User:Dougburdette/sandbox

FORWARD--- I am among the 6 oldest life long residents of the community of Aldino at this time. As time goes on and the elders pass on, more and more of the history of this community is lost. It is my hope to preserve some of the history of this community for my successors.

RECENT HISTORY My earliest recollections of Aldino start when I was about 4 years old (1947). I lived on a farm on Rt 156, Aldino Rd. 1/4 mile from what would be considered the center of the community. The community center would have been the intersection of Aldino Rd and Aldino Stepney Rd and Hopewell Rd, Located at this intersection at the time, 1947, was the W.R. Williams General Store and across the road from that (Hopewell Rd) was the John Deere Farm implement dealership of  Nelson Cooper. About 1/2 mile to the west of the intersection was a small airport called, appropriately, Aldino Airport. It was established during WWII by a gentleman maned Chris Alters who immigrated here from Switzerland. Today, 2017, the airport is still there and is now known as "Harford County Airpark".

Aldino consisted of about a dozen houses, mostly located close the the intersection and then several farms. Because the area was so open with farm land no one ever really knew exactly where the community limits were. It was pretty much assumed if you lived within 1 mile of the intersection, then you lived in Aldino. I mention this because somewhere in the late 1950's the state highways department came through and placed a community marker sign up about halfway between my farm driveway and the intersection. No one knows why they chose to place the community limits so tight and I don't think anyone asked either. I do remember afterwards when ever someone would ask my Mom where we lived she would say, "On the outskirts of Aldino". Her sarcasm for whom ever decided to place the sign in that spot even though our property extended both in the community and out of the community, the house was still outside of the community limits. .

At the time in the late 1940's there were three farms located in Aldino. They were the John Bailey farm, which was the largest and a dairy farm, The Edwin Walker Farm and The Douglas Burdette farm. Both the Burdette and Walker farms were under 100 acres and grew livestock and grains while the Bailey Farm was around 250 acres. These three farms continue to this day with some changes. The Bailey Farm is now the Aldino Sod Farm, The Burdette Farm, Aldino Stepney Farm, is still owed by the Burdette's and is comprised of horse stables and equestrian services although it is also the center of operations for grain farming of several hundred acres located in various places out side of Aldino. A portion of the farm that is located on Aldino Stepney Rd, about 1/4 mile from the community intersection, is the home of Maryand Pride Farms which was turned into a fish farm in the 1980's with the installation of 10 acres of ponds and fish growing buildings. The Walker farm is now owned by David Keyes who owns Keyes dairy farm near Havre de Grace. Mr Keyes has established a small creamery at the Aldino location and produces and sells gourmet homemade ice cream and other dairy products.

The W.R. Williams General store building is still there as is the old John Deere Farm equipment building. The General Store operated as such until about the mid 1980's and afterwards served as a printing shop for a while and now is operated as a kitchen cabinet store. Back in the days when it was Williams store it was a place that carried everything from. "Soup to Nuts" to animal livestock feed. Back in the 1940's and 50's we did not have the easy access to big box stores we have today so every community had it's own little store that carried everything one might need. If they didn't have it in stock a huge catalog would be on premises where you found what you wanted and the store merchant ordered it for you. The old John Deere building today is the home of Clayton's Tree Service. There is an interesting story behind the creation of this building but unfortunately no one knows what it is. It is a wood framed building with some church like windows in it it. The kind of windows that come to a point at the top. Upon first look one would assume it was once an old church, but the fact of the matter it, it was a town meeting hall. The question always arises, who met there and why?

Ironically as the population of Harford County has grown in leaps and bounds over the past 50 years, Aldino sits in a little triangle between the three main towns in the area and has remained untouched by development. Located 6 miles west of Havre de Grace, 12 miles southeast of Bel Air and only 3 miles north east of Aberdeen there has been some threats to this tranquil place but so far, except for a couple of new houses built for the Burdette clan on the farm, the number of houses and population have remained fairly steady for the past 50 years.

Past history

Very little is recorded about the early history of Aldino. At one time it was a major cross roads for traffic coming from north and south and east and west from folks traveling both locally and from areas out side of Harford county. Major routes back in colonial days started around Darlington from Rt 1 down what is now Rt 161, through the village of Level, across Hopewell Rd and continued through Aldino and down Aldino Stepney Rd to points south. At the community of Stepney, which is about 6 miles south of Aldino, this route would connect to Rt 7, also known as Philadelphia Rd. which was the interstate of it's time between Philadelphia and Baltimore.

There is one thing I do know about Aldino and I have seen it on old maps of the area. It was not always called "Aldino". At one time back prior to 1900 it was called "Mudtown". There was a very good reason for this. The community of Aldino sit on some very interesting soil for the region. When it is dry it is as hard as a brick. In fact, the Churchville Presbyterian Church was built from clay mined on the Keyes farm when it was built in the 1700's. However, as hard as this soil was when dry, it was the exact opposite when wet. This stuff can absorb water and become the stickiest muck you have ever seen. Even to this day we still fight these condition when farming. As the story goes, sometime in the 1800's an English man was visiting the community, apparently during the rainy season and said that the soil looked exactly like that of his native area of "Aldino" back in England. Hence, the community finally had a formal name rather than a description.

I do know a couple of interesting facts about the community prior to the settlement by Europeans in the 1700's. Swann Creek is a tributary that empties in the Chesapeake Bay near Aberdeen Proving Ground. The main head waters of the main branch begins on the Keyes farm in Aldino. The Burdette Farm is the head waters for the West Branch of Swann Creek, which joins up with Swann Creek just a mile down the road. The area was once the site of several  Susquehannock Indian villages. We know this because one of the favorite past times of many farmers was walking the freshly plowed fields and picking up arrow heads. One patch of land on the Burdette farm bordering the W. Branch of Swann Creek was especially productive for this past time. Historical maps dating back to the first settlers confirm this.

At this time I am out of more past history. I intend to do more research and perhaps someone else who knows the history can contribute to this document.