Newsletter of
The Maryland State Archives
Dear Santa Claus :-- Please give me a square meal.

G-rg- T.M-1-v-n.
Dear Santa Claus :--

Will you please bring me a liquor
license? Some bad boys are trying to
keep me from getting one. I need it
in my business. 

P-h-l-p G-n-t.
 

Dear Santa Claus :--
I am a very   good   little  boy  and should like another bunch of  popularity.    People tell me I could use it. 

S-h-11-m-n B.Br-w-n.

Dear Santa Claus--: Please bring me another name.

Wos y Gil.
Dear Santa Claus :--

Please bring me a new hatchet. My old one has dents in it.
 

C-rr- N-ti-n.
Dear Santa Claus :--

Please bring me a chance to die poor, but don't be too sudden about it, dear Santa. 

A-nd-w C-rn-e-g.
 

Dear Santa Claus :--

Please   bring   me   a   nice book   on speechifying.    From your dear friend 

L-th-r H. G-dd.

Dear Santa Claus :--

I like the beautiful present you brought me four years ago. Please give me another just like it.
 

W-lf-d B-tm-n.
Dear Santa Claus :--

Please bring me some nice, fresh, real, news. 

"Ann-p-ls Chr-n-cl."
 
 

(continued on Page 2)



Page 2
The Archivists' Bulldog
Letters for Santa Clause
(continued from Page 1)

Dear Santa Claus:--

We are all very good little girls,
and would be tickled to death if you
would bring each of us a nice hus
band. 

Ann-p-ls Old M-ds.
 

Dear Santa Claus :--
Not   long   ago   I   saw   a   beautiful Secretary of State Apple,   and   would like to have it on my Christmas   tree. 

All-n B-w H-wr-d.

Dear Santa Claus :--
Please give me a house in Annapolis, where I can get in out   of   the   cold. 

Fr-lr-n Oct-st.

Dear Santa Claus :--

A bad boy named Uncle Sam cut a Panama hunk out of my apple. Please bring it back for Christmas.

C-l-mb-a.

Dear Santa Claus :--

I have hung up a rubber stocking so you can fill it with water. I want the water for my Wall street friends, dear, dear Santa Claus.

J. P-rp-nt -Mrg-n.

Dear Santa Claus :--

Please send us more millionaires to do our work for nothing (besides our printing) which we will accept with '' thanks.''   Please do, dear Santa.

Ci-y C-n-c-1.


Dear Santa Claus :--

We should very much like to have a pair of horses so as to get our engine to the fire before it is over.
 

F-r- D-prtin-nt.

Dear Santa Claus :--

Please send me another bottle of that water of perennial youth. Its a great help to me with the ladies.
 

Ch;rl-s A. D-B-s.

Dear Santa Claus :--

I would like about one foot more
width to my store so my customers
can turn around. 

Prr-y K-shn-r.
 
 
 


The Archivists' Bulldog 
Page 3
Roads in Charles County, 
1765-1794
by Pat Melville

Lying outside the area of extensive commercial activity and transportation concerns, Southern Maryland received little attention from the General Assembly during the time period under consideration. In fact, the one law pertaining specifically to this part of the state concerned the public road from Port Tobacco to Leonardtown. The portion between Allens Fresh and Piles Creek in Charles County had become "almost impassable because of hilly and broken grounds." The legislation authorized the county court to appoint commissioners to repair the road, ascertain damages to landowners, and levy taxes to pay costs.

The court minutes for 1765-1780, found in Charles County Court (Court Record) in series C658, contain some notations about roads, mostly petitions to establish new routes or amend existing ones.

One petitioner was George Washington who had acquired a farm on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, south of Mount Vernon, in 1769. With the farm came ferry boats and ferry rights associated with Poseys Landing, across from the landing at Marshall Hall in Charles County. In August 1771 and again in March 1772 Washington asked the court to make public the road from Port Tobacco to W. Marshall's land opposite Poseys Ferry and to appoint an overseer to maintain it. The justices agreed to review the matter, but the resulting report, if ever completed, did not appear in the records.

In order to more easily transport tobacco to a warehouse for inspection, residents of Durham 

Parish in November 1771 requested a road from the plantation of William Elgin by the lands of Humphrey Posey, Sr. and James Murdock to intersect the road from Wards Run to Chickamuxon Warehouse or by the plantation of Clement Kennedy near Stretchsmock Hill on which Ignatius Maddox lived. The court ordered an examination and report.

At the same court term James Craik described his lack of an outlet from his plantation due to a fence erected by John Quade. The justices issued the usual order for viewing and reporting.

Forced Move from Annapolis to Hagerstown
by Pat Melville

In March 1786, a curious entry appeared in Frederick County Court (Minutes) in series C831. William Hook, "a poor infirm person," had been sent to Frederick Town by the Anne Arundel County justices with a request that he be sent to Washington County where he could claim a residence, entitling him to public support. The Frederick County Court ordered the county trustees of the poor to transport him to Hagerstown along with the Anne Arundel County order, "if it has not been lost or misplaced." A search of the Anne Arundel County Court minutes found no entry about Hook, and the Archives does not possess the minutes for Washington County. Perhaps Hook was originally a resident of Washington County, and the Anne Arundel County justices did not feel obligated to provide public support for a nonresident.