Fa term Mason and

Dixon's Line" has been a
more or less familiar expres-
sion, and for the greater part
of the latter half of that
period it was frequently on
men's tongues.
The lines
drawn on the earth's surface
by geographers or laid out by
the wisdom of statecraft are
often taken in too literal a

sense; and so, in the course of time, it came to pass that Mason and Dixon's Line came to be regarded almost as a tangible barrier: the line dividing the North from the South. Yet, as a matter of fact, were it not for the monuments set up at stated intervals it would be impossible to tell where the jurisdiction of one commonwealth ends and that of the other begins. The mountains and valleys are continuous, the fertile fields lie side by side, there is no difference to be found in the people, and it not unfrequently happens that a farm will lie partly on one side of the line and partly on the other, and there are even houses through which the line runs, one part of the house being in Maryland and the other part in Pennsylvania.

But outside of the question of contiguity there is a sentimental attachment between the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Had the boundary between the two colonies been fixed at the point where the respective charters apparently placed it, the fortieth parallel of north latitude, a considerable portion of the territory now included within the state of Pennsylvania would belong to Maryland. The fortieth parallel runs about on a line with Lehigh Avenue in Philadelphia, so that had that meridian been decided on as the dividing line between the two colonies the greater part of the city of Philadelphia would now be situated in Maryland. So too would be a strip of territory nearly twenty miles in width, extending across the state and taking in such towns as West Chester, York, Chambersburg, and all the fertile country surrounding those towns.

In the following pages an attempt has been made to gather together in brief form what is known concerning the influence of the Pennsylvanians in the settlement of the western part of the colony of Maryland. There is no claim of originality, but use has been freely made of the results of other investigations. It is very unfortunate that there are but few records in existence concerning the period under consideration, so that many points cannot be determined, but what is known has been put together in concise form for convenient reference.

The writer wishes here to express his thanks to Dr. Julius F. Sachse for preparing the illustrations, which add materially to the interest in the work, and also to Dr. Frank R. Diffenderffer for material assistance in searching old records.

Damel Wunderlich Nread

READING, PENNSYLVANIA,

December, 1913.