Those Places Thursday - What Darlington Means to Me

Darlington Main Street, 1950s.

From the DUMC Collection.

Courtesy Wikipedia.

On Thanksgiving Friday, hubby and I took a well-deserved extra day off work, and spent the afternoon in the town of Darlington, and trolling through Darlington Cemetery, about an hour's drive from home.

The big annual event there is the Darlington Apple Festival, held every year in October.  It's already set for Saturday, October 6, 2012.  Got the picture? 



Darlington is a tiny farming community here in Maryland, to the north, almost at the Pennsylvania state line.  For a town whose main street is about three buildings (not blocks!) long, it surprised me to learn that Darlington has more than 100 properties on the National Register of Historic Places.  Its Historic District was placed on the list in 1987.   

The properties include farming-related structures such as barns, chicken houses and similar outbuildings, plus three currently-working farms.  Others are the buildings found in any community, such as a lodge hall, a grammar school, shops and a Friends Meetinghouse.  Darlington Cemetery is also on the list.   

This rare old photo is from the 1950s and was found in the collection of the Darlington United Methodist Church.  Except for the models of the automobiles, not much has changed.  At least now the road is well-paved with painted lines.  I think we may have even come across at least one stop light!



Main Street of Darlington today.
Courtesy Wikipedia.



I'm not making fun, I think it's charming.     

I find it especially charming because the town and the cemetery hold interesting history for my line.  The death certificate of my 2x-great grandfather, Oliver Perry Jordan, indicates that he's buried at Darlington.  However, I know for a fact that he's at Parkwood Cemetery, in Baltimore City.  I still haven't gotten to the bottom of this.  I got caught up in this thing called a blog, and some of the research is back-burnered by my current fascination. 



Nevertheless, having a sun-shiny free day at hand, we decided to see what we could see in Darlington.



This signs says it all.
My Photo, 11/25/11.



Its Welcome sign says it all:  Welcome to Darlington.  Then it lists the five houses of worship, with times of service.  That's what is important to people here!  And it's quite evident in the cemetery, with plenty of Scripture quotes on the stones.   



In the historic cemetery, we looked at every stone.  There were only one or two with the surname "Jordan."  However, we found dozens by the surname of "Jourdan." 

Different spelling.  Different pronounciation ("joor-dan" vs. "jer-dan," respectively).  Same family.  The actual connection and the story of the "split" are still undetermined.  I'll get there.  I've only been on this journey for less than a year, and then there's that darn blog thing getting in the way! 

 

Another true bonus: finding a few stones with the maiden names of my 3x- and 4x-great grandmothers!  This gives me some of their relatives to follow!

 

But besides all this joy, the best outcome of the day was experiencing Darlington.  Oliver and his wife Annie, plus at least two generations back (that I've found), lived and raised their children in the Darlington area.  That one day out gave me real insight into their lives.  I wondered, and fashioned answers for questions like where they lived, how far they had to walk to town, where they got the things the couldn't grow themselves, how they got into into Baltimore City to visit family. 

And standing in the cemetery, looking across the hills, I got a true feeling that they must have stood in the same place and looked at those same trees on at least one occasion.



Darlington Cemetery.
My photos, 11/25/11.

Mystery Monday - Is There A Steamboat in My Past?

Today is the 246th anniversary of the birth of Robert "Steamboat" Fulton.

Big deal, you may say.  I would have too, until I learned he might actually be a relative of mine. 



Robert Fulton
Wikipedia Image

 Robert Fulton was born on November 14 in 1765.  In his short lifetime, he became an engineer and inventor.  He is widely credited with designing the first steamboat, in the early 1800s.  His partner in this venture was Robert Livingston, though Livingston receives little credit for his involvement.  Prior to the steamboat, Fulton designed the first known submarine in history, at the commission of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Fulton was born in Pennsylvania, studied in Europe, married Harriet Livingston (his steamboat partner's niece), and eventually moved to New York, where he died on February 24, 1815, at the young age of 49.

But back to his possible connection with my family. 

When I first saw my maternal grandmother's birth certificate, I smiled to read her father's name:  John Fulton Jordan.  I'd never heard his full name.  But I didn't think twice about it.  Then I started going through Ancestry.com census, marriage and other records.  Here's what I found:

My great-grandfather John Fulton Jordan's parents were Oliver Perry Jordan and Ann Wright, who married in Harford County, Maryland on February 6, 1868.


Statue of Robert Fulton in the
National Statuary Hall Collection
at the U.S. Capitol.
Hubby's photo, September 2011.



Oliver's parents were John Jordan and Henrietta Prigg, who married in Harford County, Maryland on February 2, 1841.  I have documents that indicate this John's middle initial is either an "F" or a "P."  It's simply unclear.  I haven't been lucky enough to find anything with his full middle name.

John Jordan's parents were (yet another!) John Jordan and Rachel Fulton, who were married in Harford County, Maryland on December 14, 1813.

Again working on Ancestry.com, I received a hint from another family tree.  After communicating with a Fulton family member also on the website, I learned Rachel was a distant niece of the famous Fulton.  I thought, "Even if it's a distant connection to a famous inventor, hey, I'll take it!"    

But I quickly calmed down and thought hold on, girl.  I had taken a very good genealogy starter course, so I knew:  until I can document these branches of the family tree for myself, take it with a grain of salt.  So I'm working on it.  I've had a few trips to the county historical society.  Next up will be a review of land records and wills, as they're available.  And maybe a Jordan or Fulton will come forward with new information.   Until this research can be completed, this connection remains a Mystery.