Queen Anne's County
MDGenWeb
ADAMS, John Charles, Farmer, St. Michael’s District, Talbot County, Maryland, was born, October 7, 1819, on Kent Island, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. His father, William Hughlett Adams, of Talbot, was a surveyor and school-teacher. His mother was Juliana, daughter of Major James Ringgold Blunt, a lady of Christian virtues and more than ordinary talent. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. John was left an orphan at a very early age, and the only property he received was a small share in an uncle’s estate. His attendance at school was very limited, and confined to his early boyhood. He, however, acquired a practical knowledge of business. His first employment was as a clerk in the store of Captain Cornelius Comegys, of Greensborough, in which capacity he remained for eighteen months. He then commenced farming on his own account in Miles River Neck, Talbot County, pursuing that vocation four years. In 1843 he married Emily Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Bryan. Her mother was a direct descendant of Peter Sluyter, of Wiewerd Friesland, one of the first settlers of Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland, and a sister of Rev. Thomas Mason Bryan, of the Methodist Protestant Church, now residing in St. Michael’s. Mr. Adams engaged in the mercantile business with his father-in-law, remaining therein for three years, when he returned to Talbot County. He subsequently removed to the estate known as “Ray’s Point,” near St. Michael’s, which afterwards passed into his possession. Mr. Adams so thoroughly cultivated the resources of his land as to make him recognized as one of the leading farmers of the country. He is a member of the St. Michael’s Agricultural Society, and has served as its President. He is a communicant in the Protestant Episcopal Church, a vestryman, and was a member of the committee, in 1879, to erect a new church of the above denomination at St. Michael’s. He is attached to the Order of Freemasons, and occupies the position of Past Master of Burn’s Lodge. The management of the Blunt estate in Louisiana, valued at six hundred thousand dollars, with an annual income of twenty-five to forty thousand dollars, was placed in his hands in 1854. This responsible charge, which he still retains, was placed in his keeping by the heirs without the exaction of any bond. Mr. Adams has never mingled in politics, or had any aspirations for political station. He belonged to the old Whig party, and now votes with the Democratic Conservative party. [pages 545-546]
BOONE, Rev. John Francis, M.D., resident Homeopathic Physician in the town of Oxford, Talbot County, Maryland, was born in Greensborough, Caroline County, Maryland, in 1816. His parents were Joshua and Rebecca A. Boone, both of English descent. His mother was the daughter of John Bradley, of that county. Three brothers of the name of Boone came from England to America in 1740, two of whom settled in the State of Maryland. Dr. Boone received his early education in the Academy of Greensborough. After attaining the age of sixteen he attended for four years the Literary Department of the University of Maryland in Baltimore, when he returned to Greensborough, and commenced in the office of Dr. White the study of medicine in accordance with a long-cherished desire. He completed his studies with Dr. Nathan Potter, Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the University of Maryland, and graduated in the spring of 1837. He settled in his profession in Church Hill, Queen Anne’s County, but removed in 1842 to Eederalsburg, Dorchester County, where he had a large practice, and remained till the fall of 1849. 1n 1845 he was elected to the General Assembly of Maryland, and during the important session of 1846 served on the Committee of Ways and Means. The committee reported bills which, being passed by both houses, relieved the financial embarrassment of the State, and saved it from the dishonor of repudiation. He was nominated the same year on the Whig ticket and elected to the State Senate, but the claims of his large practice would not permit him to serve, and he resigned his seat. Dr. Boone became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844. In September, 1849, he was appointed Pastor of the church of that denomination in Salisbury, Maryland, to fill a vacancy occasioned by death. The following year he entered the Philadelphia Conference, and served as Pastor in 1850-51 at North East, Cecil County, Maryland; in 1852, Oxford, Pennsylvania; in 1853 and '54, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania; in 1855 and ’56, Bristol, in the same State; in 1857 and ’58, Summerfield, Philadelphia; in 1859 and ’60, St. George’s, Philadelphia; in 1861 and ’62, De Kalb Street Church, Norristown, Pennsylvania; in 1863, Smyrna, Delaware; and in 1864 at Galena, Maryland. In 1865 he settled in Baltimore, and resumed the practice of his profession. In 1873 he removed to Philadelphia, but soon determined to try the climate of Kansas for his failing health, and entering the Conference of that State was stationed for two years at Parsons and Pleasanton. His family, however, desiring to return East, and his health having improved, he decided to settle in the town of Oxford, Maryland, a well-known and popular watering-place. In 1860 Dr. Boone became convinced of the superiority of the homoeopathic system of medicine, which he has followed from that time. His success has already brought into his hands a large proportion of the practice of Oxford and its vicinity. He was married in 1837 to Ann H., daughter of Thomas Cox, of Queen Anne’s County. Of their children only two are now living, Fannie, wife of A. F. Bell, and John R. Boone, who has been engaged in the banking business in Kansas. [page 666]
BRADLEY, Honorable Stephen J., of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, was born in Caroline County, December 17, 1808. His father, John Bradley, a farmer, died in Tuckahoe Neck, Caroline County, in 1820. His mother was Rebecca, daughter of Benjamin Jump, of the same county. She was a devoted Christian, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and an exemplary wife and mother. She died in 1818, when her son Stephen was only ten years of age. He commenced attending school the year previous. His opportunities of education were equal to those enjoyed by the other farmers’ sons of that time and locality, but would be considered very poor at the present day. In 1826 he left school and engaged as a clerk in the store of Captain Thomas Auld, the former master of Frederick Douglas. He was afterward a short time a clerk in Hillsboro. At the age of nineteen he commenced an independent life as a farmer, to which occupation he has from that time devoted himself. The farm he cultivated, known as the Bradley farm, had already been in the family for four generations, its earliest possessor having been Charles Bradley, who came from England in the latter part of the seventeenth century, he was accompanied by his brother Stephen, who settled in Annapolis, and was, in his time, a well known attorney-at law. In 1834 Mr. Bradley removed to Queen Anne’s County, settling near Hillsboro, and in 1842 removed to the estate on which he now resides. It is known as “Cottage Hill,” and is situated a mile and a half south of Sudlersville. In 1848 he was nominated and elected by the Whig party as Sheriff of the county, in which office he served three years. In 1853 he was elected on the same ticket to the General Assembly, and served two years. He was nominated for State Senator on the American ticket in 1857, his opponent being ex-Governor Grayson. Mr. Bradley was the only one of his party elected, the Democrats carrying their candidates for the Lower House. In 1867 he was nominated and elected on the Democratic ticket to the State Constitutional Convention. The public life of Mr. Bradley extended over a period of twenty years. In 1872 he was nominated, but declined to serve, as a member of the Orphans’ Court of his county. Since 1827 he has been a member of the Methodist Church; he now belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church South. On June 29, 1828, lie was married to Maria F., daughter of Daniel Baynard, of Caroline County. At her death she left five children, one of whom, Rebecca Ann, died in 1848. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Bradley married her sister, Elizabeth, by whom he has two daughters living. He is a man of sterling character and line abilities, greatly respected and esteemed in the community in which he lives. [pages 367-368]
BUSTEED, William W., Editor of the Centreville Observer, was born in Tuckahoe Neck, Caroline County, Maryland, July 18, 1843. His father, Warner R. Busteed, and also his grandfather, were school-teachers for many years. The latter emigrated to this country from Ireland. Warner R. Busteed was an old-line Whig, and became prominent as a politician, at one time commanding large influence in Caroline County. Catharine M. Busteed, mother of William W. Busteed, was a daughter of Nimrod Barwich, a lady of many Christian virtues, and though her death took place in 1859, her great kindness of heart and many acts of benevolence are still remembered and often spoken of by numbers who love and cherish her memory. William W. Busteed received scarcely more than a primary education at the country schools he attended, the greater part of the time being spent at the academy at Hillsborough. He afterwards took a brief course at the night school of the Easton Academy, under Professor Matthew Spencer. In his early training he was carefully taught habits of self-reliance and economy, which he has found invaluable through life. From a child he had great fondness for the mechanical arts, and took special interest in the operations of machinery. Having frequent opportunities of visiting the printing office, the arrangement of type particularly attracted him, and he resolved that he would become a printer. This resolution lie earned into effect as soon as he was permitted to leave school, and obtained a situation in the office of the Public Monitor, in Easton, of which paper Mr. William T. Rawlinson was editor. After a time his brother, Robert H. Busteed, started a paper in Denton, called The American Union, which he assisted in establishing, and set the first type. When this paper was well in operation, he found employment on the Star, another Easton paper, of which Mr. T. F. Robson was editor. Here he remained till 1863, when he went to Dover, and worked one month on the Delawarian. Returning to Easton, he, in July, 1864, bought out the Centreville Times, in partnership with Mr. Charles T. Loveday, and they started the Centreville Observer. In six weeks the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Busteed has from that time remained the sole editor and proprietor. The task he had undertaken was no easy one, and a less determined and energetic person would inevitably have failed. He worked day and night with both head and hands, exercising the most pinching economy. The people among whom he had come were strangers, but he soon won their regard and respect, and eventually obtained in their midst a firm footing for both himself and his paper. His journalistic career having been a successful and prosperous one, he now looks back to his early struggles with pardonable pride and self-congratulation. In his coming among them, the people of Centreville had also reason to congratulate themselves on the acquisition, he having on all occasions proved himself a public-spirited, enterprising and honorable citizen, a man of integrity and honor. He has never aspired to political promotion, but from April, 1871, to the same month in 1874, he consented to fill the position of Commissioner of the town, and represented the county in the Congressional Nominating Convention at Ocean City in 1876. He is a charter member of the Centreville National Rank, in which he has been a Director from its organization to the present time. He was one of the originators of the Circulating Library, and a Director from its establishment in 1874 to the present. He was one of the organizers of the Workingmen’s Building and Loan Association, and has been a Director since October, 1872. He was very active in promoting the building of the Queen Anne’s and Kent Railroad, and wrote many articles in its favor, but held no position in that corporation. When the new town hall was erected Mr. Busteed took a leading part; also in the rebuilding and iron-fencing of the Court-house. He has built several houses and been instrumental in the building of several others, among them the bank, and a block owned by the Building Association. He brought into the county the first power-press ever used there, and also brought to Centreville the first fast job press. At considerable cost he employed a writer in 1872 to prepare for the pages of the Observer, a history of Queen Anne’s County, from its earliest date. In November, 1864, he joined the Odd Fellows, and has three times passed through the chairs of that Order, and held numerous offices. In politics he has been a Democrat from his majority. He has travelled extensively through the United States. On October 6, 1870, he married Martha Vickers, an estimable Christian lady, who is now President of the Ladies’ Church Aid Society of St. Paul’s Church. Her father, Samuel Vickers, was for several years Register of Wills for Queen Anne’s County. Mr. and Mrs. Busteed have had two children, Julia V. and Catharine, of whom the eldest died in infancy. [pages 444-445]
CARTER, John M., Lawyer and President of the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, was born in Baltimore February 5, 1843. His parents, Asbury and Mary Christina (Eareckson) Carter, removed to Baltimore from Kent Island, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, in 1840. They had a family of nine children. Their son John was educated at the old Light Street Institute for Boys, receiving in the English branches and in the elementary classics the ordinary training of a good private school. He left school at fifteen years of age. He passed two years in a stockbroker’s office, and two years as clerk in the law office of John Carson, Estp, where he commenced the study of law. In January, 1862, he was appointed Private Secretary to Governor Augustus W. Bradford, of Maryland. He still continued his legal studies, and was admitted to the bar February 5, 1864, but remained at Annapolis with Governor Bradford during his term of four years. In January, 1866, he was appointed Secretary of State by Governor Thomas Swann, in which office he served during his term of three years, and meanwhile commenced the practice of law in Baltimore, which he still continues. He represented the Third Congressional District of Maryland as a Greeley Elector in the campaign of 1872. Mr. Carter was for ten years a manager of the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, and is now its President. He has been a Freemason since January, 1866, and for two years past has been Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Maryland. He was a member of the National Union party; after its disbandment he joined the Democratic Conservative party. He was married, April 25, 1867, to Florence Sweetzer, daughter of the late David E. Thomas, of Baltimore. [page 710]
COX, CHRISTOPER Christian, A.M., M.D., L.L.D., was born in Baltimore, Maryland, August 28, 1816. His father, Luther James Cox, a native of Queen Anne’s County, early engaged in mercantile pursuits in the city, and became known as a high-toned and prosperous merchant. He was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and an acceptable local minister of that denomination. The mother of Dr. Cox was Maria Catharine, daughter of Christian and Susanna Keener, and sister to Christian and David Keener, who are remembered by many as prominent among the most enterprising and useful citizens of their day. Mrs. Cox was a cultivated and pious woman, possessed of fine literary taste and faithful in the discharge of every duty. Young C. C. Cox was sent at an early age to the best seminaries of learning in his native city, and was devoted to his books, excelling in the study of the classics. In 1833 he entered the Junior Class at Yale College, from which institution he was honorably graduated in 1835. Among his college mates were William M. Evarts, Chief Justice Waite, and the late minister to England, Edwards Pierrepont. He had decided to enter upon the study of law, to which his tastes early inclined him, and in which profession his large intellectual resources, clear analytical mind, and fine oratorical powers would doubtless have secured for him brilliant success, but having become fascinated by the accidental perusal of a celebrated French treatise on physiology, he suddenly abandoned the law and prosecuted with much zeal the study of medicine. Before the completion of his medical course he was married to Amanda, daughter of Clarke Northrop, of New Haven, Connecticut, a lady of rare accomplishments and superior mental endowments. After receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Washington Medical University, at Baltimore, in 1838, he entered at once upon the practice of this profession in the city of his birth. In consequence, however, of seriously impaired health, he soon located in Baltimore County, where he continued to practice laboriously and successfully until his removal to Talbot County, in the fall of 1843, where the largest portion of his professional life has been spent. Here he became at once firmly established. His rides extended over an immense geographical area, and he was recognized in and out of the State as a physician and surgeon of marked ability. In 1848 he was invited to the chair of Institutes of Medicine and Hygiene in the Philadelphia College of Medicine, but in the succeeding year resigned the position and resumed his duties in Talbot. He became especially active about this time in his efforts to elevate the standard of the profession in his adopted county, and for this purpose organized a flourishing local medical society, over which he presided for a number of years. In 1851 he was elected President of the Medico-Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, embracing within its membership the best talent of the State, and to this day ranking among the leading scientific organizations of the country. About this time he became interested in the political questions then being agitated, and soon acquired reputation as a vigorous writer and speaker. His affiliations had always been with the Whig party, whose principles he cherished and ardently advocated. In 1855 he was with great unanimity nominated for Congress in the First District of Maryland, by the convention which assembled at Cambridge, but for reasons of a personal nature the proffered honor was declined. Two years later he was again nominated, and entered upon a spirited canvass in opposition to Hon. James A. Stewart, then a prominent Democratic member of the House of Representatives, and now one of the Judges of the State Appellate Court. Extraordinary means were employed to return Mr. Stewart to Congress (where the two political parties were very nicely balanced), and the result was the defeat of Dr. Cox by a moderate majority. In 1861 he was aroused to a sense of the peril which threatened the existence of the government, and although most of his friends and relatives sympathized with the Southern movement, he assumed a manly attitude against the rebellion anti in defence of the Union. His bold and earnest course lost him many adherents, and sensibly diminished his success as a practitioner of medicine. In October, after passing an examination, he was appointed Brigade Surgeon, U. S. A., and assigned to the medical directorship of Lockwood’s Brigade, then occupying the counties of Accomac and Northampton, in Eastern Virginia. Early in the following year he was ordered to Baltimore as one of an Army Board organized for the examination of candidates for medical service in the war, and also as Chairman of the Board for the Inspection of Invalid Officers. In April, 1862, he received the appointment of Medical Purveyor of the Middle Military Department, located at Baltimore, a position of much labor and responsibility. In the same year he was made Surgeon-General of Maryland, with the rank of Colonel of Cavalry. The addition of this office greatly enlarged his sphere of duty. In the midst of these important government cares and labors he was not unmindful of the claims of his profession, in which he continued to feel a lively interest. Accordingly, we find him, in 1863, reading two valuable papers before the American Medical Association at Chicago (now published in the printed Transactions), at which meeting he was unanimously elected Vice-President of that distinguished body of physicians and scientists. In the autumn of 1864 Doctor Cox received the unsought and unanimous nomination of Lieutenant-Governor of Maryland, and was elected by a vote considerably in advance of the general ticket. By virtue of his office he became the President of the Senate, the duties of which he discharged with signal ability and impartiality. At the death of the lamented Governor Hicks, the name of Governor Cox was urged by many as his successor in the United States Senate, and the probabilities of his success were very flattering, when he concluded to retire from the competition. This step has been regarded by his friends as the serious mistake of his public life. In 1865 he was selected by President Lincoln as one of the Visiting Board at West Point, and assisted in the examinations of that year. In the spring of 1866 he made a visit to the Old World, having been accredited the first representative of the American Medical Association to the medical and scientific societies of Europe. His reception by the leading men of the profession abroad was most cordial and flattering. In August of that year the British Medical Association convened at the old city of Chester, on which occasion Dr. Cox was formally introduced, and delivered an eloquent and acceptable discourse. Here he formed the acquaintance of many illustrious members of the profession, whose friendship he still retains. As an evidence of the appreciation of the medical men of the Old World of the representative of the New, Dr. Cox was treated with marked attention, and among the honors conferred upon him was that of honorary membership in the British Medical Association. After an extended tour across the Continent he returned, late in the year, to his native city. In 1867 the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred. upon him by the Faculty and Trustees of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. During the following year he was appointed States Commissioner of Pensions, and removed with his family to the National Capital. In 1869, having resigned government office, he was invited to take the Chair of Medical Jurisprudence and Hygiene in Georgetown Medical College. His lectures were regarded by those who heard them as unusually interesting and instructive, indicating complete acquaintance with the intricate subjects presented for discussion. In connection with other duties he edited about this time the National Medical Journal, to which he contributed much valuable material. In 1871 Doctor Cox united with Doctors Stephens Smith, Elisha Harris, and others, who assembled at Long Branch, in establishing the American Health Association, and was selected as a member of its first Executive Committee. In April of the same year, on the organization by Congress of a Board of Health of the District of Columbia, he was appointed, by the Executive, one of its members, and immediately thereafter elected its President. The zeal and ability with which he discharged the varied, delicate, and responsible duties of this trying position, are clearly indicated by the valuable reports and papers which, from time to time, emanated from his pen. On July 3, 1876, a Congress of Authors was convened in Independence Hall, at Philadelphia, each of the invited writers having been previously requested to prepare a memoir of some one distinguished in the times of the Revolution. To the doctor was assigned the life and services of Matthew Tilghman, of Maryland. 'Pile paper was presented and deposited among the archives of the venerable cradle of liberty. In the same year he was elected as one of the Judges of the Centennial Exposition, and constituted Chairman of Group XIV, which embraced the important subjects of healing, lighting, ventilation, drainage, and other branches in their mechanical aiuj sanitary relations. His library contains numerous volumes of merit, and certificates of honorary membership in leading literary and scientific societies, foreign and domestic. At the present time Dr. Cox is actively engaged in professional pursuits at Washington, prominent in all useful public enterprises, and especially conspicuous in art and literary institutions, lie has been a constant contributor for many years to medical and scientific journals, and has also devoted much time to literary pursuits. As a poet he is especially successful in dashing off in the intervals of a busy life poems of rare beauty and finish. Not a few of these have been widely circulated through the press, and translated into foreign languages. As a platform speaker and lecturer he has few superiors. In politics he is a consistent Republican, and in church relations an Episcopalian. He is of medium height, and active in his movements. Socially, he is very popular, being possessed of courtly manners; endowed with a kind and sympathetic nature, he is quick to respond to the appeals of suffering humanity, and his frequent and unostentatious acts of benevolence will be long remembered. Dr. and Mrs. Cox have had eight children, one of whom is a physician in Southern California. [pages 434-436]
CUSHING, Rev. Henry Caleb, M.A., Educator and Vice-President of the Western Maryland College, was born in Prince William County, Virginia, September 30, 1828. His father, C. C. Cushing, was a native of Seekonk, Massachusetts, but went to Virginia in early life, where he married and settled. Henry’s early youth was spent on a farm; but at the age of sixteen he commenced teaching a small school, composed of his brothers and a few of the neighbors’ children. He continued to teach at intervals for six or eight years, and in this way laid the foundation of his own education. During that period his mind was exercised on the subject of the Gospel ministry, and finally, after many misgivings, he resolved to enter it, which he did in June, 1852. His theological training consisted of Bible study, aided by such books as those of John Wesley, John Fletcher, Asa Shinn, and Adam Clarke’s Commentaries on the New Testament, which he read entire. He put into practical use the knowledge thus acquired by superintending a Sunday-school and ministering at the bedside of the poor and ignorant, especially among the slaves in their times of affliction, reading the Scriptures to them and pointing them to Christ. Mr. Cushing joined the Maryland Annual Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church in the spring of 1853, and commenced the itinerant ministry on Prince William Circuit, Virginia, among his kindred and friends. Before leaving that circuit he was married, May 11, 1854, to Dulcie B. McCormick, a daughter of Stephen McCormick, who was the inventor of the McCormick plough, the first in which the cast-iron mould-board was used. His subsequent appointments were: Deer Creek Circuit, three years; Cumberland City, two years; Aisquith Street, Baltimore, one year; Howard Circuit, two years; Queen Anne’s Circuit, four years; Frederick Circuit, one year; Kent Circuit, two years; Pipe Creek Circuit, two years; and Westminster Station, three years. In addition to his pastoral work he filled the chair of Belles-lettres in the Western Maryland College from September, 1875, until June, 1876, after which he was elected to the Vice-Presidency of the College, and held the position in connection with his pastorate until the annual session of his Conference, in March, 1877, when he was relieved from pastoral responsibilities. He has since devoted his whole time to college work. At the commencement of the Western Maryland College, June, 1878, he had conferred upon him by the Board of Trustees the honorary degree of Artium Magister. [page 685]
DE ROCHBRUNE, George, Merchant and Farmer, of Queenstown, Queen Anne’s County, was born in Caroline County, May 3, 1823. His father, Thomas De Rochbrune, a well-known and highly respected farmer, served as one of the Commissioners of Caroline County, and was in the battle near Queenstown, in the war of 1812. He lived until the month of August, 1875. His wife, Anna M. Downes, of the same county, died in 1841. Young De Rochbrune attended a district school at Hillsborough, in his native county, irregularly, until he was twenty-one years of age, having been employed a greater part of the time on his father’s farm. He then engaged a few months as a clerk at Wye Mills, and afterwards at Centreville, Queen Anne's County, until November, 1853, when he commenced a general mercantile business for himself at Queenstown, where he still continues. He started on a capital of only about eight hundred dollars, all the fruit of his own labor; but, determined to succeed, by careful personal attention and economical management of his resources, he has realized his most sanguine expectations. He has never borrowed any capital, has relied only upon himself, and is truly the architect of his own fortunes. For a quarter of a century he has carried on his mercantile business with unvarying success, and has also during the later years conducted three farms, containing five hundred acres of land, hiring the labor, and superintending himself the general management. The first, known as “Overton,” one mile from Queenstown, was purchased in 1863. Next he bought, in 1864, the tract of land known as part of the “Williams Farm,” about two miles from Queenstown. In 1871 he purchased the “Reed’s Creek Farm.” These farms he has greatly improved in productiveness, buildings, and appearance, raising, principally, wheat, corn, and grass. Mr. De Rochbrune is a Republican, and his religious sympathies are with the Methodist Episcopal Church, though he has made no open profession. He is a man of genial and companionable disposition, and has many warm friends. [page 490]
DUVALL, Henry, Merchant, of Baltimore, was born in Annapolis August 24, 1820. His father, Henry Duvall, an extensive and highly respected farmer of Anne Arundel County, was of French descent. He married Mary Winchester, a native of Queen Anne’s County, whose ancestors were among the early settlers of the State. Their son Henry was educated at St. John’s College, and in 1838 entered as a clerk an extensive drygoods establishment in Baltimore, where he continued five years. In 1844 lie commenced an independent business career as a commission merchant, and has been actively engaged in mercantile pursuits to the present time. He has also been prominent in public affairs, and in 1867 was elected to the first Branch of the City Council from the Fourteenth Ward. He was then the only Democratic member, and was the first Democrat elected to the Council after the war. He was re-elected in 1868, when the Council was composed entirely of Democrats, and was made its President, filling the position with signal ability. In the absence of the Mayor, Robert T. Banks, Mr. Duvall frequently acted as Mayor ex-officio, performing most satisfactorily all the duties devolving upon him. In 1870 he was elected to the Second Branch of the City Council, of which during that and the ensuing year he was President. He has since occupied no political position. He is an active and warmly interested member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Independent Order of Mechanics. Mr. Duvall is a consistent member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, gentlemanly in manner, an enterprising business man, and highly esteemed as a citizen. He was married in 1841 to Miss Eleanor B., daughter of Samuel Turner, a prominent lawyer of Calvert County, and has two sons and a daughter. [page 714]
ECCLESTON, Judge John Bowers, was born in 1794, in Kent County, Maryland. He received his principal education at Washington College, near Chestertown, and adopted the legal profession. Soon after his admission to the bar of Kent County, he was elected, in 1819, to the Legislature of Maryland, but afterwards took very little interest in politics, devoting himself to his profession, in which he attained eminence, and was deservedly ranked among the ablest lawyers in Maryland. He was elected, April 23, 1821, one of the vestrymen of Chester Parish, and February 9, 1824, was made one of the Visitors and Governors of Washington College. He was appointed, February 8, 1832, one of the Associate Judges of the Second Judicial District of Maryland, consisting of Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties, and when the judiciary was reorganized in 1851, he was elevated to the bench of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, which position he filled until his death. Judge Eccleston was the son of Samuel Eccleston, who married Ann Bowers, daughter of Thomas Bowers, of Kent County, and had three children: John Bowers Eccleston, the subject of this sketch; Ann Elizabeth Eccleston, who married, in 1815, John Ringgold Wilmer, son of Simon and Ann (Ringgold) Wilmer; and Mary Louisa Eccleston, who married, in 1819, Elias Marsh. Samuel Eccleston married a second time, Martha Ringgold, and had a fourth child, the Most Rev. Samuel Eccleston, D.D., of the Roman Catholic Church, who was consecrated, September 14, 1834, the fifth Archbishop of Baltimore, and died in 1851. Samuel Eccleston died in 1802. Judge John B. Eccleston married twice; first, July 26, 1827, Ann M. P. Clarkson, of Chestertown ; secondly, November 2, 1829, Augusta Chambers Houston, daughter of Judge James and Augustine (Chambers) Houston, and had the following children : Augusta Chambers Eccleston, who died in 1832; a second Augusta Chambers Eccleston, who married, December 28, 1853, Samuel M. Shoemaker, of Baltimore; Samuel; James Houston; Miriam; James Kent Harper; and Ann Isabel Eccleston, who died young. Judge Eccleston died at his residence, in Chestertown, November 12, 1860, greatly beloved for his amiable disposition and admired for the singular purity of his character. [pages 402-403]
FORD, Hon. Budd S., State Senator and President of the Chester River Steamboat Company, was born, March 2, 1840, in Salem, New Jersey. He was the third child and second son of Rev. Charles T. and Catharine (Wright) Ford. His father was a native of Cecil County, Maryland. He was a clergyman in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and at the time of the birth of this son was a Presiding Elder in the New Jersey Conference. He died in 1848 in North East, Cecil County. The ancestors of the Ford family were Scotch. They came to this country and settled in Maryland before the Revolution; some of them fought in that war for the land of their adoption. Budd S. Ford enjoyed for some time the advantages of the Pennington Academy in New Jersey. After the death of his father the family necessities compelled him to leave school at the age of fourteen, when he went to Philadelphia and was employed for about a year as a clerk in a wholesale drug store. He then resolved to seek his fortunes in the West, and went as far as Ohio, where he remained several months with promise of excellent success, but to satisfy his widowed mother, who in her affection and anxiety for him could not have him at that early age so far separated from her, he sacrificed what appeared to be his brightest prospects in life and returned to Maryland. But that this dutiful act has not failed of its reward, the success that has ever since attended him has proven. He soon after secured the position as clerk on one of the Chester River steamers, which he held until 1860, when he was promoted to the captaincy of the steamer. This responsible post he filled for two years with great credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the company. In 1862 he was married to Miss Emily Hendricks, of Queen Anne’s County, and resigning his position as Captain he took up his residence in that county, intending to devote himself to agricultural life. But this he found on trial was not suited to his disposition nor his tastes. He therefore turned his attention to other matters, and soon afterwards organized the Chester River Steamboat Stock Company, of which he was made President and General Business Manager. In these offices he continues to the present time. The Company built the large and elegant steamer B. S. Ford to ply between Baltimore and Chestertown. It was so named in honor of their President. The Company also own one or two other steamers on the same route. In April, 1868, Mr. Ford’s wife died, leaving him two daughters, Emma H. and Catharine Ford. He has always been connected with the Democratic party, and for several years has taken an active and leading part in public affairs. He is a man of decided ability and influence, both in business and in politics. He was elected to the House of Delegates from Queen Anne’s Courtly in 1872 for the term of two years, and in 1875 was elected Stale Senator for four years from January, 1876. The course of Senator Ford has been marked with unvarying success. He travels a great deal in connection with his business, and is full of life and activity. His mother, whom he tenderly cares for, is still living in Baltimore. [page 710]
GEORGE, Hon. Matthias, of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, was born in that county in 1801. His father, Joseph George, a well-known farmer, and a member of the Society of Friends, died in 1820, in the vicinity of Centreville. His mother was a native of the above county. Her maiden name was Henrietta Hart. Her death occurred in 1829. An exemplary member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, she left behind her the record of a devoted Christian life. The early ancestors of the family, it is supposed, came front Wales and settled in the county of Kent. Bishop George, one of the early bishops of the above-mentioned Church, was of the same family. Young Matthias George was from his fifth year under the care of a governess in his father’s house. When in his tenth year his father, jointly with the late Major Massey, of Queenstown, whose estate was contiguous to his own, built a school house and employed a competent teacher for their children. This school Matthias attended until his twentieth year, when his father died, and he carried on the farm for his mother. In 1825 he commenced farming for himself, and from that time has made it the business of his life. From his early manhood he voted with the Whig party until it ceased to exist. In 1839 he was, on that ticket, nominated and elected to the General Assembly, and was kept a member of the Lower House until 1845, when he was elected State Senator from Queen Anne’s County, serving until 1851. In 1862 he was elected a member of the Board of County Commissioners, and served for two terms in that office. On the breaking out of the civil war Mr. George took strong ground and a very active part in the support of Mr. Lincoln, and the triumph of the Union cause. For a long time he has been an active Republican, and an influential member of that party in his county. He is not a member of any church, but is strongly inclined to the faith of his fathers, and may in reality be classed with the Society of Friends. He has been three times married; first in 1824, to Martha Elliott. Her son, Joseph E. George, of Sudlersville, is now his only surviving child. He was next married in 1840 to Clarissa, daughter of John Boone, of Caroline County. His present wife was Mrs. Lucretia D. (Haddaway) Hopper, widow of Thomas W. Hopper, of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. [page 396]
HARDCASTLE, General Edmund L. F., the eldest son of Edward B. and Mary Ann (Lockwood) Hardcastle, was born, October 18, 1824, in Denton, Caroline County, Maryland. His father, Edward B. Hardcastle, was a prominent merchant of the town, and much esteemed for his high character. Robert Hardcastle, his great-great grandfather, came from England, and in the year 1748 obtained a patent for lands and settled in that portion of Queen Anne’s County which was subsequently taken off to form a part of Caroline County. Robert left several sons, one or more of whom removed to Virginia or the Western territory. Peter, the third son, who was a soldier in our Revolutionary war and rose to the rank of Major in the Continental army, died without issue. The eldest son, Thomas, who founded the family seat known as “Castle Hall,” in the upper part of Caroline County, left eight sons, from whom have descended all of the name now residing in Maryland. Aaron, the eldest son of Thomas, was the grandfather of Edmund. His mother was the daughter of Caleb Lockwood, who belonged to an old and numerous family in Delaware. The subject of this sketch grew up and went to school as a boy in his native town, where an academy was established in the year 1840. Among his associates at this school were John M. Robinson and the brothers Willard and Eli Saulsbury, who have become men of distinction. The former is an eminent jurist on the bench of the Court of Appeals of Maryland; the two latter have each represented the State of Delaware in the United States Senate for two terms, the present Senator having been the successor of his brother, who is now Chancellor of Delaware. To complete their education the Saulsburys and Robinson went to Dickinson College, Carlisle, where it was the intention of Mr. Hardcastle to send his son also. But it was the desire of the latter to go to West Point, and the fact that Caroline County had never had an appointment to this institution favored his aspirations. From the Hon. James A. Pearce, then a Representative in Congress, he received the appointment, and after passing the required examination he was entered as cadet at the United States Military Academy, June, 1842. Here he acquitted himself with credit, graduating, June, 1846, fifth in his class, and in a short time thereafter he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of the United States Army, in the Corps of Topographical Engineers. In the same class were Generals McClellan, Foster, Reno, Couch, (Stonewall) Jackson, Sturgis, Stoneman, Oakes, Maury, Palmer, Jones, Wilcox, Gardner, Maxey, and Pickett. The Mexican war having broken out the month preceding the graduation of this class, almost every member of it was ordered to the seat of war, where an opportunity was soon afforded them to put in practice the military science taught them at West Point. Lieutenant Hardcastle was assigned to duty under General Winfield Scott, and served throughout the brilliant campaign that was conducted by that distinguished commander. He participated in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battle of Cerro Gordo, the capture of the Castle of Perote and of the city of Puebla, and the battles of Churubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and the city of Mexico. “For gallant and meritorious conduct” in the severely contested battles of Churubusco and Molino del Rey he received two brevets, which gave him the rank of Captain from September 8, 1847, the date of the last-named battle. He remained with the army in Mexico until the termination of the war by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, executed in June, 1848. During the occupation of the enemy’s capital the engineer officers were chiefly engaged in making reconnaissance and seeking information of the resources and roads of the country, with a view to a forward movement of the army. But several months before the ratification of the treaty of peace there were indications of a termination of the war without further conquest of Mexican territory. One of the most significant of these indications was a request to General Scott from the civil authorities of the city of Mexico, to have made by our engineer officers a survey for the more perfect drainage of that city, and for its protection from the floods caused by overflow of the waters of the Northern Lakes. Serious injuries had been sustained by these inundations, and it was desirable that a remedy should be found to guard against this danger in the future. This duty was assigned to Captain Hardcastle and Lieutenant Smith of the Topographical Engineers, who made a survey and reported a plan and estimate for draining the upper Lakes of their surplus waters; and suitable acknowledgments for the services rendered by these officers were made by the Mexican authorities. When the army was recalled from Mexico in the summer of 1848, Captain Hardcastle on arriving at New Orleans was ordered to proceed to Washington. Here he was occupied till the next winter in completing maps and reports of the surveys he had made in Mexico. About this time the commission was organized for running the new boundary line, which our recent acquisition of Mexican territory under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made it necessary to establish. As the junior engineer officer Captain Hardcastle was assigned to astronomical duty on this Mexican Boundary Commission, and for the better protection of the valuable instruments placed in his charge he was ordered to proceed by sea to San Diego, California. The steamer on which he sailed touched at Panama and took on board the rest of the Commission, which had crossed the isthmus and were awaiting transportation to San Diego, at which destination they all safely arrived in the month of May, 1849. This Boundary Commission was made up of a commissioner having diplomatic functions, with a corps of civilians, a surveyor with assistants (all civil engineers), whose duty it was to run and mark the boundary line, and an astronomical party, consisting of three engineer officers of the army and civil assistants, whose duty it was to determine the geographical position of this line. Beginning at the initial point on the Pacific coast (one marine league south of the Bay of San Diego) this boundary was to run thence by a straight line to the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers. But in order to compute the azimuth by which this line could be laid off and run from either end, it was necessary first to establish the latitude and longitude of its terminal points. The establishing of fixed observatories, and the necessary observations and the computation of the same for the determination of the correct geographical position of these two points, occupied about a year. While this work was going on at both ends of the line Captain Hardcastle was making reconnoissances of the intermediate country. The length of this line was about one hundred and fifty miles, and he found it would cross two ranges of mountains and a sand desert, the width of which was more than one third of the distance. This desert was destitute of grass or water, and over its burning sands the thermometer in the shade at midday ranged at one hundred and six degrees. He reported that it would be a difficult and laborious work to run and mark this boundary, but he thought it was practicable to do so by establishing points on the crests of the mountain ranges, and by employing a small force, say a working party of three persons, which could be supplied with water and provisions by relays of pack-mules, to operate across the desert. In the meanwhile, however, the appropriation of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars that had been made for this work was being exhausted by the maintenance of the two corps composing the civil branch of the Boundary Commission. Both the commissioner and surveyor had reported that the running and marking of this line was impracticable, on account of the great cost of operating through the unfavorable country intervening between the Pacific coast and the Gila River. It was under these circumstances, after the astronomical work had been completed, that orders were received from Washington to suspend further operations, disband the Commission, and leave one of the officers of the army in charge of the work. Captain Hardcastle being designated to remain at San Diego, he submitted an estimate of the cost of running and marking the line, amounting to the sum of twenty thousand dollars. This estimate being approved, at the Department of the Interior, funds were immediately sent to him, with instructions to commence operations. He took the field at once, and by the middle of the next summer he had completed the work at a cost within the amount of his estimate. A handsome marble monument was placed at the initial point on the Pacific coast and cast-iron monuments were erected at different points along the line. Returning to Washington in the autumn of 1851, he was shortly afterwards appointed Engineer Secretary of the Lighthouse Board, then being organized under a recent act of Congress. Up to this time our lighthouses and buoys, etc., had been under the charge of the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury, but our growing commerce required for its protection a more efficient and better-organized system of control of these important aids to navigation. To accomplish this object Congress authorized the creation of the Lighthouse Board, to be composed of three officers of engineers of the army, of three officers of the navy, and of two civilians having scientific attainments. The commercial nations of Europe, especially England and France, had made great progress and improvement in the structure of lighthouses, as well as in the mode of illuminating them. Iron pile foundations were found to be less costly and better adapted to certain localities than solid masonry, and for the cumbrous metallic reflectors there had been substituted the glass lens, which gave a stronger and better light. But in order to avail of these and other modern improvements an entire change of our lighthouse system was necessary. The first important step taken was to divide our coast into districts, which were placed in charge of officers of the army and navy as lighthouse inspectors, who were required to make frequent inspections and reports. As Engineer Secretary of this board, Captain Hardcastle had under his supervision the preparation of plans for new lighthouses and for the improvement of old ones as they were modified from time to time. Besides he had to conduct the correspondence in reference to the execution of such work. He prepared the plans for the Screw-pile Lighthouse on Seven Foot Knoll at the mouth of Patapsco River, and of the Minot’s Ledge Lighthouse on the coast of Massachusetts. Both these structures are good specimens of engineering skill, but very different in character as well as cost. One is an open framework of wrought iron exposed to the ice-flow from the Susquehanna River, the other is a massive granite tower exposed to the full force of the Atlantic wave, and each has successfully withstood the severe shock it was designed to resist. After a service of more than four years on this duty Captain Hardcastle resigned his commission in the army, and settled in Talbot County, Maryland, where he has since devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. A few years prior to his resignation he had married Sarah D., daughter of the late Colonel William Hughlett, a wealthy and influential gentleman of the same county. It was not to be expected that a man of his character and qualifications would remain in retirement upon his farm. He declined to take part on either side in the late civil war; but he made himself useful to the people by protecting them from the extortions of swindlers engaged during the war in furnishing substitutes for drafted men. In 1867 he was called upon to take charge of the Maryland and Delaware Railroad, which had become so seriously embarrassed in its finances that all work upon it had been abandoned. His friends were surprised that he would accept the presidency of a company in the desperate situation this was believed to be in; but he did not do so till after careful consideration of the matter. The road had been built as far as Ridgely in Caroline County, where it stopped for want of funds or credit to carry it further, and unless it was extended to Easton the people of Talbot County would reap little or no benefit from their means already expended in this work. After satisfying himself that but a small amount of mortgage bonds had been issued, he accepted the position, on condition that the existing contract was to be annulled when the road reached Hillsborough, and that no more bonds should be paid out, but that the work should be paid for in money as it progressed beyond this point. On this basis the road would belong to the stockholders by whose means it was built. Under his administration public confidence was restored, and the four miles of road to Hillsborough were built on the re-established credit of the company. But a controversy arose between him and the contractor as to the mode of payment for work beyond this point, which resulted in his retirement from the presidency at the end of the year. About this time he was made a Director in the Easton National Bank of Maryland. Being elected to the State Legislature he served in the House of Delegates in the session of 1870, and was made Chairman of the Committee on Militia and a member of the Ways and Means Committee. He was the author of the militia law and several important local laws adopted at that session. In 1874 he was appointed by Governor Groome a Brigadier-General in the State militia, which appointment was subsequently renewed by Governor Carroll. Under the Assessment Act of 1876 he was also appointed by Governor Carroll on the Board of Control and Review for Talbot County, and by his associates he was made President of the board. In this position he rendered most valuable and satisfactory service in the equalization and fair adjustment of taxes. Again elected to the Legislature, he was recognized as one of the most useful members of the House of Delegates in the session of 1878. As Chairman of the Committee on the Chesapeake Bay and Tributaries he prepared a bill regulating the oyster interest, which was highly commended, but the influence of the dredgers was sufficient to defeat its passage. The measure with which he was most prominently identified was the Elevator Bill, of which he was the author. It was an important measure for the protection of the grain and fruit-growers of Maryland, who are subjected to serious loss for want of adequate provision for the reception, storage, and handling of these important staple products. But there was violent opposition to its passage by the large dealers in Baltimore city, and the Judiciary Committee having reported that the bill was unconstitutional, it was defeated without a fair consideration of its merits. Without being a partisan he is a Democrat in politics, and wields a considerable influence. General Hardcastle is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he resides in the town of Easton, and has four sons: Richard, Thomas, Edward, and Hughlett. [pages 584-586]
HENRY, Hon. Daniel Magnadier, Representative in Congress of the First District of the State of Maryland, embracing the counties of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico, and Worcester, was born near Cambridge, Dorchester County, February 19, 1823. He was educated at Cambridge Academy, and at St John’s College, Annapolis. Having studied law, he was admitted to the bar in 1844, and has since been engaged in the practice of his profession. He was a member of the House of Delegates of Maryland in 1846, and again in 1849; was a member of the State Senate in 1870 and 1872; and was elected as a Democrat to the Forty fifth Congress, receiving 15,287 votes against 11,904 for Thomas A. Spence, Republican. He served in that Congress on the Committee on Claims, and on the Committee on Reform in the Civil Service. [pages 461-462]
HINES, Hon. Jesse Knock, was born November 17, 1829, near Millington, in Kent County, Maryland. He is the son of Isaac and Ann Bathsheba (Knock) Hines, and received his education at the schools of Dr. Baxter and Joseph Walker, in Baltimore, and at the primary school at Sudlersville, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. In February, 1844, he entered the country store of Thomas Walker, at Millington, and in December, 1845, became a clerk in the store of William F. Smyth, of the same place, and was subsequently employed in the store of P. & E. Spruance, in Smyrna, Delaware. During the years 1849 and 1850, he worked as a bricklayer, and afterwards had charge of the primary school in Morgan’s Creek Neck, Kent County, Maryland. In 1852 he commenced merchandising in Millington, and in October, 1854, was appointed Constable. In 1855 and 1856 he was Collector of Taxes in the Fourth District of Kent County, having been elected in 1855 Constable by the American or Know-Nothing party. In 1857 he was elected, by the same party, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Kent County. In 1863 he was re-elected Clerk by the Union party. In 1864 he joined the Democrats, and by them was again, in 1867, elected Clerk. He studied law with Richard Hynson, in Chestertown, and was admitted to the bar on May 2, 1868. In 1872 he was a member of the Democratic National Convention which nominated Horace Greeley for the Presidency. In 1873 he was elected to the Legislature of Maryland, and served as Speaker of the House of Delegates in the January session of 1874. In May, 1874, he was appointed Commander of the Maryland Oyster Police Force, and held that office two years. He was immediately afterwards Assessment and Corporation Clerk in the office of the Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland. On February 1, 1877, he was appointed by the Comptroller, Hon. Levin Woolford, Insurance Commissioner. By the act of 1878, chapter 106, the Insurance Department of the State of Maryland was established, and made distinct, and in April, 1878, he was appointed Insurance Commissioner by Governor John Lee Carroll, Comptroller Thomas J. Keating, and Treasurer Barnes Compton, for the term of four years. He was made a Freemason in 1852, in Union Lodge, at Elkton, Maryland, and afterwards assisted in forming Eureka Lodge, at Millington, and Chester Lodge, in Chestertown. Of both of the two last-named lodges he is now a Past Master. He also became a member of Phoenix Royal Arch Chapter, and of Maryland Commandery of Knights Templar, in Baltimore. He attends the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married December 2, 1852, Emily Alphonsa Massey, daughter of Elijah E. and Mary E. (Knock) Massey, and has the following children now living: Thomas Lucien, William Franklin, Jesse Knock, Isaac Massey, Annie, Jennie Quigg, and Catharine Alphonsa. [pages 448-449]
HOPKINS, Henry Powell, Farmer, eldest son of Elias and Sallie (Powell) Hopkins, was born March 30, 1817, in Talbot County, to which place his father had removed two years previously. The latter was Captain of Light Cavalry in Kent County, Delaware, during the war of 1812. He died July 29, 1848. Mrs. Hopkins was a relative of Mr. Dickinson, who was killed in the famous duel between himself and Jackson. She was the daughter of Howell and Anna (Dickinson) Powell. The first American ancestor of the family was John Hopkins, an Englishman, who landed at Black Water Point, Sussex County, Delaware, in 1735. He there purchased real estate, which is still in the possession of his descendants. He had two sons, Zebediah and Hooper. The latter had one son, Robert, the father of Elias, who was born September 30, 1792. Henry P. Hopkins had three brothers: Robert D., Elias, and John; and two sisters: Mollie and Eliza Ann. He received the rudiments of an English education at the public school of his native county, and afterwards attended the Academy at Easton for a year. Having been brought up on a farm, his tastes and early habits inclined him to agriculture, in which pursuit he has engaged from the time of leaving school. He owns a farm of two hundred and forty acres at Rock Cliff, on which he resides. Mr. Hopkins was Captain of a company of Light Infantry in 1846, but was not called into service. In 1864 he was elected Judge of the Orphans’ Court for four years on the Union ticket, and School Commissioner from 1865 to 1867. He was again elected in 1870, and has ever since held that office. In May, 1849, he joined the Sons of Temperance, and has filled all the chairs of the society. In 1872 he joined the “Patrons of Husbandry,” and occupied prominent positions in the Order. He was a Whig while that party existed, but is now a Democrat. In the fall of 1847 he was converted, and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1845 he was married to Alexine, daughter of Henry Jump, of Queen Anne’s County, a family highly respected. He has had eight children, six of whom are now living: Sallie P., now Mrs. J. Frank Turner, Lizzie F. and Elma Hopkins, Nannie K., now Mrs. J. K. Jarrell, M. Loulie, now Mrs. George T. Melvin, and Harry J. Hopkins. The four eldest daughters were educated at the Wesleyan College, Delaware, and the youngest at Pennington Seminary, New Jersey. Harry, the son, took the degree of A.B. at Washington College, Maryland. Mr. Hopkins’s Christian character and usefulness are highly appreciated in Talbot County, where he has resided all his life. [page 524]
HOPPER, Daniel Cox, Farmer, of the Sixth District of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, was born May 22, 1816. His father was Daniel C. Hopper, a brother of Hon. P. B. Hopper, one of Maryland’s most eminent and respected citizens. The latter was for many years a Judge of the Orphans’ Court of Queen Anne’s County, and served in the State Assembly of Maryland. He was one of the committee to receive General Lafayette in Baltimore in 1825. He was at one time a candidate for Congress, but was defeated by Judge Carmichael. Daniel C. Hopper, Sr., died in 1849, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the time of his death, and was universally esteemed for his exemplary Christian character. His wile, who was Maria, daughter of Colonel Thomas, of Wye Neck, Queen Anne’s County, died in 1850, in the seventieth year of her age. She was an exemplary Christian, and a strict member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She was very charitable, the poor ever finding in her a benevolent friend. The subject of this sketch was born and raised on a farm known as “Mount Pleasant,” on which he still resides. It has been in the possession of his family for several generations. He attended a district school until his fifteenth year, when he. entered the Centreville Academy, then under the direction of Thomas C. Brown. He remained there until his nineteenth year, when he undertook the management of his father’s farm, the latter being crippled by being thrown from a horse. Mr. Hopper has been continuously and successfully pursuing the business of an agriculturist ever since. In March, 1869, he removed to “Warner Hall,” Gloucester County, Virginia, where he remained for over five years still engaged in farming, though occupying, from the above year until the election of officers under the State organization, the position of Chief Judge of the Magistrate’s Court. In 1874 he returned to the old Hopper homestead. During the civil war Mr. Hopper was a decided and earnest friend and supporter of the Union, and was elected on the Union ticket in 1860 as County Commissioner, serving as such for two years. “Mount Pleasant,” Mr. Hopper’s estate, is a tract of very valuable land, embracing three hundred acres. He has been thrice married: first, to Henrietta E., daughter of Eben Massey, of Kent County; she died October 3, 1842. His second wife was Anna Augusta Perkins, of Chestertown, to whom he was married November 16, 1847; she died July 4, 1858, leaving five children, four of whom are living: Sarah M., wife of O. W. Mosely, of Virginia; Anna A., wife of Nehemiah Baily, of Queen Anne’s County; Daniel C., Jr.; and Susanna P. Hopper. His third wife was Miss Evalina H., daughter of Hon. Charles McCallister, of Queen Anne’s County, the marriage occurring November 3, 1859. By the last marriage he has five children, three sons and two daughters. [page 553]
HUGHEY, Thomas Cook, Attorney-at-law, Cumberland, Maryland, was born July 21, 1839, at Centreville, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. He is the only surviving child of his parents. His father was Thomas Hughey, Esq., long known as an upright and honorable citizen of Centreville, who died in 1869 in the fifty-ninth year of his age. His mother was Miss Ann Kent Cook, daughter of Colonel Thomas Baynard Cook, and among the oldest and most respected families of that county. She is still living, advanced in years, and loved and honored by all who know her. Thomas Cook Hughey began his education at a private school, subsequently became a pupil at the Centreville Academy, from whence, after completing his preparatory studies, he was sent to Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. From this college he returned to his home in 1857, and at eighteen years of age entered as a student in the law office of Cook & Hopper, of Centreville, the senior member of the firm being his mother’s brother, a gentleman of great worth, an honor to his profession, and who had served for many years in the Senate of Maryland. After completing his studies Mr. Hughey was admitted to the bar, in August, 1860, and entered on the practice of his profession under the most flattering auspices, but the war breaking out in 1861 his patriotism induced him to devote himself, heart and soul, to what he regarded as the duty of the hour for him - the service of his imperilled country. In 1861, in the face of threatened social ostracism and contrary to the urgent wishes of his friends, most of whom were on the other side, he organized and equipped, partly out of his own funds, the battalion known as the “Maryland Zouaves,” who did good service in the cause of the Union. By his enthusiastic patriotism Mr. Hughey was brought to the favorable notice and confidence of such men as Governor Hicks, Hon. H. Winter Davis, Major-General Dix, and other prominent gentlemen, to whose memory he yet clings with affectionate attachment. A severe illness, of nine months’ duration, forbade his services in the field, and greatly to his regret this rheumatic affection prevented his future participation in the active services of the war, either with his battalion or otherwise. In 1863 Mr. Hughey was united in marriage to Miss S. Lizzie Carter, an estimable and cultivated lady of his native county. Two children were the fruit of this marriage, only one of whom, a daughter, still survives. In the same year (1863) his health becoming improved Mr. Hughey was nominated on the Republican ticket for State’s Attorney of Queen Anne’s County, and was elected by a handsome majority. Entering on the duties of his office he rapidly rose to popular notice and distinction as a lawyer. Several important and complicated murder cases, among them the celebrated Paca murder trial, occurring during his administration of the office, he won favorable regard from all by his astuteness and the ability with which he discharged his duty as an officer of the State, largely augmenting his reputation as a criminal lawyer. But though thus employed at the bar of his native county, he never ceased to put forth the fullest measure of effort for the success of the Union cause and party. Although not twenty-five years of age he exerted a wide influence on the Eastern and Western Shores, and his eloquent speeches in each political canvass evinced his unabated ardor in his country’s interests. From 1860 to 1868 he was in every State Republican convention, serving also during the same period as a member of the State Central Committee. Political life and success for his political friends and party, rather than for himself, at this time seemed to absorb in a large degree all his thoughts and aspirations. In 1867 he removed to Cumberland, Alleghany County, Maryland, believing that rapidly growing city to offer a wider sphere of usefulness, influence, and success. Here he engaged in the practice of law, and for some years continued in active political life, winning many friends and receiving frequent eulogy from the press, both as a lawyer and eloquent public speaker. In 1874 he became the head of the law firm of Hughey, Brace & Richmond in that city, and a large and successful practice came into the hands of this firm. In 1877, from threatened injury to his health, he withdrew from that firm, and shortly thereafter began for himself such a practice as he could attend to without strain on his enfeebled system. This individual practice soon became not only satisfactory but large and lucrative. In 1879, in consequence of increasing trouble to his nervous system and for the purpose of seeking, in change of place, a tonic and remedial help. He temporarily removed to Washington, D. C. Mr. Hughey is a member in high standing of the Knights of Pythias, Heptasophs, and other secret orders. He is the Senior Past Grand Dictator of the Grand Lodge of Maryland of the “Knights of Honor,” and also a member id the “Supreme Lodge of the World.” In March 1878, he was elected as Representative to the “Supreme Lodge of the World,” attended its session held in Nashville, Tennessee, in May of that year, and in the following March was again chosen as Supreme Representative to the same body, which meets in Boston, Massachusetts, in May, 1879. Mr. Hughey is of slender frame, yet graceful in his movements, and very popular with his friends. Though modest he is possessed of large will-power; is of a kindly and generous nature, urbane in his deportment, and strictly temperate in his habits. He is endowed richly as to talent, and as well at the bar as on the hustings is a brilliant speaker. Should his health permit the exertion needed, his friends anticipate for him a brilliant, happy, and successful future. [pages 617-618]
JONES, Robert Chew, Esq., Attorney and Counsellor at Law, was born at Kent Island, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, January 20, 1843. His father is Richard Ireland Chew Jones, of Annapolis, Maryland. His mother’s maiden name was Mary Goldsborough Pascault, daughter of Lewis Charles Pascault. She died in 1862; his father is still living. The maiden name of his father’s mother was Miss Chew, and that of his mother’s mother Miss Goldsborough. H is parents’ fathers were both officers in the United States Army in the war of 1812. The subject of this sketch received a thorough education in all the branches of English culture, together with Latin, mathematics, and general history, at the Academy in Easton, Talbot County, Maryland. He was naturally fond of study, and therefore was very regular in his attendance at school. After leaving school, being then in his eighteenth year, he joined the Confederate Army, because of his honest espousal of the Southern cause in the late war. He was a Major of Artillery in that service; lost his right arm, and was wounded four times after that loss. When the war ended he was very poor. About six months after the close of the war, he returned to Easton and studied law, in the office of Hon. Samuel Hambleton, one of the ablest lawyers of Maryland, who proved to be a kind preceptor, and one of Mr. Jones’s sincerest friends. After his admission to the bar, he went to Cumberland, Maryland, and there commenced the practice of his profession, August 1, 1867. He was an entire stranger when he arrived in that city with three hundred dollars of borrowed money in his pocket. He has remained there ever since, successfully prosecuting his profession. He has never been connected with any public enterprise, or held public office; and it would require very strong inducements to make him accept one; neither has he ever been associated with any secret or political organization. Mr. Jones is a member of the Catholic Church, and politically has always been a Democrat. He married, June 6, 1871, Miss Virginia Moss Lynn, second daughter of Dr. George Lynn, of Cumberland, and has two children. His wife’s mother before her marriage was Miss Virginia Moss, of Virginia. Both of his wife’s parents are dead. [pages 455-456]
KEATING, Hon. Thomas James, Lawyer and Comptroller of the State Treasury, was born in Smyrna, Delaware, May 3, 1829. lie was the eldest in a family of eight children, whose parents were Michael and Elizabeth Jane (Palmer) Keating. His father was educated for a teacher, and came to Baltimore from Ireland, at the age of twenty-one. While on the voyage he had amused himself in examining the ship’s log, in which he detected an error in the calculation; a circumstance that greatly pleased the captain. It happened that immediately on their arrival a gentleman from Kent Island came to the ship, seeking a teacher, and the captain took occasion to warmly recommend to him Mr. Keating. He spent his life in teaching on the Eastern Shore, and in Delaware. The latter part of his life he was in the Academy in Centreville, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, at which place he died at the age of fifty-two. He was a refined and cultivated gentleman, and eminent in his profession. His wife belonged to an old substantial family of that county, whose ancestors were among the earliest settlers of the State. Her father, George Palmer, was a man of high social position, and was for many years a Justice of the Peace. Mr. Keating was prepared for college at his father’s Academy, his parents having returned to Maryland when he was five years old. At the age of seventeen he entered Princeton College, New Jersey, from which he graduated in 1848. On returning home he studied law in the office of Judge Carmichael; his fellow-student in this office, John M. Robinson, afterwards became Judge of the Court of Appeals. He was admitted to the bar in 1851, entering at once upon the practice of his profession, and soon took a leading position as one of the ablest lawyers on the Eastern Shore. As a trial attorney he was remarkably successful, and in criminal cases he had few equals. His practice became very large and profitable, but craving fresh fields for the yet wider exercise of his talents, he purchased, in 1857, the Centreville Sentinel, a county paper. Changing its name to the Centreville States Rights, he was the editor and proprietor till 1864, warmly upholding in its columns the Southern view of political questions. In 1863 an organization, known as the “Home Guard,” entered his office demanding an apology for some of the sentiments he had expressed. Not being able to obtain it from him they demolished his office, and threw its contents into the street. He procured more material and continued the publication of his paper for another year, when his office was destroyed by fire, and everything in it lost, except the contents of a safe. His valuable law library, printing presses, type, etc., became food for the flames. His loss closed his editorial career, his time being more than filled with other demands upon him. He was elected in 1860 as State’s Attorney for Queen Anne’s County, which office he held continuously till 1876, with the exception of one term. During that intermission of four years he was counsel in several capital cases of great interest, among which should be mentioned the trial of William H. Paca, and three of his sons, for the murder of his nephew and his nephew’s uncle. It created a profound sensation even beyond the borders of the State, on account of the social prominence of the parties accused of the crime. Mr. Paca belonged to one of the first families of the Eastern Shore. His grandfather was one of the four signers of the Declaration of Independence, whose portrait now hangs in the Senate chamber at Annapolis. The homicide was committed within one hundred yards of the burial-ground where the signer lies. Eminent counsel were retained in the case. The State’s Attorney was assisted in the prosecution by Attorney-General Brent; and Messrs. Milton Whitney, of Baltimore, and James L. Martin, of Easton, were associated with Mr. Keating in the defence. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Mr. Keating was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1867, which framed the present Constitution, and look a leading part in its deliberations. In 1870 his youngest brother, Benjamin Palmer Keating, came into his office as a law-student, was admitted to the bar in 1872, and was taken into partnership with his brother, which still continues. In 1874 Mr. Keating was a candidate for Congress, but was defeated by Governor Thomas, in the nominating convention, and the next year was President of the State Democratic Convention when John Lee Carroll was nominated for Governor. In November, 1877, he was nominated by acclamation by the Democratic Convention for the office of State Comptroller, and elected over his opponent, Dr. Porter, of Alleghany, by the largest majority ever given any man in the State. His popularity is still further attested by the fact that he always led the ticket in his own county. His success in life has been fairly won by hard work and strict integrity. He has always been a Democrat. His family owned slaves before the war, and are members of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was married, in June, 1862, to Miss Sarah F. Webster, of Harford, daughter of Henry Webster, of that place, a relative of Captain Webster, one of the defenders of Baltimore in 1812. Colonel Edwin H. Webster, of Bel Air, Harford County, ex-member of Congress, is a brother of Mrs. Keating. The family is one of the oldest in the county, and of the highest respectability. Mr. Keating has six children, three boys and three girls; their names are Lizzie, Harry, Frank, Thomas James, Jr. , Annie, and Hanson Palmer. [page 508]
LEGG, Colonel William Henry, was born on Kent Island, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, in 1832. The family homestead, “Legg’s Beginning,” in Cox's Neck, near which the subject of our sketch was born, was first settled by William Legg, an Englishman, under a warrant obtained from Governor Hart, in 1717, and has descended, intact, to the heirs of each generation. Kent Island is distinguished as the first point of Anglo-American civilization within the present boundaries of Maryland, being settled about 1626, by Colonel William Clayborne. The father of Colonel Legg was Captain Henry C. Legg, who fell a victim to the cholera epidemic of 1832, the year of his son’s birth. His wife was Margaret, daughter of Captain William Skinner, of Queen Anne’s. William Henry was the youngest of three children. He attended the country school of the neighborhood, though not regularly, until he attained his seventeenth year, when he took charge of the home farm, his only brother having died at an early age. In 1859, there being no teacher obtainable at the time, he was solicited to take charge of the District School, which he consented to, it being in close proximity to his farm. In the fall of that year he was nominated by the Democratic party of his county for the Legislature, and was elected, receiving a very large and flattering support, many members of the opposition party in his district voting for him. He served in the session at Annapolis in 1860, and at Frederick in 1861. In 1867 he was elected to the first Legislature that met under the present State Constitution. During the session (1868), he was appointed on several important committees, and was Chairman of the Committee on Chesapeake Bay and Tributaries, as such reporting the bill that gave the State its first oyster police force. Having no reliable labor to cultivate his farm, he, in 1872, rented it out, and bought the Denton Journal, the Democratic organ of Caroline County, which he edited with profit and success until November, 1876, when he sold it to advantage and returned to his farm on Kent Island. As an editor he was a member of the Editorial Association of the State, and one of its Vice-Presidents. In October, 1875, he was appointed by Governor Groome an Aid on his Staff, with the rank of Colonel. In 1878 he removed to Stevensville, two miles from his farm, and there established the agricultural and building hardware business, in connection with the sale of phosphates, still retaining the management of his farm. Colonel Legg was married in December, 1866, to Henrietta, daughter of Clinton and Marietta Cook, of Centreville, Queen Anne’s County. Her father was a very prominent attorney in the courts of his district, and had served in both the Upper and Lower Houses of the State Legislature. He died, greatly regretted, in 1857. Colonel and Mrs. Legg have four children. His mother is still living. She is a warm-hearted, generous, Christian woman, from whom her son inherits many of the qualities that have made him so popular, and by whom he was carefully trained in all the nobler principles of humanity. She, as was his father, is a member of the Methodist Church, which the Colonel’s family attends. Colonel Legg is a man of warm impulses, a ready debater and writer, and even his political opponents admit that he excels as a stump speaker. [pages 499-500]
MASSEY, William Boone, a retired Merchant and wealthy Landholder of Caroline County, Maryland, was born in that county in the year 1815. His parents were William and Elizabeth (Boone) Massey. His father died at the age of fifty, when son William was only two years old. He began his education at a subscription school at the age of six, and continued to attend till he was ten, paying for his schooling at this tender age by working upon the farm. But his tastes inclined him to mercantile pursuits, and at the age of fourteen he engaged as clerk in a store in Greensboro, of which Mr. Thomas Birchinal was the proprietor. With this gentleman he remained till he was twenty-two years of age, when, in connection with Mr. William H. Dowries, he bought out Mr. Birchinal, and the two started a general merchandise business. Mr. Massey’s share of the capital was only three hundred dollars. At the end of six years he bought out the interest of his partner and continued alone for twelve years, when he again took a partner, Mr. William C. Meads. In 1855 he bought out Mr. Meads and conducted the business by himself for seventeen years. In 1872 he sold out his store and engaged in farming, having spent thirty-live years of his life as a merchant. He began the purchase of real estate in 1842. For ten years from 1847 he invested in vessels trading between Philadelphia and Baltimore, but finally gave all his attention to real estate. Since his retirement from business he has been investing all his money in this way, till now he is the possessor of about twelve hundred acres of land, all situated in Caroline County. He has made his fortune by his own industry, honesty, and perseverance. He has had reverses, but it is his boast that he has never paid less than one hundred cents on every dollar of his debts. Mr. Massey was active as an old-line Whig from his earliest manhood up to the accession of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, after which he became and is still a Republican. He has always shunned political office and conspicuous party position. He has travelled very generally through the United States and Canada. He was married in 1838 to Anna Maria, daughter of Andrew Baggs, of Caroline County, by whom he had six children. He lost his wife in 1848, and remained a widower until 1862, when he married Mrs. Elizabeth Turner, daughter of Mr. W. T. Wright, of Queen Anne’s County. Two children have been born to them. Mr. Massey is the father of Hon. James Massey, member from Caroline County of the present State Legislature. He early became attached to the Methodist Episcopal Church, which he still attends. [pages 638-639]
McCOLLISTER, Charles, of the Second District, Queen Anne’s County, was born in that county, on what is known as Lord Baltimore’s Manor, April 12, 1805. His father, Charles McCollister came to that place in early life from Sussex County, Delaware, and married Margaret, daughter of Benjamin Chairs, a descendant of one of the earliest settlers of this portion of the Province of Maryland. She was among the early Methodists of the Eastern Shore, having joined that Church when very young, and was a woman of intelligence and piety. Her death took place in 1808, when her son was but three years old. His father also dying four years later, he was brought up by his mother’s sister, Mrs. Harriet Bruscup. He attended the district school of his native locality till his twelfth year, when, upon the removal of his aunt to Centreville, his education was continued four years longer in the academy of that town. In 1821 he went to Philadelphia, and engaged as an apprentice with Benjamin Wiley, carpenter and builder, with whom he served four years, after which he worked with him as journeyman until his twenty-fifth year. His half-brother, John Chairs, dying in 1827, left him an estate in his native county, called the “Hermitage,” two and a half miles south of Church Hill, containing two hundred and seventeen acres. Of this estate he took charge in 1829, and from that time devoted himself to agriculture. The “Hermitage,” where he has now resided for fifty years, is a very valuable and highly improved property. Mr. McCollister served a number of years as a Magistrate, being appointed to that office by Governor Grayson, and was for four years one of the Judges of the Orphans’ Court of Queen Anne’s County. In 1860 he was elected a member of the House of Delegates from his county, on the Union ticket, and served in the session of that year. He was an uncompromising Union man, and gave all his influence to the support of measures to avert the threatened disintegration of the Stales. In 1868 Mr. McCollister was elected a Director of the Queen Anne’s and Kent Railroad, in which capacity he continued to serve until it passed into the hands of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company in 1874. The integrity and uprightness of his character, both in public and private life, has at all times given him the fullest respect and confidence of the community. His first wife was Evalina, daughter of Dr. Andrew Hall, of Millington, Kent County. She died in 1835, leaving him two children, one of whom followed her when in her fifth year. The daughter remaining is Mrs. Evalina Hall Hopper, wife of David C. Hopper, pf the same county. In 1836 Mr. McCollister married Catharine, daughter of Robert Godwin, farmer, of Queen Anne’s County. Of the seven children of this union, five are now living; Mary E., who resides with her parents; John C., whose farm adjoins his father’s; Mrs. William T. Todd, whose husband is a merchant of Church Hill; Samuel G., a farmer near that place; and Charles McCollister, Jr., who now takes the care of the Hermitage estate. [pages 453-454]
MITCHELL, Hon. William DeCourcy, Farmer and Legislator, was born in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, November, 1840. He was the second son of Henry S. and Mary S. E. (De Courcy) Mitchell. His father is one of the largest landowners and tobacco planters in Southern Maryland. At one time he owned between five and six thousand acres of land. His paternal grandfather was a very wealthy merchant in Baltimore. His mother is a lineal descendant of Baron De Courcy, the English general who completed the supremacy of English rule in Ireland, and became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with the titles and estates of the old Anglo-Norman barony of Courcy and Kinsale. One of the descendants of Baron De Courcy, Hon. Henry De Courcy, emigrated to the Province of Maryland with Lord Baltimore, or soon followed him, and received an estate near the mouth of the Chester River, which was designated as “My Lord’s Gift,” and has ever since borne that name. It was preserved intact in the direct family line until the year 1870, when it was sold under a mortgage obtained upon it just prior to the late war. Mr. Mitchell spent four years at Georgetown College, District of Columbia, after which he was for two years a student at Mount St. Mary’s College, near Emmettsburg, Maryland. He then returned home and entered upon the active duties of his chosen occupation as a farmer in Charles County, where he still resides. He has never been conspicuous in public affairs, preferring the peaceful pursuits of private life. In the campaign of 1877 he consented to be the candidate on the Independent Republican ticket, which was successful by a small majority. During the war he was an avowed Secessionist, and went to Virginia for the purpose of enlisting in the Confederate Army; but finding the sentiment in that State so hostile to Maryland, because of her failure to secede and join the rebellion, he returned home. At the close of the war he accepted the situation in good faith, and believed it the sacred duty of every citizen to support the laws and Constitution of the United States. A change gradually took place in his sentiments, he becoming more and more liberal in his views, until in 1872 he joined the Republican party, voting for Grant in opposition to Greeley. He is now devoted to the principles of the Republican party, and heartily believes in the equal rights of all citizens before the law, and in the education and elevation of the masses as the only security for the stability of our free institutions. Mr. Mitchell was educated in the Roman Catholic faith, to which he adheres. [pages 695-696]
NEWMAN, William G. H., M.D., was born near Princess Anne, Somerset County, Maryland, April 17, 1827. His paternal ancestors, who were of Irish origin, settled in Maryland as early as 1650. His mother’s ancestors came from England to Maryland about 1765. The subject of this sketch received his early education at Washington Academy in his native county. He was then sent to Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, where he remained one year, leaving in the Junior Class. In 1847, when twenty years of age, young Newman began the study of medicine under the distinguished Professor Nathan K. Smith, of Baltimore, and completed his course at the University of Maryland, from which he graduated in 1849 with high honors. The same year he entered upon the practice of medicine in Georgetown, District of Columbia, but removed to Washington soon after. His talents, energy, and high character soon brought him a large and lucrative practice, which has been increasing with advancing years. Apart from his professional eminence he has a commanding influence as a citizen. At one time he was a member of the City Council of Washington, but his widespread practice required on his part a declination of official position, and he has devoted himself entirely to his profession. Dr. Newman is a member of the Medical Society, as also of the “Medical Association” of the District, and is Chief of the Medical Staff in charge of St. Ann’s Infant Asylum. In politics he was a Whig. In 1863 he was converted to the Catholic religion, and since that time he has been a devout and exemplary member of that Church. In 1850 Dr. Newman was married to Miss Mary A. Rider, of Somerset County, Maryland. This lady, like her husband, is a convert to Catholicism. [page 698]
NEWNAM, Rev. Edward Beverly, Pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Chestertown, Kent County, Maryland, was born in Centreville, Queen Anne’s County, November 29, 1836. His father, Daniel Newnam, of the latter place, was a native of Talbot County. A man of great industry and business capacity, he amassed a fortune and owned a great deal of real estate in his county. From an early date in the present century he had been in that place one of the pillars of Methodism, and his house was the home of the ministers who travelled Centreville Circuit, where they were always hospitably entertained. He married the widow of the Rev. Mr. Iliffe, who for a number of years was a member of the Philadelphia Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She was formerly Miss Caroline S. Woodward, of Woodbury, New Jersey. Their son Edward completed, at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the education so well begun at Centreville Academy, and on leaving college devoted himself to agriculture, taking charge of one of the estates left him by his father. In 1864 he united with the Church of his parents, and two years later was admitted to the travelling ministry of the Philadelphia Annual Conference. On the division of that Conference, in 1868, he became a member of the Wilmington Annual Conference. His first charge was Church Mill, in the vicinity of his native place. In 1868 he was sent as pastor to Leipsio, Delaware, in 1870 to Millington, and in 1871 to Frederica, remaining two years in the latter place. In 1873 he was stationed at Easton, Maryland, in 1875 at Chesapeake City, in the spring of 1877 was appointed to Still Pond, and in 1879 to his present charge. Mr. Newnam is a scholar of good attainments, and a man of winning address in the pulpit. He is an earnest and successful preacher, and makes many warm friends wherever he is sent. He is a Mason, and an active promoter of all benevolent and reformatory societies. In Wilmington, Delaware, in 1857, the Rev. Dr. Cook performed the marriage ceremony uniting Mr. Newnam with Sarah E., daughter of George E. Wooley, of Cecil County, Maryland. Her grandfather, Rev. George Wooley, was a veteran member of the Philadelphia Annual Conference; she is also the great-granddaughter of Rev. John Carnan. Mr. and Mrs. Newnam have had two sons and one daughter, of whom only the latter, Florence Julia, survives. [page 529]
PRICE, Mordecai, Farmer and retired Merchant, of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, was born in that county March 22, 1817. His parents were Basil and Elizabeth (Skinner) Price. Brought up to the labors of his father’s farm, and attending a distant district pay-school for only a short time each winter, his education was mainly self-acquired. At the age of eighteen he apprenticed himself to Samuel Colgan, boot and shoemaker, of Centreville, and for two months of each year of his apprenticeship had the privilege of attending the academy of that place. On attaining his majority he worked for two years as a journeyman, saving in that time, by close economy and untiring industry, enough money to commence business for himself at Beaver Dam, now Ingleside, in the same comity. Allowing only work of a superior character to pass out of his shop he soon had a large business, which progressively increased for twenty-two years. In 1848 he engaged also in mercantile business, which he continued in that place for fourteen years, when, having prospered well, he removed in 1863 to the estate on which he now resides, called Okentharp, which has one hundred and sixty-two acres of good land. Here he engaged in farming, in which he also succeeded. In 1864 he again engaged in mercantile business, this time in Rossville, a small village near his farm, where he had a store for two years, continuing also his agricultural interests. During this period he purchased “Springfield,” an estate of three hundred and twenty-five acres, on the Kent and Queen Anne’s Railroad. Price’s Station, named for him, is at this point. Here, in 1868, he built a large store, the business of which he conducted for four years. Since that time he has become the owner of “Sugar Loaf,” a farm of one hundred and seventy acres, adjoining “Okentharp,” and “Crow’s Nest,” of one hundred and fifty-eight acres, near Church Hill. Mr. Price has always taken great interest in the agricultural and political interests of his State and county. He is a Granger, and the Treasurer of Church Hill Grange, No. 149. In politics he has always been a Democrat, and has occupied offices of trust and responsibility in his county. He was for two years County Collector of Taxes, and has been for eight years, or two terms, a member of the Board of Commissioners for his county. He has served a number of times as Delegate to the County, Congressional, and State Nominating Conventions. In 1877 he was appointed by the Governor Register of Wills for Queen Anne’s County, to fill the unexpired term of James P. Dudley, who died while in the occupancy of that office. He was Treasurer of the Kent and Queen Anne Railroad from the organization of the company until it passed into the hands of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Company. Mr. Price attends the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which faith he was reared. He was first married to Frances, daughter of William Stevens, of Queen Anne’s County. She died 1853. One of her children is now living. He was next united to Kate, daughter of James Turner, formerly of Caroline County, by whom he has seven children. [pages 443-444]
PRICE, Robert John, M.D., was born in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, October 13, 1838. He is the son John C. and Elizabeth Price, of that county. He was placed at a district school at a very early age, and when ten years old entered the High School in Baltimore, where he remained for some time, and then returned to his native county and became a pupil in the Centreville Academy, attending the same at irregular intervals until he attained the age of twenty-one years. The death of his father, when Robert was sixteen years of age, was the cause of these intervals in school attendance, during which he acquired a knowledge of the wheelwrighting business, the aggregate time devoted to the same being four years. After spending another year at the Academy he engaged in teaching, and simultaneously in the study of medicine, his preceptor being Dr. Joseph A. Holton, of Queen Anne’s County. He matriculated at the University of Maryland in the autumn of 1864, and graduated therefrom in the spring of 1866. He established himself in the practice of his profession in Dorchester County, Maryland, where he still continues to reside, in the enjoyment of an extensive professional patronage. He has occupied the position of Physician to the Almshouse of Dorchester County, and is at present a member of the Board of School Commissioners of the above county. Dr. Price married, June 5, 1866, Miss Laura, daughter of Abraham Jump, of Caroline County, Maryland. Dr. Price enjoys an enviable reputation as a physician, and is highly esteemed in the community in which he resides. [pages 632-633]
RASIN, Robert Wilson, was born at Old Field Point, Kent County, Maryland, September 6, 1806. He received his education at Washington College, and at adult age adopted the vocation of an agriculturist. After pursuing a farmer’s life for about twenty years, he, in 1847, removed to Baltimore, where he engaged extensively in the business of a real estate broker, and maintained a high character for frank and honest dealing. From early youth he evinced a lively interest in politics, and was an active worker with his party, but never sought or accepted political preferment. He was identified with the old Whig party, and when it ceased to exist he affiliated with the Democracy, supporting the ticket of that party in the election of Governor E. Louis Lowe. On the breaking out of the rebellion his sympathies were with the Southern Confederacy. Decided in his opinions, he was free and frank in their expression; though committing no overt act, he nevertheless rendered himself obnoxious to some of the Union officers in authority at Baltimore, and was arrested by order of Colonel Fish, Provost-Marshal, and sent to Fort McHenry, thence to Fort Lafayette, and then transferred to Fort Delaware, where he was kept as a prisoner of war for twenty-eight months, refusing to purchase his liberty by taking the "ironclad” oath. Mr. Rasin's paternal ancestors were of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and on the maternal side, of the Society of Friends, his own religious predelictions being in favor of the latter. He ultimately embraced the faith and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, in which he was baptized, and in the communion of which he died. Mr. Rasin married Miss Mary R., daughter of Edward Ringgold, of Kent County, by whom he had four children, two only of whom are living, I. Freeman Rasin, Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, Baltimore, and R. W. L. Rasin. He died February 8, 1878. Few men enjoyed a larger circle of attached friends than Robert W. Rasin. He was ardent in temperament; a loving husband and father; and his intercourse with his children was such that they could always approach him with freedom and confidence. In person he was tall and commanding; in his deportment manly and dignified, and in manner, affable and cheerful. He won and retained the friendship of all with whom he was brought into intercourse. [pages 485-486]
ROBINSON, Hon. John Mitchell, Judge of the Court of Appeals, was born, December 6, 1827, in Caroline County, Maryland, being the second son of Peter and Sarah (Mitchell) Robinson. His father was a farmer and planter; also his grandfather, Ralph Robinson, was a wealthy planter of Sussex County, Delaware. The family descended from the Rev. Ralph Robinson, a distinguished Protestant clergyman of England during the Reformation. Their ancestors settled in Delaware over turn hundred years ago. Judge Robinson graduated at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, in 1847, and studied law with Messrs. Carmichael & Brown, of Centreville, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. He was admitted to the bar in November, 1849, and settled in Centreville for the practice of his profession. In January, 1850, he was appointed Deputy Attorney General for Kent County, and, upon the adoption of the Constitution of 1851, was elected State’s Attorney for Queen Anne’s County, which office he filled for four years. He practiced law with great success till 1864, when he was elected Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit, embracing the counties of Kent and Queen Anne, which office he filled till he was elected to the Court of Appeals in 1867, for the term of fifteen years. Judge Robinson has exercised the judicial office for fourteen years with increasing popularity, He is an indefatigable student, a profound lawyer, and is regarded, both by the bar and the people, with the highest admiration and respect. In politics he has always been a Democrat. He was married, in 1857, to Miss Marianna Emory. [page 530]
SUDLER, John Wells Emory, Merchant and Fanner, of Sudlersville, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, was born in that place, January 11, 1817. The estate of the first American ancestor of the family comprised about one thousand acres of land, a large proportion of which still remains in the possession of the family. The village of Sudlersville, on the Queen Anne’s and Kent Railroad, is on this land; three farms on the west of it, and parts of several on the east, occupy the remainder. Richard Sadler, the grandfather of John W. E. Sadler, married Margaret, daughter of Colonel Arthur and Ann (Wells) Emory. He died at Sledmore in 1797, and his widow in 1806. Their son, Arthur Emory Sudler, born June 22, 1792, married Mary W., daughter of Rev. William and Sarah (Farrell) Jackson, of Queen Anne’s County. He died September, 1863, in the seventy-second year of his age, having been for more than half a century an honored and official member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His wife, a devoted Christian lady, was born in 1796, and died in September, 1846. Three of the children, two sons and a daughter, survived them. The daughter, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Comegys, died in 1865. The younger son, Dr. William Jackson Sudler, born in July, 1825, was for a number of years a practicing physician in Sudlersville, but his health not permitting him to continue his profession, he is now a farmer on a part of Sledmore, and a local preacher in the Church of his parents. He is a man of intelligence and influence in the community. The elder son, the subject of this sketch, attended school from his seventh to his fourteenth year, when he was placed in a store in Sudlersville. When sixteen years of age he went to Philadelphia, where he was a clerk for three years. Returning home in 1838, he went into mercantile business with his father, the firm bearing the name of J. E. Sudler & Co. In this business, under various connections, he continued until 1850, after which he devoted himself to agriculture, in which, during these years, he had been engaged to a limited extent. He removed in the beginning of this year to the estate on which he now resides, known as “Rose Villa,” a part of the original tract held for generations in the family. It consists of three hundred and fifty acres, and was purchased by him of various parties in 1848. In 1857 Mr. Sudler was nominated and elected on the Democratic ticket to the House of Delegates, and served in the session of 1858. In 1859 he became one of the Judges of the Orphans’ Court of his county, and served four years. In 1867 he was again elected to the Legislature, and served in the session of 1868. Mr. Sudler united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1838, in which he has been a recording steward since 1843. He has been a trustee, Sunday-school superintendent, and class-leader, filling each office worthily and efficiently. He was married first, April 26, 1838, to Mary R., only daughter of John Morgan, of Wye Landing, in Talbot County. Her amiable qualities and Christian character endeared her to the Church and the community. She died in March, 1867, leaving four children. Dr. Arthur Emory Sudler, the eldest, farmer and physician, resides on the old homestead, and is a well-known citizen of the county. He graduated at Jefferson College in the spring of 1858. He is master of the Grange of Queen Anne’s County, and is greatly interested in agriculture. He is also an official member of the Church of his parents, and superintendent of its Sunday-school in Sudlersville. The second son, John Morling Sudler, is also a member of that Church, and is master of the Sudlersville Grange. The third son, William Jackson Sudler, is in the jewelry business in Philadelphia. Mrs. S. S. Goodhand, who resides on a farm contiguous to that of her father, is the fourth child. On June 11, 1868, Mr. Sudler was married to Martha Virginia, daughter of Thomas Hopkins, of Caroline County. He has by this marriage two sons and a daughter. [page 392]
TEMPLE, John Wesley, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Caroline County, Maryland, was born November 15, 1821 on the homestead, near Templeville, Queen Anne’s County, same State. His parents, William and Mary (Knotts) Temple, were also natives of Queen Anne’s County, and were of English descent. Mr. Temple’s education all through his minority was very limited, and when he attained the age of manhood he was scarcely able to read and write. The only educational advantages he enjoyed were those afforded by the district, school in the neighborhood, in which there did not appear to be any teachers capable of giving instruction in grammar. He worked on the farm in spring and summer, and attended school during the three winter months. He had no inclination to follow anything except farming, and remained with his father until the twenty-second year of his age. On the 1st of April, 1844, he removed to a farm in Caroline County, where he remained until September 1, 1874, when he removed to Denton, the county seat of Caroline. Although Mr. Temple has never been an aspirant for political office he has been called upon to fill several important and responsible positions, such as that of Justice of the Peace, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Caroline County, as also of the Levy Court. He is a member in good standing of the Masonic fraternity, the Order of Odd Fellows, and the Knights of Pythias. He is attached to the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his parents were members, and in which his grandfather was a local preacher. In politics he affiliates with the Democratic party, though he is not an ultra partisan. In December, 1850, he married, and has had nine children. Mr. Temple has all through life led a strictly temperate life, never having drank any intoxicating beverages. His excellent character and efficiency as a public official have caused him to be highly esteemed in the community in which he resides. [page 486]
TILGHMAN, Honorable Matthew, was born February 17, 1718, at the Hermitage, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. He was the youngest son of Richard and Anna Maria (Lloyd) Tilghman, and the grandson of Dr. Richard Tilghman, one of the petitioners to have justice done upon Charles the First. He was adopted by his cousin, Matthew Tilghman Ward, and received from him a large landed estate, Bayside, in Talbot County, Maryland. He was a member of the Legislature of Maryland from 1751 to the outbreak of the Revolution. He was President of the Maryland Conventions held in Annapolis, which convened on the following dates: June 22, 1774, November 21, 1774, April 24, 1775, December 7, 1775, June 21, 1776, and August 14, 1776. In 1774 he was appointed a Deputy to the Continental Congress, and was continued a member of Congress, by successive re-elections, until 1777. On the day the Declaration of Independence was passed, he was detained in Annapolis, by the Convention of Maryland, over which he was presiding. When it was signed, William Paca, Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton, were the only members of the Maryland Delegation present. Matthew Tilghman, Thomas Johnson and Robert Alexander were absent. In December, 1774, he was appointed one of the Committee of Correspondence for the Province of Maryland, and served with laborious zeal in the cause of freedom. After the organization of the State Government, he served in the Senate of Maryland until the infirmities of age compelled him, in 1783, to retire to private life. He died May 4, 1790. He married Anna Lloyd, daughter of James and Ann (Grundy) Lloyd, and had the following children: Matthew Ward; Richard, born January 28, 1746, who married first, Margaret Tilghman, and secondly, Mary Tilghman, and died May 28, 1805; Lloyd, who married Henrietta Maria Tilghman; Margaret, who married Charles Carroll, barrister; and Anna Maria, who married Colonel Tench Tilghman. [pages 452-453]
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 fora 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 1864 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. He 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 Dr. 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 therefrom 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. [pages 597-598]
VANDERFORD, Henry, Editor and Journalist, was born, December 23, 1811, at Hillsborough, Caroline County, Maryland. His father was William Vanderford, of Queen Anne’s County, who intermarried with Elizabeth Frampton, of Talbot County, Maryland. His maternal ancestors were from Wales; his paternal from the Netherlands. Both branches of the family came to America in early colonial days. Among the earliest land records of Queen Anne’s County is that of a tract of land of one thousand acres, subsequently divided into three farms of an equal number of acres each, in the neighborhood of Hall’s Cross-roads in that county, which property remained in the family through several generations. The father of William Vanderford, and grandfather of Henry Vanderford, was Charles Wrench Vanderford, who was farming his ancestral acres at the outbreak of the Revolution of 1776, and previously. He joined the American Army during the Revolution and was one of the Maryland Line. The subject of this sketch received an academic education at the Hillsborough Academy. Subsequently his father purchased land in Talbot County and removed thither, and he continued to attend the school in the neighborhood, his scholastic term continuing through a period of about ten years. In 1825 he entered the office of Thomas Perin Smith, at Easton, Maryland, where he acquired a knowledge of the printing business. Mr. Smith was the proprietor and publisher of the Easton Star, and continued to publish it until his death in 1832, when Mr. Vanderford went to Baltimore, and afterward to Philadelphia. He was subsequently employed in printing the Easton, Maryland, Whig. In 1835 he bought the material of the Caroline Advocate, Denton, Maryland, and published that paper until the close of 1837, when he transferred the press and type to Centreville, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, and founded the Sentinel, the first number of which appeared January 1, 1838. The Advocate had received a fair patronage, but the removal of the office to Centreville was at the suggestion of William A. Spencer, Esq., and Hon. Richard B. Carmichael, who thought Queen Anne’s County a better field for enterprise, as the county was more populous and more wealthy. The Caroline Advocate being the only paper in the county was independent in politics, but took a very decided part in the reform movement of 1836 and ’37. The Centreville Sentinel was a Democratic paper, as its editor had always been of that political faith, and participated actively in the election of Governor Grason in 1838, the first of the Governors elected by the people. He was married, June 6, 1839, to Angelina Vanderford, daughter of Henry Vanderford, Sr., of Centreville, a distant relative of his father. In 1842 he sold out the Sentinel to Mr. Mandeville, and removed to Baltimore. In Baltimore he started The Ray, a weekly literary and educational journal, and also the Daily News and the weekly Statesman, the latter journals in association with Messrs. Adams and Brown. The Ray was not sustained over a year, and after a few months his connection with The News was closed in consequence of the severe night labor required. Messrs. Adams and Brown did not continue the enterprise long after Mr. Vanderford’s withdrawal from the firm. He then engaged in job printing at the corner of North and Baltimore streets, Baltimore, and continued in that business until February, 1848, when he bought the Cecil Democrat, published at Elkton, Maryland, by Thomas M. Coleman, now City Editor of the Philadelphia Ledger, He enlarged the Democrat, quadrupled its circulation, and after a time furnished it with an entire new outfit. That paper was an active party journal, as its name implied, and was conducted by him very successfully for a period of seventeen years, until the close of the war in 1865. It was opposed to secession, but opposed to the administration also, and hence was classed as a secession journal by the Union men. Thrice it was threatened with destruction by the returned soldiers at the instigation of ill-disposed citizens, but the editor had taken the precaution to engage some of the most determined men around him to defend his property, and the fact becoming known he attributed his escape from attack to that cause. While many of the Democratic papers in Maryland were suspended and their editors sent South, he managed to continue the uninterrupted publication of the Cecil Democrat, and did not lose a large amount of its circulation. At the close of the volume, in 1865, he sold the paper to Messrs. Frederick Stump and Albert Constable, two members of the Cecil bar. In about six months from the time of purchase they disposed of it to its present proprietor, Mr. George W. Cruikshank. After selling his journal and other property in Elkton he bought a farm in St. Mary’s County, on the Patuxent River, and successfully engaged for three years in agricultural pursuits, but owing to the ill health of himself and family he reluctantly relinquished his farming operations, sold out, and removed to Middletown, Delaware, where, In January, 1868, he founded the Middletown Transcript, the first and only journal published in that place. The Transcript was a success from the beginning, and grew in popularity with all parties, though moderately Democratic. In 1870 he was succeeded in the publication of the Transcript by his youngest son, Charles H. Vanderford. In March, 1868, his eldest son, William H. Vanderford, bought the Democratic Advocate, published at Westminster, Maryland. The business of the office increasing very rapidly on his hands he induced his father to remove to Westminster and aid him in the editorial conduct of the paper, which he did in November, 1870, and has occupied the position of joint editor with his son ever since. Under their management the Democratic Advocate has become one of the largest and most widely circulated journals in Maryland, outside of the city of Baltimore. It is printed by steam power in a brick building, forty by eighty feet in size, erected especially for the purpose. The Democratic Advocate is the successor of the Western Maryland Democrat, which journal was destroyed by a mob in April, 1865, and its editor, Mr. Joseph Shaw, murdered. In 1873 Mr. Vanderford was elected to the House of Delegates from Carroll County, and was a member of that body during the session of 1874, in which he took an active part. His wife, still living, is the mother of twelve children, eight sons and four daughters. Only three of the sons are living, the eldest and the youngest of whom are journalists, the youngest being located at Harrisonburg, Virginia, and is publisher of the Old Commonwealth of that place. His second son, Dr. Julien J. Vanderford, is a dentist, and at present (1878) pursuing the practice of his profession in Frankford-on-the-Main, Germany. Mr. Vanderford has led an active business life. He has held no public station except that of a member of the Legislature, previously referred to. He and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is a Mason, and was formerly a member of the Order of Odd Fellows. [pages 698-699]
WEEDON, Austin Randolph, Attorney-at-law, Centreville, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, was born on Kent Island, May 16, 1840. His father, Henry Weedon, a farmer on that island, departed this life in 1867. His mother, Sarah Rebecca (Legg) Weedon, also died in that year. She was a lady greatly esteemed, an earnest Christian woman, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from her fourteenth year. The health of her son Randolph did not permit him to attend school until after he was seven years of age. Possessing an eager and aspiring mind, he was earnest in the improvement of every opportunity for the acquirement of knowledge, and having thoroughly qualified himself, he commenced teaching, in 1860, in the immediate vicinity of his home. Already for years it had been his ambition to enter upon the legal profession, and after six years spent in teaching, he was enabled to commence the study of law in the office of the late P. B. Hopper, then a well-known member of the Centreville bar. He was admitted to practice in the January term of 1870. In 1875 Mr. Wheedon was appointed Attorney for the County Commissioners, which office he still holds, and is also Attorney for the Town Commissioners of Centreville. In politics he has always been a Democrat, and is greatly interested in the endeavor to secure for his party a fair and honorable success. He was elected in 1877 a member of the Democratic State Nominating Convention, and assisted in making Thomas J, Keating Comptroller of the State. He served also as a member of the First Congressional District Nominating Convention at Easton, Talbot County, which placed the Hon. Daniel M. Henry, of Dorchester, before the Democratic party as its candidate for Congress for the second term. Mr. Henry was elected and is still a member of Congress. In 1876 Mr. Wheedon was selected by his fellow citizens of the town and of Queen Anne’s County to deliver the Centennial Address on the Fourth of July. His address on that occasion elicited general commendation, exhibited great research and scholarly ability, and was eloquently delivered. While a reverent believer in the cardinal doctrines of the New Testament and the Protestant faith, Mr. Wheedon is attached to no sect. He was united in marriage, January 9, 1877, to Mrs. Martha J. Roberts, sister of Hon. Thomas J. Keating, and has one child. He has achieved success by the force of his own talents, intellect, and worth. He is well known, highly respected, and influential throughout his county. [pages 491-492]
WEEDON, HON. J. H. W. G., Physician and Legislator, was born in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, in the year 1841, where he received a common-school education. He subsequently graduated at the University of Maryland. He served as Resident Physician of the Infirmary. At present (1878) he is a member of the Maryland House of Delegates. [page 501]
WlLMER, Colonel Edwin, was born in Smyrna, Delaware, September 10, 1819. His parents were Edward Price and Rachel (Wilson) Wilmer. His grandfather, Dr. John Lambert Wilmer (who married Elizabeth Brooke Carmichael of Queen Anne’s County), was the fourth generation in descent from Simon Wilmer, the progenitor of the family in America, who emigrated from England in 1660, and settled in Kent, in the Province of Maryland. His descendants are numerous; many of them have held, and others do now occupy, prominent positions, especially as clergy and bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church, presidents and professors of colleges and institutes of learning, and other professions. (See sketch of Simon Wilmer.) Rachel (Wilson) Wilmer, daughter of George and Susan (Holliday) Wilson, was descended on the maternal side from the Morris family of Pennsylvania of Revolutionary fame (a family tree of this family has been kept for the last three hundred years). She was a lady of high culture, refinement, and Christian adornments. Edward Price, son of John Lambert Wilmer and his wife Rachel, had four children, viz.: Henrietta, who married the Rev. Pennell Coombe, of the Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and left three children; Susan Elizabeth, who married Lambson Farrow, merchant of Baltimore, and left one child; William Carmichael, who died in infancy; and Edwin, the subject of this sketch, who is the only member of the direct line of his branch of the family for six generations preceding him, who was not born in Kent County, Maryland. On his maternal side, his ancestors, the Wilsons, who were English, were early settlers in Kent. His grandfather, Hon. George Wilson, after his marriage, removed to Smyrna, Delaware, and resided there until his death. Edwin’s father died when he was an infant, and the care of the family devolved on his widowed mother. His education was commenced at the schools in his natal town, and continued at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. When fifteen years of age his mother died, and he left college, located in Baltimore, and engaged with his brother-in-law as clerk in the dry-goods business. Afterwards he prosecuted that business for a short time on his own account. On April 11, 1839, he married Hannah Elizabeth, only daughter of Daniel and Mary (Reynolds) Megredy, of Port Deposit, Cecil County, Maryland. Her father was the son of John Megredy, a Scotchman, and Elizabeth Job, a descendant of the De Foe family of England. Daniel and his brother Enoch, who removed to Sangamon County, Illinois, in 1857, were men of force and influence. They were noted for their business energy and for their devotion to the Methodist Episcopal Church and active support of the early temperance reformation. Mary (Reynolds) Megredy was the daughter of John and Hannah (Knight) Reynolds, of Cecil County. He was a brother of Judge David Reynolds, of Lewistown, Pennsylvania, and of Reuben Reynolds, of Cecil County. (See biographies of Henry Reynolds.) In 1840 Mr. Wilmer removed to Port Deposit, and formed a copartnership with his father-in-law, in the business of quarrying granite, and for fifteen years was an extensive contractor, furnishing material for Government works, as far South as St. Augustine, Florida. Mr. Wilmer’s enterprise also led him to engage in other branches of trade. He was at the same time a member of the firm of Wilmer & Davis at Port Deposit, of Wilmer & Gollibert at Georgetown, and of Wilmer & Ford at Wilmer’s Point on the Sassafras River, at all of which places he did a large business in lumber, guano, fertilizers, agricultural implements, and grain, and was esteemed a bold and honorable operator. During a residence of seventeen years in Port Deposit, he contributed much to the improvement of that town by his business enterprise and the erection of dwellings, store and warehouses, and wharves. He was active in all church, educational, and benevolent enterprises. For many years he was a Trustee of Dickinson College, of Wesleyan Female College, and of other academic institutions. In 1857 he purchased “Holly Hall,” the estate of the late General James Sewall, near Elkton, and resided there until 1860, when he sold this estate to James E. Barroll, and bought out the business interest of George W. Cummins & Co., at Smyrna, Delaware, and again engaged inactive pursuits. On the outbreak of the Rebellion in 1861, Mr. Wilmer took a decided stand for the Union, and from his house floated the first Union flag that was unfurled in that State south of New Castle County. Educated in pro-slavery sentiments, and himself a slave-owner, he made the first public speech, made by a slaveholder of that State, in favor of emancipation as a war measure, and addressed meetings throughout the entire State. In 1863 he raised the Sixth Regiment of Delaware Infantry at the time of Lee’s raid into Pennsylvania, and in two days he had his regiment armed, equipped, and on duty on the line of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad. Subsequently Colonel Wilmer, as Provost-Marshal for the District of Delaware, was ordered to make the draft under the Enrolment Act, and continued in the discharge of the duties of that difficult and arduous office, to the ruin of his mercantile business and great detriment of his private interests, until the close of the war, during which time perhaps no man in the State was more active and efficient in raising men and money for the Government. In 1864, while in the discharge of the Provost Marshal’s duties’, with headquarters at Wilmington, at the time of Harry Gilmore's raid into Maryland, Colonel Wilmer, with a train of cars, furnished by the Delaware Railroad Company, traversed the State of Delaware for two continuous days and nights, entering the towns, arousing and gathering together the people, by the ringing of the town and church bells, and when assembled, addressing them on the emergency, and returned with over five hundred men, who with other volunteers, from the upper part of the State, formed the Eighth Regiment of Delaware Infantry. In the spring of 1865 Colonel Wilmer’s only son, a boy of fifteen years, who had accompanied his father when on duty with his regiment (having previously been a cadet at Colonel Hyatt’s Military Academy), went into the field a volunteer aide-de-camp, without pay, on the staff of General Thomas H. Smyth, Third Brigade, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, and was in the engagements of the storming of Fort Stedman, Hatcher’s Run, Danville, Petersburg, Burkville, and the last battle at Farmville, where his General was mortally wounded, anil young Wilmer returned to Wilmington, Delaware, with the body of his chief. He was mentioned by General Smyth, in his official report on the battle of Hatcher’s Run, for bravery, and was promised a Lieutenant’s commission, on his arriving at the age of sixteen. The termination of the war, before that period arrived, prevented his attaining that official rank. After the war Colonel Wilmer was elected President of “The Manhattan Brick Company of New York,” of which he afterwards became principal stockholder. By the depression of business, so disastrous in the fall of 1869, this company was forced into involuntary bankruptcy, and Colonel Wilmer returned to Baltimore, where he has since resided. He has had born to him seven children, viz.: Mary Rachel, who married Henry R. Torbert, of Elkton (see sketch of Mr. Torbert); Emma Wilson, who died in infancy; Emma Rasin, a child of rare gifts and graces, died in her fourteenth year. A biography of her was written and published by the Rev. H. F. Hurn, entitled “The Sunbeam of the Household.” Laura Freeman, married Charles H. Hepburn, formerly of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, now of Baltimore city; Professor Edwin Megredy Wilmer, A.M., a graduate of Dickinson College, of the class of 1870; Ellen Moore Reynolds, and Florence Zeilin Wilmer, all of whom, with their parents, reside in Baltimore city, except Mr. and Mrs. Torbert. Colonel Wilmer is of medium height, of good physique, and courteous manners. He is a man of intelligence and business qualifications; is of social, generous, and hospitable disposition, and habits. On April 11, 1879, he and his estimable wife celebrated the fortieth anniversary of their wedding day, and bid fair to enjoy another decade of married life. [pages 484-485]
Contributed 2025 Jan 17 and 2025 Mar 17 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1879 The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and District of Columbia, Part 2
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