USA > Maryland > Leading Events of Maryland History: With Topical Analyses, References, and questions for original thought and research, revised and enlarge > Part 17
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LEADING EVENTS OF MARYLAND HISTORY
ville, Bladensburg, Forestville, and Woodville. At Laurel there are cotton duck mills, and a cereal mill has been established at Hyattsville. Bladensburg has the distinction of having been the scene of one of the most significant battles of the War of 1812, and of many noted duels. The academy at Upper Marlborough, established in 1835, is managed by a board of seven trustees, and has always had for its principal a capable teacher of the classics. Many persons who attained eminence in public and professional life were educated at this school. Even in colonial time, Prince George's county was conspicuous for being the home of cultured and educated people; and as early as 1745 Rev. Dr. Eversfield, Rector of St. Paul's parish, established a private school near his residence which he con- tinued until his death in 1780. He taught Greek and Latin and furnished pupils with board at $53 per annum. The Maryland State College of Agriculture is in this county. The area of Prince George's is 480 square miles and its railroads are the Baltimore and Ohio ; Baltimore and Potomac; Pope's Creek, and Chesa- peake Beach lines. Back in the thirties the " Patuxent Manu- facturing Company " was incorporated, and established the present cotton mill at Laurel, the old name of the town being "Laurel Factory." The iron industry in Prince George's dates back over a century. The Snowdens, among the original set- tlers of the county, established furnaces at various points in southern Maryland. The Patuxent Furnace and Forge was long a notable industry. The only iron works now in operation in the county, or in rural Maryland, is the Muirkirk Furnace, on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, at Muirkirk. It was erected in 1847 by Andrew and Elias Ellicott and modelled after a furnace at Muirkirk, Scotland. The population of Laurel is 2,415, and of Hyattsville, 1,917.
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QUEEN ANNE'S
Threshing Scene From a photograph
Queen Anne's county was erected in 1706, and the bounds of the four counties above the Great Choptank were described and fixed by the Assembly of that year with definiteness.
Queen Anne's takes in the territory between the Delaware line and the bay (including Kent Island), south of the Chester and north of the Wye and Tuckahoe rivers. Kent is its northern, and Talbot and Caroline its southern neighbors. Agriculturally, the county is highly favored, the soil being very fertile, and the surface rolling. The area of the county is 376 square miles. Kent Island is opposite Anne Arundel, and its wooded shores are visible from the State House at Annapolis. Although under cultivation for two and a half centuries, the island is the delight of agriculturalists, its rich soil producing in profusion all the
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staple Maryland crops. Oysters, crabs, fish, and water-fowl are plentiful in Queen Anne's waters. Practically all the arable land of the county is under cultivation. The industrial establish- ments are chiefly flour mills and canneries. The Queen Anne's railroad runs from Love Point, on Kent Island, through the southern part of the county to Lewes, Delaware; and the Queen Anne's and Kent railroad, of the Pennsylvania system, terminates at Centreville, the county seat (population 1,435), to which point a spur of the Queen Anne's has been extended. Steam- boats bring the water-sides of the county within a few hours' trip of Baltimore city. Queenstown, on the eastern water front, was the colonial county seat, and has an interesting history. A school here attained some reputation before the Revolution. In provincial times Queen Anne's and Talbot were favorite places of summer residence for leading men of Maryland, who culti- vated broad estates in these counties in the intervals between their official duties at Annapolis or participation in its social gayeties. Queen Anne's rivals St. Mary's as the favorite field of writers of historical romances.
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WORCESTER
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Makemie Memorial Presbyterian Church (organized 1683), Snow Hill From a photograph
Worcester county was formed in 1742, and originally included, with the shadowy county of Durham, all the Maryland territory lying on the Delaware from the fortieth parallel to the ocean. The center of settlement in that Worcester was " the Horekeele" - the present Lewes. Mason and Dixon's Line gave Worces- ter its now northern boundary. Chincoteague, Sinepuxent, Isle of Wight, and Assateague bays take up a considerable part of the county's area of 487 square miles. Its name recalls the loyalty of the proprietaries to the royal house of Stuart. Snow Hill, the county seat, was one of the " townes and ports of trade "
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erected in 1686. It is at the head of navigation on the Poco- moke river, and on the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia rail- road, and its manufactures are locally important. At Pocomoke City millions of baskets and crates for the fruit and vegetable trade are made annually, and the building of oyster boats and other craft is an important industry. The population of the town is 2,369, that of Snow Hill, 1,844, and of Berlin, 1,317. Smaller towns are Ironshire, Girdletree, Whaleyville, Bishopville, Newark, Box Iron, Stockton, Klej Grange. Worcester is the only county in the state which borders on the Atlantic ocean, and it has in Ocean City a thriving and prosperous seaside resort, which has been of great advantage to truckers on the mainland near there, and which has added materially to the taxa- ble basis. The principal industries are agriculture, manufactur- ing of lumber, and the oyster and other fisheries. The people are chiefly of English descent. The soil varies from a light sand to a heavy clay, the majority of it being a good loam, with some clay. The principal products are cereals, fruits, truck, and tim- ber. The lower part of the Sinepuxent bay in Worcester is one of the most fertile oyster fields to be found. During the season there are shipped from the railroad station at Girdletree about 30,000 barrels, and from Hursley about the same number, besides those that are consumed locally or are shipped by vessels. At Ocean City a fish company has been formed and annually ships thousands of barrels of the finest fish to Northern markets.
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FREDERICK
Key Monument, Frederick From a photograph
Frederick county was organized in 1748, named after the Prince of Wales, and has an area of 633 square miles, being the second largest Maryland county. Its topography is agreeably diversified by valley, plain, rolling land, and mountain. Many of the early settlers were Germans. The county has always fur- nished its full quota of soldiers and sailors in wartime, from colo- nial days to the war with Spain. The author of " The Star-span- gled Banner " was born here, and his remains rest in Mt. Olivet cemetery, in the city of Frederick, beneath the monument erected by the Key Monument Association, and unveiled August
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9, 1899. On November 23, 1765, the judges of the Frederick county court repudiated the Stamp Act passed by the British Parliament, and Repudiation Day was made a county holiday in 1894. Agriculture is the leading industry, the soil being fer- tile and producing large crops of wheat, corn, rye, oats, and potatoes. The mountain districts still supply a good quality of oak, chestnut, walnut, hickory, and other timber. The railroads are the Baltimore and Ohio, the Western Maryland, Pennsyl- vania; and an electric road runs from Frederick to Myersville. Iron ore and copper are found in different parts of the county, the most extensive deposits of the former being in the northern section, near Thurmont, where a large smelting plant is located -the Catoctin Furnace, first put in operation in 1774. Near Libertytown copper mines are worked on an extensive scale. Frederick city, 61 miles from Baltimore, has a population of 10,41I, and is the county seat. A female seminary, Hood College, and other important private educational institutions are located there, as is also the Maryland School for the Deaf. Manufactured products of the county include lumber, flour, fiber brushes, fertilizer, furniture, harness, hosiery, crockery-ware, lime, proprietary articles, etc. Frederick towns include Bruns- wick, Emmittsburg (near which is Mt. St. Mary's College), Thurmont, Walkersville, Middletown, Buckeystown, Adamstown, Point of Rocks, Creagestown, Wolfsville, Urbana, Libertytown, New Market, Ijamsville, Sabillsville, Woodsboro, Knoxville, Mt. Pleasant, Jefferson, Graceham, Myersville, Harmony, Johnsville, Ladiesburg, Unionville, Lewistown, Attica Mills, Burkittsville.
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HARFORD
High School, Havre de Grace From a photograph
Harford county was formerly part of Baltimore county. After the removal of the county seat of the latter from Joppa (which is within the present limits of Harford) to Baltimore Town on the Patapsco, a petition for the formation of a new county was granted by the legislature of 1773. The proprietary of the province of Maryland at this time was Henry Harford, and from him the county took its name. The first county seat was Har-
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ford Town, or Bush, but as the settlements gradually extended farther and farther from the river and bay section, the people desired a more convenient location. As the result of an election in 1782, the county seat was removed to Bel Air, where it has remained. The physical features of the county being so varied, the industries are of many kinds. From the tide-water region in the southeastern part there is a gradual elevation, the highest point being 750 feet above the sea. In the spring much fishing is done along the Susquehanna and upper part of the Chesapeake. Sportsmen come from afar to take advantage of the duck-shooting here afforded. In the upper part of the county are found quarries of slate and limestone. Rolling fields of unsurpassed fertility give the tiller of the soil first place in the industries of the county. The pasture-land in the valley of the streams makes dairying profitable, and the canned goods industry has been encouraged to such an extent by the packers and brokers that Harford ranks among the first of all the southern counties in this respect. The facilities for shipping are good, the Baltimore and Ohio and the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore rail- roads traversing the entire southern part of the county, the Maryland and Pennsylvania running through a great portion of the central part in a north and south direction, while just across the river along the eastern border is the Columbia and Port Deposit road. The citizens of Harford have always taken an active part in both state and national history. As the first county seat lay on the main highway between Virginia and the Northern colonies, the ideas of Washington and Jefferson and Patrick Henry were easily disseminated. More than a year before Jefferson's famous instrument was adopted, thirty-four of Har- ford's representative sons, duly elected by the people of the county, signed a resolution in which they heartily approved of the " Resolves and Associations of the Continental Congress and
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COUNTY HISTORIES
the Resolves of the Provincial Convention," and solemnly pledged themselves to each other and to the country to perform the same at the risk of their lives and their fortunes. This is known as the famous Bush Declaration of March 22, 1775. In the court- house at Bel Air are portraits of many of the distinguished citi- zens of the county who have left their impress upon the state and nation. Among them are found William Paca, signer of the Declaration of Independence and twice governor of the state ; Dr. John Archer, a member of the first Constitutional Convention of the state; and Edwin Booth, one of the greatest of the world's actors. Abingdon, aptly termed the "Mecca of the Methodists," is noted as being the seat of the first Metho- dist College (Cokesbury) founded for higher education. Havre de Grace, named by Lafayette because of the resemblance of its location to that of the French Havre, is the largest town in the county, its population being 4,212. It figured in the War of 1812. Bel Air has a population of 1,005, and Aberdeen and other towns have from 100 to 800 inhabitants.
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CAROLINE
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Court House, Denton From a photograph
Caroline is one of the smaller Maryland counties, and is the most inland of those on the Eastern Shore. Wicomico alone excepted, it is the only one in that section not having an exten- sive bayside border. The Delaware line bounds it on the east, Dorset on the south, Great Choptank and Tuckahoe rivers on the west, and Queen Anne's on the north. The area of the county is 320 square miles, and it was named in honor of Lady Eden, and its county seat was first called Eden-Town, after
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Governor Eden. It was erected in 1773. The soil is of sand and clay, adapted to a variety of crops, from wheat to berries. Fruit-growing is a prominent industry, and canneries are oper- ated in every section of the county. A local industry is char- coal-burning. The Queen Anne's railroad has done much to develop the central section of the county and to quicken village growth. The Delaware and Chesapeake railway runs through the northwestern part, and the Cambridge and Seaford line through the extreme southeast. On the Choptank steamboats ply daily to Denton. The population of Denton is 1,481. Ridgely (population 943) and Greensborough are important fruit-shipping stations, and the next largest towns. Federals- burg (population 1,050), on the Northwest Fork of the Nanticoke, has several local industries, and Preston, on the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic railway, which curves through south- western Caroline ; Hillsborough, Burrsville, Choptank, are pro- gressive towns. Hillsborough Academy was noted among the classical public schools of the post-Revolutionary period. One of the first acts of the people of this county was the promulga- tion of the "Caroline Resolutions of 1774," pledging resistance to the arbitrary measures of Parliament. The county was dis- tinguished in the Revolution. At Ridgely is an extensive basket and berry-cup manufactory.
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WASHINGTON
Limestone Crusher From a photograph
Washington county was established on the same day as Mont- gomery and was taken from Frederick, originally including Allegany and Garrett. It is bounded on the north by Pennsyl- vania, on the east by South Mountain, which separates it from Frederick ; on the south and southwest by the Potomac river, dividing it from Virginia, and on the west by Sideling Hill creek, which separates it from Allegany. It is nearly triangular in shape. The county is abundantly watered by the Antietam, Beaver, Conococheague, Israel, and other creeks tributary to the Potomac. The principal products are wheat, corn, oats, hay, rye, potatoes, wool, live-stock, butter, and honey. The county seat is Hagerstown, with a population of 16,507, and an admi- rable location as a railroad center. It lies on Antietam creek,
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COUNTY HISTORIES
86 miles from Baltimore, and a seminary of high order and other private institutions are among its educational facilities. The Baltimore and Ohio, Western Maryland, Norfolk and Western, and Cumberland Valley railroads traverse the county, and all pass through Hagerstown. The manufacturing establishments of the city are numerous, and some of their products are bicycles, gloves, organs, building materials, agricultural implements, cigars, flour, carriages, etc. Williamsport has a population of 1,571, and is a commercial and industrial center. Sharpsburg, Hancock, Clearspring, Boonsboro, Smithsburg, Leitersburg, Funkstown, Keedysville, and others, are thriving villages. The county ranks high among wheat-producing counties of the United States, and is noted for its mountain-side peach orchards. Its area is 525 square miles. The population is remarkable for intelligence, industry, and thrift. Germans, English, Scotch, Swiss, and French from the border provinces of Alsace and Lorraine were among the original settlers. A number of fami- lies were established in the county as early as 1735, and from 1740 onward the numbers rapidly increased. Washington has been the mother of a long line of distinguished men in every walk of life, who have left their impress not only upon Mary- land but upon other states and the nation. The county may lay claim to no inconsiderable share in the construction of the first steamboat built in the United States (1785-1786). General Washington and Governor Thomas Johnson were patrons of the experiment of James Rumsey, and parts of his steamboat were made at the Antietam Iron Works on March 14, 1786. Sharps- burg and vicinity was the scene of the most terrible and bloody battle of the Civil War, and in the Antietam National cemetery here lie buried 4,667 Union dead. The Delaware and Catawba battle-ground at the mouth of Antietam creek, the limestone or subterranean curiosity from which Cavetown derives its name,
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and old Fort Frederick, near Clearspring - the last remaining visible vestige of the French and Indian War - and Maryland Heights, rendered conspicuous in 1861-1865, together with Antietam battle-field, dotted with monuments and tablets, make the county forever memorable in song and story.
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Limestone Quarry From a photograph
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MONTGOMERY
Court House, Rockville From a photograph
On September 6, 1776, the county of Montgomery was formed out of the "Lower District of Frederick," and named in honor of that illustrious hero, General Richard Montgomery, killed at
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Quebec the previous year. The county furnished a conspicuous part of the Maryland Line during the Revolution; also, troops in every subsequent war in which the country has been engaged. Montgomery has given the state at least nine members of the national House of Representatives, one United States senator, one Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals, four presi- dents of the state Senate, and has had one cabinet officer. The late United States senators Edwards, of Illinois; Davis, of Ken- tucky, and the brilliant commoner, Proctor Knott, of the same state, were natives of this county ; and the ancestors of the south- ern Lamars and of Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, were from Montgomery. The first school of any reputation in the county was a seminary for young men, established toward the close of the Revolution, and memorable as the alma mater of William Wirt. The Rockville Academy (1809) and Brookeville Academy (1814) were next chartered and liberally endowed, and have been in operation ever since their foundation. Many private institutions of learning have since been established, and those now existing are at Rockville, Sandy Spring, Darnestown, Poolesville, and Forest Glen. The Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad runs diagonally through the county, available to nearly every section, and several electric roads enter the southeastern part, reaching various towns. The Chesa- peake and Ohio canal borders on southern Montgomery, from the District Line to Monocacy. There are numerous circulat- ing libraries, and the proximity of the county to the national capital offers the best facilities to students and information- seekers. Braddock's army encamped for a night within the present limits of Rockville. In the early history of the county corn and tobacco were the staple products of the soil, until it became so exhausted that Montgomery lost by emigration to the new country beyond the Ohio large numbers of her population.
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COUNTY HISTORIES
In 1790 this was over 18,000, and fifty years later, 15,456. By the introduction of guano in 1845 by the Society of Friends, a wonderful advance was made in the growing of cereals and grass, and the value of land and farm products materially en- hanced. In the last twenty-five years the fertility of the soil has been greatly increased by the use of lime and phosphates. The Great Falls of the Potomac is said to be the largest available water power, perhaps in the world, and the county has many natural advantages. Gold has been found in Montgomery in small quantities, and there are extensive deposits of granite. Rockville, the county seat, has a population of 1, 181, Kensing- ton of 689, Takoma Park of 1,242, Gaithersburg of 625. The area of the county is 508 square miles.
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ALLEGANY
Old National Bridge, Cumberland From a photograph
Allegany county derives its name from an Indian word - Alligewi, a tribe name, or Oolik-hanna, meaning fairest stream. Its area is 442 square miles, and it lies between Garrett and Washington, with the Potomac river separating it from West Virginia on the south. Its northern line is the Pennsylvania boundary. In this county is found the narrowest part of the state, and it is conspicuous by reason of the fact that coal- mining and manufactures give occupation and support to the great majority of its people, whose number places Allegany next to Baltimore county in population. The coal fields cover 64,000 acres in what is known as the George's Creek (named after Washington) Coal Basin, west of Cumberland, between Dan's mountain and Savage mountain. The county is rich in other mineral deposits, also - fire-clay, cement, iron ore, Medina sandstone, etc. The George's Creek Coal Basin is a part of that greatest of all coal deposits, the Allegheny field, which extends from Pennsylvania to Alabama. In Maryland the
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deposit is of a semi-bituminous variety, highly prized for its peculiar qualities and unrivalled steam-making power. The limestone and clay lands and the Potomac "bottoms," in parts of Allegany, are exceedingly fertile, and produce potatoes, wheat, corn, buckwheat, oats, and grass in large crops. Fruits, especially apples, flourish on the mountain sides. The county is very progressive, and the standard of education, particularly among the miners, is high. Vast sums of capital are invested in Allegany industries, and some of these are among the most extensive of their kind in the United States. Tin-plate, leather, cement, lumber, machinery, flour, glass, and many other products of the county are shipped far and near. Next to Baltimore, Cumberland, with a population of 21,839, is the largest city in the state, and is constantly growing in material resources and size. It is the business center of a territory which extends into Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It is 178 miles from Balti- more and 149 from Pittsburg, and is reached by the Baltimore and Ohio, West Virginia Central (of which it is the eastern terminus), and Cumberland and Pennsylvania railroads, the latter a part of the Pennsylvania system. The Chesapeake and Ohio canal extends from Cumberland to Georgetown, D.C. Fort Cumberland, where Braddock camped, was the starting- point of the present city. Incident and legend, dealing with Indian, British, French, and Civil wars, cluster about Cumber- land, and the topography and nomenclature of this region are suggestive. Frostburg, 17 miles westward of Cumberland, is a city of 6,028 population, on a plateau at an elevation of 1,700 feet above sea-level. The second State Normal School is at Frostburg. Lonaconing, a mining town of 1,553 population, is in southwestern Allegany; Westernport, Midland, Barton, Mt. Savage, Ocean, Flintstone, Orleans, Pekin, are other towns.
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CARROLL
Western Maryland College, Westminster From a photograph
Carroll county was formed in 1836 from the counties of Balti- more and Frederick, between which it lies, with Howard on the south and Pennsylvania on the north. The county has an area of 437 square miles and was named in memory of Charles Carroll 266
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COUNTY HISTORIES
of Carrollton, who died in 1832, the last survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The surface is diversified, being level, undulating, or broken, watered by fine streams issuing from innumerable springs which make up the tributaries of the Potomac, the Monocacy, and the Patapsco. These streams furnish motive power for cotton and woolen factories, and many flouring mills. The soils being limestone, slate, and iron, are fertile and easily improved. These lands respond bountifully to the efforts of the agriculturist, and the products are corn, wheat, rye, oats, buckwheat, hay, and potatoes. In many sections grazing is fine, and dairy farming is profitable. Limestone is quarried in large quantities for lime-making ; and granite, marble, and brownstone furnish excellent building material. Iron, copper, soapstone, and flint are found in quan- tities sufficient to be worked with profit. Ample facilities for speedy and satisfactory transaction of business are furnished by fourteen banks, in which the deposits amount to between two and three million dollars. Westminster, with a population of 3,295, is the county seat. Other towns, ranging in population from 1,200 to 500, are Union Bridge, Taneytown, Manchester, Hampstead, Sykesville, New Windsor, and Mt. Airy. Carroll was the first county in the United States to establish rural free delivery of mail. In 1899 the system went into operation, and at present four wagons and forty-six carriers distribute mail in all parts of the county. The Western Maryland, Baltimore and Ohio, and Frederick Division of the Pennsylvania, are the Carroll railroads. The Western Maryland College and the Westminster Theological Seminary of the Methodist Protestant Church are at Westminster, and Blue Ridge College at New Windsor.
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