On September 6, 1776, the county of Montgomery was formed out of the "Lower District of Frederick," and named in honor

of that illustrious hero, General Richard Montgomery, killed at

Quebec the previous year. The county furnished a conspicuous part of the Maryland Line during the Revolution; also, troops in every subsequent war in which the country has been engaged. Montgomery has given the state at least nine members of the national House of Representatives, one United States senator, one Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals, four presidents of the state Senate, and has had one cabinet officer. The late United States senators Edwards, of Illinois; Davis, of Kentucky, and the brilliant commoner, Proctor Knott, of the same state, were natives of this county; and the ancestors of the southern Lamars and of Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, were from Montgomery. The first school of any reputation in the county was a seminary for young men, established toward the close of the Revolution, and memorable as the alma mater of William Wirt. The Rockville Academy (1809) and Brookeville Academy (1814) were next chartered and liberally endowed, and have been in operation ever since their foundation. Many private institutions of learning have since been established, and those now existing are at Rockville, Sandy Spring, Darnestown, Poolesville, and Forest Glen. The Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad runs diagonally through the county, available to nearly every section, and several electric roads enter the southeastern part, reaching various towns. The Chesapeake and Ohio canal borders on southern Montgomery, from the District Line to Monocacy. There are numerous circulating libraries, and the proximity of the county to the national capital offers the best facilities to students and informationseekers. Braddock's army encamped for a night within the present limits of Rockville. In the early history of the county corn and tobacco were the staple products of the soil, until it became so exhausted that Montgomery lost by emigration to the new country beyond the Ohio large numbers of her population.

In 1790 this was over 18,000, and fifty years later, 15,456. By the introduction of guano in 1845 by the Society of Friends, a wonderful advance was made in the growing of cereals and grass, and the value of land and farm products materially enhanced. In the last twenty-five years the fertility of the soil has been greatly increased by the use of lime and phosphates. The Great Falls of the Potomac is said to be the largest available water power, perhaps in the world, and the county has many natural advantages. Gold has been found in Montgomery in small quantities, and there are extensive deposits of granite. Rockville, the county seat, has a population of 1,181, Kensington of 689, Takoma Park of 1,242, Gaithersburg of 625. The area of the county is 508 square miles.

Allegany county derives its name from an Indian wordAlligewi, a tribe name, or Oolik-hanna, meaning fairest stream. Its area is 442 square miles, and it lies between Garrett and Washington, with the Potomac river separating it from West Virginia on the south. Its northern line is the Pennsylvania boundary. In this county is found the narrowest part of the state, and it is conspicuous by reason of the fact that coalmining and manufactures give occupation and support to the great majority of its people, whose number places Allegany next to Baltimore county in population. The coal fields cover 64,000 acres in what is known as the George's Creek (named after Washington) Coal Basin, west of Cumberland, between Dan's mountain and Savage mountain. The county is rich in other mineral deposits, also-fire-clay, cement, iron ore, Medina sandstone, etc. The George's Creek Coal Basin is a part of that greatest of all coal deposits, the Allegheny field, which extends from Pennsylvania to Alabama. In Maryland the

deposit is of a semi-bituminous variety, highly prized for its peculiar qualities and unrivalled steam-making power. The limestone and clay lands and the Potomac "bottoms," in parts of Allegany, are exceedingly fertile, and produce potatoes, wheat, corn, buckwheat, oats, and grass in large crops. Fruits, especially apples, flourish on the mountain sides. The county

is very progressive, and the standard of education, particularly among the miners, is high. Vast sums of capital are invested in Allegany industries, and some of these are among the most extensive of their kind in the United States. Tin-plate, leather, cement, lumber, machinery, flour, glass, and many other products of the county are shipped far and near. Next to Baltimore, Cumberland, with a population of 21,839, is the largest city in the state, and is constantly growing in material resources and size. It is the business center of a territory which extends into Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It is 178 miles from Baltimore and 149 from Pittsburg, and is reached by the Baltimore and Ohio, West Virginia Central (of which it is the eastern terminus), and Cumberland and Pennsylvania railroads, the latter a part of the Pennsylvania system. The Chesapeake and Ohio canal extends from Cumberland to Georgetown, D.C. Fort Cumberland, where Braddock camped, was the startingpoint of the present city. Incident and legend, dealing with Indian, British, French, and Civil wars, cluster about Cumberland, and the topography and nomenclature of this region are suggestive. Frostburg, 17 miles westward of Cumberland, is a city of 6,028 population, on a plateau at an elevation of 1,700 feet above sea-level. The second State Normal School is at Frostburg. Lonaconing, a mining town of 1,553 population, is in southwestern Allegany; Westernport, Midland, Barton, Mt. Savage, Ocean, Flintstone, Orleans, Pekin, are other towns.