Page 20

rural community have the ability
to recognize a good thing at sight,
and by their influence and accom-
plishments have aided the progress
and development of our nation.

This, in conclusion, it is seen that
this neighborhood, first settled by mem-
bers of the Society of Friends early in the
eighteenth century, owes its origin to one
of the most curious paradoxes in his-
tory, namely "that Puritan New Eng-
land should have repudiated and cruel-
ly persecuted Friends in the Seventeenth
Century, while Catholic Maryland
gladly welcomed such immigrants
and granted them the civil and re-
ligious liberty which has been
defined as the very tap root of Ameri-
can civilization.

We may divide the history of
the community into four periods.
The first period includes the settlement
of the vicinity and the formation of the
institutions which were to exert such
an immence influence upon its later