The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-10-05

conciliate, that it was their pleasure that
they should not continue the line any fur
Their. So the surveyors set up their astro-
nomicai instruments and ascertained that
the line ut this point was north Of the true
parallel, and after making the necessary
calculation, they began to retrace and cor.
rect 1t and finished their work on the boGn-
Diary lines Of the respective provinces on
the 10Th of September, 1866. The COM
missioners of the two provinces held meet
ing shortly after this At Christiana bridge,
at which it was determined that the line
running due west from the northeast cor
ner of Maryland should be continued east
ward from the point at the south end of
the fifteen. mile line until it reached the
Delaware river. The surveyors accord
ingly located and measured this line and
marked its termination at that river, the
distance from which to the stone at the
northeast corner Of Cecil county, AS deter
mined by them, was q miles, 20 chains and
- links. The line that forms the bouu.
dairy between the States of Maryland and
Pennsylvania, and that which was con-
tinued, as we have described, to the Della
ware river, is the line known in the history
and politics of the United States as Mason
and Dixon's line.
few years after the stone at the northeast
corner of the county had been set, the Revo-
lutionary War commenced, and the lead used
in mending it, as stated by old residents in
that vicinity to the writer in his boyhood, was
picked out and used by the patriots of the
Continental army for making bullets. This
stone stood in 4 small ravinc in a meadow
and when the lead was taken away from
around the clamps, they fell out aud the
upper part of the stone fell of, and in a
few years the lower part became covered
with the earth, which the rains washed into
the ravine. Thus the location of the north.
east corner of the State was involved in
obscurity, and the theory that the three
States cornered there, instead of at the
northern extremity of the segment, which
was cut off by the due north line, as before
stated, was adopted and generally believed
by the residents in those parts of the three
States contiguous To the missing corner
stone. This being the case, in 1S49, II. G.
:. Key, of Maryland, Joshua p. Eyre, of
Pennsylvania, and George X. Riddle, of
Delaware, were appointed by the governors
OF the respective States, in accordance with
acts of the Legislatures of those States, to
determine the place of the missing corner
stone. These commissioners obtained the
assistance of Leftcnant Colonel J. ID. Ora
ham, of the l. ;. Typographical engineers,
and by his aid soon succeeded in finding
the site of the missing corner stone. And,
notwithstanding the great improvement in
scientific and astronomi cal instruments that
had been made during the eighty. four years
since the missing stone had been placed in
position, the lower portion OF it was found
by the commissioners when digging the
hole in which to set the new stone they
planted in its stead. These commissioners
found \ few slight inaccuracies in the loca-
ton of the tangent point and the point of
intersection of the due north and circular
lines, which, owing to the want of care ON
the part of Messrs. Mason and Dixon in
measuring the angle formed by the radius
anu tangent lines, had caused them to set
the tangent stone 1916 feet too far to the
north, and the stone at the point of inter
section of the three States 1887 feet too
far south, in consequence of which the
curved line between these two points was
incorrect. The commissioners, however
concluded that inasmuch as the stones that
marked the circular part Of the boundary
bet ween Maryland and Delaware had never
been moved aud both States had acknowl-
edged them as boundary stones for more
than three fourths of century to let them
remain in the places where they found
them. And lest they in time should be de
stroyed by the action of the elements, they
erected substantial granite monument
alongside of the original stone at the tan
gent point and replaced the stone at the
point of intersection of the three States
with a triangular monument of the same
material and buried the original stone near
it. They also marked the middle of the
perpendicular distance of 1854 feet west
from the middle of the chord as determined
by themselves, and erected i substantial
granite monument at the northeast corner
of the county in the place OF the missing
corner stone. The circular line, as traced
by tine commissioners in 1919, would, had
it been adopted, have added triilc less
than two acres To the area of Cecil county.
1t may not be improper TO remark that that
part of Pennsylvania lying south of the
prolongation of Mason and Dixon's line
eastward toward the Delaware river and
between II and the point of intersection of
the three States has always been under the
jurisdiction of New Castle county and the
inhabitants living upon it have always paid
taxes to the authorities of Delaware and
exercised all the rights of citizens of that
State. OuIIP.