Kayakers on Port Tobacco Creek, in Charles County, Maryland, recently found a pair of very old coffins floating downstream. It seems the coffins – which contained a mother and her child – surfaced after a major rainstorm further damaged the now-submerged Christ Church cemetery that used to lie on the bank of the creek.
The Christ Church parish formed before 1692 and has met in at least three churches. The first of these was located just northwest of the once-thriving town of Port Tobacco, along the creek. Following the destruction of the first, the congregation rebuilt its church on the Port Tobacco town square, and later moved to LaPlata as Port Tobacco withered economically. But the original Christ Church cemetery interments (now underwater) were never moved from the site northwest of Port Tobacco.
One Maddox researcher believes that our Cornelius Maddox (1651-1705) and Benjamin Maddox (I) (1690-1773) were buried in the original Christ Church cemetery, but has provided no evidence. We tend to believe the assertion, since Christ Church would have been the closest Anglican church to Cornelius’ and Benjamin’s lands and would be the logical place for burial. But nobody has been able to produce a list of interments.
During a visit to the Port Tobacco Courthouse today, local historian Anita Barbour Gordon relayed her father’s account of hunting ducks while perching atop semi-submerged gravestones in the Christ Church cemetery. Those stones are now fully submerged, and nothing remains of the place.
A sign near the current Port Tobacco Courthouse points toward the location of the second Christ Church location. The original (Old Old Christ Church) location is in the opposite direction.
An 1895 photo shows Christ Church as it stood in Port Tobacco in the 19th century. This stone church replaced the 17th-century original, which had stood to the northwest across Port Tobacco Creek.
Very interesting item. I have to go visit this town when I get back to the East Coast. Good work.
If you can locate a book called “Dear Eagle: The Civil War Correspondence of Stephen H. Bogardus, Jr. to the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle” you can find a description of the Port Tobacco graveyard before most of it was submerged by Port Tobacco Creek. The book details correspondence by a Union soldier stationed in southern Maryland to his hometown paper in New York. At least one of the letters includes a description of Port Tobacco and the graveyard there. Unfortunately it does not provide enough detail to help you locate Maddox family graves, but it does provide a sense of the history that could be recovered should the stones ever be located and uncovered.
I’m so sorry for my extremely late reply… there was a technical glitch. Thanks for the reference!
I realize there is a date from Oct. 2016 in a previous comment. However, Iread a previous article about your visit to Port Tobacco. I have moved, HOWEVER, if you are planning a visit I would very much like to be there. I still request to do tours there when I am in the area and if there is something going on at the Courthouse. Always really like seeing new information and writing on the Village. Regards, Sheila R. Smith
Have enjoyed thus far. One comment: The 1st picture in your email of the sign with Old Christ Church and an arrow pointing left, does not indicate the location of the original church structure nor of the second that was moved to LaPlata. AAA placed that signage at the present site of Port Tobacco Parish in LaPlata many years ago, perhaps 1950s or before, to indicate where or direction to the original and/or the 2nd Port Tobacco Parish. I would think AAA may have thought at the time that the “old” Church site was the original. For whatever reason, some 30 years ago or more, that sign was moved back to Port Tobacco, and placed in front of the location of the 2nd Episcopal Church. It was set in cement. But with the arrow pointing left (south) that would indicate to people that the Church was out in the field. At the time the sign was moved back to Port Tobacco, I do not know if many people really knew that the original Anglican Church was northwest of the Courthouse, on the other side of the Port Tobacco creek. Perhaps I can speak with the SRPT Board and suggest we move it to the north end of the Courthouse close to the “pond” with the arrow pointing west toward the above location.
My apologies: The caption of the pic with Wade Store, Centennial Hotel, Church, a bit of the south wing of the Courthouse: There was another Anglican/Episcopal Church. It must have been after they moved from the otherside of the creek. The original Courthouse was at the site of the Church; and the Church was at the site where the Courthouse is. Both structures were at least badly damaged by heavy winds or a tornado and the two traded places when rebuilt. That also makes since (that they were in an earlier spot) when one takes into account we know the jail’s location was directly behind the Courthouse. Both were rebuilt in the locations we know today.
I cannot modify
I wrote to you but it was too length,evidently. Couple of comments about Church, sign,
original location. If you are interested.
Sheila R.Smith “historian” to Society for Restoration of PT
Evidently, my comments are too long