Maryland's white literacy rate is about 5 percent.

The naval school at Fort Severn, Annapolis, becomes the United States Naval Academy.
 

Maryland's Whig party begins decline.

Enoch Louis Lowe  becomes governor of Maryland and serves from 1851 to 1854.
 

Origins of the office of Comptroller of Maryland.

Overview of the current fuctions of the Comptroller of Maryland.

A new Board of Public Works is created by the new constitution.

Philip Francis Thomas is elected by the House of Delegates as the first comptroller of Maryland on November 5 and is issued a commission on December 8.
 

 Licenses collected by Clerk of Circuit Court: Marriage, Fines & Forfeitures, Billiard Tables, Brokers,’ Wood Hucksters, Hawkers and Peddlers, Fishery, and Oyster House.

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad lines reach Wheeling, Virginia by December, linking the Chesapeake Bay and the Ohio River by rail lines.

Roman Catholics in Baltimore seek state funds for parochial education.
 

Thomas' office is in the State House.  The comptroller's office remains in the State House until 1859 when the Record Office building is constructed.  See History of the Offices Occupied by Maryland's Comptrollers of the Treasury

Textile workers in Harford County and iron workers in Western Maryland
strike for a ten-hour day. 

Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick Railroad organizes, later became Western Maryland Railroad.
 

Philip Francis Thomas, Comptroller v. Jas. S. Owens, Treasurer, Court of Appeals, 4 Md. 189 is decided in June by the Court of Appeals to settle a dispute over salary payments to the comptroller. 
 

Rise of Know-Nothing Party (1854-59). Baltimore riots named city "Mobtown." 
 

Old Treasury Building, with the Record Office building in the background, c. 1900.  George Forbes Collection, MSA SC 182-02-0094.
 

Bounty Tax is instituted to pay Civil War volunteers.

The General Assembly holds special session in Frederick (April 26).

  President Abraham Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus in Maryland (April 27).
 

Riots break out in Baltimore between 
anti-Union forces and the sixth Massachusetts regiment, killing four 
soldiers and twelve civilians (April 19).

Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's Union forces occupy Baltimore
(May 13).
 

Governor Hicks appoints Dennis Claude  the fifth comptroller of Maryland.  He serves from May 8, 1861 to July 17, 1861.

During the spring, summer and early fall of 1861, both Claude and Jarrett claim to be legitimate comptrollers. 

State of Maryland vs. A. Lingan Jarrett and Sprigg Harwood, Court of Appeals of Maryland, 17 Md. 309 is decided in favor of Jarrett.

A. Lingan Jarrett is the sixth comptroller of Maryland and officially serves from  July 17, 1861 to January 8, 1862.
 
 
 

Augustus W. Bradford becomes governor and serves from 1862 to 1866.
 

Article 8 of the new constitution provides for a uniform, centralized system of tax-supported public schools.  Property owners pay ten cents on each one hundred dollars of assessed value to a state school fund that the state begins to distribute to the counties and Baltimore according to school-age population.  County commissioners and Baltimore City commissioners hire teachers, choose textbooks, and build schoolhouses.

Freedmen's Bureau opens schools for former slaves.
 

The Board of Public Works as we know it today is established.

Henry Holliday Goldsborough becomes the eighth comptroller of Maryland and serves from January 13, 1864 to November 26, 1864.
 

Robert John Jump becomes the ninth comptroller of Maryland and serves from November 26th, 1864 to January, 9 1867.

Due to a rising demand for oysters, the General Assembly passes a law (Chapter 181, Acts of 1865) permitting oyster dredging for bona fide Maryland residents  but only under sail (using tongs or rakes; not scoop, drag, or dredge) in waters not less than 15 feet deep (Virginia watermen had been catching oysters in Maryland's part of the Chesapeake Bay; they were using dredges that damaged the oyster beds).    See also Alan M. Wilner, The Maryland Board of Public Works: A History (Annapolis: The Hall of Records Commission, 1984), 66.

John Wilkes Booth assassinates President Lincoln, escapes through Prince George's and Charles counties (April).
 

The comptroller is to have blank oyster licenses printed and is to issue licenses for oyster vessels.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

William James Leonard becomes the tenth comptroller of Maryland and serves from January 9th, 1867 to January 17, 1870.
 

General Assembly mandated separate but equal white and black schools. 

Western Maryland Railroad completed line, Hagerstown to Baltimore. 

Commissioners of Fisheries authorized. 
 

The Johns Hopkins University opens in Baltimore (Oct. 3). 
 

Oysters from the Chesapeake Bay become a fruitful revenue source.

William T. Hamilton becomes governor and serves from 1880 to 1884.
 

J. Frank Turner becomes second Annapolitan behind the governor
to receive a telephone.  "100 Years of Telephone History."  Activator 17 (Spring 1976), 8.
 

 Oyster Wars fought between Maryland and Virginia watermen
 on Chesapeake Bay (1888-1889). 
 

Maryland adopts improved "secret" ballot. 

Robert Shriver vs. Joshua W. Hering, Comptroller of the State of Maryland, Court of Appeals of Maryland, 97 Md. 19 is decided.  The court decides that the comptroller must use the same method to calculate the apportionment of school tax money for both
white and black schools.
 

Wave of campaign and election reform enacted, including primary elections.
 

First election in which women can vote.

Central Purchasing Bureau reforms State expenditures. 

University of Maryland unites agricultural college and Baltimore professional schools. 
 

Motor fuel tax is enacted at 1 cent per gallon.

Equalization of school spending among counties is authorized. 
 

Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission is formed.
 

Motor vehicle titling tax is enacted at 1%.
 

Hall of Records opens, Annapolis.

University of Maryland School of Law opens to blacks after NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall represents Murray in Murray v. Pearson

County welfare boards are authorized. 
 

Direct inheritance tax enacted at 1%.

Gross receipts tax law of 1935 passed (Chapter 188 of 1935)

 Corporate income tax enacted at one-half of one percent (.5%)
 (Ch. 11, Acts of 1937)

 Recordation tax enacted at one-tenth of one percent (.1%)
 

In December, 1939, the comptroller and treasurer move their offices to the new State Office Building (later the James Senate Office Building) on College Avenue between Northwest and Bladen streets, Annapolis.
 

Retail sales tax is enacted at 2%.

Motor fuel tax is increased to 5 cents per gallon.
 

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Corporate income tax is raised to 5%.
 

Cigarette tax is enacted at a rate of 3 cents per pack.
 

Retail sales tax is increased to 3%.
 

Motor fuel tax increased to 7 cents per gallon.
 

Retail sales tax is increased to 4%.

Motor Vehicle Titling Tax is increased to 4%.

Income Tax is changed to graduated tax with 5% maximum tax rate.
 

First election in which 18 was the minimum voting age.
 
 
 

Agricultural land transfer tax created.

Motor fuel tax increased to 11 cents per gallon.

Cigarette tax increased to 13 cents per pack.
 

Motor fuel tax increased to 13.5 cents cent per gallon.
 

Comptroller Goldstein addresses the National Association of State Comptrollers to announce Maryland's decision to use an outside, independent firm to conduct an annual audit of the state's accounts.

Motor fuel tax increased to 23.5 cents per gallon for gasoline.
 

The National Association of State Comptrollers issues a new award in Goldstein's honor, the "Louis L. Goldstein Award for Excellence."
 

At the time of Goldstein's death in 1998, final preparations are underway to allow Maryland citizens to file personal income tax returns electronically for the first time. 

Robert L. Swann becomes acting comptroller and serves from July 9, 1998 to January 25, 1999.

Schaefer announces that Maryland state residents can file their state tax returns electronically from their home computer for the first time. 

Maryland's comptroller's office becomes one of the first state agencies in the country to use federal data for state tax compliance programs.

The comptroller's office initiates a program that results in the collection of  more than $2.5 million in delinquent tax dollars by 2001.

The comptroller's office initiates a program to better enforce and collect Maryland's five percent use tax on out-of-state purchases such as   tobacco and furniture.  The effort results in almost $121,000 collected for fiscal year 2000 in cigarette taxes alone.
 

Comptroller Schaefer launches an initiative to expand and improve the services his agency provides to Maryland's local governments in areas of revenue collection and distribution and fiscal reports.