I'm researching the Universalist Church that was located on Route 213 between Elkton and Chesapeake City. It appears to have been dedicated in 1852. When the property was turned into a home in the early 1900's, the few remaining tombstones were evidently buried and the cemetery made into a garden. Cecil Whig obits indicate that among those who had been buried there are Mrs. Eliza HUTTON (widow of Fergus Hutton), buried in May 1882 and Samuel WARD, buried in March of 1879 (his obit mentions that the church was near a place called "The Bull Frog"). Another former member was David M. TAYLOR, who switched to the Protestant Episcopal faith prior to his death in May of 1882. I would be interested to know if anyone has more information on the history of this church or its congregation. We need more data for the Historical Society file! Thanks. Fred Kelso ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.

I have done some map research and visited the Courthouse over lunch and discovered a few interesting pieces of data regarding the Universalist Church in Cecil County. The church building itself was on the northeast corner of Union & Biddle Streets in Chesapeake City, as shown on Martanet’s 1858 map as “Universalist Ch.” What was confusing (doubly so since I missed that item on the map) is that the same term “Universalist Ch” appears on the map up near what is now the Brantwood Country Club. Evidently that northerly dot was just the burying ground, which appears to have been on private property (perhaps of one of the members) and was never deeded over to the church trustees (at least as far as I can tell so far from the land records indices). This fits in with information from the family that eventually obtained the cemetery property – they said that there was no building there in the early 1900’s, only “a few feet of the foundation walls” and these walls were likely just cemetery walls. Topographic map data indicates that the former cemetery is off of the current Terrell Lane, not Bull Frog Lane, as previously sounded likely since Samuel Ward’s 1879 obit. said that the cemetery was “near the Bull Frog.” The deed that I did find (RCH/4/289) was dated 10/1/1851. The lot in Chesapeake City was sold by Robert Polk and his wife Margaret, of Delaware City, Delaware, to the “Trustees of the First Universalist Society in Cecil County in the State of Maryland,” (the trustees being William Taylor, David M. Taylor, Isaac A. Lum, John H. Biddle, and Benjamin C. Biddle.). Now to find out if the church building still stands in Chesapeake City... Fred Kelso -----Original Message----- From: pennsylguy@aol.com To: mdcecil@rootsweb.com Sent: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 8:56 PM Subject: [MDCECIL] Universalist Church in Cecil County I'm researching the Universalist Church that was located on Route 213 between Elkton and Chesapeake City. It appears to have been dedicated in 1852. When the property was turned into a home in the early 1900's, the few remaining tombstones were evidently buried and the cemetery made into a garden. Cecil Whig obits indicate that among those who had been buried there are Mrs. Eliza HUTTON (widow of Fergus Hutton), buried in May 1882 and Samuel WARD, buried in March of 1879 (his obit mentions that the church was near a place called "The Bull Frog"). Another former member was David M. TAYLOR, who switched to the Protestant Episcopal faith prior to his death in May of 1882. I would be interested to know if anyone has more information on the history of this church or its congregation. We need more data for the Historical Society file! Thanks. Fred Kelso ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MDCECIL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.