Mason, Dorothy (1904-1996) |
Worcester County Library: Local History and Genealogy Collection, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, MD
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Interviewee: |
Dorothy Gibson Mason (1904-1996) |
| Interviewer: |
Katherine P. Fisher |
| Date of interview: |
1979 April 5 |
| Length of interview: |
45 min |
| Transcribed by: |
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| Preferred Citation: |
“Name, Oral History Collection, Date of Interview, Worcester County Library, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, Maryland.” |
Topical Terms:
Worcester County (Md.)—Education
Worcester County (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Social life and customs
Worcester County (Md.)—Women’s History
Location Terms:
Berlin (Md.)
Newark (Md.)
Interview Begin
INTERVIEWER: Where would you like to sit? If you would sit in this chair-
DOROTHY: These are all pictures-school pictures. This one was taken where the fire hall is now but I don’t know what year. I can recognize some of the people: That’s my husband, this is Mrs. Riley. She lives almost up to the Post Office. This is Blanche Dennis. She is dead now. She used to live in the brown shingle building on the corner. The rest I don’t know because I didn’t live here until after I was married.
INTERVIEWER: But this would most likely have been the whole school.
DOROTHY: This was out in Queponco. That is the Ninepin Branch School out there. Her name was Bessie Dryden before she was married and afterward she married Mr. Walter Dennis and lived here in Newark. This is my sister-in-law Florence, who is dead, and the rest of them I don’t know. This is another one that was taken here at this school. This was Miss Virgie Melvin, a teacher, and that I think is Edna Dennis, she is now. She was Edna Taylor then. This is my sister-in-law Mollie Masono. This is-her name was Edna Dennis-she’s Edna Harrison now. This was Hazel Townsend-she married Matt Taylor. This is my husband.
INTERVIEWER: Are these buttons? They do stand out, don’t they? They look like high school.
DOROTHY: Probably so.
INTERVIEWER: Look at the knickers.
DOROTHY: This was taken either in 1922 or ’23 and the way I know is because of the children that were in it. This is Howard Palmer whose home you were talking about a while ago. That is a Monroe Jackson. This is my brother-in-law, Kenneth Mason; He was the youngest of the family. This is Mervin Palmer, Howard’s sister. This is Iva Tull, she was. Her name is Iva Richardson now. She lives in Snow Hill. This was Bessie Pennewell. This was Charles Tull. This was Mary Dryden. This was Clay Mumford. He used to live right up on the corner where my son lives now, in the big white house. This one I can’t be sure because I didn’t live here then, either. This one is a much older picture but it was taken down here in this same schoolyard. It was where the firehouse is now. You can tell by these houses here. But that is Miss Virgie Melvin who was a teacher. This is another one of my sister-in-laws, May Mason she was. This is the Blanche Dennis I told you about who is dead. This is Hazel Townsend and I think this must be Cecil Hunker. And her name was Townsend and I can’t think what her first name was.
INTERVIEWER: Cecil Hunker was a Townsend, too, wasn’t she?
DOROTHY: Yes, she was. This-I don’t know who that is-I am not sure so I won’t say. I think I know but I wouldn’t swear to it so I’m not going to say. This is another picture taken of the whole school down in this same schoolyard.
INTERVIEWER: These are really nice because of the houses in the background. They can be used to show Newark in.
DOROTHY: This is a school picture which I have no idea where it was taken. That’s a brick building they are up against and I don’t know where it was taken. I don’t recognize any people in there either.
INTERVIEWER: The girls look almost like they were in costumes, some of them. Maybe that was the fashion.
DOROTHY: This is again taken down here in front of what was that schoolhouse and of course, since then, they have built out to it and put the fire hall there and all. That has got to be my other sister-in-law Mollie Mason and this is again May. This is again Mildred Riley, I think, but the rest of them I don’t know about. I just couldn’t say. And then here is another one, taken the same place, but I don’t know who they are. I know this one; she was May Adkins. This is my husband. This is Miss Virgie Melvin, who afterward married Mr. Massey in Berlin. This one is Elwood Tull. Remember I pointed out Charles Tull to you? Well, this is his father.
INTERVIEWER: Well, was she kin to the Mason who had been a blacksmith-I mean the Adkins?
DOROTHY: She was his daughter. Do you know David Northam in Snow Hill? She was their aunt. Mr. Otis Northam’s first wife was her sister.
INTERVIEWER: Is she still living?
DOROTHY: No.
INTERVIEWER: I think you were talking about an aunt a few minutes ago.
DOROTHY: Oh, that is Miss Margie Northam.
INTERVIEWER: If I may, I would like to borrow these long enough to photograph them.
DOROTHY: You certainly may. I have written my name on the back of them and my address because I would like to have them back.
INTERVIEWER: Definitely. What I will do is photograph them next week when I go up to Ocean City on Friday morning to my store. If I drop them off about nine o’clock, is that too early for you.
DOROTHY: No, I will be right here. If I am not here, somebody will be here.
INTERVIEWER: That will be fine. Let me put these over here and then I would like to talk to you a little bit about your memories. You were born in Berlin?
DOROTHY: I wasn’t born there but I have lived there ever since I was six years old, until I was married and came down here.
INTERVIEWER: That is about all you can remember.
DOROTHY: That’s right.
INTERVIEWER: Anyway, now were your parents farm people around Berlin?
DOROTHY: No, no, my grandparents lived on a farm outside of Berlin at one time, but my grandfather died when my mother was quite young and my Grandmother Henry was from Baltimore and she took her children and went back to Baltimore to live and we did not come back to Berlin to live until I was six years old. My father was a businessman.
INTERVIEWER: That’s good. The people I have talked to so far connected with Newark and Berlin have all been farm people so this will give a different-
DOROTHY: Well, he never was in business in Berlin. He worked for-do you know Crown Can Company? At one time it was Crown Cork and Seal.
INTERVIEWER: That is what I was knowing it as-Crown Cork and Seal.
DOROTHY: Well, that’s who he worked for and travelled for them, and so he didn’t have anything to do with Berlin.
INTERVIEWER: O.K. Did he do anything with the Crown Cork and Seal or Crown Can Company in the area?
DOROTHY: Oh no. He travelled through Mexico and down in that part of the country, and the Caribbean.
INTERVIEWER: I see. Whereabouts did you live in Berlin?
DOROTHY: Well, when we first came to Berlin we lived in the house that was where the Health Center is now.
INTERVIEWER: O.K. I can remember that house being there.
DOROTHY: Well, that is where we lived and then we lived out on Main Street, and do you know where Mable and Biard Davis have their-
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
DOROTHY: Well, there is a house right next to Mable and Biard, towards Berlin, and the next house is where I lived when I was married.
INTERVIEWER: What do you remember, coming from the city as you did when you were six? Do you remember any of your first impressions of Berlin?
DOROTHY: Well, I would not have any impressions because I had visited there on and off, all the time.
INTERVIEWER: So it wasn’t new.
DOROTHY: It wasn’t new at all. I had relatives there. My Grandfather Henry had brothers and sisters who lived there and they had children and I knew them all and visited down there all the time, from the time I was a tiny thing until we went there to live.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember any of the early businesses in Berlin?
DOROTHY: Well, when I first went there-do you know where the Reef is now, there was a soda fountain there then and Mr. Thomas Purnell had it and they called it The Mint, at that time.
INTERVIEWER: The Mint?
DOROTHY: The Mint. And where John Howard Burbage’s is, there was a Berlin Hardware Store and further up, toward the center of town, there was a building there that was a drug store and that is where they had the alligator.
INTERVIEWER: O.K. I was wondering what building it was.
DOROTHY: There is a building there and it’s all been taken in by John Howard Burbage’s Style Guide, and then on up further, I think there’s-I believe the boy does work on radios and television and things-the Williams boy-that ussed to be a grocery store and butcher shop. Mr. Outten bought them. And then on across the corner, where the Variety Store is, was Furbush’s store.
INTERVIEWER: There was a Furbush’s in Snow Hill too?
DOROTHY: No, that was a general store; I mean-well, I don’t know whether they carried any groceries or not, maybe a few, but it was clothes and things of that sort; and then, on further up-Oh, there was a little store-you know where Jack Sandord’s office is? On the side of that, the Variety Store, then a little shoe shop. Mr. Hammond had a shoe repair shop there and he sold shoes too. And then right next to that, there was a hat shop and on down further-now, what was in that building. It seems to me it was vacant most of the time. Villani’s did have a store there for a while. And then right next to that was a building-there would have been two taken in there. There was the Chevrolet garage and Jess Taylor owned it and sold Chevrolets and Oldsmobiles, I think he sold. And then right next to that was the Buick Garage, and then on where the parking lot is right next to that Dollar General Store or whatever it is, there was a home, and a school teacher lived there. I went to school-Miss Daisy Wise. And then there was on further down-there was what they called the Majestic Hotel and it was a frame building. Then of course, Stevenson’s Church on down is just about like it was.
INTERVIEWER: All right now. The Majestic Hotel was between where the parking lot is and the church.
DOROTHY: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: All right. I had that located really wrong.
DOROTHY: Well, you see the parking lot is there and then there is this house and right next to that was the Majestic Hotel and then there is the church. You see there is a little street that goes down just south of the church.
INTERVIEWER: Just south of the church.
DOROTHY: Just south of the church, and the Majestic Hotel was here and the street was here and the church was there.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
DOROTHY: And that was where one of them-that was where Calvin Hall lived. And the other one is the Presbyterian Manse.
INTERVIEWER: My, it hasn’t changed much.
DOROTHY: No, it hasn’t changed much. Now the house where the Harrisons live has been rebuilt.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, it has.
DOROTHY: It was a real old house with three different sections and they rebuilt that years and years ago.
INTERVIEWER: Now, this is Alfred Harrison?
DOROTHY: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: O.K.
DOROTHY: Now, on the other side of the street there was railroad station and kind of back of that where Lois Harrison lives now. That’s just like it was.
INTERVIEWER: O.K.
DOROTHY: And the railroad station and then there was where Preston Disharoon’s home is, the brick home, I think that was a vacant lot. And then there was the Furbush home which was where Ann Baker lives now, that brick bungalow. Then right next to that was the place that is still there. Now the Furbush home was torn down to build Ann’s. That was a frame building and it was torn down. Then next to Ann’s there’s what they always called the Calvin Taylor home.
INTERVIEWER: Has there ever been a Daisy Scott house you have heard of?
DOROTHY: Well, I guess it is, but it was Helen Scott that owned it. Her mother was Daisy Scott but I don’t know that she ever owned it. I thought it was Helen who owned it, and then where the parking lot is for the Acme Market there was an apple orchard.
INTERVIEWER: An orchard?
DOROTHY: Just a little one.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my dear.
DOROTHY: And then there was a very nice home there and that belonged to the man who had the shoe shop on the other side of the street.
INTERVIEWER: For goodness sake.
DOROTHY: And that was torn down when the Acme Market was built and then next to that there was another house, a two-story frame house, and then there was a brick building where Bill Williams, Sr.-that is not the Bill Williams that is there now, it is his father, had a feed business. That was just about opposite the Buick place.
INTERVIEWER: All right, O.K.
DOROTHY: And then next to that there was a little corrugated iron building and this old man kept soft drinks and things like that, that he sold in there. And then there was-I can’t think what was in that building. Well, at one time there was a furniture store in what was the Berlin Hardware, right next to Joe’s.
INTERVIEWER: Right next to Joe’s shoe store.
DOROTHY: There was the Berlin Hardware and there was a little store there and they had-I say little; it wasn’t little; it was a right good size store. They had some furniture in there at one time and I don’t remember what else was there. Oh, I do. There was a man named Holland and he had shoes and I guess he had clothes, and then there was a men’s furnishings shop Mr. Rhodes had there, right next to taht. No, I am wrong. Berlin Hardware-not Berlin Hardware but Purnell’s store was in between the little furniture store and the other place. And then there was Mr. Rhodes’s place, then on the corner where that IGA store is, there was a barber shop. Then there was the Calvin Taylor Bank just like it is; Burbage Powell’s just like it is, and then the five and dime, and then next to that there was at one time a harness shop there, and a little place where-I can’t think of the boy’s name that kept ice cream and things there-Keith Sharp used to have an ice cream parlor there for a little while, and then there was another barber shop and then The Mint.
INTERVIEWER: The Mint. All right.
DOROTHY: Then the hotel did not have all those stores out in front of it.
INTERVIEWER: Right, with the pretty grass plot out front.
DOROTHY: And a beautiful rose garden. Oh, it was beautiful. When Mrs. Harrison was there she just kept that place so it looked as though it had been polished to the nth degree. It was lovely; it was a beautiful spot and they ruined Berlin when they built out there like that.
INTERVIEWER: Was there a little outbuilding or something out on that area where the rose garden was?
DOROTHY: No, there was a long porch across the front of the hotel and nice days the men used to just line up there and talk and talk, you know, and have a grand time out there and they had chairs all along the porch, and then, I don’t remember-oh, I do remember too. I skipped one place right opposite Burbage and Powell’s where the Cropper boy has the insurance office, there was another grocery store, Mr. Joe Boston, and they used to sell fresh roasted peanuts there on Saturdays, and they did down there at The Mint too. They had these machines outside and had fresh roasted peanuts. And then later Mr. Joe Boston moved down to that place just south of the Atlantic Hotel.
INTERVIEWER: Where the Treasure Chest is there.
DOROTHY: Where it was.
INTERVIEWER: Where it was.
DOROTHY: And another soda fountain went across the street where his store had been on that other corner, and then next to Mr. Boston, Mr. Franklin Upshur had a lawyer’s office there, and then the High School.
INTERVIEWER: I was ready to say we’re getting dowon to the High School.
DOROTHY: Of course on the opposite corner from where the Treasure Chest was, the Exchange and Savings Bank was. And then right next to that there was the First National Bank. They have since joined the two and the Exchange and Savings uses both banks.
INTERVIEWER: I did not know there were two separate ones.
DOROTHY: Oh, yes. There was the First National Bank there and past that there was Mr. Johnny Ayer’s grocery store, and past that, where John Donoway’s-where Donoway’s place is now-it is not John’s any more-but they still call it Donoway’s-there was a Ford garage.
INTERVIEWER: All right. You had three car dealers. That is a lot.
DOROTHY: Then there was where John Donoway’s parking lot is-well, no I am wrong-where the new part of John’s Donoway’s sits back, there was a home there, and then there was another home right next to it that was an old place-belonged to-it seems to me it was the old Derrickson place at one time, but anyway, when I knew it, it belonged to people named Ayres that lived there in the summertime and lived in Philadelphia in the winter. But those have botoh been torn down to make room for that store and parking lot. And the rest of the street down-well, there is only one house there all the way down to Burley Street that wasn’t there when I moved to Berlin, and that is that little brick bungalow on the east side of the road.
INTERVIEWER: Right; I see, the rest are the same.
DOROTHY: The rest are the same all the way down on that side of the street. Now, the other side of the street, past the Presbyterian Church, there was a doctor’s home up where they have a parking lot now, up on that hill where the nursing home used to be, and Dr. Tyndall lived there, and then on past that, where Dr. Eschenberg lives now and where Jack Farlow’s home is, there was an old, old house and this old Mr. Kitts and his two sisters lived there together. None of them had ever married and they all lived there. Then next you cross Washington Street and the same house that is there now was there then, that big house up on the hill, then you come to two small houses. They weren’t there-that was a garden-and then next was the same house that’s there now. On down on that side, they have all recently been built-I don’t mean recently, but in the last 50 years.
INTERVIEWER: Right. O.K.
DOROTHY: Then you go on down-well, everything is changed down there-there isn’t anything llike there was when I went to Berlin, all the way to the cemetery.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember any specially big pretty houses that have been torn down in that section?
DOROTHY: Well, no. I take it back-there was one house there that is still there. Do you remember where Mrs. Roland Beauchamp lives, in that long white house? Well, the houose that is right opposite her, on the hill, that was there, but it has been remodeled and built to, but it was there. It was just an old house, and then the house that was just towards Berlin from that, where the Hardesty place-where Buckingham Road turns in, well, there’s a house that belonged to an old lady, Miss Mary Louise Engle, and it was a nice old house and they moved it back and turned it around and it faces Buckingham Road now.
INTERVIEWER: Engle. All right, I heard that name.
DOROTHY: Well, they did live there but they sold it and one of the Barrett boys bought it.
INTERVIEWER: That’s right, Jack.
DOROTHY: I don’t know which one it was.
INTERVIEWER: I don’t know whichh one it was either.
DOROTHY: But anyway, that house was facing the street and it had a very pretty flower garden and it had some nice trees in the yard and somebody bought it and moved it back.
INTERVIEWER: They did that to make room probably for some lots.
DOROTHY: To sell those lots that were out front, and then the house just before you get to the Country School was a real old house there that’s been torn down. It wasn’t very beautiful, though, it was just an old house. I mean it was an all right house, I don’t mean that, but it wasn’t as nice a house as the one they turned around, by any means.
INTERVIEWER: My, you have a vivid picture in your mind.
DOROTHY: Well, so many of the people right there on the street were related to me. As I say, you start there where you go into Church Street, and on down there, the first house on the way down on the left-hand side was Conoway’s.
INTERVIEWER: O.K.
DOROTHY: The next house-it seems to me people named Huber were the first ones that I remember living there, and then a cousin of mine bought it and lived there as long as they lived. And then that next brick bungalow was built, and the next house I don’t remember being built. It was there when we went to Berlin, but it wasn’t a real old house. It was practically new then, I think. It belonged to a man named Holloway. What was his first name? I can’t think now, but he worked at Calvin Taylor’s bank. And then the next house is the Episcopal Rectory and that has been there ever since I can remember, and the next house belonged to an aunt of mine-Burleigh Cottage, and that is an old and beautiful place. It is beautiful inside. The next house belonged to-
INTERVIEWER: Now, where you said Keisers were, is that where Barrett lived?
DOROTHY: Mrs. Barrett lived.
INTERVIEWER: Right; I thought Burleigh Cottage is not facing the street.
DOROTHY: No, the front faces the street but they do have a driveway that comes in arouund back of Mrs. Barrett’s, too-in back of there belongs to Burleigh Cottage.
INTERVIEWER: O.K.
DOROTHY: The next place is where Mr. and Mrs. Benson lived and now that place I guess was built, oh, earlier sometime, and by the way, he had a jewelry store up there, stuck in one of those places-a little tiny place next to the A&P store that I told you about, where the drug store was and it was turned into an A&P store. He had a little tiny jewelry store in there. And that was built when we went to Berlin, and how long it had been built I don’t know, but not too long because he hadn’t been there too long.
INTERVIEWER: O.K.
DOROTHY: Then next to it there was a vacant lot. They’ve since built a house there, and then you come to Burleigh Manor.
INTERVIEWER: All right-which is just beautiful.
DOROTHY: Yes, it is.
INTERVIEWER: I haven’t been in it for about-it’s been at least twelve or fourteen years, back when I was in school. I love their outbuildings as much as I do the house, almost.
DOROTHY: Well, personally, I like Burleigh Cottage better than I do Burleigh Manor. It’s a more liveable place. Burleigh Manor is kind of strung out. But then it was all about vacant then until you come down-well, Joe Moore lives in one place there and Peg Beauchamp lives in the next one and I can remember those two being built. Of course, Peg’s hasn’t been built very long.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
DOROTHY: And then a vacant lot all the way down to that little old house that is there that Ross-Mrs. Ross lived in. It’s kind of catercornered across from Mable Davis.
INTERVIEWER: Right; O.K.
DOROTHY: Then the next house was built after I went down there. That’s where Heinrichs live-and so was the bungalow there and all those houses along there until you come down to this place where Bowen Quillen is.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
DOROTHY: In fact, it is called Waverly.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
DOROTHY: And that was there. That’s the old place, and then all the rest-
INTERVIEWER: Right. Now, do you remember any of the doctors who were in the area then?
DOROTHY: Yes, Dr. Tyndall was one.
INTERVIEWER: Right. He lived across up from Church Street.
DOROTHY: Right on the corner of Main Street and Church Street was a Dr. Holland.
INTERVIEWER: O.K.
DOROTHY: Dr. Ebe Holland.
INTERVIEWER: Right; O.K. Is that where Mr. Pitts lives now?
DOROTHY: Yes, that is where Mr. Pitts lives. Then you went around-well, he wasn’t there when we first came, but then do you know where Mrs. Law lives-Dr. Law’s widow? Now then, where you turn between the Atlantic Hotel and the Reef and go down Broad Street, all right you go down past that parking lot that’s on your right and you come to a blinker light there.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
DOROTHY: All right, the second house from that on your right is where Mrs. Law lives and her husband was a doctor there for a long time, and Dr. Holland, I don’t remember just when he came to Berlin-but I do remember, where the Town Municipal Building is now, there used to be a hotel,
INTERVIEWER: Right.
DOROTHY: called Savage’s Hotel and they had a nice hotel there-it was a wood building and a beautiful yard and it went all the way-well, now there is a Dr. Gantz-
INTERVIEWER: Right.
Mason; Well, it took in Dr. Gantz’s place down to that next house and that hotel burned and then Mr. and Mrs. Savage built the house where Dr. Gantz lives. And I don’t know-Dr. Holland bought it, that’s Dr. Charlie Holland.
INTERVIEWER: O.K.
DOROTHY: He was, I think, a nephew of Dr. Ebe Holland.
INTERVIEWER: I was going to ask if they were related.
DOROTHY: I think that’s right, and he lived there until not long before he died he retired and his son-in-law, Dr. Nichol, took over his practice. He married Virginia Nichol-Virginia Holland she was-and he took over Dr. Holland’s practice. And then after he died, Dr. Robins was there and Dr. O’Donnell was in with him, and then Dr. O’Donnell and he split and Dr. O’Donnell went and had an office down Commerce Street, back of what-in what was part of the bank now.
INTERVIEWER: O.K.
DOROTHY: And then Dr. Gantz I guess bougt-I mean Dr. Robbins, and then Dr. O’Donnell left Berlin and went down to Georgia, some place, and then Dr. Schott was-well he lived here in Newark for awhile. He lived in the old Davis place I was talking about. He lived there for some years and he had an office here and one in Berlin and his office in Berlin was up over where the Variety Store is now.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, for goodness sake.
DOROTHY: And then he bought that place out on North Main Street and had his office out there. And then there was another doctor in town, but he never did practice, and he lived where Dan Moore lives.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Now, I say right-isn’t that out on what I call the Powellville Road? On the right-hand side?
DOROTHY: Left-hand side, sitting back from the highway.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Was there another hotel? You tell of the Savage Hotel, was there ever another hotel in that general block, back in there by Dr. Gantz?
DOROTHY: Not that I know of. That was just the-they called it Park Hotel.
INTERVIEWER: Thank you.
DOROTHY: Park-
INTERVIEWER: Good; thank you.
DOROTHY: But Savage owned it. Park Hotel is what they called it.
INTERVIEWER: I was picturing this postcard I had and this pretty yellow building that the postcard showed, when they painted postcards, and I knew it wasn’t Savage.
DOROTHY: It was Park Hotel.
INTERVIEWER: And the Municipal Building and everything was not there at all.
DOROTHY: No, the hotel was right there on that corner and all the rest of that down to the fence, past where Dr. Gantz is now, was in flower gardens.
INTERVIEWER: That must have been beautiful.
DOROTHY: It was beautiful.
INTERVIEWER: Well now, was the-who was the undertaker when you went there? At six, I am sure that was the least of your thoughts but you were living right across from where Miss Anna lives.
DOROTHY: Her father-in-law was one of the undertakers and he had a place-I believe it was a self-service gas station.
INTERVIEWER: O.K. I know where you mean.
DOROTHY: There was a building there and that is where his place of business was, and then where the Berlin Florist is was another undertaker-what was his name?
INTERVIEWER: Was it Evans?
DOROTHY: It could have been-I don’t know.
INTERVIEWER: That is the only other undertaker’s name that I have heard.
DOROTHY: Well, that must have been who it was then.
INTERVIEWER: And they were both there at the same time?
DOROTHY: Yes, right there, close together. Then this other one, that was there where the florist shop is, I guess his name was Evans-I am not sure even of that-but he was an old man and he died, or got so he couldn’t carry on. Jack Burbage, Anna’s husband, came home and took over for her father and Anna helped him.
INTERVIEWER: Then they moved over where they are?
DOROTHY: They built that place where they are many years ago.
INTERVIEWER: Was there anything there before they built?
DOROTHY: Yes, there was a-there were two houses, I believe. I know there was one right on the corner of Vine Street, you know that goes right down beside that-there was one right down on the corner and it seems to me there was another one-but I can’t-oh, no, there was that one on the corner, and then there was a little brick building on that corner and a dentist had his office in that brick building. Dr. Cullen.
INTERVIEWER: All right. I didn’t know. I had never ever though to ask about dentists before.
DOROTHY: Well, he was there and he was the only dentist they had in town for years and years, and then Dr. Mason-he lives in Ocean Citty now-came there and he lived in the house that I told you belonged to the Ayers. Well, he lived in that house and had his office in there. And his mother-they had two apartments-he and his wife and family lived in one part of it and his mother and father lived in the other.
INTERVIEWER: Well, goodness. What do you remember about school?
DOROTHY: I should remember all about it. I started school there and graduated there.
INTERVIEWER: Any special things that stand out?
DOROTHY: Well, it was a brick building and the schoolyard went from what is the Methodist Parsonage all the way to Jefferson Street in the back and all around that building where the Treasure Chest was-that is the only thing that was there besides the school.
INTERVIEWER: You had a lot of room then.
DOROTHY: Yes, it was a nice big school, two-story of course, and they had first, second, and third, and then they had-those three were integrated; I will put it that way-they were co-ed, and then the fourth and fifth boys were in one room and had the same teacher, and then the sixth and seventh girls were in one room with the same teacher, and the sixth and seventh boys, and then when we went into high school we were back together again.
INTERVIEWER: That’s different.
DOROTHY: Well, that’s the way they did then.
INTERVIEWER: Isn’t that something.
DOROTHY: We had some very good teachers. When I first went to school there, Miss Nettie Carey was the principal, and she was there when I went and she was there until just before I graduated, and I thought she was old. But she was a nice soul, and then Mr. Eugene Pruitt was the principal there when I graduated.
INTERVIEWER: O.K.
DOROTHY: Then he left and went to be superintendent over in Somerset, I believe, and then he went up to Frederick County. He stayed there, and he is still living as far as I know. He was here a couple of years ago to see us. He and my husband played ball together and both of them-he was older than mine-I guess he wasn’t any older either-maybe not-maybe he was-he must have been, because he was right much older than I was; he was principal of the school when I graduated so he must have been right much older than I was. Anyway, his wife came from Bishopville and they lived near us, in Berlin, and he is still living up in Frederick so far as I know.
INTERVIEWER: You said they played ball together. Was this just one of the-
DOROTHY: On one of the league teams.
INTERVIEWER: On one of the league teams?
DOROTHY: On the Shore here, not on a school team.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
DOROTHY: But Berlin and Snow Hill were rivals. They were just as much rivals as they could be. Oh, dear, we did fight them, you know, in all sports, and they used to have what they called Field Day. You just can’t imagine it, but there was a lot of school spirit and the men in town supported the school so much that way.
INTERVIEWER: And that was really good for the whole community.
DOROTHY: It was. It was very good and I can remember that the men used to come down and play baseball against the boy’s school baseball team and you know just to give them practice and things like that. They were very good to them.
INTERVIEWER: Did your husband go through eleven grades?
DOROTHY: Yes. They didn’t have twelve grades here until-I believe Tom was the first and he graduated in ’52 and I think he was the first year twelfth grade. He went to Snow Hill and graduated there.
INTERVIEWER: Now, can you think of anything else about Berlin that was remarkable? You rode the trains?
DOROTHY: Oh, yes. We had two trains on the BC&A and two on the Pennsylvania.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, that’s right, because you had the crossroads there.
DOROTHY: We had a train that came up around a little after six o’clock in the morning-abouot 6:30 I guess it hit Berlin, and then one that came up around noontime or a little after. It came down-no, I am wrong-it came up in the morning and came down around noon or a little after, going south, and then up again about three o’clock and came back down about eight. That was the Pennsylvania. The BC&A went-I don’t remember just what time-but very near the same time in the morning it went up and it went to Clayburn, because then there was no Bay Bridge and that’s where you had to meet the boat, to go across to Baltimore. And you’d go up in the morning, and then the train-I don’t believe they had two trains-I think it just came back late in the afternoon. I am not certain, but I know we always got the boat out of Baltimore around four o’clock. I never will forget my brother running to catch the boat one time, and he threw his suitcase and jumped to get on that boat, coming home from school. He had had an exam and was late. I almost died, standing there, watching him. We were both going to school in Baltimore.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, no.
DOROTHY: He scared me almost to death.
INTERVIEWER: But he made it.
DOROTHY: He made it, but if he had just missed it by the least little bit he would have gone between the pilings and the pier and the boat.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my word.
DOROTHY: And they had pulled the gangplank in and he just threw his suitcase and jumped.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, dear.
DOROTHY: Oh, he scared me half to death. And then we’d get home about 10:30 at night.
INTERVIEWER: Were the trains-did they have places you could eat and like that?
DOROTHY: Oh, no.
INTERVIEWER: It was just a train?
DOROTHY: Yes, it was just a train. All the dirt and cinders and everything else went right through, but we did have fun.
INTERVIEWER: Now, did you take the train down to Ocean City?
DOROTHY: Yes, we used to do that. There must have been an afternoon or a noon train that went down, because we used to go sometimes on the train and then come back about five o’clock, I believe, late in the afternoon sometime-I don’t know-but it was very soon after-by the time I was going to Ocean City very much we had automobiles.
INTERVIEWER: O.K.; it was quicker then.
DOROTHY: It was quicker then and you could go when you pleased. You didn’t have to run after a train. It was-we enjoyed Ocean City; it was different from what it is now.
INTERVIEWER: I should think so.
DOROTHY: I tell you right now, as far as I am concerned, it is a total loss.
INTERVIEWER: As a business person I am glad I’m there, but as a person born and raised in Ocean City, I hate to see it like it is.
DOROTHY: I am sure you do.
INTERVIEWER: Now, when did youo move to Newark?
DOROTHY: Well, I came to Newark to teacher school in 1924.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, you did.
DOROTHY: I taught school down here, and then in the fall of ’28 I went to Berlin to teach and I taught there until Thanksgiving of 1929, when I was married and came back here to live then, because my husband come from here.
INTERVIEWER: Could you have still taught, being married at that time? I think in the early years of teaching you could not. I seem to remember that.
DOROTHY: I think I could-I know I could at one time, because Mr. Humphreys tried his best to get me to go back teaching when they were so short of teachers during the First World War-or Second World War, I mean.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Now did you ever teach with or know Catherine Cutrighth-Hancock—Catherine Hancock?
DOROTHY: She taught me in Berlin.
INTERVIEWER: I’ll be darned. That’s right, she’s-
DOROTHY: She’s a Science teacher. She was teaching in Berlin; that’s where she met her husband.
INTERVIEWER: Right. She’s my next door neighbor.
DOROTHY: Is that right?
INTERVIEWER: He’s even told me the tale of them meeting.
DOROTHY: Well, he lived down the street from us.
INTERVIEWER: That’s right; he was from Berlin. I’d forgotten that. All right, you came to Newark when you got married.
DOROTHY: And I’ve been here ever since.
INTERVIEWER: Well, now, were you familiar enough with Newark so it wasn’t too great a change, moving from Berlin?
DOROTHY: You see I’d been teaching here for four years and then had been visiting at my mother-in-law’s-she afterward became my mother-in-law; I was a friend of her daughter’s and I visited there in the house even long before I ever started dating my husband.
INTERVIEWER: For goodness sake.
DOROTHY: He was just somebody-he didn’t pay any attention to me and I didn’t pay any attention to him. I was just staying there-I was a friend of his sister’s, and that was it.
INTERVIEWER: When you came to Newark-describe Newark, just a little bit when you came-this would have been in 1929.
DOROTHY: Well, we lived on the corner, right opposite the bank when we first came here to live.
INTERVIEWER: All right; directly across from the bank.
DOROTHY: Yes, directly across, in that house where all the trees-
INTERVIEWER:
DOROTHY: Oh, no. She’s the nurse; I can’t think of what their names are now, but they are a young couple.
INTERVIEWER: O.K.
DOROTHY: And they have got all the trees in the yard.
INTERVIEWER: Is there a swing out under one of the trees-a rope swing?
DOROTHY: Yes, I believe there is.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
DOROTHY: Well, we lived there for about-we lived there from 1929 until 1947 and that is where our children almost grew up and all the rest of the children in Newark.
INTERVIEWER: I’m sure they all grew up right there.
DOROTHY: They did, because we had all that lot that was where that feed house was. In back of where that house is now, that was our lot and all between our house and the church, and we kept it mowed so that the children could play ball and do anything they wanted to in there, and the whole town played in there, so I pretty well knew where my children were.
INTERVIEWER: That is one thing about having them all at your house; you could keep your eye on them.
DOROTHY: And the church was just like it is now, and where Bassett Townsend and Ruth-where Ruth lives now was an old house that has been rebuilt, and the next house was right there like it is now, and where the Reddishes live is the same as it was, and where Elsie Warren lives it is the same, and then next is where my mother-in-law lived-where my husband was raised, and I said raised-that is not true, but they were living there when we married and where Tom lives now, and the next house and where Tom lives now, and the next house-the house that was there burned while I was teaching school here and that one was built. The next house that Patsy Godfrey and her husband Caroll Berdan are restoring was Elwood Tull’s father’s home. Of course, Ruth and Morris built that houose of theirs, and the next house belonged to Iva Richardson’s mother and father, and then there was nothing where the school is. That was built in 1930, just after we were married. See I taught school down there.
INTERVIEWER: Where the firehouse-
DOROTHY: Where the firehouse is.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, goodness.
DOROTHY: And then all those houses on that side were built since then until you get up where the Jones girl had chicken houses. That was Elwood Tull’s home, and on the other side, where the drive-in window is at the bank is now, along there there was a barber shop and it was connected with the house. They lived in part of it and the barber shop was in the other part, and then they had gas pumps out front.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my dear.
DOROTHY: And then the lot between that was a garden, and then the house where Jay Mason lives now was like it is now, and the house where Collins-it was Ruth Connor’s home to start with(he was he second husband and he married again) his name was Collins. He lives there now, next to Jay’s, and that belonged to an Adkins and I think he was a brother to the man that was a blacksmith. But that house has been rebuilt; it’s not like it was, and there wasn’t anything between there and the cemetery.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
DOROTHY: And then there was this-where Russell Bradford lives now is just like it was. Where Miss Ollie Timmons lives is like it was, and then the house where Kathleen Parker lives was built after we came here, and the house where Barbelys live now was already there, and then there was another old house further up, back in the field-I don’t know whether it was burned or whether it blew down or what happened, but it’s gone, and the Townsend place, where the chicken houses are, was just like it is now but the chicken houses weren’t there, but the place was.
INTERVIEWER: Now, there weren’t-When you came here in the 30’s, were you all farming?
DOROTHY: No, my husband had his own business.
INTERVIEWER: I forgot that. That I should have know. Now, did he initiate the canning business here or was there already one here that he-
DOROTHY: It seems to me there was one here that he bought in with somebody else and they ran it for a year and he bought them out, but that was way before my time, but I think that’s what he told me. And then he kept on, and then he had the sawmill in back of the canning factory and that burned in 1941. At the same time he was selling chicken feed and raising chickens, too, and Kenneth, his younger brother who was working with him, had to go in the Army, so he never built the mill back.
INTERVIEWER: Now, was that in the same general area of the barrel stave mill or this way further?
DOROTHY: Yes, that was back of the church.
INTERVIEWER: Right, right; O.K. Now, with the canning part. Alll I ever knew they canned there was tomatoes, in my time, but did they do any canning other than tomatoes? I know they shipped potatoes out on the train. I did hear about that.
DOROTHY: Yes, yes. Oh, they canned peas and they canned sweet potatoes and did some white potatoes and they did some tomato juice at one time, and tomatoes of course, but they finally concentrated on sweet potatoes and tomatoes and here they only canned tomatoes and tomato sauce.
INTERVIEWER: Another thing-I am trying to think when the fire in Newark was.
DOROTHY: I can tell you.
INTERVIEWER: Good; I was trying to figure if you were here yet.
DOROTHY: That was in January of 1929, and the reason I can tell you so well what it was, it had happened on a Sunday night and the next morning Ralph’s brother and sister-in-law were married, and Ralph and I had been to Baltimore, to see his sister who was living in Baltimore then-she and her husband were living up there and we’d been up there to see them that weekend, and when we got home to Berlin and stopped and drove in our lane, my mother came to the door and said, “Tell Ralph do not even cut-bother to shut his motor off; there is a fire in Newark and they’ve been calling for him to come.”
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my dear.
DOROTHY: So of course he knew right away it was the cannning factory and so did I, and I had my suitcase and a box of candy and some other things in my arms and I dropped them at the front door there and said, “Here’s a box of candy for you; I am going with Ralph.” So we came on down here and of course when we got around the corner we could see the reflection from the fire on the red canning factory-it was painted red then.
INTERVIEWER: That was nice to see, wasn’t it.
DOROTHY: So we knew it wasn’t that-but now there was a store where it is now and there was a dwelling and a barber shop and an Odd Fellows Hall, all in that block up there, up towards the bank, and they all burned and then there was-I think that was all though that burned-but it set the barn on fire, charred the barn there on the lot where we afterwards lived, and we used that charred barn-the back of it was charred-and we used that for a garage until we built a cinder block garage there, but that’s how close that house came to burning.
INTERVIEWER: That was close indeed. Goodness. But it didn’t do any damage to the factory.
DOROTHY: No, the fire we had in the factory was in 1960 and it burned it to the ground.
INTERVIEWER:
DOROTHY: All our-was in September. We had just finished packing tomatoes and nobody ever knew what happened. They just figured it started from something electrical, some wire, or something like that. Maybe a birrd had done something to it or something of that sort, because there was nothing running in the factory. It was on Monday morning and they weren’t running and it was early and nobody was in there. It seemed to start up in the roof. It really did burn-
INTERVIEWER: You were here?
DOROTHY: No, no, we weren’t here; we were living in Ocean City.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, alright.
DOROTHY: Well, when Tom came out of the service we gave him our house-turned over our house to him and we were going to build this one, but he came out in May and we stayed in Ocean City that summer. We had an apartment, the downstairs apartment, in the Colonial Arms, or something like that, on the corner of Philadelphia Avenue and 12th Street, I guess it is, 12th or 13th. It belonged to Jigs Jenkins.
INTERVIEWER: All right. I am not placing it right now and I don’t know why I am not. At 12th Street it is Harry Kelley’s house on the corner.
DOROTHY: Well, ours was up from that.
INTERVIEWER: Up from that; O.K.
DOROTHY: And we had an apartment there for the summer and then we were going to Florida for the winter, anyway. I mean we had a house down in Florida then, and so we were-Ralph had left home that morning and was on his way to Berlin-I mean to Newark, but he had stopped in to the farm up here on the way down, but when he came back from the farm he said he saw the fire and knew what it was.
INTERVIEWER: Right, because there is not that much in Newark-
DOROTHY: And they were trying to get hold of him because he had a heart condition and they were trying to get hold of me and finally these friends of mine-I had gone to the Laundromat and these friends of mine saw me coming home and waved me down, and said, “Dot, there’s a fire in Newark.” I said, “Let me put these things in the house; I’ve got to go.” It was Louise and Bill Farlow, and Louise said, “ Bill will go with you and I will trail you.” So Bill drove in the car with me and she trailed me down here; that’s the way I found it out.
INTERVIEWER: I am trying to see if there is anything else special aabout Newark that is memorable. Really, at this point we are getting a pretty good picture.
DOROTHY: There is a lot of this you can cut out when-
INTERVIEWER: Right. It is easier just to let it run and then just cut it out later. But really, the only thing we have cut out is when you were talking about the last fire. That will be history some day, but I am not going to worrry about that.
DOROTHY: No, don’t worry about that.
INTERVIEWER: That will be someone else’s problem.
DOROTHY: But that night that they had the big fire here in Newark was something. We got here when it was pretty well over. Everybody was ready to move out then, I think.
INTERVIEWER: I am sure, because everybody was in frame dwellings and they were-
DOROTHY: They would really have gone in a hurry.
INTERVIEWER: Well, now, shortly after that did the fire company form in Newark, or do you know whether that was any impetus to it?
DOROTHY: It probably was. I don’t know, really. My son could tell you more about when the fire company was formed than I can. I remember-it seems to me we had been married when the fire company was formed but I am not certain even of that.
INTERVIEWER: What did you teach?
DOROTHY: I taught the first three grades.
INTERVIEWER: My dear, just the whole thing.
DOROTHY: The whole thing. I had about forty children.
INTERVIEWER: That’s a lot to keep busy when they are all doing different things.
DOROTHY: I guess it is, but when they gripe about having such big classes with thirsty children in the class, I think to myself, you don’t know anything about teaching school.
INTERVIEWER: I’ll agree with you, but I think you had a lot more support from parents then and the children knew they had just better behave.
DOROTHY: Well, I’ll tell you something else, too. In Newark I loved it-I just loved teaching-but when I went to Berlin-I don’t mean they were all that bad, because they were not-there were some very, very nice children in Berlin and I was very fond of them, but there were some ornery ones, too. Oh, they were birds.
INTERVIEWER: I wonder if part of that comes from being just a bigger area.
DOROTHY: Well, at that time, it was just beginning to-you couldn’t punish them-I mean you couldn’t whip them or something like that. Now, down here, if I wanted to turn one over my knee and spank him, that was all right with their parents. You never heard anything from them. Of course, I didn’t do it very often, but the thing is, if they needed it, I did it. I never will forget one little boy I did, and I thought, oh boy, I guess his father will be after me tomorrow morning, but I never heard a word about it. I don’t imagine he told his father.
INTERVIEWER: If he was smart, he didn’t.
DOROTHY: But you got a lot more support down here from parents. Of course, the bigger the town the more discipline problems you are going to have.
INTERVIEWER: I think you are right.
DOROTHY: And another thing, I went in there to teach after school had been open a little better than a month. They had a substitute working all that time and they had been allowed to do just as they wanted to do. Their regular teacher was ill and she had to retire, or she had TB and had to go to a sanatorium and afterwards died. So they were at a disadvantage because they hadn’t-
INTERVIEWER: They hadn’t started off right.
DOROTHY: They hadn’t started off right in the beginning of the year and if you didn’t-it is a whole lot easier to start off hard and let up.
INTERVIEWER: Let up and let them find out you are nice after all.
DOROTHY: Rather than start off easy and clamp down on them. That’s hard going. Yes, indeed. But I loved it down here and the people were always just as nice to me as they could be.
INTERVIEWER: Well, when you first came down to teach down here, did you board?
DOROTHY: No, I went back and forth. They ran a bus from Berlin, a regular bus line to Snow Hill and back. They’d come down in the morning and go back in the afternoon and it just suited this cousin of mine that was teaching in Snow Hill, and I was teaching down here and we both rode the bus.
INTERVIEWER: That made it nice.
DOROTHY: It got her down there in time and got me here in time for school. We left home a few minutes after eight.
INTERVIEWER:
DOROTHY: We’d get home about 4:30 or 5 o’clock, and they used to take some school children from below here on down. I guess they took high school children from here, too.
INTERVIEWER: But it was a private bus line.
DOROTHY: Yes, it was a private bus line. They didn’t have school buses then.
INTERVIEWER: It would have been a long walk.
DOROTHY: Well, they would have had to provide their own transportation, you see.
INTERVIEWER: I think I was talking to Mr. Holloway. He boarded in Snow Hill, I think, he and Mr. Adkins.
DOROTHY: He probably did.
INTERVIEWER: He boarded through the week and went home on weekends.
DOROTHY: Well, now, Florence-Ralph’s-the next one older than he-she was the oldest one in the family. She graduated from Newark High School, then the one just below Ralph had to go to Snow Hill School and I think she boarded down there, but then after that they arranged some way for them to get there. I don’t know just-
INTERVIEWER: Well, I think that’s about it. I didn’t look again today. I keep saying when I go to the bank I will look and see what year it was built. It has it right in the building and I have yet to look, because we talked about that the other day, trying to figure out when the bank was built, because I know that building wasn’t always there.
DOROTHY: Let me think. I think I have got a keyring out here.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, I think when I leave I am going by the bank.