Cecil County, Maryland

Cecil County, Maryland
County
Cecil County
Seal
Location in the U.S. state of Maryland
Maryland's location in the U.S.
Founded	June 6, 1674
Named for	Cecil Calvert
Seat	Elkton
Largest town	Elkton
Area
• Total	418 sq mi (1,083 km2)
• Land	346 sq mi (896 km2)
• Water	72 sq mi (186 km2), 17%
Population (est.)
• (2014)	102,383
• Density	292/sq mi (113/km²)
Congressional district	1st
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website	www.ccgov.org

Cecil County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2010 census, the population was 101,108. The county seat is Elkton. The county was named for Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (1605–1675), the first Proprietary Governor of the Province (colony) of Maryland. It is part of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metropolitan Statistical Area

History

The area now known as Cecil County was an important trading center long before the county's official organization in 1674 by proclamation of Lord Baltimore. It had previously been a northeastern part of a much larger Baltimore County, in the northeastern portion of the Province. This had included present-day Baltimore City and county, Carroll, eastern Frederick, and portions of Howard and Anne Arundel counties. At the time of its founding, Cecil County also included modern Kent County and the border on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay went as far south as the Chester River, until its later formation in 1706. The Piscataway traded with the Susquehannocks near Conowingo, and with Lenape of the Delaware valley and their Nanticoke allies near the Elk River and Elk Neck Peninsula. A southern tribe sometimes called the Shawnace also moved into what later became North East, Maryland. Captain John Smith visited the area in 1608. William Claiborne, a Puritan trader based in Virginia, earlier established a trading post at what is now known as Garrett island at the mouth of the Susquehanna River near what became Perryville. Bohemian immigrant Augustine Herman lobbied for Cecil County's creation, and drew the 1674 maps, in exchange for which Herman received extensive land grants, including one developed as Bohemia Manor, where he eventually died. Another early developer was George Talbot, appointed Surveyor-General of Maryland in 1683, who came from Ballyconnell, County Cavan, Ireland.

Until the American Revolution, Cecil county was an important shipping center, both within the colonies and abroad. It exported not only its own agricultural products, but also animal skins from the west and tobacco from the south. St. Francis Xavier Church (Warwick, Maryland) begun as a Jesuit mission in 1704 and rebuilt in 1792, is one of Maryland's oldest churches, though now a museum. St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church, authorized in 1706 and rebuilt in 1742 is another (and still in use, as well as maintaining a historic graveyard). West Nottingham Academy founded by Presbyterian Rev. Samuel Finley in 1744, educated Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, both of whom signed the Declaration of Independence, and still operates today (though disaffiliated from the Presbyterian church and with additional buildings). The Principio Furnace, founded in 1719, became an important exporter of pig iron. During the American Revolution both British and colonial troops traveled through Cecil County, although no major battles occurred within its borders. The Battle of Cooch's Bridge occurred in nearby Delaware, and both General Howe and General George Washington stopped in Elkton during the summer of 1777. Robert Alexander, the area's delegate to the Continental Congress of 1776, spoke with both sides but ultimately decided to go into exile in England without his wife. She remained a loyal Marylander and received a life estate in some of Elkton property that Maryland confiscated.

The War of 1812 caused Cecil County considerable damage. Not only did British Admiral George Cockburn blockade the upper Chesapeake bay, in response to musket fire from colonials at Welch Point, his troops destroyed a trading post known as Frenchtown. They tried to sail further up the Elk River to the county seat at Elkton, but turned back under fire from Fort Defiance, also hindered by a cable across the navigation channel. British troops also destroyed most of Havre de Grace in nearby Harford County, Maryland. Cockburn's ships then traveled up the Sassafras River, and, meeting resistance, destroyed Georgetown, Maryland and Fredericktown, Maryland. Avoiding Port Deposit which rumors called heavily defended, the British destroyed the Principio Iron Works, an important military target.

Port Deposit boomed after the Susquehanna Canal opened in 1812. Engineer James Rumsey, who grew up in Bohemia Manor before moving to Bath, Virginia (or Berkeley Springs, West Virginia), invented a steam boat which he demonstrated to George Washington, before traveling to London to secure patents against competition from John Finch. Rumsey died there in 1792, but his lawyer brother Benjamin Rumsey moved south to Joppa, Maryland and served as Maryland's Chief Justice for 25 years. Steamboats, using technology such as by Robert Fulton, came to dominate travel on the bay during the following decades. The Eagle, built in Philadelphia in 1813, transported travelers between Baltimore and Elkton, where they connected with stage coaches to travel to Wilmington, Philadelphia and other points north. An 1802 attempt to build a canal to connect the Elk River to Christiana, Delaware (connecting the Chesapeake and Delaware watersheds) failed within two years. However, between 1824 and 1829, with financial support from the states of Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania, over 2600 workers built the 14 mile long Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which became for a while the busiest canal in the new nation. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers still operates it today, and Chesapeake City, Maryland, which had been Bohemia Manor until 1839, has a museum explaining the canal's importance. Railroads and bridges also proved economically important to Cecil county and surrounding region. The New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad began service in 1831. Railroads crisscrossed Cecil county within three decades, although they ultimately greatly reduced its importance as a trading center. Cities such as Philadelphia and Baltimore could achieve economies of scale impossible for the county's small Chesapeake ports. Even the railroad's Frenchtown section was abandoned in 1859, and the port became a ghost town (though other sections remain in use, operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway).

During the American Civil War, Perryville, Maryland became an important staging ground for Union troops. It had been the halfway point of the railroad line between Wilmington and Baltimore, but damage to the section into Baltimore caused Union troops to embark ferries at Perryville. No Civil War battles occurred in Cecil County, but residents had strongly divided loyalties. Slavery had declined from 3400 slaves in the county in 1790 to just 800 in 1850. The Underground Railroad had crossed through Cecil County, perhaps assisted by the 'Fighting Quaker,' former Congressman and U.S. Marshall John Conard, who moved to Northeast between 1834 and 1851 and was reburied at St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church there`after his death in Philadelphia in 1857. Frederick Douglass crossed Cecil county on his road to freedom in 1838. While Jacob Tome made his fortune in the area and stayed, other Cecil county natives left in search of economic opportunity. David Davis moved to Illinois upon graduating from Yale Law School in 1835, where he became Abraham Lincoln's law partner and later served in that legislature as well as a judge, before moving to Washington D.C. to help President Lincoln, who later named him to the United States Supreme Court. Slavery's abolition affected many local property owners, as well as their slaves. After the war, Perryville again became a railroad town, and later received business from interstate highway travelers crossing the Susquehanna bridges. Although Cecil county had once been one of the wealthiest in Maryland, and has worked hard recently to attract industry as well as tourist dollars, the average income of residents is now near that of Americans as a while.

Cecil County has a number of properties on the National Register of Historic Places.

Law and government

Prior to December 3, 2012, Cecil County was governed by county commissioners, the traditional form of county government in Maryland. On that date, Cecil County began governance under a new charter approved via voter referendum in November 2010, which authorized an elected County Executive and a five-member County Council, which separates the legislative and executive functions of local government (unlike the old "board of commissioner" system). Cecil County thus joined most of the other larger, increasingly urban and complex county governments in central Maryland with county executive-county council forms (such as Baltimore, Harford, Anne Arundel, Howard, Prince George's, and Montgomery counties. Tari Moore (R) is the current County Executive.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 418 square miles (1,080 km²), of which 346 square miles (900 km²) is land and 72 square miles (190 km²) (17%) is water.

Cecil County is in the northeast corner of Maryland, bounded on the north and east by the Mason–Dixon line with Pennsylvania and Delaware. The western border is defined by the lower reaches of the Susquehanna River and the northernmost coves, flats and tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. On the south, the county is bounded by the Sassafras River and Kent County, Maryland. The county is part of the Delmarva Peninsula as well as Maryland's "Eastern Shore."

Topographically, Cecil County straddles the border between the rolling hills of the Piedmont Plateau north of Route 40 and the flatlands of the Atlantic Coastal Plain to the south. The highest and most rugged hills are found in the northwestern and north-central parts of the county, reaching 534 feet (163 m) just south of the Mason–Dixon line near Nottingham, Pennsylvania and just east of U.S. Route 1. The lowest elevation is sea level along the Chesapeake Bay.

Cecil County is primarily rural, with denser development around the county seat of Elkton and along Route 40. The county is bisected from east to west by the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which connects the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay by way of the Elk River. The canal passes through the town of Chesapeake City, where a high-level bridge facilitates the passage of large ships beneath Maryland State Route 213.

Cecil County is also bisected east-to-west by Interstate 95, known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway in Maryland. The highway provides a major artery for traffic between the Baltimore-Washington area to the southwest and the Philadelphia and New York/New Jersey regions to the northeast. For purposes of the 2010 census, the federal government has designated Cecil County as part of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area.

Adjacent counties

• Chester County, Pennsylvania (north)
• Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (northwest)
• New Castle County, Delaware (east)
• Harford County (west)
• Kent County (south)

Major highways

• I-95
• US 1
• US 40
• US 222
• US 301
• MD 7
• MD 213
• MD 222
• MD 272
• MD 273
• MD 274
• MD 275
• MD 276
• MD 277
• MD 279
• MD 282
• MD 284
• MD 285
• MD 286
• MD 310
• MD 316
• MD 545
• MD 896

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1790	13,625		—
1800	9,018		−33.8%
1810	13,066		44.9%
1820	16,048		22.8%
1830	15,432		−3.8%
1840	17,232		11.7%
1850	18,939		9.9%
1860	23,862		26.0%
1870	25,874		8.4%
1880	27,108		4.8%
1890	25,851		−4.6%
1900	24,662		−4.6%
1910	23,759		−3.7%
1920	23,612		−0.6%
1930	25,827		9.4%
1940	26,407		2.2%
1950	33,356		26.3%
1960	48,408		45.1%
1970	53,291		10.1%
1980	60,430		13.4%
1990	71,347		18.1%
2000	85,951		20.5%
2010	101,108		17.6%
Est. 2014	102,383		1.3%
U.S. Decennial Census 1790-1960 1900-1990 1990-2000 2010-2014

2010

Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:

• 89.2 White
• 6.2 Black
• 0.3% Native American
• 1.1% Asian
• 0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
• 2.2% Two or more races
• 1.0% Other races
• 3.4% Hispanic or Latino (of any race)

2000

As of the census of 2000, there were 85,951 people, 31,223 households, and 23,292 families residing in the county. The population density was 247 people per square mile (95/km²). There were 34,461 housing units at an average density of 99 per square mile (38/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 93.39% White, 3.91% Black or African American, 0.33% Native American, 0.69% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.50% from other races, and 1.15% from two or more races. 1.52% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 17.9% were of German, 16.1% Irish, 13.8% English, 13.8% American and 6.5% Italian ancestry according to Census 2000.

There were 31,223 households out of which 37.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.60% were married couples living together, 11.10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.40% were non-families. 19.90% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.71 and the average family size was 3.12.

In the county the population was spread out with 27.70% under the age of 18, 7.50% from 18 to 24, 31.20% from 25 to 44, 23.20% from 45 to 64, and 10.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 98.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.70 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $50,510, and the median income for a family was $56,469. Males had a median income of $40,350 versus $28,646 for females. The per capita income for the county was $21,384. About 5.40% of families and 7.20% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.20% of those under age 18 and 7.70% of those age 65 or over.

May 2008 the county commissioners adopted a 10% property tax increase. This is in addition to the property tax increase added by the increasing property assessments, which are increased each year and reassessed every 3 years.

Maryland state planning data suggest that the population of the county could double in the next thirty years, reaching 160,000 by 2030.

As of the 2010 Census the racial makeup of Cecil County was 87.38% Non-Hispanic white, 6.22% black, 0.29% Native American, 1.08% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.09% Non-Hispanics of some other race, 1.80% Non-Hispanics of two or more races and 3.37% Hispanics.

Education

There are 17 elementary schools, 6 middle schools,and 5 high schools, operated by Cecil County Public Schools.

Libraries

There are 7 branches of the Cecil County Public Library and the Library also does significant outreach throughout the county.

Towns

• Cecilton
• Charlestown
• Chesapeake City
• Elkton (county seat)
• North East
• Perryville
• Port Deposit
• Rising Sun

Unincorporated communities

• Calvert
• Carpenter Point
• Childs
• Colora
• Conowingo
• Earleville
• Elk Mills
• Elk Neck
• Fair Hill
• Fredericktown
• Perry Point
• Red Point
• Warwick
• Westminister
• White Crystal Beach

Notable people

• Robert Alexander, born in Cecil County, delegate to the Continental Congress
• Rev.John Andrews,D.D., (1746–1813), Professor, clergyman, 4th Provost of University of Pennsylvania, founder of the bases of York College. Born in Cecil County. He was one of the leaders of the separation of the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Church
• Robert Somers Brookings, founder of the Brookings Institution
• David Davis - Associate Supreme Court Justice.
• Jacob Tome - founder of the Tome School

See also

• Cecil Whig - the local newspaper.
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Cecil County, Maryland

References

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• http://www.mdp.state.md.us/MSDC/Pop_estimate/Estimate_05/county/table1a.pdf
• In MacKinlay Kantor's If the South had Won the Civil War, Cecil County secedes from Maryland to join the state of Delaware, following Maryland's secession from the Union after Lee's victory at Gettysburg.

External links

• Cecil County government