Cecil County
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Cecil county, named in honor of the second Lord Baron of Baltimore, was erected in 1674, the tenth county in order of formation, and it is situated in the northeast corner of Maryland, on the borders of Pennsylvania and Delaware, and cut off from the remainder of the state by the Sassafras river on the south, and the Chesapeake bay and Susquehanna river on the west. It is one of the smaller counties in area — 350 square miles — much of which is, however, under water, as it is intersected by several rivers, notably the North East, the Elk and the Bohemia. The surface throughout is rolling, the northern portion being hilly; this gives considerable water power which is utilizied by a number of large paper, iron, cotton, flour, phosphate, kaolin and fluor-spar mills. The third largest pulp and paper mill in the United States is located at Elkton the county-seat. In the eighteenth century the output of pig and bar iron at the Principio Company's furnaces was the largest in America. The soil generally is fertile, varying from a yellow clay in the south to a disintegrated rock in the north, producing fruits, grain and hay in abundance. So noted has its hay crop become that the highest grade on the Baltimore market is known as "Cecil county hay." Along the Susquehanna river are several large granite quarries, affording the best building material, a stone which when polished, as is done at Port Deposit, is excelled in beauty by no other. Kaolin is largely worked for use in the manufacture of paper and in porcelain factories, and chrome has been extensively mined. Although possessing such excellent water facilities, marsh land is almost unknown. The banks of the Susquehanna river rise abruptly to a height of from 80 to nearly 600 feet. At Port Deposit the granite banks rise almost perpendicularly 200 to 300 feet. The fisheries, as might be expected, are of much importance. Elkton, the largest town, has about 3,000 inhabitants, followed by Port Deposit, Perryville, Rising Sun, North East, Chesapeake City, and Cecilton. The scenery in places is picturesque in the extreme. That along the Susquehanna, near Conowingo, and on the Octoraro, near Porter's Bridge, attracts artists from a distance, and compares most favorably with the Wissahickon and other rugged streams so often delineated by the painter's brush. The county is about equi-distant from Philadelphia and Baltimore, is intersected by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore; the Philadelphia division of the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Baltimore Central Railroads, also by the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Cecil county was one of the first to engage in school work. In 1723 the Colonial Legislature appointed a committee consisting of John Ward, John Dowell, Benj. Pearce and others, to open free schools, and they opened one. St. Stephen's Church, organized in 1692, opened a public school about 1734. The Friend's Meeting House at Calvert was organized by William Penn in 1702, and soon after opened a school. The church of St. Francis Xavier was organized in 1704, and afterward opened a school. The county in 1859 organized a system of free public schools, thus antedating that of the state six years. Among the more prominent private schools are the West Nottingham Academy, opened about 1741 by Rev. Samuel Finley, who afterward became the president of Princeton University. It is situated near Colora. The Tome Institute, most beautifully situated on the bluff at Port Deposit, presided over by Dr. A. W. Harris, with a corps of 63 teachers, and over 500 pupils, was endowed by the late Jacob Tome with several millions of dollars.
Contributed 2022 Nov 15 by Norma Hass, extracted from Leading Events of Maryland History, by J. Gambrill and S. Bates, published in 1903, pages 219-220.
In July, 1652, the Susquehanna Indians, by treaty, gave up to the province all their territory
on the west side of the bay from the Patuxent River to the Susquehanna, and all
on the east side from the Choptank River to the North-East Branch near the
Susquehanna. This territory includes the present Talbot, Queen Anne, Kent,
Howard, Carroll, Baltimore, and Harford counties, with the greater part of Cecil
county. [page 32]
The religion of the first settlers of Maryland, - that
is, of the Kent Island colony, A. D. 1629 – was that of a church of England. In
1634, with Lord Baltimore's colony, the Roman Catholics with their priests came
into the St. Mary's settlement. Soon after, the Lutherans, from the Delaware,
were established in what afterwards became Cecil county. [page 106]
In
1723 an act was passed establishing a free school in every county. Accordingly,
these schools were erected, endowed, and successfully carried on til the
Revolution. Soon after we had achieved our independence, the free schools ....
Those of the four lower counties …. During this period, many of the parish
clergy had classical schools, and there were public academies at Lower Marlboro,
Calvert county, the Eden School in Somerset, and the academy at West Nottingham,
Cecil county. [pages 111-112]
Roger Brooke Taney, whose ancestors on both
sides were among the eraly settlers of Maryland, was born in Calbert county, on
the 17th of March, 1777, and was educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, where
he graduated in 1795. In the spring of 1796 he commenced the study of the law at
the city of Annapolis, and was admitted to the bar here in the spring of 1799.
On his return to his native county he was, in the fall of the same year, elected
to the House of Delegates; and, having removed in 1801 to Frederick City, he
was, in 1816, elected a member of the Senate of Maryland, and continued in that
body until 1821. ... [pages 134-136, portrait]
Contributed 2022 Nov 15 by Norma Hass, extractions from 1866 History of Maryland, by E. Allen and L. VanBokkelen, published in 1866, pages 32, 106, 111-112, and 134-136.
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