From the Blog
Historical Questions about Our Town
Answers from Guyus Cutus II
 

1. Did an Indian Chief really curse the town in the early 1800s?

2. Why was the Tome mansion torn down in 1948?

3. Are there really American soldiers from the war of 1812 buried on the grounds at Silver Cross?

4. Did George Washington actually sleep here in town?

Q: Why was the Tome mansion torn down in 1948?
Someone told me it was because the roof was in dis-repair an was a small fortune to fix. Is this true?

A: The Tome Mansion, known as Hytheham, required some $10,000 for a roof repair – true. The Will of Jacob Tome stipulated in 1898 that if his wife Evalyn opted not to live there within 10 years of his death, then the mansion would be purchased by the Board of Trustees for the Jacob Tome Institute for $100,000. Evalyn, after marrying Dr. J.I. France opted to live elsewhere and ended up having to fight with the school board to get them to honor the will and purchase the property. It was used off and on for fraternal organizations, school groups, and even as classrooms, eventually kids played in the structure and it began to deteriorate. It was “surplus property” to the school and an expense they could not well afford as their enrollment shrank with Bainbridge as sailors/officers moved on with their families shrinking the youth attending the school and income. It was offered, allegedly to the Town of Port Deposit but need of funds to restore the mansion precipitated not accepting it. Some say there was a battle of wills to see who would make the necessary repairs not believing anyone would ever tear it down. To this day, I have never heard a definitive answer from any historian as to who paid for the demolition and when it was conducted – some say the school, some say the town, some say Wiley’s, some have even said the quarry, and one even suggested the town of Ellicott City paid for the mansion to be torn down. When it was found after the mansion tumbled that there was a “basement” for the old greenhouses and conservatory (not to mention Tome’s original bank) the Port Deposit Lion’s Club attempted to make lemonade from lemons and in what was called the greatest philanthropic and volunteer effort ever conducted in Maryland by the Baltimore Sun, used dynamite from the quarries and tools, to carve out a pool for the town, later known as Tome Pool.

Q: Did George Washington actually sleep here in town?

A: George Washington’s diaries in the Library of Congress quite clearly state that he journeyed through our county en route from Washington to Philadelphia and to Virginia. In so doing he would have passed through Perryville (though not yet a town) utilizing Rodgers Tavern for lodging, as is well documented. We know that he journeyed up the Susquehanna and was well aware of the efforts for a canal along the Susquehanna to make it navigable, as he wrote about such. He does not detail, beyond mention of the Susquehanna and sojourns in Perryville, Charlestown and I believe Warwick, whether he was in Port Deposit for an overnight stay, at least from the diary inscriptions I have read. At the time of Washington’s journeys and presidency, the main artery was basically where our present day Route 40 exists, probably a bit closer to the water in the region of Route 7 – at one time known as the King’s Highway and as the Queen’s Highway. There was much travel by water as well. So it is likely he would journey to our area via water to survey the area, we know he was highly interested in canals, and that he would stick to the Perryville area for land transport, especially since his family was invested in the Principio Furnace operating off Route 7 and he had a furnace back home in Virginia as well