Families

Please share your Family Group Sheet information, Descendents Chart, Photos, etc. of a Carroll County ancestor. Simply email your contribution to the County Coordinator.

Biographies

BIRNIE, George Harry, pioneer banker of Northern Carroll County, and one of the leading men in financial circles of this part of the State, organized his own bank in Taneytown when he decided to enter the banking business, and has since conducted this institution. Mr. Birnie was born in Glenburn, near Taneytown, on August 28, 1845. His parents were Rogers Birnie, one of the leading men of Carroll County, and Amelia Knode (Harry) Birnie, member of one of the prominent families of Washington County Mr. Birnie's father was principal of Glenburn Academy and it was under his tutelage that he received his preparatory education. He prepared for Princeton and entering that institution, specialized in mathematics and was graduated with the Class of 1867. He received his M. A. degree in 1870. After leaving college he engaged in engineering, which included preliminary work and railroad construction in the West, and continued in this line of endeavor until 1884, when he returned to Carroll County and organized the banking concern of George H. Birnie & Company. It was incorporated as the Birnie Trust Company in 1900. Mr. Birnie now is cashier of that concern. The bank under his guidance has grown to one of the strong financial institutions of the County and this part of the State. Mr. Birnie is a Mason, member of the Knights of Pythias, Engineers’ Club of Philadelphia, American Bankers Association and the Maryland Bankers Association. He has been an elder in the Presbyterian Church for two decades, is Superintendent of the Sunday School, was president of the Carroll County Christian Endeavor Union three terms, and was Vice-President of the State Union for one term. Mr. Birnie was married to Miss Elizabeth Eleanor Zollickoffer on June 1, 1882. They have three children, Eliza Roberts, Eleanor and Clotworthy Birnie. Mr. Birnie's residence and business address is Taneytown.

Contributed 2024 Dec 5 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1920 The Book of Maryland: Men and Institutions by Felix Agnus, page 290.

FEESER, Arthur W., one of the leading canners of tins section and whose operations extend into the fruit section of southern Pennsylvania, and who is among the leaders in educational work and financial circles of his portion of the county, is a native of Carroll County, having been born on March 11, 1873. His parents were William J. and Leah (Basehoar) Feeser. Mr. Feeser attended the public and high schools of Littlestown. Pa. Mr. Feeser entered business for himself when he was 24 years old as a contractor and builder and continued in this business until 1908, when he established the canning business of which he is the head at Silver Run. In 1917 he constructed another large canning plant at Taneytown. The business has grown rapidly each year until in this year (1920) the output of the plant will be in excess of 150,000 cases. His products have reached every State in the Union, and he also ships a large part of his products to Canada. Mr. Feeser also is a director and one of the organizers of a large fruit packing company of Aspers, Pa. In addition to his packing and canning connections, Mr. Feeser operates five large farms in Carroll County, whose products are suitable for canning and cattle raising. He also is a director of the Littlestown Savings Institution, of Littlestown. Pa. Mr. Feeser is a Mason, member of the National Canners Association, Tri-State Packers’ Association, and the Baltimore Canned Goods Exchange. He is a member of the Board of Education of Carroll County, and served for several years as a member of the Democratic State Central Committee. Good roads and better schools have been the hobby of Mr. Feeser and he has been a leader in obtaining improved highways and better schools for his district. Mr. Feeser was married to Miss Minnie M. Sheets on April 24, 1897. They have one daughter, Leah. Mr. Feeser's business address and residence is in Silver Run.

Contributed 2024 Dec 5 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1920 The Book of Maryland: Men and Institutions by Felix Agnus, page 289.

HALL, Major Albert M., editor and manager of tin Sykesville Herald, which he established in 1913, is a native of Oswego, N. Y. Before coming to Maryland he was managing editor of daily newspapers at Oswego, N. Y., Elmira, N. Y., and was also a member of the editorial staff of the Syracuse, N. Y. Evening Herald. He served in various civic positions in Oswego and was elected Mayor of the city in 1899 and served for two years. He became identified with the Natiotnal Guard of New York in 1884 and served in every grade from private to Major. As a Captain he took into the Spanish-American war the old company that his grandfather commanded in 1837. It was at maximum strength and volunteered 100 per cent, the only National Guard organization to do this. The organization became a part of the Third New York Volunteer Infantry and Captain Hall was early promoted to Major. After leaving New York Major Hall conducted a newspaper feature bureau in Washington, but desiring to quit the rush and hurry of the daily field, after a long period of service, he came to Maryland and established The Sykesville Herald, which has become one of the best known of the weekly newspapers. Major Hall was married in 1884 to Lovina Parkhurst, in Duchess county, New York. A son, Albert C., in government service at Washington, and a daughter, Mrs. David W. Dean, of Sykesville, Md., were the result of the union. Major Hall was tilhe Chairman of his District (Freedom) in all of the war activities and this district went "over the top" more times than any other district in Carroll county. He is a licensed preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church and takes great interest in his church and reform work.

Contributed 2024 Dec 5 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1920 The Book of Maryland: Men and Institutions by Felix Agnus, page 288.

LEE, Colonel James Fenner, State Senator of Maryland, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, July 9, 1843. He is the eldest living son of Stephen S. and Sarah F. (Mallett) Lee, who removed to Baltimore in the year of his birth. In that city he was placed under the instruction of the best masters, and in 1855 was sent to Europe, where he was for several years in one of the first schools of Switzerland. He completed his collegiate studies in Paris at the Lycee St. Louis, and after having travelled over the Continent returned to Baltimore. There he entered as a law student the office of Brown & Brune, and before applying for admission to the bar spent a term at the Law School of Harvard University. In 1866 he married Mrs. Albert Carroll, daughter of William George Read, Esq., and granddaughter of Colonel John Eager Howard. On this event his parents presented him with a farm in Carroll County, and he decided to devote himself to agricultural pursuits as soon as he could dispose of his law business and complete the third volume of the Maryland Digest, which he had, in conjunction with his friend, Jacob J. Cohen, undertaken to publish. Having in time accomplished this and settled upon his farm, he soon became identified with and earnest in the promotion of every material interest of his county. In a short time such was his popularity that he was constantly chosen to represent the interests of his district in the Democratic county conventions, and frequently selected by them to represent his county in the State conventions. In 1874 he was appointed as Aide-de-camp to Governor Groome, with rank of Colonel. Colonel Lee was in 1876 nominated for the office of State Senator by the Democratic party of his county, and elected after a most active and exciting campaign. In the Senate he was made Chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, and did good service to the State by reducing the expenditures for the same $20,000. This position he retained in the second session of the Legislature, in which he was equally successful in his efforts to secure economy in that department. At the assembling of the Senate he was unanimously chosen President of the temporary organization, and was invariably during the absence of Colonel Lloyd — the permanent President — elected to fill that office. It was mainly through the efforts of Colonel Lee that the endowment of twenty-six free scholarships was obtained from the State for the Western Maryland College, situated in the County which he represented. Colonel Lee has four children: Arthur F. Lee, Sarah Lee, J. Fenner Lee, Jr., and Sophia Howard Lee.

Contributed 2024 Dec 5 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1879 The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and District of Columbia, pages 596-597.

McKINNEY, Robert Sentman, the leading druggist of Taneytown, Carroll County, Maryland, and prominent in Republican politics, was born in that city on November 27, 1860. His parents were Andrew and Sarah Sentman McKinney. Dr. McKinney attended the Eagleton Institute of Taneytown and later entering the Maryland College of Pharmacy, was graduated with the Class of 1882. Dr. McKinney entered the drug business in Baltimore in 1878. Returning to Taneytown in 1886, he conducted the school of his father until 1890. In the latter year he established the drug business which he has conducted continuously since that time in Taneytown. He creditably served two terms as postmaster of his town, having been named first by Roosevelt and later succeeding himself in the Taft regime. He is a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association, the Maryland Pharmaceutical Association, the different Masonic Orders, the Knights of Pythias, the Presbyterian Church and is a charter member of the Taneytown fire department, all of which organizations he has at various times served in an official capacity. Dr. McKinney was married to Maggie B. Galt on November 27, 1889. They have one daughter, Mrs. Harry I. Reindollar, of Taneytown.

Contributed 2024 Dec 5 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1920 The Book of Maryland: Men and Institutions by Felix Agnus, page 290.

SHRIVER, Thomas Herbert. One of the State's foremost citizens. Thomas Herbert Shriver, son of William and Mary M. J. Shriver, was born in Union Mills, Maryland, on February 19, 1846, and died at his home in Union Mills on December 31, 1916. Educated in the local schools and under private tutors, he was preparing for college at the outbreak of the Civil War. On June 28, 1863 (in his seventeenth year), he enlisted in the Confederate army and took part in many great battles. After the battle of Gettysburg, he was detailed as a student in the Virginia Military Institute, and then became a member of the famous cadet corps which won undying glory in the last year of the war. Years later, in 1882, he received the diploma from the Institute conferred upon all who had participated in the battle of New Market. Returned home, he took up commercial and business life: was a traveling salesman, a farmer, and a miller and banker, being successful in every undertaking. The B. F. Shriver Company, of Carroll County, canners of fruits and vegetables, is among the largest concerns of its kind in Maryland and the United States, and owes in great measure its success to his direction. Mr. Shriver married, in 1880, Miss Elizabeth R. Lawson, of Baltimore. Politically. Mr. Shriver was a life-long democrat. In 1908, he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention: in 1878-80, he served in the General Assembly, Lower House, and in 1884, he was a member of the State Senate. In 1888, he became deputy collector of the Port of Baltimore, and prior to his death he was frequently mentioned as Democratic nominee for Governor of Maryland. He was a devoted friend of Cardinal Gibbons, Primate of the Catholic Church in America — who spent weeks at a time with him in his country home at Union Mills. At his death in his seventy-first year, Mr. Shriver was survived by his four children: Hilda, Joseph N., Robert T., and William H. Shriver. His death was mourned by friends and admirers without number, whose esteem he had won by his splendid relations with every one with whom he came in contact.

Contributed 2024 Dec 5 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1920 The Book of Maryland: Men and Institutions by Felix Agnus, page 303.

SNADER, R. Smith. State Senator for Carroll County, one of the leading men of his party in that section of the State and who is looked upon in Annapolis as the champion of the farmers' cause, was born on Shady Hill farm, New Windsor, September 16, 1874. His parents were Philip and Julia Smith Snader. He attended private school and tile New Windsor College. Senator Snader assisted his father in farming operations until the spring of 1893, when he purchased his own farm. He combined this farm with the family homestead in 1910 and since that time has conducted both properties. He has specialized in dairying, at one time having a herd of thirty Guernsey cows and a thoroughbred bull. Senator Snader was active in the organization of the Maryland State Dairymen's Association in April of 1916 and has been vice-president of that organization since its first election. The Snader property is one of the pioneer farms in this district and the brick for the homestead were burned on the place. He was elected to the House of Delegates in 1907, again in 1910, and was elected to the State Senate in 1911, serving in the 1912 and 1914 sessions. He was defeated for re-election in the fall of 1915, but after a hot fight in 1919, in which he depended almost entirely upon the farm vote of tile county. Mr. Snader was elected to the Senate by a large majority. He is president of the Carroll County Branch of the State Dairymen's Association and is director of the Carroll County Fair Association. He is a member of the Odd Fellows. Senator Snader was married to Emma L. Engler on September 22, 1893. They have two children, Phillip B., Jr., and Julia Margaret Snader. His address is New Windsor, Maryland.

Contributed 2024 Dec 5 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1920 The Book of Maryland: Men and Institutions by Felix Agnus, page 289.

THOMAS, W. Frank has built a monument to himself in the many miles of hard roads in Carroll County and this section of the State. Road building has been the principal business of Mr. Thomas for the last decade, and it has been through his efforts in development, promotion and construction of hard roads that Carroll County ranks among the first in the State in better highways. He has found time from his principal business to take an active part in the development of many enterprises which have added to the industrial wealth of Westminster. Mr. Thomas was born in Westminster on November 30, 1879. His parents were William B. and R. F Thomas. He attended the Western Maryland Preparatory School and later graduated from Western Mainland College with the Class of 1898. He entered the fertilizer business after leaving college and later became associated with his father in the banking and real estate business. During the time of his latter connection he promoted, built and developed the Williamsport Canning Company. He entered business for himself under the title of Thomas & Company, Bankers and Real Estate Brokers, ten years ago, and two years later entered highway construction work, the title of the latter firm being Thomas, Bennett & Hunter. He is the senior member of both firms. The general class of construction has been Federal, State and State Aid Roads and Bridges. He has been Director of Fred H. Knapp Co. since its origin and is secretary, treasurer, and general manager of the Baltimore & Carroll Realty Company; director and member of the executive committee of file Consolidated Public Utilities Company, of Westminster: Director of the Bushey Lime & Stone Company, of Cavetown, Md. and is interested in several other manufacturing enterprises. Mr. Thomas is a member of the Green Spring Valley Hunt Club. Baltimore Press Club, Boumi Temple Mystic Shrine, and Knights of Pythias. He was married to Hilda Bennett in January of 1905. Three children, William B., Francis Worthington and Elizabeth Clarke were born of this union. Mrs. Thomas died in September of 1918. Address, 3 East Main Street.

Contributed 2024 Dec 5 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1920 The Book of Maryland: Men and Institutions by Felix Agnus, page 288.

VAN BIBBER, Washington Chew, M.D., was born in Frederick, now Carroll County, Maryland, July 24, 1824. At the age of seven years he was placed at a school in Little York, Pennsylvania, which was subsequently known as Marshall College. After remaining there two years he entered Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he pursued his studies for a year, and then went to Mount St. Mary’s College, Emmettsburgh, Maryland, where he remained for two years, at the expiration of which time he entered Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Washington County, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1840 with the degree of A.B. After graduating he removed to Baltimore, where he commenced the study of medicine in the office of the late Professor Nathan R. Smith. He matriculated at the University of Maryland in the fall of 1841, and graduated therefrom with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the spring of 1845. He then went to Grand Gulf, Mississippi, where, however, he remained but for a brief period, and then located in New Orleans, Louisiana. In that city he spent the memorable summer of 1845; the fellow fever was devastating the place, its ravages only being equalled by the epidemic of the same disease which afflicted the Crescent City in 1853. There he had abundant opportunity of studying the nature, phenomena and mode of treatment of that malignant malady, being brought into frequent personal relation with it, both in private practice and in the Charity Hospital. On leaving New Orleans he was placed in professional charge of a party of ladies and gentlemen of Maryland, with whom he returned to that State. In 1846 he established himself in the practice of his profession in Baltimore, which he has been actively and uninterruptedly pursuing ever since.

In 1852 and 1853 Dr. Van Bibber served as physician to the Baltimore County Almshouse. He has been for many years physician to various institutions of a benevolent and humanitarian character, such as Christ Church Asylum, Home of the Friendless, St. Mary’s Seminary, Notre Dame Convent, etc. He is a member of the Medico-Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, and was for some time its Secretary; was one of the founders in 1852 of the Baltimore Pathological Society, acted as its Secretary for seven years; also served as its President, and represented it in the American Medical Association. The doctor has contributed many valuable articles on medical science, and was from 1856 to 1859 an Associate Editor of the Virginia Medical Journal, and from 1859 to 1861 was Associate Editor of the Maryland and Virginia Medical Journal. His father was Washington Van Bibber, a native of Baltimore, and at one time an extensive farmer in Carroll County. lie participated in the defence of Baltimore in 1814.

His grandfather, Isaac Van Bibber, was a native of Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland. He was a famous sea captain and voyageur, owning the ship which he commanded. The shipping firm of Isaac and Abraham Van Bibber, of Baltimore, which was well known in its day, he was the senior partner of. The Van Bibbers were an ancient Hollandise family, its progenitor in this country being a Captain Isaac Van Bibber, a native of Amsterdam, and who came to America in command of a vessel belonging to Lord Baltimore’s fleet, and settled in Cecil County. The doctor's mother was Lucretia Emory, daughter of Thomas Lane Emory, farmer, of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. His grandmother on the maternal side, was a Hebb, and his grandmother on the paternal side was of the old and respectable Chew family of Philadelphia. Dr. Van Bibber married in 1848 Miss Josephine Chatard, youngest daughter of the late Mr. Peter Chatard, an eminent physician of Baltimore. He has five children, two sons and three daughters. The former are talented and accomplished physicians, and are associated with their father in practice. The elder, Dr. John P. Van Bibber, graduated at the Maryland University in 1871; and his brother, Dr. Claude Van Bibber, graduated there from in 1877. Carefully eschewing all public or political station, Dr. Van Bibber has been wedded to his profession, in which he has gained an eminence that places him alongside of the best and most honored of its members, the Smiths, Miltenbergers, Chews, Chatards, Bucklus, and others, who have shed a lustre upon their
noble vocation.

Contributed 2024 Dec 5 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1879 The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and District of Columbia, pages 597-598.

WARFIELD, The Honorable Wade H. D., of Sykesville, Carroll county, who served with distinction in the State Senate sessions of 1916 and 1918, and in the special war session of 1917, is one of the best known citizens of Maryland. He comes of a family long identified with the progress and advancement of the state. He is the son of Charles Alexander and Caroline Devries Warfield, and was born October 7. 1864. He received his rudimentary education in the public schools of Carroll county and at the Springfield Institute. In 1880 he entered the Staunton Military Academy at Staunton, Va., from which he was graduated with honors in 1883. He is married and has three daughters. Mrs. James O. Ridgely, of Sykesville, Mrs. Henry Devries Cassard, wife of Lieutenant Henry Devries Cassard, who is stationed at Fort Amador, Canal Zone, Panama, and Mrs. Morgan O. Taylor, wife of the United States Vice Consul at Zurich, Switzerland. Mrs. Warfield was formerly Miss Ellen Waterhouse, of Wheeling, West Virginia.

The Warfield home is known far and wide for its hospitality and ideal home life. Senator Warfield is a member of the Springfield Presbyterian church. Senator Warfield has always lived at Sykesville. Immediately on leaving college, he entered on a business career at that place and has steadily grown to be the most important factor in the community, He organized and incorporated the Sykesville Lumber. Coal & Grain Company, one of the largest enterprises in this section of Maryland. He became its president and remained in that capacity until the business was reorganized and became the Maryland Milling & Supply Company, with largely increased resources. He is now the president of that company, it being the largest supply house of the kind in Central Maryland.

In 1901, Mr. Warfield organized the Sykesville National Bank, of which he has since been the president, and which has the distinction of being the only bank in Carroll county that ever paid a 50 per cent dividend. In 1907 he organized the Sykesville Realty & Investment Company, another successful institution. He has been at the head of every progressive movement in the community where he lives and where he has erected a modern granite and brick business block, which includes the post office, Lyceum Theatre and Masonic Hall. This block speaks volumes for Mr. Warfield's enterprise and thoroughness. Senator Warfield is also an enthusiastic and practical farmer, owning and operating four farms and two large dairies. His farms are in a high state of cultivation and his dairies sanitary and modern.

Under three Governors, Smith, Warfield and Crothers, he served as a member of the State Livestock Sanitary Board, and his friends point with pride to his record as the chairman of the body. He is now serving us a member of the Board of Managers of the Springfield State Hospital.

Mr. Warfield's record in the Senate was one marked by zealous attention to matters of legislation and the interests of his constituents. He served on the most important committees in that body and as chairman of the committee on Supervision of Employees and Expenditures, was chiefly instrumental in saving to the people of the state $150,000. As a member of the Finance Committee, his experience as a business man and banker, made his services invaluable and his advice was in constant demand on all important matters, He was steadfast in support of all measures calculated to aid the moral welfare of the state. As a whole, his record for efficiency and economy was one that attracted the attention of the people of the entire state, and was one of which Carroll county people are justly proud. Senator Warfield is a man of unassailable integrity. He stands high in the estimation of all men, not only at home, but wherever executive ability and sound finance are recognized.

Contributed 2024 Dec 5 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1920 The Book of Maryland: Men and Institutions by Felix Agnus, pages 287 and 292.

---