WEST VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND BOUNDARY DISPUTE. The principal dis pute was an old one in regard to the meaning of the •first source of the Potomac' which in Lord Baltimore's charter was mentioned as a point from which to determine the boundary of western Maryland. This was marked in 1746 by the Fairfax Stone at the had of Fairfax Run, which was regarded as the head of the North Branch. in accord with a decision it. council based upon a careful survey by a bound ary commission. Although in 1852 Maryland finally accepted the Fairfax stone as a point marking the meridian of her western boundary, ir. 1859 she secured a new survey of the meri dian line northward which terminated at the Pennsylvania boundary about three-fourths of a mile west of the old line (surveyed in 1788) thus laying the basis of later controversies with West Virginia in regard to conflicting land claims and jurisdiction in the triangular strip between the two lines — some of which culmi nated in personal encounters and breaches of the peace which each State treated as a crime within its jurisdiction and attempted to punish.
In the suit begunagainst West Virginia in 1890, Maryland, besides claiming that the source of the North Branch should be located nearly a mile west of the Fairfax stone, also in jected the old claim to the South Branch as the farthest source of the Potomac—a claim which would have divided West Virginia into two non-contiguous parts. The court decided
both of these questions in favor of West Vir ginia on the basis of prescriptive right arising from long-continued possession of people claim ing rights on the West Virginia side of the long-recognized line. Maryland also claimed that the rights of Lord Baltimore included the bed of the Potomac to high-water mark of the southern shore. The court, however, decided that, consistent with long-continued exercise of political jurisdiction, the uniform southern boundary of Maryland was at low-water mark on the south bank of the river to the intersec tion of the north and south line forming the western boundary of Maryland. The survey and narking of the boundary in accord with the court decision was accomplished by a joint commission in 1912.