Frenchtown (ghost town), Maryland explained

Frenchtown, Maryland
Settlement Type:Ghost town
Pushpin Map:USA Maryland
Pushpin Label Position:left
Pushpin Map Caption:Location within the State of Maryland
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Type1:State
Subdivision Type2:County
Subdivision Name2: Cecil
Unit Pref:Imperial
Population As Of:2000
Population Density Km2:auto
Timezone:Eastern (EST)
Utc Offset:-5
Timezone Dst:EDT
Utc Offset Dst:-4
Coordinates:39.5799°N -75.8396°W

Frenchtown was a historic settlement on the Elk River in Cecil County, Maryland, United States.

Background

Frenchtown was an important link in the north–south travel route during the 18th and 19th centuries. After the Revolutionary War, the popularity of the route for passengers and freight grew. A regular line of vessels began sailing from Baltimore to Frenchtown. As boats churned their way to the port, it established itself as a busy relay point on the main line of travel between Philadelphia and Baltimore. Statesmen and the traveling public came journeying through.[1] At first the New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike Company connected the village with the Delaware River, and later it was the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad.[2] [3]

As a depot, it was burned by the British under Rear Admiral George Cockburn on April 29, 1813. The old Frenchtown Tavern remained standing until the 1960s. A watercolor by Benjamin Henry Latrobe dated August 2, 1806, is entitled View from the Packet Wharf at Frenchtown Looking Down Elk Creek showing the Mouth of Pates' Creek. The painting resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.[4]

After publication of the escape of slaves by the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal a close watch was kept on vessels using that passage. Frenchtown and the overland route was considered a safer route. A large escape attempt involving a Captain Sayres and his vessel named Pearl involved seventy-seven slaves boarding in Washington attempting to make Frenchtown. Pearl was pursued and the becalmed vessel overtaken at the mouth of the Potomac.[5]

The northern portion of the Chesapeake Bay was notable for calms that delayed the sailing vessels connecting the town with Baltimore. In 1813 the first commercial steam vessel, Chesapeake built in Baltimore by Captain Edward Trippe, on the Chesapeake began service between Frenchtown and Baltimore as the Union Line. Within a year other steamers were making the run in competition.[6]

The transportation revolution caused the village to fade as the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal opened up. Then, with the completion in 1837 of a rail line through Elkton, one that did not require steamboat connections on each waterway, business on the route started declining. "By 1858, stagecoaches, wagons, rail cars, and steamers no longer converged here, crowding down to the old shoreline."[7]

The New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad Right-of-Way was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Frenchtown, a Lost Village on the Elk River. admin. 2019-08-02. Window on Cecil County's Past. en-US. 2019-08-07.
  2. Book: Brown, Alexander Crosby . Steam Packets on the Chesapeake . Tidewater Publishers . Cambridge, Maryland . 1961 . 20 . 61012580 . 0-87033-111-6 . 3 September 2019.
  3. Web site: New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad . Pencader Heritage Organization . 2001 . 3 September 2019.
  4. http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/6240 View from the Packet Wharf at Frenchtown Looking down Elk Creek
  5. Web site: National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom . National Park Service . 3 September 2019.
  6. Book: Brown, Alexander Crosby . Steam Packets on the Chesapeake . Tidewater Publishers . Cambridge, Maryland . 1961 . 9 . 61012580 . 0-87033-111-6 . 29 August 2019.
  7. http://cecilcountyhistory.com/frenchtown/