Harford County, Maryland Directory 1878

(New River Notes) - ..Perhaps no county in the State has improved more in appearance, fertility and general prosperity, during the last few years, than Harford. The productions are wheat, buckwheat, oats, corn and hay. This county possesses fine water powers, improved by furnaces, factories, foundries, flour mills and numerous saw and grist mills. In this county are large quarries of excellent building stone of a goelsa or granite character. The county possesses large beds of iron ore, asbestos, and some of the most valuable chrome beds in the world. Near the Pennsylvania line, extensive slate quarries have been worked, and near Ahingdon there exists a very large deposit of kaolin or porcelain clay, of a pure white color, very good quality, fit for making fine porcelain ware. Very large shad and herring fisheries are located around the Susquehanna and Bay shore, and innumerable flocks of wild fowl swarm around the tide waters of the county, and afford with the fisheries a good business for many of the inhabitants of that region. The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad passes through the county from Havre de Grace, and the Tidewater Canal runs along the west bank of the Susquehanna, having its outlet at Havre de Grace. The Baltimore, Towsontown and Delta Railroad, which is now being laid out, when constructed, will give additional facilities to a large portion of the county. Continued

Photo: Joesting Farm, Tollgate Road, Watervale, Harford County, MD (Library of Congress).