Location – Location – Location. This catch phrase of the realtor speaks to a dominant theme in the shaping of Cecil County’s history and culture. Cecil is at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, with rivers defining two boundaries, and the famous Mason-Dixon Line delineating the northern and eastern boundaries. Close to major cities, and the most rural county along the northeast corridor of I-95, Cecil has held to its agricultural heritage while accommodating the flow of trade goods and travelers, tourists, recreational visitors, dignitaries, military supplies, armies, both friendly and unfriendly, the navy, and for a time, romantic couples ready to be married, all passing through on the county’s historic waterways and highways. The county has added its own agricultural products, natural resources, industrial goods, and citizens to this flow of traffic. Separated from Baltimore County in 1674, Cecil was nearing its bicentennial when the first itinerant photographer unpacked his equipment at the courthouse and began the process of preserving the county’s history through images.
Milt Diggins is the editor of the Historical Society of Cecil County’s publication, the Cecil Historical Journal, and an independent researcher. The archive at the historical society provided a wealth of images and is a major source of the photographs used in this book, supplemented with images from other sources.
Additional Details
The book contains 236 vintage photographs with an introduction, captions, and organization that provides an overview of Cecil County's history. Many of the photographs are from the extensive photograph collection at the Historical Society of Cecil County and are published for the first time, with additional photographs from the Rising Sun Historical Preservation Commission, and county historian Mike Dixon.
The five chapter topics:
Establishing
Passing Through
Making a Living
Serving
Enjoying, Relaxing, and Reflecting
Images of America: Cecil County is the newest book on Cecil County history:
Head of the Bay, compiled by the Cecil Historical Trust and the Maryland Historical Trust, is an excellent book on Cecil County history and architecture written in 1996, but because of expense it has not been reprinted and anyone interested in purchasing the book would find it difficult to locate (Although Booksellers in North East does have a few copies left).
Cecil County: A Study in Local History by Alice Miller has been reprinted but was written in 1949.
History of Cecil County Maryland by George Johnston, reprinted several times, was written in 1881.
