St. Michaels Museum will open its 2013 season on Saturday, May 4 with a reception at 4 PM that will include a galley talk by the curator Kate Fones and light refreshments. Admission is Free. For details call 410 745 0530.
In keeping with the many activities this year during the 200th anniversary of the famous Battles of St. Michaels on August 10 and 24, 1813, this years’ special exhibit will be “St. Michaels in 1813”. Featured will be a time line spanning the period 1777 to1815 to put the local activities during the War of 1812 in perspective with activities on the Chesapeake Bay, North America and Europe. Background and details will be presented on seven houses that were in St Michaels in 1813 and their owners who were variously boat builders, militia members or town merchants and active St. Michaels’ residents. Also included are pictures and histories of the two churches of that era which served as quarters for the militia during the Battles of 1813. The exhibit includes contemporary newspaper articles, lists of local militia members and contemporary maps to put the activities in St. Michaels during 1813 in focus. A centerpiece of the exhibit will be the essay on life in St Michaels in 1813 from St. Michaels Museum Curator, Kate Fones that is reproduced below.
St. Michaels in 1813
In 1813, St. Michaels was a chartered town with a town plan. It was chartered by the state legislature in 1805, only eight years before. The town plan was originally laid out by English factor James Braddock in 1778 and the plan was enlarged when the town was resurveyed during the application for a town charter. St. Michaels Population in 1813 was around 300 and there were 60 buildings. It had grown significantly due to the thriving ship building industry in town and nearby shipyards outside of town. For example in 1783 there were only 15 town lots, nine houses and three shops taxed in the 1783 federal Tax assessment.
By 1807, the town was governed by five commissioners appointed by the General Assembly in Annapolis. There was a small group of comfortable merchants and shipyard owners. There was also a large middle class of skilled boat carpenters and other artisans serving the boat industry. There were two blacksmith shops, a brick kiln, a grain mill and several stores. In 1813, there were six shipyards in town and several located outside of town on Broad Creek, Church Neck and Solitude Creek to mention a few.
In 1813, the pubic center of the town was St. Mary’s Square. In 1805 a market house was built in the square. Also on the square was the small brick, Methodist Episcopal Church, Sardis Chapel built in 1782. This was the first Methodist church built in Talbot County. The second church in town was the oldest, Christ Protestant Episcopal Church. Its location was between what is now Talbot Street and Church Cove Park. There was a church at this site as early as the 1670’s. The location near the water was to enable people to come to church by water, the easiest method of transportation. The third church was in the process of being completed in the summer of 1813. At this time Christ Church did not have a resident minster. During the uneasy weeks before the Battle of St. Michaels, militia drilled on the Square and during the crucial period the soldiers were quartered in the two churches. At the time of the Battle, Brigadier General Perry Benson made the square his headquarters.
At this time, there were no public schools in St. Michaels or for that matter anywhere in Maryland. In 1807 there was a short-lived private school. There was a post office in town, established in 1802. A young doctor, Dr. John Barnett lived in town on Water Street in 1805 and 1806.(Journal of Dr. John Barnett of St. Michaels, 1805-1806)
Transportation was primarily by water, with sailing packets that sailed on a weekly schedule. Roads in Talbot County were scarce and primitive. St. Michaels residents Captain Robert Dodson (1762-1824) , owner and builder of sailing vessels, his son William Dodson (1786-1833) and Impey Dawson (died 1814), owner of a busy boatyard at the end of Mulberry Street, were captains of sailing packets that sailed from St. Michaels to Baltimore and other towns on the bay. It wasn’t until 1839 that there was an established steamboat route between St. Michaels and Baltimore.
By 1813, the farms outside of town had undergone a major shift in produce. Tobacco was no longer the major crop that it was in the 18th century. Farmers concentrated on wheat, corn and raising sheep and cattle. The intensive labor needed for tobacco growing on large farms or plantations was no longer necessary and slaves were beginning to be sold down south. Slave dealers in Baltimore and elsewhere began coming to the eastern shore to buy slaves. This trend escalated in the 1820s and 1830s.
Politics in St. Michaels during this 1813 period saw town citizens and town leaders supporting President Madison. The town’s majority supported the Republican/Democratic party of Jefferson and Madison. They supported the war party strongly at the outbreak of the war in June 1812 to the end of the war.
..
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.