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Welcome
to Maryland American
History and Genealogy Project
we are in the process of
building new State and County pages for the states where
the coordinator has moved on to other projects. Hartford County is looking for a new Coordinator would you
be interested? If so please contact
Webmaster.
Many of the present coordinators are always willing to give help and
suggestions to newcomers, you can learn, I did and that was after 60!!
Read our
About Page and see what our requirements are,
pretty easy!
Court House at Bel
Air
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 Harford 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 tidewater 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 *
Railroads 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 Harford'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 the
Resolves of the Provincial Convention," and solemnly
pledged themselves to each other and 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.
A In the Court House at Bel Air are portraits of many of
the distinguished citizens 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
Methodist 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 18 12. Bel Air has
a population of 961, and Aberdeen and other towns have
from 100 to 800 inhabitants.
* Now Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington
Online Here or Other Sites
Maryland
AHGP
Source: History of Maryland, by
L. Magruder Passano, Wm. J.C. Dulany Company, 1901.
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