Historical Tidbits

Did you know that...

Dr. Gustavus Brown of Charles County was George Washington's personal physician? Dr. Brown and Dr. James Craik, also of Charles County, were two of the three attending physicians present during President Washington's final illness. At the time of his death, Washington was taking his own pulse!

Elizabeth Biscoe (1780-1857), daughter of George Biscoe and Araminta (Thompson) of St. Mary's County married Edward Henry Calvert (1766-1849)? His sister was Eleanor Calvert who married John Parke Custis, the son of Daniel Parke Custis and his wife, Martha Dandridge (who married second, George Washington).

George Washington Parke Custis, son of John Parke Custis and Eleanor Calvert, was adopted by George Washington and that he married Mary Lee Fitzhugh and they were the parents of Mary Anne Randolph Custis who married Robert E. Lee?

Dr. Samuel Mudd who set the leg of John Wilkes Booth was from Charles County? Many say that his surname led to the phrase "your name is mud," but that saying had been in use at least 60 years before the Civil War.

Father Joseph Thomas Jarboe, son of John Jarboe and Dorothy Hill (who were originally from St. Mary's County) served as a Chaplain in the Second Tennessee Confederate Regiment? During the Civil War, he escaped death twice. First, at the Battle of Shiloh when preparing to cut away the boots of a young soldier to anoint his feet, the knife he was holding was shattered by a bullet, and secondly, when he crossed the Federal lines to administer the last rites to Union soldiers and was arrested as a spy. As the Union soldiers were preparing to execute him, General Philip Sheridan (who had served Mass for Fr. Jarboe in Ohio before the war) happened to ride by and ordered his immediate release. (Contributed by Randy Dunavan)

Julia Boggs Dent, 1826-1902, the wife of President Ulysses S. Grant, was a descendant of Thomas and Rebecca (Wilkinson) Dent of St. Mary's County.

General James Longstreet, 1821-1904, "Lee's Old Warhorse" was also a descendant of the same couple and that he and Julia Boggs Dent were fourth cousins.

Samuel Dashiell Hammett, 1894-1961, author of "The Thin Man" and "The Maltese Falcon" was born at Great Mills in St. Mary's County?

Archibald Binney, 1763-1838, who with his partner, James Ronaldson began the business of type founding in Philadelphia and that this formed the foundation for the printing industry in America, lived at "Porto Bello" in St. Mary's County from 1814 until his death in 1838. He entertained many notables at his home, including Lafayette and Andrew Jackson.

Basil Hayden, a native of St. Mary's County who moved to Kentucky, was the creator of the "Old Grandad" whiskey?

Janet Herbert Wilkinson, whose family lived in St. Mary's and Charles County, was known as "Daughter of Maryland, Wife of Mississippi, and Mother of Texas"?

The Maryland Line, comprised of many men from St. Mary's County, was called upon by George Washington to cover the retreat of the American forces at the Battle of Long Island. The small force of 400 withstood the repeated charges of over 30,000 British troops and refused to surrender. 256 of these brave men lie buried beneath the pavement and buildings at Third Avenue and Eighth Street in Brooklyn, New York?

Jacob Gilliams (1784-1868), the husband of Ann Sothoron (1788-1858), daughter of Richard Sothoron and Catherine Tubman of St. Mary's County, was one of the founders of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia? In 1824, he discovered a new species of fish which he named Scolopsis sayanus (aka pirate perch).

The first naval battle in English America occurred in 1638 when the St.Mary's Militia took Kent Island?

The second wife of Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois (of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates) was Adele Cutts (1835-1899) and that she was the niece of Dolly Madison and the granddaughter of John O'Neale and Eliza Henrietta Hamilton of Prince George's Co., MD?

Franklin Buchanan (1800-1874) married Ann Catherine Lloyd and that her ancestors included Ann Rousby (of Calvert Co.); Rebecca Plater (of St. Mary's Co.); and James Neale and Elizabeth Gill (of Charles Co.)? Incidentally, her aunt was Mary Tayloe Lloyd, the wife of Francis Scott Key.

Written and contributed by Linda Reno