506                           THE COUNTIES OF MARYLAND

1898 Ch. 304. Provides for running of a definite boundary line between
Garrett and Allegany counties.

1900 Ch. 35. Changes line of 13th election district to run as follows:

" Beginning for the same at the mouth of Three Forks
Run at Chaffee, where it empties into the Potomac River,
and running thence with said run in a westerly direction
up the south prong of said run, where the Mud Bridge
crosses said branch on the Wilson and Kitzmiller County
Road, and thence with said road to the top of Back Bone
Mountain to intersect the second line of said district, as
designated and set forth under the Act of eighteen hun-
dred and ninety-eight, Chapter thirty-six, and thence with
the lines, as set forth in the aforesaid Act of Assembly to
the place of beginning."

1906 Ch. 730. An Act to provide for the definite and final establishment of
the boundary line between Allegany and Garrett Counties,
in order to bring under the assessment law certain un-
taxed lands in said counties.

HARFORD COUNTY.

The history of Harford County, so far as the boundaries are con-
cerned, has been a very simple matter, few counties in the State having
had as little change in their territorial limits. This is doubtless due to
the fact of its situation, which permits the use of geographic features of
well denned character for the boundaries. Settlements of a temporary or
permanent character in what is now Harford County probably date back
to the days of William Claiborne and his partners when they erected a
trading post with the Indians on the island opposite Havre de Grace in
1627-29. One of the earliest permanent settlements was that of Col. Utie
on Spesutie Island, which was made about the time of the treaty with
the Susquehanna Indians, concluded in the year 1652. Soon after a
small but thriving settlement sprung up on the Bush River. It was here
that the original Baltimore town, which became for a time the county
seat of Baltimore County, was situated though nothing but a few rem-
nants of masonry mark its former site. The occupation of the shores
along the estuaries of the Gunpowder and Bush rivers as well as the
banks of the Chesapeake, took place rapidly and land was patented up
Winter's and Bynum runs prior to 1700. By 1750 the southern part of
the county was in private hands. When the county was established in