Charles, county (643 sq mi/1,665 sq km; 1990 pop. 101,154), S Md.; La Plata; 38°29'N 77°01'W. On SW shore (Potomac R.; bridged here to Va.) of the Md. peninsula; co. is partly bounded SE by Wicomico R., E by Patuxent R., N by Mattawoman Creek. Tidewater agr. area (chiefly tobacco), with some lumbering, commercial fishing and oystering; tobacco markets at La Plata and Hughesville. Swamps along streams (notably Wicomico R.) contain stands of timber and provide hunting. A proclamation by Gov. Josias Fendall created this co. out of St. Mary’s County in 1658 named for Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore. Tobacco auctions, open to the public, are conducted every spring in La Plata, Hughesville, and Waldurf as they have been since 1895 when La Plata replaced Port Tobacco as the co. seat. St. Catharine, a mid-19th-cent. house owned by the Mudd family, was where Dr. Samuel Mudd set the leg of John Wilkes Booth, broken as he fled the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The cornerstone of St. Ignatius Church was set in 1798 and the entire church rebuilt after a fire in 1866, according to the original specifications. It is the oldest active Jesuit parish in the U.S. Charles Co. Community Col. here.
Capital city or county seat is shown by the symbol
La Plata; 38°29'N 77°01'W. On SW shore (Potomac R.; bridged here to Va.) of the Md. peninsula; co. is partly bounded SE by Wicomico R., E by Patuxent R., N by Mattawoman Creek. Tidewater agr. area (chiefly tobacco), with some lumbering, commercial fishing and oystering; tobacco markets at La Plata and Hughesville. Swamps along streams (notably Wicomico R.) contain stands of timber and provide hunting. A proclamation by Gov. Josias Fendall created this co. out of St. Mary’s County in 1658 named for Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore. Tobacco auctions, open to the public, are conducted every spring in La Plata, Hughesville, and Waldurf as they have been since 1895 when La Plata replaced Port Tobacco as the co. seat. St. Catharine, a mid-19th-cent. house owned by the Mudd family, was where Dr. Samuel Mudd set the leg of John Wilkes Booth, broken as he fled the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The cornerstone of St. Ignatius Church was set in 1798 and the entire church rebuilt after a fire in 1866, according to the original specifications. It is the oldest active Jesuit parish in the U.S. Charles Co. Community Col. here.
