From the Choptank River to the courthouse green, explore the people, places, and traditions of Caroline County.
Visit the Museum of Rural Life Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. · March through November
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Join the Caroline County Historical Society for a Fall Meet and Greet at the Museum of Rural Life.
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Join Mr. Drake Witte at the Rural Life Museum for a program about historic brickwork in significant Caroline County homes.
View event details →In Denton’s historic Taylor-Brown House, the Museum brings Caroline County’s rural past close through historic dwellings, artifacts, and stories.
Bishop Alexander W. Wayman, a founding AME Bishop, was raised in Tuckahoe Neck. Underground Railroad conductors Daniel Hubbard and Arthur Leverton barely escaped lynching. The parents of William Still, “Father of the Underground Railroad,” were born into slavery near the Choptank River. James H. Webb, a free Black man, farmed here before the Civil War.
Our African-American Legacy →
Nettie Dean Carter, a prominent teacher, suffragette, and businesswoman, was a century ahead of her time. Enolia McMillan, the NAACP’s first woman president, started her teaching career in Denton. Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad ran through Caroline County. Anna Murray of Tuckahoe Neck helped Frederick Douglass escape north before they married and raised a family.
Our Women’s Legacy →
Capt. Quentin Walsh, USCG captured the French seaport that secured D-Day. 2LT Louise Hollister was Maryland’s only Army Nurse casualty in WWII. Col. Peter Adams commanded Maryland troops at Yorktown. Col. William Richardson, “Father of Caroline County,” also saved the Continental Treasury from the British. Cpl. William H. Carney, of the 38th US Colored Troops, was laid to rest at Union Church after the Civil War.
Our Wartime Legacy →
Captain C.C. Wheeler was illiterate yet built and operated a successful steamboat line. George Swartz and his mule loaded sailing vessels in West Denton in the 1930s. The Two Johns were vaudeville actors whose riverside theater scandalized the locals. Georgist Tax Rebels planned a colony at Gilpin Point. Robert Jacobs was a modern blacksmith at age 14.
Our Common Legacy →“To discover the history of a place is to discover the many lives that made it home.”
Caroline County · Maryland’s Eastern Shore