Frederick county was organized in 1748, named after the Prince of Wales, and has an area of 633 square miles, being the second largest Maryland county. Its topography is agreeably diversified by valley, plain, rolling land, and mountain. Many of the early settlers were Germans. The county has always furnished its full quota of soldiers and sailors in wartime, from colonial days to the war with Spain. The author of "The Star-spangled Banner" was born here, and his remains rest in Mt. Olivet cemetery, in the city of Frederick, beneath the monument erected by the Key Monument Association, and unveiled August

9, 1899. On November 23, 1765, the judges of the Frederick county court repudiated the Stamp Act passed by the British Parliament, and Repudiation Day was made a county holiday in 1894. Agriculture is the leading industry, the soil being fertile and producing large crops of wheat, corn, rye, oats, and potatoes. The mountain districts still supply a good quality of oak, chestnut, walnut, hickory, and other timber. The railroads are the Baltimore and Ohio, the Western Maryland, Pennsylvania; and an electric road runs from Frederick to Myersville. Iron ore and copper are found in different parts of the county, the most extensive deposits of the former being in the northern section, near Thurmont, where a large smelting plant is located -the Catoctin Furnace, first put in operation in 1774. Near Libertytown copper mines are worked on an extensive scale. Frederick city, 61 miles from Baltimore, has a population of 10,411, and is the county seat. A female seminary, Hood College, and other important private educational institutions are located there, as is also the Maryland School for the Deaf. Manufactured products of the county include lumber, flour, fiber brushes, fertilizer, furniture, harness, hosiery, crockery-ware, lime, proprietary articles, etc. Frederick towns include Brunswick, Emmittsburg (near which is Mt. St. Mary's College), Thurmont, Walkersville, Middletown, Buckeystown, Adamstown, Point of Rocks, Creagestown, Wolfsville, Urbana, Libertytown, New Market, Ijamsville, Sabillsville, Woodsboro, Knoxville, Mt. Pleasant, Jefferson, Graceham, Myersville, Harmony, Johnsville, Ladiesburg, Unionville, Lewistown, Attica Mills, Burkittsville.

Harford county was formerly part of Baltimore county. After the removal of the county seat of the latter from Joppa (which is within the present limits of Harford) to Baltimore Town on the Patapsco, a petition for the formation of a new county was granted by the legislature of 1773. The proprietary of the province of Maryland at this time was Henry Harford, and from him the county took its name. The first county seat was Har

ford Town, or Bush, but as the settlements gradually extended farther and farther from the river and bay section, the people desired a more convenient location. As the result of an election in 1782, the county seat was removed to Bel Air, where it has remained. The physical features of the county being so varied, the industries are of many kinds. From the tide-water region in the southeastern part there is a gradual elevation, the highest point being 750 feet above the sea. In the spring much fishing. is done along the Susquehanna and upper part of the Chesapeake. Sportsmen come from afar to take advantage of the duck-shooting here afforded. In the upper part of the county are found quarries of slate and limestone. Rolling fields of unsurpassed fertility give the tiller of the soil first place in the industries of the county. The pasture-land in the valley of the streams makes dairying profitable, and the canned goods industry has been encouraged to such an extent by the packers and brokers that Harford ranks among the first of all the southern counties in this respect. The facilities for shipping are good, the Baltimore and Ohio and the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railroads traversing the entire southern part of the county, the Maryland and Pennsylvania running through a great portion of the central part in a north and south direction, while just across the river along the eastern border is the Columbia and Port Deposit road. The citizens of Harford have always taken an active part in both state and national history. As the first county seat lay on the main highway between Virginia and the Northern colonies, the ideas of Washington and Jefferson and Patrick Henry were easily disseminated. More than a year before Jefferson's famous instrument was adopted, thirty-four of Harford's representative sons, duly elected by the people of the county, signed a resolution in which they heartily approved of the "Resolves and Associations of the Continental Congress and

the Resolves of the Provincial Convention," and solemnly pledged themselves to each other and to the country to perform the same at the risk of their lives and their fortunes. This is known as the famous Bush Declaration of March 22, 1775. In the courthouse at Bel Air are portraits of many of the distinguished citizens of the county who have left their impress upon the state and nation. Among them are found William Paca, signer of the Declaration of Independence and twice governor of the state; Dr. John Archer, a member of the first Constitutional Convention of the state; and Edwin Booth, one of the greatest of the world's actors. Abingdon, aptly termed the "Mecca of the Methodists," is noted as being the seat of the first Methodist College (Cokesbury) founded for higher education. Havre de Grace, named by Lafayette because of the resemblance of its location to that of the French Havre, is the largest town in the county, its population being 4,212. It figured in the War of 1812. Bel Air has a population of 1,005, and Aberdeen and other towns have from 100 to 800 inhabitants.