The evening times., 1899-02-11
THE GARRETT COUNTY
BOUNDARY DISPUTE
Allegany Residents Enter a
Vigorous Protest.
Governor Lowndes Says the Old
Chisholm Line Is Not Legal.
EIIicott City Il Model Municipality,
With No Debts or POiitics-other
Maryland News.

Annapolis, Md. Feb. 11.-Governor
Lowndes has received protest from resi-
dents of Allegany county who will be
thrown into Garrett county by the rev
boundary line Among those who COM
plain of the change are Charles L. Boian,
jeremiah Mckenzie, William Finzel. Cas-
par Dress and other taxpayers residing
near Mount Savage. BY the change, they
say, taxpayers living within 1212 miles OF
Cumberland are to be thrown into Garrett,
A miles from the county seat; they never
objected to the Chisholm line, which is
plain enough to be found in the dark, and
has been the boundary for twenty-five
years long enough to hold by right of pos
session. They say further that If the
people had to vote on it the new line would
be knocked higher than kite
Governor Lowndes, in his reply, says:
Two attempts were made prior to the
present survey TO locate this line, the first
! in 1872 by Mr. Daniel Chisholm, at that
| time county surveyor for Allegany county,
| and the second in 1873 by Mr.. John Harmed,
county surveyor for Garrett county.
! Neither of these surveys was completed
in accordance with the provisions of the
act of 1872 designating the boundary OF
| Garrett, and have never been legally &C
cepted.
THE Chisholm line did not comply with
the act of 1872 for the following reasons
"U3 That the line was not a straight
| line connecting two given terminal points,
one at the summit of Big Backbone or
| Savage Mountain the other at the middle
| of Savage River
"(2) That the line was started at the
southern terminal point at the mouth OF
the Savage and was run upon an erro-
neously assumed direction north 20 east,
| which resulted in the line terminating
upon Little Savage Mountain rather than
upon Great Savage Mountain.
| "(3) That Chisholm did not connect his
| last station on Little Savage Mountain
| with the point on the Great Savage Noun
tain called for by law.
"(D That no official return of the survey
was made by Chisholm as called for by the
act.
90 That Chisholm regarded his line as
merely a trial line and it was his Intention
to run second and final line on a corrsete1
course, a plan never carried out.
The line as run by Chisholm was very
| crooked line but if he had connected his
last station on Little Savage Mountain
with the point on the Great Savage Noun
tain called for by the act and had made
proper official return of this survey as le'
gally required the Chisholm line might to-
fulfilled none of these requirements a:
called for by law, so that the line has NJ
real legal status. .........
The Harmed line began at the proper
point on Great Savage Mountain, but wa:
run upon a course that brought it out a
Westernport considerably to the east o
the terminal point (the mouth of the Saw
age Riyer) called for by the act, and as
result encroached on Allegany count.
southwark.
1T is stated that a second line was rul
on a corrected course but as it was no
marked in permanent manner the line ha
never been adopted by either country
Moreover, the methods employed in run
ming these lines could not. have resulted il
a straight line called for by the act o
1872
THE present line, which was run by tn
best methods of modern surveying an
which has been verified throughout its en-
tire extent is a straight line connectin
the summit Of Big Backbone or Savag
Mountain where that mountain is crosse
by Mason and Dixons line with the mid
die of Savage River, where it empties int
the Potomac River, and is the first lin
: that conforms TO the act of 1872 whic
prescribed the separation of the new coun
ty of Garrett from that of Allegany.'
a lot of valuable coal lands heretofor
taxed in Allegany county will hereafte
have to settle up in Garrett county.