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From: Leigh & Sue Sanders <>
Subject: [LDR] Bureau of Statistics and Information 1903
Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 18:42:35 -0700


Here is the continuation of extracts from the Bureau of Statistics and
Information of Maryland, 1903 as started earlier by Craig O'Donnell.
He has already posted information for Kent and Worcester Counties. If
there is any difficulty in copying the text please notify me and I will
try a different format. For the first installment, I am starting with
the Introduction to the Appendices as follows from :

TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BUREAU
OF STATISTICS AND INFORMATION OF MARYLAND.1903.

THOMAS A. SMITH, CHIEF.
110 WEST SARATOGA STREET, BALTIMORE, MD.

BALTIMORE, MD. WM. J. C. DULANY CO.,
STATE PRINTER. 1904.

(Please download or copy this in entirety. Intended for
personal use only. You are requested to include this
statement and the following credit line with all text copies.)

Provided by
Courtesy of the Historical Society
of Kent County Maryland <>"


MARYLAND AND ITS COUNTIES.

Maryland, one of the original thirteen States, has a
history replete with interest to all students of American
history, but in this work of reviewing the counties of the
State, their resources, advantages and enterprises, it is not
necessary to discuss this very interesting history.
It was in the year 1524 that the first European, Lucas
Vasquez d' Ayllon, entered the Chesapeake Bay, 110 years
before the settlement of Maryland, which, according to
history occurred on March 25, 1634, on the banks of the
St. Mary's river, now included in St. Mary's county.
On the 16th of June, 1632, the patent was signed by
King James I, which gave all that territory and much more,
now known as Maryland, to Cecilius Calvert, Baron of
Baltimore. The province was named Terra Mariæ, that is,
Maryland, in honor of his queen, Henrietta Mariæ.
The original boundaries of Maryland are thus described
in McMahon's "History of Maryland :
" All that part of the Peninsula or Chersonese, lying in
the parts of America between the ocean on the east, and the
bay of Chesapeake on the west, divided from the residue
thereof by a right line drawn from the promontory or head
land, called Watkins' Point, situated upon the bay
aforesaid, and near the river of Weighco on the west, unto
the main ocean on the east, and between that boundary on
the south, unto the part of the bay of Delaware on the
north, which lieth under the fortieth degree of latitude,
where New England is terminated; and all the tract of land
within the following limits, to wit, passing from the said
Delaware Bay in a right line with the degree aforesaid,
unto the true meridian of the first fountain of the river
Potomac , thence running toward the south, unto
the further bank of the said river, and following
the same on the west and south, unto a certain place
called 'Cinquack,' situate near the mouth of said river,
where it empties into the aforesaid bay of Chesapeake, and
thence by the shortest line unto the aforesaid place or
promontory called Watkins' Point."
Of course, these original boundaries of the State of
Maryland have been very materially changed since the time
the original patent was granted. A large portion of the
territory east of the Delaware river and north toward
Philadelphia has been ceded to Pennsylvania and
Delaware, to say nothing about that portion which has been
ceded to the National Government in the District of
Columbia, and that portion now in dispute with Virginia, so
that finally Maryland territory has dwindled down to a line
bounded on the east by the State of Delaware, on the
southeast by the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, on
the south and southwest by the Potomac river, on the west
by West Virginia, and on the north by Pennsylvania,
covering a total area of 12,210 square miles, with a land
surface of 9,860 square miles and a water surface of 2,350
square miles, and with an extreme width, from east to west,
of 240 miles and an extreme length, from north to south, of
125 miles.
In 1763 the State employed two English surveyors,
Messrs. Mason and Dixon, who worked continuously up
until 1767 in establishing the boundary line of the State.
These gentlemen progressed 244 miles west, where they
were stopped by the dispute between Maryland and
Virginia.
Within the borders of Maryland is grown nearly every
conceivable fruit and vegetable produced in the North
American climate, and within its borders abound such a
variety of food fish and animals as can hardly be
duplicated in any other State in the Union, from the
toothsome canvass back and terrapin to the staple bovine.
Maryland was originally settled by Catholics, but in
1649, April 21, the " Act of Toleration" was adopted by the
General Assembly of Maryland, giving equal rights to all
citizens who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The first newspaper in Maryland and the second in the
United States was the Annapolis Gazette, issued in 1727.
The first post route established by the Government was
from the Potomac river through Annapolis to Philadelphia,
and was inaugurated in 1695.
The first electric telegraph line in the United States was
erected in Maryland in May, 1844.
July 4, 1828, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, running
from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills by horse power, was
inaugurated, and in 1830 the first locomotive used in the
United States hauled trains over this route.
The first permanent fund for free schools established by
the General Assembly of Maryland in 1812, and the
foundation of the present system of public schools a dates
from 1825.
To Maryland is also credited the honor of establishing
the second agricultural college in the United States, in
1856.
Among other noted institutions of learning within the
borders of Maryland, established either through the
munificence of private citizens, or by Acts of
Assembly, are the following :
Washington College, near Chestertown,1782.
St. John's College, Annapolis, 1789.
University of Maryland, 1807.
Maryland Institute, 1825.
Peabody Library , 1859.
McDonogh Institute, 1873.
Johns Hopkins University, 1876.
The Thomas Wilson Sanitarium, 1882:
Enoch Pratt Library, 1882.
Tome Institute, 1894.
These, with numerous elysmosnary and educational
institutions, offer advantages rarely, if at all, equalled
by any other State in the Union.
In the western part of the State lie the vast coal beds of
the Georges' Creek region, while in other parts may be
found the granite and lime quarries, almost equally as
abundant as the black diamonds in the Alleganies.
While our State is old, it is comparatively sparsely
settled, there being only 25.6 inhabitants to the square mile
of land surface.
According to the census of 1900, Maryland ranked in
the list of States in gross value of products as follows :
Canning and preserving oysters, first.
Fertilizers, first.
Iron and steel shipbuilding, second.
Canning and preserving fruits and vegetables, second
Clothing manufacture, fourth.
Chewing and smoking tobacco and snuff, sixth.
Cigars and cigarettes, tenth.
Iron and steel, tenth.
Furniture, factory products, tenth.
Cotton goods, thirteenth.
Paper and Wood pulp, thirteenth.
Manufacturing products, fourteenth.
Foundry and machine Shop products, fourteenth.
Planing mill products, fifteenth.
Packing and slaughtering meat, fifteenth.
Agricultural products, twenty-ninth.
With this brief resume of Maryland as a whole, we now
enter into a discussion of the various counties of the State,
seeking to give their actual condition, both as to
agriculture and manufacture, showing that each county
possesses certain special advantages for the various
industries already located within their boundaries, and
suffice to say that each and all of them go to make up a
homogeneous whole that makes Maryland one of the most
favored States.
Maryland is practically divided into four districts by
nature, viz: The Eastern Shore, Northern or Central
Maryland, Southern Maryland and Western Maryland.
The Eastern shore comprises all that part of the State
east of the Chesapeake Bay, bounded on the East by
Delaware and North by Pennsylvania. This territory
comprises Cecil, Kent, Caroline, Talbot, Queen Anne,
Dorchester, Somerset, Worcester and Wicomico Counties.
The Northern portion of the State, generally called
Central Maryland, comprises Harford, Baltimore,
Carroll, Howard and Montgomery Counties.
Lower, or Southern, Maryland is that part of the State
which was first settled, and comprises those counties
bordering on the Chesapeake Bay on the west, being Anne
Arundel, Charles, St. Mary's, Calvert and Prince George's.
Western Maryland comprises those counties bordering
on Virginia and West Virginia in the extreme west and
northwestern part of the State, viz : Montgomery,
Frederick, Washington, Allegany and Garrett.
Each section of the State possesses certain natural
advantages not possessed by others. The Eastern Shore,
often called the "garden spot of America," abounds in a
wealth of agricultural and horticultural productions, as well
as an abundance of fish and fowl, to say nothing about the
luscious bivalve. The land on the Eastern Shore is
especially adapted to the cultivation of small fruits. There is
hardly a county on this side of the bay that does not raise a
large proportion of vegetables.
Central or Northern Maryland is also an horticultural
country, but is more adapted to the raising of grain and
cattle.
Western Maryland is as well known for its horticultural
productions as it is for its mineral output. The Georges'
Creek coal is known the world over. Frederick, Washington
and Montgomery Counties are among the richest in the
State in their wealth of horticultural and agricultural
productions, as well as manufactures.
Lower or Southern Maryland, at one time one of the
richest sections of the State, is more adapted to the
production of fruits, tobacco and grain. Though only
sparsely settled, it has become famous in history and novel.
The rivers and creeks are noted for their wealth of oysters
and fish.



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