Sassafras Neck: A Special Place in Time - Paperback

by Vincent Taylor (Author)

Vincent Taylor was born and raised in the Sassafras Neck area of Cecil County, Maryland and lived there until he passed away at the age of 91. As a young boy, and over the years, he tramped, explored the fields, woods, waters and marshes of Sassafras Neck, worked on farms in corn and wheat fields, hay and pasture fields, plowing, cultivating and harvesting many different crops, and hunted, trapped, fished and crabbed in both the Bohemia and Sassafras rivers. Vince always knew this area was a beautiful, special little piece of land between the two rivers and as he got older, he documented the life and times of the by gone days of the 1900's. Sassafras Neck and its people changed quite a bit in Vince's many years, and as he reminisces, not all of that change was good. In his estimation, the old "Neck" and its people and times are gone for good; farming is now a much bigger operation with its bigger equipment, and farms have been sold off in tough times to developers for housing developments, while old farmhouses, barns, and out buildings have been torn down for bigger fields and more tillable acreage. Although the face of Sassafras Neck and its people have changed forevermore, Vince's hope in writing this book is to commemorate and recapture the work ethic, survival attitude, and family values that made this long gone era such a special place in time.

Author Biography

Vincent Walmsley "Vince" Taylor was born June 5, 1912 in Earleville, (Cecil County) Maryland, the son of James Veasey and Eva Virginia Taylor. Vince grew up in and around his father's and uncle's blacksmith and wagon shop and his grandfather's farm nearby. He was always an outdoor person all of his life and loved hiking, trapping and wild duck and rabbit hunting in the woods and marshes. As a teenager he worked on several farms and in the blacksmith shop and after graduating from the local high school, was hired in the 1930s as a boatman by the U.S. Engineer Department Baltimore to work on hydro-graphic surveys in the Chesapeake Bay Area. He was later hired as a welder in the Posey & Jones shipyard in Wilmington, Delaware where they built liberty ships for World War II. In the 1940s, Vince was drafted into the U.S. Navy where he wound up a quarter master in piloting and navigation, and went overseas during World War II to work on a destroyer escort ship for convoy duty to New Guinea, the Philippines, Okinawa Japan. After the war he was hired by a New York engineering company for construction work on bridges, tunnels, turnpikes and dams along the Mid-Atlantic coastal area from Connecticut to Cape Fear, North Carolina. After 28 years he retired from the engineering company and worked another 12 years doing carpenter work and painting for local people out of his home in Sassafras Neck. He also carved many old style decoys, miniature geese and marsh birds and made small Chesapeake Bay model boats. Vince also loved music, especially the accordion, on which he played various hymns and ballads to which his wife, Susie, would sing along. Vince and Susie married in 1935 and had three children, four granddaughters, and seven great-grandsons. Vince was a member of Old Zion Methodist Church in Cecilton, the National Rifle Association and the Baltimore Engineering Society. He hoped to be remembered by his friends and neighbors as a "plain old outdoor country boy."