Fox Hill

Fox Hill. Living. The first landholders at Fox Hill had their work cut out for them. They had received grants for hundreds of acres of pine forests that dominated the landscape, and they used indentured servants and slaves to clear the forests, then to plant and raise tobacco and other cash crops. The deep water channels of Gosnolds Bay (Back River) and Harris Creek gave easy access for farmers to ship and receive products., A petition asking a judge to keep a gate from being removed reveals that the residents were "generally small farmers owning small tracts of arable land and many of them large marshes which they from time out of mention used for grazing purposes." Farmers also raised vegetables, strawberries, spring and fall lettuce, corn, and sweet potatoes, which they marketed locally and to cities like Baltimore and Washington. The water also provided a livelihood, as fishermen and boat builders from the Eastern Shore began to settle in the area around 1815., (sidebar) , William Clark, a pilot, purchased land along the eastern shore of Harris Creek. He opened a boat yard, farmed, and built houses. Before 1830, his descendants built what is now the oldest structure in Fox Hill, the Clark Farm House. When John Henry Clark's baby daughter, Margaret, died in 1855, he had her buried on the highest piece of ground. In later years, plots were sold to other families and the spot that was once Clark's cornfield is now Clark Cemetery., (captions) , Corn Field and Shed Courtesy of Fox Hill Historical Society, Clark Cemetery - Courtesy of Fox Hill Historical Society, Clark Farm House Courtesy of Fox Hill Historical Society, John Clark Sr. Courtesy of Fox Hill Historical Society