Life in Charles County was marked by currents of change that would lead to two major events before 1900: completion of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in late 1872 led to the founding of La Plata, and the continuing effort to move the county seat from its two-century-old site on Port Tobacco Creek to La Plata's more promising location on the Pope's Creek Branch of the railroad. The reader will find newspaper items of historical and genealogical interest, such as local events, marriages, deaths, court cases, and real estate listings.