|
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.
Montgomery 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
Rockville
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
Quebec in 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, three Presidents
of the State Senate, and has had one Cabinet officer.
The late United States Senators Edwards, of Illinois,
Davis, of Kentucky, and the brilliant commoner, Proctor
Knott, of the same State, were natives of this county;
and the ancestors of the southern 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 (18 14)
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 Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
borders on southern Montgomery, from the District line
to Monocacy. There are numerous circulating 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. 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
enhanced. 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, Kensington of 477, Takoma of
756, Gaithersburg of 547. The area of the county is 508
square miles.
Online Here or Other Sites
Maryland
AHGP
Source: History of Maryland, by
L. Magruder Passano, Wm. J.C. Dulany Company, 1901.
|
