In 1670, Lord Baltimore sent his representative, Col. William Stevens, to claim and develop land in rural Maryland. He established a ferry crossing along the banks of the deep, dark Pocomoke River, and the settlement that would eventually become Pocomoke City was born. Trade flourished; boats filled with lumber, tobacco, and furs sailed on the river to Northern ports, and shipbuilding became a successful enterprise. People flocked to Pocomoke City to work at the lumber mills and in the shipyards, and the little town grew into a small center of commerce with the coming of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1922, a devastating fire destroyed 75 percent of the business section of the town, but the community came together and rebuilt what has been called "the Friendliest Town on the Eastern Shore."