Kingsville, Maryland - Hoodoo Marker

This is on the grounds of a veterinary clinic and set slightly off of the road on the East side of Rt. 1. To say more would be to make finding it too easy, but it's there and visible from the road if you're looking at the right time.

For what it's worth, my TomTom GPS doesn't have the street address on the website listed as "valid." [Fritz, 06/12/2009]

A rough pillar of stone stands by the side of U.S. Route 1 in Kingsville, Maryland, just north of Baltimore. On the side facing the road, there is an inscription: “This stone is in place of a double poplar tree, a boundary of expectation francis freedom alias young's escape and the second boundary of onion's prospect hill, the latter now owned by Edward Day. Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark and all the people shall say amen. Deuteronomy chap 27 verse 17." The inclusion of the quote from the Bible led to this boundary stone to be known as "The Hoodoo Marker."

The Hoodoo Marker was probably set up in 1810 by Edward Day to assert where he believed that the corners of three properties (called "Expectation," "Young’s Escape," and "Onion's Prospect Hill") met. His neighbor, Thomas Todd, didn’t agree, and it went to court with Edward Day and Thomas Kell against Todd. Todd apparently prevailed, because on March 14, 1814, an agreement was signed by the parties wherein the boundary stone was to be moved, and Todd's legal expenses were to be paid by Day and Kell.

On the reverse of a photograph of the Hoodoo Marker found in the Maryland Historical Archives (King Family Papers MS. 519), there is the following notation: “It is related that Underwood Guyton, a shoemaker of Upper Falls, was present when a boy, at the setting-up of this boundary stone, and that he was caughed [sic] and thrashed by Mr. Day to make him remember the event. This was in accordance with immemmorial [sic] custom.” [Julie Mangin, 01/18/2009]

Near Bel Air, MD, stands one of Roadside America's longest-lived unattainables, the HooDoo Marker. Rumored to be on U.S. 1 near town, it has defied repeated attempts at discovery. Our notes from 1985 read: "Hexed to constrain removal"! [Roadside America Team, 09/01/1996]