Harford County, MD Biographies

Harford County, MD
Biographies

ANDERSON, Charles
Ancestor # A121408, DAR Patriot Index
Birth Date: CIRCA 1734
Birth State/Country: MARYLAND
Death Date: ANTE 17 Aug 1824
Death County/Parish: GREENE CO
Death State/Country: PENNSYLVANIA
Rank(s): PATRIOTIC SERVICE, PRIVATE
Service State/Organization: MARYLAND
Spouse(s): MARY X

Captain Charles Anderson's Company, No. 3, September 23, 1775. (E-108) (Susquehanna). For a brief genealogy of Charles Anderson and history of this company, see the "Tri-County Researcher" By Dallas Ewing, Installment 2 — Charles Anderson, signer of the Bush declaration, 22 March 1775. Charles Anderson II was born on March 27, 1734, in Carpenter's Plains, Swan Creek Run, Harford County, Maryland, and probably died in August of 1824 in Muddy Creek, Cumberland Township, Washington (later Greene Co), Pennsylvania. He had 9 children and was a millwright.
On March 22, 1775, a committee of 34 Harford county men, duly elected, met at the Bush Tavern, and passed this resolution:

"We the Committee of Harford County, having most seriously and maturely considered the Resolves and Association of the Continental Congress, and the Resolves of the Provincial Convention, do most heartily approve of the same, and as we esteem ourselves in a more particular manner intrusted by our constituents to see them carried into execution, we do most solemnly pledge ourselves to each other, and to our Country, and engage ourselves by every tie held sacred among mankind to perform the same at the risque of our lives and fortunes."

Signers were:
Aquila Hall, John Patrick, John Durham, Josias Curvil Hall, Daniel Scott, James McComas,
George Patterson, Benjamin Bradford, Norris William Bradford, William Morgan, James Harris, William Smithson, Francis Holland, Edward Prall, John Donahuy, Samuel Caldwell, Thomas Johnson, Greenberry Dorsey, Aquila Paca, Alexander Rigdon, John Archer, James Lytle, Edward Ward, W. Smithe, Aquila Hall, Jr., Abraham Whitaker, William Webb, Robert Morgan, Charles Anderson, John Taylor, Robert Lemmon, William Fisher, Jr., Thomas Brice, Richard Dallam
[Submitted by Foxie Hagerty]

ARCHER, Stevenson
(1786—1848)
ARCHER, Stevenson, (son of John Archer and father of Stevenson Archer [1827-1898]), a Representative from Maryland; born at ‘Medical Hall,’ near Churchville, Harford County, Md., October 11, 1786; attended Nottingham Academy, Maryland, and was graduated from Princeton College in 1805; studied law; was admitted to the bar of Harford County in 1808 and commenced practice the same year; member of the State house of delegates 1809-1810; elected as a Republican to the Twelfth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Montgomery; reelected to the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congresses and served from October 26, 1811, to March 3, 1817; chairman, Committee on Claims (Thirteenth Congress), Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy (Fourteenth Congress); paymaster to the Fortieth Maryland Militia during the War of 1812; appointed on March 5, 1817, by President Madison as United States judge for the Territory of Mississippi, with powers of Governor, holding court at St. Stephens; resigned within a year and returned to Maryland and practiced law; elected to the Sixteenth Congress (March 4, 1819-March 3, 1821); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy (Sixteenth Congress); appointed chief judge of the judicial circuit court of Baltimore and Harford Counties and Baltimore city in 1823; in 1844 was appointed by Governor Pratt as chief justice of the Maryland Court of Appeals and served until his death at ‘Medical Hall,’ near Churchville, Harford County, Md., June 26, 1848; interment in the Presbyterian Cemetery, Churchville, Md.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present - Submitted by Anna Newell

ARCHER, Stevenson
(1827—1898)
ARCHER, Stevenson, (son of Stevenson Archer [1786-1848] and grandson of John Archer), a Representative from Maryland; born at ‘Medical Hall,’ near Churchville, Harford County, Md., February 28, 1827; attended Bel Air Academy, and was graduated from Princeton College in 1848; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1850 and commenced practice the same year; member of the State house of delegates in 1854; elected as a Democrat to the Fortieth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1867-March 3, 1875); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1874; engaged in the practice of his chosen profession in Bel Air, Md., until his death on August 2, 1898; interment in the Presbyterian Cemetery, Churchville, Md.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present - Submitted by Anna Newell

CUNNINGHAM, Miss Susan J., educator, born in Harford county, Maryland, 23rd March, 1842. On her mother's side she is of Quaker blood. Her mother died in 1845, and Susan was left to the care of her grandparents. She attended a Friends' school until she was fifteen years old, when it was decided that she should prepare for the work of teaching. She was sent to a Friends' boarding school in Montgomery county, for a year, when family cares called her home, and she continued her studies in the school near by. At nineteen she became a teacher, and she has taught ever since, with the exception of two years, one of which she spent in the Friends' school in Leghorne, or Attleboro, and the other in Vassar College. She has spent her summer vacations in study. She studied in Harvard College observatory in the summers of 1874 and 1876, in Princeton observatory in 1881, in Williamstown in 1883 and 1884, under Prof. Safford, and in Cambridge, England, in 1877, in 1878, in 1879 and in 1882, under a private tutor. In 1887 she studied in the observatory in Cambridge, England, and in 1891 she spent the summer in the Greenwich, England observatory. When Swarthmore College was established in Swarthmore, Pa., in 1869, she was selected teacher of mathematics, Professor Smith now of Harvard being nominally professor. Professor Smith was called to Harvard at the close of the first year, since which time she has had entire charge of the department of pure mathematics, having been made full professor in 1875. In late years she has had charge of the observatory, which was built with funds secured by her own exertions. She is a thoroughly successful educator, and her conduct of her departments shows that a woman can be quite as efficient as a man in the realm of mathematics and astronomy.
(American Women, by Frances Elizabeth Willard, Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, Volume 1, Publ. 1897, Transcribed by Marla Snow.)

REED, Thomas
Revolutionary War Soldier
Information Wanted
Thomas Reed, an old Revolutionary soldier, at present a resident of Greene county, Pennsylvania, having lost the certificate of his discharge from the revolutionary army, and being desirous of renewing the application he has already made to Congress for a pension, requests such persons as can testify either directly or by circumstance, to his having been in the service of the United States, during the first war with Great Britain, to make a communication of it to him, directed to Jefferson, Greene county, Pennsylvania.
The subject of this advertisement was born near Rock Run, in Hartford county, Maryland. At an early age he married Mary Nut, of Middletown, Dauphin county, Pa., soon after which he removed to Indian Manor, near Harrisburg, Pa., where he lived on the land of Mr. Thomas Fisher, following the double business of a laborer and shoemaker. He lived there eight or nine years, including the period of his service in the army. He enlisted at Carlisle, Pa., under Capt. Nichols, in the ninth regiment of the Pennsylvania troops, commanded by Col. Noggle. The first Lieutenant of the company was Stephen Stevenson, of Monohan township, York Co., Pa. Thus Reed served five years in the American army and was at the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown. Sometime after thse battles were fought, he was placed in the baggage department.
Persons in Harford county, Md., and in York, Dauphin and Cumberland counties, Pa., are desired to institute an inquiry into this subject, among the older inhabitants and editors of papers generally, but particularly those of Maryland, Pennsylvania and the western country are requested to give publicity to this and thus, perhaps, assist one of the earliest defenders of our liberty, who is now suffering all the complicated evils of age and poverty.
[Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pa), June 6, 1827 - Submitted by Nancy Piper]

WEBSTER, Capt. John A. --- In the attack by the British fleet on Fort McHenry (note: War of 1812), Captain John A. Webster, of Harford, rendered valuable service to his country and won well-merited fame. Captain Webster was born at "The Mount," about five miles from Bel Air, on September 19, 1789. He was the son of Samuel Webster and Margaret Adams, his wife, the latter, being a member of the distinguished Adams family of Massachusetts, which gave two Presidents to the country. The first Websters came to this country early in the eighteenth century from England, and settled, Isaac and Richard in Maryland, Michael in New England, and John in Virginia, where he was known as John of Roanoke.

Daniel Webster, the great Senator, came from the New England branch. When fourteen years old Captain Webster began his life on the sea by sailing for South America in a merchant vessel, and afterwards made many voyages to foreign ports. At the beginning of the war of 1812 he was appointed a third lieutenant by Commodore Barneyon the privateer Rossie, and served during the whole period of the war.

On the organization of the Flotilla at Baltimore he was made sailing master in the navy, and had charge of one of the barges. He was with Commodore Barney in all his engagements. At the request of General Smith, he was detached from his appointment and ordered to command the six-gun battery between Forts McHcnry and Covington, and was the first to discover and open fire on the British ships on the night of September 13, 1814, and remained on duty during the engagement, though he was twice wounded.

In recognition of his services he was presented with two hand-some gold-mounted swords—one by the State of Maryland and the other by the city of Baltimore. The National Government gave him a pension of twenty dollars per month and paid for property lost by him. On March 1, 1816, President Madison appointed him a sailing master in the United States Navy, in which position he served for a considerable time, and on account of his experience and nautical skill he was frequently assigned to perform important duties outside the line of his official position.

On February 8, 1816, he was married to Miss Rachel Biays, daughter of Col. Joseph Biays, who, with his brother James, had served in the Revolution. On November 22, 1819, President Madison issued Captain Webster a commission as captain in the revenue marine, which position he held at the time of his death—July 4, 1877

While in the revenue marine, Captain Webster performed important services, among them being his command of eight revenue vessels to act with the army and navy against Vera Cruz and upon the Rio Grande in the Mexican war.

Captain and Mrs. Webster were the parents of eleven children, viz: Margaret, the widow of William R. Bissell, who was killed in command of a company in Pickett's charge in the battle of Gettysburg; Dr. J. Biays Webster, Susan A. Webster, Laura A., wife of John C. Patterson; William S. Webster; Josephine, wife of Dr. William Dallam; John A. Web-ster, also of the revenue marine service; Mary A., wife of Algernon S. Dorsey; Benj. M. Webster; Rachel Cassandra, wife of Gen. Frank A. Bond, and Isaac P. Webster.
Captain Webster and his wife lie buried in the family burying ground at "The Mount." Harford may be justly proud of the career of this one of her most distinguished sons, who was ever ready to respond to the call of duty, and who spent his life in the service of his country. (Source: "History of Harford County, Maryland" ; Baltimore, Md. :: Press of Sun Book Office, 1901 - Transcribed by K. Torp)