This Blog
Welcome to a Window on Cecil’s Past. On this blog, I will post articles on the history of our county, both old and modern, and the personal stories of our people, first and secondhand. Installments may include pieces on folkways, places, events, the built environment, people and about any aspect of our past that catches my attention. Additionally, I may periodically contemplate current happenings, as I investigate the convergence of dynamics that are changing our corner of northeastern Maryland in the 21st century. History, after all, is a continuum and understanding what happened in the past provides context for current developments.
The county’s history has fascinated me since 1968 when I started volunteering at the Historical Society of Cecil County as a teenager. For nearly a half-century now, all of my adult life, I’ve had a wonderful time discovering historical traces in photographs, oral histories, documents, and the material culture. In addition to rummaging through old books, documents, and crumbling newspapers as a way of investigating our past I had the privilege of learning so much from many knowledgeable people during those rapidly passing decades. I hope to share some of those insights here. As I search for windows on Cecil Past and post entries, I hope you will find them interesting since the county has so many stories waiting to be told.
I’ve been blogging on local history since April 2007, so I have a number of articles in the blogosphere. To start this weblog off, I will cross post some of my columns from other sites here as I begin reflecting on yesterday in Cecil County with some original essays.
Thanks for reading this piece and feel free to post comments.
Me
My name is Mike Dixon, and I am the publisher of this blog. I live in Cecil County with my family, and for nearly fifty years I have enjoyed studying the county’s past and chronicling historical insights on the area. 
4 responses so far ↓
Patty // October 8, 2008 at 6:55 pm |
Hi Mike,
I am looking for more old photos of Holloway or Murphy’s Beach that was located right next door.
Can you help me?
Thank you,
Patty
Howard // October 9, 2008 at 10:07 pm |
Great Blog, you write very well. Let me give you a genealogy question from the Hastings side of my family. I am looking for information on Goldsborough Hastings who in the 1900 census is listed as being a Clergyman in Cecil County (perryville) . He was born about 1854 or 1856. In the census he shown with a wife Martha. Since he is from the Delmar area in some census information he is shown as being born in Maryland other census he shown as being born in Delaware. His father and mother are John and Hester Hastings. And of course Goldsborough is spelled in a wide variety of ways.
Mike // October 11, 2008 at 9:50 pm |
Patty:
Can you stop by the Society someday? We have a few more photos. Also have you looked at what we’ve posted online to see if any of those are of interest.
Here’s the address for that. On that page click on photos online.
http://www.cchistory.org/photos/index.html
Mike // October 14, 2008 at 5:30 am |
Howard:
Let me see if I can come up with something on that for you. I check this week and get back with you.
Thanks for the work you do on Delmar Dustpan. I surf over regularly.