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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. Howard County is looking for a new Coordinator would you
be interested? If so please contact
Webmaster.
Many of the present coordinators are always willing to give help and
suggestions to newcomers, you can learn, I did and that was after 60!!
Read our
About Page and see what our requirements are,
pretty easy!
Court House at
Ellicott City
Howard County, organized in 1851, bears the name of John
Eager Howard, one of the most illustrious soldiers of
the Revolution, and afterward Governor of Maryland and
United States Senator.
It is triangular in shape, lying between Baltimore,
Carroll, Frederick, Montgomery, Prince George's and Anne
Arundel Counties, in the heart of the Western Shore. The
Patapsco forms its northern border, and two small
branches of the Patuxent extend into Howard from the
Anne Arundel line. Another branch of the same river
separates it from Montgomery. The main stem of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the section of which from
Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills was the first passenger
railroad built in this country, runs along Howard's
northern border, and the Washington Branch of the same
road along its southern.
The corner-stone of the Baltimore and Ohio was laid July
4, 1828, by Charles Carroll, then upwards of ninety
years old, and he said of this act that he considered it
second only to his signing the Declaration, if "even it
be second to that." The area of the county is 250 square
miles, and its topography is hilly and broken, with
heavy forests and fertile hillsides and valleys, the
arable land being especially adapted to wheat, corn, and
hay. As early as 1800 the iron ore deposits of Howard
led to the building of the Avalon Iron Works, and Howard
ore is now the only Maryland product of the kind being
smelted. In granite, marble, and building stones Howard
is especially rich. Guilford and Woodstock granites are
known throughout the United States.
Ellicott City, the county seat, on the Patapsco River,
fifteen miles from Baltimore, is joined to the latter by
an electric road. Ellicott's Mills, as it was known from
1774 until the latter years of the past century, is
noted in Maryland history. The manufacture of flour was
begun here by the Ellicotts in that year, and this
industry is an important one in this section of the
State. The town has a population of 1,331. Rock Hill
College, a widely known educational institution, is
located here. Woodstock and St. Charles Colleges and the
Chester Redemptories Institution in Howard have made the
county known wherever the Roman Catholic faith is
preached.
At Alberton and Savage are large cotton mills operated
by water power. Howard has been the birthplace or the
home of many Marylanders noted in political life, on the
bench and in the arts and sciences, and on her territory
was first heard in Maryland the demand for separation
from the mother country.
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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