THE Chronicles of Baltimore; BEING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF "Baltimore Town" and Baltimore City FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME, BY COL. J. THOMAS SCHARF, MEMBER OF THE MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ETC., ETC. BALTIMORE: TURNBULL BROTHERS. 1874. HARVARD DEZ / BOOKLABENE Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by THOMAS G. SCHARF, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. RECOMMENDATIONS AS EXTRACTED FROM THE BALTIMORE NEWSPAPER PRESS. Baltimore Sun-"In its comprehensiveness, minuteness of detail and thoroughness of execution, to eclipse all that have preceded it." Baltimore Gazette-"The first complete and exhaustive history of the city of Baltimore ever written." Ballimore American-" His exhaustive researches leave but little for the writers who come after him to do, except to copy that which he has gleaned from ancient manuscripts." German Correspondent—“A diligent and trustworthy compilation of facts laid down in chronological order." Baltimorean—"It will be, by large odds, the most perfect, thorough and complete history of the city ever published. No Baltimorean, or son or daughter of a Baltimorean, will content themselves without a book which promises to be so valuable." Saturday Night-"The MSS. convinces us that it will be a most valuable contribution to our local literature, and covering as it does the whole groun, it will be indispensable as a text-book and for reference." Sunday Telegram—“The work will be elaborate and truthful in every particular." Baltimore Bulletin-“A more complete and thorough work than any at present in the possession of the public." Evening News-"It contains an immense amount of information to be had in no other work, nor in any dozen of books relating to Baltimore. Indeed nothing of value has been overlooked, down to the most minute details, which are such as to render the labors of any succeeding historian of little avail for half a century to come." PREFACE. It has been the chief aim of the author and compiler of this volume to furnish such a contribution in connection with the history of the city of Baltimore, by grouping the written and unwritten, the scattered and fragmentary facts bearing upon the city's rise and progress, as would afford, as a whole, a more complete book upon this subject than any in possession of the public. While we have histories, annals, sketches, and writings upon Baltimore of recognized excellence and general accuracy, it is nevertheless true that. very much of interest and importance has been left unrecorded; and these gaps we have sought to fill up. The only plan in the work that has been followed has been to chronicle events through the years in their order; beginning with the earliest in which any knowledge on the subject is embraced, and running on down to the present. We have been most particular with dates, facts, and figures, and at great pains to be strictly correct, never setting down a doubtful item. The amount of information and its variety massed between the covers of the book might entitle it to be regarded as a very encyclopædia of its kind. Little or nothing that relates to Baltimore has been overlooked, and neither time, money, nor labor has been spared in the preparation of the work. Every possible and available source has been sought and used in the collection of material; and the house of history, if we may so speak, has been literally ransacked in the unremitting search for all, and whatever, to the minutest matter, would throw light upon the subject. An idea may be formed of the extent and character of the researches made |