Early Port Tobacco

[Laurie Verge]

I jumped through the Hagerstown beginnings of this to the Port Tobacco section.

A little clarification: I don't remember the Port Tobacco Hotel being called the St. Charles Hotel (that's been in Hughesville my entire lifetime). It was Brawner's Hotel in Port Tobacco, at least during the Civil War.

Also, the R.G. Barbour listed here was actually the brother of Jim Barbour who owned the Old Quenzel Store - a wonderful bookstore that got a lot of my money in the 1970s and 80s. The father of the Barbours did much of the original research that led to the formation of the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco about forty years ago.

What was once a thriving port town is now just a ghost of its former self. The Port Tobacco River has largely silted up, the old hotel is gone, Christ Church was moved to the new county seat of LaPlata in the late-1800s - as was the courthouse files shortly before the old courthouse mysteriously burned (had something to do with the railroad coming through about five miles up the road).

The Restoration Society has been able to reconstruct the brick courthouse, and two gracious old homes still exist, Stagg Hall and Chimney House. The graveyard for the original Christ Church is now largely underwater. There is also the old Port Tobacco School, which dates to the early-1900s, and a cat-slide house that has been restored but is used for storage.

Also, our Atzerodt Escape Route Tour of the 1980s actually started in D.C., but of course, George began his tragic journey when he left Port Tobacco to do Booth's dirty work.