Evening journal., 1915-06-14
MASON AND DIXON
railroad ON MAP
Western Maryland Railway
Adopts Addition TO
Its Name
PERPETUATE THE
SURVEY is IDEA

BALTIMORE. Mr., June A.
Through the addition of mason and
Dixon Line" to it's title, the Western
Maryland Railway Company will
henceforth be linked with an impor-
tant historical event which, more
than $50 years ago, resulted in per
manently fixing the boundary between
Maryland and Pennsylvania, and end
ing the dispute relative to the line.
The decision to perpetuate the name
of the two eminent surveyors and the
great work which they accomplished
in Colonial days was announced yes
terdaY by General Passenger Agent
Charles f. Stewart although the mat
ter has been under consideration by
him for several weeks. In the future
the title of the road will be 1.-the West
ern Maryland Railway Company-the
Mason and Dixon Line" and will so
appear on the printed matter of the
system.
The railroad had two reasons for
adopting the new name. In the first
place, it operates, for the most part,
in Maryland and Pennsylvania, the
two States through which the line
extends. and, in the second place, the
road crosses and recrosses the line
surveyed at several points in both
States.
Name Just Lay Around Loose.
'No other railroad has adopted this
name said General Passenger Agent
Stewart yesterday, "and we thought
that inasmuch as we are so closely
linked with the two States in which
the survey was mostly made we could
rightly lay claim to the name OF the
Mason and Dixon Line We had in
mind the cOmmemOration of an en-
gineering feat accomplished during
the closing years of our history as
colonies and just before the United
States of America came into existence
The Western Maryland crosses the
boundary line near Blue Ridge Sum-
nit, again near Cumberland, at
Lineboro, at Highfield and in the
neighborhood of Pen Mar.
Nearly 100 years before the West
ern Maryland was ever thought OF as
a railroad the two surveyors, Mason
and Dixon, known all over England
on account of their engineering abil-
ity, came to this country for the pur-
pose of running an east and west line
through the wilds of the eastern por-
ton of the country. They were
brought here by Lord Baltimore and
Thomas and Richard Penn of London.
They began their labors in 1863, and
in 1855 had pushed their way TO the
Susquehanna River, when they re-
ceived instructions to go forward
Through the forests of Maryland and
Pennsylvania. In 1866 they were on
the summit of the Little Allegheny
Mountains.
Indians Gave Trouble.
About this time the Indians began
to give the surveyors trouble. They
questioned the right of the two men TO
lntrude IN the wilderness inhabited
by them and assumed a threatening
attitude. II thus became necessary to
carry on negotiations with the six
indian nations. and these negotiations
being concluded the surveyors and
members of their party resumed
operations the following year As the
work progressed the red men again
began to harass the surveyors, and
so violent in their opposition to the
whites did they become that twenty
six members of the party quit work
ana returned home.
The two surveyors, now having
only handful of men. continued
their labors, undismayed by the diff
culties which they encountered from
the Indians. but they sent back to
Fort Cumberland for aid.
AT last they reached a point pa
miles from the Delaware River and
within thirty-six miles of the entire
distance tc be run. At this juncture
the surveyors were informed by rep
resentatives from the six nations OF
Indians that the survey must be aban-
doned.
There was no alternative and
Messrs. Mason and Dixon withdrew
only to have their work completed in
later years by other engineers"