Perryville, Maryland

Before there was a town here, there was a ferry. As early as sixteen ninety-five, a crossing operated at this bend of the Susquehanna River, carrying travelers on the main road between the northern and southern colonies. The settlement that grew up around it was called Lower Ferry for most of the colonial period.

George Washington crossed here repeatedly on his travels between Virginia and New York, sometimes stopping to dine at the tavern on the east bank. The town was eventually named Perryville, said to be after Mary Perry, wife of John Bateman. It was incorporated in eighteen eighty-two.