Mineral County was formed from Hampshire in 1866 and named for its great mineral deposits. In Mineral County is Fort Ashby, the only standing unit in the chain of frontier forts built in 1755 under George Washington's order. Maryland was named for Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I, who gave a royal charter to Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, in 1632. First settled at Saint Mary's City in 1634, it was one of the thirteen original colonies.