USA > Maryland > Leading events of Maryland history; with topical analyses, references, and questions for original thought and research > Part 17
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HARFORD
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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 3,423. It figured in the War of 1812. Bel Air has a population of 961, and Aberdeen and other towns have from 100 to 800 inhabitants.
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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COUNTY HISTORIES
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 1050. Ridgely (population 713) and Greensborough are important fruit-shipping stations, and the next largest towns. Federals- burg (population 539), 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.
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 13,591, 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 1,472, 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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LEADING EVENTS OF MARYLAND HISTORY
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.
Limestone Quarry From a photograph
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, 110, Kensing- ton of 477, Takoma of 756, Gaithersburg of 547. The area of the county is 508 square miles.
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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COUNTY HISTORIES
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 17,128, 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 5,247 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 2,181 population, is in southwestern Allegany; Westernport, Midland, Barton, Mt. Savage, Ocean, Flintstone, Orleans, Pekin, are other towns.
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
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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 3,496, 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 New Windsor College at New Windsor.
HOWARD
Cotton Mills (J. S. Gary & Son), Alberton From a photograph
Howard county, organized in 1851, bears the name of John Eager Howard, one of the most illustrious soldiers of the Revo- lution, and afterward governor of Maryland and United States senator. It is triangular in shape, lying between Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Montgomery, Prince George's, and Anne Arundel counties, in the heart of the Western Shore. The Patapsco forms its northern border, and two small branches of the Patuxent extend into Howard from the Anne Arundel line. Another branch of the same river separates it from Montgomery. The main stem of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, the section
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COUNTY HISTORIES
of which from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills was the first passen- ger railroad built in this country, runs along Howard's northern border, and the Washington Branch of the same road along its southern. The corner-stone of the Baltimore and Ohio was laid July 4, 1828, by Charles Carroll, then upward of ninety years old, and he said of this act that he considered it second only to his signing the Declaration, if "even it be second to that." The area of the county is 250 square miles, and its topography is hilly and broken, with heavy forests and fertile hill-sides and valleys, the arable land being especially adapted to wheat, corn, and hay. As early as 1800 the iron ore deposits of Howard led to the building of the Avalon Iron Works, and Howard ore is now the only Maryland product of the kind being smelted. In granite, marble, and building stones Howard is especially rich. Guilford and Woodstock granites are known throughout the United States. Ellicott City, the county seat, on the Patapsco river 15 miles from Baltimore, is joined to the latter by an electric road. Ellicott's Mills, as it was known from 1774 until the latter years of the past century, is noted in Maryland history. The manufacture of flour was begun here by the Ellicotts in that year, and this industry is an important one in this section of the state. The town has a population of 1,331. Rock Hill College, a widely known educational institution, is located here. Wood- stock and St. Charles colleges and the Ilchester Redemptorist institution in Howard have made the county known wherever the Roman Catholic faith is preached. At Alberton and Savage are large cotton mills, operated by water power. Howard has been the birthplace or the home of many Marylanders noted in political life, on the bench, and in the arts and sciences, and on her territory was first heard in Maryland the demand for separa- tion from the mother country.
WICOMICO
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Lumber Yard, Salisbury From a photograph
Wicomico county lies southeast of Dorset, the division line between the two being the Nanticoke river. Delaware on the north, Worcester on the east, and Worcester and Somerset on the south form the land boundaries of Wicomico, and the Nanticoke river extends along its western side, emptying into Tangier sound. The area of the county is 365 square miles, and its name is taken from the river which flows through its central section into Monie bay. Salisbury, the county seat (1732), is one of the most thriving commercial towns on the Eastern Shore, and has a population of 4,277. It is incorpo- rated as a city, and has numerous manufactures, mostly asso- ciated with the extensive lumber interests of the county. Salisbury is noted for the beauty of its situation and its sub- stantial business buildings and modern homes. Delmar, partly in Wicomico and partly in Delaware, is a goodly sized town, and Tyaskin, Nanticoke, Powellsville, Quantico, Pittsville, Parsons-
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burg, and Fruitland are the centers of thriving communities. Agriculture is the occupation of many of the people, and fruit- growing is largely and successfully engaged in, as is also truck- ing. With its fine transportation facilities, Wicomico, like Somerset, although, perhaps, in a greater degree, is in compe- tition with the truck-farmers of Virginia in the Northern mar- kets. Light, sandy soils, overlying stiff clays, are found in Wicomico, and there are areas of gum swamp-land and of loams, the " black loam " along the edge of Delaware being very fertile. Mardela Springs, a village of several hundred inhabitants, is well known in local history as the location of " Barren Creek Springs," the fame of whose medicinal waters covers over a century. Francis Makemie established a Presbyterian church in Wicomico (then Somerset) county before the formation, in 1706, of the American Presbytery in Philadelphia, and is called the founder of the Presbyterian Church in America. The Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic railway and the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk railroad run through Wicomico.
Lumber Mill, Salisbury From a photograph
GARRETT
Coal Mining, Corinth From a photograph
Garrett, the youngest of the counties of Maryland, was carved out of territory belonging to Allegany county, in 1872. Its first election for county officers was held January 7, 1873. John W. Garrett, then president of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, for whom the county was named, was instrumental in its estab- lishment. In area Garrett is the largest county in the state - 660 square miles. It is largely mountainous, lying in the great plateau of the Alleghanies, and contains much uncleared land. It has rich deposits of iron ore, fire-clay, and other minerals, especially coal; but the chief industries are farming, stock-
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raising, and lumbering. Oakland, its county seat, is 2800 feet above sea-level, and is noted as a summer resort. Mountain Lake Park, widely known for its Chautauqua and camp-meeting, and Deer Park are also in Garrett. The people of the county are purely American, there being few residents of foreign birth, and only a half-hundred negroes. The rivers and streams of the county abound in game fish -bass and trout; and deer, pheasants, wild turkeys, etc., make it the same sportsmen's paradise it was in the days of Meshach Browning, hunter and author. Occasionally, in the mountain fastnesses, a bear is seen. Its deer-shooting has long attracted hunters from all over the country, and the glades and uplands are yearly alive with pheasants and wild turkeys. Wheat, potatoes, corn, buck- wheat, and hay are leading Garrett crops. The maple forests of the county yield annually about a quarter of a million pounds of maple sugar. Wild honey is abundant. The Baltimore and Ohio, West Virginia Central, and Oakland and State Line are Garrett railroads. The lumber industry in Garrett has long been its chief manufacturing interest. The first saw-mill - - forerunner of the many that have leveled the primeval forests of the county - was owned by Philip Hare, and placed in oper- ation near Grantsville about 1790. Valuable and productive farms have been made of the fertile limestone lands. Oakland is 246 miles from Baltimore and 600 from Chicago. Selbysport, Swanton, Accident, Grantsville, Friendship, Keyser, Mineral Springs, Krug, Thayersville, Finzel, are among the Garrett towns, and it is notable in physical geography as the only Maryland county having rivers flowing westward as well as eastward. The Youghiogheny rises in Garrett and is a tribu- tary of the Ohio.
APPENDIXES
A
PROPRIETARIES OF MARYLAND
Cecilius Calvert
1632 Charles Calvert 1715
Charles Calvert
1 675 Frederick Calvert
· 1751
Benedict Leonard Calvert 1715 Henry Harford 1771-1776
N. B .- It is well to remember that there were six Lords Baltimore and six proprietaries, but the first Lord Baltimore (George Calvert) was not a pro- prietary of Maryland, and the last proprietary of Maryland (Henry Harford) was not a Lord Baltimore.
B
GOVERNORS OF MARYLAND 1
COLONIAL GOVERNORS OF MARYLAND Under the Proprietary
Leonard Calvert
. 1633 William Fuller and Commis-
Thomas Greene
1647
sioners
. 1654
William Stone .
· 1649
Josias Fendall . 1658
1 I do not know of any complete list of Maryland governors ever published that is correct. The list of colonial governors here given will be found very different from the usual lists, but in agreement with the list prepared from the archives by Dr. B. C. Steiner and others for the Maryland Manual, issued by the secretary of state. The list of state governors is taken from the list prepared by Mr. Edward T. Tubbs for the Teacher's Manual issued by State Superintendent M. B. Stephens. A comparison with the conven- tional list will show that the terms of most of the governors have been dated from their election instead of from their qualification.
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