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this year, at dawn on the same morning I
endeavored to write on this topic for the
March edition of the Caroline Review,
I spontaneously got behind the wheel GREENSBORO
and completed a 1200-mile one-way
road trip to Mardi Gras. Let me be clear HISTORICAL
when I say I investigated every nook
and cranny along Bourbon Street and SOCIETY

checked every float in the spectacularly
elaborate Krewe of Endymion parade
down Canal, but found nothing on presents
Waggaman until I enjoyed a pleasant and
informative conversation with a ranger The history of pro-wrestling in Caroline County:

at Chalmette Battlefi eld. This site, part of

the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park A scholarly look at sport and spectacle
and Preserve, interprets the Battle of

New Orleans. Th e staffers at the Visitor
Center were well-versed in Waggaman April 5, 2024
lore, from his Avondale plantation to his 6:30 PM
political ascendancy to his death from
a duel at the hands of ex-New Orleans Greensboro Historical Museum
mayor Denis Prieur. I can’t help but
wonder if while in Washington, DC, 104 E. Sunset Ave.
the Louisiana Senator ever ventured Greensboro, MD
across the Bay to visit his Eastern Shore
family. What a tremendous find that Light refreshments will be
would be if correspondence confi rming served. FREE Event
or describing such a trip was discovered.

Thomas Alexander Smith
There is no need to speculate about the

roots of this Congressman, as Thomas Alexander Smith was
born in Greenwood, Delaware, before moving to Ridgely. Say
what you want about not being a local product, but to be fair, he
was born before Ridgely existed. His was one of many families
who relocated to Dream City as the arrival of the railroad made
lucrative new business opportunities increasingly possible.
He only served one term in Washington, DC, elected in 1904,
but was irregardless a pillar of the community as teacher,
postmaster, school board member, banker, and briefly a
Maryland state senator. The town put his name on its welcome

sign briefly in 2016. Wherever that plank is, it should be
returned and made permanent as the feat of winning election to

the House of Representatives is both difficult and rare. Perhaps
Goldsborough would eventually be appointed by President
the removal is why he “haunts” the town. I don’t believe in
Roosevelt to a federal judgeship in 1939. Additionally, in 1938
ghosts but I saw what I saw in 2018 and will leave it at that until
when FDR hit the campaign trail in Maryland to stump for his
perhaps an October column explores Caroline ghost stories.
Western Shore-chosen New Deal candidate in the Democratic
Thomas Alan Goldsborough primary for United States Senate, it was Goldsborough who

Finally, I present to the reading audience a homegrown hosted the president at his home in Denton prior to the
Congressman. Goldsborough was born and raised in nationally broadcast speech.
Greensboro, part of the family tree that also produced Griffi n
Washington, Washington Elwell, and Washington Laird of William Oswald Mills
the same surname. I will not steal his thunder by extolling the Having a Congressman from Caroline County is not a thing
virtues of his kinsmen, but rather acknowledge that Th omas of the distant past, nor does it take the backing of a heavily-
was easily the most successful of the bunch and the only local populated area. A native of Bethlehem, Mills both entered and

legislator in this study to have achieved both staying power exited office in rather unique fashion. Mills ran in a special
and national notoriety: elected in 1920 to the first of ten terms, election as a Republican to replace Representative Rogers

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