The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1941-05-01
GROWING
PAINS
By MARIE O'DEA

Since the beginning of our province,
as in the last Legislature, we have
hacked away at the boundary lines of
elective, legislative or Congressional
districts, even of the counties.
The Virginia colony resented the
Maryland charter as an encroachment
upon her territorial rights. Maryland
won that bout as she did her encoun-
ter with William Clayborne, who tried
violently to retain his trading post on
Kent Island for Virginia.
William Penn disputed our northern
boundary for years. According to our
charter, the city of Philadelphia
should be in Maryland but the Quak-
ers out-maneuvered the Cavaliers.
The Duke of York Topped off our
eastern territory for the Delaware
grants. Our own ignorance of how far
west the Potomac river sprang re-
stricted our western line.
Internally, Saint Mary's county,
named for the Blessed Virgin Mary,
was our only county at first and all
planters had to go there for legal
business. The Kent Islanders suffered
some Inconvenience because of their
remoteness. BY 1912, the Governors
order that Kent Island, named after
the English locality, be erected into a
county had gone into effect. That
placed county government on each
side Of the Chesapeake. Later, Kent
codnty was pushed further northward,
Kent Island was given to Talbot coun-
ty and still later to Queen Anne's.
The next break was on the western
shore. The Puritan refugees on the
Severn river began to object to the
authority of Saint Mary's county Ac-
cordingly, in April 1860, the General
Assembly erected their territory into
a county, naming it Anne Arundel,
after the wife of Cecil, the second
Lord Baltimore The Puritans resent
ed this name because the Lady Anne
Arundel was Catholic, and in 1854
changed it to Providence But the or
iginal name was restored two years
later, 1856.
Seven months after the beginning
of Anne Arundel county, in Novem-
Der, 1850, Lord Baltimore ordered the
erection of Charles county NOV obso-
lete) to fulfill promise made to Rob-
ert Brookes. Brookes and his follow
ers settled in the region between the
plantations around Saint Mary's and
the Patuxent river However, in Sep
TENDER, 1858, Brookes was ousted and
the following July, 1854, the act es-
tablishing the county was repealed.
Calvert county, named after the
Baltimore family, was then set up,
taking in both shores of the PatuXent
as well as all land between Anne
Arundel and Saint Mary's counties
eastward to the bay. Three months
later, in October, 1854, the Profess
tants, revolving against the Proprie-
tary, replaced the Calvert name with
PatuXent and Saint Mary's with Po-
tomac, but the old names were soon
restored.
Calvert county lost the south bank
of the PatuXent when the new Charles
county was erected in 1868. Charles
also took over the northern part of
Saint Mary's, and the older Charles
county.
The following year, 1869, Baltimore
county was erected, embracing all
that region from the Patapsco river
on the western shore north to the
Maryland boundary and down the
eastern shore to the Chester river.
Baltimore county yielded to the for
nation of Cecil (after the second Lord
Baltimore) in 1914, to Hartford (after
Henry Hartford, the last Proprietary
in 1773, to Kent in it's later definition
and to Carroll in 1886.
In 1862, Talbot county (named
after Grace Talbot, daughter of the
frs Lord Baltimore) took up the
southern part of Kent county to the
Choptank river and east to the Della
ware bay which was still claimed by