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Moving - Preston, Maryland
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Preston, MD, area? Are you looking for that one good moving
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Please enjoy reading some history of
Preston, MD.
A Brief History of Preston, Maryland
Preston, like many of Delmarva's small
rural towns owes its earliest origins to the location of
Methodist churches and Quaker meeting houses. Churches were
built in centralized places that could be accessed by
surrounding farm families Often, these locations were also
near mills and cross roads (which frequently led to landings
that provided water access to major regional centers of
population and commerce).
Linchester, located at the eastern end of
our planning area, was the site of a colonial era grist
mill, general store, post office, and a few surrounding
residences that predates Easton's s nearly 175 years. This
early post office was moved to a store at the corner of
present day Maple Avenue and Main street in l845, where it
was known as Snow Hill. Postal confusion over the name and
location resulted due to a town by the same name in
Worcester County. In 1856 a name changes compromise led to
the town being named after an attorney who impressed
townspeople during a trial in Easton. However, 1890, the
year the Baltimore, Chesapeake, and Atlantic railroad was
constructed, marked the true beginnings of the Preston we
recognize today. This railroad ran from Claiborne (a
steamboat landing west of St. Michael's ) to Ocean City.
Prior to the railroad, commerce with Baltimore was focused
through Choptank, a steamboat line landing about two and a
half miles south on Maple Avenue extended. Choptank was also
the terminus of the first telephone line from Preston,
constructed by the Ben Trice Telephone Company In 1899.
The rail line became very important to the expansion of
Preston. Four daily passenger trains and two freights
stopped here. During the years before and after World War I
it was common for twenty to twenty-five freight cars a day
of canned tomatoes, apples, wheat and watermelons to be
shipped during harvest time. A 1908 edition of the town
newspaper reported that one-tenth of the total output of
tomatoes was packed In Caroline County and that Maryland
packed five-twelfths of all that were canned in the whole
country. Canneries, box companies, warehouses, hardware,
blacksmithinq, dry goods millenary, groceries, restaurants,
and a hotel flourished. At one time sixteen canneries
existed within seven miles of Preston, and three were
located within town near the railroad. A local entrepreneur
established AW. Sisks & Son which Grew to into one of the
largest canned food brokerages in the United States. The
Sisk company stores and transshipped tens of thousands of
cases of canned fruits and vegetables that originated
locally and in California and other western growing regions.
Some of these warehouses remain today, although the
canneries are now gone, as is the railroad.
Today, the largest structures in town are the Southern
States grain elevator and storage silos. The remains of
canneries and warehouses can be found if one knows where to
look, but the appearance of Preston has changed much over
the years.
Several interesting historical facts provide anecdotal
insight on the physical and social character of our town.
During the heyday of the canneries almost half the male
population of Preston was involved in the tomato canning
business in one way or another, and practically everyone
associated with this business had an income large enough to
pay the new federal income tax. Preston at that time had a
population of less than three hundred. On a per capita it
was found that we led the nation in the number who paid
taxes. Other reasons that support our slogan: 'The Biggest
Little Town in the USA" include such facts as being the
first town of its size to completely pave its sidewalks with
concrete, a sewer system that was installed by about 1914,
and electric street lights installed before 1910.

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