Wicomico County, Maryland

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Wicomico County government offices are located at 125 North Division Street, Salisbury MD 21801; phone: 410‑548‑4801.

Wicomico County Neighborhoods

TOWNS

Wicomico as Described in 1904 [1]

Wicomico County lies southeast of Dorset, the division line between the two being the Nanticoke River. Delaware on the north, Worcester on the east, and Worcester and Somerset on the south form the land boundaries of Wicomico, and the Nanticoke River extends along its western side, emptying into Tangier Sound. The area of the county is 365 square miles, and its name is taken from the river which flows through its central section into Monie bay. Salisbury, the county seat, (1732), is one of the most thriving commercial towns on the Eastern Shore, and has a population of 4,277. It is incorporated as a city, and has numerous manufactures, mostly associated with the extensive lumber interests of the county. Salisbury is noted for the beauty of its situation and its substantial business buildings and modern homes. Delmar, partly in Wicomico and partly in Delaware, is a goodly-sized town, and Tyaskin, Nanticoke, Powellsville, Quantico, Pittsville, Parsonburg, Wango, Fruitland and other villages are the centers of thriving communities. Agriculture is the occupation of many of the people, and fruit-growing is largely and successfully engaged in, as is also trucking. The melon crop is an important one. With its fine transportation facilities, Wicomico, like Somerset, although, perhaps, in a greater degree, is in competition with the truck farmers of Virginia in the Northern markets. Light, sandy soils, overlying stiff clays, are found in Wicomico, and there are areas of gum swamp land and of loams, the "black loam" along the edge of Delaware being very fertile. Mardela Springs, a village of several hundred inhabitants, is well-known in local history as the location of "Barren Creek Springs," the fame of whose medicinal waters covers over a century. In the early days of the State, these mineral springs were a favorite resort of persons from the middle Atlantic coast territory. Francis Makemie established a Presbyterian church in Wicomico (then Somerset County) before the formation, in 1706, of the American Presbytery in Philadelphia, and is called the founder of the Presbyterian Church in America. The Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway and the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad run through Wicomico.

  1. Gambrill, J. Montgomery, Leading Events of Maryland History, 1904, Athenaeum Press, Ginn & Company, Boston

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