Brittingham, Elmer A. (1907-1989)
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Copyright: Records are open for research. Copyright, including literary rights, belongs to the Worcester County Library. Permission to publish or reproduce must be obtained from the Worcester County Library which extends beyond “fair use”.
Worcester County Library: Local History and Genealogy Collection, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, MD
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Interviewee: |
Elmer A. Brittingham (1907-1989) |
| Interviewer: | Scott Kendall |
| Date of interview: |
1982 April 1 |
| Length of interview: | 1 hour, 7 minutes |
| Transcribed by: | Rachel Jones, Worcester County Library |
| Preferred Citation: |
“Name, Oral History Collection, Date of Interview, Worcester County Library, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, Maryland.” |
Topical Terms:
Church
Hunting
Prohibition
School
Sports
steamboats
Worcester County (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Social life and customs
World War I
World War II
Corporate Names:
Peninsula Produce Exchange
Pocomoke Fair
Location Terms:
Assateague (Md.)
Fenwick Island (Md.)
Klej Grange (Md.)
Ocean City (Md.)
Pocomoke (Md.)
Pocomoke River (Md.)
Public Landing (Md.)
Red Hills (Md.)
Snow Hill (Md.)
Interview Begin
Elmer: My name is Elmer A. Brittingham. I live at (redacted) in Pocomoke City, Maryland.
The Spy in World War I
In April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany. Within a short time, a detachment of the Pennsylvania State Guard was stationed in Pocomoke to protect our railroad bridge. The guards lived in a tent camp near the railroad station and used our school grounds at 4th and Walnut Street for their daily training. When the draft law was enacted, many of our able-bodied young men found they had physical defects to keep them out of the service. Others moved to the farm. In Pocomoke, an infantry company of the Maryland Home Guard was formed. Captain F. Lee Bonneville, later referred to as Colonel, was named the local commander. Lt. Clarence Dickerson, who had learned his military training at Maryland’s St. John’s College, was the drillmaster. The Pocomoke company was soon proficient in drill and (unintelligible conversation) used the sand hills in back of Winter Quarters Manor for a rifle range and continued weekly drills until the end of the war. A drum and bugle corps was formed at the high school and the cost of the instruments was donated by Colonel Bonneville. The drum and bugle corps continued to play for parades, liberty bond drives, and other ceremonies until the armistice.
Yes, we have our own spy story. A German spy arrived in our town in the summer of 1917. The spy sometimes stayed at our Parker House hotel and at other times at Townsend’s rooming house. Shortly after the spy came to Pocomoke, there was a rumor that he could be a spy. The rumor was discounted when Colonel Bonneville made a public statement that the spy was a native American and of good character. Thereafter, the spy was well accepted and attended the Salem Methodist church regularly. The spy owned or leased a waterfront farm near Girdletree. The spy was known to visit the vacant farmhouse often. A neighbor watched the spy throw a wire from an upper window and secure the end to a tree. The neighbor reported this act to proper authorities and within days the spy was caught sending information to the Germans. The spy never returned to our town. The spy was caught in the summer of 1918, about a year after his arrival.
The Pocomoke River
In 1922, my brother and I purchased a used Evinrude outboard motor from Captain Will Stevenson. We used the outboard motor to propel a 30-foot red boat. I had a bow net similar to the one used by the Pocomoke Indians for catching the spring run on rock, shad, and other fish. In addition to fishing, we took sightseeing trips. Sometimes on holidays and weekends, we would camp out along the banks of the river. When the party numbered 5 or 6 boys, we would tow a 15-foot skiff to accommodate the extra riders.
Bridges
Now this is about the history of the bridges: In 1607 (?), Captain William Stevens established a ferry near the present site of the highway bridge over US (Route) 13. There were five bridges built in the Pocomoke area. The first was built by our Indians, perhaps more than a thousand years ago, located some 40 yards upriver from Winter Quarters. I viewed the remains of this bridge in 1919 or 1920. It was a period of extremely low tides. The water covered no more than 1/3 of the area between the banks. It may have been a geologic fault in this area. A bridge of stones from each bank led toward the channel and disappeared. It would appear over the centuries, the tides had partly destroyed the center and perhaps our steamboats with their metal prows had completed the job. In 1865, at the close of the Civil War, a wooden draw bridge was completed near the site of Stevens Ferry. In 1880, the iron railroad bridge was erected to give rail service from New York to Cape Charles and Norfolk. In 1922, the Market Street bridge was finished. Shortly thereafter, the old wooden bridge was removed. The dual highway bridge on US 13 was completed in 1959. During World War I, when the old drawbridge was closed for repairs, I rode across the ferry and back. The Stevens Ferry had been pulled by the ferryman, by hand, but the one I rode was pulled by a pair of horses on each side of the river. There was room on the ferry for a large farm wagon or two carriages. Young horses often had hoods placed over their eyes to quiet them.
Steamboats
Steamboats made weekly trips from Baltimore to Pocomoke City and to Snow Hill. The steamboat was scheduled to arrive at the Market Street wharf at 12 noon. Our merchants used the steamboat for supplies because the rate was much less than by rail and also faster. In the summer of 1920, I was working at Vaughn’s Market. I was required to meet the steamer and pick up one or more large baskets of bananas and push them on my bicycle to the store. The sooner the better, since many of our farmers came by horse and carriage and left town to be home by dark. The steamboats were side-wheelers. They had 3 decks. On the lower deck was the freight, the engine room, and the galley. On the second deck, there were cabins, a dining room, and an observation deck. On the top deck was the pilot house, the lifeboats, and the rafts. Steamboats had a speed of 12 miles per hour and required 24 hours to make the round trip back to Baltimore. Sewards (?) Ferry was located (unintelligible)…a part of it run right across the area that the highway bridge on US 13 now is located, the dual bridge, the new bridge.
The Pocomoke Fair
The Pocomoke Fair was first staged in the year 1902 and continued for the next 29 years. The fair was held each week in the month of August until 1930. The fairgrounds were located just south of the corner of Second and Broad Streets. It was an agricultural fair featuring displays of farm products, animals, tools, and equipment. On the first floor of the grandstand were numerous exhibits competing for prizes in handicrafts, arts, food, and so forth. In the afternoon, there were harness races on a fine half mile track with both hand betting and purses. Numerous horsemen from Virginia competed with our local drivers bringing their best pacers and trotters. One of their best drivers from Virginia was Will Bull (?) and the best from Pocomoke area was Dan Armstrong. A large carnival furnished entertainment each afternoon and night: ferris wheels, merry go rounds, other mechanical rides, side shows, wheels of fortune, games of chance, and both boxing and wrestling matches. Some added attractions were parachute jumps from balloons, airplanes and automobiles on exhibit. On special days, passenger trains were scheduled from Cape Charles and as far north as Laurel, Delaware. Our local baseball stars played exhibition games against professionals. The famous Homerun Baker played in these matches on several occasions. Automobile races were set up one day of the fair during the last 10 years. In later years, president of the fair was Ray B. Gladding, later mayor of Pocomoke City. And the secretary and treasurer was James M. Crockett, a young lawyer and later a judge of the Circuit Court.
Interviewer: How was the train? What was it like?
Elmer: In 1916 we went by train to Ocean City. We left the Pocomoke station and went to Salisbury and then south to Ocean City. And at that time the railroad bridge went over to the beach up at Ocean City and there was a station. And we went for the day and my father took us. The whole of Ocean City was only about 10 blocks from one end to the other. And now of course, Ocean City extends almost to the Delaware line on Fenwick Island. I did camp on the beach for a week on the beach with the Boy Scout troop, not in Ocean City, but rather up at Fenwick Island, right opposite the lighthouse. At that time I was about 14 years old, which would’ve been about 1922 and there were 8, possibly 10 cottages on Fenwick Island, but there was no road to Ocean City. One day, as a hike, we hiked down on the beach to Ocean City and back to the lighthouse. There were about 24 Scouts in the camp. And when we went to the camp on Fenwick Island, we had to go to Selbyville, Delaware and then come south over the old iron bridge that’s still standing and almost opposite the lighthouse. Of course, the lighthouse has been discontinued. Over the years, later on, I fished from the surf at Fenwick and Ocean City. And every year, or several years, rather, when the trout were running in the fall, we would stay a few days in one of the cottages at Fenwick Island. And that was very good fishing in those days. We used to catch trout, kingfish, and numerous others. You never knew what you were going to catch in the surf, it was so much variety.
Interviewer: What kind of things did you do on Ocean City? Did you go there for a trip, for fun? In the town? Did you go swimming at the beach?
Elmer: Yeah, there was a restricted area where you were supposed to swim, but it wasn’t enforced. You could go anywhere you wanted. But we mostly fished away from the swimmers. We’d get up the beach a ways and there was plenty of places to fish. Now, there’s no place to fish in the surf, except just here and there.
Interviewer: Did you go to the town? Into the town of Ocean City? And maybe shop?
Elmer: No, not when we were fishing. But for the summer, yeah, we all went down for the day, Saturday or Sunday.
Interviewer: Were the streets paved then?
Elmer: Oh, yes. The main street was. Yes.
Interviewer: What kind of stores did they have?
Elmer: Well, it’s like all resort towns, It was all kinds of amusement machines and all that kind of thing. Saltwater taffy and hamburger stands and all that stuff, just like it is today, somewhat, but not as elaborate.
Interviewer: They had a swimming pool in Ocean City.
Elmer: They had swimming pools in Ocean City, oh from possibly 1930 on. Usually at only the larger hotels.
Interviewer: There was one, that they told us about, that was a salt water pool.
Elmer: Yeah, well, I’m sure of that. They used the salt water because they had it right there. They’d pump it right in out of the ocean. Bound to be salty.
Interviewer: What were some of the first hotels they had there?
Elmer: I remember the old Atlantic which was run by the Purnell family for many years. It was one of the largest, and it was wooden. Mostly, we just went in there to eat, I never [stayed there], because we were close by, we would drive home at night, unless we were at a convention or something like that.
Interviewer: Do you remember anything about Berlin? Was it a small town? Did you hear much about it then?
Elmer: No…it’s only recently that many of the citizens of Berlin, owning property in Ocean City, made a lot of money out of it. But, actually as a town, it’s never been very progressive.
Interviewer: What about Snow Hill? Did you go there much?
Elmer: Oh, yeah. Snow Hill is almost like a second Williamsburg. Many of the old homes there are well worth seeing, and they date back to the revolution and before. And Williamsburg, of course, was all rebuilt. Or most of it, with the Rockerfeller money.
Interviewer: There were Rockerfellers? In Williamsburg? Where were the Rockerfellers?
Elmer: In Williamsburg, not Ocean City. We always went to Williamsburg to see all these old colonial homes, but we had them right here in Snow Hill.
Interviewer: Back to Ocean City a minute…Do you remember the ’32 hurricane?
Elmer: The ’62 hurricane, yeah, but the other two probably…
Interviewer: This hurricane was the one that cut the channel between Assateague….
Elmer: I know about it, but only after it was over, when they had the new channel down there.
Interviewer: Were you there?
Elmer: Not at that time…(unitelligable)
Interviewer: You didn’t see any of the flooding because of it?
Elmer: No, but this friend of ours, in the ’62 storm, had a cottage on Fenwick Island, above the lighthouse. And there just wasn’t nothing left. Not even the pipes or anything. The whole cottage was gone. We were up there for about 3 weeks before, and when the storm came in, they called us up on the phone. No, we called them on the phone and told them to come on down. And they said, “Oh, we’re all right.” He and his wife. He was in the army. He said, “We’re all right” and right after that, the roof blew off of the house. And he had this flashlight (unintelligible conversation) and they finally wound up on the roof on top of a dune next to it, rather, and they were rescued by the Delaware National Guard in tanks. And then they picked up a woman at the foot of this place. We were just there 3 weeks before.
Interviewer: Do you remember the Pocomoke (River) ever flooding?
Elmer: Yeah, when I was a boy and lived on Front Street. In 1915, I lived on Front Street in Pocomoke, and the boats came right up by the house, rowboats and things, could come right up by the house. That was the biggest flood that I remember.
Interviewer: So it went up over Front Street?
Elmer: Yeah, over the street. Boats could come right up the street. Of course, most of the vehicles then were horse and carriage. The horse would still go. They didn’t like to go in the water, but they would.
Interviewer: Did you go to Public Landing?
Elmer: Yeah, that was mostly where we went for our summer parties and things. It was outings for the day because it was safe swimming, and people who couldn’t swim could still go in there. And also catch crabs. And it was a...we didn’t have much money to spend and you could still have a good time down there.
Interviewer: What kind of amusements did they have down there?
Elmer: They didn’t have very much; they had places you could buy sandwiches and things like that. A restaurant or two. And then there was an old hotel down there, but we didn’t go to that. We went out on the pier, got sunburned, and bathed, and caught crabs, ate picnic lunches.
Interviewer: Did you ever go on the pier in Ocean City?
Elmer: Oh, yeah. You could fish from the pier. And then they had amusements on this end. Still, I don’t know if it’s still there or not. You were allowed to fish from it. It wasn’t really good fishing, not like the surf. You might catch one now and then.
Interviewer: Did you go to Assateague?
Elmer: Well, at Assateague we fished on the beach for drum. And then, one year we went deer hunting. There are only 2 of us left today that went on a party. All the rest of them are dead. There were about 10 or 12. We went to Public Landing and went across in a boat to Green Run Inlet, which was on this end of Assateague then. There was another inlet was cut in there. And we hunted deer all day over there, but we were not experienced in deer hunting and they run ahead of us all the time. They cut around on the beach. One of the Coast Guard told us that a deer ran up the beach, right aside of you, and we looked and there were the footprints in the sand. And we couldn’t see them because we were in the woods a little higher where they run all the way back up. In other words, they run as far as the inlet and then they could’ve jumped across and swam back across, but they knew we couldn’t get down there and they run right back up the beach.
Interviewer: Do you remember Jake, an alligator in Ocean City? Or Snow Hill?
Elmer: No.
Interviewer: There was some guy who had an alligator he brought from somewhere and had in a cage in Snow Hill.
Elmer: We had one at the fairgrounds for many, the old fairgrounds
Interviewer: an alligator?
Elmer: It may have escaped from the circus that was there or carnival, we don’t know. But it was there for many years. I never saw him, but all the boys seen him.
Interviewer: Where was he? He was in the wild?
Elmer: Right in the middle of the track. There was a low place down there and they can bury in the mud. With the fauna and the type of vegetation we have, we’re just like a swamp. We had alligators at one time.
Interviewer: When you were a child, what kind of home life did you have?
Elmer: Well, until I was 6 years old, we lived on a farm in Cokesbury. I went 6 months, the first half of the year, until Christmas, to the country school. Of course, it was just a short distance and we walked. Church was right near the school. The family went there on Sundays. We had just a crop and farm, raising potatoes and corn.
Interviewer: What kind of chores did you have?
Elmer: Well, first thing we did was feed the chickens and pick up the eggs. Bring the wood in and all that kind of stuff, firewood.
Interviewer: Did you help plant?
Elmer: No, not then. But later on, when I moved in town, I was 6 years old, but I spent 2 summers on my grandmother’s farm. And there I learned to do everything. One summer when I was about 11, 11 or 12, I guess, I to drive mules without cussing (?) and I (unintelligible conversation) all day long, just like everybody else. But the first year I was there, I was too small. They didn’t let me handle the team then.
Interviewer: What kind of school did you have?
Elmer: Well the country school was just the two rooms, but that was just the first 6 months. Then, in town, we went to was what called Pocomoke High School. Of course, I was in primary. I started there in the first grade. It was down on 4th and Walnut.
Interviewer: Was it real strict, school?
Elmer: You betcha. You towed the mark, or else.
Interviewer: What kind of activities did they have at the school? Like sports?
Elmer: Well, later on, well, we had annual field days. As long as I was in school we had annual field days that were placed in different towns each year: Berlin, Snow Hill, and Pocomoke, those 3 centers. Each school competed in games of dodgeball, of course baseball was run in a separate league, but on field day they had dashes and distance races and jumps and relay races.
Interviewer: These were between schools?
Elmer: Yeah and medals were awarded for first, second, third for the school making the most points. We trained 2 or 3 months for this field day, which was near the end of the spring, before the spring break.
Interviewer: Did you golf when you were young? Was there a golf course in Pocomoke?
Elmer: No, our golf course was built in 1939 or ’40. And it was the only course except at Cape Charles and at the Elk’s in Salisbury.
Interviewer: What kind of subjects did you have at school?
Elmer: Well…you stayed in the 3rd or 2nd grade if you couldn’t pass, you stayed 2 or 3 years. It didn’t make any difference to the teachers. Until you learned.
Interviewer: What kind of subjects did you have?
Elmer: We started languages, Latin. And mathematics, such as algebra and so forth, in high school, in the 8th grade.
Interviewer: You didn’t start math until 8th grade?
Elmer: Algebra. We had regular math, commercial problems and different things. Of course, in gradeschool, you had long division. When you got up into high school, you had Math I and Math II, and you had general science. Then you had biology and chemistry and physics in the four year period. And trigonometry and solid geometry.
Interviewer: Did you have calculus?
Elmer: No, no calculus. It wasn’t taught in high school.
Interviewer: You said trigonometry and solid geometry?
Elmer: Solid geometry and trigonometry. In senior year, usually. But sometimes you could arrange, if your class schedule permitted, you could take it in the junior year. And the Latin started in high school, 8th grade. And then the second year you had Caesar and third year…I didn’t take the third and fourth year.
Interviewer: When did high school start, in the 8th grade? 7th grade was the last year in…
Elmer: 7th grade was the last year in elementary
Interviewer: And you went through the 11th grade? Or 12th?
Elmer: 11th. There was no 12th grade.
Interviewer: What kind of teachers did you have?
Elmer: Most of our teachers were well qualified. One of the better teacher we had later went to State College, Dr. Thomas, Ida Belle Wilson Thomas, was probably the best teacher we had. And Dr. Fontaine, he had a doctorate of education ….(unintelligible conversation)…Dr. Thomas later became one of the top instructors at Salisbury State College. Dr. Fontaine, who for many years was our principal and later became superintendent of schools, of high schools, of the state of Maryland, he….We were fortunate in French we had a woman French teacher who had been to France and studied for several years at a university there and of course she was an excellent teacher. We only had her one year and then we got a missionary out of Belgium or somewhere and his French sounded like German. French is a beautiful language when it’s spoken like French.
Interviewer: How long did you stay at school? Like when did you go in the morning? And when did you get out?
Elmer: 9-3:30, the best I remember, all the way through. We never changed that.
Interviewer: Even in high school, did you have recess or any kind of breaks?
Elmer: No, in the lower school we had a recess period, which we went out more to get air and tear around a little bit. In the high schools there were probably periods that if you didn’t have to study something, you could take it. Sports and things came after school.
Interviewer: Did they have fall sports? Like football?
Elmer: We played soccer. We had no football. Football wasn’t allowed in Maryland at that time, although, I think Salisbury started about the time I finished high school. We were very fortunate in soccer. We had a coach who had played in the Olympics out of England and he taught our soccer team to play quite well. We played, at least 2 of the 3 years that I played, we played the state championship.
Interviewer: So you went all the way to state?
Elmer: We didn’t win it, but we played for the state championship. We won the Eastern Shore.
Interviewer: Did you have winter sports? Like basketball?
Elmer: Basketball we did not have. We only had outdoor courts. That’s what the girls used to play on, but the men didn’t play it. There was baseball in the spring and soccer in the fall and track which we practiced somewhat, 2 or 3 months before in the spring usually.
Interviewer: So you never had any basketball then?
Elmer: No, we never had any basketball courts.
Interviewer: So you didn’t play outside either?
Elmer: We did on the women’s courts. We just practiced. There was no league or anything.
Interviewer: So you just practiced? You never played other schools?
Elmer: Never had been. We played basketball at the armory; that’s where I played. I was company commander right after we moved in there, for about 3 or 4 years. That was the first basketball court.
Interviewer: How was your church? Where was it?
Elmer: Well, when I was going, it was Salem.
Interviewer: How long did you stay there?
Elmer: I left when I was 22 years old.
Interviewer: How long did you stay? Like when you went in Sunday morning, how many hours did you stay that day?
Elmer: Well, we usually went to Sunday school. Sometimes an evening church service, but the morning Sunday school, an hour and a half.
Interviewer: Did you get out in time for lunch?
Elmer: We just went to Sunday School. We alternated. Most of the time we just went to that and sometimes we went to Sunday night service.
Interviewer: What time did you get out of the Sunday night service?
Elmer: Well, it was an hour.
Interviewer: An hour? So, it wasn’t much different? You didn’t stay for a real long time?
Elmer: No.
Interviewer: What kind of influence did the church have on the community? Was the church a real big thing? Or was it just something you did on Sunday?
Elmer: Largely like it is now. The Baptists fought with the Methodists. And the Methodists fought with everybody. And the Catholics stayed to themselves. And that was about it. In 1940 when I was with the Post Office, when I went away to World War II, there probably weren’t 4 Catholic families in the area. By the time the war was over, with the influx and everything, we had a Catholic church very shortly.
Interviewer: The same one that’s here now?
Elmer: Yeah.
Interviewer: Did you ever go ice skating?
Elmer: Oh, yeah. When I lived on Front Street, to the right of us, leading up to Stevenson Lane, toward Winter Quarters, to the left of that, all winter, the water stayed in that whole area coming in from the swamp and in the winter it would freeze in there. You’d go to the swamp and put your skates on and skate all the way to the river. There were places you’d make pads. There were the cypress trees and stuff and you’d make space. And skate in big circles and everything. You were always taking a chance, but after you really learned to skate, you weren’t taking as much chance. It wasn’t that deep if you did fall.
Interviewer: So, it was frozen all year? All winter?
Elmer: No, it would be only frozen at times. It would be a week or two and then lay off a while. We never played ice hockey or anything too much. We did try to knock the thing around a little bit…Not enough ice really. It was more ice than we had for many years after that.
Interviewer: What about dating when you were younger? Did you go out on dates?
Elmer: Not very much. I had a twin sister. And everywhere she went, I had to go. With 2 other girls, probably. That explains….I was girl shy. We always had 1 or 2 in the house, all summer, and whenever they went out, I’d have to go along, a protector or something.
Interviewer: When you lived on your farm, were you self-sufficient out there? Or did you have to go to town a lot?
Elmer: Well, we always went once a week. We had country stores. My grandfather ran a store, down on, oh, half a mile away. We’d go there. But we’d go to town about once a week.
Interviewer: Going into community life now….What kind of major events did you have during the year?
Elmer: On the farm?
Interviewer: In town.
Elmer: Well, in the summer they had (unintelligible) I don’t remember if it was 2 weeks or 1…The (unintelligible) brought in good shows and musicals and things we ordinarily couldn’t afford or didn’t have in a small community. They had special plays for the children. My sister went, but I was always working. And, of course, the usual parades and everything. Fourth of July and all that stuff.
Interviewer: So, they had more parades then than they do now here?
Elmer: Well, each community had little things. And then we had the fair. And when the circuses came to town, we didn’t go too much for that. Although, later on I did, but we didn’t go. My father didn’t care too much for them. He did bring us to a big circus. It wasn’t Barnum and Bailey, but it was one of the bigger circuses they had. One year when they were here, my father brought us in. I thought they were great because of the horse acts they put on. And the tigers.
Interviewer: What kind of businesses did they have downtown?
Elmer: Well, there were many independent stores. There were no chain stores, of course. For many years we still had 1 or 2 large general stores and we had a department store, too. The general stores carried just about everything from bacon to a saddle and harness. The department stores carried all kinds of furniture and house furnishings and things of that nature. And dry goods. And, of course, there were no such things as ready-made dresses. Men could buy suits. And shoes and boots and things like that. But they bought the goods and carried them home and sewed the dresses.
Interviewer: Do you remember the millinery stores?
Elmer: Yeah, the women had their hats and if they didn’t have enough money to buy a new hat each year, they carried it back and the milliner sewed new ribbons on it and so forth. And they’d say “Oh, you have a new hat!” but it was the same one she’d had for ten years but they’d sew new spangles on it to make it look different.
Interviewer: Same base, but different top. What other kind of stores did you have? Like ice cream stores?
Elmer: The ice cream parlors were separate. Usually they were a candy store or sometimes they had a drug and candy store. In the old days you’d get an ice cream cone for a nickel. A great big dip, all you could eat, for ten cents. And Coca Cola for a nickel. Many of them were called (unintelligible) and they were popular for a while. A lot of people drank Coke because we were on Prohibition from 1919 until….I don’t know what year it came back…
Interviewer: Were there a lot of people in town who were trying to get around Prohibition?
Elmer: Oh, yeah, we had our bootleggers. One of our mayors wanted to catch the bootleggers so he told one of his assistants to go out to the different stores to buy…and of course, as soon as the bootleggers saw who it was, well, instead of putting whiskey in it, they took it to the back room and poured some coffee in it, in the bottle. And they had 6 or 8 samples, and these guys were hauled off to the courthouse by the local magistrate to stand trial. But their lawyers said “Well, where is the evidence?” and they had these bottles and they took the corks out and smelled it and said, “that’s not whiskey!” and the case was thrown out. But I did see them, when I was working at the store there, come out with 3 bootleggers at a time. They’d bring them out with their whiskey. Sometimes they got a fine and the next day they were back again. Sometimes they went away for a while, but not much.
Interviewer: You had a police department in town?
Elmer: Yeah, we had one Chief of Police and a nightwatchman.
Interviewer: And that was it?
Elmer: For many years. And then, sometimes on Saturday or a holiday, they had an extra man on. And this went on for many years. Of course, old Chief Brittingham was rough with them.
Interviewer: Any relation to you?
Elmer: No. Different. He did more than….they got 10 policemen on now and as far as actual keeping order, he did more than 10 of them. And if you pulled away from him, he’d hit you.
Interviewer: He was pretty straight…
Elmer: Yeah, they were scared of him. The blacks, were especially scared of him. We had a lot of foreigners…we had these migratory laborers from Cuba and Mexico and everywhere, to pick crops. But, we don’t get them anymore. And they’d be in town and stir up, and the blacks, our blacks, were always afraid of them. But, he kept order. We didn’t have too much trouble.
Interviewer: So, you didn’t have too much trouble?
Elmer: Now we’ve got 8 or 10. They’re alright. They are nice fellas. Making plenty of money. They don’t care.
Interviewer: What was the population in town?
Elmer: Well, we were never too big.
Interviewer: Was it bigger than today?
Elmer: In 1970, I believe, we had about 4000. But, probably when I moved in town, in 1913, well, 1912, end of ’12, there was probably 1000 people in town.
Interviewer: What about….we saw pictures of Market Street. It used to…down where Drug Fair is now, it was out in the woods then. You were getting out there.
Elmer: Yeah, it was farm out there.
Interviewer: It was a lot smaller then, Market Street.
Elmer: Oh, yes. It went about to…the end of the town limits for many years was at 6th Street. Not 6th Street. 7th Street.
Interviewer: So, we would be out of town now?
Elmer: Oh, yeah. That’s right. It was all farm. Few houses. No Cedar Street at all.
Interviewer: Did they have many streets in town? Is it mostly just like it is now?
Elmer: Well, the basic streets were the same. Except for the streets to the river.
Interviewer: What about where the library is now? There used to be a big house there, wasn’t there?
Elmer: 3 of them.
Interviewer: 3 of them?
Elmer: Where the library block is, there were 3 houses. The Vesey house was in the center. That was Eugene Vesey. And miss Ada Bullin was on this end. And the Hudson home was on the old (unintelligible). Frank Hudson later bought it. Downtown they had big trees and fairly narrow streets, but they didn’t need them so wide. They’d have carriages parked on each side and still room to go through.
Interviewer: What about the churches downtown?
Elmer: They’re much the same as they are now. The Methodist was quite small. There was just that first building, and it didn’t go all the way back like it does now. And the Presbyterian is the same. And the other Methodist church and the Baptist which has been enlarged some. But those were the 4 churches.
Interviewer: Where the old bridge is now, coming over the Pocomoke (River), if you are coming into Pocomoke, to the left, there is a parking lot there now, right? Across from that dealership there. What kind of building was there at one time?
Elmer: Peninsula Produce Exchange. That employed a lot of people. That’s where my father worked. He was out…this was the main, downtown office. They had their warehouses and the place where they stored their potatoes on Clark Avenue. Over by the iron railroad bridge, where Mason Canning sign is. And the other store…then they used part of that exchange for a post office for many years. And when I went to work, that’s where the post office was. On the base floor.
Interviewer: Was the Post Office then moved to where it is now?
Elmer: No, it was where the parking lot is now, across from the Dollar store. That was the Post Office. No, it was in the Peninsula building. It was a large building, but it only covered a stretch of about 50 foot wide and 150 foot deep. And that was the post office for many, many years.
Interviewer: Do you remember the fire? The Pocomoke fire?
Elmer: I was there.
Interviewer: You were there? What kind of damage…?
Elmer: It was in April the 19th, 1922. I had just caught the largest pike I had even seen in the river. Brought it home and hadn’t eaten my dinner and the fire whistle started to blow. I was off that day for some reason, I don’t know what it was, why I had been off. At least for Monday, I guess, I’m not sure. So then I went down…it was April 18 or 19, I don’t remember. Anyway, I went on down to see where the fire was. I went down to the store where I worked, and still worked part-time. My brother worked there, too, see. Mr. Vaughn had me go up to the roof and brush the cinders off. And for a while it got hot and he said, “You better come down.” And I did. I went up to where Paul Ewell had an office and we were taking the stuff out of there and putting it across in the firehouse which was in back of where the Sears sales are now, from Willow Street side…So Mr, Ewell, I remember him saying…I picked up this big glass from the desk, and he said, “Well, don’t take it if you’re not going to take it right inside and put it down where it won’t get broke.” Well, we carried all the stuff out of it and everything and that building burned before Mr. Ewell’s office burned. Where we carried it. It was one of them jumping fires.
Interviewer: So this was on the side of Market Street that the Post Office is on now? That burned?
Elmer: Not where the Post Office is now.
Interviewer: Was it that side of the road that burned?
Elmer: Yeah, but not where the Post Office is. It didn’t burn back that far.
Interviewer: Oh, it didn’t come back that far? It was just the first couple blocks?
Elmer: It burned where the Coffin ? (unintelligible) building is, the old store, you know, across from Newberry’s.
Interviewer: OK.
Elmer: It burned all of Newberry’s. That was homes in there. Where the Newberry’s are. Right straight down and then went…jumped over to Front Street and burned around there. And down Market Street from Newberry’s all the way to the Peninsula building, which it didn’t do any damage to. Just 2 blocks. It burned some of the buildings, just the tops of the buildings, on the left. And the bank across from Newberry’s, where the Maryland National bank is, all that was pretty well burned. And the second block, only the tops were burned out.
Interviewer: OK, because we saw a picture of a bank and all that was left was the front of the bank.
Elmer: Yeah, that’s right.
Interviewer: Which bank?
Elmer: The buildings on the left, across from Newberry’s, you know, on the left side…
Interviewer: What was the name of that?
Elmer: There were a few fronts left….
Interviewer: What was the name of that bank?
Elmer: Maryland National. The old Citizen’s Bank, which is now called something else…Eastern Shore (?) that burned, too, and all stores in that block on the right….2 blocks on the right, but it only burned the corners because it was wooden buildings, some of them. It pretty well cleared that out, but it didn’t get where the (unintelligible) fish market was. It didn’t get that.
Interviewer: Was it a lot of panic or anything? People running around?
Elmer: Not panics, just…the wind was blowing a gale and the fireman couldn’t operate enough to drench it, see. They would get going and they’d go catch a fire over on the other side somewhere.
Interviewer: Was there just 1 group of firemen?
Elmer: Yeah, well, we had fireman from Salisbury, Princess Anne, Snow Hill…yeah, they called all around. They always did that.
Interviewer: Was there a sheriff? Did you know the sheriff for the whole Worcester County?
Elmer: Yes, we had a high sheriff. And then we had deputies in each of the districts. 2 or 3…at least 3 or 4 deputies.
Interviewer: They had horse and carriages? Did you have a horse and carriage?
Elmer: When we lived on the farm, we did. When we moved in town we didn’t have any.
Interviewer: So you got a car when you moved into town?
Elmer: Yeah, I got a car when I got 21 or so.
Interviewer: What kind of car was that?
Elmer: I got a Pontiac. That’s all I ever had, the first 5 or 6.
Interviewer: Was she a nice car?
Elmer: Yeah, my brother and I bought the first one together. And then…I guess we bought the first 2 together.
Interviewer: Did you drive around to different towns?
Elmer: Oh yeah, and of course, I think the first 4 were Pontiacs. Just before the war I had a Pontiac. It was about a year old and a black ran into it. He didn’t have any lights on his car and tore it all up and I had to buy a new one. A 1944 (?) Pontiac Torpedo…it was the sport of the age…$1000 (unintelligible).
Interviewer: Yeah, I’d like to find me a car for that price. Did you have your driver’s license when you turned 21?
Elmer: I already had a driver’s license.
Interviewer: When did you get your driver’s license? When you turned 16?
Elmer: I imagine so. Oh, yeah, you had to be 16. I had my motorcycle license before I had my car license.
Interviewer: When could you get your motorcycle license?
Elmer: 16
Interviewer: 16?
Elmer: Yeah, and I had 2 motorcycles. From the (unintelligible) boys down there. They were both Harley Davidsons. The first one was a single burner. Then I got a twin. I don’t know…the twin was a small twin, not a big Harley. I rode those for 2 or 3 years. One of them. The other one, I think, I got rid of. I had 2 for a while.
Interviewer: How much did they cost when you bought them?
Elmer: I don’t know…they didn’t cost much in those days, like they do now. They were both used. But when I got the car, my brother and I were both working…(unintelligible)
Interviewer: Did you ever ride the steamboat?
Elmer: I never rode on the river in a steamboat, but I went from Crisfield to Baltimore in 1934, I think. I was a company commander and we had a blizzard in the middle of the winter, in February or January. And we were supposed to have this meeting, all the company commanders and officers of the National Guard and officers. So all the phone lines were out and all the railroads weren’t running for 3 or 4 days on the lower shore. But this regimental commander, Colonel Markey (?), ordered us to come to Baltimore to this meeting (unintelligible). He found out we could go from Crisfield by boat, by steamer. The steamer came up from south of us somewhere and stopped at Crisfield. And my lieutenant went with me. And we had a medical officer here then. Captain Massey was just attached to us. And he drove his car. And so locally, we could get to Crisfield alright. He got a good room, Captain Massey. But my lieutenant and I just had a room over the damn engine, the boiler. It went “whomp whomp, whomp whomp” all night long. It didn’t bother me too much, but he was scared to death. He had never much been on a boat. But we had a good meal. And we took the car up with us. And then when we came home, we had to drive all the way around.
Interviewer: But it was nice on the boat? It was like a passenger boat?
Elmer: Yeah, the cabin was nice. It was comfortable enough, but of course it was so cold and there was so much ice in the bay, it was a blizzard, that everybody was worked up a bit. But we made it fun.
Interviewer: Did you ride the train much? Other than riding to Ocean City?
Elmer: Oh, not much. Oh, yes, days we did, because if we went anywhere, that was the only way to go. Sometimes we would go to Washington to baseball games. But the times we went to Philadelphia, we had boys that played on an athletic team from this area, we went by automobile. I remember going once to Washington, going to the Smithsonian. We went by train. We went, I don’t know, we’d go up to Wilmington. And then you don’t have to go around.
Interviewer: Do you remember Red Hills? Near Snow Hill?
Elmer: Oh, yeah. That was an old place to summer. Like a resort. Not a resort, but like a beach with a hill high above it, wooded. And the beach was fairly nice. It was, best I can remember, south of Public Landing. We never went there too much, but I knew it was there.
Interviewer: What kind of legends and superstitions did they have? Like about the woods? And the river?
Elmer: I’m not much on superstitions. I can’t help you much on that.
Interviewer: Well, did you hear about them?
Elmer: Yeah, perhaps, but not being of a superstitious nature, I probably don’t remember too many. I really can’t help you much with that one.
Interviewer: I’ve heard that the river, the Pocomoke River, gets one person a year. And the next year it’ll take 2.
Elmer: Yeah, it gets many if they can’t swim well, I’ll tell you that.
Interviewer: The hangings. Did you ever go to one?
Elmer: I never went to one. They did have public hangings. The one case, this Italian person who came as a laborer on a farm. The family took him in, and I don’t remember who he killed, somebody in the family, two of them, I think, but they hung him. And my older brother, you know, he didn’t see it, but he heard about it. And this house we lived in…I was 7 years old..on 3rd Street. And so he had me stand on a chari and he took the cord off the curtain and wrapped it around my neck, tied it to the rod, and then pulled the chair out from under me. I suppose I got red in the face. I don’t remember it, but I heard them talk about it a lot of times.
Interviewer: Before they hung somebody, I heard they would drive him through town and then take him out somewhere…
Elmer: I don’t remember that. But this time, I didn’t see it, but they took him from the jail, after he was tried, to the scene of the murder. It was a farm with woods right along side, that’s all. It was like some people went for the excitement, but the really good people didn’t go for those things.
Interviewer: (unintelligible)…some of your high class people wouldn’t be seen there?
Elmer: That’s right. Of course, all the drunks and the bums went. Usually.
Interviewer: What kind of music did you have then?
Elmer: Well, we came into the jazz age, so to speak. They had a glee club in the school. I never played in it, but my sister did. I got a banjo mandolin and played that like a mandolin. Then I had a (unintelligible) and I took a few lessons. And taught my sister to play. And she caught on quite well and continued to play. But, I never stayed with it long enough. I liked it alright, but the Scotsman I took lessons from, he charged me for every lesson, I should’ve been prompted by it, but I guess I didn’t have the knack for it.
Interviewer: Were there any big storms that happened around Pocomoke?
Elmer: Not really. Yeah, we had places at time where the hurricanes struck. The place down here by Accomac. It was many years ago. I did see it, afterwards. It was about half a mile and 100 yards wide. Cleaned out like every tree, everything.
Interviewer: Like a tornado?
Elmer: Yeah, a tornado. I said hurricane, but it was a tornado. Yeah, but nothing really big. There were no houses there, but everybody could see what it had done.
Interviewer: What about the Farmers’ Day. Or Foresters’ Day? Do you remember that?
Elmer: Oh, at Public Landing? They had a day every summer for the farmers. I don’t know. We didn’t go to that after we moved to town much. But they did have it and they still have it. Most of the time, now, I think different families gather up around at Milbourne Landing for Farmers’ Day…(unintelligible) Now they got it down to families.
Interviewer: Do you remember Klej Grange?
Elmer: Yeah.
Interviewer: Did you ever go out there?
Elmer: Yeah, but I can’t tell you too much about, I just know that they made plans to expand it, to build it up on a higher level and hope one time have a canal go through onto the bay, but it didn’t materialize. But I’m not up on it.
Interviewer: You didn’t know anybody from there?
Elmer: Yeah, there was a woman who worked in the Salisbury State library who was involved for a while, but I can’t tell you her name or anything. The details have sort of left be because (unintelligible). But I did know about it. It’s where Mark Pilchard lives now, the man who is in the legislature.
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