Rock Point is located near
Cobb Island at the mouth of the
Wicomico River. As of the
2010 census, it had a population of 107. Rock Point was named for the rockfish, or
striped bass. Today Rock Point is largely a vacation land, but in the early 20th century, Rock Point had a large hotel serving summer vacationers and winter duck hunters, a steamboat wharf and warehouse, and a sizable general store. Fish were caught by a net hauled between two boats at some distance from each other, a method then called "
Hauling Seine". Rock Point also had an
oyster shucking and packing plant, which served as a crab steaming and picking plant during the summer months, enabling the shipment of finfish, oysters and crabs in season to restaurants in
Washington, D.C., and
Baltimore. General
Billy Mitchell, a duck hunter, was a regular patron during these early years. Earlier, Rock Point had become a center of
Confederate activity, and was occupied by 300
Union troops throughout the
Civil War. Columbus Lancaster, who owned the old general store, was arrested and put in the
Old Capitol Prison in Washington on suspicion of
collaborating with the Confederates. Rock Hall is the ancestral home of the Lancaster family, and was originally the dowry of Elizabeth Neale at her wedding to John Lancaster in 1731. As of 2009, this home has been owned by the same family since it was granted to James Neale in 1641, as part of Wolleston Manor. "Charleston" was an
plantation, worked by 100
slaves, on Charleston Creek, north of Rock Point. The plantation was part of Wolleston Manor. Its owner in the early 19th century was
Daniel Jenifer, a minister to
Austria and a member of the
United States Congress.
Henry Clay and
Daniel Webster were among the many prominent guests whom Jenifer entertained at Wolleston Manor. ==Demographics==