Hartford County
Maryland
Harford County History and Details
In 1608 the area was settled by Massawomecks and Susquehannocks. The first European to see the area was John Smith in 1608 when he traveled up the Chesapeake Bay from Jamestown. In 1652, the English and Susquehannocks signed a treaty at what is now Annapolis for the area now called Harford County.
Formed on March 22, 1774 from the eastern part of Baltimore County. Bel Air became the county seat on January 22, 2781. Nmed after Henry Harford, the illegitimate son of Frederick Calvers, 6th Baron Baltimore. His mother, Hester Whelan,residence still stands as a part of a private residence on Jarretsville Pike in Phoenix MD. Hartford served as the last Proprietary Govenor of Maryland, but didn’t inherit his fathers title due to his illegitimacy.
Havre de Grace, a city incorporated in 1785 within Harford County, was once under consideration to be the capital of the United States rather than Washington, D.C. It was favored for its strategic location at the top of the Chesapeake Bay; this location would facilitate trade while being secure in time of war.
As of the 2010 Census, there are 244,826 people in living in the county with a median income of $77,010. Harford County straddles the border between the rolling hills of the Piedmont Plateau and the flatlands of the Atlantic Coastal Plain along the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The county’s development is a mix of rural and suburban, with denser development in the larger towns of Aberdeen and Bel Air and along Route 40 and other major arteries leading out of Baltimore.
