As reported Feb. 5, 1958, in The Sun:

The Howard County Historical Society made its formal debut last night when the society's four newly elected officers and a panel of three guest speakers appeared before a group of about 50 people at the Ellicott City Courthouse.

After listening to the speakers, comments from the floor and a compromise decision as to the price of admittance to the new society, a membership of 31 was finally recruited (cash on the barrel).

Benjamin Mellor Jr., treasurer, collected $2 from each of the 16 people admitting them to membership in the county society, and $8 from 15 people admitting them to joint membership in both the county society and the Maryland Historical Society.

During the meeting, the audience, which had as master of ceremonies Samuel Hopkins, erstwhile Baltimore mayoral candidate and a nephew of Mrs. James Clark, the society's president and organizer, heard the brief pep talks from Charles McC. Mathias, former president of the Frederick County Historical Society, George A. Radcliffe, president of the Maryland Historical Society, James W. Foster, director of the Maryland Historical Society, and Harold Manakee, director of the War Records Division of the Maryland Historical Society.

Mr. Mathias, who recalled that the Frederick society was formed in 1892, told how the society had no permanent headquarters until 1945 when Mrs. William Bradley Tyler Belt, of Omaha, Neb., bought a house on Patrick street and presented it to the society.

"I urge you, as one of the first steps in getting a society going, to get someone acting in the role of fairy godmother to give you a house as Mrs. Belt did us," advised Mr. Mathias.

Paul McCardell, Sun researcher