Library Findings

Jim and I stopped into the library at the College of Southern Maryland yesterday to get another look at the Wearmouth collection. We each took separate boxes and looked through them to see what was there. Jim spent time looking at the US Geological Surveys and soil descriptions while the box I had was filled with newspaper clippings from the effort to reconstruct the courthouse in 1970.

There was also a book of state law belonging to John Mitchell, attorney, 1860's, Port Tobacco. I flipped through it and noticed several blank, lined pages in it at the beginning and then at the end. One page at the end had a note with a new law hand written in it. My guess is that attorneys carried these books around with them and added new laws or crossed out old ones as they came in and out of use.

Another record I found interesting was the log book of Alexious Waters, blacksmith, 1868,1869, & 1870, Port Tobacco. In it were lists of what he had made, and for whom, in and around town. This will be of great value to us as we start doing more biographical research on residents. It will also give us economic data on the town as well.

We only spent about an hour or so at the college and there is alot more to go through, which we will.

- Peter