History
Easton’s Philip Francis Thomas died Oct. 2, 1890 — Spring Hill still holds him
Maryland State Archives records the Easton-born governor’s 1848–51 term, Treasury months in 1860–61, and burial at Spring Hill Cemetery.
Briefing
Local history: the county before this edition
Talbot's news desk sits on a long record — 1711 public buildings, Douglass's Tuckahoe, the courthouse lawn. The Patriot's own back issues are on the Archives page.
Recent Coverage
History
Harry R. Hughes’s Easton birth hits 100 years on Nov. 13
Maryland State Archives place the 1979–87 governor’s birth in Easton on Nov. 13, 1926; he died in Denton on March 13, 2019.
History
Trappe’s Home Run Baker still has a Hall of Fame park marker on Main Street
Home Run Baker Park and its Main Street historical marker keep the Baseball Hall of Fame record on the ground in Trappe.
History
CBMM’s 43rd Small Craft Festival returns to the St. Michaels waterfront Oct. 2–4
Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival XLIII puts sailing skiffs, shells, and one-of-a-kind boats on the Miles River. Public guests use two-day general admission (adults $20 online / $22 in person; free for CBMM members).
History
Oct. 24: SAR’s 3rd annual Tench Tilghman Week celebration in Easton
Parade, Spring Hill wreath for Maryland Line veteran Solomon Barrott, and Patrick K. O’Donnell at Avalon; 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
History
Under the Mexican Sky closes Oct. 11 at Academy Art Museum
More than 50 vintage photographs of U.S.–Mexico exchange after the Mexican Revolution hang in the Lederer Gallery through Oct. 11 as part of the museum’s Maryland 250 programming.
History
Next Historic Easton walking tours: Oct. 17 at 11 a.m. and noon
Talbot Historical Society’s free one-hour tours cover 250 years of buildings and stories; 10 spots per tour; reserve at 410-822-0773 or kaylaw[at]talbothistory.org.
Local History
Thu. Sept. 24, 1 p.m.: Anna Murray and Annie Douglass letters at Easton library
Professors Nicole King and Celeste-Marie Bernier discuss mother-daughter freedom work in the Meeting Room at 100 W. Dover Street; adult program.
Local History
Sat. Sept. 26, 1 p.m.: Damon Root Glorious Liberty talk at Easton library
Author discusses Frederick Douglass and the antislavery Constitution in the Meeting Room at 100 W. Dover Street as part of 2026 Frederick Douglass Day programs.
Local History
Constitution Day at Talbot Library Sept. 17 — Living History and 51 Steps to Freedom
MidShore Constitutional Alliance hosts families Thursday noon–3:30 p.m. at 100 West Dover Street; Council’s Sept. 8 proclamation sets Constitution Week Sept. 17–23, with the Constitution Bowl championship Saturday at 1 p.m. in the same building.
Local History
Tubman Museum Fundraiser Oct. 2 at Avalon — Santana and Hendrix Tribute
Harriet Tubman Museum & Educational Center presents guitarist David B. Cole Friday at 6 p.m.; doors 5:30; tickets $50/$40 (fees not included); Avalon facility rental supporting the Cambridge museum’s Tubman and Eastern Shore freedom legacy work.
Local History
Free AAM Lecture Fri. Sept. 11, 6 p.m.: African American Artists in Mexico
Academy Art Museum presents Robin Owen Joyce, Ph.D., on Cross-Border Solidarity — Catlett, Wilson, Burroughs, White, Woodruff and Mexican print/mural workshops, 1930s–early 1950s; free, register for a seat.
Local History
Oct. 27 THS Members Tour: Poplar Island Boat Leaves Tilghman at 9 a.m.
Talbot Historical Society members-only tour — free; boat from 21548 Chicken Point Road, Tilghman; 24-guest cap; reserve at 410-822-0773.
Biographies
Easton — Tench Tilghman
Born Fausley, 1744. Washington's aide. Grave in Oxford.
Christmas Day 1744 at Fausley, two miles from the courthouse town. He carried the Yorktown surrender to Congress in 1781 and died at 41. Easton claims the birthplace; Oxford keeps the stone.
St. Michaels — Perry Benson
Revolutionary captain. Commanded the 1813 defense.
Talbot-born militia general who met the British on the Miles in August 1813. The two attacks are in his report. The lanterns enter the story two generations later.
Oxford — Robert Morris Sr.
Liverpool factor. Built the colonial port. 1738–1750.
Twelve years as Cunliffe's man on the Tred Avon made Oxford the Eastern Shore's leading port. A salute cannon killed him in the harbor in July 1750. His son became the financier of the Revolution. The inn still carries the name.
Trappe — John Dickinson
Born Croisadore, 1732. Penman of the Revolution.
Born on the family plantation near Trappe. Left for Delaware as a child. Wrote Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania and signed the Constitution for Delaware. Trappe keeps the birthplace. He did not sign the Declaration.
Tilghman — Matthew Tilghman
Inherited the island, 1741. Maryland revolutionary leader.
Born in Queen Anne's County, seated at Rich Neck Manor on the Bay Hundred peninsula. The island took his family name. He chaired Maryland's provincial conventions and sat in the Continental Congress.
Chapel / Cordova — Joseph Mosley
Jesuit. Founded St. Joseph's, 1765. Buried under the chapel.
English Jesuit who opened the Tuckahoe mission in the old Chapel District in 1765 and built the brick chapel in 1782. He is buried under the floor. The August joust is a later parish custom.
Talbot — Frederick Douglass
Born Tuckahoe Creek, c. 1818. The county's.
Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey on a farm off Tuckahoe Creek. He left in chains and came back in 1878 to dedicate the churches on The Hill. The statue on the courthouse lawn is his. He is not a town card. He is Talbot's.
Trappe — Nathaniel “Nace” Hopkins
30th USCT. Emancipation Day, 1867.
Born enslaved near Trappe. Served in the 30th U.S. Colored Troops, came home sick, and in 1867 started the parade that still walks Main Street. He helped put up the first Black schools at Trappe and Barber and what became Scotts United Methodist. The park and the Route 50 stone carry his name.
The Hill, Easton — Grace Brooks
Midwife. Bought her family. 1792.
Born enslaved. Earned her living as a midwife, bought her own freedom and her children's, and in 1792 bought a half-acre on what became The Hill — first known African American woman to own land in Easton. The Republican Star printed her obituary in 1810.
Unionville — The Eighteen
USCT veterans. Founded the village, 1867.
Eighteen men, enslaved and free, came home from the Union army and took leases on Lombardy Neck. They built a church, a school, and a town they named for the army that freed them. All eighteen lie behind St. Stephen's. The village is the monument.
Collections
Talbot Historical Society
Museum row, Easton — James Neall House, Joseph Neall House, Museum Shop
Walking tour of Easton covers public buildings dating to 1711 and houses from the late 18th century. The society also publishes a Frederick Douglass driving-tour guide of county sites.
Frederick Douglass in Talbot
Born Tuckahoe District, 1818. Statue at the courthouse, 11 N. Washington St.
Jay Hall Carpenter's 2011 statue stands at the Talbot County Courthouse. A 2025 historical marker was unveiled there with descendants and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller. Maryland tourism lists a 14-site self-guided driving tour of his early life in the county.
Talbot County history desk
County government primer
The county notes one of the highest percentages of free Black residents in the early United States, Revolutionary and War of 1812 history, and Douglass as the county's most famous native son.
Maryland State Archives
State records, not a local museum
Land, legislative, and court records that sit behind town minutes and county votes. Use it when a Patriot story needs the document, not a recollection.