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Timeline

  • Native Americans have inhabited the region for 11,000 years

1600’s

  • 1609 - John Smith explores the Upper Chesapeake Bay
  • 1631 - William Claiborne established first English Settlement on Kent Island, in what is now Maryland
  • 1650 – Tobacco established as principle crop
  • 1682 – The Wye Grist Mill is constructed

1700’s          County’s population of 3,000 expands to mainland

  • 1706 – Queen Anne’s County is formally established
  • 1759 – Callister’s Ferry in Crumpton starts operation
  • 1760 – Growing county shifts to grain
  • 1776 – American Independence
  • 1782 – Centreville becomes the County seat
  • 1792 – Construction begins on the Queen Anne’s County Courthouse in Centreville, today it’s the oldest continuously used courthouse in Maryland

1800’s           

  • 1830 – Farm machinery is introduced
  • 1850 – Railroads expand markets beyond region
  • 1869 – Sudlersville Train Station is built
  • 1880 – Free Black communities grow in size and durability
  • 1890 – Agricultural Depression, including peach blight

1900’s

  • 1902 – Stevensville Train Station is built
  • 1907 – Jimmy Foxx was born in Sudlersville
  • 1929 – Church Hill Theatre is built for use as a town hall.
  • 1936 – Kennard School is established, the first and only secondary school for African Americans in Queen Anne’s County
  • 1952 – Construction of the Bay Bridge

2000’s

  • 2006   Queen Anne’s County turns 300 years old