Smyrna times., 1884-05-21
WHOLE NO. 1906.

Aa
We of the Grand Jury for the county
having duly considered and carefully
adjusted an account of charges con-
tracted by running circular line di-
viding this county from the county of
New Castle and setting the boun-
daries and having duly and de-
hberately debated every article
of the said account do allow of the
sum of twenty-six pounds nine shill-
ings due to be paid by the county for
said work.
JAMES COwPER, Foreman.
Although there is a general impress
sion that Mason and Dixon afterwards
ran the circular line, that is a popular
error; nor is it true, as stated in an
excellent article published in leading
American periodical, that Gin the diff
Guilty of tracing this circle was the orr
CINE of the work of Mason and Dixon"
The survey of Isaac Taylor and
Thomas PiersOn, in 1701, before de-
scribed, is the only one ever made of
the circular boundary between Penn
sylvania and Delaware. The Act of
May 2S, 1715, providing "for cor
rOhoratlng the circular line between
the counties of Chester and New Cas-
tle," seems to have been a dead letter
from It's passage and was repealed July
81, 1719.
1t is an interesting fact in view of
the ease with which the justices in
17Ol arrived at the point in New Cas-
tie where the twelve mile radius
should begin" the end of the horse
dyke next to the town of New Castle" "
to recall the manner in which the
Commissioners of Maryland, in 1850.
attempted to reach a like starting
point. In the diary of John Watson.
one the surveyors on behalf of
Pennsylvania, on that occasion, the
mentions that the map of the Mary
land officials had a puncture in it at
designated place within the limits of
the town of New Castle from which
they cOntended the radius of twelve
miles should be measured. Watson
subsequently learned that this point
had been ascertained in this wise:
The Commissioners of MARYLAND had
constructed an exact plan of the town
OF New Castle upon piece of paper,
and then carefully pared away the
edges of the dIaught until no more
than the draught was left, when stick
ing pin through it, they suspended it
thereby in different places until thew
found place whereby it might be sus-
pended horizontally, which point or
place they accepted as the centre of
gravity" hence the centre of the town.
As the nOtehes made by TAYLOR and
PiersOn to make the circular line. in
the lapse of time were Obliterated.
thereafter to be recalled only in vague
and uncertain traditions, and as the story
that on the re-examinatiOn in 176S. by
Mason and Dixon, of the line surveyed
IN l75l, by Emory, Jones, Parsons.
Shankland and Killen, that the enid
stOne," planted by the latter SURVEYORS
at the southwestern boundary of the
State of Delaware, was found over
thrown by money diggers who believed
because Of its armorial bearings that it
had been set up by Capt. Kidd to mark
the spot where part of his i'll gotten
treasures was secreted, had shifted its
location many times, the impression
became general that the stone planted
by Mason and Dixon to mark the in
tersectiOn of the three States had also
been removed. Hence in 1849, the
Legislature of Pennsylvania authorized
the Governor to appoint commission
er to act in conjunction with similar
commissioners representing the States
of Delaware and Maryland to deter
mine the points of intersection and to
place mark or monument thereon to
indicate its location. On behalf of
Pennsylvania, Joshua P. Eyre, of Della
ware county, was appointed commits
sioner. George Read Riddle repre-
sented Delaware, and H. G. s. Kew.
Maryland. The commissioners made
application to the Secretary of War to
detail Lieut.. Colonel James r. Graham.
of the corps of Typographical Engi-
neers, who had acquired considerable
prominence in adjusting the boundary
of the United States and Mexico. TO
make the necessary surveys. On
October 80, 1S49, the commissioners
assembled at Annapolis, Maryland,
where they had access to the notes of
Mason and Dixon, as well as the agree
ment dated May 10, 1872, between
Charles, Lord Baltimore and the heirs
and successors of William Penn. as
also the subsequent agreement between
Frederick, Lord Baltimore, and Thomas
and Richard Penn, surviving heirs of
William Penn, dated July 4, 1850. and
the decree of Lord Chancellor Hard
rick, May Is, 1850, which was the
basis of the final settlement of the long
controversy.
The commissioners, we are told bv the
= accomplished historians of Chester
county, at the northeast corner of
Maryland-the commencement of
Mason and Dixon east and west line
found that the stone planted in 176s, to
designate the spOt-in deep ravine,
on the margin of a small brook, near
its sOurce-was missing. That several
years before the commissioners visited
the place it had fallen to the earth.
and had been taken away and used as
} a chimney piece by a resident in the
neighbOrhOod, who, with some slight
! propriety, had driven stake into the
) ground to mark the spot where the
stone once stood. The commissioners
| at that point erected new stone with
the letter p ON the north and east
sides and M on the south and west
sides. At the junction of the three
States the commissioners set up tri-
angular prisDatie post of cut granite,
eighteen inches wide on each side and
seven feet in length. 1t was inserted
four and a-half feet in the ground and
! occupies the exact spot where the old
, unmarked stone placed there by Mason
and Dixon was found by Col Graham,
in lS49, who had the old boundary
+ mark buried alongside of its more
modern and pretentious fellow. This
new stone is marked with the letters
, M, and ID, on the sides facing respec-
lively towards the States of Maryland,
, Pennsylvania and Delaware. On the
+; north side below the letter P, are the
names of the commissioners, in deep
cut letter, with the date 1849
Col. Graham, in his report, says
E "At the meridian or middle point of
the arc, corresponding to the length
of the chord as we actually found it,
and at the distance of one hundred and
! eighteen and fourteenth feet perpen-
dicular from the middle point of said
chords, post of cut granite six feet
long was inserted in the ground four
I, and a-half feet of its length. This
stone squares seventeen by fourteen
, inches. It is rounded on the west side
/ to indicate that it is on the curve and
! on the east side the date 1849 IS cut in
Z deep figures.
1 The circular boundary between
I Pennsylvania and Delaware from the
4 point of junction Of the three States to
I river Delaware being yet unmarked
j and number of citizens residing near