View From the Shore

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hodgenville, Hardin County, Kentucky. His father, Thomas, was a Kentucky frontiersman, his mother Nancy, died when he was ten.

He married Mary Todd after a long courtship on November 4, 1842. They had four boys, but only one lived to adulthood.

On May 22, 1849 Lincoln was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,469 for BUOYING VESSELS OVER SHOALS.

In the 1860 election he received only 40% of the popular votes, but was awarded 180 of the 303 electoral votes. The other candidates were Northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas and Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge.

The Portrait used as basis for the Five Dollar Bill was taken by photographer Matthew Brady in February of 1864.

On April 14, 1865, while attending the production of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre, he was shot John Wilkes Booth. He died at 7:22 the next morning

Nearly 100 years ago James Ramon Jones was born in Robinson, Illinois on November 6, 1921. He was the second son of Ramon and Ada Jones. His older brother his older brother was George W, He also had a younger sister, Mary Ann.

On November 10, 1939, three days after his eighteenth birthday he enlisted in the United States Army. One of his first assignments was with the air corps (it later became the US Air Force) and was shipped to Hickman field in Hawaii. In 1940 he transferred to 27th Infantry, which was at Schofield Barracks, also located in Hawaii. He was at Schofield when Japan attacked in December 7, 1941, just a month after his 20th birthday.

He left Hawaii on December 6, 1942 to be stationed on Guadalcanal. He was there during the Japanese attack and from those experiences he wrote The Thin Red Line. To many it is the best book about WWII.

Even before the war he had dreams of being a writer. After the war he was able to work with Maxwell Perkins, Thomas Wolfe’s editor. Jones admired the work of Wolfe. His first novel was From Here to Eternity, based on his experiences in Hawaii prior to the attack of December 7, 1941. It was published in 1951 and made into a movie in 1953. The movie won Best Picture Oscar.

Jones went on to complete what he called his WWII trilogy with The Thin Red Line in 1961 and Whistle in 1978. The central characters are actually the same in all three books, though their names were somewhat altered. From Here to Eternity features Warden and Prewitt, who become Welsh and Witt in The Thin Red Line and Mart Winch and Bobby Prell in Whistle. Similarly, Corporal Fife in The Thin Red Line reappears as Marion Landers in Whistle, as does the cook, Storm, who becomes Johnny “Mother” Strange.

While working to finish Whistle, Jones died of congestive heart failure on May 9, 1977. Knowing that he had little time remaining, but wanting to finish the novel at time he worked 14 hours a day on it. When he died he had completed all but the final three chapters. Those chapters were completed by Willie Morris based on notes and taped conversation that Jones had already written.

Betterton is a small town of under 400 on the Chesapeake Bay. Looking at it today one would not know that during the 1st half of the 20th Century it was a summer resort with arcades and amusements for people to escape the heat of the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia. There were daily scheduled steamship service by several lines including the Ericsson Steamship Line.

The town sits where the Sassafras River meets the Chesapeake Bay. First founded as a fishing village in the mid 1700’s by the end of the 19th century it was a point ideally situated for shipment of produce from the Eastern Shore to markets in Baltimore and through the C&D Canal to Philadelphia.

With the opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and travel by automobile increased, fewer people traveled by the steamships causing the decline of many of the tourist towns of the early 20th Century. Towns that were easy to get to via water were less convenient by road, Betterton included.

While the town relishes its tourist roots, the tourist economy is now nearly non-existent. However the current public beach still gives a glimmer of its grand days. It’s a place for swimming and family picnics. It is equipped with a bathhouse with public restrooms and 500 feet of boardwalk, with benches, lighting and handicap access.

Located where the Sassafras and Elk Rivers meets the Chesapeake Bay the lower salinity of the upper Chesapeake keeps Betterton”s waters nearly free of sea nettles.

Annually on the first Saturday of August each year, cancelled this year due to Covid, the town hosts its Betterton Day Celebration. The highlight of the day is a parade down main street.

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