Biographies

Calvert County Biographies - S through Z

SMITH, Clement was Deputy Commissary of Calvert County, 1777. He was born, about 1718, in Calvert County, Md., where, in 1792, he died.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 85 page 286
Mrs. Edith Roberts Ramsburgh. DAR ID Number: 84732

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 90 page 299
Mrs. Bessie Roberts Bierer. DAR ID Number: 89921

SMITH, Clement,(1724-92) was deputy commissary of Calvert County, Md., 1777, where he was born and died.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 77 page 232
Mrs. Marie Hyde Talbott Ellison. DAR ID Number: 76617

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 105 page 92
Mrs. May Hill Dunn. DAR ID Number: 104273

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 116 page 207
Mrs. Effie Young Snodgrass. DAR ID Number: 115656

SMITH, Clement, Jr. (1756-1831) served as surgeon from Calvert County, Md., where he was born.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 105 page 92
Mrs. May Hill Dunn. DAR ID Number: 104273

SMITH, Joseph Sim, (1758-1822), in 1775-80, was surgeon's mate, and, cornet, 1780-82, of the 1st battalion, Armand's Cavalry, Partisan Corps. He was born in Calvert County; died in Carroll County, Md.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 85 page 286
Mrs. Edith Roberts Ramsburgh. DAR ID Number: 84732

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 90 page 299
Mrs. Bessie Roberts Bierer. DAR ID Number: 89921

SMITH, Frank Owens, a Representative from Maryland; born in Smithville, Calvert County, Md., August 27, 1859; attended the private and public schools of the county, North Mount Institute, West Virginia, and Bethel Military Academy, Virginia; served in the United States Revenue Service at Baltimore, Md., during the first Cleveland administration; resigned in 1889; organized the Calumet Canning Co. in 1889 and engaged in a general merchandise business in 1890; engaged in manufacturing flour and feed 1898-1910; appointed State tobacco inspector by Governor Warfield in 1904 and reappointed in 1906; unsuccessful candidate for election to the State senate in 1911; chief engrossing clerk of the State senate in 1911; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third Congress (March 4, 1913-March 3, 1915); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1914; engaged in fruit growing in Dunkirk, Calvert County, Md., until his death on January 29, 1924; interment in Mount Zion Cemetery, Lothian, Ann Arundel County, Md.

Source: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 Biographies S page 1826

SMITH, Nathan (1762-83) served as ensign, 1778, in Capt. John Mackall's company, Calvert County militia, and, 1779, as lieutenant in the 4th Maryland regiment. He was born and died in Calvert County, Md.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 55 page 228
Mrs. Caroline Carson Smith Miller. DAR ID Number: 54529

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 57 page 249
Mrs. Bessie Smith Frazier. DAR ID Number: 56724

SOLLERS, Augustus Rhodes, a Representative from Maryland; born near Prince Frederick, Calvert County, Md., May 1, 1814; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1836 and commenced practice in Prince Frederick; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1843); resumed the practice of law; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1851; elected to the Thirty-third Congress (March 4, 1853-March 3, 1855); presidential elector on the Democratic ticket of Buchanan and Breckinridge in 1856; resumed the practice of law at Prince Frederick, and died near there November 26, 1862; interment in St. Paul's Churchyard, near Prince Frederick, Md.

Source: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 Biographies S page 1841

SOMERVELL, Alexander, (1734-83), served in the militia; was active in committees and represented Calvert County in the Convention at Annapolis, 1776.

Source: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 26 page 253
Mrs. Clara Ward Gilmore Cady. DAR ID Number: 25684

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 122 page 135
Mrs. Florence A. Brown Grason. DAR ID Number: 121417

Alexander Somerville (1734-83) served in the militia; was active on committees and represented Calvert County, Md., 1776. He was born in Calvert County; died in Maryland.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 118 page 150
Mrs. Jane Duke Hance Wilson. DAR ID Number: 117486

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 126 page 258
Mrs. Margaret Somerville Hayden. DAR ID Number: 125813

STEVENS, John (1728-97) enlisted, 1776, as a private in Capt. John Brooke's Company, Calvert County, Maryland. He was born and died in Anne Arundel County.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 55 page 124
Mrs. Helen Beaureguard Parr. DAR ID Number: 54285

STONE, Marshall served in a regiment of Calvert County, Maryland militia. He was born, 1748, in Virginia; died after 1791 in Calvert County, Md.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 73 page 53
Mrs. Ida Murphy Shirk. DAR ID Number: 72142

TANEY, Michael, (1756-96) served as lieutenant in the Calvert County, Maryland militia. He was born and died in Calvert County, Md.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 158
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF THE Daughters of the American Revolution page 27
Mrs. Alice Hardeman Dulaney.157084

TANEY, Roger Brooke, chief-justice, was born in Calvert county, Md., March 17, 1777. He was graduated from Dickinson college in 1795, studied law at Annapolis, Md., in the office of Jeremiah S. Chase, was admitted to the bar in 1779 and established himself in practice in Calvert country. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1799-1800, and removed to Frederick, Md., where he soon built up a large practice. He was married in 1806 to a daughter of John Ross Key. He was counsel for General Wilkinson, commander-in-chief of the U.S. army, who in 1811 was summoned before a military court on various charges, and he conducted the defence to a successful issue. He was a member of the state senate, 1816-21; removed to Baltimore, Md., in 1823; was attorney-general of the state, 1827-31; attorney-general of the United States in the cabinet of President Jackson, 1831-33, and bore an important part in the nullification controversy; opposed the question of the re-chartering of the U.S. bank, and favored the removal of the deposits. He succeeded William J. Duane as secretary of the treasury upon the latter's removal for refusing to remove the deposits at the dictation of the President. He entered upon his duties. Sept. 24, 1833, and on Sept. 26, issued the order directing the collectors of revenue to cease making deposits in the bank and leaving the amount on deposit to be drawn out at the convenience of the government. In December, 1833, a resolution of censure upon the action of the President was adopted, Taney's nomination was rejected and he thereupon resigned the office and returned to Baltimore. He was appointed associate justice of the U.S. supreme court to succeed Gabriel Duval (q.v.) in January, 1836, but the senate refused to confirm the appointment. As Chief-Justice Marshal had died June 6, 1835, President Jackson, on March 15, 1836, appointed Mr. Taney to the chief-justiceship of the United States Supreme Court. Justice Taney defended the right of reclaiming a fugitive slave from another state, and in 1857 he delivered his opinion on the famous Dred Scott case, involving the question whether congress had the power to exclude slavery from the territories. Justice Taney held that the plaintiff Dred Scott could not obtain redress in the U.S. circuit court for Missouri, as he was not a citizen of that state, and in the progress of his enunciation of the principle involved, he held that negroes could not be made citizens by the act of any separate state, or by the United States. He said that the original colonies had special laws for the negro, whether slave or free, and that congress bad not authorized their naturalization or enrolled them in the militia; that the colonists considered the African negro so far [p.95]inferior that he had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that therefore the negro might be reduced to slavery for the benefit of the white men. This decision produced intense excitement and probably did more toward widening the gulf between the North and the South than any act of the administration. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Dickinson college in 1831. In selecting names for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, New York university, October, 1900, his in class J, Judges and Lawyers, received sixteen votes and stood sixth in the class of eleven presented. He began his autobiography in 1854, which he brought down to 1801 and which forms the introduction to Samuel Tyler's memoir (1872). He died in Washington, D.C., Oct. 12, 1864.

Source: The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume X T Taney, Roger Brooke page 95

TANEYHILL, Richard Henry, lawyer, jurist, author, was born June 30, 1822, in Calvert county, Md. He is a prominent lawyer of Barnesville, Ohio, where he has been mayor and justice of the peace for two terms. He is the author of a work entitled Leatherwood God; Life of Logan, the Mingo Chief; and other works.

Source: Thomas William Herringshaw, Encyclopedia of American Biography, p.914

TAYLOR, Margaret Smith, wife of President Taylor, was born in Calvert county, Md., about 1790; daughter of Maj. Walter Smith, an officer of the U.S. army and an extensive planter in [p.107] Calvert county. Her ancestor came from England to Maryland in 1649, and held the appointment of attorney-general from Oliver Cromwell in 1655. Her grandmother Mackall lived on one of the family plantations named by her ancestor, "God's Graces." One of her brothers, Richard Smith, belonged to the U.S. marine corps, two of her brothers removed to Mississippi, where they were extensive planters, and her two sisters removed to Kentucky and married two brothers of the Chew family of Maryland. Margaret Smith was married to Capt. Zachary Taylor, June 18, 1810, and at once went with him to the frontier of the Northwest territory, and she thereafter shared the hardships and dangers of army life up to the time he was ordered to Mexico, when she remained with her children at the home they had established at Baton Rouge, La. The temporal and spiritual needs of the sick and wounded soldiers were her chief solicitude, and the rude hospital accommodations of the day were made more attractive and restful through her ministrations. Mrs. Jefferson Davis records an incident at a White House dinner in 1849, at which all the parties interested were present, when President Taylor, speaking to Senator Davis of his army life said: "You know my wife was as much of a soldier as I was." She had four children, Anne, Sarah Knox, Elizabeth and Richard. Anne married Dr. Robert C. Wood, surgeon-general, U.S.A., and had four children, John Taylor, Robert C., Anna Dudley, and Sarah Knox Wood. Sarah Knox Taylor married Jefferson Davis, at the time a lieutenant in the U.S.A. Elizabeth married Colonel Bliss, adjutant on the staff of General Taylor, and after his death she was married to Philip Dandridge of Virginia. When the family removed to Washington, in February, 1849, Mrs. Taylor was in feeble health, and physically unable to take part in the state dinners and receptions at the White House, but she was always at the private table and in the home circle, leaving the cares of official hospitality to her daughter Elizabeth, wife of Col. William W. S. Bliss. Mrs. Taylor did not long survive the shock incident to her husband's sudden death and the excitement of a martial funeral. She removed, upon her husband's death, to the home of her son, Col. Richard Taylor, near Pascagoula, La., where she died, Aug. 18, 1852.

Source: The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume X T Taylor, Richard page 107

TAYLOR, Zachary, twelfth President of the United States, was born near Orange C.H., Orange county, Va., Nov. 24, 1784; son of Col. Richard (1744-1826) and Sarah (Strother) Taylor, and a descendant of James Taylor, who emigrated from England in 1682, and settled in Southern Virginia. Zachary Taylor bad few educational advantages outside the home circle and a tutor, Elisha Ayers, who kept a school in the neighborhood. His home was enlivened by guests, drawn by the hospitality of Colonel Taylor, from the best families of Virginia, induced to settle in Kentucky by the grants of wild lands given by that state to her soldiers, then just returned from the eight years of hardship incident to the Revolution. Colonel Taylor's home was the most pretentious of the houses in the settlement and was built of logs in the form of a stockade and made capable of being easily defended against the attacks of the Indians. Here his sons mingled largely with military men, whose stories told round the fireside aroused a martial spirit that led all but one to adopt the profession of arms. Zachary was commissioned 1st lieutenant in the 7th U.S. infantry in 1808. On June 18, 1810, he was married to Margaret, daughter of Major Walter Smith, U.S.A., a planter of Calvert county, Md., and his wife lived with him on the frontier where the army was engaged in defending the settlers against the Shawnee Indians. He was promoted captain, Nov. 30, 1810, and in April, 1812, was ordered to Fort Harrison above Vincennes, where his company of fifty men strengthened the stockade in preparation for an Indian assault. The attack was made on Sept. 4-5, 1812, by a large force of warriors who, with small loss to the garrison, were repelled so effectively as to discourage them, and in October, Captain Taylor was reinforced by General Hopkins. He was brevetted major for his gallant defence of the place, and given command of a battalion with which to join General Hopkins in an expedition against an Indian camp at the head waters of the Wabash. In 1814 he was commissioned major and his battalion made a successful demonstration against the Indians, supported by British troops at Rock river, which put an end to hostilities in that section. Peace having been declared, the army was reduced to 10,000 men and Major Taylor was offered a captain's commission, which he declined, and his resignation was accepted. Soon after he was reinstated as major and again took up military life. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 1st infantry in 1819, and was given command of Fort Snelling, the extreme northwestern post. He built Fort Jesup, La., 1822, and served in the southwest until 1824, when he was sent to Louisville on recruiting service, and to Washington, D.C., as a member of the board of officers of which Winfield Scott was chairman, to determine the organization and uniformity of the state militia. He was in the southwest with headquarters at Baton Rouge, La., 1827-28, and at Fort Snelling, 1829-32. He was promoted colonel, April 4, 1832, and transferred to the 1st infantry and assigned to the command of Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, Wis., which he completed, and soon after joined General Atkinson in his campaign against Black Hawk, resulting in the battle of the Bad Axe, which closed the Indian troubles, Black Hawk soon after surrendering to Colonel Taylor. In 1836 Colonel Taylor was ordered to Florida, and on Dec. 25, 1837, fought the battle of Okeechobee, defeating the Cherokees and receiving the brevet of brigadier-general. In 1838 he was given command of the army in Florida and in 1840 of the Southern division of the Western department. He removed his family to a plantation near Baton Rouge, La., and was inactive until July 4, 1845, when it became necessary to defend Texas against the threatened invasion of the Mexicans, and he thereupon marched with his whole available force of 1500 men to Corpus Christi, reaching that place the same month. His orders from Washington being to maintain the Rio Grande as the boundary, he awaited reinforcements, and on March 8, 1846, he advanced to the bank of the river opposite Matamoras and established Fort Brown. Besides defending the fort he had a skirmish near Matamoras, April 19; fought the battles of Palo Alto, May 8, and Resaca de la Palma, May 9; had a second skirmish before taking possession of Matamoras, May 18; was brevetted major-general, May 28, and commissioned, June 29; fought the battle of Monterey, September 21-23; receiving the capitulation of the place on the 24th, and granting an armistice of eight weeks, for [p.113] which action he was severely criticized by Secretary Marcy. The combat at San Pasqual occurred December 6, and the skirmish at San Barnardino, Dec. 7, 1846. When the government had sent General Scott to capture the Mexican capital by the Vera Cruz route General Taylor was subject to his orders and his campaign by way of Saltillo across the plains, which he had proposed to the government at Washington, was practically closed, as he could not depend on any support should the exigencies of the campaign demand his troops at Vera Cruz. Taylor was ordered to Victoria, where he turned over his troops, save only an escort, to General Scott, to take part in the siege of Vera Cruz, and he returned to Monterey by way of Agua Nueva, beyond Saltillo. He was joined by General Wool, who had marched his forces from Chihuahua, and on February 23-24, they fought the battle of Buena Vista with 4550 men against Santa Anna's army, 22,000 strong. At the battle of Buena Vista, when on the second day he was urged not to continue the fight against such fearful odds, he said, "My wounded are behind me, I will never pass them alive." He effectively defeated the Mexican general, restored peace in the valley of the Rio Grande, and decimated the army of Santa Anna, which reached the defences of the city of Mexico, a small force of disheartened soldiers. This battle closed his career as a soldier, and he returned home in November, 1847. He received three medals from congress, and three swords from state legislatures. "Old Rough and Ready" was now the national hero, and was at once taken up by the Whig party as an available candidate for the Presidency, his prestige as a soldier being used as a foil to the popularity won by the administration of Polk in the successful termination of the war with Mexico. The Native American party that met in national convention in Philadelphia, September, 1847, had offered him the nomination for President but put no candidate in the field. The Democratic party met in Baltimore, May 22, 1848, and nominated Gen. Lewis Cass of Michigan for President, and William O. Butler of Kentucky for Vice-President, and the Whig national convention met at Philadelphia, June 7, 1848, and on the fourth ballot nominated Gen. Zachary Taylor of Louisiana for President and Millard Fillmore of New York was nominated for Vice-President. In the election that followed in November, the Taylor and Fillmore electors received 1,360,101 popular votes; the Cass and Butler electors 1,220,544, and the Van Buren and Adams Freesoil ticket, 291,262. The electoral college that met in 1849 gave to Taylor and Fillmore 163 votes, and 127 to Cass and Butler. On March 4, 1849, General Taylor was inaugurated, and he called to his cabinet John M. Clayton of Delaware as secretary of state; William M. Meredith of Pennsylvania as secretary of the treasury; George W. Crawford of Georgia as secretary of war; Thomas Ewing of Ohio as secretary of the interior; William B. Preston of Virginia as secretary of the navy; Jacob Collamer of Vermont, as postmaster-general, and Reverdy Johnson of Maryland as attorney-general. He sent Abbott Lawrence of Massachusetts as minister to Great Britain; William C. Rives of Virginia as minister to France; J. Watson Webb of New York as chargé d'affaires to Austria, and Daniel M. Barringer of North Carolina, as minister to Spain. In his message to congress he recommended the admission of California to the union, but did not favor the admission of either Utah or New Mexico. On July 4, 1850, he attended the ceremonies of laying the corner stone of the Washington monument, and the heat of the day, large draughts of cold water, eating of fruits and drinking of iced milk to allay a troublesome thirst, brought upon him cholera morbus, which, not yielding to medical treatment, caused his death in the presence of his wife, his daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Colonel Bliss, his brother, Colonel Taylor, and family, and Jefferson Davis and family, Vice-President Fillmore and his cabinet. The biographies of General Taylor are inadequate, that by Gen. O. O. Howard in "Great Commander" series (1892) being the most satisfactory. His name in Class N, Soldiers and Sailors, received nine votes for a place in the Hall of Fanta for Great Americans, New York university, October, 1900, and was twelfth in the class of twenty names presented for consideration. He died at the White House, Washington, July 9, 1850.

Source: The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume X T Tazewell, Henry page 113

WEEMS, John Crompton, a Representative from Maryland; born in Waterloo, Calvert County, Md., in 1778; attended St. John's College, Annapolis, Md.; engaged in planting; elected as a Democrat to the Nineteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Joseph Kent; reelected to the Twentieth Congress and served from February 1, 1826, to March 3, 1829; resumed agricultural pursuits; died on his plantation, "Loch Eden," in Anne Arundel County, Md., January 20, 1862; interment in a private cemetery on his estate.

Source: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 Biographies W page 1988

WILKINSON, James, (1758-1825) entered the army at an early age under Col. William Thompson, of Pennsylvania; 1776 served as aide to Generals Greene, Arnold, and Gates. In 1777 was adjutant general; 1778, served on the Board of War, and at the close of the war was brigadier-general of militia. He was born in Calvert County, Md.; died in City of Mexico.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 66 page 42
Mrs. Rose Allen Ellis. DAR ID Number: 65120

WILLIAMSON, Charles, (1748-86) commanded a company, 1778-79, of Calvert County militia. He was born and died in Calvert County, Md.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 91 page 152
Mrs. Carrie Williamson Murkland. DAR ID Number: 90470

WILSON, Nathaniel, (1754-96) was lieutenant in Capt. John Brooke's company, Calvert County militia. He was commissioned captain, 1779. He was born in Calvert County, Md.; died in Maysville, Ky.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 127 page 187
Mrs. Rosa Lu Williams Fisher. DAR ID Number: 126595

YOUNG, George, (1755-1807) served as a private from Maryland in the Continental troops. He was born in Calvert County, Md.; died in Lexington, Ky.

Source: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 90 page 134
Mrs. Isabella Atkinson Shumard. DAR ID Number: 89410