Cannon - From Shady Side's Rural Home Hotel

Cannon - From Shady Side's Rural Home Hotel. . This cannon stood guard over the grounds of the Rural Home Hotel for seven decades at a time when visitors flocked to Shady Side to enjoy summers on the Chesapeake., How did this War of 18 12 cannon end up here in Shady Side?, In the 1890s, James Nowell found this cannon in a surface well near Fairhaven while on the job for Maryland's Oyster Navy. He gave it to his brother, Robert, who placed the cannon prominently on the lawn of his home and boarding house. When the family sold the hotel in 1967, the cannon was hauled to the home of Howard and Glorious Shenton where it remained until 2005 when it came here., My father and two brothers walked out to a cannon in our yard, rammed it with powder, and touched the bung hole with a roll of lighted paper. It exploded and the sound reverberated through the village announcing to everyone that Christmas had come. , , Flora "Miss Ethel" Andrews, , Robert Nowell's daughter , Hotel Proprietor, 1932-1967, The cannon played an important role in village life, the inspiration for pranks and holiday fun. Stories are told of youngsters firing croquet balls from its chamber and tipping it from its carriage at Halloween. In an era when fireworks were more a part of yuletide celebrations than the Fourth of July, the cannon helped mark the arrival of Christmas. one holiday when the Nowells attempted to fire the cannon, they discovered the bung hole had been stopped with a leaden file. The cannon sounded no more.