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Baltimore County is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2010 census, the population was 805,029,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24005.html )〕 making it the third-most populous county in Maryland. Its county seat is in Towson, in the north-central section just north of the adjacent City of Baltimore.〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=2011-06-07 )〕 The name of the County was derived from the barony of the Proprietor of the Calverts' new colony in the Province of Maryland, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, (1605-1675),, and the town of "Baltimore" in County Cork, of southern coastal Ireland. Baltimore County is included in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area. It is increasingly part of the East Coast "megalopolis" stretching from Boston to Richmond. Baltimore County no longer includes the City of Baltimore, a maritime "port of entry" established in 1706, with the Town founded in 1729. The Town of Baltimore became the "county seat" of Baltimore County in 1767, with construction later of a new downtown courthouse. The Town of Baltimore was Incorporated as a City - 1796/1797. After several small parcels of land were added to the Town during 1780s, larger segments of territory were annexed from Baltimore County in three major acts. First adding areas known as the "Precincts" on the west, north (up to North Avenue), east and southwest sides in 1816 and second, on the western and northern boundaries in 1888. The East side industrial communities of Canton and Highlandtown, with large factory and business owners who resisted and opposed annexation, were not annexed by Baltimore City until 30 years later. The third and last major annexation took place 1918-1919, which again took territory from the County on all three sides (west, north and east) as well as to the south for the first time from Anne Arundel County, along the south shores of the Patapsco River. With adoption of the second Maryland state constitution in 1851, provisions mandated separation of Baltimore City from the County, having it assume one of the few "independent city" status in the United States, created the city on the same level with other 23 counties of the state, and gave limited "home rule" powers separate from the authority of the General Assembly of Maryland. A constitutional amendment, (little noticed and causing not much controversy or realization of future impact at the time, unfortunately even by the city) was approved by referendum by state voters to the 1867 Maryland Constitution in 1948, prohibiting any future annexations without approval from residents in affected territories. Population reached a maximum of 959,000 in 1950, and has declined every decade since as growth expanded to a greater metropolitan area, now involving five surrounding counties in the half-century since. Although causing extensive city-county hostilities during the time of 1950s, 60's, and 70's Civil Rights movement, with later increasing urban social ills faced by the County's older "inner suburbs" by 1980s, an atmosphere of metro cooperation has emerged with the drawing of cross-border state assembly districts, and organization of regional government agencies and increasing state assumption of powers. Among the county's major employers are MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center on the east side in Rossville, the Social Security Administration, which has its national headquarters on the west side in Woodlawn, and Black & Decker in Towson. During World War II, the Glenn L. Martin Company in the far eastern county of Middle River had 53,000 employees manufacturing combat airplanes and aviation equipment for the war effort and the Bethlehem Steel Corporation had more than 30,000 workers at its sprawling Sparrows Point steel mill on the waterfront peninsula, largest in the world at one time.〔Lanman, p. 115.〕 Of the 410,100 persons in the county's workforce as of 2009, 25% are employed in the fields of education, health, and human services, and 10% in retailing, with less than 1% in agriculture.〔 The county is also home to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the southwestern corner of the County, between Catonsville and Arbutus, as well as home to Towson University, now the second largest college/university in the state, located north of the City at the county seat. Towson is also the home of the formerly all-woman Goucher College liberal arts school (now co-ed). The County is also home to the recently renamed Stevenson University (formerly Villa Julie College), expanding from a business and secretarial school to a wide curriculum. with campuses located in Stevenson and Owings Mills. ==History== The earliest known documentary record of the county politically in the Maryland State Archives in the Hall of Records in the state capital of Annapolis is January 12, 1659, when a writ was issued on behald of the General Assembly of Maryland to its sheriff and is considered by historians to be its official year of "erection" (founding/establishment date) among the now twenty-three counties of the State, as it assumes that a certain amount of organization and appointments in the middle 17th Century had already occurred. Previously, Old Baltimore County was more known as a geographical entity than a political one, with its territorial limits consisting of most of northeastern Maryland, then the northwestern frontier of the Province and included the present day jurisdictions of Baltimore City, Cecil, and Harford Counties, as well as parts of Carroll, Anne Arundel, Frederick, Howard, and Kent Counties. In 1674, a proclamation of the Proprietor, established the then extensive boundary lines for old Baltimore County. Over the next century, various segments of the Old County were sliced off as population and settlements increased in the fringe regions so as to have a shorter distance to newly established county seats with their courts and commercial businesses. In 1674, a portion of northeastern Baltimore County, as well as a portion of northwestern Kent County, was split off to erect Cecil County. In 1748, a portion of western Baltimore County, as well as a portion of Prince George's County to the south, were split off to erect Frederick County. In 1773, Harford County to the east was split off from Baltimore County. In 1837, another part of western Baltimore County was combined with a part of eastern Frederick County to erect Carroll County. After the adjustment of the County's southern boundary with Anne Arundel County stated to be the upper Middle and Western Branches of the Patapsco River in XXXX, a portion of its northwestern area was designated in 1838 as the "Western District" or "Howard District" of Arundel and in 1851 was officially separated to form the new Howard County (named for Revolutionary War commander of the "Maryland Line" of the Continental Army, Col. John Eager Howard, ()). The separation of Baltimore County from Baltimore City which it surrounds on three sides (east, north and west) occurred on July 4, 1851, as a result of the adoption of the 1851 second state constitution.〔Historical marker, Towson Courthouse, Baltimore County Historical Society.〕 Towsontown was voted in a referendum by the voting citizens as the new "county seat" several years later on February 13, 1854. A new Baltimore County Courthouse was authorized to be built facing Washington Avenue, between Chesapeake and Pennsylvania Avenues to replace the previous courthouse and governmental offices then centered for near 85 years in the City, which had been the official "county seat" since just before the American Revolution. Now surrounded by manicured flower gardens, shrubs and curved walkways, the historical landmark is built of local limestone and marble, it was completed and dedicated in 1855. Several additional wings and annexes have been added in 1910, 1923 and 1958, some done so well architecturally that they blend in together quite well as one unit. By the 1970s, the County's legal system and governmental offices had grown so much that a separate modernistic "County Courts Building" was erected to the west behind the old Courthouse with its annexes separated by a paved plaza which is used for employee/visitors relaxations and official ceremonies. Before that, the Baltimore County court sessions had been held in private residences before 1674, with a small amount of documentary evidence. seat had been located in old Joppa, near the mouth of the Great Gunpowder Falls since 1712. Later by 1724, the Assembly authorized Thomas Tolley, Capt. John Taylor, Daniel Scott, Lancelot Todd and John Stokes to purchase 20 acres from a tract named "Taylor's Choice" after John Taylor who also held other parcels in the area. The Ordinance directed that the land be divided into 40 lots with streets and alleys to accompany the courthouse and jail which had already been previously erected. By 1750 had some 50 houses (including a few large two-story brick structures), a church (St. John's Anglican Parish), courthouse, 3 stone warehouses, inns, taverns, stores, a public wharf, "gallows-tree" with an "Amen Corner" with pillories and whipping posts but which is now extinct (but located northeast of the City near present-day suburban "Joppatowne" off Harford Road). When with a bit of financial pressure and paying for the cost of a new courthouse for 300 pounds sterling, dominant business, commercial and political residents of old Baltimore Town were able to get the county seat transferred to their growing and bustling port town in 1767, with the first courthouse constructed in 1768 at a new "Courthouse Square", (today on North Calvert Street, between East Lexington and East Fayette Streets), later site of the present "Battle Monument Square", constructed 1815-1822, commemorating defenses of the city and county in War of 1812 with bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy fleet in the Patapsco River, the two-day stand-off in the fortifications dug east of the city on Loudenschlager's Hill (now "Hampstead Hill" in today's Patterson Park) and the earlier Battle of North Point, in "Godly Woods" on the "Patapsco Neck" peninsula in southeastern county, commemorated ever since by Defenders' Day (a city, county and state official holiday) on September 12–14, 1814. A second city-county courthouse constructed in 1805-1809 was moved to the western side of the Square at North Calvert and East Lexington Streets. (In the future, after the City-County separation, a third, present courthouse for the increasingly complicated and more numerous judicial system for a growing metropolis, including the lower magistrates, commissioners, district and circuit courts, orphans (inheritances/wills) court, small claims court and the old Supreme Bench of Baltimore City was constructed on the entire western block of North Calvert, East Lexington, East Fayette and Saint Paul Streets from 1896 to 1900, later re-named in 1985 as the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. City Circuit Courthouse (for the famous Baltimorean and national civil rights leader, Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., (1911-1984), reputed to be "considered the 101st U.S. Senator").〔 The County has a number of properties and sites of local, state and national historical interest on the "National Register of Historic Places" which is maintained by the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior by the "Historic Sites Act" of August 1935. The first county seat of Baltimore County was known today as "Old Baltimore". It was located on the Bush River on land that in 1773 became part of Harford County. In 1674, the General Assembly passed "An Act for erecting () a Court-house and Prison in each County within this Province."〔Maryland State Archives. Bacon, Thomas. 1765. ''Laws of Maryland at large, with proper indexes: Now first collected into one compleat body, and published from the original acts and records, remaining in the Secretary's-office of the said province: Together with notes and other matters, relative to the constitution thereof, extracted from the provincial records: To which is prefixed, the charter, with an English translation''. Annapolis, MD: Jonas Green. http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000075/html/am75--61.html(January 27, 2013 ).〕 The site of the court house and jail for Baltimore County was evidently "Old Baltimore" near the Bush River. We know this because in 1683, the General Assembly passed "An Act for Advancement of Trade" to "establish towns, ports, and places of trade, within the province." One of the towns established by the act in Baltimore County was "on Bush River, on Town Land, near the Court-House."〔Maryland State Archives. Bacon, Thomas. 1765. ''Laws of Maryland at large, with proper indexes: Now first collected into one compleat body, and published from the original acts and records, remaining in the Secretary's-office of the said province: Together with notes and other matters, relative to the constitution thereof, extracted from the provincial records: To which is prefixed, the charter, with an English translation''. Annapolis, MD: Jonas Green. http://aomol.net/megafile/msa/speccol/sc4800/sc4872/011780/html/m11780-0086.html (January 27, 2013 ).〕 The court house on the Bush River referenced in the 1683 Act was in all likelihood the one created by the 1674 Act. "Old Baltimore" was in existence as early as 1674, but we don't know what if anything happened on the site prior to that year. The exact location of Old Baltimore was lost for years. It was certain that the location was somewhere on the site of the present-day Aberdeen Proving Grounds (APG), a U.S. Army weapons testing facility. APG’s Cultural Resource Management Program took up the task of finding Old Baltimore. The firm of R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates (Goodwin) was contracted for the project. After Goodwin first performed historical and archival work, they coordinated their work with existing landscape features to locate the site of Old Baltimore. APG’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal of Army personnel went in with Goodwin to defuse any unexploded ordnance. The field team worked from fall 1997 through winter 1998. The team dug 420 test pits, and they uncovered several artifacts including a King Charles II farthing coin, French and English gun flints, as well as glass, metal and other items. The team also uncovered a brick foundation that proved to be the remains of the tavern owned by colonist James Phillips, a prominent land holder in the area. Along with James Phillips, the other most prominent land holder in Old Baltimore was William Osbourne. Osbourne operated the ferry across the Bush River.〔Blick, David G. 1999. Aberdeen Proving Ground Uncovers 17th Century Settlement of “Old Baltimore”. ''CRM Magazine'' 22, no. 5. http://crm.cr.nps.gov/archive/22-5/22-05-20.pdf (January 27, 2013 ).〕 In his article Migrations of Baltimore Town, the Rev. George Armistead Leakin related a letter he received from Dr. George I. Hays. In that letter, Dr. Hays related an event in William Osborne’s life that his grandmother, born Sarah Osborne, and his great-aunt, Fanny Osborne shared with him. The account is of a raid by the Susquehannocks (a notoriously fierce war-like tribe from further north in Pennsylvania) who took William Osbourne’s oldest son. Osbourne and a party were unsuccessful in their attempt to rescue the boy. The boy was never seen by Osbourne again, and it is reported that he remained broken-hearted until his death.〔Armistead, George. 1906. Migrations of Baltimore Town. ''"Maryland Historical Magazine"'' 1, no. 1 (): 45-59〕〔Armistead, George. 1906. Migrations of Baltimore Town. ''"Maryland Historical Magazine"'' 1, no. 1 (). http://mdhs.mdsa.net/mhm/dsp_viewer.cfm?id=588100010001&span=1906-1909 (January 27, 2013 ).〕 In 1695, the "Old Baltimore" courthouse had evidently been abandoned, for in that year the county justices advertised for a purchaser of the late courthouse at Bush River and adjoining land. Apparently a new courthouse at "Simm's Choice" on the Baltimore County side of the Little Gunpowder Falls had been under construction since 1692 and in 1700, Michael Judd, the builder of the house of justice sold the lot on which it was situated to the county justices. This move away from the Bush River area reflects the growing economic and political importance of the Gunpowder region. In the next decade of the 18th Century, the county seat would move again, this time to Joppa where it would remain until 1768, indicative that the "Simm's Choice" location was less totally desirable. The provincial assembly attempted to create at least two other towns during the county's early existence, but neither attempt moved very far beyond the planning stage. In 1680s, the Assembly ordered that "Patapsco Town" be laid out on Sparrows Point. A jury traveled to the land and marked off town lots, but few other improvements were made on the site. Foster's Neck in the fork of the two Gunpowder Rivers ("Great" and "Little"), exhibited a similar fate. Created by a legislative act in 1706, the projected town was abandoned the following year. With a large number of plantations and small farms, some on a subsistence level,and the methods of business and commerce in this era made town life unnecessary, and without the attraction of a county courthouse, artificial ventures like "Patapsco Town" and "Foster's Neck" experienced a quick and painless death. However, a port and wharfing site such as Elk Ridge Landing on the upper Patapsco River's Western Branch, soon became very prosperous and busy in the 18th Century which was established on the "falls" of the river which was the dividing point from which below the rapids and rocks of the area, the river at that time was deep enough to permit loaded sailing merchantmen to travel upstream a considerable distance in this southern border of the County with Anne Arundel County (and future Howard County (after 1851). The Landing was a designated "port of entry" and was the terminus of several "rolling roads" on which horse or oxen-drawn hogsheads (huge barrels) packed with tobacco were wheeled down to the Landing/port to market and to be loaded on the sailing ships for London and Europe. However with the later gradual silting up over the decades from soil erosion and primitive poor farming cultivation methods of the upper Patapsco, southwest of the later 1729 Baltimore Town on the deeper Northwest Branch of the river, the maritime economy of the Landing wilted away and later by the next 19th Century became and important stop on the rapid new form of ground transportation, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the main north-south East Coast highway for wagons and carriages, later motor vehicles, on the Washington Boulevard or the designated U.S. Route 1 by the 1926 as the town of Elkridge was a stopping point, along with its famous Elkridge Furnace Inn and the earlier local iron ore deposits and small foundries. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Baltimore County, Maryland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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