Harrison brothers store, now occupied by Ralph Cannon, is a great gathering place in the evening, particularly in the fall, when the hunting season starts. A lot of the city people come down here and stay for the first few days of the season.  We had a character here in town,  Mr. Lambert Ware, I spoke about his parents in the earlier part in this tape, but Mr. Ware would sit on that counter, starting at 6 o’clock in the evening, and continually tell interesting tales – some of them quite tall. 

There was one gentleman, Macarelli, from Marcus Hook, who always bought a box of cigars from the cigar case and throughout the evening was so entertaining that he had to treat everybody to ­­cigars.  But Lambert Ware was really a tall tale salesman.

I remember one of his tales was of a dog he had named Rose, a retriever.  He told of the day when he and Elwood Coleman went hunting.  There were 7 ducks in a group.  Rose was heavy with pup. They shot into them and every duck vanished. Rose made a dive for the water, as Rose came up, he looked back over at her and  there were 6 pups, each with a duck in its mouth. She had made a complete catch.  He also said that he could throw his keys over in 20 foot of water and that dog would go to the bottom and bring them back to him. 

A great tale of his was about a cow his mother and dad had named Cherry. Cherry was so heavy with milk, when she came fresh it broke both [her] hind legs.

And, to tell tales about his garden, one of ‘em was [about] a rapid-growing watermelon vine.  He said that Dr. Stack’s car broke down.  So Dr. Stack came to the house. They turned the head into the road.  Dr. Stack strattled it and went out in the country and made his call.  But that was not all of it.  They had a pumpkin vine in that same garden that grew so large that they cut it in half.  They made a 2 car garage out of one half of it, the other half they took to the river, put it overboard and shipped tomatoes to Baltimore.  Well that type of story Mr. Ware could tell all night long.

I want to get something on this tape regarding the Clements Family. The Clements family principle holdings were in Kent County, beautiful farms, beautiful stock, but they also had a great pride and made a great effort for Crumpton, each being store keepers here. The Clements, I understand, were instrumental in getting our first rural route into Crumpton.  They were also instrumental in the street light.  It goes back to before the turn of the century and at the turn of the century the trees had a stake into them with an iron ­­­­rod with a loop on the end of it, and a wooden peg upon which would set an oil lamp. Those lamps were lighted in the evening so Crumpton was not too far back; it had street lights long before many other towns.

It was quite a picture to look down Main Street and see a great number of carriages and wagons and horses with saddles tied to the hitching post.  The hitching posts started right in front of Mr. Daughity’s, and they were also in front of Mr. Clark’s.  On down to the corner there was the Hackett Emerson store on the right, and in front of Mr. Cannon’s store, on the left, and they turned around the street, and on Second Street there were hitching posts back as far as barber Burris’s barber shop.

Across the street from the barber shop was a red building which was Bob Fennimore’s blacksmith shop. He was a very busy man when he got there, but he would never get there before mid-morning or noon. He would really sleep, but, he was a good fella.

Let’s continue out Second Street to Pine.  Now to our left is a block of land. It was the first block I bought, Second to Third, Pine to Merchant --  it contained 40 lots. Well, I bought a building that was down the road a piece from Mr. Enoch Clough.   I had some boys move it out and we made a very comfortable room in one half of it. It was there that I lived for a long time; had many a good time together.

I can remember Pierce Bowers. He was quite a good cook.  Oh yeah, in those days crows flew over Crumpton toward the Kent side of the river by the thousands in the evening.  I can remember shells were cheap at that time.  We stood in the door of that cabin and we shot crows until we had what we thought were a half a bushel of them. Well we shot what we thought were the young crows.   We did not bother to pick but we skinned them and cut from them just the breast.  Pierce parboiled those breasts. Later we would fry ‘em as you would a muskrat or rabbit, and I’m gonna tell you they were good eatin’.

In the wintertime we’d slip over to Fred Stevens and get some milk, because he always has a surplus, and we would make homemade ice cream.   And boy could Pierce Bowers make homemade ice cream!  

Another thing that I enjoyed, back in those days, was the church suppers that they had and I always fared well because always at church supper they sold what they had left at auction, and I was always fortunate enough to get awful good eating and lived very well for several days after the church supper.

The folks living in Crumpton, a great many of them kept a flock of laying hens. You would find that practically all of them had a garden somewhere around.  Another interesting thing was that in the fall of the year, when the first cold spells had arrived, there were plans for a hog killing because you would find a pair of hogs or more at about every other residence.    The hog killing was quite an affair. The men practicing that line of work would arrive in Crumpton before daylight with their equipment, their tanks and their woods and the necessary tools.  I have seen as much as 25 and 30 hogs on the gallows. And that event would go on for maybe two or three days later in the winter.

Fox hunting was a sport practiced in Crumpton to a great extent in the early years of my living here. Many of the residents kept a pair or more of fox hounds.  As I remember, the fox hunters, perhaps twice a year had what they call a bag fox and they would release it somewhere on the outskirts of town and the hunters would have a day of pleasure.

During the harvesting I worked on the farms. I helped to shock wheat on every one of the Clements farms. In the spring I worked in the asparagus patch of Mr. Bob Walmsley.  Walking across the bridge and across the fields to what was known as the Brooks Farm.  Mr. Tyce Lee and I would go together.  We would get our breakfast as soon as we arrived at Walmsley home, go to the field cut asparagus, help tie it, and at the end of the morning we were paid 50 cents but we went back to the house and got one of the best meals I’ll ever remember. In addition to that 50 cents, Mr. Wamsley would let Tyce and I each have a basket of the culls …  let us tie ‘em and let us bring ‘em home.  From that we always got quite a little bit of change, sometimes as much as $2 out of what he gave us so the day’s work wasn’t too bad after all. 

Now we’re back in Crumpton.  Let’s go across that beautiful causeway and white shell road, and the arching willows, down to the shell-covered wharf. The Corsica ties up here when it comes up from Baltimore; unloads its freight.  The teams from the outlying territories, such as Sudlersville, Barclay, and Millington, come to Crumpton to pick up their freight. Some of the willows are getting old and falling apart.

The house to the left is now occupied by Grace and George Woodall. George is a mechanic for the cannery across the bridge.  The cannery now has been enlarged from a single peach cannery to a large combination cannery of beans and tomatoes.  It is operated by D. E. Foot and Company in Baltimore.  They are owned by Colonel Phillips.

As we come off the bridge, the large building to the right, which was last occupied by Harry Robinson’s father, and Harry Robinson and his wife, Nelly.  This was at one time known as Slaughter Hotel. The Slaughter Hotel took care of a great many drummers going through the country and also took care of the people from the boats that were hauling freight and grain to and from Crumpton.  Now above us here, I think I told you early in the tape, I believe, was a boatyard. Now some of the men who worked in the boatyard lived here. There also were three houses northwest of us.  One, next house to the Slaughter Hotel, was last occupied, as I remember then, while the hotel stood, was with Elwood Coleman. Now, there were two other houses up the hill.  One had been the Brinsfield house but Brinsfield has now moved over into Crumpton. The next house was the Lloyd. Mr. Lloyd had returned here from being up to the city.  Of course, Crumpton Lane is quite a nice road.  Up on the left, you will find black heart cherries. They are out of this world.  In Crumpton its always kept a little wider than the average country road.   I was told it was due to the fact that it gave the Clements a place to show their fine horses.

                                                                                    Transcription by Pamela A. Hock