ABINGDON, MARYLAND-Home of the County's First Newspaper!

To get to Abingdon from I-95, John F Kennedy Memorial Hwy, take the MD-24 exit, (Exit # 77A) on the right, towards EDGEWOOD. Keep right at the fork in the ramp. Drive 0.4 miles. Merge onto EMMORTON RD/MD-24 S. Drive 0.6 miles. Turn left onto PHILADELPHIA RD/MD-7. Drive 1.6 miles to your destination at Abingdon. History Links

History

The town of Abingdon is one of the oldest in Harford County, having been laid out by the Paca family in 1779. It is situated on the Old Post Road about two miles west of the former county seat at Bush. William Paca, who was born in 1740 at Chilbery Hall, the old Paca family home, was an important and influential citizen who had much to do with the founding of the early town. He later built Rose Hill in the small village and lived there for several years.

John Paca did the actual laying out of the town, and his plat is recorded in the land records at Bel Air. This plat of sixty-six lots gives the names of the streets and the locations of the important Building. Paca Street ran north and South and is now known as Old Post Road, while Washington Street formed the crossroads and leads to Otter Point. There were two hotels, one on the Northeast corner of Paca and Washington Streets, and the other on the south side of Paca Street. Cokesbury College, built six years after the plat was made occupied lots 28 to 42.

Abingdon was an outstanding town during colonial days and became not only a manufacturing center of note, but the home community of many citizens active in business, government and politics. Large landowners nearby included Aquila Hall, George Bradford, and Richard Dallam. These men played a leading role in the county's part of the American Revolution.

As a center of industry, Abingdon in former days probably outranked many other Harford towns. There were several silversmiths, among the most noted of whom were Joseph Toy, Isaac Nicholas Toy and William Wilson. All of these lived and plied their trade for many years after the founding of Harford in 1773.

The first silk hat factory in America was located at the northwest corner of Washington and Paca Streets. It was well known from 1800 to 1820 for the manufacture of high beaver hats, so fashionable in that day.

The town also had a gunsmith shop, a pottery, and three cabinet-making establishments. As cabinetmakers and undertakers, the name McComas figured prominently from the early days. In 1808 John Clay McComas established the business near the center of town, and it has continued successfully in the family through four generations.

The town was also an educational and religious center, having been selected for the site of Cokesbury College, the first Methodist College in America. Two academies added to the educational prestige of the village. The Cokesbury Academy was under the jurisdiction of the college and continued for several years after that institution came to a disastrous end.

Abingdon also boasted of being the home of the first newspaper published in the county. In 1805 Daniel P Ruff established the ABINGDON PATRIOT, a small four-page weekly publication, which served for a number of years as a local news and advertising media for lower Harford. This paper is said to have published several valuable historical pamphlets about 1805. 1

Abingdon, originally an old village along the Old Post Road (Route 7) and Abingdon Road, is noted in local postal history for its straighline cancels used 1830-1840. A new post office was opened two miles north of the old village to support a booming area of new homes. Two smaller local post offices (Sewell and Van Bibber) were merged into Abingdon between 1920 and 1930. 2

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1 Our Harford Heritage by C. Million Wright, published 1967
2 History of Post Offices of Harford County, Maryland by Frank M. Stewart 1991

Links

The Harford Junior Golf Tour