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't^7-iayf 'j'/t^yza.
HISTORY
OF
BALTIMORE CITY
AND
COUNTY
FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT DAY:
INCLUDIN(J
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
OF THEIR
REPRESENTATIVE MEN.
j:^thomas soharf, a.m.,
AUTHOR OF " CHRONICLES OF BALTIMORE ;" " HISTORY OF MARYLAND :" MEMBER OF THE MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ; MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA ; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY ; CORRESPONDING MEMBF.R OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETIES OF NEW YORK, WISCONSIN, MINNESOTA, SOUTH CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA; OF THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF OHIO ; OF THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC- GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, ETC., ETC.
IX.LXJSTRA.TED.
PHILADELPHIA : LOUIS H. EVERTS.
1881.
Copyright, 1881, by Louis H. Everts.
I'RESS OF 1. I,IPPJNCOTT & («., PHILADELrHIA.
ROBERT GARRETT, Esq.,
THIS VOLUME,
WHICH TREATS OF THE HISTORY OF THE BALTIMORE WE BOTH LOVE SO WELL, AND THE CITY
rOU AND YOUR FAMILY HAVE DONE SO MUCH TO ENRICH AND EMBELLISH, IN TOKEN
OF WELL-TRIED, LIFE-LONG FRIENDSHIP AND EVER-GROWING ESTEEM AND
ADMIRATION, IS AFFECTIONATELY AND RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
The writing of the History of Baltimore City and County has been rather a " labor of love" than a source of profit to the author. It was undertaken at the request of Maj. Louis H. Everts, the enterprising publisher, and from a desire to preserve historical facts connected with Baltimore which came into the possession of the author in the course of long-continued investi- gations. In the preparation of the work no authority of importance has been overlooked ; the author has carefully examined every source of information open to him, and has availed himself of every fact that could throw new light upon, or impart additional interest to, the subject under consideration. Besides consulting the most reliable records and authorities, over two thousand five hundred communications were addressed to persons supposed to be in possession of facts or information calculated to add value to the work. Recourse has not only been had to the valu- able libraries of Baltimore, but the author and his agents have visited personally the entire county, spending much time in each district, examining ancient newspapers and musty manu- scripts, conversing with the aged inhabitants, and collecting from them orally many interest- ing facts never before published, and which otherwise, in all probability, would soon have been lost altogether. In addition to the material partly used iu the preparation of his " Chronicles of Baltimore" and " History of Maryland," the author has consulted over five thousand pamphlets, consisting of town and city documents, reports of societies, corporations, associations, and historical discourses, and, in short, everything of a fugitive character that might in any way illustrate the History of Baltimore City and County. From these and a large col- lection of newspapers (more particularly a complete file of the Baltimore Sun which was kindly loaned by the proprietors, Messrs. A. S. Abell & Co.) great assistance has been derived. The file of the American was mainly used by the author in the preparation of his " Chronicles of Baltimore."
Such material only has been retained as upon careful consideration and tlie closest scrutiny has been found weighty and significant. At the same time it has been attempted to embody the facts thus collected in a form as free as possible from the dryness of chronological recital. As a rule, the original spelling of the names of both persons and places has been given, and in some instances both the present and former modes are given.
With the aid of Prof. Philip R. Uhler, the topography and geology as well as the geog- raphy of the county have received the attention which their importance demands. Manufac- turing, commercial, and agricultural interests have also a jjrominent place. The statistical information embodied in the work is designed to connect the history of the past with the present state of the trade and commerce of the city, and to present the features of the two periods in striking contrast ; and although to some minds these details may seem out of place in
a historical work, yet it should be remembered that the statistics of to-day may become the his- tory of ten years hence. Many of the facts recorded, both statistical and historical, may seem trivial or tediously minute to the general reader, and yet such facts have a local interest and sometimes a real importance.
Sketches of the rise, progress, and present condition of the various religious denominations, professions, political parties, and charitable and benevolent institutions form a conspicuous feature of the work. An account of the public school system is also given, and a history of the various institutions of learning for which Baltimore is so justly famed.
An honest effort has been made to do justice to both sections in the relation of such events of the civil war as came within the proper scope of a purely local history. The author has made no attempt to obtrude his own political views upon the reader, and has constantly kept in mind the purpose that has guided his labors, — to present a work free from sectional pr partisan bias which shall be acceptable to the general public.
Considerable space has been given to biographies of leading and representative men, living and dead, who have borne an active part in the various enterprises of life, and who have become closely identified with the history of the city and county. The achievements of the living must not be forgotten, nor must the memories of those who have passed away be allowed to perish. It is the imperative duty of the historian to clironicle the public and private efforts to advance the great interests of society. Their deeds are to be recorded for the benefit of those who follow them, — they, in fact, form part of the liistory of their communities, and their successful lives add to the glory of the commonwealth.
A distinguishing characteristic of the work is its sketches of the thirteen districts into which the county is divided. In them the reader is brought into close relation with every part of the county. The advantage of this method of treatment is obvious, embracing, as it does, narratives of early settlements, descriptions of interesting localities, and personal reminiscences. An idea may be formed of the time and labor required in the preparation of the book, when we call attention to the fact that tiie chapter on " Necrology" alone contains nearly three thousand brief biographical si«etches of prominent citizens who have passed away during the last century.
The maps, views, and portraits are a prominent accompaniment, and add interest and attractiveness to the subjects which they are designed to illustrate and explain.
Our acknowledgments are due to many friends not only for a kindly interest shown in our labors, but for much valuable information furnished in many cases without solicitation.
In presenting the History of Baltimore City and County to the public the author feels conscious that he sends it forth with many imperfections on its head. In the preparation of a work of this character many minor inaccuracies and errors are almost unavoidable, the existence of which it is impossible to discover until the book has been exposed to tiie light of general criticism. It may not be considered presumptuous, however, to express the hope tiiat its general conception and execution will be satisfactory to the community for which it luxs been written, and that it will prove useful and interesting to all classes of readers.
J. Thomas Scharf. Baltimork, Nov. 8, 1881.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXV.
CHAPTER II.
PTER III
Aborigines
CHAPTER IV. English Discoveries and Settlements
CHAPTER V. Ancient County-seats
CHAPTER VI.
The Founding of Baltimore City
CHAPTER VII. [
Pennsylvania Border Troubles «* ] TheTelegrapli
CHAPTER VIII. 1
Causes of the Revolution
CHAPTER IX.
Transportation
CHAPTER XXVI.
Commercial Industries and Manufactures
CHAPTER XXVII.
Trade Organizations
CHAPTER XXVIII
Banks and Bankers
CHAPTER XXIX.
Marine, Fire, and Life Insurance
CHAPTER XXX.
Post-office, Custom-House,Gas Companies
CHAPTER XXXI.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Taverns, and Hotels
CHAPTER XXXIII
The War for Independence
CHAPTER X.
Peace and Independence
CHAPTER XI.
The Development of Baltimore
CHAPTER XII.
The War of 1812
CHAPTER XIII.
Piivateers and Armed Vessels
CHAPTER XIV.
War with Mexico
CHAPTER XV.
Political Progress
CHAPTER XVI.
The Civil War
CHAPTER XVII.
Progress after the Civil War
CHAPTER XVIII.
Municipal Government of Baltimore
CHAPTER XIX.
The City Government and Officers
CHAPTER XX.
City Departments
CHAPTER XXI.
Education
CHAPTER XXII.
Fires and Fire Companies
CHAPTER XXIII.
Monuments, Parks, and Squares
CHAPTER XXIV. The Advantages of Baltimore as a Trade Centre '-281 ' First District
69 Religious Denominations ""
CHAPTER XXXIV. 76 charitaWe,Benevolent, and Religious Institutions and Associations.. 692
I CHAPTER XXXV.
81 ' The Press of Baltimore ^°*
' CHAPTER XXXVI.
84 Literature and Literary Men ^'^
\ CHAPTER XXXVII.
98 j Baltimore Libraries, Miscellaneous Societies and Associatic
CHAPTER XXXVIII
and Musicians— Art and Artists
CHAPTER XXXIX.
C57
|
Amusements |
CHAPTER XL. |
|
The Medical Professior |
CHAPTER XLI. |
|
CHAPTER XLII. |
|
|
CHAPTER XLIII. |
|
|
CHAPTER XLIV. |
|
|
Mobs and Riots |
|
CHAPTERXLV.
1 Baltimore City and County Necrology ''^*
CHAPTER XLVI.
Baltimore County and Districts ^^^
CHAPTER XLVII.
VIU
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.VIII
Second District
CJIAPTEE XLIX.
Third District
CHAPTER L.
Fourtli District
CHAPTER LI.
Fiftli District
CHAPTER LI I.
Sixth District
CHAPTER LIII. Sovcntli District
CHAPTER LIV.
|
CHAPTER LV. |
|
|
CHAPTER LVI. |
|
|
CHAPTER LVII. |
|
|
. ... |
|
|
CHAPTER LVIII. |
|
|
|
|
|
CHAPTER LIX. |
|
|
Thiitppiitli District .. |
ILLXJSTI?.^TIOiTS.
Al>ell, A. S facing 617 ; Catoii, Ricliard
Aboil, A. .S., City Residence of " 020 ; Chamber of Commerce
Abell, A. S., Residence of, " Guilford" " 022 | Chancellor, M D , Charles W
Abell Building " 624 I Chase, Samuel
Ahell, G. W., Residence of. " 023 ' Cockey, (liailes T
Abrahams, W " 386 ; Cockey, C lurles T , Rehidence of
Adams Express Co.'B Office " 359 Colton, Gii.ine
Adreon, Harrison " «5 Congress Hall
Albaugh, J. W " 688 Coree, Willi mi
American Building " 609 Councilm iii, James B , Rtsidonce <:
Andrews, R. Snowden " 669 County Ma])
Armistead, Maj. George 91 Court-house in 1784
Armstrong, Cator & Co facing 415 Cradock, liiomas
Austen, George " 909 Cradock, Thorn ts Residence of
Baker, Charles J " 459 Dasbiel, M D Nicholas L
Baker, C. J., Residence of " 460 Davis, HenijV
Baldwin, Robert T " 458 Deford,B
Baltimore City in 1800 708 Devries, V m , K. («
Baltimore in 1752 58 Douglas, R H
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Central Building.." facing 315 Ducker, &i m „i I
Bankard, H.W " 775 Dulany, Daniel
Banks,Andrew " 856 Ehrman, Itwis Residence of
Banks, Andrew, Residence of " 868 Emory, Ruhard
Barney, Commodore Joshua 8^ Erich, M I) , A F
Bartlett, D. L facing 426 Eutaw Place
Bartlett, George " 406 Ewinst, H M
Battle Monument 268 | First Prcobj tei lan Chuich
Bentley, C. W facing 429 Fisher, James I
Bitting, Rev. C. C .564 Fisher, Robeit A
Boarman, R. R facing 898 j Fort Federal Hill in 1861
Booth, Washington " 771 | Fort Marehall
Bosley, Daniel " 884 i Fort Mcllenij m 180i
Bosley, ,Tohn 913 j Fountain Inn
Boundaries of Baltimore 62 1 Fowble, Peter
Bowie, Oden , facing 351 Frank 4 \dler
Boyce, James : " 390 Frick, \\m F
Bradford, Governor A. W " 138 \ Front Street Thtatii
Brautly, Rev. William T 662 I Fuller, Ro Richanl
Bresee, 0. F facing 489 Garabrill Cbailcs A
Brewer, James R " 639 \ Garrett, John \\
Brown, Alexander " 474 I Garrett, lolin \V , Residence of
Brown, Hon. G. W 126 Garrett, T Harrison, Resldmco of
Bruff.John W 414 | Gary, James S
Bryan, T. .\., &Co facing 397 [ George, Isaac S
Burns.W.F •' 471 '. Gist,Morduai
Calvert, Charles, Fifth Lord Baltimore 61 i Gittings I) S
Carroll, Charies, of Cari-ollton 68,317 | Gittings, R J
Carroll, Charles, barrister 706 Gorauch, Thomas
Carroll, ll.-nry facing 908 I Goi-such, Thomas T
Carroll, Ar.hbiKho]) John .'531 i Griffith, G >>
Carroll, John, "The Caves" facing 700 i Gunthcr I W
Carrollton Hotel •' 613 | lIallowa\ ( harlcs T
Carter, Bernard " 702 Hambltton, riionuis F
..facing 444
752
710
facing 84o
facing 286 911
facing 739
HamiU, Charles W facing 430 .
Hansoc, A. C 782
Harrison, F., Besidence of. between 892, 893
Harrison, Chas. K., Residence of. facing 846
Harrison, F " 891
Hawkins, Dr. J. W., Residence of. " 877
Hawkins, M.D.,.I.W " 878
Hodges, James " 416
Hoen Building " 602
Holland, John C " 368
Holton, H. B " 829
Holton, H. B., Residence of. between 828, 829
Hood, J. M facing 357
Hopkins, Johns 231
Horwitz, OrviUe facing 701
Howard, Col. John E 206
Howell, D. C, Residence of. facing 825
Hughes, Jr., Hon.C 98
Hutchins, H. C facing 916
Isaac, W.M " 894
James, Henry " 4C2
James, Henry, Residence of. " 463
Jenkins, T. Robert " 382
Jessop, Joshua " 925
Johnson, Reverdy 713
Jones, Alexander ; facing 472
Jones, M.D., R. E " 889
Keerl, Thomas M., Residence of. facing 774
Kenly,JohnR 134
Kennedy, Anthony facing 821
Kennedy,Johu P " 652
Key, Francis Scott " 642
Klees, Henry between 404, 405
Latrobe, Ferdinand C facing 180
Lee, Gen. H 783
Lindsay, George W 762
Lowe, Alfred facing 866
Malster, William L " 304
Map of Capt. John Smith's Explorations, Fac-simile of Original
between 38, 39
Map of Original Tracts of Land within Limits of Baltimore 49
Martin, M.D., J. L facing 749
Martin, Luther 711
Maryland Institute 667
Maryland Journal, Fac-simile of 607
Mason, James D facing 396
Matthews, D.M " 911
Mayer, Charles F " 388
McCoy, John W " 660
McDonogh Institute " 831
McHenry, Maj. James 79
Mclntire, M.D., James facing 753
Mcintosh, D.G " 896
McKaig, Thomas I " 726
McMahon, John V. L 713
McMnrray, Louis facing 776
Merryman, John " 886
Miller, Daniel " 410
Miller, Daniel, & Co .-. " 411
Miller, H. Clay, Residence of " 413
Mitchell, Joseph B 901
Morison, N. H facing 665
Mowel, Joseph W., Residence of. between 916, 917
Mowell, Peter .....facing 879
Mount Vernon Place Methodist Episcopal Church " 576
Myer, Thomas J " 396
New City Hull 179
Newcomer, B. F facing 478
Nichols, W. C, Residence of " 863
Ober, Guslavus facing 400
Old Assembly-Rooms 679
Old City Hall 176
Old Defenders .-. facing 97
Old Jail 783
Onion, E. D facing 392
Peabody, George 663
Pearce, John B facing 907
Peerce, W. F " 912
Peregoy, Charles " 888
Peter Cooper's Locomotive 320
Philpott, Edward P 863
Pinkney, William 711
Piper, M.D., Jackson facing 899
Plat of Baltimore Town and Jones' Town 62
Plat of Joppa in 1725 45
Piatt, S. B facing 394
Poe Monument 271
Poole, Robert, Residence of. facing 837
Poole & Hunt " 8.18
Powell, W.S 401
Pratt, Enoch facing 464
Pratt Street Bridge in 1861 790
Price, M.D., Elias C facing 766
Price, Ezra between 882, 883
Price.Samuel M " 882,883
Pulaski, Count 78
Eaine, F facing 625
398
Reckord, Henry
Reeder, Charles
Rieman, Joseph H., Residence of.
Rieman, Henry
Ringgold, Maj. S
Rogers, C. L
Rogers, C. Lyon, Residence of.
Ruby, Wm. H
Rutledge, Thomas G
Rogers, Commodore
St. John's Church, Western Run Parish..
St. Joseph's Passionist Monastery
St. Mary's Industrial School
St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church...
St. Timothy's Church
Sailing-car "Eolus"
Sanderson, Thomas, Residence of.
Scarff, M.D., J. H
Scharf, J. T
Seeger, Jacob
Seidenstricker, John B
Seliger & Newman
Shearer, M.D., Thomas
8heppard, Isaac A
Sheppard, Isaac A., & Co
Shoemaker, S. M
Sisson, Hugh
Slagle, Charles W
Slingluff, Jesse, Residence of
Small, George
Smallwood, Gen. William
Smith, Henry C
Smith, Jr., Joseph
Smith, Gen. Samuel
Snowden, Samuel
Sparks, Josiah
Standiford, James A
Steele, I. Nevett
Stellman, John
Stewart, William A
Stocks and Pillory
Stirling, Jr., A
Strawbridge's Log Meeting-house
Strieker, Gen. John
Sun Iron Building, The
Sutro, Otto
Talbott, J. F. C
Taney, Roger Brooke
Thomas, J. H
Thomas, John L .'.
Towson, Gen. Nathan
CONTENTS.
Turner, Leniri faciiis, IW) . Williams Glii OH %»!
Tyson, Ji , Isaac " 172 , W ilson, I) S fatin( 770
Tyson, Jesse, Resilience of ' "i ' \\ ll*m llc\ Franklin 567
View uf Washington Monument ^00 Wilson, Ir , M D , II I' C facing 743
Vonderborst lolin H facing Oil Wilson, GO " «l
Wallis, S Teackle " OaS I W ilson, James between 768, 760
Walters, W T " 07o I Wilson, Wm " 768,769
Watson, Lieut Col W H 114 Wimler, Gen W H 88
Webb, Charles faung 183 I Wirt, William 712
Wetherall WillmmG 42t Wise, Willmm 876
Wbltelo<k, W 399 Woodward Baldwin i Noriis facing 412
Wildey, Thomas 7o8 Worthiugtoii, Charles " 864
Wilkins, William facing 422 Worthington, R H " 832
Wilkius, Wm , i Co bct« een '22, 423 Wjnian, William, Residence of " 887
Williams Gcorm II facing 717 \ouug, William >« ' 442
. W N " o3
|
STATE OF F E N N |
S f L W A N 1 |
A |
|
'A |
MAP OF
BALTIMORE
COUNTY
Eiuiri, vcti E.vfjrixs:^lit lor Dui HLstxnif ofBatlimore CittfundCoiuiUj
*^^' y-,^ \ \ ', Grffvert,onHH!igA:|
v^^x^:^
■P .^ J^^-^
'^^
yi^'--:-^<
h.3i..iij^
HISTORY
OF
BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY,
M^EYL^IsTD.
CHAPTEE I.
TOPOGRAPHY.!
Baltimore County forms an important part of the great continental belt of country known as the Atlantic slope of North America. Situated in the northern part of the State of Maryland, it is the most central of the counties which extend from east to west along the Pennsylvania boundary. It has an area of seven hundred and eighteen square miles, and presents somewhat the form of a broad curved wedge with the tip cut square off at the north, and with the curved base on the south indented by tidal estuaries. Its length is about thirty-five miles from north to south, by nearly eleven miles and a half in width along the northern border, expanding to a breadth of twenty- eight miles between the estuary of the Gunpowder River on the east and the Patapsco River on the west. The last named and the Little Gunpowder form its chief boundaries on the west and east. Two of the great areas of rain precipitation being included within its limits, together with the mildness of the climate, give it almost unsurpassed advantages for sustaining a healthy and flourishing population. Supplied by nature with an abundance of water and wood, with soils easily cultivated, and capable of yielding ample harvests of all the cereals, vegetables, and all the best fruits of temperate climates, it rests only with the in- habitants to advance their own interests by adjusting themselves to the surrounding physical conditions. Structurally, it possesses the most important elements which give strength, variety, and character to the Atlantic region. The contours of surface are chiefly brought into prominence by the underlying reliefs of hard rocks and of the solid materials derived from them. For convenience, the surface of the county may be divided into an upland region, a midland basin, and a lowland border.
1 Contributed by Prof. Philip E. Uhler, president of the Maryland Academy of Sciences.
Uplands.— The uplands embrace all that part of the country reaching from Western Run, about one mile north of Cockeysville, to the Pennsylvania State line. High mountains are no longer included within these limits, for the peaked and craggy summits of long-past ages have been softened into the blunt domes and gentler ridges of a more quiet period. In their stead are ranges of high hills traversing the county diagonally, and passing out of it at a point southwest of Reisterstown. North of Parkton these hills are lifted to an altitude of more than eight hun- dred feet above the level of the sea. Most of them are broad on top, sloping gradually towards the south and east, and give rise to groups of lower domes along their flanks, which terminate usually at the forks of the streams. In the very midst of these lower hills an abrupt ridge of dark fissured rocks occasionally rises, where a rapid stream has cut a deep ravine in its downward flow. The soft micaceous soils of the rolling uplands are covered by farms richly cultivated, and yield abundant crops of wheat and corn. On the 1 ridges are still extensive tracts of second-growth • forests of oak, hickory, chestnut, and maple, sup- I plying rails for fences, cross-ties for the railroads, and \ logs for houses, as well as wood for fuel. This sup- ply is, however, rapidly decreasing, and the time is near when it will be no longer possible to obtain trees for most of these purposes. In rocky places, where a deep vegetable mould has accumulated, bodies of slender young walnut growth may still be seen, but nearly all that of larger dimensions has long since disappeared. Along these rich bottoms and between the ridges near the streams the Kalmia, or calico-bush, grows in vast thickets. These with the ferns and lichens clothe the blackish-gray rocks, and decorate every quiet nook. Little cascades and rapids appear ' in all the broader rivulets, and a highly varied under- growth shades the little pools in which until recently the speckled trout found its favorite abode. These waters are still clear, and do good service in furnish- 13
14
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
ing power to flour-mills which stand hid away here and there in unsuspected dells or hollows.
Midland Region.— The midland region is a broad, depressed tract of country extending from Chestnut Ridge on the west to the Ashland Ridge on the east, and from the high plateau north of Western Run to the Green Spring Ridge on the south. This inland basin connects also with the valleys on the east and southeast, which spread away like broad fingers to- wards the border of Harford County. Throughout most of this extensive region, and even in the valleys beyond the adjoining ridges on the east and west, limestones of good quality abound. The area in the very centre of this basin yields also vast quantities of fine white marbles. The soil is red, and of the very best quality, easy to cultivate, and highly productive of all the cereals. Iron ore is also met with in many places, chiefly in the soil overlying the limestone, but also in the hills adjoining it on the west. It presents a wide area of open country, depressed below the general level, occupied by large farms, and wooded only on the hills and ridges which project into it. Several afiiuents of the Gunpowder cross it, and an abundant supply of good drinking-water is obtained from wells.
Lowlands. — The lowland section is an alluvial belt of country which bounds the hills of archajan rocks on their tide-water sides. It comprehends the whole of the Twelfth, Thirteenth, and the eastern part of the Eleventh, nearly all the surface of Baltimore City, and sends ofl" a tongue into the Eighth District as far as to Timonium. The surface of this whole region is clay and gravel, with areas of sand in the lower levels adjacent to the old • wat^r-courses, and with deep black bogs and marshes in the necks at points along the tidal estuaries. These cold, thin soils admit a stunted growth of black-jack, scarlet, and willow oaks, with occasional strips of small pines and some tracts of chestnut trees. Where an accumulation of vegetable n|ould occurs in the beds of the streams, a more luxuriant growth of trees is seen, accompanied by the maples, and by a dense growth of dogwood, various bushes, and the greenbrier. The wild grapevine also grows in these places, and adds a fine element of va- riety to the trees upon which it climbs. In a few places hills of clay and gravelly sand rise to a height of sixty feet or more, and break the monotonous level of the tide-water plain.
The Thirteenth District, which forms a tongue be- tween the Northwest and Middle Branches of the Patapsco River, is remarkable for the extent and height of the clay hills that form the chief part of its mass. It has been at one time attached to the system of clay ridges which pass through the city of Balti- more and run back into the country on the northeast to within a mile and a half of the Gunpowder River. Federal Hill once formed a part of one of these ridges, connected with the hill on which the Battle Monu- ment now stands, and at the same time extended
northeast certainly as far as the valley of Herring Run, between the Harford and Belair roads. The clay is invaded by beds of sand on the northwest, in various places along North Avenue, on Gilmor Street north of Saratoga, and in the northeast part of the base of Federal Hill. Iron-ore nodules occur in various places on both sides of the peninsula, and fine sand suitable for glass-making has been extracted from this hill near the back basin. Slabs of iron sandstone and of pebbly conglomerates abound in nearly all sections of the upper member of this clay system, on or near the surface of the soil. The oak forests which formerly covered the greater part of this tract, aided by the abundant moisture derived from the numerous springs in the slender ravines, con- tributed to the nourishment of a very varied vegeta- tion, quite in contra.st with that now growing upon it. At one time a cypress swamp skirted this peninsula on the south side, and probably formed a part of the one near the opposite shore of the Middle Branch ad- joining Locust Point, and including a section of the Fort McHenry submerged plateau. The swamp cypress and the white cedar have long since been exterminated in the vicinit)' of Baltimore, and the only place where a few of them still remain, at a not very remote distance from the city, is on Round Bay, in the Severn River.
This part of the Thirteenth District has also been tenanted by a varied population of the animal tribes. The red deer and wildcat, the bear, the gray wolf, red fox, wild hare, common mole, raccoon, opossum, shrew, and various kinds of mice, and in the water the beaver, otter, and muskrat, have all been repre- sented. Most of the smaller of these animals still remain, but in very limited numbers. Only a few years ago this section was much wilder than now, the waters were abundantly stocked with fish and reptiles, and the wading birds — such as the great blue heron, the egret, lesser heron, and belted kingfisher — held complete sway over the humbler inhabitants of every cove, pool, and swamp. Of song-birds there are a great variety, besides the wild pigeon and woodpecker. The water snake, black snake, garter, ringed-neck, and blowing viper ; the gray swift and striped skink among the lizards; and the snapper, musk turtle, slider, pond terrapin, and the land tortoise, all abounded. Insects too numerous to mention lived here and enjoyed the region, which was also decorated by huge tufts of the royal fern, and by its graceful relations, the maidenhair and Dicksonia.
Rivers and Creeks. — The true rivers and principal creeks rise in the high country of the First Division, or in the ridges continuous therewith. Flowing be- tween the groups of hills, and forking at frequent intervals, they run swiftly in a generally southejist direction until the wider valleys are reached, and then they stretch more broadly onward to empty into the estuaries of Chesaiieake Bay. A general down- ward slope of the whole country determines the di-
TOPOGKAPHY.
rection of these streams and adds to the swiftness of their currents. \
The Great Gunpowder has all its large affluents 1 within the limits of the county. Several of these, [ such as the Little Falls, Western Run, Black Kock Creek, and Beaver Dam, are powerful streams which drain most of the northwestern half of the territory. The river itself is one of marked beauty and variety, and especially so in its upper divisions. Like all the rivers and creeks of the uplands, it plunges at one place over huge rocks in a heavy cascade, at the next it forms strong rapids among the bowlders, and then placidly glides along for nearly a mile in a wider, deeper channel, through a bed of alluvial soil. Its course is very sinuous, and particularly so, on a grander scale, south of the great fork below White- hall ; while farther down it becomes a majestic stream, full of energy, and supplying power for very large mills, factories, and furnaces at many points along its course. Yet it no longer fills the wide channel which it once occupied, nor can it be estimated to contain much more than one-fourth the volume of water that belonged to it about one hundred years ago. The drying up of springs which originally supplied its tributaries, and the decomposition of the rocks into soils along the banks, have changed the order of dis- tribution of the water and placed it in new relations. Hillsides, once covered with trees, shrubs, and herbage, retained the rain-water near the surface or allowed it to flow in a gradual supply to the springs beneath, while a notable proportion entered the cracks in the rocks to trickle through and converge in the streams at lower levels. But now the hillsides, baked by the sun, allow the rains to run off by a single impulse, to be lost in swelling floods, while that which falls on the disintegrated rocks is held as in a sponge, and is parted with chiefly by evaporation into the atmos- phere. These rivers and creeks have been a powerful agent in grinding the hard rocks into sands, clays, and earth. The river perpetually rasping against a hill in its path, has made here and there a wide bot- tom, over which it has deposited soft, moist soil, and in such places, often of ten or more acres in extent, the farmer now finds his choicest meadow-land.
The Patapsco River is the largest and most power- ful stream in the county, although it forms rather the boundary than a true member of the territory. Most of its tributaries belong to Carroll County, and the principal ones rise in Parr's Ridge, at a distance of twenty-five to thirty miles northwest of Baltimore City. These streams have frequent bends, and plunge rapidly over beds of broken rocks in ravines between the high, abrupt hills. After reaching the border of the Second District, the West Branch becomes a wide, rapid creek of clear water, running through a more open country, with beds of limestone near on the one hand, and with the dark, forbidding hills of the Soldiers' Delight region on the other. After reach- ing the vicinity of Marriottsville, it unites, forms a
fork with the West Branch, and then with redoubled energy rolls through a wide channel between the high domes of dark-gray rock until it reaches its extreme expanse among the bowlders at Ellicott's City. At this point it plunges over a great dam (no longer a natural one), and furnishes power for several of the largest flour-mills and cotton-factories in the country. From thence, after being somewhat contracted by the rocky barriers which arrest its expanse near Ilchester, and passing through a deep trough to Orange Grove Mills, it opens out into a beautiful, wide, deep valley until the wide gap is reached at the Relay House. From that point it flows steadily, and more narrowly, on through an alluvial plain until it is lost in the broad estuary at tide-water. It has been in former times the avenue into the heart of the country, through which large schooners passed to points nearly as far up as the Relay House. This, however, is no longer possible. The great flood of July, 1868, tore away such quantities of sand, soil, and other materials from the country above as to fill up the channel for about four miles, leaving only two or three feet of water in places where it was formerly ten or twelve feet deep. The same flood affected all the streams in the vicinity of Baltimore, in some thrusting the rocks out of their places and grinding them into fragments, in others transporting bowlders, sand, and soil, choking up the channels, and changing the courses of the waters. By this flood the rocks of the cascades in Jones' Falls, near Baltimore, were nearly all destroyed, and the few that remained were almost obliterated by the subse- quent flood of August, 1870.
This latter stream runs through a most varied and picturesque region. Rising at the head of Green Spring Valley, it flows between verdant hills of va- rious heights, through a valley of great fertility, out into the broad depression since converted into the great storage basin of Baltimore, — Lake Roland. From thence it runs gently through a rocky bed until it reaches an alluvial bottom near Mount Washing- ton ; next it rushes over broken rocks, and continuing on across an alluvial meadow and over the crushed remains of ledges of rocks, it passes through the city and empties into the harbor of Baltimore. All along its course, at intervals of a mile or less south of the lake, it feeds mills and factories of various kinds. The most pleasant villages and settlements in the State are situated on its banks, while the great cot- ton and other factories at Mount Washington, Wood- berry, and Hampton have drawn together a large and industrious population. The adjacent hills have become the places of residence of prosperous mer- chants of Baltimore, and land companies have taken advantage of this delightful country to build roads and cottages for summer residents.
Gwynn's Falls Branch is a wide creek which rises in the high region a little south of Reisterstown. It flows at first through the flat bottoms adjacent to the table-lauds of the western part of the county, and
16
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
then meanders between the more abrupt hills in a deep channel, with bayed-out intervals at points where the current formerly met an obstruction, such as the sharp face of a ridge or a mass of rocks. A -short distance south of the village of Franklin it forks, and from that point it continues over broken masses of black gneiss rock until it bends around into the deep valley below Calverton. At this point it has until recently supplied water for five large flour- mills. Formerly it yielded the motive-power for three others on the Frederick road, for several near the Viaduct bridge of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road, and for several others near the Washington road. Now, however, the volume of water is so small that steam-power has to be employed for all the mills along its lower sections. The great floods have also wrecked the lower reaches of this stream. Before 1868 a magnificent cascade, in some of its parts fully twenty feet high, dashed over a high wall of granitic rock at a point about one-fourth of a mile south of Calverton, but now only the bed of the rock remains, and a low wooden dam takes its place. Originally this natural fall was more than seventy feet above the ])resent bed of the stream, the waters rushed over in heavy volume, and the broken spouts of water in the western angle wore deep and wide round pot-holes in the massive rocks beneath. Some of these basins were as much as six feet in diameter and five feet in depth. They were caused by the water striking the rock at right angles, producing first a little depression, in which sand and hard stone lodged, and by the in- cessant revolving of the stone and sand the hole was widened and deepened until the motion was arrested. Along this valley of the creek numerous other falls occurred at irregular intervals of a few rods all the way down. But at the present time scarcely more than a few vestiges of these lower falls now remain to mark their old places. This stream empties into the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River through a wide marsh and mixed sand-flat, covered in summer by a dense growth of cat-tail reed ( Typha latifolia] and wild rice. The high tides formerly covered the greater portion of this tract, but recently a large part of it has become dry, and has been reclaimed for the raising of vegetables by the market gardeners. This was formerly the habitat of the snapping-turtle, the black catfish, muskrat, aind edible crab. The latter ran into the spaces between the clumps of marsh grasses for protection while moulting, and during flood-tide mul- titudes of soft crabs were thus easily obtainable. In other parts of the estuary adjoining this tract, where- ever the water is shallow, the Potamogeton, or pond- weed, grows in dense beds, aflbrding shelter to the shrimp, pond-fish, stickleback, and countless num- bers of Cijprinodont)', or mud-dabblers. Larger fish such as the shad, herring, rockfish, and tailors, for- merly abounded in the channel at the mouth of this creek, but they have long sin(« been exterminated, and in their place smaller numbers of white perch,
yellow perch, pond-fish, and crocus have appeared. I Cray-fish also sometimes abound in the smaller tribu- I taries which empty into this basin. Less than fifty j years ago this branch of the river was unusually sup- I plied with springs, and previously, being a place of great attractiveness, the name " Spring Gardens" was applied to the locality.
Herring Run is another interesting creek which waters the country near Baltimore City. It rises in the high, hilly region a short distance southeast of Towsontown, and flows in a direction generally a little east of south, and empties into the broad marshy drain at the head of Back River. Its name was suggested by the large shoals of herrings which formerly ran up to its lower rapids, in the vicinity of the Philadelphia road, during the first warm days of spring, to deposit their eggs. While not as broad as Gwynn's Branch, it has all the variety of that stream in the beautiful cascades and rapids which occur at irregular intervals all along its course. It drains an area of about eight miles in length by from two to three miles in breadth. Running through a wooded region, with numerous ravines along its banks, each supplied with a rivulet coursing between high banks, it deposits wide reaches of alluvial soil, and yields a supply of water for driving the wheels of several large flour-mills and factories. After passing over a high, now artificial, dam of black gneiss rocks, it rushes against a promi- nent blufl" of granite and hornblendic gneiss, is there- by turned around towards the south for a few rods, until, getting free from the high ridge which forms a barrier behind Hall's Springs, it emerges into the alluvial level next beyond and crosses the Harford road. From thence, passing over the rocky debris which has ftillen from the hills on the northern side, and having resumed its former direction, it meanders through meadows and lowlands until it spreads out into the wide marshy pool which forms its mouth.
Leaving the numerous creeks of smaller size which
aid in swelling the volume of the Great Gunpowder
and Little Gunpowder in their long courses through
the hills of the northern part of the county, on the
j southeast the attention is arrested by broad sheets of
water, in which the tide ebbs and flows in harmony
with the vast sheet of the Chesapeake, of which they
I form a part. These are the broad estuary of the Gun-
I powder, and the somewhat narrower ones of the iVIiddle
River, the Back River, the three mouths of the Pa-
, tapsco, and Bear Creek. All of these are confined to
the alluvial belt adjacent to the Chesapeake Bay, and
! only one of them (the East Branch of the Patapsco)
I is as much as twelve miles in length. That of the
I Gunpowder forms an extensive bay, with low clay
I banks and sandy beaches, covering a basin about two
[ miles in width, at the widest part, by a length of
about seven miles from north to south. Middle River
' is a less land-locked but broken gulf, scarcely sepa-
j rated from the Chesapeake, and chiefly made up of
' uneven pools of water, which push out like ragged
TOPOGRAPHY.
17
tongues on either side into the flat necks of low ground.
The Back River forms a better defined and more channel-like stream, bent somewhat like the letter S, and bounded on the bay side by low marshy islands. It is a shallow sound, with low clay shores and sandy or marshy stretches of beach from its source to its mouth. Until quite recently these estuaries and their adjoining necks of land have been the favorite haunts of the wild swan, the canvas-back, and many other varieties of the duck tribe, with a great multi- tude of other water-fowl too numerous to mention. They still form the resort of smaller numbers of these same birds, while the blue heron, the egret, bittern, night heron, plover, snipe, woodcock, and a few species of song-birds, owls, hawks, and sea-birds, still linger in the vicinity.
Jlost picturesque and attractive of all these waters are the estuaries called the East and Middle Branches of the Patapsco. The first of these reaches from the harbor of Baltimore to Chesapeake Bay, a distance of twelve miles ; its greatest breadth being at the mouth, between North Point and the Bodkin, a distance of nearly five miles. After leaving the Lazaretto, just outside of the harbor, it is a lovely sheet of water, having undulating banks of various-colored clays rising on both shores somewhat abruptly, sometimes to a height of twenty feet above the water-level, with the tides of the Chesapeake rolling through every part of it in dark-green waves. Here and there a clean beach of gravel is present along the levels be- tween the clifl's, and often behind these appear the fresh green of the swamps, covered with the cat-tail, wild rice, and calamus. Groves of oaks, sweet gum, and pines still decorate the hills and valleys along the banks, and the necks adjacent are made bright and pleasant by the vegetable and fruit gardens which appear on every side.
The second of these, the Middle Branch, extends frotn the Spring Gardens on the west and connects with the former between Fort McHenry and the point on which the Marine Hospital is situated. Its length is about three miles, with an average width of rather less than a mile. This is a fine sheet of tidal water, with a ship channel running through its whole length, having a depth of from sixteen to twenty feet. Along the southern shore, however, the water is very shallow, and on this side a frequent deposit of mud and silt, brought down by the long Northwest Branch, is per- sistently sweeping up. Quite near to the north shore, east of the Long Bridge, there is also a deep channel which connects with the other nearer the middle of the river, and affords excellent wharfage for large schooners. All of these basins are more or less sub- ject to the accumulation of drainage from the rapid streams which receive their deposits from the high country beyond. Hence the bottom is covered in most places by a pasty blackish mud, similar to the oyster mud of Chesapeake Bay. It is derived from
the carbonaceous matter of the softer alluvium, and requires to be dredged at occasional intervals to keep the channels navigable. The shores on either side are low, but much higher along the Spring Gardens, on the south side of which the clay hills rise to a height of sixty feet or more. The same side of the broader basin of the river is chiefly bordered by cat- tail marsh of variable width, and near the Marine Hospital extensive ridges of sand prevent their farther extension in the direction of the outer tide-water. On the low tract behind this shore may be seen strips of woods of great beauty, including the holly, sour gum, sweet gum, willow, scarlet oaks, red maple, and thickets of the magnolia.
Bear Creek is a tributary of the East Branch of the Patapsco. It enters the latter on the southeast side, and is chiefly composed of unequal arms, projecting into coves, connected with a central channel about three and a half miles long, having a general width of about half a mile. The banks are high and low at unequal intervals, chiefly composed of iron ore clays, of reddish or ochreous colors, and of gravelly sand next to and beneath the marshes. Deep boggy tracts of black mud appear between the low hills ; these are densely overgrown by the magnolia, sour gum, maples, and a great variety of bushes, and are made almost impenetrable by the thick tangled masses of the greenbrier (Smilax). The most beauti- ful tree of the region is the evergreen holly {Ilex opaca). Its rich dark-green leaves, strongly contrasted with the yellow green of the vines and sweet gum, give persistent verdure to the thickets. Occasional groves of the common pine still stand in erect col- umns, and furnish fine dark backgrounds to the vege- tation of the swamps. Altogether it is a region of pleasant variety, which greatly needs the softening touch of civilization to sweep off" its exuberant wild- ness, and to bring it into harmony with the better surroundings of a great city. It forms the chief drain of Patapsco Neck, and is fed and kept supplied with water by the numerous springs which burst from the ground in the bordering marshes. Formerly it was the region of extensive fisheries of the shad, herring, rockfish, white perch, etc., but now only a few of these fish remain, and the two former have quite left the locality.
Dead Rivers or Creeks.— The drying or failing of springs in many parts of the country adjacent to the lower highlands, south of the middle of the county, has caused the obliteration of numerous branches and smaller creeks which were formerly important tribu- taries of the Gunpowder and Patapsco Rivers, and of Gwynn's and Jones' Falls. The most striking in- stance of this kind is Western Creek, or run. This was once a stream more than three hundred feet in breadth above and below the Pimlico road. It rose in the hills east of the Beisterstown turnpike, and emp- tied into Jones' Falls through a deep chasm, next to what is now the railroad station at Mount Washing-
HISTOKY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
ton. A few rods east of the point where its two branches unite there is an extraordinarily large dam, full}' three hundred feet wide by twenty feet high, built of the black hornblendic gneiss of this region, which shows what a vast volume of water once accu- mulated at this point. This work was once used to supply the water-power of a large stone mill, which, with its accompanying mill-race, still stands in ruins on the northern bank of the old channel of the stream. Terraces below the dam on this same bank may be seen at intervals, serving to show that the water had been at one time as much as twenty to thirty feet in depth. A remnant of the former stream now remains as a shal- low brook, varying in width from five to ten feet. At this point it passes through an alluvial bed, charged with a few small bowlders, while along the interval between the hills in Mount Washington it has worn a deep gully, filled with broken rocks and bowlders of various sizes.
On both banks of Gwynn's Falls, near and north- west of Baltimore, may be seen the dry beds of many small brooks which formerly fed that creek. Very notably is this the case in that branch of the stream which runs in the vicinity of Wetheredsville. Only in times of heavy rains are these drains supplied with water, and then only for a short time. The same may be said of Jones' Falls, north of the city, and also, in greater or less degree, of all the rapid streams which drain the country north of Baltimore. The south side of the Thirteenth District, between the Relay House and Gwynn's Falls, has also several old beds of former large streams and indications of ancient lake basins.
Valleys. — ^Valleys of surpassing loveliness may be seen in various j)arts of the county. The chief of these are Dulauey's, Long Green, Green Spring, Worthington's, and the Great Central Basin. The first named extends from the ridge north of Lake Roland (bounding the" Northern Central Railroad on the east) to that three miles beyond the Gunpowder River, or a distance of about ten miles. It varies much in width, lieing scarcely a mile across in any part of its own proper depression. But it connects with several other short valleys on its northwest side (the largest being that through which the Gunpowder runs), and thus appears immensely expanded at a few points. It is not a uniform, unbroken trough, but has low, rolling hills bending in from the upper side. On its southern side the hills are steep at first, but they gradually pass into the rolling, billow-like prominences which stretch away on the east and southeast. The soil is generally good, in some places quite rich. Large farms are common, and the southwestern part of the valley is characterized by the great estates of Hampton and Glen Ellen. It is richly supplied with almost inex- haustible beds of the strongest limestones, yielding the best (piality of burnt lime, and adding a highly- prized fertilizer to the resources of the district. Iron ores of the hematite type arc also to be found in the
red clays of the region adjoining the hill on which Towsontown is situated, and which are now being ex- tensively excavated for the Ashland Furnace.
Long Green Valley is a more abrupt depression be- tween the chain of high hills, and it is narrower than either of the other large valleys. It starts from behind the high ridge which bounds the great bend in the Gunpowder River near the copper-works, and runs about three miles in the direction of the Little Gunpowder River, while its principal depres.sion ex- tends nearly north and south for a distance of about four miles. Apparently it is a synclinal trough in its upper division, underlaid by limestone, which croj)s out in beds on the sides, and which in disintegrating adds an important ingredient in enriching the soil. The Harford turnpike passes through the whole length of its southeastern depression, and connects with roads running into other sections of the region, making every part of it readily accessible. The valley is scarcely more than half a mile wide in any portion, but it is rendered somewhat unequal by the rolling hills which flank it on the west. On every hand neat painted wooden houses, with large barns and groups of whitewashed outhouses, associated with fine orchards of peach, cherry, and apple trees, greet the eye, contrasting fiirely with the dark soil of the hills, and testifying to the neatness and thrift of the people. The whole region is picturesque, attractive, well watered, and most inviting as a place of summer residence. It only needs a railroad to make it speedily accessible in order to draw a larger population.
Green Spring Valley is a beautiful tract of country, running nearly west and east, and opening out at the basin of Lake Roland. It extends from near Owings' Mills to the latter, a distance of about seven miles, and is about two miles in its greatest breadth. Its name was derived from the numerous springs which bubbled up in two small lakes near the head of its depression, situated in the midst of a tract remarkable for its rich verdure. The ridge on its north side rises by gradual stages from the basin adjoining the North- ern Central Railroad, and rolls in lower broad waves towards the bed of the valley. On the south side, a chain of hills rises in majestic beauty above the hori- zon. This ridge starts from near its opening with a high back, about three-quarters of a mile long, and is continued by six or seven others of less length, all crowned with tall trees, and flowing westward like the folds of a huge sea-serpent, until lost amid the domes at the head of the valley. Fine large farms range on both sides and along the flanks of the hills ; frequent belts of limestone cross the roads or appear in the sides of the knolls, and many of the choice country- seats of wealthy citizens of Baltimore lie half con- cealed behind the groves of trees which shut iu the landscape. The soil varies from clay to loam, is well watered in most places, and yields abundant crops of cereals and fruits. The valley is placed in the midst of a rich grazing tract containing numerous dairy-
TOPOGRAPHY.
farms, which produce vast quantities of the richest milk and cream, and prove the importance of this district to the not distant city.
Crossing the broad rise of Chestnut Ridge, upon which Reisterstown is situated, and proceeding a short distance towards the east, we are met by a view of indescribable natural beauty. Worthington's Val- ley stretches out in a broad oval depression, having a general northeast by southwest trend, of nearly five miles in width, and of somewhat more than that in length. It is surrounded on all sides but one by mod- erately high, almost abruptly sloping hills, crowned with deep forests of every variety of green. The de- pression becomes gradually deeper as Western Run is approached, while several of its tributaries take rise along the flanks of the ridge on the southeastern and western sides of the basin. A short swell of low limestone hills pushes into the valley from near the middle of the southeast side, and contributes an ele- ment of variety to the view in that direction. The valley is underlaid by a sheet of white limestone of extraordinary purity and excellence, in which exca- vations have been carried to a depth of more than sixty feet without reaching to the underlying rocks. Wells have been sunk in niany parts of the valley, some of them twelve feet, others twenty-five feet, and the deepest beyond sixty feet, always entering the limestone at a point eight to ten feet beneath the sur- face, and generally reaching an abundant supply of pure water. The only hindrance to obtaining the water occurs where the limestone is deep and dry, probably made so by the numerous sink-holes which are found in many parts of this area. All around the inner rim of this basin shattered quartz fragments lie thickly settled in the soil, while similar pieces are less abundantly seen on the tops of the ridges ; but all over the valley these fragments, of precisely the same stone, have been turned into more rounded bowlders, and lie buried there in a stratum often six to eight feet thick, in a clayey, micaceous soil. Beneath this is a layer of pure white sand, usually about two feet thick, resting immediately upon the limestone, and is turned into a quicksand wherever the water runs into it from the higher levels. The hills which inclose this amphitheatral basin are composed of mica schists, everywhere deeply decomposed, and only to be seen firm in a few small spots where the damp shadowing vegetation has protected them from the sun and at- mosphere. These few ledges are the harder remnants of enormous masses, which once stood towering in craggy peaks above the summits of the ridge. Enough remains to show that they had a general dip of about sixty degrees a little west of south. Bowlders of brown hematitic iron ore lie scattered over the surface near the outer side of the valley, and shallow beds of the same occur in the midst of the quartz bowlders, and on
the lower edge of the micaceous uplifts. Numerous springs burst from the schists which fill the hills, yielding an almost inexhaustible supply of limpid water, and filling the air with a cool temperature peculiarly grateful to the senses. Nature has en- dowed this lovely valley with everything needed for the comfort of man. A deep, fertile soil spreads out all around ; vegetable humus is washed down from the hills by every freshet ; all the cereals grow in rich pro- fusion ; fruits of all the usual kinds are at home here ; brooks cut their way through the meadows at frequent intervals, and two kinds of water for drinking run from the hills or swell up in the limestone wells. The woods are full of varieties of flowering shrubs and plants, and the ferns luxuriate in dense thickets upon every moist hillside or hollow, and form brakes in the damp corners of the meadows. A solitary hornblende bowlder, about the size of a bushel basket, lying in the upper part of this valley, at a distance of five or six miles from its native bed, attests the power of the floods which at various times have poured over the hills into the adjoining basins. This peaceful valley rests in the midst of a scene of quiet beauty, aflbrding pleasant prospects in all directions. It only needs a system of good roads to render ithighly attractive to resi- dents of the city who seek a place for health and repose. The Great Central Basin, as it may properly be called, is the broad open depression adjoining Cockeysville. It is a wide stretch of country, sloping inward from the rolling hills on the north, west, and south, but itself rolling gently away towards the southeast and south, and connecting with smaller valleys in those directions. Its general expression is that of an east- and-west oval basin, bounded by Chestnut Ridge on the left, and by Ashland Ridge on tlje right. Beaver Dam Creek traverses nearly its whole length from west to east, and Western Run crosses its northeast corner. It is a great limestone basin, scooped out of the archsean rocks, overlaid by iron-ore clays in de- pressions, and with quartz cobble-stone and local drift accumulations distributed throughout in their beds. It is at once the centre of the marble and agricultural interests. The Beaver Dam and other quarries yield inexhaustible supplies of choice white marble of various kinds, while the Texas belt supplies immense quantities of valuable limestone. In and around the basin large farms of rich soil in a high state of culti- vation are numerous, and on the northwest side is situated the celebrated Hayfields, the prize stock-farm of the county. All the cereals and fruits grow here in luxuriance, and the grazing farms supply the city with an abundance of milk and butter. Situated on the Northern Central Railroad, within three-quarters of an hour's ride from Baltimore, renders it quickly accessible, and it is rapidly filling up with an active and intelligent population.
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
CHAPTEK II.
GEOLOGY.i
The introductory chapter of geological history be- gins in a period relative to which speculation takes the place of observation, and conjecture or hypothesis must supply, as best they can, the want of exact knowledge. In this outline we propose to leave these misty regions unexplored, and start from a state of things which we know to have once existed. We know that at a certain time in the world's history this portion of its surface consisted of vast bare sur- faces of rock and wide areas of water. Desolate and hopeless as this prospect would have seemed to a be- holder, these barren rocks and unfruitful waves, acted upon by heat and cold, by expansion and contraction, were to yield all the varieties of surface, of rock and soil, of hill, valley, bay, and river, which afford such pleasing diversity to-day.
The first surface rocks laid down in the primeval ocean were no doubt sediments produced by the dis- integrative action of warm currents and chemical agents, and the shattering energies exercised by earth- quakes and electricity. Hard volcanic materials, such as lavas, trachytes, basalts, diorites, etc., had to be reduced to soft plastic masses in order to be changed into the rocks which form the lower crust of the region as it rests at the present time. A general deiwsition along almost parallel lines running nearly northeast by southwest afforded an axis upon which to build succeeding formations. As long ages of steadily increasing shrinkage and drying went on, foldings of the surface were pushed up above the mist-covered waters, and mountain ridges appeared. Frequent agitations of the mass produced changes of level, and the dispositions of rock and water became more varied.
Sharing in the several continental changes which have formed the Atlantic belt of North America, Baltimore County has been developed from its condi- tion of primitive simplicity into a region of varied complexity. It now embodies within its substance the chief varieties of rocks, minerals, and soils be- longing to the whole territory east of Parr's Ridge. Looking broadly at the features which stand out most prominently, the county is seen to be traversed diag- onally by three general ridges of high hills, inclosing the valleys by lateral spurs and clusters of domes which deflect more or less from the main direction of northwest by southeast. Those on the northwest rise in series of high, chiefly broad-topped masses, with here and there a short, abrupt backbone ridge break- ing their continuity. They rise to an elevation of from six hundred to eight hundred feet above tide- water, and are chiefly composed of hydromica slates. The second series forms the great range, with its many radiating members, which crosses the country
one mile or more north of Cockeysville, runs southwest to Reisterstown, and passes out of the county beyond that place. It rises to an altitude of four hundred to five hundred feet, and is built of the hornbleudic gneisses, containing some mica schists, quartzites, and a few granites. This is the great central area which incloses the principal limestone valleys, and which has suffered deep erosion, perhai)s during the Cam- brian period.
The third is the area of lower blunt ridges which succeed each other between the northern boundary of Green Spring Valley, Woodstock, and the city of Baltimore. These latter foldings are composed chiefly of the lowest rocks belonging to the county. On the southwestern side they reach an altitude of more than four hundred feet above tide-water, and chiefly con- sist of dense granites, altered from a sedimentary con- dition by the action of heat. The other hills of this division are generally lower near the middle of the county, but they rise to nearly the normal elevation between the Great and Little Gunpowder Rivers.
The geological formations which have thus far been detected in Baltimore County belong to the Arch^an (Laurentian and the Hydromica Schist series), Pa- laeozoic (Cambrian, or Lower Silurian), Mesozoic (Jurassic and Wealden, possibly Cretaceous), Ceno- zoic, or Tertiary, and Quaternary, or Modern.
I. Archaean Age. — The first land which in this county rose above the surface of the general ocean was the broad belt, twenty miles wide, which stretches across the country on a diagonal line about three- quarters of a mile north of Monkton to about the same distance west of Reisterstown, and extends from that line south to tide-water. It is pre-eminently a region of crystalline and hard rocks. Hornblendic and feldspathic gneiss, both massive and stratified, syenite, granites, quartzites, and some granitic and gneissic mica schists appear in most parts of the ter- ritory. In addition to these, chloritic gneiss, serpen- tine, steatite, talc, asbestos, and magnesian rocks ap- pear in an interrupted series of hills which range diagonally across the county from near the southern end of Lake Roland to a point about five miles south- west of Reisterstown. The hills of the primeval archsean era were less high than those of the hydro- mica schist age which succeeded them on the north. But they were once much higher than at the present time, and erosion, degradation, and decomposition have greatly reduced their size, and turned them for the most part into rounded domes.
At the lowest accessible level of this formation, almost at the edge of tide-water, the rocks are seen to be hornblendic. Near the mouth of Jones' Falls, at Gwynn's Falls, and at those of Herring Run and the Gunpowder River, these underlying hornblende rocks are dense, rather fine-grained, and stratified. Often the stratification is lost, or indistinct, in the middle of the beds, while it is better defined or even quite dis- tinct on the outer limits. More commonly these
GEOLOGY.
hornblendic gneisses are destitute of scales of mica, or when this mineral is present, it appears only in very small grains. As we proceed northwardly across their line of strike, granitic gneiss appears at frequent intervals. Almost every hill has a bed of this rock of larger or smaller size. Some of these granitic masses are mere intercalations between the layers of dark gneiss, the stratified folds fitting intimately around every part of their form. In a few places they are intrusive, cross the gneiss at nearly right angles, and form slender dykes of chiefly silicious materials. Near the mouth of Gwynn's Falls granitic aggregations of various kinds occur in low hills (the remnants of former great ones), and in the old bed of the stream. These are charged with large laminfe of mica almost regularly stratified, while the chief con- stituents of the masses are quartz and orthoclase feldspar. Proceeding up this creek, the attention is arrested by the conspicuous transverse yellow belts of granitic gneiss which cross and uplift its bed. Wher- ever a gorge has been made in the course of this stream, as at the dam which feeds the race of the flour-mills on the Frederick turnpike, huge piles of this rock, somewhat squarely jointed, jut up to a con- spicuous height. At a date not now known the granitic gneiss at this place formed a wall more than seventy feet high, fifty feet wide, and two hundred feet long, which stood as a barrier across the bed of the stream. But by the continuous wearing of sand and water, driven against it through long periods of time, and by the irresistible force of heavy floods, it has been reduced to a lower level, and finally broken down to within twenty feet of its lowest exposure. This rock, like most of the others which formed dams in this stream, is of a yellowish color, coarse-grained, and composed of salmon-colored orthoclase in moder- ately large crystals, mixed with quartz in masses, veins, and fragments, and including mica in small tablets or broken scales. It is dense in some parts, loosely compounded in others, and shows evidences of irregular stratification. Frequent seams of detached bits of quartz, both smoky and white, run through the layers along the line of strike, while the north- eastern end of tlie mass passes into and mixes with the hornblendic gneiss lying beneath. This rock also bounds this great bed on its upper side and in- closes it beneath, apparently constituting a great mould into which it fits, and in which it has been modeled by enormous pressure.
This furnishes a fair example of the type of bedding, and of the kind of granitic gneiss which appears in most of the hornblendic schists of our Laurentian area.
The whole county appears to be built into, if not laid down upon, hornblendic rock and gneiss. The former rock crops out along the boundary line on the Little Gunpowder River; it occurs with a few inter- ruptions upon the whole western boundary next the Pa- tapsco, and it occupies the principal part of the country between the city of Baltimore and Owings' Mills. It
the city in or beneath every large hill, is con- spicuous along all the rapidly-flowing brooks, creeks, and rivers, and it contributes largely to the local drift which clogs the ravines and covers the low hills in the middle of the southern part of the county. No rock in all this region ofiers such variety of texture and such peculiarities of arrangement. In the region south of Pleasant Valley it is as dense as trap, com- posed of fine flattened grains of hornblende and ragged particles of quartz, has a conchoidal fracture when undecomposed, and forms the central mass of various hills, rising more than seventy feet above the bed of the river. At a point about one-half mile north of Monkton is a hill of hornblendic slates and schists. The strata are almost vertical, but dip a little west of north ; they consist of layers of gneiss, having hornblende as the principal ingredient, to which is added feldspar and some quartz. The layers range from an inch or two to two or three feet in thickness. A few of them are thickly set with fine scales of mica, but in general they are not charged with conspicuous seams of that mineral. A close ex- amination of this rock shows that crystallization of the quartz sometimes proceeded in narrow layers, passing diagonally through the plastic mass, and forming small inclosures of the matrix, like the divis- ions in a nest of boxes. Occasionally the strata are abruptly bent in the midst of the straighter ores, like a series of steps ; the material on each side of this filling out in progressively more even lines until all trace of inequality is lost on the sides.
The outer divisions of this hill are composed of broad belts of this rock, curving downwards and con- verging, while the next inner series of strata is pressed into broad undulations, which inclose the somewhat jointed, compact, and massive hornblende granite. South of Monkton, as well as directly next it on the north, the ridges are composed of very variously ar- ranged beds and strata. The latter are twisted and thrown back upon the underlying members until an almost horizontal position is reached. This condition obtains in the midst of beds of varying texture, but having a general dip west of north of about forty-five degrees. Where these abrupt folds occur the grains are less densely compacted, and are somewhat thrust apart, particularly in the apex of the bend. Suflicient flexibility has here been attained rather by the move- ment of individual particles than by the cracking to pieces of crystals and masses. Several of these in- verted folds inclose coarse uneven granites, composed of various kinds of feldspar, of quartz, and of mica, in particles or bits irregularly mixed or fused together, and sometimes very loosely compacted. Several of such hills appear in succession as the line of strike is crossed in going southward, until the limestone is reached below Phoenix. From that point to Rider's Station no large outcrops of gneiss appear ; but near the latter the folds are seen to consist of feld- spathic gneiss, stained yellow by the oxide of iron de-
22
HISTORY GF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
rived from the decomposing hornblende. The eastern end of Lake Roland is cut out of the stratified horn- blondic gneiss at the interval where it has been broadly cleft asunder from the adjacent granite, which outcrops next the dam of the city water-works, on both shores. Decomposing hornblendic schists succeed this in all the hills along the railroad until the southern end of Mount Washington is reached. At this point the black rocks of hornblendic granite project along the top of the ridge on the right, while the strata in the lower exposures are seen to be schists of gneiss, ranging from a coarse-grained, dark mix- ture through finer-grained paler gray to an almost white, micaceous, quartzose, sandstone-like rock of firm texture. A fault has allowed these newer layers of gneiss to .slide down sixty feet or more, and thus the hornblendic granite, greatly cracked and dissev- ered, stands on tojj in huge piles. Some of these latter have been precipitated to lower levels, and form angular bowlders along the ea.stern flank of the hill. The gap thus made has opened a trough across the strike of the strata, through which the waters of Jones' Falls flow, while another break is reached about one mile farther down-stream, where two hills of hornblendic granite are made by a split at nearly right angles to the direction of the former, causing the stream to alter its course and make an abrupt bend. A broad basin follows next beyond this, scooped out to a lower level than that of the gap de- scribed. The western side of this area, as far as Woodberry, is composed of stratified gneiss of less dense texture, the top of which has been plowed down by water, and perhaps also by ice, to within six to eight feet of the lower level. Over this the wash- ings of the hills beyond have been deposited to a depth of four feet or more, and along the beds of the two little brooks which formerly crossed this undula- tion the broken fragments of the hornblendic rock have been distributed in rows of bowlders. On the most northward of these two streams the black bowlders are of very large size upon the hill, but lower down they appear gradually smaller and more numerous until the bottom of the basin is reached. The open low areas of this region have all been scooped out of the softer rocks, while the surround- ing hills are made of tougher and more highly meta- morphosed masses of denser materials.
South of Woodberry the hills are abrupt on their eastern sides, slope gradually on the west, and are rapidly decaying in all their exposed surfaces. The hornblendic rock is succeeded by fine-grained, more or le.ss chloritic gneiss, either of a grayish-black or yellowish-white color, which breaks down into a fine yellowish powder, yielding a dry, dusty soil. Pene- trating the hill bounding Druid Hill Park, on the northeast corner is a bed of unevenly mixed granite. This reaches the surface beside a crack, through which runs a small brook. Being highly charged with firm (juartz, it mostly resists the action of the solvents in
I the water and atmosphere, and stands as a prop to ! support its adjuncts on the south. On the lower ; eastern boundaries of Druid Hill the granites begin again, and appear in large masses. They cross the bed of Jones' Falls in high beds, giving rise to cas- cades, wherever they have not been broken off by heavy floods. Some of these are of the kind known as graphic granites, exhibit a highly crystalline and glossy surface when broken, and consist of coarse grains of quartz, fused together with large crystals and chunks of orthoclase, and holding tablets of mica of various sizes. Most of these, however, are more fine and even-grained, consisting of quartz and white feldspar, with very little mica, and showing more distinctly an orderly arrangement of their grains in nearly parallel lines. All the beds of granites in this section of country, as far as they have been ac- cessible to inspection, have proved to be inclosed in the less metamorphosed stratified gneiss. The beds lie between the folds of gneiss, the latter fits all around their form, and they often send ofl" slender tongues between the layers, or are, occasionally, even con- nected with slender veins of quartz, w-hich run in vari- ous directions across the strata. The Jones' Falls quarries, just north of the city, are an excellent ex- ample of the forms of gneiss and granitic gneiss which particularly belong to Baltimore County. Here are beds folded at a high angle, fifty to seventy degrees north of northwest, having a pretty regular strike in conformity with the continental axis, and with the tops of the strata planed off throughout a tract embracing hundreds of acres. In this series of beds are the sedimentary gneisses of every variety of texture and composition, altered by metamorphic agents into shales, schists, and dense beds in great variety. Black mica abounds, and forms a principal ingredient in some of the layers. In others the pale mica appears in finer and more even scales, associated with hornblende and feldspar. The broken ends of some of these layers project up to a height of eighty to ninety feet, while they become gradually broader beneath, and are there more altered, compacted, and I hardened. Quarrying beneath the surface has ex- posed sections of these rocks equal to a height of one hundred and thirty feet. This has shown that con- solidation of the materials has proceeded from beneath. The grain there becomes fine and close, quartz and hornblende are evenly associated, a mini- mum of mica, if any, is present, and a fine granitic gneiss becomes the substitute for the shaly layers above. Here and there a small bed of coarse granite is completely inclosed, and in two cases small rounded masses of this rock have been seen fitted in the strata surrounding them, like a ball in its socket. Proceed- ing into the city of Baltimore, the same classes of gneiss continue until near tide-water. At intervals they are interrupted by broad beds of disintegrating granite, consisting of coarse and fine grains of quartz, feldspar, and a small proportion of mica and horn-
23
blende. In some of the beds the mica is abundant in fine scales, the hornblende is scarcely apparent, 1 and the quartz forms the principal proportion of the mixture. These quartz grains are of every, possible 1 form, from a flattened, ragged scale to an oblong or I rounded pebble, and are usually charged with cracks and crevices. For the most part they are rather smoky and imperfectly translucent, often stained brownish by the presence of iron, but occasionally of great brilliancy and almost transparent.
On approaching Union Depot the black rocks again appear, and extend along and then under Jones' Falls in a blunt ridge sloping thirty feet beneath the surface near the edge of the harbor. As this rock is directly overlaid by the micaceous gneiss along the outer edges of the formation southeast of the city, and as it appears in all of the less broken exposures on the tide-water side between the latter and the Great Gunpowder River, it is reasonable to infer that it is the bed-rock everywhere beneath the Jurassic on the Chesapeake boundary of the county. Digging arte- sian wells has shown that this gneiss occurs at a depth of about one hundred and forty-five feet at a distance of one mile from the city along the estuary of the Patapsco in Baltimore County, and that in Fort Car- roll, seven miles farther out, the same rock is reached at a depth of one hundred and ninety-five feet from the surface. Accordingly, and from other artesian excavations, it is plainly shown that the hornblendic granites have been swollen from beneath into ranges of domes, which extend out for unknown distances towards the ocean, and that the intervening, deeper basins have been made by powerful erosion, which has carried away all the softer parts of the upper layers of archtean rocks, and cut down to the more solid and strong parts of the lower beds.
The region a few hundred feet back from the pres- ent limits of tide-water is important, as furnishing ex- cellent examples of the type of structure of many of our hills. One of the best preserved of these is a rounded hill dipping in all directions, which for con- venience maybe called a cycloclinal, — i.e., having the sides sloping all around the circle. It is now a low hill in which the strata of hornblendic gneiss follow each other in serial order. The upper layer, about five feet thick, is of coarse-grained dull feldspar, con- taining a smaller proportion of quartz in uneven mix- ture, of hornblende in fine, remote particles, and of very small scales of mica in moderate quantity. This stratum has been cracked into two divisions, and jointed at frequent intervals. It is spread out more horizontally than those beneath, and connects on its eastern side with the more broken remains of a second cycloclinal, which once stood a few rods beyond. The i next two strata are about six feet in thickness, are j bent at a little higher angle, and are very densely set with larger scales of black mica, constituting an un- 1 evenly deposited schist. The next layer fits the above intimately, is about three feet thick, less micaceous.
but more hornblendic, composed of more regular grains of feldspar, and is quite compact and strong. Underneath this is a series of foliated layers of finer- grained quartz, feldspar, and hornblende, in all not more than six inches thick. Below this a strongly- bent broad stratum of hornblendic gneiss fits closely ; next a few feet of rock having more quartz and less hornblende, and at the lowest exposure a highly-bent stratum of granitic gneiss, almost destitute of horn- blende, but containing a large proportion of highly crystalline quartz grains, in feldspar, with a little mica in minute spangles. As this little hill is set directly in the bed of Gwynn's Falls, it has caused that stream to deflect from a straight course, and to form a bend like the letter S. The creek has, how- ever, hammered for long periods against the hard flanks of this rigid barrier, and not without some success. For by sudden floods loaded with masses of stone and sand it has been broken stage by stage until most of the upper part of one side has been re- moved and carried away. Next north of this eleva- tion the edges of hornblendic and mica schists cross the bed of the stream, and are traversed in various directions by thick and thin veins of white quartz. These are followed by thick strata of hornblendic rock, and by more or less micaceous beds, mixed with coarse granite for a long distance.
The fine-grained hornblende rock is a granite in all essential particulars. It is intimately united with all our lowest granites and flows into their mass ; or, on the other hand, the granites flow into it. This condi- tion of things does not involve dykes, although there are places near the Patapsco River, in the First and Second Districts, where both granite and hornblende veins push up through strata of granitic gneiss and cross them at various angles. So likewise on the Great Gunpowder River, etc. Hornblende rock forms dome-shaped upthrusts in various parts of this county. Several outcrops of this kind occur along the common strike of the belt, between the Belair and Philadel- phia roads, north of Whitemansh Run, and also be- yond the Great Gunpowder River, in the Eleventh District, in the lower part of the Third District, etc. Between the Reisterstown and the Liberty turnpike roads great beds of this rock lie exposed in every deep cut. These are of immense thickness, and of great density, hardness, and weight. How deeply they pene- trate into the earth is not known, but by adding to- gether the exposures at the different levels a section of at least three hundred feet might easily be con- structed. At various points they exhibit a strange phenomenon in weathering. Near the new bridges on Calvert and North Streets the centres of the beds are solid and only cracked into joints, but on their outer ends they are .seen to be split into numerous thin layers. This is due, in part at least, to the presence of iron pyrites. As the latter oxidizes it unites with the moisture of the atmosphere and gradually works its way in lines between the flattened
24
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
grains of hornblende, and so forms an eroding agent whicli steadily splits the larger strata. Usually where a conspicuous proportion of feldspar is present the hornblende rock is stratified, while in most eases where there is an absence of this mineral, or of quartz, the stratification is not apparent without close exam- ination.
No description of the gneissic system of our archaean geology would be complete which omitted to notice the commercial granites, the chloritic belts, the hy- dromica schist series, and the older limestones.
The former constitute prominent rolls in the high hills which flank the western side of the county, from Ilchester to the uplands beyond Woodstock. Most prominent and best known arc those which are desig- nated by the name of Woodstock, Ellicott's City, and Elysville granites. The former are obtained from three large quarries exposed in the upper parts of long and wide hills, at an elevation of more than four hundred feet above the sea, set in a tract of country where this rock appears for a distance of about five miles in length from northwest to southeast, by nearly two miles in width from northeast to southwest. To this should be added the interrupted belt which extends from the Eelay House to a short distance above Ellicott's City. Each small section possesses a different kind of granite, so that it is generally easy to distinguish between one sample brought from the region of Granite village and one brought from be- yond, or indeed from different quarries in the same neighborhood. Those from the vicinity of the last- mentioned place are finer-grained than those near Ellicott's City, while the most northwesterly of them has the finest grain of all. This statement must be confined to the granites which have been introduced as an article of merchandise, for there are still finer- grained varieties resting m single hills between the gneiss near Orange Grove, near Ilchester, and near the mouth of Gwynn's Falls. The hills in which the first-mentioned varieties occur rise as gentle elevations of fifty feet or more above the general level of the folds of the adjacent ridge. The rocks of the three quarries mentioned are composed of ragged grains of dull white feldspar, with a smaller portion of orthoclase feldspar, clear quartz, hornblende in smaller spicu- lated grains, in medium quantity, unevenly mixed, and with quite small flakes of pale mica in small quantity. An agreeable light gray color is the result of this composition, which strongly resembles the varieties brought from Richmond, Va., and from New Hampshire. AVhere lying undisturbed they curve gently in all directions, as if forming the upper mem- bers of a cycloclinal or anticlinal. But, as yet, they have not been sufiiciently laid bare to establish their exact connections with the beds next adjoining. Out- lying members of the series, however, are seen to fit into the more or less stratified hornblendic gneiss, and to grade into the hornblende rock, as has been noticed previously in some of the liinary trriuiites.
As the hill is ascended behind the college at Wood- stock, the granite rises into the road in the form of a dome, with a top about four feet in diameter. This is encircled on the bed of the road by a belt of the same rock, of about six inches in thickness. To this was added, originally, other outer layers, of which vestiges still remain, showing the same curvature and inward bend, and serving to establish the fact that they all belonged to a nearly hemispherical mass of granite. It should be noticed at this point that the bed is slowly undergoing decomposition, and that the concentric form of these outer shells may be due to the manner in which the grains crack apart as they lose tenacity. However, throughout the upper parts of the quarries, in the freshly-broken rock, a similar curvature is also seen. In a quarry of fine granite, owned by T. Putney, in the near vicinity of this road, a most striking phenomenon presents itself. All around the upper part, as far down as the excavation has been well exposed, the outer grains of the rock have decomposed, fallen aside or into adjoining joints, and have left the strata lying in the form of huge eggs, or elliptical masses. Some of these are twenty- two feet long by twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, while others are scarcely more than five feet in length by three feet in breadth, and indeed they occur of various dimensions. The outside of all these bodies is seen to be more or less stained brownish by the oxide of iron derived from the particles of decom- posing hornblende, but this decomposition extends inwards to a depth of rarely more than about six inches. Inside of this the clear gray color of the rock asserts its tenacity, and is extensively employed for first-class buildings. The same phenomenon occurs in the other quarries of this region, but on a much smaller scale. In this hill, as in the others near it, the granites lie in layers a few feet in thickness, one above the other. The wedge-shaped end of one fill- ing out a corresponding corner at the end of its next neighbor, while others taper in yet more slender wedges, which run between contiguous ones, on nearly the same plane ; and so the whole series is made up of long bands, firaetured obliquely, or in contact, end to end, where jointed squarely. Several other varieties of granite occur in beds of smaller size, near the Patapsco River, in the Second District. One of these is a salt-and-pepper mixed pattern, with the grains of feldspar and quartz smaller than those in the beds already opened around Granite Post-oflice, and have the particles of hornblende as small as pins' heads, and rather evenly disseminated throughout. It occurs in layers a few feet thick, pushing up through the coarse granitic and hornblendic gneiss on both sides of the Patapsco River.
The next variety is very compact, occurs in the same region, is almost pure white, and resembles crys- talline marble in its general appearance. The few grains of hornblende that it contains are mere atoms placed at very remote intervals, and rather regularly
25
distributed. It also appears in small beds, set in simi- lar position between the layers of coarse gneiss.
Across the Patapsco River, opposite Elysville, is a large outcrop of granite, forming the body of a ridge fully sixty feet high. The rock is a fine-grained mix- ture of white feldspar, quartz, hornblende, and mica. The grains are somewhat flattened, ragged, and irregular, and the hornblende is small, set in slen- der streaks of jagged atoms along interrupted lines. Atoms of mica are sparingly distributed through the feldspar, and are generally placed between the finer grains. The color of this granite is generally that of pale lead, a little darkened by the short streaks of black hornblende. This large bed is set into a broken mass of granitic gneiss into which it grades, the mica increases in quantity and size until a somewhat schist- ose character is imparted to the strata. Decomposi- tion is making havoc with these outer parts near the road, and the weathering parts are being variegated with ochreous brown. It then appears more like a sandstone, the grains become rounder, and it finally washes down into a loose, sandy soil.
The EUicott's City granite may be known by its dark-gray appearance, varied by oval or square large crystals of pink and white feldspar. These pieces of orthoclase are sometimes of an inch or more in length, while the general average of the fragments scarcely exceeds the one-twelfth of an inch in size. In some parts of the beds extraordinary diversity of mixture obtains, large and small crystals of different kinds of feldspar are placed in contact with quartz and large grains of hornblende, and the rock displays highly crystalline and lustrous surface. The texture of this composition is close, hard, and very enduring. In the presence of damp, iron-charged soil it disinte- grates and turns into paste, but in ordinary situations it strongly resists the atmosphere.
Between this place and Orange Grove the greatest number of species of granite may be obtained. Some, such as the variety just described, form the larger jiart of the great hills which constitute the ridge rising more than a hundred feet above the bed of the river. Below Ilchester long, intrusive beds of rose- colored porphyritic granites jut out in the midst of tlie blackish varieties, and within a radius of two miles southeast of this point a dozen patterns of granites, from an almost black species beautifully mottled and inscribed to a pale, delicate bluish-gray, fiue-grained, wavy-streaked variety, form a grand uplift near Orange Grove. Near the bridge below Ilchester these rocks are held in the embrace of the great hornblende strata, in some cases fade into them, while the pale-red or salmon varieties vein through them at difl'erent angles.
Another species of granite, somewhat resembling the EUicott's City type, occurs in and next to the Great Gunpowder River, near the Philadelphia turn- pike. It is a gray rock, composed of moclerately large grains of feldspar and quartz, the former being some-
times rosy, charged with black hornblende in short, wavy, slender lines, bent in every direction, and with but very little mica, in exceedingly small scales. Oc- casionally very coarse aggregations of hornblende, as well as large crystals of ragged feldspar, give it a very conspicuous appearance. In density, hardness, and weight it will stand equal to any of the other varieties. It weathers into ridgy, waved, broken lines of quartz and feldspar, very much like the granite from EUicott's City. Away from the centre of the massive beds it runs into thin layers, and finally changes into stratified hornblendic gneiss. Horn- blende invades it from various directions, and pene- trates, or rests within its mass, in swollen wedges, in bent lines, in vein-like, thick streaks, or in blunt, tongue-like projections. Near the road, beyond the bridge, it rises in concentric strata, inclosed all around by strata of true gneiss, having been originally pushed up in dome-shaped waves, which have been planed off by the rushing of water and hard matter over its surface. The rocks in this region have the u.sual dip towards the north-northwest at very high angles, while the concentric strata connect with others which ex- tend away in more parallel lines.
At the former limit of tide-water near the mouth of Gwynn's Falls, a gray granite of fine texture occupies the lower and central part of a large exposure in the side of a hill. It is a rock composed of ragged grains of feldspar and quartz, with finer fragments of horn- blende, and a few very minute .scales of mica. At the ends, and as it jjroceeds upwards, the rock becomes stratified, grades into gneiss and micaceous schist, and loses its distinctive granitic character. This, with the preceding illustrations of the variable nature of our granites, will serve to show that at least many of them were originally deposited as ordinary sediments and that they have been changed to their highly crystal- line condition by the action of heat, probably pen- etrating them in the form of steam and gas.
The next great rock system which demands our at- tention is the Chloritic, embracing the serpentines, chlorite schists, soapstone, talc, and magnesian com- positions, with their included ores and minerals. I They occur most prominently in certain ranges of rounded, moderately-elevated hills running in a gen- erally northeast by southwest direction along both sides of the great limestone basins of the middle of the county. The first and smallest of these is the tract of country known as the Bare Hills,— a barren, for- bidding region of blackish-green, hard, dry rocks, everywhere exposed at the surface and in the deep cuts of the little streams.
Tunnels have been cut into the massive, jointed beds, and deep pits have been dug to reach the chro- mic iron, but everywhere the same dark rock presents itself, relieved only by magnesian efflorescence, or brownish stains of oxide of iron. As nearly as can be determined, these rocks dip north of east, at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees. They are bounded
HISTORY OP BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
on the east by the granitic ledges of Lake Roland, and on the other sides by the hornblendic and mica- ceous gneiss. Their unconformability witli the gnels- sic sj'stem in this region seems clear; but as we ap- proach Druid Hill Park, along the line of Green Spring Avenue, they cross the line of strike of the hornblende rocks, are fitted into them in belts a few feet wide, and stretch oft' under the surface in a nar- row tongue, whicli has been cut into on Charles Street near Chase. As only the edges of the strata are ex- posed on the roads north of the Park, it is not now possible to state whether the serpentiue lies in faults within the hornblendic beds. But at all events, it fits intimately into the places which it there occupies, and might readily be supposed to be of the same age as the massive hornblende. A few indications of the pi'esence of serpentine are seen next the great horn- blende area east of the Pimlico road, but on both sides of Green Spring Avenue it occurs in the chlo- ritic soils which display their barrenness on the flanks and sides of the hills. Chlorite affects the rocks and makes its appearance over a diagonal stretch of coun- try, less than an eighth of a mile wide, running across the Reisterstown turnpike to the Liberty road, about one mile west of Baltimore; next appearing a few rods west of Gwynn's Falls on the old I'rederick road, extending beyond the Frederick turnpike and becom- ing lost in the hills southeast of Catonsville. North- west of the latter place it occupies a wide space of surface, stretching off' towards Liberty.
The largest area of serpentine in this county is the great group of hills called Soldiers' Delight. It is dark and forbidding like the former, but more ele- vated, and constructed on a grander scale. Possibly the hills are only great mounds of rock, pushed up to their present level by the drying and shrinking of the earth's surface. Such enormous beds do not seem to be intrusive upthrusts, or dykes. Cleavage, or jointing, is carried to an extreme development throughout their whole extent, but it is not the joint- ing of gneiss, nor the cleavage of granite. Square or I diagonal fracture-lines pass through them at frequent intervals, and give to the weathered surfaces the ap- pearance of gaping wounds in a parched integument.
Two other areas of this rock occur, the one a little east of Black Rock Run, north of Butler Post-office, and the other near the forks of the Great Gunpowder ; but they present the same general features as the others, and have no peculiarities calling for a further notice at this time.
All of these areas are of value from the pockets of chrome and beds of precious serpentine and copper which they contain. In the Bare Hills valuable de- posits of several varieties of fine-grained serpentiue exist, more than one of which will fevorably compare with the celebrated verd-antique marble. Here also, as well as in the Soldiers' Delight, extensive pockets of chrome have been excavated, aud for several years a copper-mine gave its quota of good ore to the agents
who worked it. An expansion of this formation ad- joins Catonsville on the northwest, and there may be found beds of .soapstone, seams of asbestos, some talc, and occasionally tremolite and actinolite. About one mile north of Druid Hill the hornblendic-magnesian rock has been suddenly bent into small anticlinal and synclinal folds, exhibiting a highly metallic and al- most ftised appearance. Some of the folds have been overthrown, so as to lie at a very low angle. Most jmrts of this member of the series, however, dip about seventy degrees, a little west of north, show the strati- fication distinctly, and pitch towards the west. Beau- tiful thin seams of talc have once been folded into these, but only a few of their shattered remnants are now left to indicate their former places. Steatite oc- curs in the northwestern part of the First District, and has there been extensively quarried for commercial purposes. The great breaking up of the surface which seems to have occurred about the close of the Cambrian period scooped out vast quantities of these magnesian rocks with their associated overlying mica schists and left basins, to be afterwards occupied by corals and other animals, and the algje, which con- tributed to the masses of limestones and marble now spread throughout most of their expanse.
The hydromica schist formation naturally follows next in order. It occupies the highest levels of the county, and stretches over its whole width from the Pennsylvania boundary to Reisterstown on the west, and to the head-waters of the Little Gunpow-der on the east. High crests of this rock, of a blackish-gray color on the weathered faces, stand up on ridges which often rise to an elevation of more than six hundred feet above the sea. The masses are frequently of immense size, cracked and dislocated in various directions, and stand out at various angles along the steep slopes down which they have slid. Both syn- clinal and anticlinal folds, both short and long, stretch over the whole width of the area from north to south. In some cases these rocks reach over like tongues into the limestone country farther south, and in a few in- stances, as near Butler Post-office, beyond Ashland, and in the ridges next above Green Spring Valley, they have formed islands, probably, in the Cambrian Ocean. The excessive proportion of silvery mica throughout this formation is its most quickly distin- guishing feature. It is mixed with quartz, which spreads out in lumpy layers between its plates, and which sometimes pushes through it in large veins. As we proceed well into it, the newly-fractured rock of the central parts of the beds shows a slippery, satin-like surface, coated with more metallic-looking mica (Damouriti:), and this is often connected with beds of steatite, which thrust their stout root-like veins into the strata like huge cancers. Along the southern boundary of this formation the scales of mica are coai-se and the slaty character less distinct than it is seen to be as the State line is approached. Beyond Pleasant Valley splendid examples of tlie
GEOLOGY.
27
schist, of a highly silvery appearance, fill the nar- rowly-folded anticlinal and synclinal hills. There, too, the layers of that rock are very neatly wrinkled in narrow wavy lines. Quartz in lenticular laminie rests between the layers, and, where foliated, its struc- j tare is more closely pressed together, while the little } prominences set all over the surface are found to be i occupied by garnets. These rocks are bent and folded i in almost every possible way. The white quartz con- i trasts strongly with the gray mass, and forming slen- der veins, imitates many of the more crooked letters of the alphabet. Compression of the strata has often | bent the inclosed granular quartz in such a manner as to force it back upon itself. Some of these intercala- tions are several inches in thickness, and have in- volved the surrounding layers of mica to such an j extent as to double them inwards in a series of com- plicated folds. Near their outer limits, these rocks occasionally include a bed of sandstone like gray gneiss, but usually these masses are of small extent, ■, and of no great thickness. A paler gray, closer- grained sandstone is sometimes interstratified in other parts of the area, and it seems to be of a texture fit for grindstones and hones. The most striking feature of this formation is the celebrated Black Rock, on the creek of that name, about one-half mile north of Butler Post-office, in the Fifth District. This is the shattered remnant of a former great hill of tlie dark mica schist which at one time crossed the Falls turn- pike near the fork in Black Rock Run. On the west side of the road it now rises in picturesque attitude to a height of about thirty-five feet. It is weather- beaten, varied with patches of gray, green, and yel- low lichens, and partly encircled below, and on pro- jecting angles, by the beautiful fern, Polypodium vul- gare. The most prominent part of this monumental mass consists of two vertical bowlders, standing on end, q^se together. They appear to be about twenty feet high, by nearly fifteen feet in width, rest upon a large broken bed of the same kind of rock, and are partly capped by smaller masses, which lean upon them almost horizontally. Behind them, the hill is filled with similar pieces of large size, tossed there by the dislocations which have disturbed the order of this whole bed, and shattered in part by descending from a higher level.
In Butler the outer edge of this formation lies nearest to a stratified gneiss quartz-rock, separated from it by only a narrow gap. The gneiss is made up of the extremely fine particles of quartz, feldspar, and mica, sprinkled with atoms of hornblende. It is ar- ranged in very narrow strata placed almost vertical ; and dips away from the hydromica schist, although pressed against it lower down.
Another remarkable example of the hydromica schist is the Raven Rock. It occurs in the Seventh District, on the south bank of the West Branch of the Great Gunpowder River, about one and a half miles southeast of Weisburg. The rock is a prominent dark
ledge, which projects at least seventy-five feet above the earth, and overhangs the Gunpowder River. It is also part of a.great ridge, and is as usual broken and craggy. The wildest and most rugged region of all, while the highest, is that where these rocks are most prevalent, in the northwestern part of the county ; and there they may be studied in the char- acteristic and almost original condition in which they have been left by physical forces.
All the geological formations thus far noticed be- long to the great underlying systems of primeval rocks. No remains of anything certainly known to belong to animal structure have been found in any of them. They constitute the floor upon which all the sedimentary and other formations of later periods have been laid down, and from the broken remains of which, in association with the remnants of organic beings, all the succeeding rocks have been derived.
Palaeozoic Age. Cambrian and Lower Silurian Formations. — The period is now reached when living creatures and plants have begun to make their ap- pearance in the waters. A wide-spread ocean still covers much of the surface, and the eroded rocks have left deep cavities in the sides and between the swellings of the archsean masses, where rank growths of sea-weeds and the soft sea-worms could find place and protection. Doubtless hot springs and heated currents of water coursed here and there along the margins of the higher beds; skirting, perhaps, the drains and narrow valleys of the hydromica schists. As this period advanced, broad sheets of silicious conglomerates were laid down on the bottom, where the grinding waves had reduced the quartz seams to rounded pebbles. Powerful storms stirred the shal- low waters, breaking the mica from the schists, and sending it in the midst of sandy streams to the upper submerged plateaus. Fine silicious paste was laid down at more quiet intervals, until a broad deep sheet of quartz conglomerate and sandstone rested over an area extending perhaps from what is now the eastern edge of the Triassic brown sandstone belt across the greater part of our hydromica schist formation, and even projecting over a part of the county to within the Third, Ninth, and Eleventh Districts. Probably a few small belts of the Potsdam sandstone and pebbly quartzite were laid down along the old sea margin immediately north of Baltimore, since large angular fragments, with multitudes of smaller pieces, have been dug out of the drift along that line. These were not rounded, as would have been the case had they been brought from a long distance ; but their edges were sharp and unbroken, as if they had been cracked from freshly-broken beds. Also, in similar deposits in the same region, rounded small bowlders of the same system occurred, but in every case noticed they came from the harder and firmer parts of the rock, which could readily bear transportation in contact with other rounded quartz and pebble drift. The latter part of this epoch was characterized by enor-
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
mous wear aud tear of the thick silicious beds which covered some of the swellings along the bottom of the shallower basins. Some of the.se were cut quite down through the hydromica schists to the older rocks beneath. Some of these basins, so made, are of great extent, such as Dulaney's and Worthington's Valleys, and all the long depressions opening out towards the southeast. The ocean entered by all these avenues, and was perhaps only cut off from the basins in other counties by the higher folds of ar- chiean rocks along the southwestern border of the county. Life must have teemed in the shallower parts of the great ocean. The drains and open gulfs may have been peopled by the corals and algie, and the foraminifora, no doubt, filled the bottom of the deeper waters with their constantly dropping shells. Long ages elapsed, and the slowly accumulating deposits liad become thick. In some places they were com- l)act, in others more loose and porous. Here and | there streams of oozy matter, ground from the flanks of the older rocks, mixed with sand, mica, aud sili- cious grit, coursed through the beds of limestone j mud, and left a long, wavy trail wherever they flowed. Still other layers of limestone mud, mixed with what- ever sediment was carried by the now gentler waves, I were laid over the former deposits, and by this time a stratum had accumulated of several hundreds of feet in thickness. Exact figures cannot be given, for no measurements ate obtainable at the present time.
Such has been the method of construction of the Cambro-Silurian system of rocks. Its whole history has not yet been given to the world, but enough has j been .secured to enable us to recognize its most promi- \ nent features.
Mesozoie Age. Jurassic and Wealden Formations. —Whole ages of geological history have passed since the Cambro-Silurian period came to an end ; but, ex- cepting a few badly-worn corals and brachiopods of the Lower Silurian epoch, buried in the drift of the Jurassic, no remains have been left to show that these periods had ever affected the county. Probably at the beginning of the Jurassic time great heat was active in the crust of the earth. Trap was thrust up through the cracks of the rocks in the brown sandstone of the Triassic, and through other formations, and tre- mendous contractions and expansions of the strata dropped whole hills to lower levels, while it lifted others in a corresponding degree. Drying and shrink- ing of the earth's surface had already settled the bolder reliefs of upland, and now the ocean was being pushed farther away, extensive marshes bordered the coast, and the lower midlands were covered with con- sjncuous groves of trees. Springs of water welled up through the sandy beds covering the primeval rocks, and lakes filled up the avenues between the rounder hills. Great beds of canes spread away in belts next the shores, and lagoons were tenanted by the ever- hungry Astrodon and his other reptilian relations. The climate was warm ; in the lowlands tlie atmos-
phere moLst, and a plentiful vegetation grew all around. Exquisite tree-ferns flourished in the open- ings of the ravines, and the Cycad palms spread over the deep, rich soil near the swamps. Many forms of pine-like trees were established on the lower hills, aud they were spread out in wide forests as far back as the first high elevations beyond Druid Hill Park. Extensive washings of the surface, caused by the melting of glaciers on the flanks and in the cafions of the high mountain on the northwest of the county, brought down quantities of .sand and gravel and small rounded quartz bowlders from the rocky streams, and carried them out in piles as far as the border of the great ocean which washed the beach on a line with North Point and the mouth of the Gunpowder River. On that line beds of sandstone were being laid down, layer upon layer, until finally a deep and narrow strip of silicious rock stretched across the region, which wa-s afterwards to be the estuary of the Patapsco River, and away off through Cecil County, northeast, in the direction of the Delaware River. Probably this rocky belt then formed a high barrier, and served to arrest the mud and sand which was being continually carried towards it. The car- bonaceous mud of the Middle Jurassic and Wealden had now served its purpose in supporting a luxuriant vegetation, and the iron material had been stored in vast quantities throughout the beds of clay. The repose of long intervals of quiet was at length to be disturbed. The ice-barriers which had been gradually extending towards the coast were now being broken up. Floods swept down, cutting trenches through the clays and former drift mixtures, and opened channels into the sea. Ocean-waves aud floods from landward tossed the clays and sands about in rude heaps, and carved canals between the more refractory beds of the harder clays. These once opened, the higher tides rushed through them with great energy, cut away their corners, and left them standing in de- tached domes and wavy rounded swellings. Another epoch, the Cretaceous, made little or no change in the existing order of things, at least so far as any record has been left to us within the limits of this county.
Cenozoic Age. — And now we reach a period when the whole region is lifted still higher above the sea, and later, when fluctuations of level in the crust of the earth forced up the mountains west of our county, and let down our coast to a depth of more than one hun- dred feet, admitting the ocean once more as far inland as Lutherville and Timonium. Proceeding stage by stage, it distributed the gravel in high heajis over the plateaus and in the basins, and cast down some of the rocks which had become detached along the summits of the hills. A time of greater quiet followed this, when a scanty vegetation of spruce grew upon the ridges south of Dulaney's Valley, but of all else during the remainder of this period no remains exist to point out its liistory.
GEOLOGY.
But now the end of the Cenozoic Age has been reached, the present position of land and water has been reached, and a temperate climate permits the growth of willows near the streams, and of chestnut and oak upon the rolling surfaces. Marshes of deep black mud were beginning to accumulate, and the tangled roots of grasses and shrubs were preparing the foundations of the later peat.
Glacial Epoch. — The genial temperature of the Cenozoic has now passed away, glaciers have again settled on the mountains, and ice-rafts are crashing through every channel, carving more profoundly the beds of the streams, and plowing deep furrows in the surfaces of the bard rocks. Swelling floods, from the frequent melting of the ice-masses, pour through the valleys, grooving and rounding the edges of the limestones, and scoring parallel lines along the sides of the rocky ravines leading down to the rivers. New channels are cut in the Jurassic beds for the passage of the waters, and the mouths of these in turn are clogged with the rushing masses of sand, clay, and drift. Kows of hard bowlders are distributed in lines from their original ledges upon the sides of the ridges and plateaus, the upper edges of the gneisses at lower levels are planed off and then covered with the rocks detached from above. Finally, the ocean pushes the smaller bowlders, gravel, and sand over all the sur- face as far back as the lower falls of the rivers, and high hills of these materials stand up along the whole tide-water belt of the county. Later floods in this and the modern period have transported these gravels away from several of the hills and plateaus near tide- water, but the same formation still constitutes promi- nent elevations in places near the outer limits of the city, along North Avenue, near Fulton Station, and on Mount Royal Avenue. But in the region lying six to eight miles from Baltimore, between the Phila- delphia and Harford turnpikes, they form an elevated plateau, rising to fully one hundred feet above the adjacent lowlands. Clays have also been distributed during this period as shallow layers in the depres- sions washed out by the receding waters, and marsh- mud has been deposited around the shores and in the estuaries. Also, the full fauna and flora of the present had its culmination at this time, and all the diversi- ties of land and water had become established. The great American elephant roamed over the lower pla- teaus and plains, and a luxuriant growth of the swamp cypress and white cedar fringed the beaches around Locust Point, about the end of the tongue of land lying in the Thirteenth District, and along the shores of the Spring Gardens.
Iron Ores. — From the earliest settlement of the county iron ores have been known to occur in various places near tide-water; and in course of time their existence was discovered in other places, until now almost every locality within the range of the archajan and limestone rocks affords more or less of this metal. First of all, however, rank the Jurassic clays, in the
amount and quality of the ore which they contain. A great belt of these, extending from the Relay House on the Washington road to the estuary of the Gun- powder River (and into the adjoining counties), and having a width of about six miles on the west by ten miles on the east, is the natural repository of the highly-esteemed carbonates of iron. In the Twelfth, Thirteenth, and part of the Third Districts, these an- cient deposits are more than one hundred feet in depth. They are the dried muds of a once great marsh, which covered the whole southeastern border of Maryland, from the vicinity of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal to the city of Washington, and which extended back across the country in a belt averaging nearly twenty miles in width. This has been the region of dense forests, canebrakes, tree- fern groves, and luxuriant vegetation, and from their macerated and reduced remains has been derived the carbon which afterwards combined with the iron, in the alumina from the hornblendic rocks and pyrites, to form the nodules and layers. These clays have also afforded the air-tight receptacle in which the ores have concentrated, or settled in thin strata.
These carbonates of iron, widely known for their richness and purity of metal, are of two kinds. The one called Hone ore, from the drab color of its fresh exterior, and from its resemblance to the fine-grained sandstones used for whetstones, is found chiefly in layers and flat masses, a few feet below the bed of the Patapsco River, in the region around the quarantine station, also between Fort McHenry and the light- house on the opposite shore, and near the Canton water-line. Large quantities have been lifted from the two former places, and there is reason to believe that a vast store yet remains, which is now inaccessible because of the valuable property which has been built above it. At intervals, from at least the middle of the Jurassic period to the present time, the blackish, carbonaceous ooze has been settling in the bottoms of the estuaries, and thus the material for a new supply of the ore has continued to be present. It is as- serted by various persons who have been engaged in collecting this ore that the same beds may be worked over indefinitely. They state that after an interval of a few years, sometimes as few as from three to five, they have returned to the beds at the bottom of the river, and found them profitably productive.
The second variety of carbonate of iron is generally a little darker, more lead-colored than the preceding, and more or less hydrated. It is of a fine, close tex- ture, occurs in the form of nodules, often arranged like a series of shells, one within the other, and is generally more or less liver-colored towards the blackish, velvety, crystallized centre. The interior of such nodules is also seen to be filled with wet, dark- colored clay, or with sand. This is the most abundant iron ore thus far worked in the county. It lies in the lead-colored or blackish clays which rise from a few feet below tide-level; but it may also be met with in
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
tlie paler-colored and reddish clays overlying, or I thrust into depressions in the darker ones. The places which have thus far yielded the largest quantities of this ore are the peninsula of the Thirteenth District, the Caton tract, the Sulphur Spring region, the belt j along the Washington road from the Relay House [ to the vicinity of Gwynn's Falls, the whole range I of clay lands from Herring Run to within one mile ' of the Gunpowder River near the Philadelphia turn- pike, and especially that part of the county near Steramer's Run. In the northeastern part of the city, likewise, extensive excavations, to a depth of sixty j feet and more, have been made to reach the large beds of nodules which rested there. Some of these pieces were of large size, weighing two hundred 1 pounds, and even more ; but the greater number ranged from the size of the fist to that of the head.
Next in extent and value in this county rank the oxides of iron. These occur in numerous places in and near the limestone belt in most if not all of the valleys. They are of several difterent aspects, but all exhibit an earthy appearance, and are more or less ochreous on some part of the surface. Some of them, such as those found at Timonium and Ashland, have a dark-brown, smooth exterior, and occur in lumps of small size. These are dug from pits in the earth, and are often found quite near the surface. At other places, as north of Hampton, and even on that estate, deep excavations have been dug for the vast bodies of brown hematite deposited there. At Oregon, also, and at other places near Chestnut Ridge, on the "Caves" estate at the head-waters of North Run, and about two miles west of Hereford, valuable va- rieties of limonite occur in considerable quantities. These are all important ores, and generally yield from thirty-five to forty per cent, of excellent iron.
The county has not been carefully explored for the several kinds of magnetite, specular oxide, titanifer- ous, and other oxides, of which small quantities have i been found in the Bare Hills, the Soldiers' Delight, i and especially in the hills of the hydromica schist j series in the northwestern and northeastern portions. Rich magnetites have thus far been extensively mined i here only in the edge of the chloritic slates, near the forks of the Gunpowder River, south of Whitehall. The importance of large supplies of iron ore is fully appreciated by our inhabitants, and new deposits are being discovered every year; but doubtless many of the richest and best yet lie hid away deep in the rocky hills, where they will be found hereafter only as the result of a systematic and minute examination of the structure of the country. j
Marbles and Limestones.— The marbles of Balti- more County are celebrated for their usefulness and durability. These are all white, or nearly so, and [ while they are distributed throughout most of the j valleys of the middle belt, are most easily developed in the vast beds of the Beaver Dam, and in the ledges of Dulanev's Valley. All of them have been more
or less altered by the action of heat, which has in many ca.ses imparted a highly crystalline and lustrous surface to the fractured rock. This £idmits of a fine polish to the dressed stone, and renders it highly de- sirable for the finishing and trimming of houses. There are two principal varieties of this rock which claim attention first, because of their firm texture and solidity in large masses. These are the fine- grained and the alum marbles. The former is best represented in the horizontal beds worked by Messrs. Connelly and others west of Cockeysville. It consists of small, even, glistening crystals of carbonate of lime, but little invaded with sulphuret of iron, resting in even strata of great length. The second is a very coarse-grained, and more glassy, crystalline rock, which occurs in the beds at Texas and in Dulaney's Valley. It occurs in immense blocks, but, being more diflicult to polish, is not at present so much prized as formerly. Both varieties have been exten- sively used in the government buildings at Washing- ton, and the former is the chief stone used in the fronts of fine residences in Baltimore. The limcr stones are the varieties of marble undesirable for building purposes, from lack of evenness of texture, or from resistance to polish, or softness of the body of the rock. But they are precious as furnishing an important fertilizer, and one well adapted to most of the soils of the county. The limestones, including the marbles, were originally laid down in nearly hori- zontal beds, but where they rest in contact with the primordial rocks the foldings of the surface have let them down in deep synclinals, the closing of which, followed by erosion, allows their ends to project at the surface of the soil in conformity with the edges of the adjacent beds of gneiss, etc. This is markedly the case in Western Run Valley and in Quaker Bottom. At the Gunpowder end of the new tunnel for the Bal- timore water-supply, the limestone runs under the river and juts against the massive hornblende rock, appear- ing to be nearly horizontal at that point, but bent into a fold at a distance of a quarter of a mile farther east, where it forms a prominent hill. The foldings of this rock in the Texas district appear to be chiefly cyclo- clinal, connected with serpentine waves following a nearly northeast by southwest direction, and becoming lost in more horizontal layers as they shade into the broad valley on the west. In Green Spring Valley broad belts of these limestones cross the roads, and wide sheets of them underlie the soil on the north side of Lutherville, In the valleys south and west of the Great Central Basin they underlie the soil at a depth of six to ten feet, and the ore overlaid by micaceous earth charged with small (]uartz fragments, somewhat rounded.
Gold, Silver, Copper, and Chrome.— Gold has never been found in Baltimore County in quantities sufficiently large to pay for its production. It is com- monly found here in the form of fine dust or minute specks, scattered through quartz veins in the slates
GEOLOGY.
31
and primitive rocks. Granites in the archaean belt have yielded small quantities, and the chloritic slates of the metalliferous range north of Hereford have disclosed a little of the gold in very minute particles. It is an almost universally distributed native metal, always hard to discover, and uncertain as to the amount in any one locality.
Minute quantities of silver have also been found associated with copper and iron in the quartzites of the chloritic belt, eight miles from Baltimore. Speci- mens of quartzite with fine spangles of this ore have been exhibited from the region (it is asserted) just north of Baltimore. As seams of altered chloritic gneiss and almost fused hornblendic rocks pass through the section immediately north of Druid Hill Park, it is not impossible that some of the samples might have been extracted from those places.
Copper belongs to the area along the borders of the serpentine at the Bare Hills, at Soldiers' Delight, and along the metalliferous range crossing the county | about twenty miles north of Baltimore. Indications j of the metal appear in the surface rocks east of Pleas- ' ant Valley, also southeast of Whitehall, and near the fork of the Gunpowder River. Copper ores of good quality were formerly extracted from a shaft sunk near the southeastern border of the Bare Hills, but I the large amount of the ore obtained at Lake Superior and elsewhere caused the working to be unprofitable, and it has since been abandoned. Native copper has I not yet been discovered in this county, but that which has been worked is a carbonate, protruded into the quartz veins, and often accompanied by the magnetic oxide of iron. That which has been observed in the Tenth District is found next the soapstone in the midst of hydromica slate rocks. 1
Chrome still holds a prominent place as one of the valuable ores of Maryland. It is, however, less ac- cessible in Baltimore County than in the northern part of Cecil County, and this fact somewhat represses the development of the digging in the Bare Hills and Soldiers' Delight. It was formerly sought for in the form of coarse sand in the gulleys and streams of the localities before mentioned, but now the yield is found to be more productive in the pockets of the massive serpentine rocks.
Mica. — This much-needed mineral occurs in cross- layers between strata of quartz in the archsean rocks. It is associated with the binary granites, and often forms irregular pockets in the midst of their mass. A seam of this mineral has recently been laid bare on St. Paul Street, next the northern end of the bridge over Jones' Falls, but the only parts penetrated have been too much decayed to be of commercial value. Loose masses of large-sized mica plates have also been found in the binary granites of the hornblende region two miles east of Timonium. At that point only the decomposed hills have been examined, so that the rock in place may yet be found to yield veins of good quality.
Clays. — The vast bodies of archiean rocks, largely composed of alumina, have yielded by their decom- position and erosion great hills and deep strata of the most important commercial clays. These now ri.se in part as bluflTs along and near the shores of tide-water. Deep cuts along the roads leading out of the city also expose them at various points, and they may likewise be seen in the excavations for new streets on its eastern, southern, and western boundaries, and along North Avenue east of the Harford road. They are of vari- ous colors, from a pure white to a lead-black, and of every variety of texture.
The finest porcelain-clay, or kaolin, is pure white, soft, and destitute of grit, and results from the decom- position of clean feldspar. It has been found in de- posits of moderate size at many points in and near Baltimore. The new basin at Montebello cuts through a large bed of it, and it occurs in greater or less quan- tities in all the large masses of decaying binary gran- ites and feldsites. The sedimentary, water-washed white clay may be in part only another stage of this same kaolin. It occurs in beds underlying the drift and sand, east and south of the city. Large beds of it have been cut through in digging the Clifton reser- voir, and it has beeu thrown out in large quantities from the new tunnel for Harford Run, and from the beds of the streets on Federal Hill, and west of Cal- vert Street near the Northern Central Railroad depot.
Another kind of pale clay, whitish and drab, is used in making the fine-pressed Baltimore bricks. It is generally found a few feet beneath the surface in separate beds, which are often many acres in extent, and which extend beneath the surface to a depth of ten feet, or even more. They are widely distributed about the region of the Patapsco River, along a belt about two miles wide, but sending off tongues into the country at intervals to a distance of nearly five miles.
The tile, pottery, and ordinary brick clays of Balti- more County are still more widely distributed. They occupy nearly all the intermediate levels over the Jurassic area, from tide-water to a line about eight miles north of Baltimore, and from the Relay House on the Washington road to within one mile of the Gunpowder River on the Philadelphia road. Many of the beds of this clay lie directly next the surface, and seem to be of late Tertiary origin.
Two other kinds of brick clay have lately been brought into use. The one belongs to the iron-ore regions of the limestone valleys, and the other to the talcose slate region of the northern parts of the county. Both of these varieties are much valued, and are being extensively used in the construction of dwell-
The limits necessarily prescribed for the present chapter exclude the consideration of numerous topics which fitly belong to the geology of the county. Thus no notice has been taken of the duration of the time, of the thickness, and of the rate of deposit of the
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
different formations ; of the different faults and dykes, of the dislocations of the hills, and of the general changes of level which have taken place during some of the periods ; but instead, we have had to be con- tented with a general survey of the features which more immediately concern the practical interests of the present time.
CHAPTER III.
ABORIGINES. The Fierce Susquehaunouglis — Habits and Appearance.
When Captain John Smith, in the summer of 1608, penetrated the territory of Baltimore County (as will be seen in the next chapter), he found it in- habited by a nation of Indians who lived on or near the river which has since borne their name. The Susquehannoughs, being hunting Indians, changed their abodes as game grew scarce, and so scattered themselves over a large extent of country. Their chief settlement was about twenty-one miles from the mouth of the Susquehanna River, but in the spring and summer they made visits to the salt water for fish and oysters. They could muster seven hundred fight- ing men, and exercised dominion over a considerable part of the Eastern and Western Shore of the Chesa- peake Bay, being the lords of some and the allies of other tribes and confederacies.'
The Susquehannoughs were one of the fiercest and most warlike nations on the Atlantic coast, and kept all the tribes within their reach in a state of almost continual alarm. Their villages were palisaded to resist the incursions of their most bitter and deter- mined enemies, the Iroquois, or Massaworaekes, as they called them. The warlike appearance, grave and haughty carriage, and sonorous speech of the Susquehannoughs seem to have strongly impressed the early voyagers. Smith describes them as very noble specimens of humanity. He speaks of them as a race of giants. "Such greate and well propor- tioned men are seldome seene, for they seemed like giants to the English, yea, and unto their neighbours." He speaks of them as in other respects the "strangest people of all those countries." They were of a sim- ple and confiding temper, and could scarcely be re- strained from prostrating themselves in adoration of the white strangers. Their language seemed to cor- respond with their proportions, " sounding from them as a voyce in a vault." They were clad in bear and wolf-skins, wearing the skin as the Mexican his poncho, passing the head through a slit in the centre, andletting the garment drape naturally around from the shoulders.
1 Claiborne, in bis petition to the Englisli Crown in 1638, alleges that he bought the Isle of Kent from the " kings" of the country. In 1G52 the Susquelmnnouglis, in a treaty with tlie comnjissioners of Maryland, ceded tlie territory, including tlie sites of Chcstertown, Centreville, and
*' Some have cassocks made of beare head goes through the skinne's neck, i
* head and skinnes, that a man's nd the eares of the beare fastened to his sliouUIers, the nose and teeth hanging down his breast; another beare's face aplit behind him, and at the end of the nose hung a pawe; the halfe sleeves coming to the elbowes were the necks of the beares, and the arms thi-ougli the mouth with pawes hanging at their noses. One had the iiead of a wolfe hanging in a cliaino for a Jewell, his tobacco- pipe three quarters of a yard long, prettily carved with a bird, a deere, or some such device at the great end, sufficient to beat out one's brains."
Smith has given us a spirited sketch of one of these gigantic warriors, " the greatest of them," thus at- tired:
" The calf of whose leg was three-quarters of a yard about, and all the rest of hia liuibes so answerable to that proportion, that he seemed the goodliest man we ever beheld. His hayre the one side was long, the other shave close, with a ridge over his crowne like a cock's combe. His arrows were live quarters long, headed with the splinters of a white, chrystall-like stone, iu form of a heart, an inche broad, and an inche and a halfe or more long. These he wore in a wolve's skinne at his backe for his quiver, his bow in the one hand and his club in the other, as is described."
When a hostile expedition had been determined on by the chief and leading warriors of the Susquehan- noughs in council, it was made known to the tribe, who celebrated the occasion by a solemn dance, in which the warriors, decked with paint and feathers, chanted their past or prospective exploits, and imi- tated in expressive pantomime the shooting, toma- hawking, and scalping of their foes. On the ap- pointed day they set out, in one or more parties, moving, as they approached their destination, with extreme warine.ss to prevent discovery, marching often by night in single file, slipping from shadow to shadow, or gliding through the forest so stealthily that hardly a twig snapped or leaf rustled under the tread of a moccasined foot, until at a given signal they burst upon the village with terrific war-whoops. Those of their foes who survived after the rage of slaughter was glutted they made prisoners and re- served for death by the most cruel tortures their in- genuity could devise, in inventing aud enduring which the Iroquois — who indeed have the credit of introducing the custom — seem to have surpassed all others. Instances are recorded of the tortures of dis- tinguished warriors lasting for days, a sort of contest arising between the power of cruelty to inflict and that of fortitude to endure. In the intervals of tor- ment the victim would sometimes smoke his pipe and talk on indifferent matters with his tormentors, while amid his suffering he sang his own exploits or derided the unskillfulness of his torturers, and taught them devices for inflicting more exquisite pain. Women were sometimes tortured, but usually they were toma- hawked or shot, unless the captors wanted women, in which case they were adopted into the tribe. The Susquehannoughs made frequent incursions on the more southern Maryland tribes for the purpose of carrying off women.^
As we have stated, all the territory now comprised in Baltimore, Harford, and Cecil Counties was the
~ The writer's History of Maryland, vol. i., p. 84.
ABORIGINES.
favorite hunting-ground of this formidable tribe ; they, however, by no means confined themselves to these narrow limits, but scoured all the coiintry between the Delaware and the Potomac, and spread terror and dismay through the distant and less warlike tribes of Southern Maryland.
The Susquehannoughs seem to have been the tribe known to the French by the name of Andast6s, or GandastoguSs ; to the Swedes and Dutch by that of Minquas ; and to the Pennsylvanians by that of Con- estogues. The similarity of the forms Gandastogues and Conestogues, almost identical with that be- tween Gaudawague and Caughnawaga, or Conewago, is very striking. However, difference in name would not necessarily disprove the identity of the tribes mentioned. The same tribe was often known by dif- ferent names, which varied according to locality or other circumstance. It had, in the first place, its own distinctive name, often, indeed almost always, sym- bolical ; this name neighboring nations either trans- lated into their own language or dialect, or replaced it with a new appellation. The European settlers either adopted these names as they received them at second-hand, or corrupted the original in their vain efforts to imitate the linked harshness of the long-drawn-out gutturals of their Indian neighbors. The name Iroquois, for instance, is of French manu- facture ; in their own dialect they called themselves "Hotinnonsionni," or " those who constitute a cabin," an appellation evidently referring to the close con- federacy in which they were united. But each of the five nations which formed this confederacy had also its own distinctive name. The Mohawks called them- selves " Agniegue," or the " She-Bear." By the Hurons they were called " Agniers." The Mohegans on the North Eiver, the immediate neighbors of the Mo- hawks, called all the tribes of the Iroquois confed- eracy " Nadoway," or " Cruel," but they translated the distinctive Mohawk appellation, "Agniegue" into " Mahaquaas," which bears the same significa- tion in their language. Sometimes a tribe took its name from its geographical position ; thus the tribes on the Kennebec were called by the Algonquins " Abrakis," or ''Men of the East," and at the present day the Algonquin tribes of Wisconsin give this name to the Oneidas, who had removed from New York. The name of a tribe thus depending upon so many varying circumstances, it is not difficult to see how the tribe under consideration may have been known by all the different names that we have indicated.
An investigation of the historical relations and ge- ographical position of the Susquehannoughs shows so exact a correspondence in these respects between them, the Minquas, the Conestogues, and the Andas- tes, or Gandastoques, as to lead irresistibly to the con- clusion that they were one and the same tribe. The Dutch settlers of New York, in their trading expedi- tions down the Delaware, found the dominant tribe in that region to be the Minquas. They lay west of
the Delaware, to whicli they were accustomed to make their way by a creek known to the Dutch by the name of Minqua's Kill. Their language was that of the Mohawks and Senecas, both of which tribes belonged to the Iroquois stock, as did also the Susquehan- noughs, though not members of their confederacy; and their military power was so great in 1633 that De Vries saw them send out a war party of six hundred men. Campanius, the Swedish authority, gives us a long and interesting account of this same tribe :
"Tho Minquas, or MiiicUus. lived at the distance of twelve (fifty-fonr English) miles from New Sweden, where they daily came to trade with us. The way to their land was very bad, being stony, full of sharp, gray stones, with hills and morasses, so that the Swedes, when they went to them, which happened generally once or twice a year, had to walk in the water up to their arm-pits. Tliey live on a high mountain,^ very steep and difficult to climb ; there they have a fort, or a square buildiitf;, in which they reside. They have guns and small iron cannons, with whicli they shoot and defend themselves, and take with them when tliey go to war. They are strong and vigorous, both young and old ; they are a tall people, and not frightful in their appearance. When they are fighting they do not attempt to fly, but all stand like a wall as long as there is one remaining. They made the other Indians subject to them, so that they dare not stir, much less make war upon them; but their numbers are at present greatly diminished by war and sickness."
Turning next to several French authorities, we find they place the Andastes in the vicinity of the Swedes, and describe them as occupying the same prominent position among the neighboring tribes as we have seen ascribed to the Minquas by the Dutch writers, and all the Jesuit authorities bear testimony to the same point.'^
The Susquehannoughs, or Minquas, or Andastes, or Conestogues, or Gandastogues, as they were sometimes called, were engaged in active hostilities against the colonists and friendly tribes from the first settlement of the colony. The policy of the early settlers of Maryland was to treat the Indians with justice, mod- eration, and kindness, and to buy the land from them. The settlement of St. Mary's was bought by Leonard Calvert for a quantity of axes, hoes, and broadcloth, articles of real value to the Indians, who, indeed, were the more ready to part with the territory from the fact that they were suffering from the continued in- roads of the fierce Susquehannoughs, who had harassed them so cruelly that they had already determined to abandon their lands and seek safer homes elsewhere.^ Some were allowed to remain on part of the purchased territory, and their wives and children were employed as servants in the settlers' families ; others were al-
1 Vincent, in his " History of Delaware," says, " This mountain was probably Iron or Chestnut Hills, near Newark." Henry Johnston, in his valuable " Histoiical Researches," published in the Cecil WJiig, under the nom-de-plume of " Quilp," says, " It was probably an Indian name applied to some part of the country between Iron Hill and Grey's Hill, now called Bed Hill."
2 Campanius, in Penn. Hist. Soc. Coll., iii. 157; "Relation de la N. France," 1659-60, p. 28 ; Relation, 1635 (Huron); Relation, 1639-40, p. 134; Relation, 1647^8, p. 60; Bressain, Relation AbriSgSe, pp.62, 286; Lee, Relation, 1619-50; Relation, 1656-57, ch. iv. v.; Relation, 166U-61; Relation, 166'2, ch. iii. iv. ; Hazard's Annals of Penn., p. 346 ; Albany Doc. Records, xvii., 142, 160. (See letter of John Gilmary Shea, LL.D., in the Hid. Hist. Soc.)
■■> Father White's Narrative, pp. 36, 37.
HISTOl^Y OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
lotted reservations, with full rights of hunting and fishing in the woods and streams. They very cheer- fully submitted to the dominion of the whites for the sake of the protection against the Susquehannoughs which their ancestors tried to purchase from Smith with the offer of perpetual subjection. The friendly Indians were protected against their enemies and se- cured in the enjoyment of their rights, and many of them — such as the Yaocomicos,' Potopacos,- Piscata- ways,* Patuxents,* and others — never, or scarcely, wavered from their amicable relations. The two strong and warlike tribes of Maryland, the Nanti- cokes° and Susquehannoughs, preserved an independ- ent existence, and at the time of the first settlement of the province there was a feud between them, and the former, as well as the latter, were often invaded by the Iroquois. As if this were not enough, the Nanticokes were frequently embroiled with the whites, and war was several times declared against them. Under this double pressure they yielded at last, and requested to be put on the same footing as the Piscata- waj's. The Iroquois, however, continued to harass them, and finally brought them under subjection. About the middle of the eighteenth century, by ad- vice or command of the Six Nations (who stipulated in a treaty with the province that the Nanticokes should be permitted to leave Maryland and settle where the Six Nations should appoint), a portion of the tribe left the province, carrying with them the bones of their ancestors, and removed to Otsiningo (now Binghamton, N. Y.), where they joined some fragments of the Shawnees and Mohickandus, and made a league under the name of the Three Nations. Others seemed to have settled in Wyoming, Pa., and others again, if the theory be correct which identifies the Conoys or Kanawhas with the Nanticokes, to have removed to the vicinity of the rivers which now bear
1 The Yaocomicos lived on the St. Mary's, and welcomed Leonard Calvert and his little colony to the shores of Maryland.
- The Potopacos lived at their town, now called Port Tobacco, in Cliarles County.
s Mr. Davis, in his " Day Star," says, " The territory of the Piscataways, whose prominent chief bore the title of emperor, was bounded in one direction by the country of the Susquehannoughs; in another by the region of the Patu.\ents. It also embraced a part of the country border- ing upon the Patapsco and upon the Potomac, including Piscataway Creek, and probably the sites both of Washington and of Baltimore." The confederates of the Piscataways were the Doags, Mattawomans, Chap- ticos, and the Mattawas. The latter tribe inhabited the lands near Bal- timore.
< The Patuxonts, whose principal seat was upon the river of that name, included a large nnmhcr of smaller tribes remarkable for their friendship towards the whites.
^ The Nanticokes were an offslioot of the Lenni Lenape or Delawaros, which nation they called their "grandfather." The origin of the name Nanticoke was Nentego, meaning " tide-water" or *' seaside" people. The Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians, living between the shores of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, were conquered by the Susquehan- noughs or Minqnas, and on condition of being permitted to occupy their lands, they subjected Ihemselves to a kind of vassalage that excluded them from engaging in war, and, according to Indian iiieas, they wore placed on a footing with women. Campanins says the Minqtias *' made them subjects and tributary to them, so tliat they dare not stir, nmch less go to wai- against them."
their name. As late as 1852 a remnant of the tribe (about one hundred) was living on Grand River, north of Lake Erie, in Canada West.
The interposition of the colonists in behalf of the peaceable and friendly tribes of Piscataways, Patux- ents, and Yaocomicos had from the first secured the hostility of the Susquehannoughs, who took occasion, as they followed the war-path against their savage enemies of the south or the back settlers of Virginia, to strike a blow at the unprotected Marylanders, and at times they organized expeditions with the express purpose of surprising the frontier plantations, mur- dering their occupants and plundering their dwellings. Even the devoted and fearless Jesuit missionaries be- 1 gan seriously to think of abandoning their station j and establishing themselves at Potupaco (Port To- i bacco), which was less exposed to the ravages of this cruel and warlike tribe. As early as 1638 their incur- i sions necessitated the passage of a militia law, and j although a military expedition was sent against them in the following year, they continued their outrages and kept the planters in perpetual uneasiness. They had lately become more formidable by the possession j of fire-arras, for which reason the sale of arms and ammunition to them by the colonists was made penal by the following " orders," proclaimed on the 23d of June, 1642:
"That no inhabitant or housekeeper entertain any Indian upon any color of license, nor do permit to any Indian any gun, powder, or shot. That all housekeepers provide fixed guns and sufficient powder and shot for each person able to bear arms. No man to discharge three guns within the space of one-quarter of an hour, nor concur to the discharging I so many except to give or answer alarm. Upon the hearing of an alarm every housekeeper to answer it, and continue it so far as he may. No man able to bear arms to go to church, or chapel, or any considerable distance from home without fixed gun, and a charge at least of powder and shot."
' The Swedes and Dutch, however, who had settled on the territory of Lord Baltimore, on the Delaware, had no scruples in .supplying the Indians with arms, and, it was said, even taught them military discipline. Claiborne, too, was not free from suspicion of stimu- lating the discontent of his old neighbors and asso- ciates, who grew so threatening that on the 13th of September, 1742, the Governor publicly proclaimed the Susquehannoughs, Wicomeses, and Nanticokes " enemies to the province, and as such to be reputed
j and proceeded against by all persons." A commis- sion was issued to Capt. Cornwaleys to levy men for an expedition, and he soon subdued the Nanticokes and Wicomeses, who, in 1651, put themselves under the proprietary's protection. In Plantagenet's "New Albion" we have the following account of Cornwaleys' expedition against the Susquehannoughs and " their forced auxiliaries," numbering two hundred and fifty warriors:
'* Having surprised in the reeds and killed throe Englishmen, with the losseof oneof theire, Capt. Cornwaleys, that noble, right valiant, and polite soldier, losing but one man more, killed, with fifty-three of his' and but mw and tired Marylanders, twenty-nine Indians, as they con fessed, though compassed round with two hundred and fifty."
ABOKIGINES.
" Yet this severe chastisement did not, it seems, suffice, for on July 18, 1643, another expedition was sent "against the Susquehannoughs or any their aiders and confederates." The result of this expedi- tion is not known, but we find among the records of a court held at St. Mary's on the 28th of June, 1652, "that the Susquehannough Indians have for a long time desired and much pressed for the conclusion of a peace with the government and inhabitants of this province," and the court being advised that such a course would " tend very much to the safety and ad- vantage of the inhabitants," ordered Richard Ben- nett, Edward .Lloyd, Capt. William Fuller, Thomas Marsh, and Leonard Strong, or any three or more of them, " at such time and place as they shall think convenient, to consult and treat with the said Susque- hannough Indians," and if possible conclude a league aud peace with them. The commissioners named must have immediately, or within a day or two after the preceding authority was given to them, entered upon the execution of their diplomatic duties, for on the 5th of July following a treaty was held and arti- cles agreed upon by them with Sawahegeh, Aurogh- taregh, Scarhuhadigh, Ruthchogah, and Nathheldi- aneh, " war captains aud councilors of Susquehan- nough, commissioners appointed and sent for that purpose by the nation and state of Susquehannough." The first article of this treaty reads :
" First, that the English nation shall have, Imld, and enjoy, to them their heirs and assigns forever, all the land lying froza Patnxent Eiver nnto Palmer's Island, on the western side of the hay of Chesapeake, and from Choptank Kiver to the Northeast Branch, which lies to the north- ward of Elk Kiver, on the eastern side of the said hay, with all the islands, rivers, creeks, tish, fowl, deer, elke, and whatsoever else to the same he- longing, excepting the isle of Kent and Palmer's Island, which helong to Capt. Claihorne. But, nevertheless, it shall be lawful for the aforesaid English or Indians to bnild a house or fort for trade, or any such like use or occasion, at any time upon Palmer's Island."
The limits assigned by this treaty of cession from the Susquehannoughs to the southern part of the western shore of the bay is probably as far southward as they claimed. The extent of the cession on the eastern shore — to wit, from the Choptank to the North- east River, in Cecil County — seems to imply that the Susquehannoughs had by this time subdued all the intermediate tribes on the eastern shore between the Northeast River and the Choptank, or that these tribes between the Northeast and Choptank had in- corporated themselves with the Susquehannoughs. It will be seen by an inspection of the map of Mary- land that a small portion of territory, lying between the Northeast River, in Cecil County, and the Susque- hanna River, was by this treaty reserved by the Sus- quehannoughs. At this time the Indians were quite numerous around the head of the bay, and within the territory not ceded to the English the Susquehan- noughs had their settlements, or fort, from which an extensive trade was carried on in peltry brought down the Susquehanna.
On Jan. 14, 1661, Augustine Herman purchased the
land for his settlement upon the Bohemia River, for in his " Journal" he says be " bought all the land there (by permission of the Governor, Philip Calvert, and Council) of the Susquehannough Indians, then met with the great men out of the Susquehannough Fort at Spes-Utie Isle, upon a treaty of soldiers, as the old record will testify, and thereupon took posses- sion, and transported his people from Manhattan [now New York], 1661 (with great cost and charge), to inhabit." ■«
Although the treaty of cession of a great portion of the province by the Susquehannoughs might have been supposed to assure a peaceable and quiet posses- sion thereof, yet the records exhibit for some time after lamentable accounts of the murders, house-burnings, and robberies committed by the Indians upon the in- habitants of the territory now embraced in the limits of Baltimore, Harford, Cecil, and Kent Counties.
Nathaniel Utie, who had received a license May 7, 1658, to trade with the Indians, lived at this time on Spesutie Island, and became the owner of considera- ble land on the Gunpowder and Sassafras Rivers. He was one of the most adventurous pioneers at the head-waters of the Chesapeake, and on account of the troubles with the Indians and the Dutch, the Provin- cial Council frequently met at his house for the pur- pose of investigating the facts, making treaties with the Indians, etc. The Governor and Council met at Spesutie on the 13th of May, 1661, to inquire into certain outrages committed by the Indians, and ordered all persons that had suffered any damage by them to appear on the 15th. This summons was di- rected to be sent from house to house as far as the Patapsco River. From the proceedings of the Council we learn that John Norden, Stephen Hart, and two others were killed by Indians near Iron Hill while on their passage between Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake. Robert Gorsuch, who liv6d on the Gunpowder River, stated that the Indians came to his house on the 11th of April, 1661, some dressed in blue and some in red match coats, and killed his wife and plundered his house. About four or five days after they returned and killed five cows, a steer, and some hogs. John Taylor stated that about Easter eve nine male Indians with one Indian woman came to his house, but upon being ordered oft' they departed, but returned in about two weeks and damaged his goods to the value of about one thousand pounds of tobacco. They then went to the plantation of Edward Fouster and John Fouster, two bachelors, and plun- dered it. Intelligence having been received of the depredations, William Wigwell, John Fouster, Ed- ward Swanson, and others started after the Indians, who, however, surprised and surrounded them in the woods, and killed John Fouster and wounded Wil- liam Wigwell. The rest of the English fought the Indians over three hours, and finally made their escape. Thomas Overton and William Hallis testified that about the 25th of April, Thomas Simpson aud
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
Richard Hayes, seeing two canoes with nine Delaware Indians coming down Bush River and moving towards their plantation, the alarm was given and the English took to their boats, when a fight ensued, during which John Spurne, an Englishman, and five Indians were killed.
The nestcouncil met at Susquehanna Point (which is supposed to be just below Perryville), on July 1, 1(>61. There is reason to believe that the Governor and his secretary were present at this meeting, where a commission was read from Lord Baltimore to Capt. James Neals, directing him to levy men and make war upon " certain enemies — pirates and robbers — that had usurped a part of Delaware Bay lying within the for- tieth degree of northerly latitude." He was author- ized to make war upon the Dutch and their aiders and abettors in Delaware Bay, and wherever they might be found, and to capture and destroy them upon land and sea; in which work all his lordship's officers, both civil and military, were to assist. The Council being Tincertain whether the town of New Amstel was in the fortieth degree of north latitude, decided to sus- pend operations until that question was ascertained. In the mean time, with a view of securing the co-oper- ation of the Indians in case of a war with the Dutch, Governor Calvert, accompanied by his secretary (Henry Coursey) and John Bateman, one of his Council, held a meeting with the Passagonke Indians, who at that time lived on the Delaware River about the present site of Philadelphia. This meeting took place at Appoquinimi (now called AiJpoquinimink), on Sept. 19, 1661. After both sides had stated their grievances, a treaty of peace was signed by Pinna, king of Picthanomicta, on behalf of the Passagonke Indians, and by the Governor and Council of Mary- land.i
The records of the province for 1662 show that the Indians still continued to give trouble. The colonists were at peace with the Susquehannoughs, but both of these were at war with the Senecas, who were devas- tating the few scattered settlements of the English along the western tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. In the spring of 1662 they penetrated as far south as the head of South River, which seems to have alarmed the Council, for they ordered all the powder and shot to be seized for the use of the colony, and that scouts should be sent to the head-waters of all rivers emp- tying into the head of the bay, with orders to arrest or kill all Indians found there. The troubles with the Senecas grew worse, and on July 4, 1663, the Council was informed by the inhabitants of Baltimore County at the head of the bay that the Indians had recently murdered two of the settlers, and another near Pa- tapsco River, with two youths, whom it was believed they had either killed or carried off. For nearly twelve years a fierce war was kept up between the Susquehannoughs and Senecas, success being mostly
rgo JolinsoTi's Ilisi
1 ReBenrclies.
on the side of the former tribe ; but a more formidable enemy than even the Senecas had by this time invaded the Susquehannoughs, the smallpox, which first ap- peared among them in 1661, and whose ravages soon became terrible. In 1673 they only numbered about three hundred warriors, while ten years before they had been able to muster seven hundred ; and prob- ably the mortality was even greater among the women and children.
When the Hurons who were of Iroquois stock, were finally overthrown, the survivors fled for refuge to the Andastes or Susquehannoughs, from whom they had before received promises of assistance. The pro- tection thus afforded seems to have been resented by the Iroquois confederacy, or Five Nations, and war being declared between them and the Andastes in 1662, the warriors of the latter tribe carried such de- vastation into the land of the Senecas (one of the Five Nations) that these were forced to seek the aid of the French. The Dutch writers, under date of 1661-62, relate that the Minquas, though they had suffered severely from the smallpox, had engaged in a war with the Senecas, and that "in May, 1663, an army of sixteen hundred Senecas marched against the Minquas, and laid siege to a little fort defended by a hundred men, who, armed with fire-arms and even cannon, relying, too, on speedy aid from their countrymen and from the Marylanders, with whom they had recently made peace,^ defended themselves vigorously, and at last compelled the Senecas to raise the siege."^
The war between the Andastes or Susquehannoughs and Iroquois continued for many years with almost con- stant victory for the former. But disease accomplished what the Five Nations could not, and the reduced tribe was finally defeated ; the Relation of 1676-77 speak- ing of the Andastes as utterly exterminated after a re- sistance of twenty years. That JIaryland took part in the final defeat of this heroic nation is evident from the language of the Iroquois deputies at the treaty of Lancaster in 1744 : " We do not remember," they say, " that we have ever been employed by the Great King to conquer others ; if it is so, it is beyond our memory. We do remember we were employed by Maryland to conquer the Conestogues, and that the second time
2 In August, 1663, the Provincial Council of Maryland met at Gold- smith Hall (supposed to have been on Bush River, now in Harford County), and gave orders to Samuel Goldsmith to request the Susque- hannoughs to come down and make a treaty with them. A treaty was finally concluded with Wastahandow, "chief geneml and councilor" of that nation. In August the Governor, attended by three of his council- ors, also made a treaty with three kings of the Delaware Indians at New
3 It was, as wo have seen, only a few years before this (1652) that the Susquehannoughs had made their famous treaty with Maryland, by which they ceded the territory from the Patuxent River on the western side of the bay to the Choptank River on the eastern side, and the iden- tity of these Indians with the Conestogues seems fully established by tile fact that the Iroquois, in 1744, referring to this sale by the Susque- hannoughs to Maryland, siiy, *' We acknowledge the deeds to be good and valid, and that the Conestogue or Snsquehannough Indians had a right to sell those lands to you, f(U' they wore then theire."
ABORIGINES.
we were at war with them we carried them off." It is a matter of record that the Maryland war here re- ferred to^ which was begun by the treachery of Wash- ington and Trueman, in 1675, and which was carried on to a successful termination by Bacon, of Virginia, was against the Susqueliannouglis, and ended in their complete overthrow. The remnant of the tribe, though carried off and mingled'with their Iroquois conquer- ors, must have maintained a separate existence, for we find that Penn, in 1701, entered into a regular treaty with Coiioodagtok, king of the Susquehan- noughs, Minquas, or Conestoga Indians ; but it would seem that on this occasion a representative from the Onondaga tribe was present. As a subject tribe we meet with them for many years in the negotiations of the league, and though some of them appear to have been removed to Onoghguage, a little band remained at Conestoga, where, joined by some Nanticokes, they formed a small village. In 1763, we are told, " they were still at their old castle, numbering only twenty, inhabiting a cluster of squalid cabins, living by beg- gary and the sale of baskets, brooms, and wooden ladles." An Indian war (Pontiac's) then desolated the frontier, and the Paxton boys, suspecting these poor wretches, and finding in the Bible sufiicient com- mission to destroy the heathen, attacked the village and killed six of them, the only occupants at the time. The fourteen survivors were taken to Lancaster by the sheriff, and shut up in the jail-yard for protec- tion ; but they could not escape the Paxton boys, who, while the townspeople were at church, burst into the jail and massacred the helpless objects of their fury. Thus perished at the hands of a cowardly mob the last remnant of that once powerful and noble tril)e which had lorded it over the whole of Maryland, and which had often vanquished the fiercest and most for- midable of the Indian confederacies.
French and Indian War.— Although, happily for the people of Baltimore Town and Baltimore County, they were not in the track of any of the great Indian wars, or exposed to the formidable Indian invasions from which many other parts of the province suffered, they were by no means entirely free from the dangers and alarms of the troubled period in which they lived, and played no unimportant part in many of the stern dramas of that early time. In the French and Indian war which ensued after the treaty of Aix-)a-Chapelle in 1749, between England and France, Maryland be- came involved mainly in self-defense, and though she was to share none of its spoils, her people were des- tined to suffer from many of the dangers and hard- ships it brought in its train. Even before Braddock's defeat bands of Indians were making forays into Frederick County, burning houses and slaughtering the inhabitants, but after his disastrous overthrow on the 9th of July, 1755, and the retreat of Col. Dunbar with the remainder of the British army to Philadel- phia, the whole northern and western frontier of the province was thrown open to the Indians. Measures
of defense were almost immediately adopted, but even had they sufficed for the complete protection of the wide territory to be guarded, they would scarcely have allayed the terror which had taken possession of the frontier settlers. The alarm insjjired by Braddock's defeat and by the advance of the French and Indians was so great that many inhabitants of the western set- tlements fled to Baltimore, and preparations were even ' made by the people of that town to place the women and children on board the vessels in the harbor and send them to Virginia. At an earlier period the in- hab^ants of Baltimore had erected a wooden fence or stockade around the town, of which some tradi- tions are still preserved. It had been constructed for the defense of the town against Indian attacks, and inclosed the whole of its inland border, thus indi- cating that the danger apprehended was from the land side. In this formidable stockade, which, it is to be noted, was not pierced for cannon, there were two great gates to admit the friendly traveler, or to be shut in the face of the unfriendly one. The first of these gates was at the west end of Baltimore Street, and was placed somewhere very near its present in- tersection with McClellan's Alley. The second gate, for carriages, opened into the upper part of North Gay Street, not far probably from the bridge which crosses Jones' Falls. Between these two great portals a smaller gate, for the use of foot-passengers, was cut through the stockade near the present intersection of Charles and Saratoga Streets. This line of fortifi- cation never had its virtue put to trial, and seems to have remained intact for only a few years, when, a hard winter setting in, and the stockade beiog made of wood of a very combustible and tempting character, it was carried away piecemeal for " kind- Doubtless had it remained until the period now under consideration, the inhabitants of Baltimore Town would have felt more comfortable, even if really no more secure. The general terror, however, con- tinued to increase, and in September following the Monongahela disaster the country to the distance of thirty miles east of Col. Thomas Cresap's (who lived about five miles west of the mouth of the South Branch of the Potomac) was completely deserted. So universal was the alarm that Governor Sharpe, in one of his letters to Calvert, declared that " one might foretell without the spirit of prophecy that all tfiat part of Frederick County that lies beyond
1 There is in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society an orig- inal snbscription paper for " keeping up, repairing, and making good the fence of the said town and supporting a person to keep it in good or- der." The subscribers were Robert North, William Hammond, Thomas Chase, R. Chase, Darby Lux, William Rogers, and William Lyon, who each gave £10. Nicholas Rogers, Hannah Hughes, Brian Philpot, Jr., Dr. George Buchanan, Edward Dogan, and Capt. Charles Ridgely each gave 10 shillings; Capt. Darby Lux, Thomas Harrison, and William Rogers, £1 ; John Shephard, John Frasher, James Perkins, Nich. "Hartway, Chris. Cytmire, John Eusor, Jr., and Joseph England each 5 shillings ; William Fergusons shillings; and Abraham Pamer and Henry Johnson each '2 shillings and 6 pence.
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
Frederick Town will be abandoned before this time twelvemonth at farthest." In the fall following Brad- dock's defeat the people of Baltimore raised a large sum of money, with which they purchased arms and ammunition, and established a public armory in the town, the martial spirit being kept up by the con- tinual alarms and massacres on the frontier. Early in November it was reported that a large body of French and Indians were advancing upon the inte- rior settlements, and this rumor reaching Frederick Town on Sunday, November 2d, the inhabitants, ex- pecting an immediate attack, rang the bells q| an alarm, and posted messengers to Baltimore and An- napolis for help. Several companies of volunteers at once mustered in Baltimore and the neighborhood, and marched without delay. Even distant Annapolis caught the infection of terror, and on the 6th of No- vember the citizens began to fortify the town. On the same day a report reached Baltimore that the French and Indians were within thirty miles of the town, and in a short time about two thousand volun- teers had assembled for its defense. The report proved to be false, but other reports, unhappily better founded, poured in announcing slaughter and devastation in the western part of the province. Baltimore Town and County, however, were not occupied merely with their own defense, but furnished both men and sup- plies for the protection and support of the ravaged and defenseless frontiers. The winter and spring of 1756 found the western section of the province still overrun by raiding-parties of Indians, some of which approached within thirty miles of Baltimore, and though many of them were killed, terror spread from the very fact of their approach. On the 25th of April, 1756, forty-one persons, — six men, Ave women, and thirty children, — with a small portion of their cattle, to avoid the fury of the enemy, deserted their cabins and clearings near Connecocheague and came to Baltimore.
At length England and France abandoned all pre- tence of peace, and war was formally declared on May 17, 1756. This open authorization of hostilities by the two great powers beyond the sea seemed to arouse the Indians to a still greater degree of fury, and Governor Sharpe, in alarm, writes to Lord Balti- more, under date of September 13th, to say that "the enemy has now free access to us through Pennsylvania, and if some measures are not speedily taken for the defense of that colony neither Fort Frederick' nor its garrison can be of much service. Besides the gar- rison at Fort Frederick, we have at present two hun-
1 A fort erected by Governor Sharpe near the present town of Hancock, Washington County. It cost £2000, and bad barracks for the accom- odation of two hundred men, and on an emergency could contain rice tliat numlicr. It had bastions and curtains faced with stone, and 1 each bastion was mounted a six-pounder.
dred men from the militia of Baltimore and Prince George's Counties distributed on this side that fort and about Connegocheague ; yet that settlement is, I am advised, almost broken up, and several hundred persons have lately retreated thence, and retired to the more populous parts of the county," some of them, as we have seen, not stopping in their flight until they reached Baltimore. Besides Ihe aid which Baltimore Town afforded in other ways, it contributed to the general defense in another and rather peculiar mode. The Assembly voted a large appropriation in 1756 for the prosecution of hostilities and the protection of the province, and as one of the means of raising the desired amount, levied a tax on all bachelors of twenty-five years and upwards.'-
Many of these gentlemen paid this tax for the next eight years, being doubtless too patriotic to deprive the province of this source of revenue during the con- tinuance of hostilities, which terminated, however, as far as danger to Maryland was concerned, with the capture of Fort Du Quesne in the latter part of 1758. In spite of the many alarms to which its inhabitants had been subjected by the war, and the heavy bur- dens which it involved, there can be no doubt that the growth of Baltimore had been promoted by the continuation of hostilities, which prevented the ex- tension of settlements by the great influx of German " Palatines" and other immigrants who came in be- tween 1756 and 1763, and compelled the people of the frontier to take refuge in the large towns.
This conclusion is supported by the fact that Balti- more's commercial importance suddenly increased at this period, and within a year after the declaration of peace it became the chief mart of trade in the prov- ince, a position it has ever since retained.
- Under this provision the following persons were called upon to pay their quota to the province: Thomas Harrison, John Moale, Andrew Buchanan, Daniel Chamier, Sr., James Frauklin, Jonathan Plowman, John Shule, Dr. John Stevenson, Edward Parish, William Baxter, Thomas Dick, John Mercer, and Mark Alexander, citizens of Baltimore Town ; Jeremiah Johnson, Keese Bowen, William Cole, Thomas Harvey, Richard Rawlings, Edward Stevenson, Hugh Gray worth, Charles How- ard, Beale Owings, Samuel Owiugs, Jr.,/olin Donghaday, Nathan Crom- well, Richard Hooker, Thomas Hooker, Nathaniel Stinchcomb, Walter Bosley, John Fishpaw, William Barney, Jr., Anthony Gott, Jr., Abel Brown, Jr., Michael Huffand, Aquilla Price, Mordecai Hammond, Henry Stevenson, of Edward, Samuel Bond, of Peter, William Harvey, Jr., John Gibbon, Thomas Johnson, Thomas Cockey Deye, Benjamin Whipps, Samuel Worthington, and Edward Peritany, of St. Thomas' Parish, Bal- timore County ; and William Osbourne, Garret Garretson, John Peacock, James Kemble, Philip Cover, W. Husband, Jr., James Lee, Jr., Isaac Webster, Samuel Wallace, J. Billingsley, Jr., Richard Johns, Joseph Hill, J. Lee Webster, J. Worthington, John Love, Thomas Husband, Samuel Wilson, George Clark, David Clark, Josiah Lyon, William Wood, Robert Dunn, John Cooper, John Wilkinson, Thomas Cooper, Stephen Cooper, David Tate, David Maxwell, Joseph Bromely, M. Webster, Jr., James Cresswell, Joseph Wilson, Edward Hanson, F. Billingsley, Rich- ard Keen, Robert Brjarly, of Robert, Robert Darby, Samnel Perryman, James Foster, William Hill, William McClure, Moses Hill, Nathaniel Giles, and C. Worthington, Jr., of St. John's Parish, then in Baltimore but now partly in Harford County.
1^ POWHATAjS
FAC-SIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL MAP OF CAPT. JOHN SMITH OF HIS EXPLORATIONS OF THE CHESAPEAKE B
ENGLISH DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
ENGLISH DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS.
History has not preserved for us the exact date of the first settlements in Baltimore County, as it has done in the case of the ancient town of St. Mary's, but there is good reason to believe that, although this section of the province was not formally erected into a county until about 1659, the white man had effected a lodgment there long previous to this time. Indeed there is evidence to prove that even before the settle- ment of Jamestown, Spanish adventurers had pene- trated this region, for we learn from Capt. Smith's narrative that while a prisoner in the hands of Pow- hatan, he discovered that some of the subjects of the savage chief had suffered injuries from Spanish ves- sels, and framing his own story to suit the prejudices of his hearers, pretended that his people had been overpowered in a fight with the Spaniards, and had sought shelter in the Chesapeake. It was the Chesa- peake, signifying in the Indian dialect " mother of waters," that first received the weary and impatient voyagers who came to found the " mother of States," and it was but little more than a year afterwards, on the 2d of June, 1608, that Capt. Smith undertook the first of his two famous explorations of the Chesa- peake. In these two expeditions he visited every inlet and bay on both sides of the Chesapeake from Cape Charles to the river Susquehanna, sailed up the Patapsco, and probably entered the harbor of Bal- timore. He brought back with him so accurate and ample an account, and so faithful a plan of every por- tion of the territory explored by him, that all subse- quent researches have only expanded and illustrated his original report; and his map has been made the ground-work of all delineations, with no other diver- sity than what has inevitably arisen from the varieties of appropriation and the progress of settlements. The little company that made the first exploration under Smith sailed in an open barge of about three tons burthen, and consisted of " Walter Russell, doc- tor ofphysicke, Ralfe Morton, Thomas Momford, Wil- liam Cantrill, Richard Fetherstone, James Burne, Michell Sicklemore," whom Smith describes as "Gen- tlemen," and "Jonas Profit, Anas Todkill, Robert Small, Jame Watkins, John Powell, James Read, Richard Keale, Souldiers." This voyage of discovery occupied nineteen days, a very brief period consider- ing the large number of points at which the expedi- tion stopped to make observations and to institute in- quiries among the savages. After passing the " straites of Limbo," now Hooper's Straits, at the southwestern extremity of what is now Dorchester County, they crossed the bay to the western shore.
" So broad is the bay here," says Smith, in his narrative, " we could scarce perceive the great Iiigli clifts on the otiier side ; liy tliem we an- chored that niglit and called them Riccard's Cliftes. 30 leagues we sailed
more northwarde not finding any inhabitants, leaving all the eastern shore, low islandes, but overgrowne with wood, as all the coast beyond them so far as we could see ; the westerne shore by which we sayled we found all along well watered, but very mountainous and barren, the val- leys very fertile, but extreme thicke of small wood as well as trees, and much frequented with wolves, bears, deere, and other wild beasts. Wee passed many shallow creekes, but the first we found navigable for a ship we called Bolus [the Patapsco], for that the clay in many places under the clifts by the high water marUe did grow up in red and white knots as gum out of trees ; and in some places so participated together as though they were all of one nature, excepting the color, the rest of the earth on both sides being hard and sandy gravel, which made us think it hole-armainiack and t*'rra sifjiUata."
On the 24th of July, Smith set out from James- town on his second exploration of the Chesapeake. He ascended as far as the Susquehanna, and even sailed some distance up that river, for he relates that they lost their " grapnell among the rocks of Susque- sahanocks," somewhere probably in the neighborhood of Port Deposit.
Doubtless other explorations followed those of Capt. Smith, but the next of which we have any record is that of a trader named Spilman, who in 1621 was sent from Jamestown to trade among the Indians for corn, and whose party was all captured and killed by the Anacostans, near the present site of Washington City. One Capt. Henry Fleet, who was with Spilman, was among the captured, and remained in captivity for several years. After his release he returned to Eng- land, and fitting out a vessel in 1627, revisited the In- dian town of Towaccomoco (afterwards St. Mary's City), and traded largely with them for furs. He made many voyages of this cliaracter, but by no means confined himself to this locality, his journal showing that he carried on a brisk trade with all the Indian towns far and near in which there was any hope of obtaining the valuable beaver-skins which constituted the principal part of his traflSc. But it would seem that even as early as 1632 he found a competitor fully as enterprising as himself, one Charles Harman, who appears to have been as familiar with the country as Fleet, and of whom the latter com- plains for having carried off " 1500 weight of beaver, and cleared fourteen towns."
It was in October, 1629, that Sir George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, arrived in Virginia, and, im- pressed by the beauty and resources of the country, determined to apply for a grant of territory; but it was not until the 20th of June, 1632, that his charter was finally granted, and not until the 27th of March, 1634, that the infant colony arrived at St. Mary's. But the province had at least one flourishing white settlement when the " Ark" and the " Dove" reached the shores of Maryland. There can be no question, of course, as to the prior settlement of Kent Island by Claiborne, nor as to the fact of his having astablished a trading-post on Palmer's (now Watson's) Island, at the mouth of the Susquejianna, before the occupation of Maryland I under Lord Baltimore's grant. Claiborne's settlement on Kent Island was probably made as early as 1627, for, although his license to trade was not obtained
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
until May ]6, 1631, he had received authority to ex- plore the Chesapeake Bay four years before this time, and that he had not neglected to plant a settlement on Kent Island very soon after this general authorization is evident from the fact that the " Isle of Kent" had a representative (Capt. Nicholas Matian) in the Vir- ginia House of Burgesses in the year 1631-32. Kent Island, therefore, it would seem, must have had a considerable population in 1631 to entitle it to rep- , resentation in a legislative assembly. But there is j some evidence to show that even before Claiborne established his trading-post on Palmer's Island in 1627-28-29, a previous colony had been planted there, and that all the members of this adventurous party had been murdered by the Indians, probably the fierce Susquehannoughs, who had their principal seat in this vicinity. Both Smith's voyages were made as early as 1608, and it was doubtless his glowing descrip- tions which fired the imaginations of other colonists, and led to the settlements on Palmer's and Kent Island. It is quite evident from these frequent jour- neys into what afterwards became the territory of Maryland that the attractions and advantages of this region had become familiar in the other colonies, and even in the mother-country, some years before George Calvert received his charter. It is not probable that the first settlement on Palmer's Island was a solitary and unsupported venture, or that the large territory formerly embraced within the limits of Baltimore County was peopled entirely by emigrants from St. Mary's. The population of the Virginia colony at Jamestown had increased rapidly, and reports of the prosperity of the country reaching the Old World, numbers were induced to emigrate to the shores of the Chesapeake. Whatever, indeed, may have been the date at which the first settlements in Baltimore County were made, it is certain that we were indebted ' at an early period for much of the population of this region to Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Our border troubles with Pennsylvania led many of the inliabitants of the adjacent counties of that State to remove to Maryland, and the dispute with the Dutch over the title to Delaware produced an almost wholesale emigration of the Swedes into our midst. In a short time "fifty persons, including several fami- lies, removed to Maryland and Virginia." Scarcely thirty families remained in New Amstel, "and other j places day by day," says Stuyvesant, " are growing I worse and worse." The natural direction of this emi- gration was by way of the present town of Elkton, and from thence it penetrated into the heart of the territory afterwards erected into Baltimore County. The first Baltimore County court, as will be seen elsewhere, ', was held in what is now called Cecil County, and the first county-seat was at Bush River, said to be about ' two miles below the present town of Bush, in Harford County. This fact indicates that the upper part of j the county was at first the most thickly settled, and j there is conclusive evidence to show that it long main-
tained this numerical superiority. The settlement on the Bush River, known as Old Baltimore, continued to be the county-seat for many years, a fact which proves that point to have been for a long period the centre of pojmlation, and the subsequent removal of the court-house to Joppa, instead of to some more southern or western locality, shows that even after the lapse of half a century the northern and eastern portions of the county were still by far the most populous. They continued to be so for many years longer, for the county-seat was not removed to Balti- more until 1768, and Joppa, during more than fifty years, was not only the chief mart of the county, but the point which seems to have been fixed upon by common agreement, or perhaps by law, as the most convenient for elections, and a variety of purposes, to a majority of the people of the county. It was not until 1768 that the inhabitants of Baltimore Town and the surrounding country grew strong enough to dis- pute this supremacy, and even then they would seem to have .succeeded in obtaining the removal of the county-seat under false pretences with regard to their population, for we find that on the 28th of February, 1770, in pursuance of an act of Assembly, an election was held for the purpose of giving the people in the lower and upper districts an opportunity to determine where lay the strength of the county and the greater number of votes, and that the upper sections elected their representatives by a considerable majority. The polls were held in Baltimore Town for the lower, and Bush River fOr the upper districts, and the vote polled was as follows:
1181 U6T 1119
Caudidates — Alwve.
Thomas Cuckey Deye 1572 Samuel Owings
John Paca 1354 John Moale
John Matthews 1293 George Eisteau
Aquila Hall 1220 1 Kobert Alexander..
All this shows how slowly the stream of population moved into the interior, and throws additional and interesting light upon the history of early coloniza- tion in this State. Settlements, in the beginning, clung closely to the shores of the bay or the banks of the larger rivers, and nearly every plantation of consequence was placed within -easy distance of some water highway, the only sort of road which the early colonists found already prepared for them. Thus from the first the " backwoods" was the wilderness, and the backwoods was simply the unsettled region removed from navigable water; and thus it happened that both shores of the bay and its estuaries were set- tled up to the mouth of the Susquehanna before the interior of even Charles, St. Mary's, Talbot, and Kent Counties had ceased to be called the " backwoods."
The tide of immigration from the north was met by an upward current from the south, and accordingly we find among the early settlers of this region emi- grants from Delaw.are, Pennsylvania, and New York on the one hand, and from Virginia on the other. Among the most prominent settlers from the north may lie mentioned Augustine IForman, wlio founded
ENGLISH DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS.
:i small colony on Bohemia River, witliin the then limits of Baltimore County, hut now included within those of Cecil. Our first introduction to Herman is in 1659, when hewas .sent by Governor Stuyvesant, of New York, on an embassy to ask, " in a friendly and neighborly way, the redelivery and restitution of such free people and servants" as had taken refuge in Maryland, and to make other demands with reference to the border troubles then existing. Herman was a native of Prague, Bohemia, and emigrated to the Dutch settlement at Manhattan. After his visit to Maryland as one of the Dutch commissioners, he re- moved to the latter province, and in 1663 took up land on Elk River, Cecil County, where " Bohemia Manor" and "Port Herman" still preserve his mem- ory. In 1664 he and his family were naturalized as citizens of Maryland by an act of Assembly, — the first act of the kind passed in the colonies. Herman was the great man of the region ; he had his deer-park, the walls of which were still standing in 1859 ; he rode in his coach driven by liveried servants; his mansion commanded a fine view of the Bohemia River to the Chesapeake Bay. It is said he died in 1686.
Nathaniel Utie, who was one of the foremost pio- neers of civilization at the head of the Chesapeake, and whose name is preserved in that of Spesutie (Spes-Utie) Island, at the mouth of the Susquehanna, upon which he settled probably before the formation of the county, filled a prominent part in the early history both of Maryland and Virginia. Becoming involved in political troubles in the latter State, he removed to Maryland, and in May, 1658, was licensed to trade with the Indians for furs, and to arrest all persons who were trading in the upper part of the bay without license. On the 12th of July following he was commissioned captain of all the forces between the coves of Patuxent River and the Seven Moun- tains, and was appointed to command as his own company all the forces from the head of Severn River to the above mountains. In 1666 he was one of the commissioners appointed to effect an agreement be- tween Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland to suspend the planting of tobacco for a year, so as to enhance its value. He became a member of the Governor's Council, one of the magistrates of the province, and was one of the first representatives of the county in the Assembly, holding a seat in that body in 1662, 1666, and 1669. He took an important part in the effort to dispossess the Dutch on the Dela- ware, and was altogether one of the most prominent figures in the early history of the county. George Utie, probably a near relative of Nathaniel, represented Baltimore County in the Assembly in 1661, and was commissioned sheriff in 1666. The former importance of Spesutie Island may be estimated from the fact that a meeting of the Council was held there in'1661.
Baltimore County was erected into a county about 1659 ; the exact date is involved in some doubt. Be- fore this year, however, the county is not mentioned
in the legislative proceedings as having any represen- tatives. Its original limits were much more extensive than they are at present, including Harford and Cecil Counties, and, there is good evidence to prove, stretching as far south on tlie eastern shore as the Chester River, and perhaps embracing the whole of the county of Kent. The first description of its bounds is found in the proclamation of June 6, 1674, by which it was declared that the southern bounds of Baltimore County shall be "the south side of Pa- tapsco River, and from the highest plantations on that side of the river, due south two miles into the woods." By the act of 1698 a boundary line was adopted be- tween Baltimore and Anne Arundel County, which had been located by commissioners appointed under an act of Assembly passed in 1696. This line, which is particularly described in this act of 1698, and which began upon the bay about one mile and a quarter to the south of Bodkin Creek, attached to Baftimore County a considerable tract of country lying south of the Patapsco ; but in 1725 this act of 1698 was re- pealed, and the present boundary by the Patapsco was established. The western boundaries of the county were undefined, and in the absence of the act or order erecting Baltimore County, we are unable to say what were the original western limits assigned to it. At one time it extended to the head of the Patuxent ; afterwards the head of the Patapsco became its west- ern boundary, and was so until the formation of Frederick County in 1748. On the north Baltimore County extended to the extreme limits of the province. Its eastern limits have for many years been an interest- ting subject of dispute, but there is strong evidence to show, as we have said, that they formerly embraced Cecil County, and extended down the eastern shore to the Chester River, probably including the whole of the territory forming the present county of Kent. In the early records of the province and county may be found scores of deeds and patents for lands on the Elk, the Bohemia, and the Sassafras Rivers, which are de- scribed as lying in Baltimore County, Capt. Nathaniel Utie, for instance, holding lands on the Sassafras, which are set down as in Baltimore County. There are also several official references, in proclamations and elsewhere, to points on the eastern shore north of the Chester River as within the limits of Baltimore County. The act of 1707, ch. 8, throws further light on this subject. ■ It provides for the removal of Thomas Howell, " now lying under execution for debt, in the custody of the sheriff' of Cecil County, into the custody of the sheriif of Kent County," and this removal was made necessary " by the late division of those counties, whereby this Howell became an in- habitant of Kent County," showing that at least a por- tion of Kent had previously been embraced within the limits of Cecil, which itself, as has been shown, had originally been included within Baltimore County.
Cecil County, named after Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, was erected in 1674, and the records
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
show that by the terms of the proclamation creating it it wiis described as extending " from the mouth of the Susquehanna River down the eastern side of the bay, to Swan Point ; thence to Hell Point, and thence up Chester River to the head thereof." This proves conclusively that Cecil County originally embraced the county of Kent, and Cecil itself, oi a part of it, was carved out of Baltimore County, as the deeds and patents testify. Deeds to lands some distance south of the Sassafras River, and described as lying in Bal- timore County, have been discovered, and doubtless others as far south as the Chester River could be found by a complete examination of the old records. Probably when Cecil was separated from Baltimore County in 1674 the division was made with reference | to, if it was not dictated by, the geographical situa- tions of the two sections and their natural boundaries, the Susquehanna River and the bay.
Cecil County, as we have stated, was created in 1674, but its present boundaries were defined by the act of 1706, ch. 3, which enacts " that Cecil County shall contain all the lands on the north side of Sassafras River and Kent County, and shall be bounded on the east and north by the bounds of the province, and on the west by Susquehanna and the bay."
Harford County, named after Henry Harford, the last proprietary of Maryland, and the illegitimate son of Frederick, the sixth and last Lord Baltimore, was created in 1773, and is bounded as follows : " Begin- ning at the mouth of the Little Falls of Gunpowder River, and running thence with said falls to the foun- tain head ; thence north to the Pennsylvania line ; thence with that line to the Susquehanna River ; thence with that river to the Chesapeake Bay ; thence with the bay, including Spesutie and Pool's Islands, to the mouth of Gunpowder River ; and thence up said river to the beginning."
Carroll County, named after Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and created out of Baltimore and Freder- ick Counties, was created in 1835, with the following boundaries: "Beginning at the Pennsylvania line at Rock Creek ; thence to the Monocacy River ; thence to the junction of the Monocacy and Double Pipe Creek ; thence with the course of Pipe Creek to the point of junction of Little Pipe Creek and Big Pipe Creek; thence with Little Pipe Creek to its junction i with Sam's Creek ; thence with Sara's Creek to War- , field's Mill ; thence with the Buffalo road to Parr's Spring ; thence with the western branch of the Pa- tapsco Falls to the point of its junction with the north- ern branch of the Patapsco Falls; thence with the northern branch of said fails to the bridge erected over said falls on the turnpike road leading from Ueisterstown to Westminster; thence in a straight course to the Pennsylvania line, running north seven- teen degrees east; thence to the Pennsylvania line to the place of beginning.'"
CHAPTER V.
ANCIENT COUNTY-SEATS. Old Baltimore— Foster's Neck— Joppa— Ball imore Town.
It is somewhat singular that while our records have handed down to us the name of the person at whose house the County Court held its first session, as well as the year in which this event occurred, we find no reference to the establishment of a regular county- seat until 1683, or about twenty-two years afterwards.
By Chapter V. of the act of 1683 a port of entry was established "on Bush River, on the town land, near the court-house," and it is at this point that his- tory first introduces us to the original capital of the county. From the language of the act it is apparent that this town on the Bush River was already the county-seat when it was made a port of entry, but how long it had enjoyed that dignity is not known. It is not reasonable to suppose, however, that justice had been without a fixed and local habitation since the meeting of the first court at the house of Capt. Thomas Howell- in 1661 ; and it is probable that Old Balti- more had been the county-seat for some years be- fore 1683. As early as 1674 an act was passed " for erecting a court-house and prison in each county within this province," but, even without express pro- vision, the necessity for the establishment of a county- seat must have forced itself upon the public attention soon after the organization of the county government, and in selecting a place for this purpose the general convenience must naturally have been one of the prin- cipal objects in view. The county at that time included within its limits Harford, Cecil, and at least a part of Kent, and an examination of the map shows that Old Baltimore occupied a convenient position with refer- ence to all these different sections. The interior, or backwoods, was then but thinly settled, most of the inhabitants still being afraid to trust themselves far from the bay or the borders of navigable streams, so that the town on Bush River was not only reason- ably central, as far as the large proportion of the popu- lation was concerned, but was easily accessible by water, which was then the principal and favorite mode of travel.
The lapse of time has left so few traces of Old Baltimore that the identification of the site on which it stood cannot be made with absolute certainty. Recent researches, however, have thrown so much liiiht iin tlir subject that we can now, with tolerable ecMiii'lriH-. , |M.iiit almost to the exact spot where- the fiisi 1 (.uiiiy-Mut was located. Old Baltimore, in all probability, was situated about seven miles south of Perrymansvilie, two miles northeast of the Philadel- phia and Wilmington Railroad bridge over Bush River, and four miles above the Chesapeake Bay, and was an isthmus about a quarter of a mile wide be-
i Capt. TlK.nms Howell at this time lived within tlie limits of what is
ANCIENT COUNTY-SEATS.
43
tween Bush River on the south aud Rumney Creek on the north. It was immediately upon Bush River, and commanded a noble view for miles up the river and down its course to its junction with the Chesa- peake.
Besides the concurrent testimony of at least six ancient maps to the correctness of this identifica- tion of the site of Old Baltimore, the natural objects in the vicinity still bear witness to the former exist- ence of a town in this locality. Long rows of large cedar-trees strike the visitor with their venerable ap- pearance, and their regularity and isolation indicate that they were the results of careful culture rather than of spontaneous growth. Nor is the fact without significance that while the land between Old Balti- more and Perrymansville is very barren, that in the vicinity of the former is believed to be about the most productive in Harford County. Besides a portion occupied by a clover-field, the old site itself is covered with alder-bushes and refuses cultivation, as if, having once been set apart for the higher uses of civilization, it disdained to revert to the less ambitious purposes of agriculture. A rude fence at present incloses the whole site, and on entering the gate the visitor sees two log houses, such as are used by servants on a plan- tation, while hard by is an old-fashioned well with the horizontal pole for raising and lowering the bucket so common in former days. In the eastern part of the field are the remains or ruins of a burial-ground in a grove of large walnut-trees, and " here rest the bones of William Osborne, who built the first house in the present Harford County at Old Baltimore on 'Old House Point.'" About a quarter of a mile norch of the field is the residence of Mr. Richardson, the proprietor of the site of the ancient town. The road from the north to the south, starting from a ferry over the Susquehanna, just below the present rail- road bridge at Havre de Grace, crossed Swan Creek to Old Baltimore ; and here, at Old House Point, there was a ferry over Bush River, and this was the great route of travel. The ferry was attended by Philip Philips, who afterwards purchased it, and providing " entertainment for man and beast," contrived through these two sources of revenue to make a comfortable fortune. The wharf at Old House Point has long since decayed, but the large stones which formed the abutments can still be plainly seen at low tide. Three miles from Old Baltimore, as stated by Freeborn Gar- retson (in his journal), is the place of thefiret church building of any kind in Baltimore County. Here, at Gravelly, are the almost obliterated remains of the "log church"; and it was to this place, about fifteen years after the decadence of Old Baltimore, that the remains of the dead with their tombstones were prob- ably removed from the burial-ground that has been mentioned. This log church was the parent of St. George's parish, now known as "Spesutie Church," and the records of the latter contain the names of many of the descendants of the " Old Baltimoreans."
From an act of 1696 it appears that many of the court-houses in the province had been built upon land to which the counties had no legal title, and the com- missioners were authorized to perfect these titles by purchase. The court-house at Old Baltimore would seem to have been one of these, for under date of April 1, 1700, we find a deed from Michael Judd, the younger, of Baltimore County, and Mary, his wife, conveying to "John Hall, gent, and others, inhabit- ants and freeholders of the county," all "that piece or parcel of land wherein the court-house of the said county now standeth."
The precise date at which Old Baltimore ceased to be the county-seat is to a large extent a matter of conjecture. An impression prevails that the court- house was removed from Old Baltimore to Foster's Neck, on the Gunpowder, by the act of 1706, but the act in question contains no allusion whatever to the location of the court-house at that point, and it is not until we come to the act of 1707 that we find a provision for the erection of a new county-seat. This latter act, as will be seen, failed to secure the sanction of the queen, and it was not until 1712 that its provisions were confirmed ; but it is also to be noted that the act of 1706, which provided for the establishment of a port of entry at Foster's Neck, was also vetoed by the queen, and was never re-enacted, so far as the records show, so that, even had it directed the location of the county-seat at Foster's Neck, it would have been without force or effect. It seems probable, therefore, that the county-seat remained at Old Baltimore until 1712, and that when it was taken from that place it was removed to Joppa, and not to Foster's Neck, as has hitherto been generally sup- posed.
The history of Joppa, although involved in less ob- scurity than that of Old Baltimore, is clouded at many points with the uncertainties which inevitably accumulate around a town which belongs so entirely to the past. Careful research has, however, rescued from ancient and decaying records facts enough to give us an idea of the general outline of its history, and to enable us to form a tolerably correct opinion of one of the most interesting of the earlier Maryland towns. Although we first meet with " the town of Joppa" in the act of 1712, the place was called into being five years before by the act of 1707, which itself was a sort of supplement or amendment to a law of 1706. This last legislative mandate proposed to create no less than forty-two new towns at a single breath, and among them provided for three in Baltimore County, — one "at Whetstone Neck, on Patapsco River;" one upon the land called "Chilberry, on Bush River;" and "one on Foster's Neck, on Gun- powder River." How many of these paper towns fell still-born from the womb of this prolific law it is not necessary to consider. Whether that at Foster's Neck ever existed except in the legislative intention seems a matter of dispute, but at all events its life was a
HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY, MARYLAND.
brief one, for in the following year (1707) the Assem- bly directed the site at Foster's Neck " to be deserted, and in lieu thereof fifty acres to be erected into a town on a tract of land on the same river, belonging to Anne Felks, and called Taylor's Choice, and the court-house to be built there." All acts of Assembly required the royal assent, but as it was not supposed there would be any objection to the change of site proposed in the law of 1707, work was at once begun on the new town, streets were laid out, and the court- house was in course of construction, when, to the gen-