Brief Biography of Erika L. Quesenbery

     A majority of the researched history that appears on this site was  compiled by Erika. We are indebted to her for her dedication and for providing us with work that has taken years for her to write.

         Erika L. Quesenbery is a native of Fallston, Harford County, where her family has resided since 1884. She lived in Port Deposit for six years, before moving to beautiful former Presbyterian manse built in 1885 in Delta, Pa., in October 2003.

            A former editor of The Rising Sun Herald and Herald County Edition newspapers in Cecil County, she also worked as news director of WXCY 103.7 FM and WHFC 91.1 FM, and interned at WJZ-13 Eyewitness News in Baltimore, Md. She has earned two Associated Press Non-Metro Radio Awards in her career for Enterprise in Reporting and Editorial Writing and was the recipient of the 1996 Maryland State Teacher’s Association School Bell Award for her work in journalism and coverage of education issues.

In 2003 she authored A Snowball’s Chance, which in turn was published by Port Deposit Heritage Corporation with all proceeds benefiting the Paw Paw Museum. She has contributed to other publications including We Called It Everlasting Granite And, By Golly, It Is, by Nancy Roberts, available from Port Deposit Heritage Corporation; and Dear America: Letters From the Gulf. She also provided assistance for an Historic American Buildings Survey for the National Park Service on the Tome School for Boys historic district and to the Maryland Humanities Council for their History Matters project of the Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway.

            Erika has served as the Curator of the Paw Paw Museum for the Port Deposit Heritage Corporation since 1996. During that time she has organized several innovative exhibits including the 2003 exhibit on Port Deposit during the Civil War featuring Captain Alonzo Snow’s Battery B 1^st Maryland Light Artillery. She also researched and designed the 2004 exhibit entitled Port Deposit’s Brush with Fame.

Erika has received numerous awards from the Port Deposit VFW for her work with the Voice of Democracy program. She also earned a certificate of appreciation and acknowledgment from the United States Navy for her work co-founding the Tome School Clean-Up Volunteers on the former USNTC Bainbridge base, a group that volunteered nearly every weekend from 1997 to 2000 to restore and preserve the grounds of the 100-year old beaux arts styled Boring and Tilton designed Tome School for Boys campus known as NAPS during the Navy years.

. In 1999 she was honored with an Outstanding Community Service Award by the Rising Sun Lions Club and the year prior earned the Outstanding Community Service Award from the Rising Sun Business Association. In addition, she was the 1995 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year for Harford Technical High School.

As curator of the museum she has served as a guest speaker and tour guide for numerous groups and organizations from local schools, scout troops and Boys & Girls Club of Cecil County groups, to Cecil County Tourism visitors, visiting dignitaries, and for Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway, Port Deposit Lions Club, Cecilton Lions Club, North East Rotary Club, and numerous others. She frequently conducts historic walking tours of the town of Port Deposit during special events, and impromptu tours for visitors to the town who are interested in the town’s storied history and glorious architecture.

            Quesenbery is a member of the USNTC Bainbridge Historical Association (the first civilian member so-honored), Civil War Preservation Trust, Historical Society of Cecil County, Port Deposit Heritage Corporation, Preservation Maryland, National Women’s History Museum, and Ma & Pa Railroad Preservation Society. She was recently appointed to serve on the Planning and Zoning Board for Delta Borough. Quesenbery previously served on Port Deposit’s Historic Area Commission, Infrastructure Ad-Hoc Committee, Tome Gas House Ad-Hoc Committee, and Candlelight Tour Committee.

            Aside from her work as Curator of the Paw Paw Museum in Port Deposit, she is a Grants Coordinator and Media Relations Specialist with the Boys & Girls Club of Cecil County, Md., and also writes a weekly column entitled The Way We Were featuring news of 100 and 75 years ago for Octoraro Publishing Company’s Rising Sun Herald, Herald County Edition and Southern Lancaster County Chronicle.