ALLEGANY COUNTY, MARYLAND

HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY

1749, Oct. Christopher Gist (c.1706-1759), agent for the Ohio Company, erected stockade and trading post at Wills Creek on Potomac River.

1755, May. Under British Gen. Edward Braddock (1695-1755), stockade expanded to become Fort Cumberland.

1755, June. British Gen. Edward Braddock (1695-1755), leaving Fort Cumberland, led expedition through Maryland to the west. French and Indians defeated Braddock's forces near Fort Duquesne. Indians attacked western settlers.

1767, June. Surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon resumed work at forks of Potomac River west of Cumberland.

1778. General Assembly reserved all unpatented lands "westward of Fort Cumberland" for Maryland soldiers of the Revolution.

1789. Allegany County created from western part of Washington County.

"The Visionary", Young George Washington statue (dedicated Dec. 2008), by Susan Luery, in front of Allegany County Courthouse, 30 Washington St., Cumberland, Maryland, October 2014. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

1795. Federal government sited post office at Cumberland.

1798. Allegany County School (later Allegany Academy) founded at Cumberland (Chapter 58, Acts of 1798).

1799. First Courthouse opened at Cumberland

1815. Cumberland incorporated.

1818. National Road completed from Cumberland to Wheeling, now West Virginia.

1828-1848. Chesapeake and Ohio Canal constructed (reached Cumberland in 1850).

1835. George's Creek Coal and Iron Company formed.

1837. Lonaconing Furnace established, first in nation to use bituminous coal and coke (instead of charcoal) to make pig iron.

1839. Frostburg incorporated.

1841. Second Courthouse opened at Cumberland

1850, Oct. Chesapeake & Ohio Canal reached Cumberland.

1858. Westernport incorporated.

1861, Aug. 10-Nov. 27. Cole's Cavalry, Company B, organized at Cumberland.

1862, March 6. Clarysville Inn at Frostburg, transformed into military hospital for wounded Union soldiers through 1865.

1862, June 16. Confederate cavalry entered Cumberland.

1864, Aug. 1. Brig. Gen. Benjamin Kelly rebuffed Confederate cavalry advance near Cumberland at Folck's Mill.

1872. Garrett County formed from western part of Allegany County.

1873, May. Allegany County coal miners established Miners and Laborers Protective and Benevolent Association.

1877, July 20-22. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad strike; workers went on strike along line, demonstrated in Cumberland, struck and rioted at Baltimore.

1886, Sept. 14. David Johnson lynched at Westernport.

1889, May. Floodwaters inundated Cumberland.

1890. Lonaconing incorporated.

1893, Jan. 5. Courthouse destroyed by fire.

1894, April 17. At Cumberland, part of "Coxey's Army" boarded three boats down Potomac on route to Washington, DC.

1894, June. Frostburg coal strike.

Allegany County Courthouse, 30 Washington St., Cumberland, Maryland, July 2006. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

1900. Barton incorporated.

1900. Midland incorporated.

1907, Oct. 6. William Burns lynched at Cumberland.

1910. George's Creek Coal and Iron Company became George's Creek Coal Company.

1922. Luke incorporated.

1924, May 17. Ku Klux Klan rallied in Cumberland.

1929. Allegany County Academy closed.

1936, Nov. Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) strike led to riot, Cumberland.

1936, March. Floods at Cumberland, National Guard called in.

1960. Appalachian Regional Development Commission formed at Annapolis governors' meeting.

1961, June. Allegany Community College (later Allegany College of Maryland) founded at Cumberland.

1965. Appalachian Regional Commission established by federal statute.

1968. Governor's Council for Appalachian Maryland created.

1968. Thomas B. Finan Memorial Bridge, also known as Crosstown Bridge, opened at Cumberland.

1970, July 17. Rocky Gap State Park opened.

1971. Tri-County Council for Western Maryland formed.

1973. Maryland joined Interstate Mining Compact Commission.

1974. County Code Home Rule provided for self-government over local matters.

1976. Potomac Highlands Airport Authority created to govern Greater Cumberland Regional Airport.

1978, Oct. Thomas B. Finan Hospital Center opened at Cumberland.

1996, July 13. Western Correctional Institution opened at Cumberland.

2002, Sept. 10. Electronic voting machines first used during primary elections in four counties (Allegany, Dorchester, Montgomery, Prince George's).

Canal Place Heritage Area, C&O Canal National Historical Park, 13 Canal St., Cumberland, Maryland, July 2006. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

2004, March 2. Electronic voting system used during primary elections at polling places and for absentee ballots in all counties and Baltimore City.

2004, May-2006, March. Eleven soldiers of 372nd Military Police Company, a reserve unit out of Cresaptown, convicted of mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison, Baghdad, Iraq.

2008, March. North Branch Correctional Institution opened at Cumberland.

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