The HISTORICAL SOCIETY of HARFORD COUNTY, Inc.
Harford County Chronology of Events from Big Bang to 2009
Big Bang    1500    1600    1700    1800    1900    2000    References   
This is primarily a chronology of significant events in Harford County, Maryland, but other events outside the County are included if they eventually influenced or elucidated events in the County. Considerable emphasis is put on human rights and communications since so much of our history is dependent on and revolves around these subjects from the beginning to the present. While some historians may not agree, Maryland and Harford County appear to frequently have been leaders in improving human rights.


It Started with a Big Bang

13.7 bya  Scientists claim that our known universe formed about 13.7 billion years ago (bya) with a big bang. (Walborn, N., Life Cycles of Massive Stars, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, April 1, 2008.)
4.6 bya  The Earth formed out of the solar nebula 4.6 billion years ago (bya). ( http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Courses/bio303/bigbang.htm, University of Cincinnati, Clermont College, OH, 2005)
3.5 bya  The oldest microbe fossils found, the earliest evidence of life on earth. ( Walborn, N., Life Cycles of Massive Stars, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, April 1, 2008.)
~700 mya   Fossils found in Oman show that sponges (animals) existed from 635 to 750 million years ago (mya). The University of Nottingham has claimed that this the earliest form of animal life observed. ( Engineering Technology Pinpoints Earliest Signs of Animal Life, Eureka Science News, esciencenews.com, February 5, 2009. )
~650 mya   Evidence has been found that kilometer thick layers of ice covered the whole earth for long periods from 600 to 700 million years ago. (Hoffman, P.F., Schrag, D.P., Snowball Earth, Scientific American Magazine, January 2000. ) (Hoffman, P.F.; Kaufman, A.J.; Halverson, G.P.; Schrag, D.P., A Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth, Science, 281 (5381), 1342-1346, 1988.)
228 mya   At least 12 species of dinosaurs roamed Harford County from 228 million years ago (mya) until 70 mya. Their fossils have been found along the fall line through the southern parts of the County. ( Dinosaurs!, Maryland Geological Survey, Baltimore, MD, 2001))
150 mya  The Atlantic sturgeons have lived since dinosaurs roamed the earth. Thus, they provide an interesting starting point for a history of Harford County. This fish can weigh as much as 800 pounds and be as long as fifteen feet. It lives in salt water and spawns in fresh water. It needs high oxygen levels and forest litter in the streams where it spawns. It probably was an annual visitor to the Harford County area for many millions of years. The colonists in Jamestown could not have survived had it not been for an unlimited supply of sturgeon. During the 1600s, sturgeons were exported to Europe. It was a valuable item providing the ingredients for isinglass, jellies, caviar, adhesives, lubricants, and many other products. Today, the annual harvest in the Chesapeake Bay is a small percentage of what it once was. The story of many other species is similar to that of the Atlantic Sturgeon.
~55 mya  North America separated by continental drift from a supercontenent called Pangea. (http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Courses/bio303/contdrift.htm, University of Cincinnati, Clermont College, OH, 2005)
0.20 mya   Homo sapiens (humans) originated in the African savanna. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, page 17, 2005.)
20,000 ya  At the end of the last ice age, 20,000 years ago (ya), sea level was 325 feet below where it is today. At that time, the Susquehanna River ran to the Atlantic Ocean and local rivers probably ran to what is the center of the Bay. The Chesapeake Bay was formed as the sea level began to rise, about 18,000 years ago, drowning the lower valleys of the Susquehanna River and the lower portions of other rivers feeding the bay. The rise slowed to about 0.3 feet per century for about the last 5000 years. In the last hundred years, the rise increased to one foot per century. Global warming, that started 20,000 years ago, is still a subject of debate.
14,000 ya  People (called pre-Clovis) reached Oregon. The conclusion is based on DNA from human coprolites found in caves in south-central Oregon. The pre-Clovis findings are still very controversial. (An international team, Science, Vol. 320. No. 5872, page 37, April 4, 2008.), (Curry, A., Pre-Clovis Breakthrough, Archaeology, Archaeological Institute of America, www.Archaeology.org, March 2009.)
12,000 ya   Some archeologists think that hunters (called Native American, Paleoindian or Clovis) reached the Middle Atlantic Region about 12,000 years ago. These first hunters lived off of big game such as mastodons and mammoths. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.), (Storck, P.L., Journey to the Ice Age, Discovering an Ancient World, UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2004)
10,000 ya   Until 10,000 years ago, nearly all humans lived as hunter-gatherers usually in small communist roaming tribes with no concept of ownership. Some hunter-gatherers communities endure until now. Europeans transitioned to farming between 10,000 and 2200 years ago with a population explosion. Successful farming required longer range planning, keeping track of months and days, and ownership. It made possible specialization, animal breeding, and called for greater education. The vast majority of people in the world were farmers until around the 20th century. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, page 20, 2005.)
4000 ya  *Roughly 4000 years ago Abrahamic religions began. These are monotheistic faiths that trace their spiritual traditions and origins to Abraham. Today, these religions include such western religions as Judaism, Islam, Bahá'í Faith, Druze, Unitarianism, and Christianity.
*The Sumarians first recorded, on clay tablets, the use of salicylates from willow tree bark to treat fever, pain, and inflammation. Now salicylates in the form of aspirin, ibuprofen, and other compositions are the most used drugs in the world; and researchers, after all these centuries, are still learning about their effects on humans. (Goldberg, D.R., Aspirin ... , Chemical Heritage, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Volume 27, Number 2, Summer 2009, page 26.)
*Clay tablets in the Mesopotamia region were probably the basis of the first libraries and archives.
2000 ya   Archeologists working near a lake in Nevada found nearly a dozen duck decoys made by Native Americans from reeds about 2000 years ago. ( Native American Duck Decoys, NativeTech, www.nativetech.org/ decoy/DUCKDECOYS.htm, 2/30/2007)
510 BCE About 12% of the Athens population won the right to vote on laws. This probably is not the first application of democracy, but it is the considered to be the first documented claim of democracy. It should be noted that Greek societies did recognize most rights of individuals that we consider important today. (Blackwell, C.E., The Development of Athenian Democracy, Demos: Classical Athenian Democracy [A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, edd., The Stoa: a Consortium for Scholarly Publication in the Humanities], January 23, 2003, Date of access January 14, 2009.)
3rd Century AD The first known use of chemical warfare was used by the Persians against the Roman Army. It was used in the siege of the Roman city Dura in Eastern Syria. (AD is an abbreviation for Anno Domini, which is Latin for "In the year of (Our) Lord." The AD system of dating is the global standard for international institutions such as the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union. It is used hereafter in this chronology.) (Syed, T., Ancient Persians Gassed Romans, BBC News, www.news.bbc.co.uk, January 19, 2009.)
313 AD  Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan.
466 AD Clovis I (466-511 AD) was born. He united the Frankish people, thus laid the foundation for present day France. Also, he introduced Christainity to the Franks.
632 AD Muhammad, the founder of Islam died. Afterwards, due to fighting between the between Persian and Byzantine Empires and the ability of Arabs to fight effectively in the desert; Islamic Arabs quickly created a vast Empire stretching from India to Spain. This expansion produced many problems for Europeans including reduced trade on the Mediterranean Sea. During the following centuries, as their expansion subsided, Arab scholars developed the philosophy of Jihad. (Daileader, P., The Early Middle Ages, Part 1, The Teaching Co., Chantilly, VA, 2004. )
871 AD Alfred, the Great, (849 to ~ 899) was made king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. He was a dedicated king who is given credit for educating his people; being a scholar; reforming the legal system, the military and the clergy; and creating the basis of what would become England. ( Sturdy, D., Alfred the Great (Biography & Memoirs), Constable and Robinson, London, UK, 1995.)
1000 AD Native Americans of the Harford County region started to use ceramics and domesticated strains of maize, legumes, and squash about 1000 AD.
1100 AD  King Henry I issued the Charter of Liberties, the landmark forerunner of the Magna Carta (1215), which protected the rights of certain nobles and church officials and their subordinates. ( Halsall, P., Charter of Liberties of King Henry I, 1100, Medieval Source Book, Fordham University, New York, NY, www.fordham.edu/mvst, 1966.)
1418 AD  During the Middle Ages, at the enormous, four year long Council of Constance, Pawel Wlodkowiez, the Polish Ambassador and rector of the Jagiellonian University, first proposed seventeen thesis of enlightened international law. For example, that the right of religious conversion "is not a license to kill or expropriate property, and that only voluntary conversion is valid." In response, Iaonnes Falkenberg (a teacher of philosophy and theology from Pomerania, Prussia) argued that all Poles deserve death for defending infidels' and pagans' right to life. This may have been the first documented formal proposal of genocide in western history. (Pogonowski, I.C., Poland, An Illustrated History, Hippocrene Books, Inc., New York, NY, page 45, 2003.), (Council of Constance, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., St. Petersberg, FL, en.wikipedia.org, 2006), (Schroeder, J., [Transcribed by J.P. Thomas], John of Falkenberg, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII, Robert Appleton Company, 1910.)
1422 AD  For the first time in Europe, King Wladyslaw Jagiello, of Poland, started issuing laws protecting individual rights such as property rights and freedom from unlawful seizure and imprisonment. Soon thereafter, Poland started electing its kings. In the years immediately following such reforms, Poland became the largest and most powerful country in Europe. The Act of Habeas Corpus was not adopted until 1679 in England. These rights were made part of our nation's individual rights when the Bill of Rights of the United States went into effect in 1791. (Pogonowski, I.C., Poland, An Illustrated History, Hippocrene Books, Inc., New York, NY, page 45, 2003.)


1500s

1500  * The Little Ice Age began in Europe which lasted until 1700. These cold conditions may have contributed to unrest in Europe and the prompting of settlers leaving for America. (History of Climate Change, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, http:vathena.arc.nasa.gov/curric/land/global/climchng.html, 1997.)
* The world population was estimated to be 500 million. The average European suffered with food shortage through part of the year. (Lindsey, B., The Age of Abundance, Collins, New York, NY, page 21, 2007.)
1509  Henry VIII was named King of England. He broke with the Roman Catholic Church and formed the Anglican Catholic Church, also called the Episcopal Church and the Church of England. (The Random House Encyclopedia, Random House, NY, 1983)
1517  Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation when he posted 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg. (The Random House Encyclopedia, Random House, NY, 1983)
1524The Spaniard, Giovanni da Verrazzano, sailed past the Chesapeake Bay. The Spanish Governor of Florida, Pedro Menendez de Aviles, probably explored the lower part of the Chesapeake Bay (called the "Bahia de Santa Marie") in 1572. (Virginia Places, www.virginiaplaces.org , George Mason University, 1998) (Chronology, www.mdarchives .state.md.us , Maryland Archives, 2005)
1526William Tyndale published the first translation of the Bible into English and smuggled thousands of copies into England and Scotland. For this deed, he was tied to a stake, strangled and burned in 1536. He believed strongly that the Bible should not be concealed from common English farm laborers. Those leaders that were corrupt and tyrannical did not want the lowly people to look to a higher authority than them. (Cahill, E.K., A Bible for the Plowboy, Commonweal, Commonweal Foundation, NY, NY, April 11, 1997.)
1530Between 1530 and 1780, North African Muslims raided European ships and villages along the Mediterranean taking more than one million Europeans as slaves. Seaside towns were often evacuated. (Davis, R.C., Christian Slaves, Moslim Masters: White Slavery . . ., Palgrave Macmillian, New York, NY, 2004.)
1553Mary I became Queen of England. She tried to bring the Roman Catholic religion back to England. She became known as "Bloody Mary" for burning people at the stake for their beliefs. In her purges, she drove about 800 scholars out of the country who reassembled in Geneva to write The Geneva Bible. This Bible, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, is the Bible brought to America by the earliest colonists, thus it influenced law, education, literature, and government. ( 1599 Geneva Bible Tolle Lege Press, While Hall, WV, 2007.)
1561The Spanish abandoned attempts to colonize the east coast of North America. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1562English Queen Elizabeth granted John Hawkins permission to begin slave trading, but this was not the beginning of slavery. Actually slavery had existed throughout history in most of the world and continues today in some parts of the world. Slavery was commonly used as an alternate to putting criminals or captured enemies in prison. ( Kelsey, H., Sir John Hawkins, Queen Elizabeth's Slave Trader, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2003.)
1575Roughly at this time, the Susquehannocks moved into the lower Susquehanna Valley wiping out the Shenks Ferry Native Americans. Apparently, various tribes hunted and fished in the Harford County area, including the: Delawares, Susquehannocks, Piscataways, Senecas, and Nanticokes. (Kent, B.C., Susquehanna's Indians, Anthropological Series, Number 6, The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, PA, 1993.)
1580 George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore, was born. He originated the idea that people of different religions should be able to live together peaceably. (J.F. Fausz, The Legacy of Toleration, Country Magazine/ Maryland's 350, M-6)
1588 The English defeated the Spanish Armada.


1600s

1603  James I was named King of England. He had difficulty obtaining support of either the Catholics or Puritans. ( The Random House Encyclopedia, Random House, NY, 1983)
1605  * The French started a colony at the location of modern-day Annapolis. They returned to France, after three years of exploring. ( http://The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, www.mariner.org/chesapeakebay/home.html, 2006)
* Cecil Calvert, the Second Lord Baltimore and the First Proprietor of Maryland, was born. He advocated religious freedom, and put George Calvert's ideas into practice by instructing the first voyagers to Maryland in the separation of church and state. Thus, Maryland was the first Christian colony established on the foundation of religious liberty. (J.F. Fausz, The Legacy of Toleration, Country Magazine/ Maryland's 350, M-6)
1606  The Susan Constance, Godspeed, and Discovery of the Virginia Company sailed out of London, with 140 colonists aboard.
1607  In May 1607, the first permanent British settlement in the new world began at Jamestown.
1608  * Captain John Smith, (1580-1631) of Willoughby in Lincolnshire, England, explored the Chesapeake Bay. He represented the Virginia Company. Smith described the Susquehannocks, who hunted and fished in the Harford and Cecil County region at that time, and he apparently visited their permanent settlement in today's Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Also, he was first to map the Harford County area. (Warner, C.D., Captain John Smith, Project Gutenberg Text, www.gutenberg.org/etext/3130, 1881.) (Hoobler, D., and Hoobler, T. Captain John Smith: Jamestown and the Birth of the American Dream, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2006.) (Kupperman, K.O. ed., John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings, College of William and Mary, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, University of North Carolina Press, Williamsburg, VA, 1988.)
* Meanwhile, Henry Spelman lived two years with the Powhatans. In his writings, he reported observing "deer, goats, and stags feedeth. There be in this country lions, bears, wolves, foxes, musk cats, hares, flying squirrels and other squirrels being all gray like conies, great store of fowl (only peacocks and common hens wanting), fish in abundance whereon they live most part of the summertime." ( http://The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, www.mariner.org/chesapeakebay/home.html, 2006)
1618 * The bloody Thirty Year's War (1618-1648), which depopulated Germany and bankrupted most of the European countries, began. (Parker, G., The Thirty Year's War, Routledge, Florence, Kentucky, 1997.)
1619 * First African slaves arrived in Virginia. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
* The first representative legislative assembly was held in the Jamestown church.
* The first rebellion against British domination occurred when skilled Polish craftsmen refused to work until they got the right to vote. They promptly won their rights. ( Harrington, J.C., Glassmaking at Jamestown, Americas First Industry, Dietz Press, Richmond, VA, 1952. ) ( Waldo, A.L., True Heroes of Jamestown, American Institute of Polish Culture, Miami, 1977.)
* The isolation and abundance of the wilderness started resulting in improved economic prosperity and an independent mind set for the new Americans.
1627  An English trading post was established on Palmer's Island. Now, it is called Garrett's Island. It is near Havre de Grace in the Susquehanna River. (History Notes, St. Mary Anne's Church, North East, MD )
1631  * At a Virginian settlement on Kent Island, Rev. Richard James, an Anglican priest, held the first Christian services in what was to become Maryland. (Dalmas, J.E., The Bicentennial of Christ Episcopal Church, Rock Spring Parish, Christ Episcopal Church , Forest Hill, MD, page 1, 2005)
* For the first time, tobacco is grown in Maryland. It was grown on Kent Island at the Claiborne Plantation. (Urban Dynamics: Agriculture History, Patuxent River Watershed, The USGS Land Cover Institute, www.usgs.gov, 2007.)
1632  * The Maryland Charter was granted to George Calvert and it quickly passed to Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore and Maryland's first Proprietor. Maryland was named after Queen Henrietta Maria. (Rollo,V.F., Henry Harford: Last Proprietor of Maryland, Maryland Historical Press, Lanham, MD, p 9, 1976.)
* The first three Lord Baltimores, the proprietors of Maryland, tried to create a society where Catholics and Protestants shared power and lived in peace. Over the many years, the principal grievance of the Protestants against the Catholic Lord Baltimores was that while the lord proprietors persecuted no one for his religion, they appointed only Catholics or relatives to higher government offices. (Ross, S.B., Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Cobblestone, Peru, Illinois, p 6, 2002.) (Krugler, J.D. Letter to the Editor, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 524-526, Winter, 2004.)
1633  In late October 1633, the Ark and Dove set out for Maryland with about 140 people aboard, including Governor Leonard Calvert and three Jesuit priests. (Carr, L.G., Menard, R.R., Peddicord, L., Maryland at the Beginning Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, MD, 1991.)
1634  * The first Maryland landing of the Ark and the Dove was on Saint Clement's Island where the first mass in Maryland was offered by Jesuit priests on March 25, 1634. This date is celebrated as "Maryland Day." (Carr, L.G., Menard, R.R., Peddicord, L., Maryland at the Beginning Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, MD, 1991.)
* Governor Leonard Calvert (brother of Lord Baltimore) purchased a village near the Saint Mary's River from the Yaocomicos Indian Tribe and renamed the village "St. Mary's." For 61 years thereafter, Saint Mary's was the capitol of Maryland. (Carr, L.G., Menard, R.R., Peddicord, L., Maryland at the Beginning Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, MD, 1991.)
1636   Harvard College, the first college in what is now the United States, was established in Newtowne (now Cambridge), Massachusetts.
1638  Margaret Brent, a woman of great dignity and intelligence, arrived in Maryland with a letter from Lord Calvert granting her ownership of choice land and privileges. In spite of the facts that she acted as an attorney, litigant, political force, executor of Governor Leonard Calvert's Estate, diplomat, and effective negotiator; when she asked for the right to vote in the Maryland Assembly, the Governor denied her request. She was the first American suffragist, 250 years ahead of her times. (Cinlar, N., "Came Mistress Margaret Brent": Political Representation, Power, and Authority in Early Maryland, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 405, Winter, 2004.)
* The British Civil Wars began in 1638 and ended in 1660. (British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate 1638-60, www.british-civil-wars.co.uk)
1639  * The fierce Susquehannocks harassed the peaceable Patuxents and Piscataways.
* The Susquehannocks were at war with the Algonquin tribes on the Delaware River.
* The early settlers in Maryland used tobacco as money to buy goods, pay taxes, purchase land, and pay penalties. (Semmes, R., Crime and Punishment in Early Maryland, Patterson Smith, Mountclair, NJ, 1970.)
1640   In the early 1640s, Palmer Island, near present day Havre de Grace, was fortified by Marylanders. Marylanders were decisively defeated by the Susquehannocks. (Shank, E., A Short History of Havre de Grace, Lock House News, Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace, MD, Summer 2004.)
1642   Mathis de Sousa served in the 1642 legislative assembly of freemen and "was the first American of African descent to vote in an American legislature." (Jackson, P.K., Faden, R.M., Celibrate 375 at HSMC, Historic St. Mary's City Foundation, St. Mary's City, Maryland, June 2009. ) (Historic St. Mary's City, P.O. Box 39, St. Mary's City, MD, www.StMary'sCity.org, June 2009.)
1648 The bloody Thirty Year's War (1618-1648) ended. (Parker, G., The Thirty Year's War, Routledge, Florence, Kentucky, 1997.)
1649  * In 1649, Catholic King Charles I was executed by the British Army. (Oliver Cromwell, Cromwell Association, Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon, UK, 2005.)
* The Toleration Act was put into law in Maryland. It confirmed practices of religious toleration which were in place since the founding of Maryland. (Chronology, www.mdarchives.state.md.us , Maryland Archives, 2005)
1652  * Maryland enacted a treaty with the Susquehannocks. (Shank, E., A Short History of Havre de Grace, Lock House News, Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace, MD, Summer 2004.)
* George Fox began Quakerism which taught that every man is enlightened by the divine light of Christ and made equal under God. Quakers created a serious problem for governments of that period. They refused to take oaths, obey laws, show respect to authorities, or perform duties in militias. On the other hand, they expected their members to obey a strict code of conduct. (de Mooy, K., In Truth's Service: The Roots of Quakerism in Maryland, 1655–1700, The Washington College Review, O'Neill Literary House, Chestertown, MD 2000.)
* The British Parliament replaced Maryland's proprietary government with commissioners. (Chronology, www.mdarchives.state.md.us , Maryland Archives, 2005)
1653  Oliver Cromwell dissolved parliament and he became Lord Protector of England. He was a strict "Puritan" who believed in "religious freedom" which meant he did not accept the divinity of kings or the authority of clerics. Nevertheless, it was a period of many bloody, civil, religious wars in Britain. (Oliver Cromwell, Cromwell Association, Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon, UK, 2005.)
1655  * In 1655 or 1656, Elizabeth Harris of London, a Quaker, came to Maryland and converted settlers in Calvert County, Anne Arundel County, and Kent Island. She converted the acting governor of Maryland, William Fuller, and several provincial commissioners. The conversion of Puritans while in office was an unusual event. (de Mooy, K., In Truth's Service: The Roots of Quakerism in Maryland, 1655–1700, The Washington College Review, O'Neill Literary House, Chestertown, MD 2000.)
1657  * Quakers, Josiah Cole and Thomas Thurston came to Maryland from Virginia. Cole had been imprisoned in Virginia. Thurston had been banished from Boston. New England treated Quakers very harshly with severe penalties: brandings, ear-croppings, fines, prison sentences, whippings, banishment, and hanging. Initially, Quakers were treated harshly in Maryland.(de Mooy, K., In Truth's Service: The Roots of Quakerism in Maryland, 1655–1700, The Washington College Review, O'Neill Literary House, Chestertown, MD 2000.)
* Lord Baltimore reestablished proprietary control over Maryland. In a few years, Lord Baltimore invited hundreds of Quakers to come to Maryland, dropped the required loyalty oath and encouraged their participation in government. Soon many Quakers found their way to Maryland. Women came to Quaker meetings in great numbers due to their emphasis on the equality of men and women. (de Mooy, K., In Truth's Service: The Roots of Quakerism in Maryland, 1655–1700, The Washington College Review, O'Neill Literary House, Chestertown, MD 2000.) (Chronology, www.mdarchives.state.md.us , Maryland Archives, 2005)
1658  * Havre de Grace was settled. (Shank, E., A Short History of Havre de Grace, Lock House News, Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace, MD, Summer 2004.) It was first known as Susquehanna Lower Ferry and was a stop on the Old Post Road, which was the land route along the East Coast.
* The Office of the Clerk of the Court of Maryland was established. (Circuit Court for Harford County)
* Nathaniel Utie obtained a license to trade with the Native Americans and a patent for Spesutie Island. (Larew, M., Bel Air, The Town Through its Buildings, The Town of Bel Air and the Maryland Historical Trust, 1980. )(Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 22,1980.)
* This was the beginning of many land grants along or near the coasts of present day Harford County. (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 22,1980.)
* "Jacob Lumbrozo was the first Jewish settler to enjoy rights of governance and ownership." He was one of the earliest medical practitioners in Maryland and became wealthy in real and personal property. (Jackson, P.K., Faden, R.M., Celibrate 375 at HSMC, Historic St. Mary's City Foundation, St. Mary's City, Maryland, June 2009. ) (Historic St. Mary's City, P.O. Box 39, St. Mary's City, MD, www.StMary'sCity.org, June 2009.)
1659  * In 1659/1660, Baltimore County was established. Baltimore County included what is now Baltimore, Cecil, and Harford Counties and parts of Anne Arundel, Howard, and Carroll Counties as well as parts of present day Pennsylvania and Delaware. (Chronology, www.mdarchives.state.md.us , Maryland Archives, 2005)
* The Easton Quaker meetings are believed to have started in 1659. Records of the Easton Meeting date back to 1676. George Fox sent a collection of books in 1673 to the Easton Meeting which began their public library. Thus, their library may be the oldest in the State or the Nation. The Third Haven Quaker Meeting House in Easton was finished in 1682. It is believed to be the oldest religious building in continuous use in America. (Our History, The Third Haven Quaker Meeting House, Easton, MD, 2006, www.thirdhaven.org)
1661  * The town of Old Baltimore on the east bank of the Bush River was established in today's Harford County.
* The Council of Maryland met at Nathaniel Utie's home on Spesutie Island to hear testimony from many individuals of robbery, cruelty, and murder by the Susquehannocks. (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 41 and 23,1980.)
1664  Maryland sanctioned slavery by law. (Chronology, www.mdarchives.state.md.us , Maryland Archives, 2005)
1668  Settlers became established along the shores of the Gunpowder and Bush Rivers. (6)
1671  The first church in what was to become Harford County was established on Spesutia Island, St. George Episcopal Church (Anglican). (Dalmas, J.E., The Bicentennial of Christ Episcopal Church, Rock Spring Parish, Christ Episcopal Church , Forest Hill, MD, page 1, 2005)
1672  Quakerism’s founder, George Fox, visited Betty’s Cove, Talbot County and wrote, "We came to the General Meeting of all Maryland Friends, . . . and many of the world were at the public meetings, some" Catholics, "clerks of the courts, and there were eight justices of the peace, and one of the judges and his wife, . . . And they judged that there was a thousand people . . . And there was never seen there so many boats together . . . it was almost like the Thames." (de Mooy, K., In Truth's Service: The Roots of Quakerism in Maryland, 1655–1700, The Washington College Review, O'Neill Literary House, Chestertown, MD 2000.)
1674  * Old Baltimore, on the Bush River in what is now Harford County, was authorized as the first Baltimore County Seat (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 42, 1980.)
* Cecil County was founded.
1675  * The Susquehannocks were overthrown and/or dispersed by their many Native American enemies. (6)
* The Maryland Assembly ordered rangers to patrol the forests of current northern Harford County. (Kegley, F., Smith, A.L., and Johnson, L., Jarrettsville, Past and Present, Jarrettsville Lions Club, 1976)
* British King Charles II issued a "Proclamation for the suppression of coffee-houses" in England, complaining "that in such houses . . . divers, False, Malicious, and Scandalous Reports are devised and spread abroad, to the Defamation of His Majestie's Government." The proclamation was widely ignored. (Standage, T., A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Walker & Co., New York, page 144, 2005.)
1679  The procedures for protecting individuals from unlawful seizure and imprisonment were codified under the English Act of Habeas Corpus in 1679. (Pogonowski, I.C., Poland, An Illustrated History, Hippocrene Books, Inc., New York, NY, Page 45, 2003.)
1682 King Charles II of England granted William Penn a charter for Pennsylvania (Penn's forest) as a place for Quakers. He gave Penn land previously given to Maryland creating a boundary dispute effecting Harford County that was not settled until 1769.
1684  * Maryland's first printers, William and Dinah Nuthead, moved from Virginia to Maryland and immediately started printing. The King did not allow printing in Virginia, a royal colony, but Maryland, a proprietary colony, did not have to follow the King's orders. (Cofield, R., Much Ado About Nuthead: A Revised History of Printing in Seventeenth-Century Maryland, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 9, Spring, 2006.)
* Printing of Bibles in English was not allowed by the King in the English colonies, but the Bible could be printed in German and Native American languages.
1687* The road called "The Kings Road, "Old Post Road" and now "Route 7" was built. (Important Dates in Maryland's History, Harford Historical Bulletin , The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 46, page 91, Autumn 1990)
* Since King James II was an autocrat, Parliament proclaimed the succession of his Protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange as Queen and King.
1688  After King William III and Queen Mary were placed on the throne in England, the Maryland Assembly adopted the Church of England as the State religion. Many Protestants and Catholics lost some of their rights. The Calverts lost their right to rule Maryland, but maintained their property rights. (The Random House Encyclopedia, Random House, NY, 1983) (Ross, S.B., Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Cobblestone, Peru, Illinois, p 6, 2002.)
1689  The British members of Parliament passed a Bill of Rights that mainly protected their own rights, but it did guarantee the peoples right to to petition the King, freedom from excessive bail, and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. Also, it confirmed the right of Protestants to possess arms for defense. Finally, it stated that no Roman Catholic could be king or queen. (Bill of Rights 1689, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., St. Petersberg, FL, en.wikipedia.org, 2006)
1690  John Locke (a British philosopher and statesman, 1632-1704) wrote that all human beings have inalienable rights to be equal and free to pursue life, health, liberty, and possessions. These ideas have been debated, refined, expanded, and fought over by Americans and Harford Countians throughout our nation's history including the present. (Goldie, M. [Editor], S.B., Locke: Political Essays, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2002.)
1691  The Baltimore County Seat was ordered to be relocated to the Fork of the Gunpowder, Joppa.
1692  * Maryland's first royal governor, Sir Lionel Copley, arrived in Maryland. (Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, MD, www.mdarchives.state.md.us, 2006)
* Maryland was divided into thirty parishes and everyone was taxed to maintain the Church of England. There was little resistance, except from the Quakers. In 1692, as church buildings were needed to serve the public as courts, meeting places, and schools. In addition, many powerful men, like the founding fathers, while not religious men, felt that some Christianity was necessary to have a civilized society. Ben Franklin summarized the thought succinctly as follows, "If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it." (Sparks, J., The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. X, Tappan, Whittemore, and Mason, Boston, pages 281-282, 1840.)
* Parliament, at the direction of William and Mary, established Copley Parish, (Church of England) Gunpowder Hundred, Joppa.
* Governor Copley ordered the organization of a Company of Rangers to police the wilderness from Garrison Forest, in present day Baltimore County, to present day northern Harford County and on to the Susquehanna River. (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 14, 1980.)
1693Colonel Nicholas Greenberry was Royal Governor of Maryland from September 1693 until 26 July 1694 (Archives of Maryland 51: preface pp. 45-48) . He was granted a warrant for 350 acres of land located in Providence (now Annapolis) on July 29, 1674. (Maryland Land Warrants, Annapolis Land Office, Liber 15, folio 837)
1694 The Capital of Maryland was moved from Saint Mary's City to Annapolis, on the Severn River, a more central location. Governor Francis Nicholson chose the site. He named the new capital Annapolis in honor of Princess Anne, who became Queen of England in 1702.
1695* William York and Jacob Younger were given the first official permit to build a ferry, Susquehanna Lower Ferry, at "The King's Road" or the location that became Havre de Grace. It ferried travelers across the Susquehanna River for 170 years thereafter. (Shank, E., A Short History of Havre de Grace, Lock House News, Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace, MD, Summer 2004.) (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 311, 1980.)
* The Maryland General Assembly approved a tax on the export of furs to raise funds for free schools. ( Colonial Education, Maryland Manual On-Line, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, MD, 2004 )
1696The books for what is claimed to be the first library in America were sent to Annapolis by Reverend Dr. Thomas Bray; donated by Princes Anne. This was the first of 39 libraries that Bray founded in British North America. He was motivated by a strong Christian zeal to educate the clergy, educate African-Americans, free the slaves, help prisoners, strengthen the Church of England and combat scandalous behavior. Some have called Bray the "Father of American Libraries." (Gracy II, D.B., Editor, The Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Libraries and Culture, School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin, 2006.)(Wilson, J.B., Looking Backwards . . ., The Crab, Maryland Library Association, Vol. 6, No. 2, October 1978.) (February 15,1730 - - Death of Thomas Bray, a Man Who Did Much, Christian History Institute, 2006.)


1700s

1700  The Little Ice Age ended. (See the year 1500) (History of Climate Change, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, http:vathena.arc.nasa.gov/curric/land/global/climchng.html, 1997.)
1709  * Joppatown (called Joppa at the time and located in Copley Parish) became the County Seat. With a population as large as 300 and being a busy seaport, it became the site of court hearings, hangings, elections, cockfights, and horse races. (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 48, 1980.)
* Large numbers of Germans began migrating to the Colonies. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1713  John Stokes, a resident of Joppa, purchased Susquehanna Lower Ferry (today's Havre de Grace). (Shank, E., A Short History of Havre de Grace, Lock House News, Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace, MD, Summer 2004.)
1715  After the 3rd Lord Baltimore's death in 1715, all the proprietors of Maryland were Protestant. They continued to govern until the American Revolution. (Ross, S.B., Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Cobblestone, Peru, Illinois, p 6, 2002.)
1717  The price of public lands in Maryland was 2 pounds of tobacco per acre.
1720  Quiet Lodge was built about 1720. It is located in the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground near the Gunpowder River. The first recorded meeting of American Methodism took place at the Joseph Presbury home in 1772. (Smart, J.K., Command Historian, Gunpowder Meeting House: A Short History of the Old Methodist Church, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.)
1723  The Maryland General Assembly provided that each county have one school. Baltimore County, then including present day Harford County, had a church school one half a mile east of the Gunpowder River near Old Post Road, now Maryland Route 7. (Washburn, D., One and Two Room Schoolhouses in Northern Harford County, Part 1: District 5 - Dublin , Harford Historical Bulletin , The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 94, page 4, Fall 2002)
1726Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, a French writer, was exiled to London. There, in coffeehouses, he encountered the revolutionary ideas of John Locke (a British philosopher and statesman, 1632-1704). Locke had argued that a government could only be legitimate if it received the consent of the governed and protected their natural rights of life, liberty, health and property. He also advocated freedom of religion. Many colonists read Voltaire's and Locke's books. Locke's ideas and words inspired the colonists and found their way into the writings of the founding fathers of the nation. One might argue that American revolution began in the London coffeehouses or in the publishing of Locke's books. (Standage, T., A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Walker & Co., New York, page 251, 2005.)
1727  Aquilla Hall, who held many important positions and was first to sign the Bush Declaration, was born.
1728  Mercy Otis Warren, "the conscience of the American revolution," was born. Although she received no formal education, she was an advisor to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Patrick Henry. She was very instrumental in the writing and adoption of the Bill of Rights. (Stuart, N.R., The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation, Beacon Press, Boston, 2008. )
1732  * George Washington was born.
* Lord Baltimore offered free lands in northern Maryland to the very industrious Pennsylvania Germans.
1734  The world famous Peach Bottom slate was discovered in Pennsylvania, but it was not quarried commercially in and near Cardiff, MD until 1785.
1754* Ben Franklin proposed a limited union of the colonies against the French. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
* The French and Indian War (1754–1763) began. It was mainly between the French and British. American Natives and Colonists fought on both sides.
1756  Gabriel Christie was born in Perryman. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1793 to 1797 and from 1799 until 1801. (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org, 2005)
1758  * Frederick Calvert's mistress, Hester Rhelan, gave birth to Henry Harford, Frederick Calvert's only son. Frederick was the Sixth Lord Baltimore. (Rollo,V.F., Henry Harford: Last Proprietor of Maryland, Maryland Historical Press, Lanham, MD, p 21, 1976.)
* Quakers banned anyone from membership who was involved in the slave trade. In 1776 they banned anyone who owned slaves. Soon the Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Methodists, and Baptists joined them in opposing slavery. (Carroll, V. and Shiflett, D., Christianity on Trail, Arguments Against Anti-Religious Bigotry, Encounter Books, San Francisco, Pages 41-42, 2002.)
1759  The British captured Quebec from the French.(O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1761  During the French and Indian War, Western Maryland settlers were murdered, terrorized, and driven from their lands. Frederick Calvert's lack of interest and support prompted the Maryland Governor to disobey his orders and fueled anti-proprietary feelings. In addition, Frederick Calvert's self-indulgent behavior encouraged rebellion. (Rollo,V.F., Henry Harford: Last Proprietor of Maryland, Maryland Historical Press, Lanham, MD, p 26, 1976.)
1769  * King George III ratified the Mason Dixon Line, settling a long-standing dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. This set the northern boundary of Harford County.
* Robert Eden, Henry Harford's uncle, became Governor of Maryland. His goals were to prepare the colony to accept Henry Harford as Proprietor, to diminish anti-proprietary feelings, and to continue to keep Maryland profitable for the Proprietor. During his term, the debate began to grow as to whether government power should be in the hands of the people, Proprietor, or the King. (Rollo,V.F., Henry Harford: Last Proprietor of Maryland, Maryland Historical Press, Lanham, MD, p 48-54, 1976.)
* Work on Jerusalem Mill, eventually a five story building located along the "Little Falls of the Gunpowder," was begun. It was built by Isaiah Linton, millwright, and David Lee, owner. It was originally called Lee's Mill and located in Baltimore County, now Harford County. (Wright, C.M.,Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, 1980.), (Peden, H., Private Communication, October 07, 2008)
1770Thomas Street came from England about 1770 and obtained a patent to 700 acres near the "Rocks." (Meekins, L.R., Men of Mark in Maryland, Johnson's Makers of America Series . . ., Volume II, Waverly Press, Baltimore, Maryland, page 314, 1910.)
1771Henry Harford, son of Fredrick Calvert the Sixth Lord of Baltimore, inherited the Province of Maryland. He was the last Proprietor of Maryland.
1772Slavery was declared illegal in England.
1773* Governor of Maryland, Robert Eden, introduced and the State Assembly approved the formation of the new county -"Harford" in honor of the new Proprietor: Henry Harford, age 15. Harford County, until 1773, had been part of Baltimore County. (Rollo,V.F., Henry Harford: Last Proprietor of Maryland, Maryland Historical Press, Lanham, MD, p 52, 1976.)
* The County was governed thereafter by county commissioners until 1972.
* The County Seat was moved to Bush, a rest stop for travelers between Baltimore and Philadelphia. Bush remained the County seat for nine years. The County Seat for Baltimore County was moved to Baltimore City.
* The Gunpowder Meeting House, possibly the oldest standing Methodist Church in America, was directed to be built by Bishop Asbury. Colonel William W. Stone, commander of Edgewood Arsenal, saved the building from demolition in 1966. (Smart, J.K., Command Historian, Gunpowder Meeting House: A Short History of the Old Methodist Church, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.)
1774* In the spring King George III approved the "Intolerable Acts" that closed the Port of Boston, outlawed town meetings in Massachusetts without Royal approval, permitted the Royal Governor to remove trials to England, and required citizens to quarter Royal troops. These acts enraged many colonists.
* The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. The delegates from 12 British North American Colonies petitioned King George for relief, but the King ignored their appeal. (Montross, L., The Reluctant Rebels; the Story of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Harper, New York, 1950.)
1775* In March, after being ridiculed and humiliated by the King's closest advisors, Ben Franklin left London in March 1775 ending hopes for a peaceful solution.
* The Bush Declaration was signed on March 22. While it was not a declaration of independence, it appears to have supported "opposition by arms to the British troops." Also, it provided the County motto -- "at the risque of our lives and fortunes." (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, 1980.)
* More than 3,600 Harford County men assumed a military role in the war for American independence between 1773 and 1783. That probably was most of the healthy men of military age. (Peden, H., Revolutionary Patriots of Harford County, Maryland, Heritage Books, Westminster, MD, 2000.)
* The Revolutionary War began with the April 19, 1775 battles at Lexington and Concord Massachusetts. In these battles, the 1800 British troops had extensive losses. The war lasted for eight years, and ended 143 years of governance of Maryland by a British Proprietor. (Hibbert, C., Redcoates and Rebels, The American Revolution Through British Eyes, W. W. Norton and Co., Inc., NY, NY, 2002)
* A meeting to select the Bush River Upper Hundred Revolutionary Committee was held at Frances Dines Tavern in Jarrettsville. (Kegley, F., Smith, A.L., and Johnson, L., Jarrettsville, Past and Present, Jarrettsville Lions Club, 1976)
* The Continental Army was formed June 14, 1775, but was disbanded after the war due to distrust of a standing army.
* In November of 1775, Virginia's royal governor, John Murray, Lord Dunmore, a slave owner, issued a proclamation offering freedom to slaves who fought for the King against the American rebels. The proclamation was the first mass emancipation of slaves in American history. While many slaves and free African-Americans rushed to join the British, most supported the rebels or remained neutral. The choice to join the British or embrace the rebels was one that certainly tore apart some slave families and communities, just as it divided the white citizenry. Taken as a whole, the proclamation aligned most undecided and moderate Americans against the British. (Dunmore's Proclamation: A Time to Choose, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, VA, 2006, http://history.org/foundation/about.cfm) )
* Schama claims that “at least thirty thousand” slaves “had escaped the Virginia plantations in attempts to reach the British lines.” The slaves apparently followed Virginian, rebel Patrick Henry’s dangerous advice “Give me liberty or give me death.” Slaves began disappearing from states, between and including, Georgia and New York. (Schama, S., Rough Crossings, Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, 2006.)
* Many black and white loyalists ended up leaving the country during or after the war. Most loyalists seemed to remain silent. Quakers opposed independence because it led to war. Many loyalists felt that a revolution would not lead to a government better than the King's government. Actually, most revolutions are national disasters, but, fortunately, we had many excellent, well educated leaders who had too much character to allow the revolution to result in a monarchy or dictatorship. They had read the theories of the European "enlightenment" from such authors as John Locke (1632-1704), Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Voltaire (1694-1778), Charles-Louis Montesquieu (1689-1755) and J.J. Rousseau (1712-1778), and wished to put them into practice. For example, George Washington saw himself as a servant of the people. Accordingly, he signed his letters "Your most humble and obedient servant." (Gergen, D., Bad News for Bullies, U.S. News and World Report, page 54, June 19, 2006.) ) (Reill, P.H., and Wilson, E.J., The Encyclopedia of The Enlightenment, Facts on File, page , 2004) )
* From Cambridge, Massachusetts, General George Washington wrote John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, that there were claims that the British were working to spread smallpox to his troops. This was never proven, but during the course of the war, more American troops died from smallpox than were killed by the British. (Military Origins of a Modern Fear, U.S. News and World Report, page 47, July 24, 2006.) )
* During the period of 1775 to 1782, Harford County became involved in wooden shipbuilding in Joppa and at Otter Point. The probable reasons were a good supply of oak, solid ground, absence of big waves and strong winds, proximity to Baltimore, and being as far and protected as possible from prowling British warships. (Ford, B., A Geographic History of Maryland Shipbuilding, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 264, Winter, 2007.)(Ford, B., Wooden Shipbuilding in Maryland Prior to the Mid-Nineteenth Century, The American Neptune , Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, Vol. 62, Num. 1, page 69, Winter 2002. )
1776* The population of Harford County was 12,765. (6)
* Adam Smith (1723 – 1790) published a book titled An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations making him the father of modern economics. 1776 He advocated a free market economy as more productive and more beneficial to society. Smith opposed any form of economic power concentration because it prevents the market's natural ability to establish a fair price for land, labor, and capital. He believed the people knew their needs better than a distant office worker. (Smith, A., An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London, 1776.)
* The American Colonies, including the Harford County area, were the world's largest producer of raw iron. ( Hampton Nat. Historic Sites, Nat. Park Service, U.S. Dept. of Interior, GPO, 404-952/40077, 1996.)
* On January 1st, British ships, including the Otter, bombarded Norfolk and destroyed it.
* In March, the British warship Otter and a flotilla were heading up the Bay toward the Patapsco River, Harford County, and Baltimore. Maryland hastily awoke from its loyalist leanings, prepared for war, and armed a number of ships. A delay, caused by the Otter running aground near the Patapsco River, gave the "Maryland Navy" time to prepare and drive the British back down the Bay without a fight and without their captured ships. (Tinder, R.W., Shattered Isolation: The Raid of the Otter and Maryland's Chaotic Turn to Independence, March-July 1776, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 429, Winter, 2004.)
* On July 4, 1776, at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, twelve states approved the Declaration of Independence (from Britain). New York approved five days later.
1777* Havre de Grace, a village with a few houses, was burned by the British. (2)
* Joppa repulsed an attack. (Important Dates in Maryland's History, Harford Historical Bulletin , The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 46, page 94, Autumn 1990)
* In the period 1777 to the Civil War, as northern states abolished slavery, many Maryland slaves gradually won their freedom through various processes: manumission, apprenticeship, self purchase, and indentured servitude. The Churches were the driving force for abolition. Total abolition came to neighboring, northern states, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1847 and Delaware in 1865. (Cofield, R., Manumission and Apprenticeship in Maryland, 1770-1870, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 56, Spring, 2006.)
1778* A Maryland British supporter and spy wrote British General Howe that Baltimore was the "only town of any consequence the Rebels now possess, from Boston to Charles Town. It's astonishing the Commerce that is carried on there, tis from Baltimore mostly the Rebel Army is supplied . . ." (Tinder, R.W., Book Reviews, Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Vol. II , Maryland Historical Magazine , Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Vol. 101, No. 1, page 118, Spring 2006)
* France (1778), Spain (1779), and Netherlands (1780) declared war on Britain to support the American rebellion. (O’Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History , Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
* The Battle of Monmouth was fought by George Washington in New Jersey. It was an strategic victory for Washington, the last major battle in the north, and the largest one day battle in the war. Many Tories and Hessians deserted the British Army, and the British had over a thousand casulties. Fort Monmouth was named after the battle in 1925. Early in the 21st century, U.S. Army CECOM Life Cycle Management Command would move from Fort Monmouth to the C4ISR campus in Harford County. ( Fort Monmouth and Team C4ISR Timeline, Fort Monmouth Historical Office, Army Communications and Electronics Command, www.monmouth.army.mil/historian, Fall 2009.) (Stryker, W.S., The Battle of Monmouth, Kessinger Publishing, LLC, Whitefish, MT, 2006.)
1780The Town of Bel Air was first laid out by Aquilla Scott on a portion of his inheritance called Scott’s Improvement Enlarged, also known as Scott’s Old Fields.
1781* Revolutionary War troops camped in Havre de Grace in September in route to Yorktown and once again after Cornwallis’ surrender. As Washington’s troops came through Maryland, they were fully re-supplied.
* The Continental Congress declared the Articles of Confederation to be in force, following ratification by Maryland.
* Slaves began a 13 year revolt in Haiti, creating many thousands of refugees and killing over a thousand whites. This was the only successful slave rebellion in history. (O’Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.) (Haitian Slave Revolt, Encarta Premium, Encyclopedia, Microsoft, 2006. ) (Corbett, B., The Haitian Revolution of 1791-1803, Webster University, St. Louis, MO, 2006. )
1782* Plans for the Bel Air Courthouse were laid out by Daniel Scott. Under the name "Scott’s Old Fields," Bel Air became the County Seat. (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, 1980.) ( Private communication with Henty Peden, Aug. 2006)
* An old stone building at the intersection of Main Street and Baltimore Pike (now Alternate Route 1) was used as the courthouse. (Bel Air, Guide to Our Historic Town, Town of Bel Air, Bel Air, MD, page 8, 2006)
* William Paca (1740-1799) became the third governor of Maryland. He was born at Chilbury Hall in the Abingdon area of Harford County. He was an early revolutionary, and he was similar to Thomas Jefferson in many ways. He was a member of the Sons of Liberty, delegate to the Colonial Assembly, member of the Committees of Correspondence and Public Safety, delegate to the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of the State Legislature, advocate and contributor to the Bill of Rights, and made his home on a rural farm (on Wye Island) which he purchased about 1760. He built the William Paca House in Annapolis (Open to the public). He raised funds for the founding of Washington College and for Revolutionary War soldiers. He wrote the General Assembly about the soldiers, in 1783, "when it is considered how much we are indebted to them" that they should be compensated. Paca added that the soldiers are "returning without cloths, without money, without friends -- and rendered by their wounds and infirmities totally destitute of means of substance." (Silverman, A., William Paca, Signer, Governor, Jurist, The Maryland Historical Magazine, The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Vol. XXXVII, No.1, March 1942. )
* Robert Young Stokes sold the first leases in the area around Susquehanna Lower Ferry. Claude Blanchard, returning from the American victory at Yorktown with Rochambeau's troops, wrote on August 29, 1792, "It has been proposed to build a city here on the right bank near the ferry where we crossed. It should be called 'Havre de Grace.'" A year later the new town had seven houses and a warehouse. (Shank, E., A Short History of Havre de Grace, Lock House News, Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace, MD, Summer 2004.) ( Private communication with Henty Peden, Aug. 2006)
1783* The Revolutionary War ended with the Treaty of Paris where Great Britain conceded independence to 13 colonies -- The United States. (Sept. 3, 1783)
* James Turner, a farmer, was born near present day Bel Air, attended the Classical Academy in Madonna, and served as Captain of militia in the War of 1812. As a Jacksonian, he served in the U.S. Congress from 1833 to 1837. (Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress)
* After the last of the British soldiers went home, what may have been the most important event in human history occurred on December 23, 1783. Instead of becoming a king, George Washington resigned as Commander and Chief of the American Army before the Continental Congress in Annapolis, Maryland, and returned to civilian life. This simple act cleared the way for the formation of the greatest republic based on democratic principles in human history. (Wan, W., Maryland to Unveil the Page That Began a New Chapter, Washington Post, Washington, D.C., Feb., 18, 2007.)
* The first free flight by man occurred in an untethered hot-air balloon in France. The pilots were Pilatre de Rozier and Francois Laurent. The same evening Laurent visited Benjamin Franklin to tell him of his 20 minute flight. (Boyd, J.B., Artificial Clouds and Inflammable Air, Chemical Heritage, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Volume 27, Number 2, Summer 2009, page 32.)
1784* The Act of 1784 changed the name of Scott’s Improvement Enlarged to “Belle Aire.”
* The Anglican Church of England was disestablished as a result of the American Revolution. The church was virtually shut down by the Revolution. Many Anglicans left the Country. (History Notes, St. Mary Anne's Church, North East, MD ) (Dalmas, J.E., The Bicentennial of Christ Episcopal Church, Rock Spring Parish, Christ Episcopal Church , Forest Hill, MD, page 1, 2005)
1785* Havre de Grace was incorporated.
* Cokesbury College was established in Abingdon. It was the first Methodist College in the world, and the first college in Harford County. (Konopacki, R., Answer Found 200 Years Later to Burning Question , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, June 3, 2009, page AA1.)
1786The current spelling of Bel Air was adopted. (Bel Air, Guide to Our Historic Town, Town of Bel Air, Bel Air, MD, page 8, 2006)
1787The first African American denomination began in an old blacksmith shop in Philadelphia; it was called the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. ( Historical Perspective, African Methodist Episcopal Church, Los Angles, CA, 2005. ) (Carroll, V. and Shiflett, D., Christianity on Trail, Arguments Against Anti-Religious Bigotry Encounter Books, San Francisco, Pages 41-42, 2002.)
1788* The Hays House was built. The Hays House was named after Thomas Archer Hays, Sr. who was not the original owner. He owned the house between 1813 and 1861, the longest time.
* Maryland’s Convention ratified (by a vote of 63 to 11) the proposed new Constitution for the United States. Samuel Chase, William Paca (born in the Abingdon Area), and Luther Martin argued that it must be amended to include individual rights.
* To provide a proper Courthouse, a tax of two shillings, six pence was imposed on county citizens per 100 pounds (monetary pounds) of property. (Bel Air, Guide to Our Historic Town, Town of Bel Air, Bel Air, MD, page 8, 2006)
1789The first President of the United States was elected unanimously: George Washington. He invented the President's Cabinet and delegated fiscal policy to the Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. He only had Secretaries of State, War, and Treasury, and an Attorney General.
1790* Congress authorized the first U.S. Census. Baltimore was a boomtown, ranking in population only behind Philadelphia, New York, and Boston among American cities (It had 13,500 inhabitants in the census of 1790).
* The average farm size was 100 acres. (The Draft Horse in America, The Eastern Draft Horse Association, www.easterndrafthorse.com, 2007 )
1791* The Bill of Rights (ten amendments to the United States Constitution) was adopted. It was adopted to protect the individual citizens from abusive tyrants and governments. (The Constitution Society (www.constitution.org) Austin, Texas, 2005.)
1794* Rock Run Mill was built. It was next to the Susquehanna River, the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal, and one of the longest covered bridges in America. (Boehm, J., Mill's past kept alive, The Aegis Weekender, South Bay, Homestead Publishing Co., Page 1, August 22, 2003.)
* Martha Griffith, a Harford County resident, filed a suit that re-affirmed the right of Maryland widows to claim a portion of the real and personal property of their deceased husbands. Also, the action demonstrated that women had the right to own property and use the courts. When Martha Griffith died in 1835, she was a very wealthy woman. (Sawyer, Jeffrey K., Women, Law, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Early Harford County, Harford Historical Bulletin, Harford County, Maryland, Number 81, Summer 1999.)
1795* To defeat scurvy, the British Navy required that lemon or lime juice be added to sailor's rations of grog (watered down rum) . This simple remedy helped Britain establish supremacy of the seas and become the world's first superpower. (Standage, T., A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Walker & Co., New York, pages 108-111, 2005.)
* Cokesbury College was burned to the ground. In 2009, Bonnie McCubbin, St. Mary's College, claimed it was burned by James O'Kelly who apparently was an adversary of Bishop Francis Asbury. (Konopacki, R., Answer Found 200 Years Later to Burning Question , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, June 3, 2009, page AA1.)
1796In his farewell address, President George Washington declared, "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." Isolationism, a deep longing for peace, was the United States' basic foreign policy, with a few brief interruptions, until 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. (Standage, T., A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Walker & Co., New York, page 251, 2005.)
1798* Federal tax assessors found 657 taxable houses in Harford County.(12)
* Havre de Grace had 40 houses. (Shank, E., A Short History of Havre de Grace, Lock House News, Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace, MD, Summer 2004.)
1799* There was a bid to bring the capital of the nation, under the new Constitution, to Havre de Grace. Supporters of the plan commissioned H. P. Hardecoeur to do a detailed survey and mapping of the area.
* George Washington died.


1800s

1800 * Over 80% of U.S. citizens worked in the agriculture industry. (U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, DC, www.dol.gov, September 6, 2009.)
1801 * Voter qualification laws, which prohibited one in three adult white males from voting, were abolished.
* United States' first war began. The Pasha of Tripoli, a part of the Moslem Ottoman Empire, declared war on the United States. While there were many battles and the Tripolitan War lasted 15 years, Congress did not declare war. Commodore John Rodgers', (1772-1838) of Harford County, brilliant record in the Tripolitan War won him appointment as Commodore of the Mediterranean Squadron in May 1805. (Smethurst, D., Tripoli: The United States' First War On Terror, Presidio Press, New York, 2007), (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 416, 1980.)
* By the 1800s people were using horses for riding and pulling wagons. The more economical oxen were the preferred draft animal for farms. (The Draft Horse in America, The Eastern Draft Horse Association, www.easterndrafthorse.com, 2007 )
1802 The right of suffrage (voting) for free African-Americans was ended by the Maryland General Assembly.
1803The Napoleonic Wars began. Baltimore made enormous profits from shipping foodstuffs during the Napoleonic Wars. The British saw this as "opportunism," and a British Admiral declared that Baltimore was a "doomed" city. That included Harford County.
1803The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the USA. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1804 1804 Napoleon became Emperor of France. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1805 * Eden Mill was built by Elijah Stansbury. There are various theories about how it was named, but most can be traced back Sir Robert Eden, last British proprietary governor of Maryland. ( See this Chronology 1769 and 1773) (The Harford County Sun, Baltimore, March 15, 1992, page 1) (Shagena, J.L., Eden Mill: An Illustrated History, Jack L. Shegena, Jr., Bel Air, Maryland, 2006 )
* The first newspaper established in Harford County was the Abingdon Patriot. It was introduced in Abingdon by Daniel P. Ruff. The first weekly newspaper, the Harford Bond, was published in Havre de Grace in 1818. (Chambers, T.R., Harford County Newspapers of the 19th Century, Harford Historical Bulletin, Harford County, Maryland, Number 50, page 89, Fall 1991)
1807 * Napoleon declared that all British vessels should be regarded as lawful prizes of war.
* The British empire outlawed the slave trade due to the efforts of William Wilberforce.
1808 The importation of slaves was outlawed by the United States.
1812* The War of 1812 began when the United States declared war on Britain.
* The British declared a blockade of the Chesapeake Bay.
* During the war, Commodore John Rodgers, of Harford County, captured 23 prizes and played an important role in defending Baltimore during the British attack on Baltimore. (Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition) (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 416, 1980.)
1813 * The British raided, looted, and burned along the Chesapeake Bay.
* On May 3, the British, led by Admiral George Cockburn, burned and plundered the town of Havre de Grace.
1814 * On August 24-25, the British burned the Government Buildings in Washington, D.C., including the Nation's Capitol and the White House.
* The British landed at North Point and a bloody battle was fought in nearby Baltimore County helping reverse the British march to Baltimore. Meanwhile, Fort McHenry was under bombardment, and the Star-Spangled Banner was written. Baltimore was not burned.
* Bel Air Academy was authorized by the State Legislature and constructed. It was a private classical, college preparatory school. (Bel Air, Guide to Our Historic Town, Town of Bel Air, Bel Air, MD, page 8, 2006)
1815 * The Battle of New Orleans was won on January 8, 1815 decisively by Andrew Jackson leading a rapidly assembled ragtag army. The British Army, the greatest army in the world, suffered 2,332 casualties and losses while the brilliant General Jackson had only 314. January 8 became a national holiday until anti-Southern sentiment reached a peak during the Civil War. (Ramini, R.E., The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America's First Military Victory, Penguin, 2001.)
* Admiral George Cockburn escorted Emperor Napoleon to St. Helena, ending the Napoleonic Wars.
* Treaty of Ghent was signed, ending the War of 1812.
1817 Brigadier General James Jay Archer was born in Harford County. In the Mexican War, he was cited for gallantry at Chaoultepec, and in the Civil War, he saw action as a Confederate in the following campaigns: Peninsula, Eltham's Landing, Seven Pines, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Shepardstown, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. (www.historycentral.com)
1819 Yellow fever epidemic struck Baltimore. The wealthier residents fled to their country estates.
1821 Havre de Grace raised money for a private brick schoolhouse.
(Rigdon, W.O., The Early History of Education in Harford County, Maryland, University of Maryland, page 78, 1933.)
1824 * Harford County became the home to the family of the great Shakespearian actor, Junius Brutus Booth, when he leased 159 acre Tudor Hall for 1000 years for $733.20 from the Hall family. (Dinah Faber, Archivist and Booth Historian, Booth Research Center, Historical Society of Harford County, Aug. 14, 2006. )
* The Harford Mutual Insurance Company was established as the Mutual Fire Insurance Company in Harford County.
* Dr. George Washington Archer, M.D. (1824-1907) was born. Dr. Archer assembled much of the basic collection of the Historical Society of Harford County Archives.
* A cotton/wool factory, later to be called Ring Factory, was being erected on the intersection of Winters Run and what is now called Ring Factory Road. (Adams, C.G., Wilna: On the Road from Bel Air to Joppa, Harford Historical Bulletin , The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 91, pages 21-28, Winter 2002)
1825 * Pooles Island Lighthouse was constructed.
* The Maryland General Assembly passed an act providing for primary schools in all communities. (Washburn, D., One and Two Room Schoolhouses in Northern Harford County, Part 1: District 5 - Dublin , Harford Historical Bulletin , The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 94, page 4, Fall 2002)
* The average work week was about 70 hours. (Hayes, B., Automation on the Job, American Scientist, Volume 97, page 13, January 2009.)
1827 * The Concord Point Lighthouse in Havre de Grace was built. Its keepers were the descendants of its first keeper and defender of Havre de Grace during the War of 1812, John O’Neill.
* Martin Franklin Conway was born at "Bretons Hill" near Fallston. As a Kansas Republican abolitionist, he served in the U.S. Congress from 1861 to 1863. Appointed by President Johnson as consul in Marseilles, France from 1866 until 1869. (Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress)
1829 * The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was opened for traffic. In the mid 1600s, Augustine Herman, a Dutch mapmaker, first proposed the 14 mile long canal. The canal connected Harford County directly to Philadelphia, and is now a modern sea-level canal. (Chesapeake and Delaware Canal website, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, www.nap.usace.army.mil/sb/c&d.htm, March 21, 2009)
1830 * Bel Air had four hotels, a large boarding school, the courthouse, 27 houses, and Bel Air Academy. Towns remained very small since nearly everyone was a farmer, and farm families were very self sufficient. (Bel Air, Guide to Our Historic Town, Town of Bel Air, Bel Air, MD, page 8, 2006)
* Baltimore-Ohio railroad began. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1831 Nat Turner's slave rebellion occurred in Southampton County, Virginia. The rebels numbered more than 50 slaves and free blacks. The rebels traveled from house to house, freeing slaves and killing all the white men, women and children they could find, 55. The rebellion was suppressed in two days, and Turner was tried, convicted and hung in Jerusalem, Virginia. The result was an increased repression of African-Americans. (Greenberger, K.S. ed., Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory, Oxford University Press, New York, 2003, ISBN 0195134044. )
1834 * The British ended slavery throughout the British Empire peacefully by generously compensating the slaveholders. Later in the United States, while Abraham Lincoln and many others favored compensation, instead, the fanatics, on both sides, gained the upper hand. The United States had a more expensive, terrible bloody Civil War. (www.civilwarhome.com))
* Edwin Booth was born in a log house on a farm near Bel Air, Harford County. He became the most famous and respected American actor of the late 1800s. ( Faber, D., Edwin Booth, Harford County's Prince of the Players , Harford Historical Bulletin, No 98, page 3, Summer 2004.)
1838 * The first railroad, the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad (now Amtrak), entered Harford County. (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part I. The Birth of the MA & PA Railroad, Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 68, page 35, Spring 1996.)
* By the late 1830s, since America was becoming the breadbasket of the world, larger and stronger draft horses were imported from Europe. (The Draft Horse in America, The Eastern Draft Horse Association, www.easterndrafthorse.com, 2007 )
1840 * York, PA and Havre de Grace were connected by the combination of rail and the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal. From tidewater to Wrightsville, PA, the locks lifted the boats over 1000 feet. (The Sun, Baltimore, April 30, 2006, page 1G.)
* A post office was established at Jerusalem Mill and a long period of prosperity followed until 1880 when rural mills were undersold by bigger mills. (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, 1980.)
1844 The Maryland Historical Society was formed with great enthusiasm. The monthly minutes were published without charge by the Baltimore American. The Society is the state's first cultural institution. (A History of the Maryland Historical Society, 1844-2006, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, Vol. 101, No. 4, page 401, Winter, 2006.)
1845 * Welsh quarrymen (from Gwynedd, north Wales) began arriving in the County, and slate became a big business, creating a strong economy for the region.
* The Great Potato Famine (1845-48) in Ireland caused many Irish to immigrate to Maryland.
1846 The Mexican War started in 1846 and ended in 1847. Texas had gained independence from Mexico in 1836 and was admitted to the union in 1845 which angered Mexican leaders. President Polk with the help of England and France tried to negotiate with Mexico, but Mexico attacked U.S. troops guarding the Rio Grande. The result was that the U.S. annexed California and New Mexico and kept Texas. Support for the war by the Democrats followed party lines. (Smith, J.H., The War With Mexico, Macmillian, New York, 1919.)
1848 * The German Revolution of 1848 was a great urban middle-class revolution against the nobility to obtain individual rights. It appeared to be a new springtime of freedom, but like most revolutions it failed quickly. It degenerated into a war between all nationalities and groups. As a result of such events, the Southern aristocracy appeared to German and other European immigrants to be similar to the European nobility from which they had just escaped. Thus, they were less tolerant of slavery and constitutional arguements than Americans who had been here longer. (Hamerow, T. S., History and the German Revolution of 1848 The American Historical Review, American Historical Association, Vol. 60, No. 1, pp. 27-44Oct., 1954. ) (Cunz, D., The Maryland Germans in the Civil War, The Maryland Historical Magazine, The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Vol. XXXVI, No. 4, Dec., 1941.)
* The Seneca Falls (NY) Convention, the first convention aimed at obtaining equal rights for women, was held.
* The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad petitioned the Maryland General Assembly to construct a bridge across the Susquehanna River to connect Havre de Grace and Perryville. The Cecil County Whig opposed the bridge and called the Railroad an "irresponsible company, endeavoring to trample on the rights and privileges of citizens of this state." Such objections from Cecil County and other problems delayed the bridge completion until 1866. (Diggens, M., Bridging Port Deposit "Off from the World and the Rest of Mankind, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 185, Summer, 2006.)
1850 * Public School education was established in Harford County. Students were required to pay $1.00 per quarter in tuition. (Rigdon, W.O., The Early History of Education in Harford County, Maryland, University of Maryland, page 85, 1933.)
* Over 50% of the workers were working in non-agriculture jobs. The average employee was working from roughly 60 to 70 hours a week. (U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, DC, www.dol.gov, September 6, 2009.)
1852 The Susquehanna River froze so hard that the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad tracks were run across the ice at Havre de Grace.
1854 Fifty-three public schools were in operation in Harford County. Fourteen were made of logs, 10 stone, and the rest were framed buildings. (Rigdon, W.O., The Early History of Education in Harford County, Maryland, University of Maryland, 1933.)
1857 * The Aegis began as the Southern Aegis. (Chambers, T.R., Harford County Newspapers of the 19th Century, Harford Historical Bulletin, Harford County, Maryland, Number 50, page 115, Fall 1991), "In the words of one of its founders: 'The Aegis is a weekly journal; the object of which shall be the Defense of the South and its Institutions.'" At that time travel through the most of the county was on dirt roads by horse, wagon, or stage coach. Packet steamers put in at Bush, Havre de Grace and Joppa. Agriculture and mining were the main industries of Harford County. It is hard to believe today, but there was not one bank in the county. (The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, page A1, March 15, 2006) (The Aegis 150th Celebration The Aegis, May 10, 2006, page 3)
* James Buchanan, Jr. (1791 – 1868) became the President of the United States serving from 1857 to 1861. He assumed control of a severely divided nation. His attempts to appease the South to save the Union and retain peace failed, resulting in him going down in history as an “accomplice to slavery.” (Klein, P.S., President James Buchanan: A Biography, American Political Biography Press, Newtown, CT, 1995.)
1858 * There were 18 slate quarries west of the Susquehanna River; almost half were in Harford County.
* The Harford County Courthouse was destroyed by fire on February 19, 1858, and the present Courthouse was constructed. (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 70, 1980.)
1859 * John Brown, while expecting to start a slave rebellion, a war, and a "bloodbath," attacked Harpers Ferry. The first man he killed was an African-American. The local citizens trapped Brown's contingent in a Federal Armory, and Federal troops under Robert E. Lee quickly ended the insurrection. Nevertheless, John Brown fired up fanatics on both sides. The great fame and admiration that John Brown obtained among most abolitionists frightened southerners and helped begin their preparation for violence. One of the supporters of slavery, John Wilkes Booth, watched Brown's hanging from right next to the gallows and probably was inspired by all the admiration and publicity given to Brown's fanaticism. John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859. The song "John Brown's Body" was the unofficial anthem of Union soldiers. The tune with more "uplifting words" became "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and a song that Union Soldiers sang as they marched into battle. (Kauffman, M.W., American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies, Random House, New York, NY, pages 103-112, November 2004.)
* Charles Darwin’s book titled On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life was published.
1860 * Abraham Lincoln was elected President.
* South Carolina left the Union.
* While Abraham Lincoln and many others favored compromise, the fanatics, on both sides, had gained the upper hand. The United States began blundering into a more expensive and bloodier Civil War than anyone expected. Neither side was prepared or expected a long serious war.
1861 * On April 13 in South Carolina, Federal troops at Fort Sumter surrendered after a 34 hour bombardment. Two days later, President Lincoln naively called for 75,000 volunteers to serve 3 months. (Toomey, D.C., The Civil War in Maryland, Toomey Press, Baltimore, page 10, 1990)
* On April 19, Baltimore citizens burned the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad bridges across the Bush and Gunpowder Rivers in Harford County to avoid rioters attacking Union troops as they passed through Baltimore on their way south. Washington D.C. was surrounded, in jeopardy, and isolated. (Smart, J.K., Suppressing Rebellion in Harford County in 1861, Part 1, Harford Historical Bulletin, The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 83, page 3, Winter 2000) (Detzer, D., Dissonance: The Turbulent Days . . ., First Harvest, Orlando, Florida, 2007)
* In early May, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad was peacefully secured in Harford County by 900 Union troops. This permitted the free flow of supplies and troops to Washington D.C. (Smart, J.K., Suppressing Rebellion in Harford County in 1861, Part 1, Harford Historical Bulletin, The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 83, page 4, Winter 2000)
* On July 13, three hundred Union troops marched to Bel Air to arrest pacifists and Southern sympathizers and seize arms. One of their targets was Herman Stump, but he was warned by John Wilkes Booth. (Smart, J.K., Suppressing Rebellion in Harford County in 1861, Part 1, Harford Historical Bulletin, The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 83, pages 30-32, Winter 2000)
* On November 6, August W. Bradford, a Harford County native and strong Union supporter, was elected Governor of Maryland. (Toomey, D.C., The Civil War in Maryland, Toomey Press, Baltimore, page 33, 1990)
1862 President Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in Confederate states on Jan. 1, 1863. Harford County was not included. (Washburn, D., The Colored Schools of Harford County: Separate and Equal? Part 1: , Harford Historical Bulletin , The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 101, page 9, Summer/Fall 2005)
1864 * On July 11, Confederate Major Harry Gilmor, a native of Towson, Maryland led his cavalry unit (less than 135 men) on a destructive raid through Harford County. In spite of strong Union defenses along the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, the railroad bridge over the Gunpowder River in Harford County was burned. Also two trains, telegraph lines and the Magnolia Station were destroyed. The New York Times reported the Rebel cavalry unit under 800 and the Baltimore Sun estimates the force between 1000 and 1500. Such exaggerations caused considerable panic in the North. (Toomey, D.C., The Civil War in Maryland, Toomey Press, Baltimore, page 127, 1990) (Ackinclose, T., Sabres and Pistols, The Civil War Career of Colonel Harry Gilmor C.S.A., Stan Clark Military Books, Gettysburg, PA pages 108-118, 1997)
* Male Harford County public school teachers were paid $80 per quarter and female teachers were paid $75 per quarter. (Rigdon, W.O., The Early History of Education in Harford County, Maryland, University of Maryland, page 95, 1933.)
* A new Maryland Constitution was ratified that abolished slavery in Harford County. (Berlin, I., et al, Free at Last, A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom and the Civil War, The New Press, NY, NY, 1993.)
1865 * In late 1864 or early 1965, President Lincoln's son, Robert, recalled falling between a moving train and the platform; and instantly, Edwin Booth lifted him to safety, probably saving his life. This episode occurred in Jersey City shortly before President Lincoln's shooting by John Wilkes Booth, Edwin’s brother. Afterwards, Robert lived a long and remarkable life. Edwin was born and grew up in Harford County and was one of the most celebrated actors of the 19th century
* Robert E. Lee surrendered in Virginia.
* There were no high schools in Harford County. (Rigdon, W.O., The Early History of Education in Harford County, Maryland , University of Maryland, page 100, 1933.)
* The Board of School Commissioners of Harford County had their first meeting. (Washburn, D., One and Two Room Schoolhouses in Northern Harford County, Part 1: District 5 - Dublin , Harford Historical Bulletin , The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 94, page 4, Fall 2002)
* April 14, 1865, five days after General Lee's surrender, as part of a conspiracy, devised by John Wilkes Booth, to decapitate the Union government, Booth assassinated President Lincoln inside Ford's Theatre while Lincoln was surrounded by many military onlookers. In spite of this, Booth was able to perform a theatrical escape from Washington, a military city, and evade capture until the morning of April 26, 1865, when the soldiers caught up with Booth in Virginia and killed him. The assassination brought widespread persecution to actors, theaters, people that looked like Booth, Southern supporters, his family, and his friends.
1866 Construction of the first railroad bridge across the Susquehanna River was completed and, on November 26, the first passenger train crossed the bridge with dignitaries and reporters. (Diggens, M., Bridging Port Deposit "Off from the World and the Rest of Mankind, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 185, Summer, 2006.)
1868 The first known meeting of a historical society in Harford County occurred. (Peden, H.C. Jr., The Historical Society of Harford County, Inc., Bel Air, MD, 2008.)
1869 The mass production of typewriters started about this time and began bringing women into offices. Later in the 19th century, telephone switch boards were being were being installed along with telephones, again bringing more women into offices.
1870    * Education by apprenticeship had ended in Maryland. (Cofield, R., Manumission and Apprenticeship in Maryland, 1770-1870, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 71, Spring, 2006.)
* Franco-Prussian War began. The Germans quickly won and a Communist takeover of Paris was quickly overpowered by the French Army. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
* The ancient economic and political theories of socialism started to gain popularity in Europe. They had worked well in families, extended families, and tribes, but had always failed in large, complex, evolving economic environments.
* Jim Crow laws were started and ended in Maryland in about 1957. Such laws were mostly about separating African-Americans from the rest of society in an equitable manner. From personal observations, they were not practical to enforce, not evenhanded, and, thus, not enforced very well in all matters. (Smith, C.F., Here Lies Jim Crow, Civil Rights in Maryland, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 2008.)
1871Germany was unified by Otto von Bismarck, a very militaristic leader, who in the mid 1880s established the first welfare state. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1873 Woman's Christian Temperance Union.(WCTU), which led the prohibition movement, was formed. The WCTU tried to combat the influence of alcohol on families and society. In addition, they supported a number of social reform issues including: fair labor, elimination of prostitution, public health, improved sanitation, women's suffrage, and international peace. Alcohol was called, "the greatest evil in the world," and prohibition of the sale of alcohol was probably the hottest political issue in American between the Civil War and the "Great Depression" in the 1930s. (Kazan, M., A Godly Hero, The Life of William Jennings Bryan, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, 2006.)
1874 Bel Air was incorporated. The town contained 42 half-acre lots along Main and Bond Streets. (Bel Air, Guide to Our Historic Town, Town of Bel Air, Bel Air, MD, page 8 and 17, 2006)
1878 Some time around 1878 the Bel Air Racetrack opened (Harford Democrat, February 8, 1878, page 2). The last race at the Racetrack was run in 1966 (Record, November 11, 1989, page 10A). It was located where Harford Mall is today.
1880 The American Union Telegraph Company opened for business in a Bel Air building occupied by the law offices of Webster, Archer, and VanBibber. J. E. Worthington was the operator. (The Aegis and Intelligencer, Bel Air, MD, Dec. 24, 1880. )
1882 The Maryland Central Railway was formed in 1882. (www.maparailroadhistory.org , Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad Historical Society, Bel Air, Maryland, 2005)
1883 * Mary C. Dallam recorded the first expansion of Bel Air.
* The Maryland Central Railway (MCR) reached Fallston on May 7, 1883. Fallston was the first station established on the MCR. (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part I. The Birth of the MA & PA Railroad, Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 68, page 47, Spring 1996.)
* The Maryland Central Railway reached Bel Air on June 21, 1883 due in part to the efforts of William H. Waters, who served as President of the Baltimore and Delta Railway. The train took about two hours to travel from Bel Air to North Avenue, Baltimore. (Shagena, J.L., Bel Air Roller Mills, The Town's First Industry , Morris Publishing, Kearney, Nebraska, 2005) (The Aegis and Intelligencer, Bel Air, MD, page 2, December 31, 1880. ) (The Aegis and Intelligencer, Bel Air, MD, page 3, January 18, 1884. )
1884     * The Havre de Grace Water Works was completed and turned over to the City. (The Aegis and Intelligencer, Bel Air, MD, page 2, January 18, 1884.)
* The first Labor Day was celebrated September 5, 1882, in New York City. In 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday as a "tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country." ( U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, DC, www.dol.gov, September 6, 2009. )
1885 * The Historical Society of Harford County, Inc. was incorporated. It was the first county historical society in the State of Maryland. (100th Anniversary Issue, The Historical Society of Harford County, Inc. , Harford Historical Bulletin, No 26, Fall 1985.)
* Five members of the Fallston Society of Friends led by a farmer named William T. Watson of Bonair began the Fallston Library Association. The library opened on a regular schedule in 1890 with Annie I. Pentz as the librarian. About that time, other private libraries were formed in Bel Air and around Harford County. (Bowers, D., A One-Hundred Year History of Libraries from 1885 , Harford Historical Bulletin, No. 67, Winter 1996.)
1886 * Coca Cola was formulated by John Pemberton, a pharmacist, of Atlanta, Georgia. He was a formulator of quack remedies which were very popular at the time. He stumbled on the recipe for Coca Cola while trying to cure headaches. This unlikely concoction went on to become the dominant worldwide drink of the 20th century. (Standage, T.,A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Walker & Co., New York, 2005.)
* By the 1886, 300 American cities had 500 horse-drawn street railways and trolleys reaching into the suburbs. In the early 20th century, many millions of city horses would be replaced by motor powered vehicles. (The Draft Horse in America The Eastern Draft Horse Association, www.easterndrafthorse.com, 2007)
1887 The Bel Air Roller Mills, owned by H. R. Reckord & Sons began operation. It was claimed that it was the largest roller mill east of the Ohio River. It was located on Major Dallam's Addition recorded by Mary C. Dallam. (Shagena, J.L., Bel Air Roller Mills, The Town's First Industry , Morris Publishing, Kearney, Nebraska, 2005)
1889 Stock was sold and construction began on the Deer Creek and Susquehanna Railroad. The Railroad was never completed.
1890     * Mary Risteau (1890-1978) was born in Towson, Maryland. She was to have a very distinguished career in Harford County and State government, agriculture, and education. (Pohmer, T.T., Mary Eliza Watters Risteau . . . , Harford Historical Bulletin, No 100, Winter/Spring 2005.)
* Edwin Booth's portrait was hung in the County Courthouse. (The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, page A4, March 15, 2006)
* Emperor William II of Germany placed Germany on a dangerous path by dismissing the militaristic Bismarck for being too moderate. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1891 * In the early 1890s, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (now CSX) built a track a few miles north of and parallel to the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad (now Amtrak). (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part I. The Birth of the MA & PA Railroad, Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 68, page 36, Spring 1996.)
* On April 16, 1891, the Maryland Central Railroad trestle at Laurel Brook collapsed killing five railroad employees. This led to the indictment of the Board of Directors for manslaughter and to the bankruptcy of Maryland Central Railroad. (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part I. The Birth of the MA & PA Railroad, Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 68, pages 63-64, Spring 1996.)
1893     Edwin Booth died in the Players Club in New York City. (Faber, D., Edwin Booth, Harford County's Prince of the Players , Harford Historical Bulletin, No 98, Summer 2004.)
1894 The Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal was closed (Lock House News, Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace, page 11, Winter 2005 )
1895 From roughly 1895 until the mid 1970s, scientists warned of an impending ice age. (See "20,000 years ago" for the impact of an ice age on our Bay and rivers) (Fire and Ice, Business & Media Institute, www.businessandmedia.org/specialreports/2006/fireandice.asp, 2006 )
1896 Darlington Hoopes was born in Vale, Harford County. He appears to have been a lifelong Socialist. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1930 to 1936. After the New Deal of President Roosevelt implemented many of the Socialist Party programs, Hoopes became the Socialist candidate for President of the United States, running against President Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed., Columbia Univ. Press, 2005).
1898 Liriodendron Mansion was built.


1900s

1900The average work week was about 60 hours. (Hayes, B., Automation on the Job, American Scientist, Volume 97, page 11, January 2009.)
1901The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad (Ma & Pa) was organized on February 2, 1901. The railway ran from Baltimore, Maryland, through Towson, Bel Air, Delta, Red Lion, Dallastown and then on to York, Pennsylvania with stations throughout Harford County. (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part II. The MA & PA Railroad in Harford County , Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 69, page 75, Summer 1996.)
1902Maryland enacted a compulsory school attendance law for children from 6 to 16. (Washington Policy Center, Seattle, Washington, www.washingtonpolicy.org, 1998.)
1904* The mean life expectancy was 47 years in the U.S.
* The percentage of U.S. homes with a bathtub was 14%, and 8% had a telephone.
* There were 8,000 cars and 144 miles of paved roads in the U.S.
* The average wage was 22 cents an hour.
* Over 95% of women gave birth at home, and most women washed their hair once a month. (http://www.ancestry.com/)
* John Dallum Worthington, educator and lawyer, bought The Aegis. The Worthington family would own it for the next 82 years. (The Aegis 150th Celebration The Aegis, May 10, 2006, page 4)
1905The Malcom Mitchell House was constructed. It served as the Aberdeen Proving Ground Cultural and Natural Resource Visitor/Learning Center for many years.
1907The Conowingo Bridge burned but was rebuilt. ( The Aegis, March 22, 2006, page A4)
1908The first Ford Model T rolled out of a plant in Detroit, Michigan. The automobile changed the American way of life, and the concept of the assembly line soon made America into an industrial powerhouse.
1909The Kenmore Inn was established by Colonel H.D. Hanway in the town of Bel Air, at the southwest corner of Main Street and Route 1. For those traveling between Baltimore and Philadephia, Bel Air was an important stop.
1910There was a major ice jam on the Susquehanna River. ( The Aegis, March 22, 2006, page A4)
1912* The Havre de Grace Racetrack and the Harford Memorial Hospital opened.
* The Harford County Library Association was established under leadership of Helene Bradshaw Lee, wife of Confederate Veteran, Col. Otho Scott Lee. The library provided the first free library service to Harford Countians. (Bowers, D., A One-Hundred Year History of Libraries from 1885 , Harford Historical Bulletin, No. 67, Winter 1996.)
1914* World War I began in Europe, war spread in area and intensity, and ended in 1919. President Woodrow Wilson tried to maintain neutrality for the U.S.
* Route #1 was paved.
1915* World War I continued, and the war became nightmarish as 3870 tons of chemical warfare gas was used. (Haldane, J.B.S., Callinicus: A Defense of Chemical Warfare, B.P. Dutton, New York, NY, 1926.)
* In spite of the fact that President Wilson kept the nation out of the war, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, a pacifist, resigned to protest the administration's drift toward war. Bryan, a very influential political figure, devoted the rest of his life to prohibition, women's rights, and fighting the teaching of evolution to children. (Kazin, M., A GODLY HERO, The Life of William Jennings Bryan, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, 2006.)
* The Lt. General A. Milton Reckord Armory in Bel Air was built. (6)
* Baltimore's sewer system was built replacing back yard outhouses. Sewer systems and septic systems slowly supplanted the outhouses in the counties, suburbs, and rural areas over the next several decades. (The Sun, Baltimore, November 29, 2005, page 3C.)
* In February 1915, in response to the British Naval Blockade of Germany, Germany declared the entire ocean around the British Isles as a war zone and warned that any British or British ally ship in this zone may be sunk without warning.
* The British passenger ship, the Lusitania, left New York on May 1, 1915 with a large consignment of artillery shells stored in the forward hold. It was torpedoed by a German U-boat near Southern Ireland on May 7, 1915 killing 1201 men, women, and children of whom 128 were Americans.
* Fawn Grove Light and Power Company bought Eden Mill to convert it into a water powered, electric generating plant. (The Harford County Sun, Baltimore, March 15, 1992, page 1)
1916  * Martin G. Kurtz, of Jarrettsville, and William B. Marye investigated some Native American rock carvings in the Susquehanna River near Bald Frair. Some of the Native American rock carvings have found a home at the Historical Society of Harford County. (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 15, 1980.)
* World War I continued, 16,535 tons of chemical warfare gas was used (a 427% increase over 1915), and Wilson continued to keep the nation neutral. (Haldane, J.B.S., Callinicus: A Defense of Chemical Warfare, B.P. Dutton, New York, NY, 1926.)
1917* The United States formally entered World War I when Congress overwhelmingly passed a War Resolution on April 6, 1917 at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson. (Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, www.lib.byu.ed)
* In late 1917 and 1918, The Aberdeen Proving Grounds and Edgewood Arsenal were established. The former was for ordnance testing and the latter was for chemical testing and production. Many of the farmers were reluctant to leave homes that were occupied by their families for generations. An Act of Congress and two Presidential Proclamations from President Woodrow Wilson were required to persuade the farmers to leave. The Congressional Act provided them $200 per acre and assistance in moving. Many thousands of persons and tens of thousands horses, mules, and other farm animals were required to hastily vacate the areas. Even the family graveyards were relocated. Information on graveyards left at APG can be found in the Historical Society of Harford County Cemetery Records (Aberdeen Proving Ground, History, www.apg.army.mil/apghome/sites/about/history.asp)
* Major William Lloyd Evans, professor of chemistry at Ohio State University, was the first director of the Chemical Laboratories at Edgewood Arsenal. Later he was America's first collegiate instructor to teach ceramic chemistry and President of the American Chemical Society, (William Lloyd Evans, America's First Collegiate Instructor in Ceramic Chemistry, Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol. 8 (2), pages 56-58, 1925.) (Gould, R.F., Eminent Chemists of Maryland, Maryland Historical Magazine, The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, Vol. 80, No. 1, page 44, Spring 1985.)
* Col. William Hultz Walker was the first Commander of Edgewood Arsenal. Walker was a professor at MIT where he was the senior author of the first chemical engineering textbook. Scriven wrote that "The transformation of chemical engineering that William Walker launched was remarkably successful, and he is widely regarded as the "father of chemical engineering." Testimony of the success . . ." was that the United States "had come out of World War I" with "the world's most powerful economy." (Gould, R.F., Eminent Chemists of Maryland, Maryland Historical Magazine, The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, Vol. 80, No. 1, page 44, Spring 1985.) (Scriven, L.E., When Chemical Reactors Were Admitted and Earlier Roots of Chemical Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, pages 11-18, 2003.)
1918* The deadliest plaque in world history began -- the influenza is estimated to have killed 100 million people. The military was hit very hard. Efforts by the unprepared doctors appeared to inflame the problem. (Barry, J.M., The Great Influenza, Viking Penguin, New York, NY, 2004.)
* World War I ended.
1919* For the nation, this was a turbulent year with fears of Bolshevism (communism), racial unrest, riots, deportations, anti German reactions, lynchings, attacks on constitutional rights, and bomb threats.
* The Treaty of Versailles formally ended World War I, but it laid the foundation for World War II.
* The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations
* A business boom began that lasted through most of the "twenties." (Hagedorn, A., Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919, Simon and Schuster, 2007. )
1920* The first commercial Radio station, KDKA, went on the air in 1920 in Pittsburgh. Kaufman’s department store, began selling the first kits for $20.00 for consumers to build their own Radio receivers. Marylanders could pick up the station.
* Women obtained the right to vote.
* National prohibition began -- Federal police were called on to enforce the alcohol laws. While cirrhoses of the liver did decline, organized crime grew. Home brewing, home stills, speakeasies, prescribed alcohol, and illegal bootlegging were common during prohibition.
* The Ordnance Museum began in the years immediately following World War I with foreign artifacts shipped from France. (Aberdeen Proving Ground, History, www.apg.army.mil/apghome/sites/about/history.asp)
* Ebenezer Emmet Reid, a very colorful professor of chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, was hired as a consultant by Edgewood Arsenal, a position he held the rest of his lengthy career. He was the author of a six-volume treatise titled Organic Chemistry of Bivalent Sulfur and other organic textbooks. He received many honors for his research and visited Edgewood regularly, at times weekly. He died in 1973, at age 101, and his last book was titled My First Hundred Years. (Gould, R.F., Eminent Chemists of Maryland, Maryland Historical Magazine, The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, Vol. 80, No. 1, page 30-31, Spring 1985.)
1922* Harford County was hit with a twenty two-inch snowstorm. (The Aegis, February 19, 2003, page A16)
* Fort Hoyle was created from a large section of Edgewood Arsenal. It was used by horse-mounted field artillery. (Smart, J.K., Fort Hoyle: A Short History of the Field Artillery's Post on Gunpowder Neck, APG, MD)
* Mary Risteau began service as the first elected woman in the Maryland House of Delegates. At that time she was a Harford County farmer. (Pohmer, T.T., Mary Eliza Watters Risteau . . ., Harford Historical Bulletin, No 100, Winter/Spring 2005.)
* Joseph Stalin became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee until his death in 1953. (Joseph Stalin, WikipediaDecember 2007.)
1924* Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company was first incorporated.
* The Klu Klux Klan reaches its peak membership, 9 million.(Pohmer, T.T., Mary Eliza Watters Risteau . . ., Harford Historical Bulletin, No 100, Winter/Spring 2005.)
1925Route 7 was paved.
1926Millard E. Tydings of Havre de Grace elected U.S. Senator. He served until 1951.
1927Conowingo Dam began generating power with the new plant having the second largest power output of any hydroelectric station in the United States. (Conowingo Hydroelectric Station, Exelon Corp., 2009.)
1929* Harvey Smith Ladew purchased the Pleasant Valley House and began work on what would later be known as the Ladew Topiary Gardens.
* A crash occurred in the stock market that was the largest in United States history. This started the "Great Depression" which lasted for over a decade. According to economist, Milton Friedman, the Federal Reserve increased the length and severity of the Depression by inflating the money supply in the 1920s and reducing the money supply drastically in the 1930s. Shles agrees that Roosevelt's policies prolonged the depression. During the Depression, the hard struggle to obtain the basic necessities dominated most people's lives resulting in a willingness to tolerate bigger government and higher taxes. (Friedman, M., and Schwartz, A.J., Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 , Princeton University Press, 1971) (Shles, A., The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression , HarperCollins Publishers, May 2008)
1930* The first public high school for African-American students was established in Havre de Grace. (Washburn, D., The Colored Schools of Harford County Separate and Equal? Part 2, Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 102, page 15, Winter/Spring 2006.)
* The average work week was about 50 hours. (Hayes, B., Automation on the Job, American Scientist, Volume 97, page 11, January 2009.)
1933* Franklin Delano Roosevelt began serving as President. He is the only president to serve longer than eight years (1933 until 1945). Initially, he worked to reduce unemployment, which was 24.9%, started the Social Security system, improved the regulation of Wall Street, and ended Prohibition.
* Adolf Hitler became dictator of Germany, replacing a short lived democracy. Many Jews were forced to immigrate out of Germany to Palestine and other countries. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
* Bata Shoe Co., Inc. purchased 2200 acres in Belcamp.
1934Mary Risteau was elected the first woman in the Maryland State Senate. (Pohmer, T.T., Mary Eliza Watters Risteau . . ., Harford Historical Bulletin, No 100, Winter/Spring 2005.)
1935* Harford County Welfare Board was established.
* The land for the Post Office located at l43 North Main Street, Bel Air was sold by Philip H. Close to the United States Postal Service. (Liber 1675 Folio 0770, Harford County Real Estate Records)
* DEPRESSION PRICES: Average Income $1,600 per year; New Car $650; Average Rent $22 per month; Movie Ticket 25 cents; Gasoline 10 cents per gallon; New House $3,400 (1935, Remember When . . ., Seek Publishing, Millersville, TN)
1938* President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act.. This law, among other things, was the first law to put some limitations on child labor and guarantees time and a half for overtime in some jobs.
* Unemployment was still at 19%.
1939 * Bata Shoe started building a factory and a small town with a five story hotel along Route 40.
* Many people date the start of WWII to 1939 when both Germany and Russia invaded Poland. As a result, France and Britain's policies of appeasement were recognized to have failed, and both countries declared war on Germany but not on Russia.
1940* Fort Hoyle was closed, but several of the Fort Hoyle buildings remain. (Smart, J.K., Fort Hoyle: A Short History of the Field Artillery's Post on Gunpowder Neck, APG, MD)
* The new toll bridge over the Susquehanna River and Route 40 were completed. (The Aegis, March 22, 2006, page A4)
* After a Federal Court decision, Harford County increased African-American school teachers' pay to that of white teachers. (Washburn, D., The Colored Schools of Harford County Separate and Equal? Part 2, Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 102, page 15, Winter/Spring 2006.)
1941* On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in an surprise attempt to knock out the U.S. Pacific Fleet. This was part of a Japanese plan to create an unassailable Pacific and Asian empire. Thus, the United States was forced to enter World War II. The nation became near totally committed to the War effort. Most healthy young men enlisted or were drafted, and many women helped by enlisting or taking what were traditionally "men's" jobs in factories. Nearly all factories were converted to military production. Production for civilian needs only included necessities. The ages eligible for the draft was increased from 21-35 to 20-45. (1941, Remember When . . ., Seek Publishing, Millersville TN.)
* The Ballistic Research Laboratory building was completed at APG. (Aberdeen Proving Ground, History, www.apg.army.mil/apghome/sites/about/history.asp)
* Larry MacPhail (1890-1975), President of the Brooklyn Dodgers, purchased a farm in Harford County which he renamed Glenangus. Glenangus grew into a 960 acre horse farm, a golf course, and country club. Larry MacPhail was noted for innovation in: management, baseball, and horse raising. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1978. His son Lee MacPhail was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. (O's MacPhail has Family Roots in Harford, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, June 27, 2007, page A4)
1942* Engineers at Aberdeen Proving Ground initiated work on and obtained funding for the design of the world's first large-scale electronic digital computer, capable of being reprogrammed and solving a variety of practical problems, the ENIAC. At the time, it was world acclaimed as the most complex electronic device ever built. It was dedicated in 1946. It evolved into the first commercial computer, the Remington Rand's "Univac 1." (In a 1973 court decision, it was ruled that Dr. John V. Atanasoff, of Iowa State University, invented the first electronic digital computer in 1942 and that his ideas found their way into the ENIAC. Fortunately for the computer industry and computer users, Atanasoff never patented his computer, and, it was almost forgotten for nearly two decades. The British developed the Colossus, an electronic digital computer, in 1943, but it was kept secret for 30 years. As a result, it had no influence on the development of computer technology.)(Burks, A. R., Who Invented the Computer? Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 2003. )
* Edgewood Arsenal produced chemical weapons, protective measures, and treatments. Although the Germans had much superior chemical warfare agents and related technology, Edgewood's efforts acted as a satisfactory deterrent. Thus, Germany and Japan did not initiate the use of chemicals against the United States in World War II. (ABERDEEN, APG - Yesterday and Today ECA & ABCDF Newsletter, APG, MD, page 16, 2006.)
* APG acquired 7000 acres which brought it almost into the town limits of Aberdeen. Wartime personnel grew to a peak strength of 27,185 military and 5,479 civilians as all fields of research, development, and training expanded. (Aberdeen Proving Ground, History, www.apg.army.mil/apghome/sites/about/history.asp)
1943At Camp Sibert, Alabama, a special Army unit, the Technical Escort Unit, was established to safely move hazardous materials. A year later, the unit was moved to Edgewood Arsenal. During WWII they moved 848,000 tons of hazardous materials from many parts of the world and after the war they deposed of many tons of dangerous weapons. In 2004, while still headquartered at the Edgewood Area of APG, they became the 22d Chemical Battalion. (Smart, J., and Kropp, C. Waves of Change . . . Technical Escort Unit, CBAIC Newsletter, Defense Technical Information Center, APG, MD, Vol. 6. No. 1, Winter 2005.)
1944* Between 1943 and 1946 as many as 760 prisoners of war were held at Edgewood Arsenal. Some worked on County farms for which they were paid.
* The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 authorized designation of a 40,000-mile "National System of Interstate Highways," but little work was completed. (Mertz, L., Origins of the Interstate, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 2006 [www.fhwa.dot.gov].)
1945* World War II ended.
* New materials, created for the War, began to replace slate for roofing.
* The Maryland General Assembly passed the Library Aid Act which began tax support of the Harford County Public Libraries. Harford County was the first county to employ the Maryland tax-supported Public Library Law. (Bowers, D., A One-Hundred Year History of Libraries from 1885, Harford Historical Bulletin, No. 67, Winter 1996.)
* Spesutie Island (1800 acres) was acquired in 1945 by the Army. (Aberdeen Proving Ground, History, www.apg.army.mil/apghome/sites/about/history.asp)
1946* The first Harford County Board of Library Trustees was created and the old Methodist Church Building on Main Street in Bel Air was bought to be the headquarters for the County library system.
* A new Churchville Library Branch was being built.
1947* Truman Doctrine was announced to protect Europe from the spread of Communism by military force, beginning the Cold War. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
* The transistor was invented. Thereafter, it replaced vacuum tube electronics by being much smaller, more reliable, and much more energy efficient. It made possible the computer revolution. (Keyes, R.W., The Long-lived Transistor, American Scientist , Vol. 97, page 134, March-April 2009.)
* The Bel Air Branch of Harford County Public Library opened in 1947.
1948The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Most human problems stem from mankind's inability or unwillingness to enforce these 30 articles. They include freedom of religion, equality before the law, privacy rights, property rights, secret voting, etc. (All Human Rights for All, General Assembly Resolution 217, United Nations, New York, NY, www.un.org, 1948, as of July 1, 2007)
1949 Several years after the war, most individual struggles started to ease. Higher wages and modern conveniences made it possible for the average person to spend much less time feeding, clothing, housing, and transporting themselves and their families. They were able to stop activities like feeding the horse, canning vegetables, making clothing, etc. Increasingly, people had more time for other goals like promoting equality, pleasure, self fulfillment, environmental improvement, historical preservation, travel, education, starting a business, and obtaining luxuries. (Lindsey, B., The Age of Abundance, Collins, New York, NY, 2007.)
1950* Korean War began when communist North Korea invaded South Korea. President Harry Truman introduced American troops. President Dwight Eisenhower's administration ended the fighting by signing a peace agreement in 1953. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
* The last major mustard production occurred at Edgewood Arsenal. Thereafter, Edgewood Arsenal's focus shifted to research and development. (ABERDEEN, APG - Yesterday and Today ECA & ABCDF Newsletter, APG, MD, page 16, 2006.)
* Havre de Grace Racetrack closed. It was a celebrated track in its prime attracting champion horses like Man O' War, War Admiral, Seabiscuit, Citation, and Equipoise. Citation ran three times in its Triple Crown year. (The Sun , Baltimore, August 8, 2006, page 1G)
1952Tuition at the University of Maryland, College Park was $95.00 per year.
1954* Vietnam War began. The United States became drawn into it during the President Kennedy administration in 1961, President Johnson greatly increase US involvement, and President Nixon withdrew the last United States troops in 1973. The war ended in 1975.
* Hurricane Hazel
* The last Ma & Pa passenger train stopped in Bel Air on August 31, 1954. (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part II. The MA & PA Railroad in Harford County , Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 69, page 115, Summer, 1996)
1955* Half (285 miles) of Harford County's county maintained roads (570 miles) had been paved. This does not include 275 miles of paved State roads. The other half were gravel or slate. (The Aegis, Oct. 5, 2005, page AA2)
* On December 1, 1955, Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, an African American civil rights activist, triggered the Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott. As a consequence, later the U.S. Congress called her the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement." (Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins, Rosa Parks: My Story, Scholastic Inc., New York, NY, 1992).
* The first meeting of the Harford Hebrew Congregation was held, and later in 1955, they purchased the American Legion building at Forest Green and named it the Harford Jewish Center.(History of Temple Adas Shalom, , Temple Adas Shalom, Havre de Grace, MD , 2009).
1956* The Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways began. It was "the Greatest Public Works Project in History," the beginning of superhighways, and "an economic . . . and democratizing force as well." Thus, Interstate 95 was built through Harford County. (J. Richard Capka Administrator, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 2006 [www.fhwa.dot.gov]) (Sciolla, A., Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System, AAA World, page 62, July/August 2006 ) (Mertz, W.L. and Ritter, J., Building the Interstate, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 2006 [www.fhwa.dot.gov].)
* A Navy Patrol Craft was named the USS Bel Air in February 1956. The ship was launched in 1942, served as convoy escort during World War II under the designation Navy Patrol Craft USS PC-1191, and it was disposed of in January 1961. (Hathaway, P., Newsletter of the Historical Society of Harford County, Inc., page 1, May/June 2007), (Bel Air (PC 1191), NavSource Submarine Chaser Photo Archive ,www.navsource.org/archives/12/011191.htm)
1957* The Soviets launched the first small satellite into orbit. This kicked off a land slide of emphasis on education, science, engineering, and research in the United States.
* Harford Community College was founded.
* Harford County residents owned real and personal property valued at $2,074 per person compared to the national average of $1,627. (Vought, A., 50 Years Ago, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, July 22, 2009, page AA2.)
1958* The Ma & Pa Railroad petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission to abandon 49.9 miles of track, 5 miles of siding, and hundreds of bridges between Baltimore and Whiteford was tentatively approved. This valuable right-of-way reverted to the adjacent land owners. (Vought, A., 50 Years Ago, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, April 30, 2008, page AA4.)
* The Ma & Pa Railroad discontinued freight traffic to Bel Air. (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part II. The MA & PA Railroad in Harford County, Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 69, page 118, Summer, 1996. )
* The first high school wrestling match in Harford County was held between St. Paul and Edgewood High Schools before 175 people. (Vought, A., 50 Years Ago, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, February 6, 2008, page AA2.)
1960* Work began on moving the Hays House from its foundations on Main Street to its present location on Kenmore Avenue.
* In the decade between 1960 and 1970, the County population increased rapidly from 76,000 to 113,000 or 49%. (The Aegis 150th Celebration, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, May 10, 2006, page 19.)
1961Panitz and Company began to redevelop Joppa Town and three historic acres were set aside at the old St. John's site for a church.
1963* Interstate 95 opened in Harford County -- dedicated by President John F. Kennedy. This probably was the largest public works project in Harford County history. Initially people did not use it. There was controversy over the tolls and the toll machines at Harford County exits, which rang alarms after one paid. The local tolls were quickly eliminated. In a few years, I-95 had a major impact on the County. In 2005, traffic volume between Route 152 and White Marsh was 165,000 vehicles a day. Many businesses along Route 40 died. Cheap oil and the development of bigger and better highways, cars, and trucks took considerable business from the more energy efficient railroads. ( The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, April 5, 2006, page A4) ( Sciolla, A., Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System, AAA World, page 62, July/August 2006 )( Harford I-95 Changes on Way The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, June 29, 2007, page A13.)
* Days later after the dedication of I-95, President Kennedy was assassinated in Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald, a dedicated self-availed Communist. President Kennedy and his family set such a high standard of glamour and public relations that made Presidents before him and after look unworthy. (The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, April 5, 2006, page A4.) (Piereson, J., Camelot and the Cultural Revolution: How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism, Encounter Books, www.EncounterBooks.com, 2007)
* The Edgewood Branch of Harford County Public Library opened.
1964* Harford County Department of Parks and Recreation was formed, and Eden Mill was acquired. When Eden Mill stopped grinding grain in 1964, it could grind 50 barrels a day. (Shagena, J.L., Eden Mill: An Illustrated History, Jack L. Shegena, Jr., Bel Air, Maryland, 2006 )
* Joseph Tydings of Havre de Grace was elected U.S. Senator. He served one term.
* The 88th Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, 1964. It included voting, accommodations, housing, public and Federal facilities, equal employment opportunities, and education. (USINFO.STATE.GOV, U.S. Department of State, International Information Programs, April 8, 2006)
* Full nonviolent desegregation of Harford County Public Schools was accomplished.
* William O. Whiteford, served as director of administration of Harford County from 1964 until 1980. He was born in Harford County in 1915, grew up on a farm, and died March 30, 2008. (Robbins, L., and Vought, A. William Whiteford, Harford Official for Decades, Dies at 92 , The Aegis, April 2, 2008, page A10.)
1967The Secretary of Defense ordered that sanctions be placed on all apartments that discriminated against Afro-Americans within 3.5 miles of four Army posts including Edgewood Arsenal and Aberdeen Proving Ground. These sanctions, which proved to be effective, required that no military personnel rent from discriminating landlords. This was the beginning of integrated private housing in the Nation. (MacGregor Jr., M.J., Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965, United States Army, Washington, D.C., p 605, 1981.)
1968* Temple Adas Shalom (Congregation of Peace), the first synagogue in Harford County history, was dedicated. A few years earlier, the congregation had welcomed its first full time Rabbi, Paul Kushner. ( Temple Adas Shalom, Harford County Jewish Community Center, Harford Historical Bulletin, The Historical Society of Harford County, Inc., Bel Air, MD, Number 20, Spring 1984. ) (History of Temple Adas Shalom, , Temple Adas Shalom, Havre de Grace, MD , 2009).
* Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the widely admired and foremost civil rights spokesman in the country, was assassinated by James Earl Ray. Ray was a small-time criminal who confessed to the assassination.
* Senator from New York, Robert F. Kennedy, a very popular Presidential Candidate, former U.S. Attorney General, and brother of President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, a Palestinian Arab. (Ayton, M., The Forgotten Terrorist - Sirhan Sirhan and the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Washington DC, Potomac Books, 2007)
* A plan was prepared for ARPAnet, which was the world's first operational packet switching network and the predecessor of the global Internet. The plan was prepared for the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the US Department of Defense. ARPA was trying to improve access to the inadequate number of expensive, powerful research computers in the country for the numerous research scientists and engineers who were not close to one. (Salus, P.H., Casting the Net: From ARPANET to INTERNET and Beyond , Addison-Wesley Professional, Boston, MA, 1995)
1969* On July 20, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were the first humans to land and walk on the moon during the fifth human spaceflight of NASA's Project Apollo. Thus, they were the first humans to walk on another astral body than earth.
1970* The County Courthouse was spared when a bomb believed to be intended for the Courthouse accidentally killed the bomb deliverers near the intersection of Tollgate Road and current Business Route 1. Rap Brown was to be tried in the Courthouse at that time.
* President Richard Nixon unilaterally stopped the United States research, development and production of unitary chemical munitions. (Smart, J., and Kropp, C. Waves of Change . . . Technical Escort Unit, CBAIC Newsletter, Defense Technical Information Center, APG-EA, MD, Vol. 6. No. 1, Winter 2005.)
* For decades, business schools at universities taught that a good manager could manage any company without detailed technical expertise. The professors usually added that a manager could hire plenty of experts. In the 1970's, this was proven dead wrong. Generally, high level managers will approve the best sales pitch, ignore the best ideas, and laugh at lowly experts. At the beginning of the 1970s, big companies like IBM, Burroughs Corporation, RCA, Honeywell, Digital Equipment Corporation, General Electric, AT&T, UNIVAC, Xerox, Control Data Corporation, and Westinghouse were the leaders in computers and software. They had the best experts, minicomputers, supercomputers, outstanding hardware, wonderful patents, and great software, but they pathetically and literally gave away their companys' technology, which their managers did not understand, to eager young college dropouts and hackers who had technical expertise and a vision. Soon these youngsters were the richest men in the world and a revolution in productivity began. Business empires and unions crumbled as globalization and technology exploded. Those with vision and able to keep up with technology prospered, but millions of jobs became obsolete. (Lindsey, B., The Age of Abundance, Collins, New York, NY, 2007.)
* In Magnola, Brown's Store closed on October 28, 1970. (from Marlene Magness's files, April 2009.)
1971* Edgewood Arsenal became part of Aberdeen Proving Ground and, thereafter, was called the Edgewood Area. (ABERDEEN, APG - Yesterday and Today ECA & ABCDF Newsletter, APG, MD, page 16, 2006.)
1972* A major fire in the Town of Bel Air occurred on February 2. Six businesses were destroyed along with the apartment complex in the old Vaughn Hotel.
* Home rule began for Harford County when a charter was enacted.
* Harford Mall opened. (The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, April 5, 2006, page A4)
* Voters approved liquor sales in the northern end of County. This was the last dry area in the County. (The Aegis 150th Celebration, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, May 10, 2006, page 19.)
* Hurricane Agnes
* The first Harford Historical Bulletin was published by the Archives Committee of the Historical Society of Harford County, Inc. (Harford Historical Bulletin, No 1, Fall 1972.)
* The U.S. Army Environmental Center was created in the Edgewood Area of APG. (BRAC will change APG, Miltary Appreciation Week Guide, The Aegis, The Record, and APG News, Bel Air, MD, May 11, 2006, page 9.)
1973* Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur, starting the Yom Kipper Arab-Israeli War which Egypt and Syria quickly lost.
* In retaliation, Saudi Arabia, Libya and other Arab states proclaimed an embargo on oil exports to the supporters of Israel, including the United States.
* The United States suffered through a severe gasoline shortage with long lines at the pumps. (The Aegis 150th Celebration, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, May 10, 2006, page 19.) As a result of such energy crises, in 1977, Harford County enacted a $1000 tax credit for home owners who installed solar energy systems. (Editorial: A Green Step, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, December 12, 2007, page A14)
1974* Fallston General Hospital opened.
* The Equal Credit Opportunity Act was enacted by the Federal Government.
* Charles B. Anderson, Jr. became the first Harford County Executive after serving two years on the county commissioner's board. He set up the new charter government with a County Executive and County Council.(Robbins, L., Harford's Six County Execs, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, March 28, 2008, page AA1)
* The Aberdeen Branch of Harford County Public Library opened.
* The nearby Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania started commercial power service to two million homes. ( Community Update, Facts About the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station , Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Exelon Nuclear, Delta, PA, Summer 2009. )
1975* The Concord Point Light house was decommissioned by the Coast Guard.
* General Milton A. Reckord died. He was one of the most notable military hero in Harford County history. He served in the Mexican War, World War I and World War II. (The Aegis, March 2, 2005, page AA1)
* From roughly 1895 until the mid 1970s, scientists warned of an impending ice age. About this time, many scientists refocused on the 20,000 year trend of global warming, emphasizing the human contributions to the trend. (Fire and Ice, Business & Media Institute, www.businessandmedia.org/specialreports/2006/fireandice.asp, 2006)
1978* The MA and PA Railroad ended all rail traffic into Harford County. (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part II. The MA & PA Railroad in Harford County , Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 69, page 115, Summer, 1996 )
* J. Thomas Barringer became the second Harford County Executive.
1979* A pivotal shift in world history occurred when Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini led a revolution where he established a militant Islamic Shiite theocracy in Iran. When he overthrew the Shah, who was a friend of America, the American media and the Carter administration viewed Khomeini as an holy man leading a popular revolution, but Khomeini turned out to be the father of modern terrorism. (Gheissari, A., and Nasr, V., Democracy in Iran, History and the Quest for Liberty, Oxford University Press, USA, 2006.)
* The Harford County Genealogical Society was formed.
* The Darlington Branch of the Harford County Public Library moved to its present location.
1980* Upon the death of Fritz Kelly, owner of the Liriodendron, the property was turned over to Harford County Parks and Recreation. Dr. Howard Kelly, the first owner, was a pioneer in the medical applications of radium.
* The Joppa Branch of the Harford County Public Library opened.
1982 Habern W. Freeman became the third Harford County Executive. He initiated the Waste-to-Energy program (see 1988) and tried to slow County growth to a manageable pace. (Robbins, L., Harford's Six County Execs, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, March 28, 2008, page AA1)
1983Deputed Testimony, a horse from Bonita Farms, Harford County won the Preakness Stakes. (Dombroskie, J., Preakness Memories, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, May 16, 2008, page AA1)
1984* The County sent out 50,000 property tax bills. (Dirican, P., New Zoning Law . . ., 25 Years Ago, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, June 26, 2009, page AA5)
* Hutzler’s Brothers Company, of Baltimore, announced it was purchasing Hochschild Kohn department store at Harford Mall. Two other anchors, Montgomery Wards and Hechts, were at Harford Mall . (Price, C., 25 Years Ago, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, August 21, 2009, page AA2)
* 911 was introduced to be used for emergencies only: life-threatening medical situations, fires in progress or crimes in progress. (Price, C., 25 Years Ago, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, October 9, 2009, page AA2)
* The Fallston Branch of the Harford County Public Library opened in December.
* Preston's Stationary, Inc. stores in Bel Air and Havre de Grace had a sale on typewriters marking the rapid replacement of typewriters by word processors and computers. (Price, C., 25 Years Ago, The Aegis, Bel Air, September 25, 2009, page AA2)
1985President Ronald Reagan visited Fallston High School on December 4, 1985. (The Aegis, Bel Air, April 5, 2006, page A5)
1987The Havre de Grace Branch of the Harford County Public Library opened.
1988* U.S. Army 1st Lt. George W. Williams of Joppatown and 258 others were killed in the aerial explosion of Pan American Flight 103 over Scotland. The blast was caused by Muslim terrorists. (The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, April 19, 2006, page A4)
* Al Qaeda was founded by Osama Bin Laden who inherited about $300,000,000 dollars and had three wives. (Templeton, T., and Lumley, T., 9/11 in Numbers , Guardian Unlimited, observer.guardian.co.uk, August 18, 2002)
* Harford Waste-to-Energy Facility started operation. Since January 28, 1988, Harford County burns most of its municipal solid waste to produce steam heat which is purchased by Aberdeen Proving Ground. Harford County has the highest recycling rate in the state. (Volkmann, K., Harford residents recycle the most in the state The Examiner, 2007) (Berger, J.A., Trash-to-Steam, Steam-to-Army, Waste Age , August 1988, page 97.) (Johnson, S., Private communication, NMWDA, March 11, 2009.)
1990* Eileen M. Rehrmann became the first woman and fourth Harford County Executive.
* On November 2, the "Old Post Office," now the Historical Society of Harford County Headquarters, was purchased from the United States Postal Service by Harford County. This was largely due to the vision and efforts of Marlene Magness and the efforts County Executive Rehrmann. (Liber 1675 Folio 0770, Harford County Real Estate Records)
* Harford County's population was 182,132 in 1990. (The Sun, Baltimore, October 27, 2002, page 5T)
* The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed by President George H.W. Bush. Thus, it was made illegal to discriminate against the 20% of Americans with disabilities. (United States Public Law 101-336, 104 Stat. 327 (July 26, 1990), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 12101)
* East and West Germany were united, and Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe ending the Cold War. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History , Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
* The Internet, a revolutionary communication medium, was born when HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) was developed. (Salus, P.H., Casting the Net: From ARPANET to INTERNET and Beyond , Addison-Wesley Professional, Boston, MA, 1995)
1991 The Harford Land Trust was organized. It is Harford County's first and only county-wide land trust. ( Harford Land Trust website, www.harfordlandtrust.org, July 2008 )
1992 * President George H. W. Bush visited Riverside in support of the home building industry. (The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, April 19, 2006, page A4)
* The Whiteford Branch of the Harford County Public Library opened.
1993The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed by President Clinton. The members of NAFTA formed the largest trading bloc in the world. According to some critics, such treaties expand government powers beyond the U.S. Constitution.
1994* President William J. Clinton visited Aberdeen Proving Ground. (The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, April 19, 2006, page A4)
* The World Wide Web exploded from only 500 known web servers in 1993 to over 10,000.
* The Abingdon Water Treatment Plant was built.
1995* Cal Ripken, Jr., a native of Harford County, broke Lou Gehrig's record of 2130 consecutive Major League baseball games played. He concluded his career with 2632 straight games. (The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, April 19, 2006, page A4) (The Aegis 150th Celebration, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, May 10, 2006, page 27. )
* The World Trade Organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, was formed.
1996* Thirty-six inches of snow was deposited by a string of snow storms. (The Aegis, February 19, 2003, page A16)
* Ripken Museum opened.
* The Web Site of the Historical Society of Harford County, Inc. was begun.
1997The Anita C. Leight Estuary Center opened at the Otter Point Creek Component of the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.
1998* Harford County purchased Swan Harbor Farm.
* James M. Harkins became the first Republican and fifth Harford County Executive.
* Harford County owned slightly less than 2000 acres of parkland. (The Aegis, Oct. 5, 2005, page A1)
* Marlene Magness received recognition through out Middle Atlantic Region for her work for The Historical Society of Harford County Inc. (For details)
1999Mount Soma, possibly the oldest house in the County, was demolished.


2000ths

2000* The Aberdeen “Arsenal” started playing professional baseball in Harford County at Harford Community College, but only lasted one season.
* The Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air opened, and Fallston General Hospital closed.
* The Live-Stock Auction in Churchville closed due the lack of cattle in the area. (The Aegis, Feb. 10, 2006, page A18)
* In Aden Harbor, Yemen, a large hole was blown in the USS Cole by Al Qaeda terrorists. Seventeen sailors were killed including Joshua Parlett of Churchville. (The Aegis 150th Celebration, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, May 10, 2006, page 27. ) (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org)
2001* On September 11 (9/11), Al Qaeda terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City, part of the Pentagon, and four commercial airliners killing over 3000 people. Two victims were Joseph Maggitti of Bel Air and Willie Troy of Aberdeen. (The Aegis 150th Celebration, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, May 10, 2006, page 27.)
* The West Campus (110 acres) of Harford Community College was purchased. (Konopacki, R., A Step Up to Higher Learning, At 50 HCC Still Growing, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, February 27, 2009, page AA1.)
2002* Ripken Baseball brought the Aberdeen “IronBirds” baseball team, a Baltimore Oriole affiliate, to Harford County. The Ripken Stadium was opened for use.
* Many scenes for the movie "Tuck Everlasting" were shot in Harford County, specifically at the King and Queen Seat in Rocks State Park, Kilgore Falls, Bulle Rocke, Christ Church Rock Spring and other locations in Susquehanna State Park. The actors in the movie are Sissy Spacek, Ben Kingsley, William Hurt, Alexis Bledel, and Jonathan Jackson. Scenes from other movies such as "Red Dragon" were also made in Harford County.
2003* The Webster-Fielder Tenant House on Calvary Road in Churchville was demolished. Some believed that it had been built in the 1600s. Thomas Lytfoot patented the 1000-acre tract, called "Best Endeavor" in 1686. (The Aegis, February 7, 2003, page A3 and Weeks, C., An Architectural History of Harford County, Maryland, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, page 298, 1996.)
* Mid February brought the great snows of 2003, totaling upward of 28 inches. The County was declared a disaster area. (The Aegis, February 19, 2003, page A16)
* The median household income was $61,949 in Harford County in 2003. (The Aegis, December 28, 2005, page A1)
* On September 18, Hurricane Isabel visited the County. Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. had its biggest outage in history, mostly due to fallen trees. Fifty five percent of its 88,000 Harford County customers were without electricity. Some lost power for a week. (The Aegis, October 1, 2003, page A14)   Nearly all of Conectiv's 6000 Harford County customers were out.   Many stores, homes, and restaurants were forced to dispose of all of their perishable food. Flooding occurred along the County coast, and waves demolished most of the boardwalk facing open water in Havre de Grace. The State was declared a disaster area. (The [Baltimore] Sun, September 21, 2003, page 1A)
* The Norrisville Branch of the Harford County Public Library opened.
2004* After a January of bitter freezing, snowy and icy weather; ice and winds knocked out the power to 69,500 BG&E customers for several to about 12 hours. (The Aegis, January 30, 2004, page A1)
* The Bata Shoe Factory, the last building of an industrial town, was demolished on October 27, 2004. This Belcamp building opened in 1939. At its peak, Bata employed more than 4000 people at the site. (The Aegis, October 27, 2004, page A1)
* The population of the County reached 232,175, nursery and equine (7300 horses) were the fastest growing agriculture sectors, 94,000 acres were devoted to agriculture, and the average house price was $197,660. (Supplement to the The Daily Record, Harford County, Maryland, June, 2004, page 4)
* The Ripken Museum in Aberdeen was temporarily closed for moving to Ripken Stadium. (The Aegis, Dec. 31, 2004, pages A6 - A9)
* Michael Phelps, a former County resident, won 6 gold and 2 bronze medals at the Athens Olympics. (The Aegis, Dec. 31, 2004, pages A6 - A9)
* The County budget reached half a billion dollars and the building boom continued. (The Aegis, Dec. 31, 2004, pages A6 - A9)
* The gasoline additive, MTBE, was found in many County wells. (The Aegis, Dec. 31, 2004, pages A6 - A9)
* The Abingdon Branch of the Public Library opened. (The Aegis, Dec. 31, 2004, pages A6 - A9)
2005* An impact fee of $6000 on new single-family houses was approved by the County Council. Such fees are intended to pay for new public schools and their maintenance. (The [Baltimore] Sun, June 8, 2005, page 7B)
* The Army completed neutralization of all six ton containers of mustard agent at the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground. (Letter from Edgewood Chemical Stockpile Outreach Office, APG-EA, MD, April 2005 )
* James M. Harkins resigned as Harford County Executive to become Director of Maryland Environmental Services.
* David R. Craig, a native and Mayor of Havre de Grace, was appointed by the Harford County Council as the sixth Harford County Executive. (Pennysaver, Book 60, Joppa/..., July 14, 2005, page 1)
* BRAC (Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure) Commission voted 7 to 1 on August 24th to move operations from Fort Monmouth to Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG). It was decided to create a "beginning-to-end" unique communications-electronics organization at APG in 6 years. (APG Maryland at the Ready, www.MarylandReady.com, Harford County Government, MD, June 2006)
* The U.S. Army Environmental Center was scheduled to move from APG to Fort Sam Houston, Texas in 2010. The U.S. Army Ordnance Center and Schools were scheduled to move to Fort Lee, Virginia in 2010. (BRAC will change APG, Military Appreciation Week Guide, The Aegis, The Record, and APG News, Bel Air, MD, May 11, 2006, page 9.)
* Harford County owned more than 4000 acres of parkland. (The Aegis, Oct. 5, 2005, page A1)
* Harford County and the county municipalities issued building permits for 2200 new housing units in 2005 (1800 units in 2004). Of those Aberdeen accepted 160 (100 in 2004), Bel Air approved 120 (93 in 2004) and Havre de Grace gave out 419 (189 in 2004). (Building Out, An Editorial, The Aegis, March 16, 2006)
* The annual national McDonald's LPGA Championship moved to Bulle Rock Golf Course in Harford County. At this event, the world's best professional women golfers compete for seven days. It may leave Harford County after 2009. (Vought, A., and Konopacki, R., LPGA Swings Past, The Aegis, Bel Air, June 11, 2008, Page A1.)
2006* It was announced that probably the indoor portion of the enormous U.S. Army Ordnance Museum was moving to Fort Lee, Virginia as a result of the BRAC realignment. Alternately, the Communications and Electronics Museum will move to APG. (The [Baltimore] Sun, January 8, 2006, page 1G)
* BRAC's many changes were planned to focus APG on research, test/evaluation, chemical/bio defense, homeland security, and communications/electronics. Overall, these realignments should bring 55,000 people to the region. (APG Maryland at the Ready, www.MarylandReady.com, Harford County Government, MD, June 2006)
* Kimmie Meissner, a 16 year old Fallston High School student, won first place at the World Figure Skating Championships in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (The [Baltimore] Sun, March 26, 2006, page 1A)
* A January survey found 164 eagles and 45 bald eagle nests at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Between 30 and 100 golden eagles winter in Harford County. (Robbins, L., Soaring Eagles, The Aegis, April 28, 2006, page A23)
* The Jarrettsville Public Library was completed and opened. (Robbins, L., Jarrettsville Turns Out . . ., The Aegis, May 26, 2006, page A2)
* A History Channel documentary on Thomas Edison's inventing of the motion picture camera was filmed in Havre de Grace. (The [Baltimore] Sun, Harford Section, July 9, 2006, page 1G)
* The Board of Education decided unanimously to keep possession of the 0.79-acre parcel of land and demolish the Historic Board of Education Building located next to The Historical Society of Harford County Headquarters (1882).
* Mary Wright Barnes (1915-2006) died. Mary assisted her father, C. Milton Wright, in writing the book Our Harford Heritage, a history of Harford County which was published in 1967. She published a revised edition in 1980. Also, she cataloged the artifacts for the Steppingstone Museum and was instrumental in setting up the archives of The Historical Society of Harford County. (Obituaries, Mary W. Barnes, The Aegis, December 1, 2006, page A6)
* Elizabeth Cook, executive director of the Bel Air Downtown Revitalization Alliance, expressed the goal of turning Bel Air into a community like Fells Point. (Silvestri, M., Some say Bel Air is the area's next boom town, The [Baltimore] Examiner, August 28, 2006, page 5)
* At the intersection of Routes 22 and 543, traffic had increased 7 fold in the last 32 years. (Silvestri, M., Some say Bel Air is the area's next boom town, The [Baltimore] Examiner, August 28, 2006, page 5)
* Real estate foreclosures started to accelerate triggering the beginning of the "Subprime Crisis" which led to a global economic crisis in 2008. While such economic crises are usually given different names through out world history, they all are preceded by excessive borrowing. This time the excesses were in real estate mortgages and financial institution leverage.
2007* Sunday, Mother's day, there was a fire in Forest Hill that displaced residents of 24 condo units and injured two firemen. The estimated damage was two million dollars. ( Melamed, K., Fire Destroys 24 Condos, www.theaegis.com, May 16, 2007, page A1)
* Cal Ripken, Jr. was inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame after receiving 98.5 % of the vote. ( Malinowski, C., Cal's Long Storied Career, The Aegis, July 27, 2007, page I3)
* Cal Ripken, Jr. was appointed United States' Baseball Ambassador to the World by the U.S. State Department. (Cal takes World Series-ly , The Aegis, August 15, 2007, page A1.)
* Julienne Irwin, age 14 and a student at Harford Christian School, sang in a very large nationwide competition, "2007: America's Got Talent," to become a finalist and nationally known singer. (www.Julienne Irwin.net; www.JulienneIrwin.com; Schultz, C., Private communication, March 1, 2009.)
* Christopher H. C. Weeks died at age 57. He was a historian and historic preservation planner who wrote several books on Harford County and the Mid-Atlantic region's architectural heritage. (Christopher Weeks, Historian, Author, Dies , The Aegis, August 29, 2007, page A13.)
* On September 26, 2007 the Army Corps of Engineers announced that it has awarded the design and build contract (over $477 million) for the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Army Joint Center of Excellence at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in Harford County to develop the technology that will give America's soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines major advantages in the worldwide battle with terrorists.
* To develop a strategy that will reduce the impact of gangs in Harford County, the Sheriff’s Office held a "Harford County Gang Summit" in November at Edgewood High School. (Seawell, R., Taking Aim at the Gangs , The Aegis, October 31, 2007, page A1.)
* Dr. Jacqueline C. Haas, Harford County Public Schools Superintendent, was named Maryland Superintendent of the Year for 2008. She was the highest paid public official in Harford County (over $210,000 annually). She died suddenly at age 59 in January 2009. (Dize, K., and Butler, E., Superintendent Haas Dies , The Aegis, January 2, 2009, page A1.)
* Judge Angela Michelle Eaves was appointed Harford County’s first African-American and first woman circuit court judge. She was elected to a 15 year term in 2008. (Seawell, R., Judicial History in Harford, The Aegis, December 5, 2007, page A1.)
* Pastor Craig McLaughlin of Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Fountain Green, met with President George W. Bush as a result of his church running an AIDS orphanage in the southwestern African nation of Namibia. (Seawell, R., Harford Pastor Meets with President Bush, The Aegis, December 5, 2007, page A3.)
* On December 17, Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) and OPUS East, L.L.C. began construction on the Government and Technology Enterprise, a 200-acre developable area of APG for a business and technology campus mainly for government contractors. (Johnson, Y., OPUS East and APG Break Ground for New Development, APG News, APG, MD, Vol. 51, No. 51, December 20, 2007.)
2008* On March 17, The School Board approved a plan to level the portions of the old Central Office of Harford County Board of Education Building, on 45 East Gordon Street, Bel Air, that were built after 1900 and not the whole building. For details see Historic Board of Education Building .
* Westwood Manor, near Churchville, was gutted by a fire believed to be arson. The owners claim it was built in 1780 by Samuel Chase, signer of Declaration of Independence. The house, which was on the National Historic Register, was being preserved by the owners. (Dombroskie, J., Antebellum House in Level Burns, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, March 21, 2008, page A9.)
* David R. Craig received the Preservation Honor Award, a lifetime achievement award, for many years of contributions to preserving Harford County's most historic buildings. (Executive Among Those Surprised with Harford Preservation Awards, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, May 21, 2008, page A17.)
* Nicole Suveges, an international relations expert working for BAE Systems, was killed in Iraq. She left a husband and two children who live in Edgewood. (Seawell, R., Woman Killed in Iraq . . ., The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, June 27, 2008, page A1.)
* Over 91,300 real estate tax bills were sent out. (Brenner, A., Taxes in the Mail, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, July 2, 2008, page A1.)
* In the 2008 Olympics, Michael Phelps, who was originally from Harford County, established himself as the greatest Olympic athlete of all time by winning eight gold medals in 2008 in addition
to six in 2004.
* In September 2008, investment banks became insolvent and banks stopped lending, creating a "global economic crisis." While the exact causes of this crisis will probably be debated for centuries, at the root of the problems were ignorance of economic history; ruthless greed; financial products, laws, and accounting practices that were too complex for even experts to understand; and ridiculously excessive use of credit by financial institutions. Banks were leveraged as high as 50 to 1. In October, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (the Bailout) was signed into law. (Minds over Money, Money, page 96, April 2009.)
* On October 21, the County Council (unanimously) and County Executive approved a new Harford County Zoning Code. (Brenner, A., Zoning Code Update OK'd, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, October 22, 2008, page A1.)
* Illinois Senator Barack Obama, was elected to be the first African-American and 44th President of the United States.
* Muslim terrorists killed about 173 people in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India. Alan Scherr, formerly of East Pennsylvania Avenue in Bel Air, and his daughter, Kia, were among those murdered at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Scherr and his wife introduced transcendental meditation to Harford County in 1973. (Konopacki, R., Local Tie to Terror, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, December 3, 2008, page A1.)
* Prospect Mill Elementary School was at 137% overcapacity. (Konopacki, R., Schucks Road School not an Easy Case, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, December 5, 2008, page AA1.)
* The Tribune Company, the owner of many local newspapers including The Aegis and Baltimore Sun, filed for bankruptcy on December 8, 2008. (Thornton, E., Tribune Bankruptcy Snares Employees, Business Week, December 8, 2008.)
* The Christian Science Monitor and U.S. News & World Report decided to abandon “print on paper” publications and move online.
* The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission determined that a proposed natural gas pipeline entering Harford County in the Fallston area and leaving near Darlington would have little environment impact. The pipeline starts at a Sparrows Point liquid gas (LNG) import, storage, and evaporation terminal and empties into a transcontinental pipeline in Exton, Pennsylvania. (AES Sparrows Point LNG Project Brochure, AES Sparrows Point LNG, LLC, Baltimore, MD) (Konopacki, R., LNG Plant, Pipeline Clear Federal Hurdle, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, December 10, 2008, page A1.)
* New dwelling building permits for Harford County in 2008 were down to about 450 from 2000 during the hot building years. (Thompson, L., The BRAC Lifeline, Home Building Permits Down by 600 from 2005 to 2008, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, January 23, 2009, page A1.)
* Unemployment in Harford County was 5% in November 2008 compared 3.1 % three years previously and 8% for the nation, according to Jim Richardson, the executive director of the Harford County Office of Economic Development. (Thompson, L., The BRAC Lifeline, Harford County is in Not that Bad Shape, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, January 23, 2009, page A1.)
2009* A plan for building a Towson University Building on the West Campus of Harford Community College was revealed. The building would be used for bachelor and graduate programs. (Konopacki, R., A Step Up to Higher Learning, At 50 HCC Still Growing, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, February 27, 2009, page AA6.)
* An "unchecked epidemic" of Lyme disease has been growing in many areas of Harford County to "the highest numbers of reported cases . . . in the State." (Barnes, L., Harford Plagued by Lyme Disease , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, May 6, 2009, page A16.) (Beware of Ticks, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, May 6, 2009, page A16.)
* A Harford County School Board bill was signed by Governor Martin O'Malley on May 19, 2009. Before that date, the Governor appointed seven board members. The bill allows for three board members being appointed by the governor and six elected by the voters for the first time in history. (Konopacki, R., Part-Elected Harford School Board OK'd , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, May 20, 2009, page A6.)
* Due to the economic crisis, the county furloughed some county employees for 5 days without pay. and closed the Tollgate Yard Trim Dropoff Site, although 120,000 visits were made by citizens per year. Another economic problem is that Harford County's remaining 28 dairy farms are only getting $12 or less for 100 pounds of milk. Harford County Public Schools was given targeted money totaling $13.7 million for 2010 and 2011 through the American Recovery and Investment Act. ( Konopacki, R., Hard Times for Harford Dairy Farmers , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, June 24, 2009, page AA1.) (Konopacki, R., Dump Closing Faulted , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, June 24, 2009, page A1.) (Konopacki, R., Harford Schools Get Big Money , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, June 26, 2009, page A1.)
* Upper Chesapeake Health System (UCH) announced joining with the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS). By 2013, it is expected that UMMS and UCH will be merged. (Konopacki, R., Hospitals Join University , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, July 3, 2009, page A1.)
* Work on moving six, 416 ton (831,724 pounds), power transformers through Harford County to the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania was begun at the end of July 2009. The transformers were manufactured in South Korea, and moved through Havre de Grace, Level, Churchville, Dublin, Whiteford and Cardiff on a 16.08 foot wide trailer. The Broad Creek and Deer Creek Bridges were over passed as shown below. (Community Update, Facts About the Transformer Replacement Project, Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Exelon Nuclear, Delta, PA, Summer 2009.) (Thompson, L., Transformer Half Way There, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, July 31, 2009, page A5.)
* A manatee, named Ilya, visited Havre de Grace and was confirmed by a quick photographer. (Dize, K., Manatee Meander's into HdG's Waters , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, July 22, 2009, page A1.)
* U.S. Army Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) was the biggest and well attended museum in Harford County. Security requirements after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center limited access to the facility. In August 2009, the indoor and part of the outdoor Ordnance Museum started moving to Fort Lee, Virginia as a result of the BRAC realignment. This was the biggest move in U.S. Army museum system history. The building to house the new ordnance museum is expected to be completed in 2011. The new museum will be next to the Army's Women's and Quartermaster's museums and Petersburg National Battlefield Park. The new museum at APG will include Ordnance Museum artifacts left behind and other APG tenant's artifacts as well as artifacts from the Communications and Electronics Museum. (Zumer, B., Ordnance Museum Move Begins , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, August 5, 2009, page A1.) (Lazo, L., Army Ordnance Museum Moving to Fort Lee, Richmond Times - Dispatch, Richmond, VA, September 8, 2009.)
* Old Watervale Road, one lane, wooden deck bridge over Winter's Run was replaced. It will be saved as a footbridge. (Watervale Road Bridge to be Closed, Temporary One Will be Installed, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, August 12, 2009, page A3.)
* The graduation rate in Harford County Public Schools was 86.7 %. Aberdeen High, Edgewood High and the Center for Educational Opportunity had graduation rates of 79.9, 74.5, and 44.4%, respectively. (Konopacki, R., In Harford High Schools Dropout Rate Is Low , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, September 30, 2009, page A1.)
* Picerne Military Housing Inc. has a contract for $64 million for building of 210 new homes and the rehabbing of 162 homes for military personnel at Aberdeen Proving Ground and other military installations with revenue bond financing at no cost to county citizens. (Editorial, On the Hook , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, September 30, 2009, page A14.)
* President Carole A. DeRan of the Hereditary Order of the Signers of the Bush Declaration presented Maryanna Skowronski, Director of the Historical Society of Harford County, a copy of the Bush Declaration and a picture depicting the signers of the Bush Declaration. The mural of the signers, painted in 1934 by Marion Butler Ewald, hangs in the Harford County Courthouse. ( The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, September 30, 2009, page AA5.)
* The new Bel Air High School opened for use in August, and the old High School was demolished in the fall. ( Konopacki, R. Bel Air High Dedication Planned Sunday, The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, October 9, 2009, page A4. )
* A map on canneries was completed. It was part of a series that included early schoolhouses, grain mills, and old country stores that served as post offices. This was accomplished by The Harford County Historical Society, Inc., the Harford County Department of Planning and Zoning, and individuals working together. ( Willis, A., Historic Map Series Debuts with Canneries , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, August 21, 2009, page A6. )
* Nordulf W. G. Debye, Chemistry Professor, Head of Chemistry Department, and Associate Dean at Towson University, died October 9th. Debye lived in Pylesville. He escaped from Nazi Germany during World War II at the age of 8. He lived with his grandfather in Ithaca, New York until he went to college. His grandfather was Peter Debye a Noble laureate, a giant in physics and chemistry, and an escapee from Nazi Germany in 1940 before World War II. (Towson University, www.pages.towson.edu/debye, October 18, 2009). ( The Ithaca Journal, www.ithacajournal.com, October 13, 2009)
* Major General Mark Ramsay, an alumnus of the John Carroll School in Bel Air, was assigned as senior ranking officer at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. (Thompson, L., From John Carroll to NATO , The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, October 21, 2009, page A1.)
2010* On February 19, President Obama has declared a disaster in Harford, Baltimore, and Cecil Counties and 5 other counties in Maryland because of damage done by a snowstorm on December 18 – 20, 2009. The Winter of 2009 – 2010 broke all records: 80 inches of snow in Baltimore. (Washington Post Editors, February 20, 2010)
5.5  byfn  Our sun is expected to die 5.5 billion years from now (byfn). ( Walborn, N., Life Cycles of Massive Stars, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, April 1, 2008.)
Big Bang    1500    1600    1700    1800    1900    2000    References   



REFERENCES

USEFUL HARFORD COUNTY HISTORY
BOOKS AND WEBSITES
  1. Beims, C.R. and Tolbert, C.P., A Journey Through Berkley, Maryland, Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore, MD, (174 pages, several hundred references, an index, and roughly a hundred photographs, drawing and maps), 2003.
  2. The Chemical Warfare Community, Edgewood Arsenal, Md., Vol. I, Number 5, 159 pages, March 1919.
  3. The Harford County Directory, State Directories Publishing Company, (432 pages with illustrations), 1953.
  4. Jay, P.A., Havre de Grace, an Informal History, Susquehanna Publishing Company, (194 pages with illustrations), 1986.
  5. Jones, E.C., Sr., Recollections . . . , Fairmont, West Virginia, (161 pages with illustrations), 1936.
  6. Jones, F.C., The Village of Darlington in Harford County, Maryland, Darlington, MD, (42 pages with illustrations), 1947.
  7. Larew, M., Bel Air, The Town Through its Buildings, The Town of Bel Air and the Maryland Historical Trust, (151 pages and illustrations, maps, and plans), 1980.
  8. Leslie, W.B., Aberdeen Proving Ground, Harford County, Maryland, Colonial Days, 18 Pages, 1952.
  9. Mason, S., Historical Sketches of Harford County, Maryland, Second Edition, Little Pines Farm, (177 pages with illustrations), 1955.
  10. Mitchell, C.D., Historical and Industrial Edition, 1856-1920, The Aegis Magazine Edition, Bel Air, Maryland, 102 pages, 1920.
  11. Morgan, R. H., Jr., Harford County Wills, 1774-1800, Harford County, Maryland, Family Line Publications, Silver Spring, MD, 160 pages, 1990.
  12. Preston, W.W.,  Historical Sketches of Harford County, Maryland, from 1608 to 1812, Press of Sun Book Office, Baltimore, Maryland, (360 pages and photos), 1901.
  13. Shagena, J.L., Jack L. Shagena has published several books on Harford County mills: Bel Air Roller, Eden, Jerusalem, and Rock Run and other mills. He has also published a book on Harford Glen. For details contact the Research Library of The Historical Society of Harford County, Inc.
  14. Weeks, C., An Architectural History of Harford County, Maryland, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, (385 pages with several hundred photographs) , 1996.
  15. Wikipedia, Harford County Public Library Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., en.wikipedia.org, Created March 9, 2009, Accessed July 12, 2009.
  16. Wilson, R.B., Robinson, D.C., and Morris, D.B., The River and the Ridge, 300 years of Local History, Peach Bottom Township and Delta, Pennsylvania; Cardiff and Whiteford, Maryland, Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore, MD, (369 pages, over 100 references, an index, and roughly 150 photos & maps, four in color), 2003.
  17. Wright, C.M.,  Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, (462 pages with photographs and maps), 1980.
______________________________
Most of the books are not in print, but they are available for examination, but not borrowing, at the Library of The Historical Society of Harford County, Inc.
Big Bang    1500    1600    1700    1800    1900    2000    References   

SUGGESTIONS, ADDITIONS, AND CORRECTIONS ARE WELCOMED.

E-MAIL:   ElsResearch@aol.com.

Return to Historical Society of Harford County