Washington County MD

Washington County MD, situated in the western mountainous portion of the State, bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, east by Blue Ridge Mountains, south and southwest by Potomac River, and west by Allegany County. The surface is an alternation of ridges and valleys, the latter being drained by Antietam, Conococheague, and Israel creeks. The area is 458 square miles, of which more than two-thirds, or 197,948 acres, was under cultivation in 1900. The population for the same year was 45,133. The county seat is Hagerstown. Other towns are Sharpsburg and Williamsport, having populations in 1900 of 1,030 and 1,472, respectively.

Biography of Colonel James H. B. McFerran

James H. B. McFerran was born in Washington county, Maryland, September 17, 1819. At the age of six years his father died, and he remained with his mother until his seventeenth year, attending school part of the time. On reaching the above age he engaged in the stone cutting business under a contractor by the name of Andrew Small, receiving seventy-five cents, per day for the first year. Owing to an aptitude for the work, the second year he was given the position of superintendent, at a salary of one dollar and eighty-seven and one-half cents per day, and continued … Read more

Biography of William Mann

William Mann was born in Hancock, Washington county, Maryland, April 1, 1839. He is the son of Jonathan E. and Mary A. Mann, who came to Missouri in 1841 and settled at Gallatin, where the subject of this sketch was reared. His educational advantages were limited, only having the opportunity of attending school two or three months each year from the time he was eight until fifteen years of age. His mother died when he was nine, and his father just before he became of age. His father being a merchant, young Mann started for himself in the same calling, … Read more

James Doeg Todd of Hagerstown MD

James Doeg Todd8, (Silas7, Elam6, Edmund5, Christopher4, Samuel3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born Nov. 22, 1826, died June 15, 1912, married Oct. 2, 1855, Susan Sophia Webster, who was born Dec. 10, 1830, in York, Canada. He was a Congregational minister. He lived in Granite Falls, Minn., thence he moved with his son to Hagerstown, Md., where he died. Children: *2078. Cornelia Ermina, b. Dec. 8, 1856. *2079. James Marcus, b. Oct. 12, 1858. *2080. William Edward, b. April 26, 1861. 2081. David Ripley, b. May 13, 1866, unmarried. *2082. John Reynard, b. Oct. 27, 1867. *2083. Susan Elizabeth, b. Sept. 4, … Read more

Maryland Cemetery Records, Prince George to Worcester Counties

Maryland Cemetery records are listed by county then name of cemetery within the Maryland county. Most of these are complete indices at the time of transcription, however, in some cases we list the listing when it is only a partial listing. Prince George’s County Following Cemeteries (hosted at Prince George’s  County, Maryland Tombstone Transcription Project) Addison Chapel of St. Matthew’s Ammendale Cemetery Cedar Hill Cemetery Evergreen Cemetery Hamilton Family Cemetery Hilleary Family Cemetery Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery Ivy Hill Cemetery St. John’s Episcopal Church Cemetery St. Mary’s Catholic Church St. Mary’s Catholic Church Fort Lincoln Cemetery  (hosted at Interment) … Read more

Biography of William H. Cheney

William H. Cheney. To trace the founding of the Cheney family in America one must go far back in colonial history, back almost to the days when a friendly sovereign presented the present State of Maryland to Lord Baltimore. But a few years later the Cheneys, of English and French descent, came also and received from Lord Baltimore grants of land on which they lived for many years. These lands were in Washington County, which was the family home as far back as the great-grandfather of William H. Cheney, who is one of the representative men of Vesper, Kansas, and … Read more

Biography of Abraham Snethen

Abraham Snethen and his wife, Elizabeth Stewart, were natives of Germany. They emigrated to America and settled in New Jersey, where they had eleven children, of whom the names of only seven are now remembered. They were William, John, Reuben, Polly, Lydia, Elizabeth, and Margaret. William married and settled in Kentucky in 1792, and in 1810 he removed to Ohio, where he lost his wife. He then started to return to New Jersey, but died of cholera, at Hagerstown, Md. John was born in March, 1789, and when he was eight years old his mother died. He was then bound … Read more

Biography of William Bruce Middlekauff

William Bruce Middlekauff, banker, farmer and stockman of Vesper, came to Kansas with his father over forty years ago, and since then the interests and activities and holdings of the Middlekauff family have grown apace until the name is now one of the most substantial and respected in Lincoln County. The family through its varied relationship had become prominently known in Kansas, Mr. Middlekauff himself is a native of Maryland and in the vicinity of Hagerstown the family and its kin have lived for generations. Mr. Middlekauff’s grandfather, Daniel Middlekauff, was also born near Hagerstown, Maryland, was a farmer and … Read more

Biography of Samuel Bowman

Samuel Bowman, now of Coffeyville, where he is engaged in the real estate, insurance and loan business with his sons, is a Kansas resident of nearly thirty-five years and was long prominent in Labette County, where he served two terms as probate judge. His Bowman ancestors were German people who came to Pennsylvania in Colonial times. His grandfather, Benjamin Bowman, a native of Pennsylvania, was a farmer and cabinet maker, also a minister of the Dunkard Church, and spent many years in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he died some years before Judge Bowman was born. It was in … Read more

Biography of Hon. L. M. Ringer

HON. L.M. RINGER. – There is moral earnestness about a man who is able to hold his own convictions in the face of his neighbors and friends. We find such a man in Mr. Ringer. Born June 17, 1834, in Washington County, Maryland, he moved as a child to Amherst County, Virginia, there receiving his education, but later making his home in Stoddard  County, Missouri, engaging in the mercantile business. When the war broke out in 1861, that community was strongly for secession. Mr. Ringer was obliged either to enter the rebel army or to leave. He chose the latter … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Elwood M. Mann

Elwood M. Mann is a native of Hancock, Washington county, Maryland, born December 14, 1836. His parents, Jonathan and Mary A. Mann, removed to Missouri in 1844, and after stopping at Wellington one winter, came to Daviess county and settled in what is now Sheridan township. They lived there until 1846, then removed to Gallatin, where his mother died in 1848, and his father in 1859, he having lived with his parents and clerked in his father’s store until that time. In 1860 he engaged in the mercantile business with Jonathan Brosins and his brother William Mann,, under the firm … Read more

Biography of John William Farrow, M. D.

John William Farrow, M. D. In addition to the service rendered by him as a physician and surgeon, Doctor Farrow had played a conspicuous part in business and other affairs in Elk County. He is president of the Elk Falls State Bank and a stockholder in the Waumega First National Bank. He is one of the principal property owners at Moline, and for fourteen years consecutively he served as a member of the United States Pension Examining Board. He was first appointed by President McKinley and was reappointed by Presidents Roosevelt and Taft. His service on the board terminated in … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Samuel T. Brosins

Samuel T. Brosins is a native of Hancock, Maryland, and was born April 1, 1817. His parents removed to Missouri and settled at Gallatin in 1849, and here he was reared, receiving his education in the common schools and academy of Gallatin. In 1867 he began reading law, under the preceptor-ship of Judge Robert L. Dodge, studying during the summer and teaching during the winter until 1871, when he was admitted to the bar, and at once became associated with William C. Gillihan, and the firm of Gillihan Brosins are among the ablest practitioners of the Daviess county bar. During … Read more

Biography of George Loughead Eyster, M. D.

Among Rock Island physicians none have a wider practice or a more successful one than the subject of this sketch, Doctor George L. Eyster, one of that city’s old established and prominent physicians and surgeons. He was born May 14, 1853, at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, his parents being William IF. and Lucretia (Gibson) Eyster. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, and his mother of Vermont. His father’s family was of German origin, the Eysters being among the early settlers in the colony of Pennsylvania. Doctor Eyster’s father was for many years a clergyman of the Lutheran Church, being also engaged … Read more

Biographical Sketch of George Brethard Thomas

George Brethard Thomas was born in Hancock, Washington county, Maryland, on the 29th of March, 1842. His father died when the subject of this sketch was twelve years old, and he continued to live with his mother at the old homestead until he reached the age of eighteen, and then migrated to Missouri, arriving in St. Joseph in the spring of 1860. He remained in that city some two months, then came to Gallatin, where he secured employment as clerk in the hotel owned by Thomas Clingan, and remained in that capacity until February, 1861, when he engaged in farming … Read more

Biography of Frederick D. Schnebly

FREDERICK D. SCHNEBLY – Our subject was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1832, and was educated in the Franklin and Marshall College of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1854 he started for California by way of Nicaragua. In passing up the Pacific, the steamer, Star of the West, on which he had taken passage, took fire; but the horrors of a burning ship tragedy were avoided by the timely and effective labors of the crew and passengers. After stopping for a time in San Francisco, he visited the Sandwich Islands, but, returning to the Golden state, spent two unsuccessful years in mining. … Read more

William Edward Todd of Hagerstown MD

William Edward Todd9, (James D.8, Silas7, Elam6, Edmund5, Christopher4, Samuel3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born April 26, 1861, in Richmond County, Wis., married in Labette County, Kan., Nov. 24, 1890, Maude Augusta Roller, who was born Aug. 9, 1870, in Millersburg, Ind. Some of her ancestors lived in Stanton, Va. She attended Western College, a college for women, in Oxford, O. Mr. Todd graduated from the Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, Ill., in 1890. He began the practice of his profession in Albert Lea, Minn. Later he moved to Hagerstown, Md., where he was living in 1919. Children: 2652. Gertrude Elizabeth, … Read more

Biography of James A. McGonigle

James A. McGonigle. For many reasons may James A. McGonigle, contractor and builder and one of Leavenworth’s most respected citizens, be regarded as deserving of extended mention in a history of Kansas. He came to Leavenworth as a pioneer in 1857; he was an early, brave and loyal soldier in the Union army until incapacitated by wounds in the Civil war; since then had been more prominent in the upbuilding of the city than any other man; and still at the age of eighty-three carries on large business operations and with the same facility and exactness that won him the … Read more

Biography of Independence Mann

Independence Mann, The subject of this sketch was born near Hancock, in the State of Maryland, on the 4th day of July, 1843, and is the son of Jonathan E. and Mary A. (Brosins) Mann, natives of Marlyand. At an early age, in company with his parents, he removed to this county and received the greater part of his education in the excellent schools of Gallatin. He began his business career as a clerk in the dry goods store of T. J. Casey, at Richmond, Missouri. At the commencement of the Civil War, prompted by a spirit of patriotic devotion … Read more

Biography of John Piper

John Piper, now living a retired life in Freeport, was born Feb. 7, 1832, in Washington county, Maryland, at the place where, thirty years later, the great battle of Antietam was fought. His parents were Jacob and Anna (Kitzmiller) Piper, both of Washington county, and his grandfather, Daniel Piper, was born February 4, 1780, and died March 3, 1857. He was a farmer and spent all of his life in the above county. His wife, whose maiden name was Brown, was born September 2, 1774, and died July 8, 1851. Grandmother Kitzmiller was born January 23, 1777, and died July … Read more