These short bits of history tend to pile up as I do more research on various topics. Unless otherwise credited, all quotes are from the Laurel Leader.
1885
Laurel became the largest town in Prince George’s County.
1897
In September, the Laurel Leader published its first issue. The masthead contained two phrases: “If You Don’t Get THE LEADER You Don’t Get The News” and “If You See It In THE LEADER It Is So.”
1903
In April, seven-term mayor Edward Phelps was defeated in his bid for an eighth term by Gustavus Timanus by four votes. The Leader declared Phelps’ loss as “a real blow to the advancement of Laurel.”
1913
In February, the Army of the Hudson, a group of suffragettes who marched from New York City to Washington, DC to promote the cause of women’s right to vote, paused in Laurel overnight and were joined in the march by a group of local African American women. The Colored Women’s Suffrage Club joined the suffragettes, led by “General” Rosalie Jones. While in Laurel, General Jones sent ahead a yellow “Votes for Women” flag and the following letter to President-elect Woodrow Wilson:
Suffrage Headquarters
Laurel, Md Feb. 26, 1913
President-elect Woodrow Wilson:
We send and beg of you to accept this
votes for women flag as a memento of
our pilgrimage through New York and
New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
Yours very truly,
ROSALIE GARDNER JONES
1916
In January, the Post Office in Savage was robbed in the middle of the night. Since the thieves blew open the safe with dynamite, “it is thought that the yeggmen were part of the gang which has been operating throughout the State, for the work was that of professionals.” William Reely, who lived across the street and was awakened by the explosion, hurried to the scene with his handgun but “he was fired upon by the robbers,” who “made their escape in an automobile which was not far off.” The thieves made off with $250 in money, money orders, and stamps. No one was hurt.
1929
In July, city-wide gas service became available.
1931
In August, the following notice appeared in the Leader: “WANTED—A WIFE. Single white man, true and honest, wants a wife. Will live anywhere. Write to H.C. Ebert, Patterson Station, Baltimore, Md.”
1942
In August, Laurel resident Harry R. Hubbard, 48, was sentenced to four years in a Federal penitentiary for posing as an Army officer, falsely wearing Army insignia and medals, and obtaining money by false pretenses. Hubbard, who had been a sergeant in the Army during World War I, posed as an Army colonel and fooled the whole town. When returning to Laurel from his day job as a carpenter on War Department projects, he would slip in his back door and then walk through town in an Army colonel uniform. In court, prosecutors told his story. After the bombing at Pearl Harbor, Hubbard disappeared for a few weeks and, upon returning to Laurel, told people he had been sent to Hawaii to investigate. Hubbard’s pretense so completely fooled the town that Laurel Police Chief Edward Brown had a police siren installed on his car, which, somehow, sported Army license plates. Dr. Edwin Bernstein gave Hubbard $45 while he posed as a colonel. Future Mayor Harry Hardingham, then the owner of a gas station in Laurel, told the court “He seemed like a regular army man. He never bragged about what he had done, though he always had a ready answer to questions.” His story aroused suspicion when he claimed he was flying Army bombers to and from Fort Meade. After his sentencing, Hubbard told the court he “always wanted to be somebody.”
1952
In April, Laurel Police received complaints about a resident who was “practicing hypnotism on children.” Police urged parents “to caution their children against allowing this man to hypnotize them.”
1962
In June, a letter to President John F. Kennedy described an encounter with a UFO in Laurel. The letter is contained in the Air Force’s Project Blue Book files at the National Archives, which contain reports and analysis of UFO sightings around the world from 1952 to 1970. The letter writer’s identity is redacted but she is described as an “elderly lady” from Portland, Oregon. In her letter to JFK, she said she “was visiting her family in Laurel, Maryland on First Street.” She claimed to hear “a soft humming noise” and saw “a very large object, shaped like a cartwheel with lights all around the rim. It was coming from the direction of Baltimore, coming over Laurel to Washington. There is a gully along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad track at that point and I lost sight of it through the trees.” On a Project Blue Book form attached to the letter, the Air Force typed “attributed to psychological causes.”
1970
In April, “Laurel’s First Boutique Rocks Staid Main Street,” according to the Leader. The article described “Laurel’s first clothing boutique and latest addition to Main Street” as having “rock music and flashing colored lights” providing the shopping atmosphere. The store, called Akcentrik, offered clothing for the young and hip, such as “bellbottoms, pantsuits, dresses from India, ponchos, and fringed and tapestry vests.” The owner chose Main Street in Laurel because “it reminds me so much of Georgetown.”
Kevin Leonard is a founding member of the Laurel History Boys and a two-time winner of the Maryland Delaware District of Columbia Press Association Journalism Award.
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