The exact origins of Church Creek remain unclear. Popular tradition maintains that Church Creek predates Cambridge, Maryland as the earliest settlement in Dorchester County, and was first established at some point before 1684 under the name Dorchester Town and then White Haven. This has been disputed by historian Elias Jones, who found no indication of land sales in the area before 1700 in County Land Records.
About seven miles southeast of Cambridge, at the head of Church Creek, an arm of Fishing Creek, which is a tributary of Little Choptank River, an old town is situated named Church Creek. Tradition claims that it is older than Cambridge; that a few families settled there about the time the Protestant Episcopal Church was built on Church Creek, in Dorchester Parish; but the Land Records of the county show no evidence of the sale of town lots there before 1700.
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Revised history of Dorchester County, Maryland1925 · page 118Read the page →
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About seven miles southeast of Cambridge, at the head of Church Creek, an arm of Fishing Creek, which is a tributary of Little Choptank River, an old town is situated named Church Creek. Tradition claims that it is older than Cambridge; that a few families settled there about the time the Protestant Episcopal Church was built on Church Creek, in Dorchester Parish; but the Land Records of the county show no evidence of the sale of town lots there before 1700. The location of the first church
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Revised history of Dorchester County, Maryland1925 · page 121Read the page →
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The village of Woolford, two miles west of the town of Church Creek, situated on Church Creek, a tributary of Little Choptank River, is quite an old place, that has had three names in its history. About twenty-five years ago it was called Milton, named by the Postoffice Department as a postoffice. For 150 years prior to that time, it was called Loomtown ; tradition says, because the “industrious matrons there in every household had a weaver’s loom.” The influence that introduced looms there and elsewhere
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The village of Woolford, twO' miles west of the town of Church Creek, situated on Church Creek, a tributary of Little Choptank River, is quite an old place, that has had three names in its history. About twenty-five years ago it was called Milton, named by the Postoffice Department as a postoffice. For 150 years prior tO' that time, it was called Loomtown; tradition says, because the "industrious matrons there in every household had a weaver's loom." The influ-
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Church Creek, 1830 to 1942
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (3), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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