HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER

FROM OUT OF THE PAST

The following is from The Salisbury Advertiser of February 19, 1876.

At the time, it was published and owned by Lemuel Malone. Mr. Malone was also an attorney and dealer in real estate. A subscription to the Advertiser was $1.00 per annum. It was published every Saturday. Their office was located at 46 Main St. It was destroyed in the Fire of 1886.

I first became interested in this copy of the old newspaper years ago when I spotted an article about a baseball game. According to the newspaper, “A game of baseball was played on Pea Hill last Monday”. No score, no particulars. Research led me to do a map search of Pea Hill. The best I could come up with was a Pea Hill somewhere between the junction of Cooper Road and Collins Wharf Road. It was out in the country and I thought that was a logical place for a ball field.

Later discoveries proved me wrong in my original placement of Pea Hill. It seems that the plot of land that is now known as the Oaks was a popular recreation area in 1876. The name of the park area was known as Pea Hill. The land is on the Northwest side of the intersection of Isabella and Division Streets. By the 1880’s Elihu Jackson bought the land and built his Mansion on it. But in the 1870’s Pea Hill was a popular gathering place for Salisburians on the weekends to picnic and have the occasional baseball game.

More items from the paper:

Item 1: “We are of the opinion that the “ground hog” story is a barefaced
fraud”. (Remember this paper was published on Feb. 19th and “ground
hog day” was fresh in everybody’s mind.)

Item 2. “The debating society have decided that the Bible should remain
in the public schools. That settles it”. (Where did we go wrong?)

Item 3: “Needed improvements: We are glad to notice that the Town
Commissioners have taken steps to have the breaks in the sidewalk
on Division street placed in proper order. Not only will the pavements
in the front of private property be attended to, but the crossings will
have plank put down. The lumber is now on the ground ready for
using and it will not be long we hope before we shall have a
continuous path walk from Mr. T. Humphreys mill dam to the Park.
The matter should have been attended to long ago”.