Hodges Park

General information

Carroll County was created by an act of the Maryland General Assembly passed on January, 19th 1837. The county was formed from parts of Baltimore and Frederick Counties and was named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the American Declaration of Independence. Its county seat is Westminster.
During the American Civil War, the population of Carroll County was sharply divided between supporters of the Union and the Confederacy. In 1863, there were significant troop movements through the county as part of the Gettysburg campaign and the County played a key part in the Union Army’s defenses against the Confederate invasion of the North. On June 29, 1863, the cavalry skirmish known as Corbit's Charge was fought in the streets of Westminster, when two companies of Delaware cavalry attacked a much larger Confederate force under General J.E.B. Stuart. On their way to the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederate and Union Armies narrowly missed each other at Union Mills where southern and northern forces encamped on successive nights. General Barnes, Commander of the First Division, Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, established his headquarters at the Shriver Homestead on the evening of June 30, 1863. Also in June 1863, Gen. George G. Meade established his Union headquarters at Taneytown.
Over the years since the Civil War, the county has continued to grow and prosper. It has a rich farming tradition and is currently a leader in the state in agricultural preservation. But agriculture is not the entire story, over 4,000 small to medium size businesses call Carroll home and it has some of the best schools in the state and in the nation.
Some notable citizens of Carroll County include:
• Francis Scott Key, attorney and author of the Star Spangled Banner, was born at his family plantation of Terra Rubra, in what is now northwestern Carroll County.
• Whittaker Chambers, former communist spy and Federal witness against Alger Hiss.
• Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., an American statesman and activist, was the driving force behind the creation of the Peace Corps. He also founded the Job Corps, Head Start and other programs as the "architect" of Johnson's "War on Poverty" and served as the United States Ambassador to France.
The county has a number of properties on the National Register of Historic Places.