Remembering renown boatbuilder founding local VFD

By Richard Kendall

CAMBRIDGE – When renowned Dorchester County boat builder Bronza Parks was gunned down in the office of his boathouse on May 13, 1958, his untimely death abruptly ended an abundantly full life.
In addition to being a loving husband and father of five daughters, he and his crew of carpenters and helpers had 4 or 5 boats under construction inside the boat house and another 10 or so outside, in various stages of completion. Each boat was constructed under contract from various clients, including the crazed man who pulled a pistol and opened fire on him that sad day.
Mr. Parks had been actively campaigning for a position as Dorchester County Commissioner. A primary vote would occur a week or two after his death and many voted for him even though he was gone.
Still, Bronza Parks had another passion: the Lakes and Straits Volunteer Fire Company.
From her home in Cambridge, his daughter, Mary Parks Harding, recently provided details about the early development of the volunteer company her father worked hard to found and organize.
“I don’t know the exact year but I think it was around 1950, there was an electrician’s helper who was electrocuted under a house in Crapo,” she explained. “I remember Daddy saying that if we had an ambulance down here, we could have saved that man.”
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Parks began going door to door, asking local residents to lend money to buy an ambulance, according to Mrs. Harding.
“He told them they could give what ever they could,” she said. “Some gave as little as two dollars but just about everybody gave something. I don’t think he missed one house.”
“Daddy told them that if the breadwinner became disabled or died, what ever they lent would be returned. He kept books of records of all of it. When they had enough money, they bought a used ambulance.”
In his quest for information about how to go about organizing a volunteer fire company,
Bronza Parks contacted friends and associates throughout the county, including leaders of Rescue Fire Company in Cambridge, such as John Barth and Dr. Swing, a local dentist.
“They helped Daddy with details about who to contact, what to do,” Mrs. Harding explained.
“They started raising money by holding seafood dinners at crab houses – there were several around back then, and even at churches,” Mrs. Harding recalled.
“The men would generally do the cooking and the women would serve the food,” she stated. “The women would make cole slaw, candy and baked goods at home, and bring them in. The dinners cost about $2 back then.”
“And, they would auction off baked goods and candy too,” Mrs. Harding said. “One funny thing – It was a tradition that the boyfriend or husband of the woman who made the baked good be the one bought the baked good being auctioned. The other men would figure out who made what and then run up the auction price. Sometimes, a cake would go for $50.00!”
The events were known as “box socials.”
“They were real community events,” Mrs. Harding remembered. “It was everybody working together.”
“I don’t remember now which came first, the fire truck or the fire house, but eventually enough money was raised to have both.” Bronza Parks donated the land for the firehouse.
Malcolm “Mac” Wheatley donated a strip of land between his house next door and the firehouse.”
“Daddy would take men off the job, Clarence Jones was one of them, to help build the firehouse,” Mrs. Harding said. “I don’t know how much money Daddy donated to have it built.”
“Daddy went to a blacksmith in Cambridge, his name was Joe Brocato, and had him make real big skillets to cook the food in, for the box socials,” Mrs. Harding, originally from Wingate, stated. “He made two of them, each were about 2 feet across and covered all 4 burners of the stove at the fire house.
Bronza Parks became the newly organized fire company’s president and remained in that post until his death.
His wife and mother of his children, Katie, passed away in the mid-80’s.
Mary Parks Harding’s twin sister, Martha, is also deceased. Her other surviving siblings include Joyce Wiley, of Milford, DE; Lucille Sterling of Merritt Is. FL and Irene Anderson of Aiken, SC.
The man who killed Bronza Parks served many years in the State Penitentiary after narrowly missing the rage of a throng of angry community members who gathered at the
Wingate boathouse after news of the shooting quickly blanketed the vicinity. In the custody of the Sheriff, he was transported from the crime scene.
Skipjacks and pleasure cruisers built by Bronza Parks can be found at the Chesapeake Bay Marine Museum, in St. Michaels, Havre De Grace and still under sail in waterways across the country. Mr. Parks is laid to rest at Dorchester Memorial Park, east of Cambridge.
Although they are not widely known as “box socials” presently, the Lakes and Straits Volunteer Fire Company, along with their fellow volunteer companies throughout the county, continue the tradition of hosting community-based, fundraising dinners, with local seafood at the top of the menu.
Visitors to Lakes and Straits will find an enlarged photo of Bronza Parks prominently positioned at the entrance. “That picture was taken only a week before he died,” Mary Parks Harding revealed.
“One thing I want to stress is that Daddy did not get the fire company going by himself,” Mrs. Harding emphasized. “Lots of people helped; they worked together. It was a real community effort.”