150th Maryland Independent Special Anniversary Section

ANNIVERSARY SECTION

11th Annual Recovery Celebration

SMECO is your cooperative

A part of Southern Maryland since 1937

SMECO was formed 87 years ago by members of the community who were committed to bringing electric service to their rural neighborhoods. These individuals knew the value of bringing power to Southern Maryland and they made it happen. The region has grown and changed quite a bit since then, but at the core, this is still a place rich in personality and potential.

Your cooperative and its employees understand the critical role we play in supporting the sustainable growth and livelihood of this community. We remain committed to our mission of providing reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy solutions, while also actively contributing to the social, economic, and cultural fabric of the region.

One way we do this is by investing back into the community. We understand that supporting local businesses is essential for economic growth and vitality. That’s why, whenever possible, we prioritize relationships with local vendors and suppliers for goods and services needed for our operations. We believe that by reinvesting in local

businesses, we help strengthen the local economy and contribute to its overall wellbeing.

Through community outreach, charitable initiatives, and partnerships with local organizations, SMECO also strives to address the unique needs and challenges facing this community. Whether it is sponsoring youth programs, supporting education initiatives, or providing assistance during times of crisis, your cooperative remains dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of its members.

Your cooperative’s greatest strength lies in its people. Our steadfast dedication to supporting the local economy; exercising financial prudence; and providing safe, reliable, and affordable electric service underscores our unwavering commitment to our members and the world around us.

At SMECO, we understand the impact of our actions on the communities we serve. This understanding is rooted in the cooperative’s principles—SMECO belongs to Southern Maryland.

Many of our employees live in the SMECO service area. We are your neighbors, your friends, your little league coaches—and we are also members of this cooperative. The unique opportunity to work for and serve the community where we live provides the satisfaction of seeing the impact of our daily work. We are committed to continuing the legacy that began in 1937.

On May 11, President Franklin Roosevelt established the Rural Electrification Administration (REA).

SMECO energized its first generating plant at Popes Creek, Maryland. This plant initially served 400 families.

SMECO connected its 50,000th meter.

On February 5, the Southern Maryland Tri-County Cooperative Association was incorporated. Later, the name became Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, Inc.

District offices opened in Calvert and St. Mary’s counties.

With more than 175,000 meters in place, SMECO is among the largest electric cooperatives in the nation.

SMECO finished construction of the 165,000 square-foot Engineering and Operations Center in Hughesville.

opened in Hughesville. Smart meters installed to serve SMECO’s members.

SMECO began purchasing power on the competitive open market with the assistance of ACES.

Executive

Johnson at jjohnson@chespub.com Managing

Jesse Yeatman at jyeatman@somdnews.com

Reid at mreid@somdnews.com

Madden at mmadden@somdnews.com

Black at tblack@somdnews.com

The east end of La Plata in the 1940’s

A MESSAGE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

Helping Expecting Parentsand Their Baby

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Someofour services include:

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• Mental Health Therapy

• Assistingyou with insurance foryou andthe baby

• Dental Care

• Transportation to doctors’ appointments

• Equipment forbaby(if needed)

• Education about pregnancy,childbirth, andnewborncare.

A LOOK BACK TO THE

CELEBRATING A HISTORY OF SERVICE TO CHARLES COUNTY

BY MATT WYNN

Happy 150th birthday to the Maryland Independent.

For a century and a half, the Maryland Independent has kept its finger on the pulse of pressing issues in Charles County and has served the public every step of the way by holding local government accountable, representing voices that needed to be amplified and being there in times of crisis.

Local journalism serves as a cornerstone of democracy nationwide and the Independent is proud to help inform voters to make informed decisions on who they choose to represent them and shape the future of Charles County.

We are proud to be your community connection.

A SOMEWHAT DIVISIVE, ADDLED BEGINNING

While the original founding date of the paper may be lost to time, the date of the first publication was likely July 1, 1874. The earliest known edition of the paper still in existence is from Sept. 16, 1874, and is labeled as the 12th edition of the first volume. The July 3, 1874, edition of the Port Tobacco Times said, “We have received the first copy of the

Samuel Sullivan, editor of the Maryland Independent, left, Fred L. Wineland, Maryland secretary of state, Lawrence Sullivan, publisher of the Maryland Independent, Gov. Marvin Mandel, Muriel Selph, a publisher of the paper and Comptroller Louis Goldstein celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Maryland Independent in the 1970s.

BEGINNING

Maryland Independent, a newspaper published in this town every Wednesday.”

Longtime readers of the paper may recall that it used to say “est. 1872” near the top of the first page. The first time the paper ever put “est. 1872” on the front page appeared to be in 1927. However, the 1922 N.W. Ayer & Son’s Newspaper Annual and Directory listed the founding date of the Maryland Independent as 1874.

In 1926, the year before 1872 was declared the founding year of the Maryland Independent, the paper had just changed hands.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

The name “Maryland Independent” likely comes from a political split that followed the Civil War. A schism had occurred in the Democratic party and its repercussions were felt in Charles County’s government.

William R. Wilmer of Charles County, who was the son of one of the few Union supporters in the area, led the charge on a Fusion ticket, which is the practice of multiple parties listing the same candidate, composed of Independent Democrats and Republicans.

The name “Independent Democrat” was eventually dropped after elections in the 1870s. Some Independent Democrats ended up running on the Republican ticket, but the “Maryland Independent” name likely comes from those dissident Democrats within the region.

The paper was founded in Port Tobacco by John S. Button, who was a local printer and freemason. In Button’s days, the paper was nearly unrecognizable from how it appears now. Bounties were posted by the county

commissioners, advertisements praised lead paint as a “great discovery” and gave glowing testimonials, front-page stories gave facts about cats and feet, and “vegetable drops” claimed to treat boils, bronchitis and liver issues.

The Independent also placed more of a focus on international issues, with blurbs about foreign affairs taking up a considerable amount of the page in some editions.

Oftentimes, poetry and installments of fictional stories could be found in the paper, giving readers something on the lighter side.

However, despite all the oddities of the late 1800s, politics remained a focal point of the paper.

5TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Confederate sympathies in the decades following the Civil War remained high, and the Maryland Independent reflected that in covering the region’s nominees for office.

In one of the earliest instances of political coverage in the paper from the Sept. 30, 1874, edition, the paper examined the then-Democratic nominee for Maryland’s fifth congressional district, Eli Jones Henkle, who was ultimately elected to serve from 1875 to 1881.

The article details the vitriol of Henkle and shares fear that he would undermine the 14th and 15th Amendments if elected.

While Henkle opposed the suffrage of Black people, the Maryland Independent defended the process of law-making, saying, “We believe that the reopening of this question of suffrage will only have a tendency to antagonize the races … the 14th and 15th Amendments have been passed by a two-thirds majority of both

Houses of Congress, have been ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the states, and in addition to all that, have been adopted by the platforms of both the great political parties of the country.”

In 1882, the paper passed into the hands of Adrian Posey, who was a state delegate and senator, lawyer and businessman.

Posey led efforts to move the county’s seat of power from Port Tobacco to La Plata during his tenure as a state senator and served on the building committee to build a new courthouse in La Plata.

Once the courthouse was constructed, the Independent moved its office to La Plata.

During Posey’s time as the publisher of the Maryland Independent, he was a bitter rival of those at the Port Tobacco Times, mostly due to political allegiances. The Port Tobacco Times conformed more to Democratic values at the time, while the Independent leaned Republican through the 1920s.

The paper remained in the Posey family’s possession until his son died in 1926.

The Maryland Independent passed hands through multiple notable families in Charles County throughout the 20th century, including the Bowlings and the Mudds.

Today, the Maryland Independent is a part of Southern Maryland News, owned by Adams Publishing Group since 2015. Under Adams Publishing Group, the Maryland Independent was merged with The Calvert Recorder and The Enterprise in 2020 to form a regional paper that could still provide local coverage of communities. Here’s to another 150 years of remaining in service to Charles County.

DEVASTATION STRIKES

NEARLY 80 YEARS APART, TWO DEADLY STORMS RIP THROUGH LA PLATA

BY MATT WYNN

La Plata has faced devastation and loss from two of the strongest tornadoes ever recorded in the state of Maryland.

While the 2002 F4 tornado that leveled much of La Plata remains fresh in the minds of many, it was not the deadliest. On Nov. 9, 1926, a tornado made a direct impact on the old La Plata School, taking the lives of 13 students and four townspeople.

The coverage the Maryland Independent presented two days after the storm was grim, with accounts of students and teachers alike being thrown from the schoolhouse after receiving no warning of the incoming tornado.

To this day, a plaque hangs in the foyer of Milton Somers Middle School — which sits near the site where the La Plata School once existed — memorializing the students who lost their lives.

The Nov. 11, 1926, issue of the Independent included an account from Ethel Graves Cooksey, one of the teachers in the La Plata School, who said, “We didn’t know what it was. We’d had no experience in this area with tornadoes. We had no warning whatsoever.”

“I was sitting at my desk, talking

to two of my children who were standing there when there was a woooosh and everything began to go over and over,” Graves said. “I remember the sensation of going through the air, but for a while, I had no recollection of what happened.”

Graves said her worst recollection of the entire tornado were trips to the undertaker to identify her students.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget that,” Graves said nearly a century ago.

There were some small miracles among the devastation. While virtually every student in the school was injured, the 1926 issue of the Independent recounted a trio of students who had complained of toothaches and were subsequently granted a day off to visit the dentist the day that the tornado struck, alluding injury from the devastating storm.

Helen C. Hughes, the principal of the La Plata School, told the paper that she was not injured but remembered the entire building being lifted up and then becoming buried under the destroyed schoolhouse.

“I succeeded in getting free and started immediately to extricate

The cover of a Maryland Independent issue from 1967, made 41 years after the 1926 tornado to retell the stories of those who experienced the tragedy. Courtesy of Allen Browne

TWICE:

RECALLING THE INDEPENDENT'S COVERAGE OF KILLER TORNADOES

children from the wreckage,” Hughes said.

RESHAPING

LA PLATA, AGAIN

In 2002, La Plata was devastated once again by a tornado the Maryland Independent headline could only call a “Destroyer.” Three people died and 122 were injured as a result of the storm.

According to the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the La Plata tornado first touched down at 6:56 p.m. on April 28, 2002, south of the town of Marbury in western Charles County.

While initial damage was minimal, the tornado intensified as it approached the town of La Plata, and F3 damage occurred in two subdivisions west of town.

Damage and eyewitness accounts indicated a second,

weaker tornado formed a quarter of a mile south of the first tornado, according to NOAA documents.

Both tornadoes crossed the heart of La Plata between 7:02 p.m. and 7:07 p.m., causing widespread damage and havoc.

Jim Brocker, a former editor of the Maryland Independent, gave his account of the destruction in the May 1, 2002, special edition of the paper, saying, “We made our way further into the destruction. A

wall of La Plata United Methodist Church was torn away, the rooms visible like a dollhouse interior. Husks of empty cars sat in the intersection, covered in a ghostly dust. A 30-yard swath of thick, whitish material was spread across both sides of 301 like peanut butter — actually drywall from one of the damaged buildings reduced to a paste-like substance by the force of the wind.”

Another account, gathered by then editor of the Independent, Angela Breck, detailed John Sherbert, a La Plata resident’s story. Sherbert heard that a tornado was heading toward Waldorf and looked out the back door of his La Plata home. He saw a big black cloud heading his way.

“Guys, get to the basement,” Sherbert told his family. He, his wife and children headed to safety and 10 seconds later, he said, the house above him was gone.

The most powerful tornado in Maryland history destroyed 27 businesses and 38 homes, causing over $100 million in property damage. The storm caused such extensive damage that it was initially rated an F5, the strongest possible classification.

Teachers and students stand in front of the La Plata School, prior to its destruction in 1926 by a tornado. Courtesy of Charles County Public Schools

However, as surveys of the tornado continued, there were some anomalies that caused the tornado to be downgraded to an F4.

Tim Marshall, a forensic engineer and meteorologist for Haag Engineering, was a part of NOAA’s assessment team in the wake of the disaster. One of the inconsistencies Marshall documented after the tornado was entire houses being blown away, yet mailboxes were still firmly rooted in the ground.

“What is not damaged is just as important as what is damaged,” Marshall said in a recent phone call with Southern Maryland News, referring to his work on the survey. “They started looking at the mailboxes and said this was not just an isolated incident. We saw this on a number of houses that were gone.”

The team Marshall served on found fatal flaws in the construction of La Plata homes, as they were not

anchored properly, allowing lesser winds to cause more devastation.

“It was a shame to see these beautiful homes completely destroyed because there was just a critical missed step,” Marshall said. “Even the big, beautiful homes were just as poorly built as the smaller homes.”

Marshall recalled aerial surveys he helped conduct after the storm, saying, “There was this meandering line through the countryside for about 62 miles, and then the town was just hit directly.”

Two of Maryland’s most devastating tornadoes affecting La Plata is mostly an “unlikely coincidence,” Marshall said.

“Everybody thinks that tornado alley is where tornadoes happen, but they do occur outside of it,” he said. “It just happened to be that two tornadoes go through that town. Any place in Maryland is vulnerable to tornadoes.”

Top: The cover of the Maryland Independent’s special edition on May 1, 2002, calling the F4 tornado that ripped through the county days prior a “Destroyer.”

Bottom: A photo taken by Tim Marshall during his surveys following the 2002 La Plata tornado shows a house on Morgans Ridge Road completely swept off of its foundation, but mailboxes in the front yard were undamaged. Evidence like this was used to downgrade the tornado from F5 to F4. Courtesy of Tim Marshall/NOAA

CENTURY INDEPENDENT HAD A BLEND OF NEWS TO PERUSE IN THE

MID-20TH

FARMING AND FUN OFTEN ON THE FRONT PAGE

BY MARTY MADDEN

It’s true that television has been around over 80 years. But its ubiquity hadn’t quite been totally realized in rural locations like Charles County. In addition, radio was around and was about to undergo a huge revamp in the coming years.

The one constant for communities in the late 1940s and early 1950s was the newspaper.

History-wise, the Maryland Independent was situated in the middle of its only full century so far. Its blend of items, articles and advertisements would seem to be the quintessential read for Charles countians.

The front page of the May 11, 1951, edition of the Maryland Independent had news on the farm front, the Boy Scouts of America’s local effort to eradicate communism and, on a lighter note, a preview of a local

amusement park’s upcoming summer season.

“Farmers got an average of only 69 cents an hour for their labor in 1950, about a 5% interest on their investments and nothing for management,” an unattributed front page story on Robert Brannan’s take on the state of American agriculture. Brannan was the Truman Administration’s secretary of agriculture.

“Farm production involves great risk, great skill of many kinds and large investments of money and labor,” Brannan said. “Farmers as a group are operating on a very small margin all the time, and in recent years it has been narrowing. Farm costs are still rising while farm prices have leveled off and even declined slightly.”

In 1951 R.V. Truitt, holder of a doctorate in zoology and founder of the Chesapeake Biological Lab in

Solomons, was chairman of a tricounty area citizens committee aiming to establish a Southern Maryland Boy Scout district.

“A lot of people are talking these days about communism,” Truitt is quoted as saying during an “informal talk before a group of local citizens,” according to the Maryland Independent. “In their quiet way the Scout has been and is daily doing something about it — by teaching boys to revere God, love liberty and become good citizens.”

Working on the farm and fighting off communism with good deeds could be exhausting. What better way to unwind than spending time at the area amusement park.

“Marshall Hall, Southern Maryland’s oldest and largest amusement park, opened Tuesday night, May 1, for the season,” a front page, above the fold story in the Maryland Independent’s May 11, 1951, edition read.

The park was on the Potomac River, almost directly across from George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Va., home.

“The event was well patronized when the Steamer Mount Vernon brought in a large ‘Moonlight’ crowd,” according to the newspaper’s account. “They thoroughly enjoyed their visit to this famous resort. There were many noticeable changes in the park picture. The ever popular merrygo-round has been redecorated from floor to ceiling and a new lighting arrangement really makes it look its best. The giant roller coaster, as big as the biggest, has a brand newfront that

gives this thrilling wonder a new look. This device did a capacity business the opening night. The Whip has been re-designed and illuminated and has a brand new look. The Crazy House has been done over and now has a full set of genuine laughing mirrors. Many of the park rides have been converted from gasoline engines to electric motors. The Looper, Ridee-O, Tilt-A-Whirl and the Skooter have all had a new coat of paint.”

HEADED TO THE HALL

In 1951, the term “rock‘n’roll” was about to be coined in Cleveland. Meanwhile, one of the more popular forms of music was widely known as “hillbilly.” A music promoter based in the Washington, D.C., area was about to change that.

Small ads in several early 1951 editions of the Maryland Independent announced “Dancing at Hotel Charles Every Saturday Night.” The Hughesville venue’s headliner was “Connie B. Gay’s Pleasant Valley Boys featuring Billy Pollard.” Admission was 50 cents.

Gay was not a performer but rather a promoter, a vocation at which he proved to be quite adept, organizing concerts at Constitution Hall, among other venues.

He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980, acknowledged for his championing of such future stars as Jimmy Dean, Patsy Cline and Roy Clark.

Gay is also considered the man who changed the label of “hillbilly” to “country” music. The North Carolina native holds stature as a founding father of the genre.

The Hotel Charles is in Hughesville. Marty Madden/Southern Maryland News

ZANTZINGER’S ALLEGED MISDEEDS FREQUENTLY

CHRONICLED

NOTORIOUS CHARLES FARMER REMEMBERED IN DYLAN SONG

BY MARTY MADDEN

In its one plus one-half century, it’s hard to argue that the most notorious figures in Charles County was truly one its most unlikely ones. He was a man of wealth and privilege.

During the early 1950s, weekly ads for the reputable Washington, D.C.-based real estate agent O.B. Zantzinger appeared frequently in the paper’s pages.

“List your property with O.B. Zantzinger. Nothing too small or too large.”

Sadly, one of the heirs to the firm ran afoul of the law in Baltimore City in 1963. The whole thing might have been forgotten if a famous — check that, America’s most famous —songwriter hadn’t written a tune about it.

William Devereux Zantzinger, then 24, was attending a fancy social event at Baltimore’s Emerson Hotel on Feb. 9, 1963. According to news accounts, Zantzinger was allegedly drunk and wielding a “carnival-style” cane. He allegedly assaulted three African American hotel employees, including Hattie Carroll, a 53-year-old bartender and mother of 11. Carroll died of a brain hemorrhage eight hours after the incident.

Zantzinger was subsequently convicted of manslaughter, fined $500 and sentenced to six months in prison.

When young singer/songwriter Bob Dylan read about the incident and Zantzinger’s sentence, he

wrote “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.”

According to a Maryland Independent story printed shortly after his death at age 69 in January 2009, Zantzinger found himself back in the local headlines during the 1980s when the Internal Revenue Service “garnished income he was receiving from a trust fund left to him by his mother and administered to Riggs Bank to satisfy an outstanding federal tax obligation of a little more than $78,000, according to newspaper accounts. In addition to federal tax delinquencies, Zantzinger fell more than $18,000 behind in paying Charles County taxes on property he owned in Benedict in the 1980s, according to newspaper reports. The rundown housing units were rented to poor blacks and in 1986 Charles County confiscated the property.”

The 2009 account, written by Maryland Independent staff writer Nancy Brumley McConaty, noted that “even though he no longer owned the property, Zantzinger continued to collect and raise rents and successfully prosecute tenants for back rent, according to newspaper reports. The story broke in the Maryland Independent in 1991, drawing a grim picture of the living conditions tenants were subjected to at Patuxent Woods, including no indoor plumbing or even outhouses. Human waste was dumped on the ground, contaminating shallow wells that served the community. In addition, the homes had no heat and some of the four-room units had as many as six people living in them.”

A year after the newspaper reports, Zantzinger was sentenced to 18 months in jail and fined $50,000.

In its obituary of Zantzinger — whose passing

received write-ups in other big city newspapers due to the Dylan song — the New York Times cited the Maryland Independent as the source of disclosure for Zantzinger’s alleged property management misdeeds.

More recently, Charles County government has memorialized Carroll’s life and death with an oil painting that was displayed for one month in 2017 at the government’s La Plata headquarters. The portrait that was done by local artist and teacher Vicki Marckel was later presented to Carroll’s family.

“I’m overwhelmed,” Bridgett Carroll, Hattie Carroll’s great-granddaughter, is quoted as saying in a 2017 Maryland Independent story about the portrait unveiling and the dedication to the victim of a walkway on the government building’s grounds. “It’s a beautiful painting. It makes me feel proud and honored to see what a beautiful person my grandmother was. She’s not forgotten.”

Relatives of Hattie Carroll celebrate her memory at the dedication of the sidewalk in 2017 outside of the Charles County government building. From left, Carroll’s great-granddaughter Tiffany Lindsey, great-great-granddaughter India Lindsey, great-great-grandson Kevin Myrick, granddaughter Donna Waters and greatgranddaughter Bridgett Carroll. File photo

A plaque honoring Hattie Carroll that sits at the Charles County government facility in La Plata. Matt Wynn/Southern Maryland News

‘THEY WOULD GIVE ME A SENSE OF

MARYLAND INDEPENDENT COVERAGE OF WORLD CONFLICTS MOSTLY FROM A LOCAL ANGLE

BY MICHAEL REID

He may have been stationed thousands of miles away from home, but Roger Rollins was still able to stay up to date on what was happening in Charles County.

The non-Morse intercept operator spent more than two years on a mountain in Japan, but the Charles County resident still received updates from home.

“My mother would take the clippings [from The Maryland Independent] and send them to me in the mail,” the 83-year-old Rollins said of receiving news on marriages, births, graduations and other happenings from Charlotte Hall and the surrounding area. “I valued those because they would give me a sense of home.”

Military coverage — particularly local — has been on the pages of the Maryland Independent since its inception.

Retired Chief Master Sgt. Jamie Zayas, the current commander of La Plata American Legion Post 82 who had a 37-year military career and did tours in Afghanistan and during the Global War on Terror, said the Independent has been a source of information since he moved to Charles County in 1994.

“I thought it was an outstanding little newspaper,” said Zayas, who was stationed at Andrews Air Force Base at the time. “It normally focuses more on [military installations such as] Indian Head and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, and not so much at Andrews. But it’s still interesting because anything with the military I’m interested in.”

The newspaper has kept the county informed on conflicts, at least since the Spanish-American War in 1898.

“President’s War Message” in the April 15 edition that year observed that “the long looked for and anxiously awaited message of the President of the SpainCuba imbroglio has at last come to light, and it is generally conceded to be a weak, hesitating document, and disappointing. It is a sort of neither one thing or the other.”

A World War I story “On The Eve of War” (April 6, 1917) stated that Congress passed a resolution giving the president “the right to use the armed forces of the United States to prosecute the war, and bring it to as early a termination as possible.”

The newspaper ran a column titled “Life,” which included briefs from around the world, including one from Nazi minister Paul Joseph Goebbels on how Royal Air Force bombing was affecting Germany (Nov. 7, 1941). “I know you have it hard today. You must all work as never before. Your wives must sometimes stand

for hours before stores in order to buy some vegetables ... Sometimes you have to go without a glass of beer, sometimes a cigarette. Then, at nights, go into air raid protection cellars and after two hours’ sleep go back to hard work.”

A few lines below, Japan showed its disdain for American aid to China by saying it was “inconsistent in view of the United States’ aim of destroying Hitlerism,” and added “this promise of all-out aid may be taken as a direct challenge to Japan,” which ultimately ended up bombing Pearl Harbor a month later.

News of the attack only began with the Dec. 19, 1941 edition.

An article titled “Defend Your Country” stated the attack “was one of the most dastardly and cowardly attacks on our people and possessions,” and added, “There can no question of doubt in the mind of any American citizen that we are at war with nations who practice the most ruthless forms of destruction.”

On the following page was “What to Do When Air Raid Signal Sounds” by Charles County Civilian Defense Committee Chairman James Wills and Secretary W. Mitchell Digges.

Item No. 8 told residents that if an incendiary bomb should fall, residents should “spray from a garden hose of water on the bomb” but cautioned that a “jet, splash or bucket of water” would make the bomb explode.

A few columns over was an item titled Women In Defense, which advised females to “save all newspapers, paper cartons, and boxes and magazines” and turn them over to local PTAs or the Defense Council.

The newspaper also ran items during the Vietnam War (1955-75), Korean War (1950-55), Lebanon/Grenada Conflict (1982-84) Iraq War (2003-11), Gulf War: Operation Desert Shield (1990-91) and Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm (1991), and covered impacts from other wars and conflicts over the last century and a half.

“The only thing we ever saw published was when someone was graduating from a tech school or getting out of boot camp or something like that,” said Brady Hindle, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1959-1963 and is a past commander of American Legion Post 82.

While military coverage was important, it was clear the newspaper believed other news was also important.

Next to a Dec. 19, 1941, story promoting a Red Cross War Fund Campaign were two others: “Fish Clubbed To Death; Self-Defense Plea Wins” from Michigan and a Dallas brief that stated “Four Perfect Bridge Hands Ends The Game.”

HOME’

to news clippings

WE ARE AT WAR WITH NATIONS WHO PRACTICE

THE MOST RUTHLESS FORMS OF DESTRUCTION

Referring

from the Maryland Independent sent to him while he served as a Non Morse Intercept Officer in the 1960s in Japan, Roger Rollins, right, shown with friends at an American Legion La Post 82 event on May 10, said he “valued those because they would give me a sense of home.” Michael Reid/Southern Maryland News

American Legion Auxiliary Unit 82 President Leslie Radcliff, left, Sons of the American Legion Squadron 82 Commander Dave Tatman and American Legion Post 82 Commander Jamie Zayas stand in front of the Post 82 military memorial in La Plata. Michael Reid/Southern Maryland News

A monument honoring the 62 Charles County residents who lost their life in World War II stands outside the American Legion Post 82 in La Plata. Other monuments honor those who were killed during the Vietnam War, Korean War, Lebanon/ Grenada Conflict and Global War on Terrorism. Michael Reid/Southern Maryland News

150 years ago, schooling in Charles County looked much different than it does today. Segregation, and later desegregation, played a role in shaping the educational experience for many as did the lack of technology and other modern amenities.

Now, the Charles County public school system is one of the fastest growing systems in Maryland, composed of 39 schools and six educational centers. This includes 23 elementary schools, nine middle schools and seven high schools. Although much of local public schools’ history was lost after a fire destroyed most written documentation, there is still a lot to learn about how schools and education have grown over time.

PORT TOBACCO ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE

By the 1900s, segregation was the law of the land for public restrooms, transportation, restaurants, organizations and even schools across the U.S. Charles County was no exception.

At that time, Port Tobacco was Charles County's largest town and the county seat. A large school was needed in the area. In the 1870s the Port Tobacco One-Room Schoolhouse was built just north of Port Tobacco village on a three-quarter acre parcel where Chapel Point and Causeway roads intersect. The building was used for 77 years. The school usually housed grades one through seven. Only white students were enrolled until 1924 when a new school was built nearby. At that time, Black students began

SCHOOLS HAVE CHANGED OVER THE

The historic McConchie One Room School is now located at the Charles County Fairgrounds in La Plata. Submitted photos

attending the school.

In 1953, these students moved to a new Port Tobacco Elementary School farther west on Route 6. The building was then used for 4-H Club meetings, and served as a local library where books were collected and checked out, according to a history provided

by the Charles County government.

The Charles County Board of Education sold the building and its land to Frank Button Wade in 1959. In 1989, the Wade family leased the school to the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco for a period of 40 years, with the ability to renew the

YEARS

lease. In association with the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco, the Charles County Retired Teachers Association is working to restore the school for visitors.

THE MCCONCHIE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL

Built in 1912, the McConchie One-Room School was located at the intersection of Route 6 and Blossom Point Road in Welcome. Black students from grades one through seven attended this school until it was closed in 1952.

According to Charlotte Weirich, founder of the McConchie Committee, a group of volunteers who work to preserve the history of the school, Black schools were under the supervision of the white Charles County Board of Education but there was always a Black teacher designated as an overseer.

“It’s safe to say there were between 60 to 80 schoolhouses in Charles County at this time and they were equally split into white and Black schools,” Charlotte Weirich, founder of the McConchie Committee, said. “But the Black schools got a very small amount of money.”

The one-room school was typical of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It had no electricity or indoor plumbing. A woodburning stove heated the building during cold weather. Oil lamps provided light during the dark days of winter. Children would bring leftovers from dinner the night before to help put together a lunch for everyone the next day.

SEPARATE SCHOOLS BASED ON RACE SHAPED EDUCATION FOR GENERATIONS

BY MADISON BATEMAN

“It was rough in terms of modern conveniences,” Weirich said.

There was no division between the younger and older children. Students from ages six through 16 learned reading, writing, arithmetic, history and geography. During this time, high school diplomas did not exist.

The building was both a school and a community center for the families in the McConchie-Welcome area of Charles County during the entire time that it operated. The Charles school board did provide oversight and essential needs such as paid, qualified teachers and some school supplies.

“The day-to-day operations of the school really depended on the generosity of the teachers and students’ parents,” Bob Sondheimer, another committee member, said.

One such teacher was Edna Warren Simmons, who took great care of the school and its students for 30 years, Weirich said, adding Simmons was the school’s “Rock of Gibraltar.”

“After the Pledge of Allegiance and prayer, she would give each student their own private lesson … and the kids helped each other,” Weirich said. “Edna deserves special attention because she never had children of her own … she put all her love and energy into her students.”

The building was eventually purchased by George Dyson and Mitchell Diggs and moved to the Charles County Fairgrounds in La Plata. The Charles County Fairgrounds Inc., a private nonprofit, owns

the fairgrounds and the school while the McConchie Committee manages the day-today activities of the schoolhouse.

Sondheimer said now the school serves as a living museum and is open for tours and programs, including on the Fourth of July and during the Kris Kringle Christmas Market in December.

BEL ALTON HIGH SCHOOL

In the 1940s Charles County had five high schools for white students: Lackey, La Plata, Hughesville, Glasva and Nanjemoy. Black students attended either Bel Alton or Pomonkey high schools.

Bel Alton High School opened in 1938, during the pre-WWII Jim Crow era that offered a secondary-level education for Black children in Charles County. The building remained in operation until 1966.

“At the time I was growing up, there were only two schools that Blacks could attend … there were no other options,” Agnes Lilly, a 1959 graduate of Bel Alton High School, said. “I lived in La Plata and went to Bel Alton … but if you lived on the other side of town there was Pomonkey [Junior-Senior High School in Indian Head.]”

Lilly has fond memories of her school, including cheerleading and spending time with her favorite teachers. She is now a retired guidance counselor and attributes her success in education to her positive experiences in school.

Bel Alton High is the only historically Black high school in Charles with the original

building structure still fully intact, according to the Bel Alton High School Alumni Association website. The group is working to create a living museum in one of the building’s rooms.

SCHOOLS TODAY

Superintendent of Charles County Public Schools Maria V. Navarro said the school system continues to grow, with enrollment projected to be over 28,000 in 2024-2025 school year.

She said the growing number of students is due to the increasing population in parts of Charles County and the fact that the system is now serving 3- and 4-year-olds with their expanded pre-kindergarten programming. Navarro also noted a large theme in schools today is the infusion of technology.

“Now we see technology not just confined to specific pathways, but is now in every classroom,” she said. “We’re moving away from bulky textbooks and instead using devices to access digital books.”

The school system currently has a 1:1 student to device ratio and Wi-Fi available in every building.

Charles County recently opened its first charter school, the Phoenix International School of the Arts, which is focused on offering middle school students an arts and international-focused education. The 20232024 school year was its first and there are currently plans for expansion.

“Charles County has a committed staff of educators that work everyday to make sure students are thriving,” Navarro said. “We’re always looking for opportunities to enhance kids’ learning and preparation for life after graduation.”

The Bel Alton High School Class of 1957 on the steps of the school. Bel Alton was one of the segregated schools in Charles County, serving the African-American community from 19381965. Photo courtesy of the Thomas and Maxine Headen Collection, Southern Maryland Studies Center, College of Southern Maryland. Submitted photo

Left: The alumni association that oversees the historic Bel Alton High School hopes to have the facility listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Submitted photo

MORE THAN A

TOBACCO BROUGHT ‘COHESIVENESS’ TO SOUTHERN MARYLAND

STORY AND PHOTOS BY CHRISTINA WALKER

Just two decades ago, Hughesville facilitated the sale of millions of pounds of tobacco grown in Southern Maryland. But now, the warehouses that once housed those hectic festivities are unrecognizable or abandoned.

The first tobacco auction in Maryland was held in Hughesville on May 1, 1939. The auctions continued until 2006.

Franklin A. Robinson Jr., an archivist at the National Museum of American History and the co-owner of Serenity Farm in Benedict, said these auctions played a large role in the unification of Southern Maryland.

“[Tobacco] was kind of what bound Southern Maryland together,” Robinson said. “That's the negative part of it, I think, is that [the loss of the tobacco production] took away a lot of regional cohesiveness.”

Alison Bode, 60, of Nanjemoy said her ancestors had been raising tobacco in Southern Maryland since the 1600s, and when she was growing up her father grew five acres of tobacco on top of his full-time job. This was not uncommon.

“When I was a kid, every farmer grew tobacco; nobody didn’t grow tobacco,” Bode said. “The rhythm of farming was the same.”

In the spring everyone was planting. By summer it was time to cut, followed by stripping and then selling the tobacco. Now that farmers have different specializations, that commonality is gone, Bode said.

Each of the five counties in the greater Southern Maryland region – Charles, Calvert, St. Mary’s, Prince George’s and Anne Arundel –raised tobacco.

“Tobacco was the economic linchpin of Southern Maryland,” Robinson said. For Hughesville, these auctions infused the local economy with money as the big buyers from down south stayed in local hotels and engaged with local businesses, Robinson said. The auctions also provided locals with part-time jobs supporting and operating the facilities.

Over the decades, these auctions had a reputation for being fast and hectic. The auctioneer sold approximately 300 baskets an hour, according to Charles County’s Historic Preservation Commission.

Robinson attended the auctions many times with his family. Between Serenity Farms and the tenant farmer, their land raised more than 80 acres of tobacco, he said.

“[The auction] was a lot of fun,” Robinson said. “It was a community, and that’s what was really nice about it.”

Bode also had the chance to attend multiple tobacco auctions, and although she considered it a bonding experience between her and her father, it was an all-day affair.

“It got boring after a while because they spent all day just walking up and down the rows of tobacco, spitting and bidding,” Bode said.

Robinson considered the auctions to be almost festive. Neighbors caught up and debated about who was getting the most competitive prices.

Farmers were immediately paid at these auctions for an entire year’s worth of work. For some Maryland farmers, tobacco defined their lives.

Gerald “Bo” Hancock, 67, of Nanjemoy said growing and selling tobacco did not always depend on the quality of the product. A farmer could have the best product, Hancock said, but once the buyers had filled their quota, these auctions were tense as farmers got left in the cold with unfavorable prices.

“[The auction] was really very stressful,” Hancock said.

Hancock began growing his own tobacco crop at 9 years old, but his father had grown tobacco in Southern Maryland since 1948. Hancock grew and sold tobacco on his current residence, Old Fields Farm, until 2000.

Although tobacco was one of the main crops produced in Maryland for centuries, it steadily began to decline in the mid 20th century until eventually plummeting in the 1980s. Production rapidly declined from approximately 40 million pounds of tobacco before 1983 to merely 8.1

The Hughesville Bargain Barn on Old Leonardtown Road is a year-round flea market. The repurposed concrete block warehouse – once used in the Hughesville tobacco auctions –features vendors selling crafts, gifts, collectibles and antiques.

CROP

million pounds in 2001.

Former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D) created the Maryland Tobacco Buyout program in 2001, incentivizing farmers to stop producing tobacco for cigarette manufacturing, while remaining in agricultural production. By 2005, 94% of Maryland’s tobacco producers took the buyout, according to the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission.

Robinson said the end of the auctions had both positive and negative impacts on the local community, but mostly it just brought change.

“Tobacco was dying anyway,” Robinson said. “Tobacco is hard work … I don’t think anyone misses that part.”

Robinson said he remembers spending hours in the tobacco fields, and it was “hot, dirty work” in the summer.

“You would be hard pressed to raise tobacco today in the way that it was raised in Maryland,” Robinson said.

By the end of the cash crop's era in Southern Maryland, Bode said it was almost impossible to keep growing tobacco.

“We couldn’t continue. There wasn’t enough help,” Bode said. “I’m glad we didn’t depend on it for a living.”

Despite these farmers’ long histories with tobacco, many of them moved on to new facets of agriculture. Serenity Farm saw a push toward agritourism after the loss of the auctions and that is much of what they still do today.

“My family [raised tobacco] for at least eight generations,” Robinson said.

Hancock said tobacco had run its course and over the years since he has switched between a plethora of crops including corn, soy beans and hay.

Now, some of these auction warehouses look completely different. The Hughesville Bargain Barn, a popular weekend flea market, has repurposed one of the tobacco warehouses. Some of the others still stand abandoned on the side of Route 5, dull and surrounded by overgrown grass.

Robinson said tobacco barns have also been repurposed or they waste away all over Southern Maryland.

“The physical landscape is changing,” Robinson said. “Many tobacco barns are either just being left to deteriorate, or have been turned into something that doesn't even resemble a tobacco barn anymore.”

Hancock’s tobacco barn still stands, and inside there are a few bleachcolored tobacco plants with almost no leaves, limply hanging from 20 years ago. The barn is used for storage now.

Bode’s father’s tobacco barn still stands, but like Hancock’s, it is merely storage.

“Your whole landscape that was Southern Maryland is changing, or has changed for the most part,” Robinson said.

The interior of Hughesville tobacco warehouses feature heavy timber frame structures, known for their fire resistant properties.

The damaged back of an empty tobacco warehouse next to the Hughesville Bargain Barn exposes the inside.

Large, empty tobacco warehouses on Old Leonardtown Road have not housed tobacco for almost 20 years, but their structures, featuring corrugated metal sheathing and roofs, remain intact.

POSING QUESTIONS TO A

ANGELA BRECK, FORMER MARYLAND INDEPENDENT EDITOR

HOW LONG DID YOU WORK IN THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY AND IN WHAT POSITIONS?

I ended my 37-year newspaper career in community journalism in 2015. I started as copy editor for The Enterprise in St. Mary’s County right after college in 1978, then worked as community editor, acting editor and managing editor there before taking the editor position in 1995 at the Maryland Independent, after the departure of longtime editor Katie O’Malley Simpson. From there, starting in mid-1998, I spent a few years as the editor of the Silver Spring, Wheaton, Takoma Park and Burtonsville Gazettes. When The Gazette purchased the Independent, along with The Enterprise and The Calvert Recorder, I returned to Southern Maryland as editor of the Maryland Independent. That was in the early 2000s.

During my tenure, the Independent was awarded the Maryland Delaware D.C. Press Association 2011 James. S. Keat Freedom of Information Award for coverage of the Charles County commissioners’ violation of the Maryland Open Meetings Act. One project that was particularly rewarding was the paper’s effort to help the Children’s Aid Society

in Waldorf after a fire destroyed its building. The Indy began a campaign to raise money so the nonprofit’s work could continue. The Independent won first place in the 1997 MDDC Press Association editorial contest in the public service category. The project also won an MDDC Best in Show award that year.

Besides bringing home numerous MDDC awards over the years, the paper was honored in Suburban Newspapers of America contests from 2009 to 2014, earning first place in its circulation category in 2009 (Judge’s comments: “Wonderful mix of hard news stories and human interest pieces.”) and 2014. With a second-place win in 2012, the judges wrote: “Clearly this is an independent paper! Good mix of crime and features. Writing is strong and clear.” The win was a real boost. It made us feel like we were getting it right — bringing news that our readers found useful and providing a valuable service to our community.

Twice a week we offered a news product that was well-received by, and vital to, our readers. Being recognized by professionals in the industry was an added bonus.

WHY DO YOU THINK COMMUNITY JOURNALISM IS IMPORTANT?

My experience tells me that people care most about what’s going on in their communities. They need a trusted source of information about where they live, work, do business and enjoy life.

More than ever, we need professional, objective journalists to keep us informed about local governments and to hold our local elected officials accountable. But it’s so much more than that — community journalism connects people to their communities, telling us what’s happening with neighborhood businesses, schools, churches and community groups.

Television and the large dailies tend to send their newspeople to Charles County only when there is a big crime story. But community journalism covers more of the things that impact our daily lives. The local paper is there day in and day out, reporting on the good as well as the bad.

I had the privilege of working with so many talented people over the years. We worked to keep

the newspapers relevant to the community. And often, that was no small task.

HOW DID TECHNOLOGY CHANGE THE WAY THE NEWSROOM OPERATED?

When I first started with The Enterprise in 1978, we were laying out the paper by hand. Cutting, waxing and pasting stories and headlines by hand using razor blades and X-Acto knives on a physical template the size of a page. (If you pasted a story on the page and ran out of space, you would simply cut from the bottom of the story. When reporters protested, it was a good reminder to them to put the most important information at the top of a story.)

The process was quite time-consuming and labor intensive. Editors had the help of a composition department. But then along came computers, and the editors did it all themselves — electronically. Finish the page, and then hit send. That allowed us, on some occasions, to push deadlines later when there were major stories, like election night coverage.

Our newsroom schedules really changed when our website went live. We were not only putting out a newspaper twice a week; we were updating the site every day. There was no longer time to take a breather between editions. Sometimes it felt like we were a daily.

Reporters were expected to turn their stories around more quickly to get them on the web ASAP; sometimes updates were warranted as more information became available. Then they had to flesh out the stories for the next print edition. With the addition of smartphones, reporters could now add photography to their duties. And the advent of social media brought more adjustments and policy changes.

HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO STAY OBJECTIVE IN THE FACE OF CALAMITIES SUCH AS VIOLENT CRIMES AND NATURAL DISASTERS, INCLUDING THE LA PLATA TORNADO OF 2002?

It might not occur to some readers about the differences between community journalism and national news outlets. Unfortunately, our national

FORMER EDITOR

politics are so divided. Journalists often are criticized as being biased, from one side or the other or both. Politicians are not accessible and often speak in talking points. But local journalism is different in that you might know the people involved in the stories, or you can talk to them face to face on a regular basis. You can sit down across the table from a local candidate — or run into them at community events. It's still tough — local issues are very intense for people as well, and they may not like the coverage. But I always tried to treat people fairly as individuals, and the reporters were taught to do that as well. But objective doesn’t mean dispassionate. When the tornado hit La Plata on April 28, 2002, it came within a quarter mile of my home. I shared the feelings of those impacted because they were my neighbors. It made me want to work harder, make

sure the staff got the facts right, and keep up the coverage on the rebuilding.

That was quite a story to be part of. It was “all hands on deck.” Within a few hours, reporter Jay Friess and I were in downtown La Plata outside the government building for the first press conference that Sunday night. Reporter Tom Dennison cut short his vacation and returned home after he saw the story on the national news. Indy photographers Gary Smith and Larry Jackson were out at daybreak. Gazette photographer Dan Gross was in a helicopter taking aerial shots by that afternoon. Staffers Nancy Bromley McConaty, Jonathan Jones, Kevin Conron, Sara K. Taylor, Genna Cockerham, Dallas Cogle, John Wharton, Susan Craton and Anita Drury contributed to the coverage in the first issue after the tornado. There were other

staffers working behind the scenes. I mentioned the people above because their bylines and photo credits appeared in the May 1, 2002, edition. Even the Indy’s former news editor Jim Brocker and his wife, Conni James, offered their first-person account. They had come upon the destruction just moments after the storm had passed.

For weeks we brought stories to print of the struggles of the community and the residents. Those stories get revisited on the storm’s anniversaries. I am very proud of the Indy’s coverage of stories that had an impact — such as the tornado recovery. Another incident that created an opportunity for the staff to come together was the coverage of the events of 9/11. After the newsroom watched the horror unfold from a tiny television set in my office, we had to get back to work, though shaken and saddened. It was a Tuesday, a deadline day. We had a paper to put out. We soon learned of residents who were victims of the terrorist attacks. For weeks, we brought their stories to print as the community came together to mourn those who died.

WHAT DID YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB AND WHAT DID YOU LIKE LEAST ABOUT IT?

I liked the fact that every day was different; there was always something new and challenging — issues important to readers and figuring out how best to cover them. Offering strong coverage of schools, government and law enforcement. Taking strong editorial positions. Selecting photos. Designing front pages.

What I liked least was that, again, there was always something new and challenging. It might have been hearing from disgruntled readers over something we had written or people upset over something we hadn’t covered.

From a business perspective, it was getting tougher and tougher for print journalism as it was losing its hold on advertising revenue as other competitors were emerging. Less advertising meant smaller papers, which meant less space for news. Those challenges over the years always meant changes in the newsroom.

The Maryland Independent editor Angela Breck, seated middle, and some of her staff pose for a photograph in June 1998. In the front is Gary Smith, and seated are Chris Baker, left, Anita Drury, Angela Breck, Angie Knode and David Payne. In the back row are Liz Zylwitis, John Driscoll, Deborah Gross, Carole Butler, Rob Terry, intern Laurie Coyle, Suzanne White, Adam Rubenstein and Ty States. SUBMITTED PHOTO

MONEY LEADS CHARLES COUNTY

LA PLATA GRADUATE SPENT 16 SEASONS IN MAJOR LEAGUES

BY TED BLACK

Among the professional athletes who hail from Charles County high schools, Donald Wayne Money had the longest playing career. The La Plata High School graduate played 16 seasons in the major leagues and also spent two decades as a roving instructor in the Milwaukee Brewers farm system.

Money, who will turn 77 next month, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates then traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, where he played 524 games in five seasons before being traded to the Brewers, where he played 1,196 games over the next 11 seasons.

During his major league career, Money batted .261 (1,623 hits in 6,215 at-bats) with 302 doubles and 176 home runs during the regular season and added three hits in the 1982 World Series when the Brewers lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Money became eligible for consideration for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989 but received only one vote of the 447 cast by the Baseball Writers of America and was well below the 5% (23 votes) needed to remain on the ballot for subsequent years. Only two players, Cincinnati Reds' catcher Johnny Bench and Boston Red Sox outfielder Carl Yastremski, earned enough votes for induction in that voting.

Soon after his major league playing days ended, Money transitioned into coaching and managing and remained in those positions into the current decade. He began as the class single-A manager of the Oneonta Tigers in 1987-1988 then later became skipper of the single-A Beloit Snappers for seven seasons before being promoted to the Brewers' double-A affiliate Huntsville Stars in 2005.

Following the 2007 season with the Stars, Money was named the Southern League's Manager of the Year in voting conducted by field managers, print media members and radio broadcasters. He would then manage the triple-A Nashville Sounds from 2009-2011, but was designated as Milwaukee's special instructor for player development in 2012.

Although Money may not have earned a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame following his 16 seasons in the majors, he was inducted into the Milwaukee Brewers Walk of Fame in 2005 along with his former skipper, Harvey Kuehn. A four-time major league All-Star (1974, 19761978), Money led the American League in plate appearances (709) and at-bats (629) in 1974, the same year he recorded a league record 86 consecutive games without committing an error at third.

Money never garnered a Gold Glove Award as a third baseman, but his defensive performance earned him the nickname "Brooks" in reference to former Baltimore Orioles' Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson, who was a key member of the Orioles' World Series titles in 1966 and 1970, when he made numerous stellar defensive plays when Baltimore topped the Cincinnati Reds.

"It was kind of the ultimate compliment for any kid growing up playing third base, especially in Maryland, to be nicknamed 'Brooks,'" Money recalled. "He was definitely a great third baseman. I always took a lot of pride in my fielding. Of course, I always thought of myself as a decent hitter."

Pomfret native Larry Johnson spent nine seasons as a running back in the National

La Plata High School graduate Don Money played 16 seasons in the major leagues, 11 of them with the Milwaukee Brewers after spending his first five years with the Philadelphia Phillies. Courtesy Milwaukee Brewers

La Plata High School graduate Don Money spent his first five seasons in the major leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies before playing the next 11 years with the Milwaukee Brewers. Courtesy Philadelphia Phillies

ATHLETES

Football League, seven of them with the Kansas City Chiefs. Johnson concluded his career with 6,223 yards and 55 rushing touchdowns on 1,427 carries. In 2005 and 2006 with the Chiefs, Johnson rushed for a combined sum of over 3,500 yards and 37 touchdowns and he led the league in rushing attempts in 2006 with 416.

White Plains native Jared Gaither spent six seasons in the NFL as an offensive lineman, four with the Baltimore Ravens and one each with the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers. Westlake High School graduate Randy Starks spent 12 seasons in the NFL as a defensive lineman with the Tennessee Titans, Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns. He is now the head football coach at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois.

North Point High School graduate Rasheed Walker is currently entering his third season in the NFL as an offensive lineman for the Green Bay Packers. Walker played collegiate football at Penn State University then was drafted by the Packers in the seventh round of the 2022 draft with the 249th overall pick. He made his first NFL start on September 17, 2023 when the Packers faced the Atlanta Falcons.

While Money had a long playing career in the major leagues, Daryl Thompson, another La Plata graduate, has enjoyed a long career in professional baseball as a pitcher. Thompson was 0-3 in a brief MLB career as a hurler with the Cincinnati Reds, making his career debut on June 21, 2008 against the New York Yankees at the famed Yankee Stadium.

Although Thompson literally had little more than the proverbial 'cup of coffee' at the major league level, he has since enjoyed a long,

successful career with Independent clubs as a member of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in the Atlantic League. Thompson holds ALPB career records in wins (98) and strikeouts (1,058) and was named the league's top pitcher in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Thompson is currently in his 12th season as a pitcher for the Blue Crabs and his fourth as the

team's pitching coach. Thompson also boasts 38 wins in the minor league and 24 more with teams in winter league competition in Puerto Rico. Although 0-3 in the major league level, he was 15-21 at the Triple-A level after spending five seasons with the Montreal Expos and Washington Nationals single-A teams.

Southern Maryland Blue Crabs pitcher Daryl Thompson, right, is joined by manager Stan Cliburn on the mound during preseason workouts. A 2003 La Plata High School graduate, Thompson was 0-3 during a brief major league career but holds Atlantic League records in wins (98) and strikeouts (1,058). Bert Hindman/Southern Maryland Blue Crabs

CHARLES COUNTY BECOMES THE WEALTHIEST MAJORITYMINORITY COUNTY IN THE NATION

CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS HAVE DEFINED THE AREA

BY MATT WYNN

Charles County is home to one of the most remarkable demographic and economic shifts in Maryland’s, if not the country's, history.

By 1850, Southern Maryland was rife with plantations and slavery. Across Charles, Prince George’s, Anne Arundel, Calvert and Montgomery counties alone, there were 48,000 slaves, according to the Maryland State Archives. In that time period, there were 50,000 white people in the area and 9,500 free Black people, according to the state archives. Tobacco was power in Southern Maryland — especially in Charles County.

Southern Maryland as a whole was once one of the main sources of tobacco in the entire United States, generating great wealth for those in the region who owned plantations, according to the National Park Service.

Nowadays, Charles County is a far cry from its unsavory past.

“You have resources that are afforded to you unlike anywhere else across the nation,” Dyotha Sweat, the current president of the Charles County NAACP said. “More of minorities and Black Americans are realizing this is the place to be right now.”

“Charles County has always been rich in Black history,” Sweat said. “With the crown of being the richest Black county in America, now the

entire country and world will know.”

In 2022, Charles County became the wealthiest majority-minority region in the entire country, a distinction previously held by Prince George’s County.

The 2020 U.S. Census put the total population of the county at 166,617 people, with 82,035 of them being of Black or African American descent.

Nearly 60% of the county has a household income over $100,000, according to the Charles County Economic Development Department. Charles County itself has grown explosively over the past four decades, census data shows. The population of the county at the time of the 1980 census was 72,571. In 2000, the total population was 118,036 people.

Despite the growth, white people still remained the majority of the county at the turn of the century. There were 82,587 white people recorded in Charles County while there were 31,411 Black people.

This demographic shift to a majorityminority area materialized quickly over the next two decades.

In 2010, the county had grown to a total population of 146,551 people, and Black people totaled 60,031 compared to 73,677 white people.

After the 2020 census, Black or African American people officially possessed the majority of the county’s population.

“The county’s transformation into the wealthiest majority-Black region in the United States reflects a broader trend of increasing economic opportunities for

minority communities,” Commissioner President Reuben B. Collins II (D) said in a statement to the Maryland Independent. “This shift not only enhances our county's diversity but also positions us for sustained economic growth and improved quality of life for all residents. In the long run, Charles County’s prosperity can serve as a blueprint for other regions aiming to achieve similar success.”

William Braxton, former president of the Charles County chapter of the NAACP, moved to the county in 1984 and witnessed the transformation firsthand.

“The minority population [around 1984] was about 19%,” Braxton said. “The mall wasn’t here, the county was very rural … all of a sudden, the county just blew up.”

When asked if he viewed the shift in the county’s demographics as a source of empowerment, Braxton recalled notions and stereotypes that were defied by the county’s shift, saying, “Even back in the 1980s, African Americans were not credited for their ability to basically move forward. I’ve worked with white folks who were brought up and taught by their parents that all Black folks are ignorant.”

“I’ve seen a shift from a county that did not work together to a county that now has become more of a working county,” Braxton said. “I’ve seen things that I never thought I would see before.”

LIFE IN A SMALL

PORT TOBACCO AND INDIAN HEAD THROUGH THE YEARS

BY JENNIFER GABLE

Nestled away in Southern Maryland lie Port Tobacco and Indian Head, two small towns with stories from centuries prior that tell how Maryland came to be.

COLONIZATION AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PISCATAWAY

In June 1608, English explorer Capt. John Smith and his crew of 14 from Jamestown began their first of two historic six-week voyages to explore the Chesapeake Bay. The men traveled around three thousand miles exploring and carefully documenting their findings.

Smith left meticulously detailed journal entries to map his voyages, where he noted the abundant resources of the Chesapeake Bay region. Smith's positive accounts of the area and its habitability further enticed the English to colonize the area.

On July 8, 1608, Smith left the Potomac River and traveled four miles upstream to the Port Tobacco River into present-day Charles County. There, he soon encountered Native American villages, whom he referred to as "Potapaco." Various spellings of this tribe exist due to English translations over time.

Unfortunately, after England had set their eyes on the region and its plentiful resources, these Indigenous communities would never be the same.

The first known inhabitants of Maryland were Paleo-Indians who had migrated here from other parts of the continent. These indigenous groups established settlements alongside the bountiful rivers and streams and traded with tribes as far as Ohio and New York, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

When Europeans suddenly arrived in the early 17th century and began claiming the land, the

Piscataway, a member of the Algonquian language family, was the most dominant tribal nation between the Potomac and the Chesapeake Bay.

Piscataway's traditional territory included presentday Prince George's, Charles and St. Mary's counties, extending north into Baltimore County and west to the Appalachian mountains.

However, aggressive colonization, conflicts

and epidemics, such as smallpox resulting from European settlement, gradually displaced the Piscataway from their ancestral lands. Reservations called “manors” were promised to the Piscataway by the colonial governments but were retracted by 1800, according to DNR.

By the end of the 17th century, the number of Native Americans in the region had drastically

Top: The Port Tobacco courthouse is on the site of centuries of history. File photo

Right: A picture of the Village of Port Tobacco circa 1870 on display at the town’s courthouse. File photo

TOWN

decreased. In recent years, community leaders have called for the further embodiment of Piscataway culture and history in the educational system.

"There's no place in Southern Maryland that my ancestors have not touched," Chair of the Piscataway Conoy tribal council Francis Gray said in an interview with Southern Maryland News. "For over ten to thirteen thousand years, my ancestors have been here — what we call home today."

PORT TOBACCO — ONE OF THE OLDEST COMMUNITIES ON THE EAST COAST

By 1640, Father Andrew White of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) settled among the Potapaco tribe. White composed a catechism in the native dialect, as well as a dictionary and “grammar guide” of the language, according to the National Park Service. Shortly after his settlement, White established the notable Catholic plantation, St. Thomas Manor, attached to St. Ignatius Church in Port Tobacco. St. Ignatius, founded in 1641, still stands today overlooking the Potomac and Port Tobacco rivers and is the nation's oldest active parish, according to the Southern Maryland National Heritage Area. The antique church represents the history of Port Tobacco in Maryland and the broader sense of the nation, including the passage of the Religious Toleration Act of 1649.

The Religious Toleration Act, signed in 1649, stated that all practicing "trinitarian Christians, Catholics, or otherwise," had equal rights in Maryland, according to The National Park Service. This act was signed following high religious tensions in Southern Maryland, as seen with Father White's capture and trial in 1645. Despite Puritan resistance, the designation of Maryland as a haven for Catholics

further promoted settlement from Europeans like White in the region in the coming years.

As settlers further populated the region, it was designated a port in 1684. The town of Port Tobacco, a variant of the tribal “Potapaco” name, was formally established as the county seat of Charles County by the Maryland Acts of Assembly in 1727.

Port Tobacco quickly flourished, becoming Maryland's second-largest city and deepwater port. It traded with markets worldwide and exported large sums of tobacco and other agricultural goods. By the mid-18th century, Port Tobacco was known for its trans-Atlantic trade. The town held the Charles County courthouse, a public square, a jail, local businesses and residences.

Slave traders heavily imported enslaved Africans to Port Tobacco to be held and exploited as laborers and property. By 1750, roughly 40% of 130,000 (Maryland's population) were enslaved, according to the National Park Service.

The area is also prominent in terms of the American Revolution and the Civil War. Port Tobacco produced several notable revolutionary figures, such as Thomas Stone, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, and John Hanson. Port Tobacco also gained notoriety for its pro-Southern sympathies during the Civil War, despite Union settlement camps within the Potomac area, according to the Maryland Historical Trust.

"It's [Port Tobacco] probably one of the undiscovered gems of Civil War history for sure, but also just history in general, especially if anyone is looking at the history of commerce and trade in the United States, you can't ignore the tobacco trade," Franklin Robinson, chair of the Charles County Historic Preservation Commission and archivist, said.

“Its deeper history is actually indicative of the wider history of not only Southern Maryland and

Maryland but also the United States- It has all of your major conflicts from the founding of the colony to the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War presence down there … so it speaks to the collective history and experience of the United States,” Robinson said.

By the beginning of the 19th Century, Port Tobacco and its once prominent port were in decline due to siltation of the waterways and land, a direct result of the clearcutting of fields and flatlands to build plantations and homesteads. Siltation reduces water quality, leads to shallow waterways (impacting navigation) and can even affect soil quality.

"You will see this problem commonly throughout all of the region, not just in Port Tobacco," Executive Director of the Accokeek Foundation Anjela Barnes said. "You have increasing threats today with climate change and erosion, and other factors that are still persistent, that is in large part, I would say, due to the world population's abuse of the land."

Following the siltation of the land and waterways in Port Tobacco, the inception of the railroad in neighboring La Plata and a mysterious fire that destroyed the county courthouse in 1892, the county seat was controversially transferred to La Plata in 1895, signifying the end of an era in Port Tobacco.

An article in the Maryland Independent in May 24, 1895, discusses the controversial move of the county seat to La Plata. John S. Button founded The Maryland Independent in 1874. The paper was originally based in Port Tobacco before relocating to La Plata.

Today, Port Tobacco is a largely historical area, a testament to the deep history and narratives of the past. Port Tobacco has undergone revitalization efforts in recent decades to promote tourism and education. Organizations such as the Society for the

Restoration of Port Tobacco have restored Historical buildings such as Stagg Hall, the Chimney House, The Washington Burch House, and even the Port Tobacco courthouse (reconstructed) for public viewing and education.

INDIAN HEAD

The town of Indian Head, located between the Potomac River and Mattawoman Creek, was not incorporated until 1920; however, its heritage traces back far before that.

In 1654, the Second Lord of Baltimore, granted his friend Thomas Cornwallis 5,000 acres of land. This area included present-day Indian Head, Potomac Heights, and a section of Chapmans Landing, according to the town of Indian Head. However, Indigenous people had inhabited this area for generations.

In 1666, 12 Native American bands and the Maryland colonists signed “the Articles of Peace and Amity,” according to the town of Indian Head. This treaty allowed for the Native Americans to remain on the lands they occupied as European settlers moved into the region. Two short years later, officials amended the articles to designate some of the land between the heads of Mattawoman Creeks and Piscataway Creeks to the Indigenous people, with English settlement prohibited.

“This was a reservation of Indian Headlands; this is where the colonists were not allowed to go because they would be trespassing,” Gray of the Piscataway Conoy said. “For the Piscataway

people, this [Indian Head] is where the movement of the Piscataway people was starting to be moved in concentration, and this is encompassing the Mattawoman Creek and the Potomac River.”

In the early 1700s, European encroachment and arguments asserting Cornwallis' ownership led to the large displacement of Native Americans from the area.

In recent years, the name "Indian Head" has seen backlash, with some members of the Piscataway tribe claiming that the name has violent origins and connotations against indigenous people.

The state legislature signed a bill into law in 2022 that many believed would change the name of Indian Head Highway, also called Route 210, to Piscataway Highway. However, this passage only "designated" the road as Piscataway Highway without an official name change.

Gray said the renaming issue “still comes with mixed opinion” within the Piscataway community. Gray said that although it is evident that the Indigenous communities faced violence from colonization, there are “no historical records” that show signs supporting a connection between violence against indigenous people in the area and the name “Indian Head.”

"Records did show the Indian reservations that were set aside," Gray said. "This was a reservation of Indian Headlands … then people got lazy in their writings and just shortened it by calling it ‘Indian Head.’"

The town of Indian Head states that Cornwallis divided the original 5,000-acre land allocation into

“several large tracts” in 1772. These tracts changed ownership several times before the Navy purchased a portion of the land, establishing its presence in Southern Maryland for the first time in 1890.

The Naval Station at Indian Head, initially established as a ground for weapon testing, further expanded its missions to produce powder and explosives during World War I and World War II. During this time, the Indian Head White Plains Railroad was established to provide transportation to the Indian Head Naval Powder Factory.

After the wars, the base shifted its focus from production to research and development, and the railroad, which is now the present-day recreational Indian Head Rail Trail, fell out of usage, according to the Historical Marker Database.

The naval station was eventually renamed the Indian Head Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center to provide naval readiness as the National Center for Energetics.

The Naval base and its prominence played a vital role in the growth of Indian Head and its eventual incorporation in 1920. The base continues to be a source of economic and population growth in Indian Head and is a staple of the Indian Head community. According to the town's website, by 1947, Indian Head had 140 homes, five churches, and 22 other public buildings. In 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Indian Head had a population of 3,894 people and 1,568 housing units, signifying immense growth.

Indian Head Mayor Brandon Paulin said that he plans to continue stimulating growth in the area by focusing on employment and supporting not only the naval base but also small businesses.

"Indian Head is one of innovation; it is really a community that continues to be there and support each other," Paulin said. "I think that's why we have been able to revitalize and why we have been able to, despite having looked at hard times in the past, really move forward with a brighter future, and that's because the people of Indian Head make all of that happen."

LOOKING FORWARD

From pre-colonial times to the modern day, Port Tobacco and Indian Head remain reflections of the past and the people who came before us. Understanding the history of these two small towns is critical to understanding the nation's fabric.

Built in stages beginning about 1810, Mount Aventine within Chapman State Park is an unexpected sight among the trees in Indian Head. File photo

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