Pritchett's Grocery, and How Bishops Head Got Its Name

Many of the towns in southern Dorchester County, on the peninsula between Fishing Bay and the Honga River, were named after the families that were involved in their settlement: Andrews, Lakesville, Toddville, Wingate, Crocheron.

And then there’s Crapo, which was originally called Woodlandtown, though the Post Office, back in the 1870’s, decided it wanted a shorter name. One evening, so the story goes, the postmaster was walking near a pond when a large toad leaped from the bank and made a noise that sounded like “crapo.” And, so inspired, a new name for the town was found.

Another version: the name is derived from crapeau, which is the French word for toad.

But what about Bishops Head? I asked numerous people - the waterman, the famous photographer, the good folks at the Historical Society - and no one knew how Bishops Head got its name. Enter the Maryland Historical Trust, document D-828. “Bishops Head Point is located at the tip of the peninsula, which is said to have the shape of a Bishop's Head, thereby inspiring the name.” Ah, mystery solved. (Though what is a bishop’s head shaped like?)

Which brings us to Pritchett’s Grocery, in Bishops Head, which was opened in 1946 by Clarence Pritchett, and was the last store in southern Dorchester County to shut its doors, in early 2021. Where there was once more than ten stores - four or five of them within a mile of Pritchett’s - there are now none. People drive to WalMart in Cambridge to do their shopping.

Clarence Pritchett seems to have been a man of enormous energy. During the early years of the store, he and his wife Nina both worked at Phillips Packing Company. He served as Postmaster for forty-four years, and also did work as a bus contractor, in real estate, and in fisheries. He was one of the original founders of Lakes and Straights Volunteer Fire Company in Wingate, which still serves this part of the county.

He’d open the store at 4am to serve the watermen going out for the day, and wouldn’t close until 9pm, though if the store was filled with people telling stories, showing off their deer or fish, or playing dominos, he might not close until midnight, before walking across the yard to his home next door to the store.

“On Saturday night, this place was packed,” remembered Chuckie Hayward, his grandson, who took over the store in 2016, after Clarence died in 2014 at age 89. But now, after many years of decline in the communities surrounding the store, “there’s just not enough people.”

On October 15 we’ll be holding a night photography workshop: ‘From Crapo to Crocheron.” Pritchett’s Grocery will be one of the locations which we’ll photograph.

https://www.workingimagephotography.com/next-workshop/2022/10/15/crapocrocheron-milkyway

We hope you can join us.

Joe's Service

J. W. (Joseph) Hayman died in 2004 at the age of 90. According to the woman living across the street (and in whose driveway I’d parked), the business shut down upon his death.

Even after 15 years of abandonment and decay, there’s a modesty and dignity to this building - with the RV parked carefully along the side - that I can only think was reflective of the man who worked here. It left an impression strong enough that I turned around after driving by, to go back and look more carefully.

Why are you taking pictures? the woman across the street wanted to know. I like the mood here, the feeling, I said. Mood, feeling - she shot me a look. Why are you taking pictures? History, I said. Yes, history, she responded. There’s a lot of that here.