The exhibit was a collaborative effort by Elaine Rice Bachmann, Mimi Calver, Chris Kintzel, Sasha Lourie and Ryan Polk, with assistance from Rob Schoeberlein, Vicki Lee, Jenn Cruickshank, Jen Hafner, and Camille DiMarco. 

On the second floor of the Miller Building is the exhibit Colonial Encounters in the Chesapeake: The Natural World of Native Americans, Africans, and Eurporeans, 1585-1800. The six-panel exhibit was created in 1993 by the Archives as a joint project with The Johns Hopkins University. 

The APC Department also produced two new brochures about the Senate Office Complex and its exhibits and portraits. These are both available in the APC office. 

Washington County Court Minutes
by Pat Melville

A previous Bulldog article referred to the minutes of the Washington County Court as unavailable at the Archives. That turned out to be an erroneous statement. The court clerk did maintain the minutes, but within the docket books, records that have been transferred to the Archives as series T3063, covering the years 1778-1900. To accurately reflect content, the series title has been changed to (Docket and Minutes). 

The earliest volumes, 1778-1779, do contain only docket entries, with no minutes. A gap exists for the years 1780 through December 1792. From that latter date minutes are found in the dockets, either as separate booklets or transcribed in the volumes at the beginning of each court term.
 
 

A review of grand jury presentments reveals a repetition of criminal charges:
 

• assault and battery
• assault with intent to kill
• theft of such items as clothing, poultry, flour, meat, ax, money, penknife, wheat, clover seed, horses, and coal
• keeping a disorderly house
• selling liquor or merchandise without a license
• selling liquor on Sunday
• bastardy
• murder
• gambling

Other criminal actions appear infrequently or are limited to specific time periods, such as laws dealing with slaves and free blacks:
 

• neglect of duty by road overseers
• obstruction of a public road
• cutting down a bounded tree that served as a boundary marker for a  tract of land
• selling a slave out of state
• selling liquor to slaves
• illegal entry of free blacks into the state

Entries that appear only in the earlier minutes include appointments of constables and road overseers, guardianships and apprenticeships 
of minors, issuances of licenses, road petitions, and list of roads. 

In December 1792, the justices appointed overseers for roads that were grouped into 24 areas. Examples of road descriptions:
 

• From Ringgold's quarter to Booth's Bridge
• From Wolgamot's mill to Col. Davis' late place of abode
• From Swearingen's Ferry through Sharpsburgh to Orendorff's mill
• From Orendorff's mill to Gorman's on the mountain
• From Hagar's Ferry to Mackey's mill
• From Col. Stult's bridge to the Nine Mile Tree on top of the mountain
• From Jacques' Furnace to leave the old road at the mouth of the hollow below the furnace, then up the hollow to join the old road again, then with the old road to the ford on Conococheague near Henry Ashes

The road petitions involved mostly private routes, such as the request from Daniel Hughes for a roadway between Antietam Forge and Funks Mill.

Excerpts from Kent News, January 14, 1905

The event generating the largest headline was the death of former Governor Lloyd Lowndes who died of a heart attack at his home [in Cumberland].

A store on High Street, adjoining the post office, in Chestertown made the news when James D. Lucas sold it to Harry 

Some items seem intrusive by today's standards. The paper noted that Sheriff Keyser "weighed 140 when he removed to town and today he tips the scales at 190! Chestertown evidently agrees with him."

Fires were usually events worthy of reporting. "The residence of John Kennard, colored, near Pomons, was burned Monday night about midnight. The house was unoccupied, John Kennard and wife being at the farm of Mr. Lewin U. Skirven. This is the third unoccupied house to burn recently in Kent." 

In Sassafras, a chimney at the home of Shephard Morris caught fire on a Sunday just as church services were ending. The worshipers quickly formed a bucket brigade and extinguished the fire.

What to make of the significance of a watermelon brought to the newspaper offices by Thomas Clothier. Still in good condition, it had been stored in his sitting room since last summer.

Remedies to eliminate vermin were probably read with interest. A Caroline County farmer had devised his own method to get rid of rats. He coated pieces of shingles with molasses and concentrated lye, and placed them in buildings and cribs. "The next morning he found forty dead rats and the rest vamoosed the farm and left for parts unknown."
 

Farmers paying attention to market trends would have been interested in the growing demand for turkeys. "One lady cleared $40 off a flock of fifteen."

Hunting was popular, and unusual events made the news. Someone from Worton managed to kill three animals with two shots. "He killed the partridge with one barrel and in shooting a rabbit found that a hawk had jumped up and both were killed."