The HISTORICAL SOCIETY of HARFORD COUNTY, Inc.
Harford County Chronology of Events
1800 to 1899
Prehistory to 1799        1900 to the Present

1801 *Voter qualification laws, which prohibited one in three adult white males from voting, were abolished.
*United States' first war began. The Pasha of Tripoli, a part of the Moslem Ottoman Empire, declared war on the United States. While there were many battles and the Tripolitan War lasted 15 years, Congress did not declare war. Commodore John Rodgers', (1772-1838) of Harford County, brilliant record in the Tripolitan War won him appointment as Commodore of the Mediterranean Squadron in May 1805. (Smethurst, D., Tripoli: The United States' First War On Terror, Presidio Press, New York, 2007), (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 416, 1980.)
*By the 1800s people were using horses for riding and pulling wagons. The more economical oxen were the preferred draft animal for farms. (The Draft Horse in America The Eastern Draft Horse Association, www.easterndrafthorse.com, 2007 )
1802 The right of suffrage (voting) for free African-Americans was ended by the Maryland General Assembly.
1803The Napoleonic Wars began. Baltimore made enormous profits from shipping foodstuffs during the Napoleonic Wars. The British saw this as "opportunism," and a British Admiral declared that Baltimore was a "doomed" city. That included Harford County.
1803The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the USA. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1804 1804 Napoleon became Emperor of France. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1805 *Eden Mill was built by Elijah Stansbury. There are various theories about how it was named, but most can be traced back Sir Robert Eden, last British proprietary governor of Maryland. ( See this Chronology 1769 and 1773) (The Harford County Sun, Baltimore, March 15, 1992, page 1) (Shagena, J.L., Eden Mill: An Illustrated History, Jack L. Shegena, Jr., Bel Air, Maryland, 2006 )
*The first weekly newspaper, the Harford Bond, was published in Harford County. (Chambers, T.R., Harford County Newspapers of the 19th Century, Harford Historical Bulletin, Harford County, Maryland, Number 50, page 89, Fall 1991)
1807 *Napoleon declared that all British vessels should be regarded as lawful prizes of war.
*The British empire outlawed the slave trade due to the efforts of William Wilberforce.
1808 The importation of slaves was outlawed by the United States.
1812*The War of 1812 began when the United States declared war on Britain.
*The British declared a blockade of the Chesapeake Bay.
*During the war, Commodore John Rodgers, of Harford County, captured 23 prizes and played an important role in defending Baltimore during the British attack on Baltimore. (Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition) (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 416, 1980.)
1813 *The British raided, looted, and burned along the Chesapeake Bay.
*On May 3, the British, led by Admiral George Cockburn, burned and plundered the town of Havre de Grace.
1814 *On August 24-25, the British burned the Government Buildings in Washington, D.C., including the Nation's Capitol and the White House.
*The British landed at North Point and a bloody battle was fought in nearby Baltimore County helping reverse the British march to Baltimore. Meanwhile, Fort McHenry was under bombardment, and the Star-Spangled Banner was written. Baltimore was not burned.
*Bel Air Academy was authorized by the State Legislature and constructed. It was a private classical, college preparatory school. (Bel Air, Guide to Our Historic Town, Town of Bel Air, Bel Air, MD, page 8, 2006)
1815 *Admiral George Cockburn escorted Emperor Napoleon to St. Helena, ending the Napoleonic Wars.
*Treaty of Ghent was signed, ending the War of 1812.
1817 Brigadier General James Jay Archer was born in Harford County. In the Mexican War, he was cited for gallantry at Chaoultepec, and in the Civil War, he saw action as a Confederate in the following campaigns: Peninsula, Eltham's Landing, Seven Pines, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Shepardstown, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. (www.historycentral.com)
1819 Yellow fever epidemic struck Baltimore. The wealthier residents fled to their country estates.
1821 Havre de Grace raised money for a private brick schoolhouse.
(Rigdon, W.O., The Early History of Education in Harford County, Maryland, University of Maryland, page 78, 1933.)
1824 *Harford County became the home to the family of the great Shakespearian actor, Junius Brutus Booth, when he leased 159 acre Tudor Hall for 1000 years for $733.20 from the Hall family. (Dinah Faber, Archivist and Booth Historian, Booth Research Center, Historical Society of Harford County, Aug. 14, 2006. )
*The Harford Mutual Insurance Company was established as the Mutual Fire Insurance Company in Harford County.
*Dr. George Washington Archer, M.D. (1824-1907) was born. Dr. Archer assembled much of the basic collection of the Historical Society of Harford County Archives.
*A cotton/wool factory, later to be called Ring Factory, was being erected on the intersection of Winters Run and what is now called Ring Factory Road. (Adams, C.G., Wilna: On the Road from Bel Air to Joppa, Harford Historical Bulletin , The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 91, pages 21-28, Winter 2002)
1825 *Pooles Island Lighthouse was constructed.
*The Maryland General Assembly passed an act providing for primary schools in all communities. (Washburn, D., One and Two Room Schoolhouses in Northern Harford County, Part 1: District 5 - Dublin , Harford Historical Bulletin , The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 94, page 4, Fall 2002)
1827 *The Concord Point Lighthouse in Havre de Grace was built. Its keepers were the descendants of its first keeper and defender of Havre de Grace during the War of 1812, John O’Neill.
*Martin Franklin Conway was born at "Bretons Hill" near Fallston. As a Kansas Republican abolitionist, he served in the U.S. Congress from 1861 to 1863. Appointed by President Johnson as consul in Marseilles, France from 1866 until 1869. (Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress)
1830 *Bel Air had four hotels, a large boarding school, the courthouse, 27 houses, and Bel Air Academy. Towns remained very small since nearly everyone was a farmer, and farm families were very self sufficient. (Bel Air, Guide to Our Historic Town, Town of Bel Air, Bel Air, MD, page 8, 2006)
* Baltimore-Ohio railroad began. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1831 Nat Turner's slave rebellion occurred in Southampton County, Virginia. The rebels numbered more than 50 slaves and free blacks. The rebels traveled from house to house, freeing slaves and killing all the white men, women and children they could find, 55. The rebellion was suppressed in two days, and Turner was tried, convicted and hung in Jerusalem, Virginia. The result was an increased repression of African-Americans. (Greenberger, K.S. ed., Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory, Oxford University Press, New York, 2003, ISBN 0195134044. )
1834 *The British ended slavery throughout the British Empire peacefully by generously compensating the slaveholders. Later in the United States, while Abraham Lincoln and many others favored compensation, instead, the fanatics, on both sides, gained the upper hand. The United States had a more expensive, terrible bloody Civil War. (www.civilwarhome.com))
*Edwin Booth was born in a log house on a farm near Bel Air, Harford County. He became the most famous and respected American actor of the late 1800s. ( Faber, D., Edwin Booth, Harford County's Prince of the Players , Harford Historical Bulletin, No 98, page 3, Summer 2004.)
1838 *The first railroad, the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad (now Amtrak), entered Harford County. (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part I. The Birth of the MA & PA Railroad, Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 68, page 35, Spring 1996.)
*By the late 1830s, since America was becoming the breadbasket of the world, larger and stronger draft horses were imported from Europe. (The Draft Horse in America The Eastern Draft Horse Association, www.easterndrafthorse.com, 2007 )
1840 York, PA and Havre de Grace were connected by the combination of rail and the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal. From tidewater to Wrightsville, PA, the locks lifted the boats over 1000 feet. (The Sun, Baltimore, April 30, 2006, page 1G.)
*A post office was established at Jerusalem Mill and a long period of prosperity followed until 1880 when rural mills were undersold by bigger mills. (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, 1980.)
1844 The Maryland Historical Society was formed with great enthusiasm. The monthly minutes were published without charge by the Baltimore American. The Society is the state's first cultural institution. (A History of the Maryland Historical Society, 1844-2006, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, Vol. 101, No. 4, page 401, Winter, 2006.)
1845 *Welsh quarrymen (from Gwynedd, north Wales) began arriving in the County, and slate became a big business, creating a strong economy for the region.
*The Great Potato Famine (1845-48) in Ireland caused many Irish to immigrate to Maryland.
1846 The Mexican War started in 1846 and ended in 1847. Texas had gained independence from Mexico in 1836 and was admitted to the union in 1845 which angered Mexican leaders. President Polk with the help of England and France tried to negotiate with Mexico, but Mexico attacked U.S. troops guarding the Rio Grande. The result was that the U.S. annexed California and New Mexico and kept Texas. Support for the war by the Democrats followed party lines. (Smith, J.H., The War With Mexico, Macmillian, New York, 1919.)
1848 *The German Revolution of 1848 was a great urban middle-class revolution against the nobility to obtain individual rights. It appeared to be a new springtime of freedom, but like most revolutions it failed quickly. It degenerated into a war between all nationalities and groups. As a result of such events, the Southern aristocracy appeared to German and other European immigrants to be similar to the European nobility from which they had just escaped. Thus, they were less tolerant of slavery and constitutional arguements than Americans who had been here longer. (Hamerow, T. S., History and the German Revolution of 1848 The American Historical Review, American Historical Association, Vol. 60, No. 1, pp. 27-44Oct., 1954. ) (Cunz, D., The Maryland Germans in the Civil War, The Maryland Historical Magazine, The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Vol. XXXVI, No. 4, Dec., 1941.)
*The Seneca Falls (NY) Convention, the first convention aimed at obtaining equal rights for women, was held.
*The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad petitioned the Maryland General Assembly to construct a bridge across the Susquehanna River to connect Havre de Grace and Perryville. The Cecil County Whig opposed the bridge and called the Railroad an "irresponsible company, endeavoring to trample on the rights and privileges of citizens of this state." Such objections from Cecil County and other problems delayed the bridge completion until 1866. (Diggens, M., Bridging Port Deposit "Off from the World and the Rest of Mankind, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 185, Summer, 2006.)
1850 Public School education was established in Harford County. Students were required to pay $1.00 per quarter in tuition. (Rigdon, W.O., The Early History of Education in Harford County, Maryland, University of Maryland, page 85, 1933.)
1852 The Susquehanna River froze so hard that the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad tracks were run across the ice at Havre de Grace.
1854 Fifty-three public schools were in operation in Harford County. Fourteen were made of logs, 10 stone, and the rest were framed buildings. (Rigdon, W.O., The Early History of Education in Harford County, Maryland, University of Maryland, 1933.)
1857 The Aegis began as the Southern Aegis. (Chambers, T.R., Harford County Newspapers of the 19th Century, Harford Historical Bulletin, Harford County, Maryland, Number 50, page 115, Fall 1991), "In the words of one of its founders: 'The Aegis is a weekly journal; the object of which shall be the Defense of the South and its Institutions.'" At that time travel through the most of the county was on dirt roads by horse, wagon, or stage coach. Packet steamers put in at Bush, Havre de Grace and Joppa. Agriculture and mining were the main industries of Harford County. It is hard to believe today, but there was not one bank in the county. (The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, page A1, March 15, 2006) (The Aegis 150th Celebration The Aegis, May 10, 2006, page 3)
1858 *There were 18 slate quarries west of the Susquehanna River; almost half were in Harford County.
*The Harford County Courthouse was destroyed by fire on February 19, 1858, and the present Courthouse was constructed. (Wright, C.M., Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, page 70, 1980.)
1859 *John Brown, while expecting to start a slave rebellion, a war, and a "bloodbath," attacked Harpers Ferry. The first man he killed was an African-American. The local citizens trapped Brown's contingent in a Federal Armory, and Federal troops under Robert E. Lee quickly ended the insurrection. Nevertheless, John Brown fired up fanatics on both sides. The great fame and admiration that John Brown obtained among most abolitionists frightened southerners and helped begin their preparation for violence. One of the supporters of slavery, John Wilkes Booth, watched Brown's hanging from right next to the gallows and probably was inspired by all the admiration and publicity given to Brown's fanaticism. John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859. The song "John Brown's Body" was the unofficial anthem of Union soldiers. The tune with more "uplifting words" became "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and a song that Union Soldiers sang as they marched into battle. (Kauffman, M.W., American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies, Random House, New York, NY, pages 103-112, November 2004.)
*Charles Darwin’s book titled On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life was published.
1860 *Abraham Lincoln was elected President.
*South Carolina left the Union.
*While Abraham Lincoln and many others favored compromise, the fanatics, on both sides, had gained the upper hand. The United States began blundering into a more expensive and bloodier Civil War than anyone expected. Neither side was prepared or expected a long serious war.
1861 *On April 13 in South Carolina, Federal troops at Fort Sumter surrendered after a 34 hour bombardment. Two days later, President Lincoln naively called for 75,000 volunteers to serve 3 months. (Toomey, D.C., The Civil War in Maryland, Toomey Press, Baltimore, page 10, 1990)
*On April 19, Baltimore citizens burned the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad bridges across the Bush and Gunpowder Rivers in Harford County to avoid rioters attacking Union troops as they passed through Baltimore on their way south, . (Smart, J.K., Suppressing Rebellion in Harford County in 1861, Part 1, Harford Historical Bulletin, The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 83, page 3, Winter 2000)
*In early May, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad was peacefully secured in Harford County by 900 Union troops. This permitted the free flow of supplies and troops to Washington D.C. (Smart, J.K., Suppressing Rebellion in Harford County in 1861, Part 1, Harford Historical Bulletin, The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 83, page 4, Winter 2000)
*On July 13, three hundred Union troops marched to Bel Air to arrest pacifists and Southern sympathizers and seize arms. One of their targets was Herman Stump, but he was warned by John Wilkes Booth. (Smart, J.K., Suppressing Rebellion in Harford County in 1861, Part 1, Harford Historical Bulletin, The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 83, pages 30-32, Winter 2000)
*On November 6, August W. Bradford, a Harford County native and strong Union supporter, was elected Governor of Maryland. (Toomey, D.C., The Civil War in Maryland, Toomey Press, Baltimore, page 33, 1990)
1862 President Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in Confederate states on Jan. 1, 1863. Harford County was not included. (Washburn, D., The Colored Schools of Harford County: Separate and Equal? Part 1: , Harford Historical Bulletin , The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 101, page 9, Summer/Fall 2005)
1864 *On July 11, Confederate Major Harry Gilmor, a native of Towson, Maryland led his cavalry unit (less than 135 men) on a destructive raid through Harford County. In spite of strong Union defenses along the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, the railroad bridge over the Gunpowder River in Harford County was burned. Also two trains, telegraph lines and the Magnolia Station were destroyed. The New York Times reported the Rebel cavalry unit under 800 and the Baltimore Sun estimates the force between 1000 and 1500. Such exaggerations caused considerable panic in the North. (Toomey, D.C., The Civil War in Maryland, Toomey Press, Baltimore, page 127, 1990) (Ackinclose, T., Sabres and Pistols, The Civil War Career of Colonel Harry Gilmor C.S.A., Stan Clark Military Books, Gettysburg, PA pages 108-118, 1997)
*Male Harford County public school teachers were paid $80 per quarter and female teachers were paid $75 per quarter. (Rigdon, W.O., The Early History of Education in Harford County, Maryland, University of Maryland, page 95, 1933.)
* A new Maryland Constitution was ratified that abolished slavery in Harford County. (Berlin, I., et al, Free at Last, A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom and the Civil War, The New Press, NY, NY, 1993.)
1865 *Robert E. Lee surrendered in Virginia.
*There were no high schools in Harford County. (Rigdon, W.O., The Early History of Education in Harford County, Maryland , University of Maryland, page 100, 1933.)
*The Board of School Commissioners of Harford County had their first meeting. (Washburn, D., One and Two Room Schoolhouses in Northern Harford County, Part 1: District 5 - Dublin , Harford Historical Bulletin , The Historical Society of Harford County, Bel Air, No. 94, page 4, Fall 2002)
*April 14, 1865, five days after General Lee's surrender, as part of a conspiracy, devised by John Wilkes Booth, to decapitate the Union government, Booth assassinated President Lincoln inside Ford's Theatre while Lincoln was surrounded by many military onlookers. In spite of this, Booth was able to perform a theatrical escape from Washington, a military city, and evade capture until the morning of April 26, 1865, when the soldiers caught up with Booth in Virginia and killed him. The assassination brought widespread persecution to actors, theaters, people that looked like Booth, Southern supporters, his family, and his friends.
1866 Construction of the first railroad bridge across the Susquehanna River was completed and, on November 26, the first passenger train crossed the bridge with dignitaries and reporters. (Diggens, M., Bridging Port Deposit "Off from the World and the Rest of Mankind, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 185, Summer, 2006.)
1868 The first known meeting of a historical society in Harford County occurred. (Peden, H.C. Jr., The Historical Society of Harford County,Inc., Bel Air, MD, 2008.)
1870    *Education by apprenticeship had ended in Maryland. (Cofield, R., Manumission and Apprenticeship in Maryland, 1770-1870, Maryland Historical Magazine, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, page 71, Spring, 2006.)
*Franco-Prussian War began. The Germans quickly won and a Communist takeover of Paris was quickly overpowered by the French Army. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
*The ancient economic and political theories of socialism started to gain popularity in Europe. They had worked well in families, extended families, and tribes, but had always failed in large, complex, evolving economic environments.
1871Germany was unified by Otto von Bismarck, a very militaristic leader, who in the mid 1880s established the first welfare state. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1873 Woman's Christian Temperance Union.(WCTU), which led the prohibition movement, was formed. The WCTU tried to combat the influence of alcohol on families and society. In addition, they supported a number of social reform issues including: fair labor, elimination of prostitution, public health, improved sanitation, women's suffrage, and international peace. Alcohol was called, "the greatest evil in the world," and prohibition of the sale of alcohol was probably the hottest political issue in American between the Civil War and the "Great Depression" in the 1930s. (Kazan, M., A Godly Hero, The Life of William Jennings Bryan, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, 2006.)
1874 Bel Air was incorporated. The town contained 42 half-acre lots along Main and Bond Streets. (Bel Air, Guide to Our Historic Town, Town of Bel Air, Bel Air, MD, page 8 and 17, 2006)
1878 Some time around 1878 the Bel Air Racetrack opened (Harford Democrat, February 8, 1878, page 2). The last race at the Racetrack was run in 1966 (Record, November 11, 1989, page 10A). It was located where Harford Mall is today.
1880 The American Union Telegraph Company opened for business in a Bel Air building occupied by the law offices of Webster, Archer, and VanBibber. J. E. Worthington was the operator. (The Aegis and Intelligencer, Bel Air, MD, Dec. 24, 1880. )
1882 The Maryland Central Railway was formed in 1882. (www.maparailroadhistory.org , Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad Historical Society, Bel Air, Maryland, 2005)
1883 *Mary C. Dallam recorded the first expansion of Bel Air.
*The Maryland Central Railway (MCR) reached Fallston on May 7, 1883. Fallston was the first station established on the MCR. (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part I. The Birth of the MA & PA Railroad, Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 68, page 47, Spring 1996.)
*The Maryland Central Railway reached Bel Air on June 21, 1883 due in part to the efforts of William H. Waters, who served as President of the Baltimore and Delta Railway. The train took about two hours to travel from Bel Air to North Avenue, Baltimore. (Shagena, J.L., Bel Air Roller Mills, The Town's First Industry , Morris Publishing, Kearney, Nebraska, 2005) (The Aegis and Intelligencer, Bel Air, MD, page 2, December 31, 1880. ) (The Aegis and Intelligencer, Bel Air, MD, page 3, January 18, 1884. )
1884     The Havre de Grace Water Works was completed and turned over to the City. (The Aegis and Intelligencer, Bel Air, MD, page 2, January 18, 1884.)
1885 *The Historical Society of Harford County, Inc. was incorporated. It was the first county historical society in the State of Maryland. (100th Anniversary Issue, The Historical Society of Harford County, Inc. , Harford Historical Bulletin, No 26, Fall 1985.)
*Five members of the Fallston Society of Friends led by a farmer named William T. Watson of Bonair began the Fallston Library Association. The library opened on a regular schedule in 1890 with Annie I. Pentz as the librarian. About that time, other private libraries were formed in Bel Air and around Harford County. (Bowers, D., A One-Hundred Year History of Libraries from 1885 , Harford Historical Bulletin, No. 67, Winter 1996.)
1886 *Coca Cola was formulated by John Pemberton, a pharmacist, of Atlanta, Georgia. He was a formulator of quack remedies which were very popular at the time. He stumbled on the recipe for Coca Cola while trying to cure headaches. This unlikely concoction went on to become the dominant worldwide drink of the 20th century. (Standage, T.,A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Walker & Co., New York, 2005.)
*By the 1886, 300 American cities had 500 horse-drawn street railways and trolleys reaching into the suburbs. In the early 20th century, many millions of city horses would be replaced by motor powered vehicles. (The Draft Horse in America The Eastern Draft Horse Association, www.easterndrafthorse.com, 2007)
1887 The Bel Air Roller Mills, owned by H. R. Reckord & Sons began operation. It was claimed that it was the largest roller mill east of the Ohio River. It was located on Major Dallam's Addition recorded by Mary C. Dallam. (Shagena, J.L., Bel Air Roller Mills, The Town's First Industry , Morris Publishing, Kearney, Nebraska, 2005)
1889 Stock was sold and construction began on the Deer Creek and Susquehanna Railroad. The Railroad was never completed.
1890     *Mary Risteau (1890-1978) was born in Towson, Maryland. She was to have a very distinguished career in Harford County and State government, agriculture, and education. (Pohmer, T.T., Mary Eliza Watters Risteau . . . , Harford Historical Bulletin, No 100, Winter/Spring 2005.)
*Edwin Booth's portrait was hung in the County Courthouse. (The Aegis, Bel Air, MD, page A4, March 15, 2006)
*Emperor William II of Germany placed Germany on a dangerous path by dismissing the militaristic Bismarck for being too moderate. (O'Brien, P., ed. Oxford Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2005.)
1891 *In the early 1890s, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (now CSX) built a track a few miles north of and parallel to the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad (now Amtrak). (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part I. The Birth of the MA & PA Railroad, Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 68, page 36, Spring 1996.)
*On April 16, 1891, the Maryland Central Railroad trestle at Laurel Brook collapsed killing five railroad employees. This led to the indictment of the Board of Directors for manslaughter and to the bankruptcy of Maryland Central Railroad. (Rhine C.S., The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, Part I. The Birth of the MA & PA Railroad, Harford Historical Bulletin, Number 68, pages 63-64, Spring 1996.)
1893     Edwin Booth died in the Players Club in New York City. (Faber, D., Edwin Booth, Harford County's Prince of the Players , Harford Historical Bulletin, No 98, Summer 2004.)
1894 The Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal was closed (Lock House News, Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace, page 11, Winter 2005 )
1895 From roughly 1895 until the mid 1970s, scientists warned of an impending ice age. (See "20,000 years ago" for the impact of an ice age on our Bay and rivers) (Fire and Ice, Business & Media Institute, www.businessandmedia.org/specialreports/2006/fireandice.asp, 2006 )
1896 Darlington Hoopes was born in Vale, Harford County. He appears to have been a lifelong Socialist. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1930 to 1936. After the New Deal of President Roosevelt implemented many of the Socialist Party programs, Hoopes became the Socialist candidate for President of the United States, running against President Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed., Columbia Univ. Press, 2005).
1898 Liriodendron Mansion was built.
Prehistory to 1799      1900 to the Present
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REFERENCES

  1. The Harford County Directory, State Directories Publishing Company, (432 pages with illustrations), 1953.
  2. Jay, P.A., Havre de Grace, an Informal History,  Susquehanna Publishing Company, (194 pages with illustrations), 1986.
  3. Jones, E.C., Sr., Recollections . . . , Fairmont, West Virginia, (161 pages with illustrations), 1936.
  4. Jones, F.C., The Village of Darlington in Harford County, Maryland, Darlington, MD, (42 pages with illustrations), 1947.
  5. Larew, M., Bel Air, The Town Through its Buildings, The Town of Bel Air and the Maryland Historical Trust, (151 pages and illustrations, maps, and plans), 1980.
  6. Leslie, W.B., Aberdeen Proving Ground, Harford County, Maryland, Colonial Days, 18 Pages, 1952.
  7. Mason, S., Historical Sketches of Harford County, Maryland, Second Edition, Little Pines Farm, (177 pages with illustrations), 1955.
  8. Mitchell, C.D., Historical and Industrial Edition, 1856-1920, The Aegis Magazine Edition, Bel Air, Maryland, 102 pages,  1920.
  9. Preston, W.W.,  Historical Sketches of Harford County, Maryland, from 1608 to 1812, Press of Sun Book Office, Baltimore, Maryland, (360 pages and photos), 1901.
  10. Weeks, C., An Architectural History of Harford County, Maryland, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, (385 pages with several hundred photographs) , 1996.
  11. Wright, C.M.,  Our Harford Heritage, a History of Harford County, Maryland, French-Bray Printing Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland, (462 pages with photographs and maps), 1980.
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Most of these books are not in print, but they are available for examination but not borrowing at the Library of the Historical Society of Harford County, Inc.

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