George Washington and Coltons Point - George and his Great Great Grandfather Slept here!!!

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Happy 283rd Birthday President Washington

I was sitting here on my front porch last February 22 in Coltons Point, Maryland looking out on the vast Potomac River flowing past on it's way to the Chesapeake Bay.  Imagine that right here 381 years ago a couple of ships full of English pilgrims arrived to settle the area.

It is late February and the temperature is 60 degrees.

Within eyesight across the river in Virginia you can see the birthplace of our most beloved President and Father of the Country, George Washington.  He was born there 283 years ago today.

Perhaps our most least understood president, against all odds he led the nation into declaring freedom in 1776 and fighting the powerful English during the Revolution.  Then this advocate of freedom and commander in chief of our military promptly retired.  He fought for the creation of a republic, not a parliament and a king like many wanted.

So he quit the military.  Then the people drafted him to be president and he presided over the birth of the strongest democracy in history.  After serving two terms, he again retired. There was no term limit and with his popularity George could have been president until his death but that wasn't the republic he sought.

One final act by the mysterious Founding Father was in his will of 1799 when he died.  It freed all the slaves on his plantation.  This was 64 years before our next most beloved President Abraham Lincoln enforced the Emancipation Proclamation and freed all slaves.

Long before George was born two of the daughters of Dr. Thomas Gerrard, the patriarch of St. Clements Manor (located in what is now Coltons Point), the original territory given by King Charles I to Lord Baltimore, were married to George Washington's great grandfather, John Washington, who lived just across the river.

In the old days if a married woman died and she had an unmarried sister, the sister married the widower.  Thus when George's great grandpa's first wife, Anne Pope died, he married Anne Gerrard. The second Anne also died before him so he married her unmarried sister Frances Gerrard.

Because George grew up across the river and the Washington and Gerrard families were on both sides of the river it is only logical to say George Washington Slept Here and mean it.

Happy birthday Mr.President.

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Histories Mysteries - St. Clements Island -.Coltons Point - and the mysterious 7th District in Maryland

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For those of you not familiar with the 7th District in Southern Maryland I thought I would offer a little primer in the highly unlikely event you ever fall off the edge of the world and find yourself in the 7th District. First of all it is one of the oldest landing points for the colonization of the original thirteen colonies way back in the early 1600's.

St. Clements Island, the actual place where the English pilgrims landed, is just off Coltons Point where the pilgrims first saw the Indians and set foot in Maryland. These are the last two places on the map in the 7th District at the Potomac River.

Now I am not a pilgrim nor related to pilgrims but an awful lot of people here are and it seems that the older the family the more likely they inter-married with other families that have been around about 381 years, since 1634 and this is the anniversary year. That means when you meet a Dorsey, Bailey, Combs, McKay, and all the other names you see on signs down here you might just be meeting the relatives of all the prominent and aristocratic families.

The 7th District folks came here for religious and other freedom and for the last 381 years have been fighting anyone who tried to tame them. Long before the existence of New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, DC these folks had established rights to the 7th District. The early settlers were a combination of watermen, farmers, and tobacco farmers and starting in 1639 other people started trying to take this place away from them.

The local Native Americans never tried, I suspect they knew better, and this was about the only place in America where the settlers and Native Americans lived in harmony which tells you a lot about the people who settled as they respected the rights of the Natives.

Since it was the only place in the New World that promised religious freedom a lot of other people wanted to stop them. The Puritans and a few other groups seemed to think they had the only connection to God.

So the locals fought off the other white men for about a hundred years before they joined the fight against the Brits as the concept of freedom just kept spreading. In a couple of wars the British actually attacked this area which goes to show military intelligence hasn't much changed after all these years. The 7th District eventually became the last frontier in Maryland which it remains to this day.

Along the way the Civil War was fought and being we were well south of the Mason Dixon line but still in Union controlled territory, the 7th District became one of the primary smuggling points for getting supplies and arms to the Confederates since the Union had blockaded all the southern ports. One Union officer said at night the Potomac River was filled with black painted boats sailing supplies across the river to the Confederates in Virginia.

Upcoming scandals we will be reporting on include the English and French support for the Confederate army that was channeled through this area and the fact the English backed John Wilkes Booth and was to pick him up here after the killing of President Lincoln. Of course there is also the disappearance of Booth for almost a week during the manhunt in the area of the 7th District.

A lot of strange things seem to be seen down here on a regular basis, of course once upon a time there was a moonshine still every mile which might explain seeing strange things, like airplanes that are silver balls, strange sky circles, and the like.  People don't report much to local authorities because there are no authorities.  Some think up to 40% of the population are on witness protection which might explain why you see no one.

On the good side, the dead are as hard to find as the living since there are no schools, churches, and cemeteries.  That means no funeral homes.  It also means no hospitals, hospices, clinics, doctors, or dentists.  Why a traffic jam down here is two cars at a stop sign.

By the way, the entire original town of Coltons Point is named Coltons Point because the previous owner lost it in a Pocker game about a hundred years ago. Seems too many shots of moonshine were put away that night.

Fact is, there is no commerce, period, so no need for parking except at the museum where they quietly celebrate the 381 years people have been hiding out down here.  We have a museum that often finds it hard to be open for tourists since outsiders are not encouraged. Out on St. Clements Island, at least what is left of it, it shrank from over 600 acres nearly 400 years ago to about 60 today, the Lighthouse was restored and now is mostly closed to the public.

Now when it comes to politics, especially hard ball, survivors of the 7th District wrote the book. There was an entire moonshine industry devoted to helping people decide how to vote. Eventually the rest of Maryland got civilized and soon the election of governor in the state always seemed to be tied between the Baltimore Democrats and the Washington DC area Republicans, and it was the band of outcasts down in the 7th District that decided many an election throughout the 20th century.

I suspect this was the way the folks of the 7th District got even with the politicians. Many a person can recall seeing a candidate for governor from up north sneak into the District, spend a weekend sharing some moonshine with the old boys, and going home to win the election. In the 7th District the vote could be controlled as about everyone was a Catholic Democrat and they knew statewide elections were dependent on them for success.

We had our share of celebrities as well but they always seemed to live just across the water from the 7th District. From Coltons Point you could see where George Washington was born and where Robert E. Lee was born on the Virginia shore.

There is no local government nor local police in the entire 7th District as the people could never see the need for the bureaucrats. Most justice was handed out locally including disposal without the expense of trial or jail for anyone terrorizing the people. No crime wave lasted long.  Those guilty of minor offenses are routinely assigned community service out on St. Clements Island, possibly another reason tourists avoid the place.

Of course to this day there are no governments, street lights, stop lights, sidewalks, sewers, water pipes, gas lines or anything else found in most civilizations. The fire and emergency personnel are volunteers. About half of the roads planned for Coltons Point have never been built and you better check the goods in the local store for expiration dates before you buy anything.

People here still eat fish, oysters, crab, and clams harvested from the river although the politicians up north have done about everything possible to destroy the environment. More than nine Bald Eagles share year round residence in the Point along with many a strange specimen that can be seen wandering out of the swamps and wetlands on dark and foggy nights.

There is a distinct social structure that has evolved over the years including the Ancients, Aboriginals, Watermen, Yuppies, Yippies, Yappies, Come Downers and Come Backers. The Ancients are the descendents of the original boat people from 1634 on.

Since there are no Native Americans left the Aboriginals are the hillbillies, moon shiners, deinstitutionalized head cases, religious zealots, and of course Confederates who run around singing "Don't give a damn what the Yankees say the South's gonna rise again" in a strange pig Latin tongue.

The Watermen are the raucous survivors of the original fisher men, crab men, oyster men, clam men, eel men, (yes I said eels as in scary slithering things on the river bottom) and the people who supported them like the marinas, crab shacks, oyster and clam processing joints etc. There aren't many left and that is one of the enduring tragedies of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

The Yuppies are the new rich who move here to get away from what they spent their lives working to get. Yippies are the younger generation now beyond youth but still trying to find their way through life with a soft spot for environmental issues, nature, birds and privacy. Yappies are Yuppies and Yippies with a big mouth who show up expecting to find all the laws of more civilized places like dog catchers, police and all the other conveniences of modern society.

Down here the Postmaster knows everyone on a first name basis. Well that is before we lost our postmaster.  Now we have to check the Post Office every day to find out what hours it might be open. Word is those bureaucraps in DC have already eliminated our Post Master from the budget and I guess we will have to pick up our own packages.  Seems we have had about ten temporary postmasters in the past six months and about half the houses do not even get home delivery.

If you worry a lot about all the stuff we do not have, do not look to the local bar for a shoulder to cry on because old George, the proprietor, doesn't want any more customers as that might put them in a higher tax bracket. There is no fast food, no place to eat period without driving about 10-20 miles, and little need to put on airs. It don't matter whether you are rich or poor, you all eat crabs, oysters, and clams the same.

Often a community is judged by the services that are available so do not expect Coltons Point to ever be on a list of places to live.  To a fellow Pointer, fat cat bankers rank down with the lowest of all creatures on earth.  As a result, there are no banks, not even ATMs, and stock brokers or financial advisers are banned.

Things others take for granted like public telephones or public restrooms were never allowed, they serve to encourage people to visit.  With the sole exception of television and computers with dial up modems, slow modems that is, technology is viewed with a great deal of suspicion   

The Come Downers are the city folk who discovered the quaint place along the river and made their way here to escape where they are from or to exploit the area for material gain which never seems to happen. Finally the Come Backers are the kids of the Ancient families who escaped long ago only to discover the rest of the world will never replace what they had here in the first place and eventually they find their way back home.

Now that is a little of what you find down here in the 7th District of Southern Maryland, ferocious defenders of individual freedom a lot of character from a lot of characters, a place steeped deep in history, a keen sense of fair play, a desire to help your neighbors no matter what their social status might be, a bit cynical when it comes to the promises of the government or elected officials, but people who will never turn their backs on people in need, unless, of course they deserve it.

One thing we do have for sure, water.  Clean, dirty, salt, fresh, the Potomac River, about 100 feet deep, is our southern border.  That river is also about seven miles wide where it turns around the point.  An island on the Virginia side is called shark island and is covered with shark bones and teeth and the like, though I have not seen a live shark in the waters, but seen plenty walking on land.                   .

A few miles downriver and you come to the Chesapeake Bay which is a rather large water hole and then the Atlantic Ocean which is about as big as it gets.  Everyone has a boat, ship, yacht, inner tube or something because at any moment you can be underwater being nearly at sea level. Hurricanes come about every third year, water spouts every couple,  and the water table could be in your kitchen in a matter of hours.
  

In summary, here in Coltons Point we had the first landing of Jesuits in colonial America and they are gone.  We had the first colony with religious freedom but we have no church.  It was the first landing of Catholics in America and no Catholic shrine.

The original owners gave away the land from our land grant from England for Washington, DC and Philadelphia which is a source of perpetual grief for the anti-government anti-bureaucrat locals.  That explains why we have no schools since children's minds are poisoned enough already.

By the way, if you run out of gas down here you won't leave as there is no gas station in miles but every house seems to have a John Deere riding mower, golf cart, and a boat for a fast getaway.  As for a news stand to find out what is going on in the world, forget about it.
         

Perhaps you now understand the love affair people have living in Coltons Point and the 7th District and why there are no "welcome signs" nor "come back again" signs to be found.  You all should give it a try.
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CPT Names Kansas City Chiefs John Dorsey NFL General Manager of the Year

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Earns Prestigious "Golden Crab" Honor

for Survival & Exceptionalism

In a rare move for the Coltons Point Times, so rare it never happened before, we have initiated the first "Golden Crab" honor and bestowed it upon John Michael Dorsey for the incredible success he had his first year as General Manager of the Kansas City Chiefs NFL team.

There are many parts of John's story, the stuff legends are made of, that the world needs to hear because this is not just a story of success in football, nor about landing a critical position in one of the best franchises in professional football after two decades at the most legendary franchise in professional football history, the Green Bay Packers.

I mean how many professional jock stories can say the subject has direct ties to the 1634 landing of English settlers in Maryland?  How many can say his family is one of a handful of original pioneers, get this sports fans, from the oldest continuously occupied chartered community in the original 13 colonies?

It gets better.  Not only can John's ancestry be traced back to the landing at St. Clement's Island in 1634, that was 380 years ago for those of you short on math, but his family has lived there the entire time since.  Since St. Clements was just the 3rd settlement in America (only Jamestown and Plymouth Rock preceded it and both of them disappeared by the late 1600's) this apparently qualifies John Michael as a true Colonial Blue Blood.

Fast forward to the 20th century.

Phil, Helen, Walt & John Dorsey 

John was born in 1960 in Leonardtown, Maryland into a family headed by patriarch Walter B. Dorsey.  When his father died in 2009 it was the end of a tumultuous yet golden era in Southern Maryland and statewide politics as this third generation public servant put his indelible stamp on history and left a rich legacy of service, a shrewd record of political survival and a mosaic of interwoven personal experiences that made Walter bigger than life.

Then again, it was only appropriate that Walter, the son of a son of a son of an Irishman would use his Irish wit, his Leprechaun mischief, his command of language and gift of storytelling to mesmerize juries, outwit the opposition and more likely than not aggravate the judges while amassing a stunning record of victory in court and politics.

Walter was first and foremost a people person with a love of knowledge, a hunger for defending the little people and a panache for competition and controversy.  He came from two generations of political activists, a heritage in Southern Maryland transcending centuries and a desire to fight for what was right.

Before that the ancestral family came from Ireland by way of England, France and Nordic countries with the name changing from D'Arcy in France to Dorsey in Ireland.  It was Ireland where John Dorsey, NFL football star met the Mayor of Dublin, John Dorsey, on a trip.

Fate put him in a family where politics ran in the blood.  His great, great grandfather was Philip Dorsey, born in Calvert County but an adventurer who was part of the 1849 gold rush in California.  Walter once told me family lore says his great grandfather Philip found gold and once owned a claim to what became San Francisco.  Then he caught a ship for home that sailed around South America

Family legend has it the ship wrecked rounding Cape Horn off Chile and Philip was lost at sea and given up for dead.  More than two years later he showed up in Maryland saying he walked all the way up the Amazon through South, Central and North America to St. Mary's County, Maryland.  As for his claim for San Francisco, he probably lost it in a poker game.

John's great grandfather, Walter B. Dorsey, was first elected to the Maryland House of delegates in 1911 while his grandfather, Judge Philip H. Dorsey was a Circuit Court Judge who was elected Senator in 1926 and to the House of Delegates in 1930 and 1934.  His father Walter was first elected State Attorney in 1954, then elected to the State Senate in 1958, the third generation Dorsey to serve in the state legislature.  He was then elected State Attorney again in 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994.  From 1962-66 he served as Assistant Attorney General for the state and in the 1970's he served as the Deputy Maryland Public Defender.

During the three generations of Dorsey politicians Southern Maryland became a hotbed for statewide politics and many a weekend was spent at the Dorsey home with whoever the presiding governor of Maryland might be.  You see, in those days the Democrats controlled the Baltimore area and the Republicans controlled the Washington suburbs.  To win you often needed St. Mary's County and that meant the Dorsey family.

Needless to say the Dorsey DNA from the swashbuckling colonial pioneers to the rough and tumble world of Maryland and national politics was well suited for young John Michael Dorsey as he excelled in football in high school then was off to the University of Connecticut.

At U Conn he was a four year starter at linebacker while he earned a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Economics.  Twice John was named Yankee Conference Player of the Year and capped his collegiate career by being named NCAA Division 1AA All American.

As if there was any doubt as to his talent, he was drafted in the 4th round of the NFL draft by the storied Green Bay Packers and played five years before knee injuries ended his playing days.  His thirty-five special teams tackles for the Packers in 1984 is still a team record. Dorsey totaled 130 tackles and two fumble recoveries during his five-year career.

After his playing career ended, Dorsey chose to remain in football, taking a job as a college scout for the Packers in May 1991. He was later promoted to Director of College Scouting for the team in February 1997.  In January of 1999, Dorsey followed former Packers coach Mike Holmgren to the Seattle Seahawks assuming the role of the team's Director of Player Personnel but after just over a year in the Pacific Northwest, Dorsey resigned and returned to the Packers.

He served as Director of College Scouting and remained in that position through 2011 when he was named Director of Football Operations for Green Bay. Dorsey is credited with making the Packers one of the best drafting teams in the NFL, helping choose star players like Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews and Greg Jennings.

John left behind an amazing history with the Green Bay Packers where he was part of a group that made 15 playoff appearances and won two Super Bowls in 21 years.

On January 13, 2013, news broke that Dorsey had agreed to become the new general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs.  The move reunited Dorsey with new Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.

Talk about challenges.  The year before John arrived the Chiefs were 2-14 and that was the team the new GM inherited.  In his first year Kansas City partisans were stunned when the Chiefs won their first three games, more wins than the entire previous season.  They were the only team in NFL history to win 2 or fewer games the previous season and then win the first four games the next season.

On October 13, 2013 Chiefs fans broke the Guinness World Record for loudest crowd roar at an outdoor stadium with 137.5 decibels, a record later reclaimed by the Seattle Seahawks, but the Chiefs record was a precursor of good things to come.  When the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Payton Manning led Denver Broncos in week 7 of the season, the Kansas City Chiefs were the final undefeated team in the NFL.  As if that was not enough, the Chiefs clinched a playoff berth but lost to the Indianapolis Colts in one of the wildest Wild Card shootouts in playoff history 45-44.

When the dust finally settled the Chiefs had a season record of 11-5, finished 2nd in the AFC and made the playoffs.  All in all it was an amazing first year as General Manager after inheriting a team that was 2-14 the previous year.

John has another connection to Kansas City besides being GM.  He first met his wife Patricia in Kansas City while on a scouting trip for the Packers and married her after a couple of years of dating.  Patricia Sexton-Dorsey already had ties to the Kansas City area prior to her husband's hiring as the Chiefs General Manager. She is an attorney and partner in a large Kansas City-based law firm who worked from her Wisconsin home while they were in Green Bay.  She is a native of Abilene, Kansas and attended both the University of Kansas and Washburn University in Topeka were she earned her law degree.

As for living in middle America, John had this response to a reporter's question if there were similarities between Green Bay and Kansas City.

“Absolutely. In the people. It’s the Midwest. Work ethic is huge. Principle is big. Those traditional Midwest values that I have grown to love and respect.”

For a lifetime of professional football experience at the highest levels of the sport, a stunning first year as General Manager of the Chiefs, for returning to Kansas City so his wife didn't have to commute from Wisconsin and for recognizing the value of living in the Midwest (the CPT publisher is from neighboring state Iowa), John Michael Dorsey is awarded the CPT "Golden Crab" honor and is forever a member of the Secret Society of Golden Crabs but please don't tell anyone.

What's the story on the Golden Crab?

Since hardly any of my readers are from Southern Maryland you should know Maryland is the Mecca for Atlantic crabs along with oysters, clams, eels, and all that other stuff you find in the Atlantic, the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay where John was also big in swimming, fishing, boating and water skiing.

The crab, or crustacean as it is known to the local Watermen, is the most valuable species harvested from the Chesapeake Bay.  As a result it is the state "Species" whatever that means since I never got past state mottos, songs, flowers and animals.  Technically the Blue Crab or Callinectes sapidus Rathbun is the official Maryland State Species.

By the way, John did leave behind on the East Coast a brother, Phil and sister, Helen to preserve the family ties to the Colonial Blue Bloods.

Congratulations John Michael Dorsey for giving hope to the Chief's fans and don't forget to drop by your family roots on the banks of the Potomac when you can where you can still catch your own blue crabs.  Hummm...  Blue crabs and Blue Bloods...

John, your "Golden Crab" will be delivered as soon as we can get it back in the truck.  

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