Carroll county was formed in 1836 from the counties of Baltimore and Frederick, between which it lies, with Howard on the south and Pennsylvania on the north. The county has an area of 437 square miles and was named in memory of Charles Carroll

of Carrollton, who died in 1832, the last survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The surface is diversified, being level, undulating, or broken, watered by fine streams issuing from innumerable springs which make up the tributaries of the Potomac, the Monocacy, and the Patapsco. These streams furnish motive power for cotton and woolen factories, and many flouring mills. The soils being limestone, slate, and iron, are fertile and easily improved. These lands respond bountifully to the efforts of the agriculturist, and the products are corn, wheat, rye, oats, buckwheat, hay, and potatoes. In many sections grazing is fine, and dairy farming is profitable. Limestone is quarried in large quantities for lime-making; and granite, marble, and brownstone furnish excellent building material. Iron, copper, soapstone, and flint are found in quantities sufficient to be worked with profit. Ample facilities for speedy and satisfactory transaction of business are furnished by fourteen banks, in which the deposits amount to between two and three million dollars. Westminster, with a population of 3,295, is the county seat. Other towns, ranging in population from 1,200 to 500, are Union Bridge, Taneytown, Manchester, Hampstead, Sykesville, New Windsor, and Mt. Airy. Carroll was the first county in the United States to establish rural free delivery of mail. In 1899 the system went into operation, and at present four wagons and forty-six carriers distribute mail in all parts of the county. The Western Maryland, Baltimore and Ohio, and Frederick Division of the Pennsylvania, are the Carroll railroads. The Western Maryland College and the Westminster Theological Seminary of the Methodist Protestant Church are at Westminster, and Blue Ridge College at New Windsor.

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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 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 upward 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 hill-sides 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 15 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 1,151. Rock Hill College, a widely known educational institution, is located here. Woodstock and St. Charles colleges and the Ilchester Redemptorist 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.

Wicomico county lies southeast of Dorset, the division line between the two being the Nanticoke river. Delaware on the north, Worcester on the east, and Worcester and Somerset on the south form the land boundaries of Wicomico, and the Nanticoke river extends along its western side, emptying into Tangier sound. The area of the county is 365 square miles, and its name is taken from the river which flows through its central section into Monie bay. Salisbury, the county seat (1732), is one of the most thriving commercial towns on the Eastern Shore, and has a population of 6,690. It is incorporated as a city, and has numerous manufactures, mostly associated with the extensive lumber interests of the county. Salisbury is noted for the beauty of its situation and its substantial business buildings and modern homes. Delmar, partly in Wicomico and partly in Delaware, is a goodly sized town, and Tyaskin, Nanticoke, Powellsville, Quantico, Pittsville, Parsons