The Era of the JOPPA Steamboat in Wetipquin

The era of the steamboat in Wetipquin began on September 7, 1882, when William Furbush and his wife Susan C. Furbush granted "Sandy Hill Landing" to Calvin Taggart, the president of the Bridgeton Steamboat Company. This transaction is recorded in the Wicomico County Land Records, Liber SPT No. 6, folios 309 & 310. Today, the property is known as Sandy Hill Family Camp.

Captain Calvin Taggart, a Quaker from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sought new opportunities for his steamboat company on the Chesapeake Bay in the late 1870s. He operated the steamboat line on the Nanticoke River for two years. On June 13, 1884, Taggart sold "Sandy Hill Landing" to the Maryland Steamboat Company of Baltimore, as recorded in Wicomico County Land Records, Liber SPT No. 6, folios 310 & 311.

One of the steamboats received by the Maryland Steamboat Company on June 1, 1885, was the Joppa, built by the Harlan and Hollingsworth Company of Wilmington, Delaware. The Joppa was a side-wheel, passenger and freight steamer with a vertical beam steam engine, 40" bore x 120" stroke, a steel hull, gross tonnage of 600, net tonnage of 483, horsepower of 400, length of 190.0 feet, breadth of 31.1 feet, and depth of 9.0 feet. It had a crew of 31 members.

Several other steamboat companies owned "Sandy Hill" over the years. The Nanticoke Transportation Company of Dorchester County bought it from the Maryland Steamboat Company on April 9, 1886, and received a patent for the property on January 10, 1888 (WHR No. 2, folio 23 in Commissioners of Land Office of the State of Maryland). The Choptank Steamboat Company acquired the land from Charles Hearne, who bought it at an auction by a court order, and from Will M. Morris and T. Howard Dail, receivers in a court dispute (Wicomico County Land Records, Liber FMS No. 8, folio 461, dated May 10, 1892). On March 11, 1893, George W.D. Waller, trustee of the Choptank Steamboat Company, deeded the property to the Maryland Steamboat Company (Wicomico County Land Records, Liber JTT No. 11, folio 112).

In 1894, ownership transferred to the Baltimore, Chesapeake, and Atlantic Railway Company, the last transportation company to own Sandy Hill. Under the management of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Baltimore, Chesapeake, and Atlantic Railway Company oversaw the operations of at least fifteen steamers.