Movers USA - moving - Catonsville

Moving - Catonsville, Maryland

If you are planning a move in or out of Catonsville, MD, you have come to the right website. Movers USA is a full service moving company which can take the stress out of your relocation. We can pack, crate, move or store your belongings for you. Give Movers USA a call or click here for a free estimate.

Enjoy the brief history of Catonsville, MD, we have included for your pleasure.

A Brief History of Catonsville, Maryland

Before the Colonies

It is generally accepted that by about 1200 AD, permanent villages had been established on the land known today as Maryland. By the time the Americas had been discovered by the European world, the natives of these villages had established well developed systems of government and languages as well as established trails primarily for the purpose of trade between villages.

The local tribe that lived and traveled in this area would later come to be known by the European colonists as the Pascatae or Piscataway, an Algonquain speaking tribe. The name Piscataway came from the name of their principal village on the Piscatawy Creek in present day Prince Georges County. The name loosely translates to "high passable bank around a bend in the river". The principal village was also sometimes referred to as Kittamaqundi, taken from the name of their great chief. The Piscataway occupied the land between the Potomac River to the Chesapeake Bay up to at least the Patapsco River. The area that would much later become Catonsville was definitely along an established Piscataway Trail, and was close to one or more Piscatway villages. The trail running through this area would also come to be an important warpath for at least one of their rival tribes, the Iroquois, and may have also been taken advantage of by the powerful warrior tribe known as Susquehannocks, who disputed this area to be part of their domain.

During the Colonial Era

Up until the beginning of the serious colonization of Maryland , the Piscataway population was probably approximately 2500 across at least 30 villages. As the European colonization took place, the natives generally welcomed the colonists that came to settle on the western shore of Maryland. Interestingly enough, the receptiveness of the tribe led to them being the first tribe that the English attempted to Christianize via Catholic missionaries. It turned out that the tribe was also reasonably receptive to the new teachings and was able to coexist well with the colonist up until about 1652.

Things changed drastically in 1652 when the English government outlawed Catholicism. This significant change ended the work of the local Catholic missionaries. Under the new English government and despite their previous good relationship with the colonist, the Piscataway were driven from their best land and were often hunted by slave catchers. To complicate these problems, the Piscataway were now realizing the effects of exposure to smallpox and various other diseases that, unfortunately, came with the continually growing colonists population. As if this was not enough, during this same time, the Piscatway were constantly raided by the rival Susquehannock tribe. The Susquehannock problem was only replaced in 1675, when the more powerful Iroquois had conquered the Susquehannocks and were determined to finish the job with the extermination of the Piscataway. Although a peace agreement was arranged with the Iroquois by 1685, the vast majority of the Piscatway tribe and its leaders fled to Virginia away from the colonist and the Iroquois as their population had now been wasted to a mere 400 from all of the pressures. Despite offers by the colonists to return and make amends, the Piscatway eventually, in a twist of irony, moved north under the protection of the Iroquois and would later be known by a different name, the Conoy.

ICC MC 414146
DOT 981371