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ownership of the Potomac River and the line thence to
the ocean. The Civil War gave birth to West Virginia,
and the Fairfax Stone, together with the unlocated west-
ern boundary, were among the heritages of this new
State.
For more than a hundred years there had been suc-
cessive~ attempts made to define this boundary which was
originally between Maryland and the Northern Neck,
and later between Virginia and Maryland. Virginia
gained her claims in the end and thus made the territory
of West Virginia larger. When the decision of the
United States Supreme Court is rendered in the case
pending (yo4) between Maryland anal West Virginia,
there will doubtless be little variation from the line now
laid down on all our maps.
Maryland and Virginia., however, did not stop here in
their boundary difficulties, but soon found occasion for
disputes which have brought the matter dawn to the
present time.
VI
Sz=xD By Aaat'rxnTrox.
i86o-y
Just before the Civil War, the controversy between
Virginia and Maryland began to turn from the western
end of their dividing line to that portion which crosses
the Chesapeake Bay .65
I A small part of the bay line was laid down in 1835, on Smith's
Island, which lies near the eastern side of the Chesapeake. The
county court of Somerset County, Maryland, appointed commis-
sioners "to lay off such of Smith's Island as lies within the
b d a se d na' e ec n distr*c"
~ i e island into a
in as
0 this un to t i~ * th ' tio
A e w di
e mmjssion_
rp~
f t on
the C th e at,
f
y 0 co
ore p 's
oe an ern po io d he n-
rth rn da s t~ o
,rs was confirm d A 0 i t on
t it cl _ms f t ij
:Oct th~ ned in 1 8 1,
f h lim of M ~r O~ In
g th c t of 0 'ircu't c urt, i,
the et h j d d e in
t ~Jer. . 'itize.
v I n T
:Oct of h= ye~ar, twoo cases were decided. John Tyler, a citizen
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