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Welcome
to Maryland American
History and Genealogy Project
we are in the process of
building new State and County pages for the states where
the coordinator has moved on to other projects. Cecil County is looking for a new Coordinator would you
be interested? If so please contact
Webmaster.
Many of the present coordinators are always willing to give help and
suggestions to newcomers, you can learn, I did and that was after 60!!
Read our
About Page and see what our requirements are,
pretty easy!
Cecil County, named in honor of the second Lord Baron of
Baltimore, was erected in 1674, the tenth county in
order of formation and it is situated in the northeast
corner of Maryland, on the borders of Pennsylvania and
Delaware and cut off from the remainder of the State by
the Sassafras River on the South and the Chesapeake Bay
and Susquehanna River on the west. It is one of the
smaller counties in the area, 350 square miles, much of
which is however under water, as it is intersected by
several rivers, notably the North East, the Elk and the
Bohemia. The surface throughout is rolling, the northern
portion being hilly; this gives considerable water
power, which is utilized by a number of large paper,
iron, cotton, flour, phosphate, kaolin and fluor-spar
mills. The third largest pulp and paper mill in the
United States is located at Elkton, the county seat.
In the eighteenth century the output of pig and bar iron
at the Principio Company's furnaces was the largest in
America. The soil generally is fertile, varying from a
yellow clay in the south to a disintegrated rock in the
north, producing fruits, grain and hay in abundance. So
noted has its hay crop become that the highest grade on
the Baltimore market is known as "Cecil County Hay."
Along the Susquehanna River are several large granite
quarries, affording the best building material, a stone
which, when polished, as is done at Port Deposit, is
excelled in beauty by no other. Kaolin is largely worked
for use in the manufacture of paper and in porcelain
factories, and chrome has been extensively mined.
Although possessing such excellent water facilities,
marsh land is almost unknown.
The banks of the Susquehanna River rise abruptly to a
height of from 80 to nearly 600 feet. At Port Deposit
the granite banks rise almost perpendicularly 200 to 300
feet. The fisheries, as might be expected, are of much
importance. Elkton, the largest town, has 2,542
inhabitants, followed by Port Deposit, Perryville,
Rising Sun, North East, Chesapeake City and Cecilton.
The scenery in places is picturesque in the extreme.
That along the Susquehanna, near Conowingo, and on the
Octoraro, near Porter's Bridge, attracts artists from a
distance, and compares most favorably with the
Wissahickon and other rugged streams so often delineated
by the painter's brush. The county is about equi-distant
from Philadelphia and Baltimore, is intersected by the
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore,* the
Philadelphia division of the Baltimore and Ohio, and the
Baltimore Central Railroads; also by the Chesapeake and
Delaware Canal.
Cecil County was one of the first to engage in school
work. In 1723 the Colonial Legislature appointed a
committee consisting of John Ward, John Dowell, Benjamin
Pearce and others to open free schools, and they opened
one. St. Stephen's Church, organized in 1692, opened a
public school about 1734. The Friends' Meeting House at
Calvert was organized by William Penn in 1702, and soon
after opened a school. The Church of St. Francis Xavier
was organized in 1704, and afterward opened a school.
The county in 1859 organized a system of free public
schools, thus antedating that of the State six years.
Among the more prominent private schools are the West
Nottingham Academy, opened about 1741 by Rev. Samuel
Finley, who afterward became the President of Princeton
University, It is situated near Colora. The Tome
Institute, most beautifully situated on the bluff at
Port Deposit, presided over by Dr. A. W. Harris, with a
corps of 63 teachers, and over 500 pupils, was endowed
by the late Jacob Tome with several millions of dollars.
* Now Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.
Online Here or Other Sites
Maryland
AHGP
Source: History of Maryland, by
L. Magruder Passano, Wm. J.C. Dulany Company, 1901.
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