Our last day together
Welcome To My Home Town Of Willards Maryland.
Hello--This Home Page it is dedicated to my little Dog Muffin, who came from the dog pound March 21,1989 and died December 5,2001. My name is Harold Haltaman I live in a small town between Ocean City Maryland and Salisbury Maryland. (Gods Country) The Eastern Shore Of Maryland. Come and check out my family and the town I call Home. Also memories of growing up in a small town in Maryland. I lived with my little dog Muffin untell she passed away. She was the sweet heart of my life. I adopted another
dog "Maggie” Maggie was a black poodle who came from the Humane Society of Wicomico County. Maggie has since passed away. At my age, I do not have any animals for pets anymore. Having a dog for a pet meant so much to me in my life. But then they need a lot of care. I am unable to give that care anymore.
I love living on the Eastern Shore Of Maryland. It's God's country. Get sand in your shoes and you will come back. I'll tell you a little of my Family's background. My father was the late Ralph Haltaman; he died in 1978. My mother was Elizabeth A {Trosino}Haltaman; she died in 1971. Her Father was Pasquale (Charles) Trosino from Ponte, province of Benevento Italy and her mother Petronella Laprete (Nellie) was from Albania. My Grandfather Charles left Italy and settled in Baltimore. That is where he met my grandmother, who came from Albania. She was in Baltimore to look after her sister, who was either pregnant or ill. Then she was planning to return to Europe. He asked her to stay and marry him, which she did. They had a farm in Port Deposit, Maryland before moving to Delaware County, where they had a diary farm. The property was known as Curry’s Bank, and is located on (OLD)Bullens Lane in Ridley Township Penna. He was a stone mason and built several stone houses. Many are still there. Beautiful stonework :-) Pasquale (Charles) Trosino was born in 1864 and died in 1953 at 89 years old. His wife Nellie was born in 1869 and died 1938 she was 69 years old. Their first child, James, he was born in Maryland in 1894, but to the best of my knowledge, the others were born in Penna. There were 10 children altogether.
My Father had four sister's and two brother's they were born and raised in Ridgely Maryland on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Elmer Haltaman; buried Ridgely MD. Amy Haltaman; buried Ridgely MD. Lillie (Haltaman) Shaffer; buried PA. Margie (Haltaman) Chester; buried Chester PA. Mabel Haltaman; (Died early in life) buried Ridgely MD. Monroe Haltaman; buried New Hope MD Cemetery. Their father was the late Calvin F (Haldeman/Haltaman; he was born October 12, 1875 and died January 8, 1934. His wife Sadie M Haltaman; was born June 25, 1878 and died November 4, 1945. She was from Preston Md. My grandfather came to Ridgely in 1893. My grandfather Calvin F Haltaman had seven brothers and sisters. Daniel HALDEMAN; born 1874 -? Wilson HALDEMAN; born 1878-? Lilly HALDEMAN; born 1879-? Emma L HALDEMAN; born 1882-? Herbert Thomas HALDEMAN; born 1888-1977 James Monroe Haldeman Jr; born 1892-1980 Floyd Alvin HALDEMAN; born 1895-1980.
I can trace the Haldeman,s with John Haldeman of Moore Township Northampton PA. He died 1810 and his wife Margarethe Haldeman Moore Township PA. Died there in 1827, They had a son Henry Haldeman his wifes name was Christina. They had a son: Daniel Haldeman Born 25th of July 1813 died 26th of December 1884 his wife Wife Susanna (Parsons) Haldeman Born 1812 no date of death. Daniel Haldeman & Susanna (Parsons) Haldeman had twelve children one being my grate grandfather James Monroe Haldemam
My grandfather came to Ridgely in 1893. When he was eighteen years old he came to work on his Uncle Thomas Schlegel's farm. Thomas Schlegel was Calvin's mother; "Susanna (Schlegel) Haldeman's" brother. Calvin F Haltaman came from Northampton Pa. Born in Moore Township Pennsylvania in 1875 where his father; mother; brothers and sisters lived. The family's name in Northampton Pa is "Haldeman" and they are Pennsylvania Dutch.
How did the name get changed? As my aunt Amy told it. After Calvin came to Ridgely one of his brothers came down from North Hampton Pa and charged furniture to my grandfather. Then left with the furniture leaving it charged in my grandfather's name. Not knowing what to do, he went to a lawyer and asked what should he do. The lawyer told him to change his name from Haldeman to Haltaman. It must have worked because my last name is Haltaman. But I don't think it would work today.
I had a brother James M. Haltaman who lived in Fort Myers Florida, Died September 4th 2010 he was 81 years old and a sister Frances J. (Haltaman) Dukes; she was born June 3, 1936 and passed away in December 20, 1977.
Let me tell you a little about Northampton Pennsylvania, It is the town my grate grandfather James Monroe Haldeman lived & worked and is buried. It was shaped a century ago by immigrants from Hungary, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands who came through Ellis Island, N.Y., to work in one of the borough’s four Portland Atlas Cement Co, plants. At its peak, 1908, half of the town’s population were cement workers.
The industry so defined the town that the Northampton High School’s nickname to this day is the Koncrete Kids, though it has abandoned its emblem; a bag of cement.
Many of the immigrants endured the back-braking and dangerous work- dynamite was used to blast for cement rock in the quarries- for a couple of years, then brought there riches back to there families in Europe. But many stayed. “They would begin big families and their offspring would go work in the quarries,’ and plants.. My grate grandfather James Monroe Haldeman was a night watchman in one of these plants before he died in March 14, 1929. Ed Pany, who opened a cement museum attached to the borough’s municipal building.
Several years ago I went to North Hampton Pa. for my Fathers Cousins Wife's Funeral. Her husband the Rev Eilus F. Haldeman who has sence deceased was born July 8, 1918. He served in the Army from April 15, 1942 until January 1946. He was a member of the military intelligence in the European theatre of operations. He was ordained in 1952 in the St. Paul's Evangelical and Reformed Church, in Northampton Pa. Eilus F. Haldeman & his wife Helen I (Smith) Haldeman are buried in the same cemetery as my great grandfather James Monroe Haldeman; & grate grandmother Susanna (Schlegel) Haldeman. Also in the same plot is his brother Herbert Thomas Haldeman and his wife Helen I (Smith) Haldeman. My grate grandfather James Monroe Haldeman was born January 12, 1850 and died March 14, 1929. His wife Susanna Haldeman was born April 2, 1852 and died December 30, 1936. It was the first time I had seen their graves.
"Moving to The Eastern Shore Of Maryland"
In 1938 when I was seven years old I came to Willards from Bladensburg, MD just outside of Washington DC with my family to visit my fathers youngest Brother Monroe J. Haltaman for the first time. The highlight of the trip was crossing the Chesapeake Bay on the ferry; it was the only way to get on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, unless you drove around the bay by way of Elkton Md. If you missed the last ferry crossing the bay, you had to wait till the morning or drive around the bay. One of the old ferries is land locked on the other side of the Nanticoke River Bridge, in Cambridge Md. The ferry stopped crossing the bay when they opened the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Construction Start in November 1949, Opened July 30, 1952.
In 1941 I was eight years old, we came to visit my uncle in Willards again, he told my father of a farm for sale in back of Willards, known as the Ray Truitt farm. It was one hundred and eighty-five acres for the price of $4,500.00 My father bought the farm and we moved to the Eastern Shore from Bladensburg, MD just outside of Washington DC. In 1942, my father was a superintendent for Murray Construction Co. My uncle had a store on the corner of route 346 and Main Street in Willards. Route 346 was the only highway to Ocean City Maryland. Until Billy Brittingham of Brittingham's Construction, (he lived in Pittsville three miles from Willards) built the new dual highway, (known as route fifty) Ocean Gateway in 1960. The day before the new highway was to open he was making sure it was clear; when a car crossing the new highway collided with his car and killed him. In back of my uncles store lived Raymond E White the father of Raymond F White, Known to us as Whitey. He owns Whites Construction. His Father Raymond E White sold and swapped rabbit and coon dogs. Back then hunting was a popular past time in the winter months.
My uncle's store was a general store; he sold hardware, gas, oil, kerosene, groceries, soda pop, bull durham cigarette tobacco and pipe tobacco and snuff, some of the ladies used snuff back then. He also sold seed and feed to the local farmers. They used to barter instead of using money; they would bring eggs, chickens, tomatoes or whatever they had to barter for their needs. In the evening they would load the things on the train and send them to the city markets. I remember the old Pure oil Co gas pump in front of my uncles store, you would pump up the gas by hand with a lever on the side of the pump into a glass on top of the pump with the gallons marked in the glass. Across the street on the other corner Carlton Adkins run an Esso gas station later owned by Bill Carter as a weigh station for weighing poultry trucks for the poultry plants, called Carter's Scales. Down town where a little brick bank stood; called The Farmers Bank of Willards. Ebenezer Davis Jr was cashier. Aubrey Davis was the cashier from 1939 until his death November 23, 1969. Then his son Frank A. Davis took over. Now Frank A Davis son is president of the bank today. They have torn down the old bank brick bank and built a new bank on 7484 Market Street. Now they have six banks on the Eastern Shore.
Across the street from the small brick bank was three stores, with a boardwalk in front of them.
I remember Jimmy Tingle my uncle's wife's brother taking me to the Willards fireman's carnival in the early fortes. I still have the red carnival glasses he won knocking the bottles over with a ball. The glasses are antique today. The carnival was on the grounds were the firehouse is today. The old firehouse still stands it is the two-story building in the rear of the Present firehouse. They used to have movies up stairs over the firehouse every Saturday night they were old western movies that ended up in cliffhangers to get you to come back the next week.
I Live Every Day To The Fullest. This may be the last day before the lights go out! Time takes its toll. " Slow down " Take time to smell the roses.
I'm single and had lived with my Carin Terrier, Muffin for twelve years. I got her from the Humane Society. I realy miss her now that she is gone. She lived to be about a hundred in doggie years.
When I moved to the Eastern Shore. I went to school in a three-room school. First & second grades in one room' third & fourth, in the other room' fifth, six and seventh in the third room. When I came to Willards, I was in the fifth grade. They had an old coal stove in each room. The Lions Club started their club in the old school after they built a new school in Willards. Sonny Rayne, the President of the Lions Club remembers the day when the new school was completed. He was in the fourth grade at the old school. He and the other students walked over to the new school, while the employees from the shirt factory stood out front and watched. Then the old school burned and they built the lions club they have today. We sat two to a desk in the old school, two boys and two girls to each desk. The girls on one side of the room, the boys on the other. The boy I sat with, I'll not tell you his name, gave me head lice, and my mother had the teacher move me to another desk. We had an outside toilet at the old school. The trunk of the old oak tree still stands on the grounds; they cut off the limbs that had died. Because when they built the new building, they cut the roots of the old oak tree to run electric lines under ground. This weakened the tree, years later the limbs of the big tree started dying, but they didn’t have a chain saw big enough to cut the stomp down. The tree, like me, was showing its age. We used to see who could run up the tree the highest when I went to school; It was a big tree then, I was eight years old. I have sentimental feelings about that old oak tree. The old tree was on the boy's side of the playground; it took a lot of punishment.
I'll tell you how long ago that was. When I went to school. The boys played on one side of the school and the girls played on the other side, and don't get caught on the wrong side! The principle was Miss Amelia F Donaway, an old spinster. She would paddle your butt in a minute. No talking back to the teacher in those days.
My Friends are John Marshall who lives in Salisbury and all my fellow Lions in the Willards Lions Club and a lot more who live in this small town of Willards. Also all the folks that stop by and play bingo at the Lions Club on tuesday night.
Willards is a small town started On October 1895, the Honorable Ebenezer G. Davis moved his house, store and saw mill to Holly Swamp, approximately one half miles from its previous location in the town known as New Hope. This Holly Swamp location being the site of a newly formed railroad siding, Hancock’s Siding. Mr Davis tried to get the name changed to Grover in honor of his oldest son who died at the age of thirty four in 1918, but it was discovered that Maryland already had a town named Grover. Shortly after this the Baltimore and Eastern Shore Railroad established a station at this siding site. It was than named Willards after Willard Thomsen, a receiver for the Railroad. Ebenezer G. Davis after settling here, established a basket factor. The building was a two-story bulding, with the baskets made in the front room by the women. The men made crates in the back room. Many of the people made baskets in their homes with the material being taken to them by mules and wagon. The first house built in Willards is the one next to the train station. It was for a mill worker. ( It still stands today ) The next houses were built on Canal Street. Unfortunately Ebenezer G. Davis only lived for nineteen years after starting the town, He passing away on Jan.8, 1914. He is buried in the cemetery next to the lions club. Ebenezer G. Davis his wife Ellis and his children. Their grave lot is half way up on the cemetery on the right. They’re the tallest two monuments in the cemetery.
The old steam train used to come through the town years ago bringing folks in from Baltimore to the beach in Ocean City, Maryland. The old station is still standing. They used it for our Post Office untill they built a new one three years ago. I remember putting pennies on the railroad track and letting the train flatten them out and make them the size of a quarter. The development of Willards was slow. The Farmers Bank of Willards opened in 1925, the Fire Company chartered in 1927 and the Lions Club chartered in 1948.
Three miles west of Willards is the town of Pittsville. Joshua Lewis built the town’s first house in 1817 a justice of the peace. "He held court in his house"
Other homes began to cluster and become known as Derrickson Cross Roads in 1854.
But Dr Hillary Pitts of Berlin, president of the Wicomico and Pocomoke Railroad, built a train station there in 1868 and changed the town's name to "Pittsville "
He claimed Derrickson Cross Roads were too many syllables to put on a railroad sign. The railroad helped Willards and Pittsville grow. The railroad opened up the towns of Willards and Pittaville. The railroad was rally meant to open up Ocean City and to get produce out of the area. The tracks have since been taken up.
Age is a matter of mind, If you don't mind then it don't MATTER. I'm living the best days of my life, with all the good memories I have of the past and all the friends I've met in life. I look around and see
lot of hardship in this world. I always say, " But for the grace of God, there go I "
I have a niece Donna Haltaman; "Donna" Works as a therapist for the Tennessee schools. br>
One nephew Joseph Haltaman "Joe" is the youngest. My Nephew "Joe" is a mechanical engineer works for United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) It is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency. Although generally associated with dams, canals and flood protection in the United States.
As a mechanical engineer "Joe" designs Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Systems, as well as plumbing and building digital controls. He works at Lackland Air Force Base with projects such as an Ambulatory Care Center, Dental Clinics, major expansion of Air Training Complexes, as well as various other projects.infrastructures that have been neglected.
Joe & Andrea have three dogs, Lucy, Chloe & Witicer & two cats. Joe & Andrea love there pets. Joe loves to go swimming in his pool and go biking, he is an outdoorsman. Joe & Andrea (Renn) Haltaman from Washington State. They were married in Hawaii January 2002. Joe and Andrea own a home in Garden Ridge, Texas, near San Antonio Texas. Andrea is a technician in Radiologic Technology.<
Then there was the oldest, Michael Anthony Haltaman "Mike" age 48 of Knoxville, completed his life travels, Friday, January 22, 2010, following a sudden heart attack. Michael was a lifelong employee of the airlines. He loved airplanes, world travel, museums, history, and books. He was the rock of our family.
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New technology is changing the way we do things and the way we live. Today we are in such a rush, we have become a slave to the new technology. So if you don't mind, I'll just sit back and remember the old town I lived in. " Come on, and I'll take you with me."
I remember the Rombro Shirt factory across from the old school. It was started by Jake Rombro from Baltimore. It was a family business in the early 1920's. Later taken over by his son Max; their home office was 2601 Howard St., Baltimore, MD. They built their first factory in Parsonsburg, Maryland; about five miles west of Willards. Then they built factories in Willards, and Powellville three miles south of Willards. The Powellville factory was within twenty feet from the old millpond. Sometimes they would find snakes from the pond in the building under the bundles of material. They also had a factory in Hebron west of Salisbury and Delmar. The Willards factory had a gas engine to run a line shaft through the entire building to run all the sewing machines. A man by the name of Benton Adkins was the first mechanic. On each side of the line shaft there were sewing machines. The material was cut in Baltimore; they only made flannel and chambray work shirts in the factory. When the ladies got tired and wanted a break from the sewing, they all would push their pedals down on their machine's at the same time. This would stall the gas engine and they would have to restart it again. This gave them a little break from their sewing. They brought in their babies to work with them and put them in the wooden boxes the sewing machine's came in; attending to there babies needs while they sewed." The babies were raised in these boxes." They had an outside toilet and two wood stoves in the building. Every time they had to go to the outside toilet, they had to bring a turn of wood in for the stoves. Irving Shockley, a friend of mine went to work in the factory when he was sixteen years old as a bundle boy. At that time they had a mechanic that liked to booze it up a bit, not showing up for work. When he was not there the floor lady Mrs. Emma Lutz whose husband Robert drove the truck to and from Baltimore. She let Irving tinker with the machinery to get it running. He then earned the title of sewing machine mechanic. He does this today for the Blind Industry in Salisbury. It's funded by the state of Maryland. Irving worked for the Rombro Co. twenty-eight years. His mother, Louise Shockley (Since Passed Away) worked there thirty years. Another long time employee is Ms. Maude Wilkins, In her nineties, started working for the Rombro's in 1926 till 1985, fifty-nine years. She lives out her golden years on Canal Street in Willards. The factory closed after sixty years in the late nineteen eighties. The Rombro's donated the land where the factory had stood to the town of Willards. Its just across the street from the Willards Lions Club on the corner of Hearn St & Canal St. It is an empty lot today.
I remember when Paul and Denver Richardson had their two saw mills; one where Cropper Brothers saw mill is now, and the other one was were the Old Mill housing development is today. I remember the old country doctor, Dr. Frank Lewis. He came to Willards in 1931, the year I was born. After opening his office in the front room of his house. He served the community for fifty years. Later he built an office in back of his house. The old doctor was lord and master back then. He even made house calls. A lot of times the sick didn't have the money to pay him, but he had a lot to eat. Instead of money they gave him plenty of hog meat, chicken and fruit and vegetables, or what ever they had to offer to repay him. They were hard working honest people in those days, even though it made him feel good to give them his time for free, in those days every body was the good old doctor's friend. He didn't ask you to show your medical insurance card before taking care of you. His two sons became doctors. Dr. Frank Jr. who is retired was a surgeon, who ran the surgical section of The Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit Michigan and Dr. Jack Lewis, who had the medical center in Selbyville Delaware is now also retired, I consider them as my best friends. I went to school with Dr. Jack when he was in the fourth grade in the old school. He was in another room and Miss Donaway used to call him in to read to me since I was a poor reader. He would read what I had just tried to read and I think Miss Donaway was trying to shame me to read better. I hated him for doing this to me back then, but it worked! Now I consider him one of my best friends.
When the town first started, before my time, the first business was the Willards Box Factory, They used to make strawberry baskets and baskets to put other vegetables in. The farmers back then planted a lot of truck crops, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, watermelon and cantaloupe, most of all they raised a lot of strawberries, In fact back then Pittsville and Willards were the strawberry capital of the world. " How times have changed " I guess I have too, I'm a lot older. I'm glad you stopped by, Come back whenever you can. Or e-mail me at hhaltaman@ezy.net
Harold & Muffin Who Will Always Be In My Heart.
