Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1916-01-14
CHARLES ,ouNrY.
History OF Charles County, From The
Washingtoa Star, lCoi tipned
From Last Week.i

was GODS anu The number attendi Y
school 3,l57, CT Sis per cent. OF
inhabitants Of six 70 fourteen years,
inclusive, the,e were 4,0gs and the
number attending school 2,62t, or 81
per cant. TIE percentage Of native
white chiidten Of native percentage
between tie a. rs noted att ending
school was rs 6 and the percentage
Of eoivred 537 The number of
dwellings 3,05O.
There has been a marked increase
ia the Attendance at school amor g
the children Of the white people aud
'etnarkable Increase in school at
tendance among colOred chi,d.sr.
and the schools themselves, basides
being more numerous, are better
kept and better aaght than was she
ease a Leuetenon ago. The peop.e
o this very Old M,rylaad county
have aiwass hell tnr eau Sc 1t p5ga
lar education 10 b Oh regard.
Charles county Is an agricultural
county and Us chief products a-e
corn and tsbacce, stapl-s which have
nesn dtivated there since the white
settlers spreal slowly northwstd
from the 81. Mays liver and first
pu, tire lands OF Charles county un-
Ter tilags, ard the line when the
grim val woods wee Gle lred away
and the plow began to turn the fer
tile sol may be cOughly set down as
275 years ago. Taose lands have
born the strain Of nearly three cen
tnries of cultivation, aud much Of
that cultivation has been unsku,ful,
often being carried on by men wha
had bttle or no understanding of Tue
mesit 81 rotation Of crops, or the fer
ulizing Vi thu soil with plant food.
Yet land worn down by Gnskillfn
cropping aud apparently wora out
is capable Of being restored, AMI
macy pr jsDerous and productive
farms have been built up on this ru
down land.
For two centuries tobacco was he
Srett crop OF Charles county, as it
wa, Of the d Aer counties OF South
ern Maryland, and, in fact, for slms
thing more THAI century after The
European settlement lf this region
tJb iee, wa the maiu crop through
Gus the coastal plain FROM the Crc-
iinas u Pennsylvania. Then tie
culture of wheat and corn beg t1 TO
come INTO favor and were found 50
pr4iitible ihst reducti N Of the to-
baeeo- plants area began to appear,
with the result III { over the oastal
PLAIN region IN be valleys of the
Pc onac, PaIuxent, RappahannJek,
YUk aud James the only the only
considerable areas ia the Soutael,
Maryland Counties Of Charles, $.
Mars's, Prince Georges, Anne AIua-
del and Calvert. New tobaec1 areas
have been opened up 10 Pennsylvania,
Oanf, Conneeticat, Kentucky, West
Virginia AMI western North Carolina,
white the tobacco area in the neigh
oor'sood Of Washington is constantly
growing less, though the industry is
tenacious.
Al tie lime Of the outbreak of the
civil war nearly ali The open land of
Charles county was under cultivation
il tobacco. The overlurn in the in-
,lus,rial and social conditions Of the
coussy eausipe The mp 3verishment
81 u.e old LAM holding families and
askiag it impossible for them 10
work their faF.n +. resulted in mach
OF lie farm ianl growing 10 in pine
and hardwoois. The tenant system
Of f.r.hing came in. ard it seemed 10
be ii, Object Of most tenants TO
ska the Iana->that il, to get out