Port Tobacco Village, Maryland Port Tobacco Village, Maryland Charles County Maryland Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Port Tobacco Village Highlighted.svg Port Tobacco, officially Port Tobacco Village, is a town in Charles County, Maryland, United States.
The populace was 13 at the 2010 census, making Port Tobacco the smallest incorporated town in Maryland. 3 Port Tobacco folklore Settled by the English in the 17th century and established in 1727, the town on the Port Tobacco River soon became the second biggest in Maryland.
The first governmental center of county of Charles County, it was a seaport with access to the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean.
The town incorporated in 1888, but in 1895 the governmental center of county moved to close-by La Plata, which drew populace away but left the town with its historic significance intact. In 2007 a consortium started the Port Tobacco Archeology Project, devoted to revealing the history of Native Americans and colonial Europeans and Africans.
Modern restoration of the 1819 Charles County courthouse in Port Tobacco Village At the time of European exploration, this coastal region along the Port Tobacco River was the territory of the Potapoco, an Algonquian-speaking tribe.
Clement's Island, they pushed the frontiers of the colony north and west toward the Potomac and Port Tobacco rivers.
The English advanced a small village about 1634 on the east side of the Port Tobacco tributary.
Later the English adapted the Potapoco name as Port Tobacco.
The town interval as it became a primary port for the tobacco trade, with exports transported by ocean-going sailing ships.
During the late 17th century, Port Tobacco became the second-largest river port in Maryland.
The early immigrants to Port Tobacco were products of the theological turmoil in England.
The earliest continuously operating Catholic church in the United States, the complex has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and is part of the Religious Freedom Maryland Scenic Byways route. Catholic church records identified Indian families through the decades, when civil records began to use only designations of no-charge citizens of color, colored, or Negro for mixed-race persons, thus failing to record their cultural identification.
Freed from restraints by the Toleration Act of 1649 and feeling a need for spiritual guidance, some pioneer gathered their first Anglican congregation in a log building at the head of the Port Tobacco Creek in 1683, nine years before the Establishment Act. Supported by the tobacco poll tax of 40 pounds per head from 1692 1776, Christ Church prospered.
After the American Revolution, although the Anglican Church was disestablished in the US, churchioners rallied to contribute directly to Christ Church, and Lemuel Wilmer, of a distinguished family of Maryland Episcopalian clerics which encompassed his brother William Holland Wilmer, uncle James Jones Wilmer, and father, grandfather and brother (all titled Simon Wilmer) served as rector for 35 years.
However, only the graveyard now remains of this church (and a mostly recently outline of the historic church's foundation), since it was disassembled in 1904 and reassembled in La Plata, which had turn into the governmental center of county in 1895. graveyard next to outline of historic Christ Church in Port Tobacco (building moved to La Plata) For two centuries, Port Tobacco region residents assumed meaningful part s in state and nationwide history.
Thomas Jenifer was a signer of the United States Constitution; and Thomas Stone was one of four of the Maryland delegation who signed the Declaration of Independence.
The Episcopal Church moved from Port Tobacco to the new governmental center of county at La Plata.
During the Civil War, Port Tobacco became known as a stronghold of Confederate sympathizers, although or because Union troops occupied the town.
During the hunt for John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, intelligence gathered in a Port Tobacco hotel (conspirator George Atzerodt lived in town) established the assassin had fled with his companion Herold into Virginia, where they were ultimately positioned and Herold surrendered, but Booth died amid the attempted capture.
Port Tobacco started declining as erosion from excessive agricultural use and poor soil conservation caused momentous siltation at the head of the Port Tobacco River, decreasing its navigability and ultimately cutting off the town from access to Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
The diminish was exacerbated by the culmination in 1873 of a close-by Baltimore and Potomac Railroad line to Pope's Creek which bypassed Port Tobacco and ran further south to another port directly on the Potomac River. A small portion of the town's square incorporated in 1888 as Port Tobacco Village, a move that may have signaled an accomplishment by the improve to reverse its decline, but new communities eventually sprang up along the stockyards and prospered, including the town of La Plata which succeeded Port Tobacco as the governmental center of county in 1895.
The remains today are identified as Port Tobacco Village.
Because of the town's abrupt diminish and silting of the river, many archeological sites were preserved, making it one of the richest areas for studying the different history of Native and colonial cultures, including that of enslaved Africans. In 2007 the Port Tobacco Archeological Project began as a partnership among the Archaeological Society of Maryland, the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco, the Southern Maryland Heritage Area Consortium, Preservation Maryland, and Preserve America. It has encouraged participation by the community, with an Internet blog and regular chances for volunteer participation at many levels.
Visitors may see the reconstructed Port Tobacco Courthouse, furnished as it may have appeared in the 19th-century, even as of the day of Booth's escape.
The second floor has exhibits on tobacco culture, as well as archaeological finds which reveal early colonial and Native American life.
Port Tobacco folklore Gustavus Brown's Rose Hill on Rose Hill Road, vicinity of Port Tobacco.
Halloween reminds small-town inhabitants of Charles County's "Blue Dog" legend, which is taught in small-town schools and has been told in the county for more than 100 years.
By most accounts, the spirit of a large blue dog protects the treasure of his murdered master, which is supposed to be buried somewhere along Rose Hill Road outside Port Tobacco.
He has said that the first written account of the Blue Dog legend dates back to 1897, when Olivia Floyd, a noted Confederate spy and owner of Rose Hill, told the Port Tobacco Times that she had seen the ghost of the Blue Dog. The legend says that Charles Thomas Sims, a soldier, and his dog were killed on February 8 in the 18th century on Rose Hill Road while returning from a Port Tobacco tavern.
This was following the American Revolutionary War. Henry Hanos of Port Tobacco purportedly killed Sims and his dog for Sim's gold and a deed to an estate.
Port Tobacco Village is positioned in central Charles County near the intersection of Maryland Route 6 and Chapel Point Road, just southwest of the neighboring town of La Plata.
It sits near the Port Tobacco River which joins the Potomac River a short distance south.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town has a total region of 0.16 square miles (0.41 km2), all of it land. "Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (DP-1): Port Tobacco Village town, Maryland".
"Municipalities & Population Centers - Port Tobacco".
"Today just 13 inhabitants live inside the incorporated borders of Port Tobacco Village, but the many encircling neighborhoods add to this improve known for its rich tradition and historical significance." a b "Port Tobacco".
"Port Tobacco".
"A History of Christ Church, Port Tobacco Parish, Established 1692".
"Once Was Not Enough: Founding and Finding Port Tobacco, Charles County".
Port Tobacco Archeological Project a b "Port Tobacco Historic District".
Web page of Port Tobacco Village, Maryland Port Tobacco Archaeological Project Port Tobacco at Historical Marker Database Contact Information for Port Tobacco Village, Maryland Municipalities and communities of Charles County, Maryland, United States Indian Head La Plata Port Tobacco Village Bel Alton Chicamuxen Dentsville Doncaster Faulkner Glymont Ironsides Issue Malcolm Marbury Mason Springs Masons Morgantown Mount Victoria Nanjemoy Newburg Newport Patuxent Pisgah Pomonkey Popes Creek Port Tobacco Ripley Rison Riverside St.
Categories:
English colonization of the Americas - Native American history of Maryland - Towns in Charles County, Maryland - Towns in Maryland - Archaeological sites in Charles County, Maryland - Populated places established in 1727 - 1727 establishments in Maryland - Former county seats in Maryland
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