St. Mary's County Times December 06, 2018 | Page 18
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Feature
The County Times
Thursday, December 6, 2018
New Guide Demystifies St. Mary’s City
By Guy Leonard
Staff Writer
Three former teachers who have turned to writing
cooking and children’s books have now published a
guide that gives first-time visitors and long-time coun-
ty residents an easy way to decipher the history of St.
Mary’s City
Settled in 1634 by English colonists, St. Mary’s City
was the starting point not just for St. Mary’s County
but for all of Maryland.
But archaeologists who work there say it still re-
mains a lost city, with much of its history waiting to
be laid bare.
Ellynne Brice Davis, Joyce Judd and Myra Raspa
have diligently combed the known history of the
founding city to offer Whispers From the Colonial
Past: A Self-Guided Walking Tour For Visitors to St.
Mary’s County.
The three women are passionate about St. Mary’s
City and as educators have done their fair share trips to
the site; the book was written with 4th grade field trips
in mind, they said.
“We thought there was a need for a family friendly
book,” Davis, the author of the book, told The County
Times. “There are so many gifts in the gift shop there
but there’s no souvenir program and there’s nothing
with the fold out map that is included in our book.
“And there’s nothing with the pictures that Joyce has
done of every single monument.”
The spiral-bound guide is produced on heavy weight,
glossy stock that the ladies said was designed to be
compact, easy to use and also of sufficient quality and
durability to stand up to tours with rainy conditions or
hot, sweat-inducing days.
The table of contents allows visitors to quickly pick
out information on specific monuments or other points
of interest at St. Mary’s City.
The book’s introduction gives a concise history of
the colony’s beginnings, including the many notable
“firsts” the colony achieved.
Those included being Maryland’s first settlement,
the first successful privately-owned English colony
in North America and being Maryland’s first colonial
capital.
St. Mary’s City was the first settlement, according
to the guide, to separate religion from government and
it was also the first place where a person of African-
American descent in North America participated in
the legislature.
That person was Mathias de Souza in 1642.
For those entirely new to the St. Mary’s City experi-
ence, the guide offers ticket purchasing information,
driving directions and even a color illustration of the
Blue Barn visitor’s center where the visitor’s journey
begins.
“We’re trying to give someone who’s going to spend
just two hours there something they’ll always remem-
ber,” Davis said. “We’ve made it [the city] accessible to
anyone who buys a ticket for the day.”
The guide was assembled with the full cooperation
of Historic St. Mary’s City including the chief archae-
ologist there, Dr. Henry Miller, who has overseen the
development of historical resources for decades.
Davis said their latest project was a labor of love for
the three women.
“We’re three retired teachers and we had the time
and we had the desire,” said Davis. “And there was a
need.”
The guide not only helps visitors along in finding
monuments and historic sites at St. Mary’s City but it
also helps them understand what life was like in the
17th century.
From talking about the incentives for colonists to
come to Maryland, the guide describes England as “la-
bor rich and land poor,” to the death toll they had to
endure on their arrival due to disease, the guide illumi-
nates the challenges they faced.
But there were opportunities, as well, the guide
shows, since each colonist was given 100 acres of land.
Judd’s hand-drawn illustrations, in color and black and
white, help bring colonial life into focus.
“That was the reason for all the illustrations,” said
Judd, whose own knowledge of St. Mary’s City ex-
panded greatly when she had to track down every
monument.
Her illustrations also show the hard labor each colo-
nist had to engage in on a daily basis, replicated by
docents working as historical interpreters at the site.
“There were more than I’d imagined,” Judd said of
all the monuments and sites available to the public.
“That’s why I started at the town center.”
The town center was the nexus of activity in the
colony’s beginning days and much of what has been
rebuilt is there, hence it is also the center for visitors to
explore, she said.
Still, her work took her to every corner of St. Mary’s
City, Judd said.
“I wanted to make [the guide] cram packed so no-
body would miss anything,” Judd said. “It was a great
experience.”
The guide also spends significant space on the lives
of woodland Indians and illustrates the hamlet there at
the site including the plants they grew and how they
dried them to preserve them.
The colonists’ survival was in part due to the na-
tive people’s sharing of survival techniques, including
hunting and wild edibles, according to the guide.
Bringing all the information and illustration together
was Raspa, the editor of the project, who designed the
layout and ensured the style and flow of the work.
Raspa said since the work focused so closely on seri-
ous history, accuracy was paramount.
“I go through every, single word,” Raspa said. “The
facts and figures are very important.
“I’m a stickler for that. It was a very involved
project.”
The challenge, Raspa said, was to make the guide
comprehensive and useful but at the same time not
cumbersome or overly burdened with minutiae.
The final product, she said, was unique.
“There [is] nothing like that out there,” said Raspa.
“It’s useful as well as enjoyable.”
The book was a guide but also a reminder of the
county’s special heritage.
“We in St. Mary’s County forget how steeped we are
in history,” Raspa said. “It’s a good reminder.”
Davis said the initial printing has been a successful
run and they are already in need of a second.
The Printing Press in Leonardtown printed the
guide.
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