USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, Volume IV > Part 10
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His political affiliation is with the Republican party. He holds membership in the Masonic order, of which he is a junior warden. He finds his recreation in fishing-a most natural development for an Eastern Shore man; and is very partial to athletics.
On June 2, 1909, Dr. Elderdice was married to Miss Edna Adkins.
Doctor Elderdice was fortunate in his parentage, both his father and mother being fine examples of Christian character; and he recog- nizes that the most powerful influence in his own life has been the memory of his father and his good works. He adheres to the re- ligious creed of which his father was for half a century an exemplar, and is a member of the Methodist Protestant Church.
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yours JulySo lice John M Cold
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JOHN MARTIN ELDERDICE
There is rather a romantic story in connection with the family name of Elderdice. The family was originally located in Kincardin- shire, Scotland. The original name was Allardyce, or Allardice. The old family of Allardyce was of sufficient importance to give name to a parish, and has been for centuries settled in that parish. Far back in the early history of Scotland, there was another family named Airth. The representative of that family in the time of Edward I was Sir William de Airth, a great landed proprietor, whose eldest daughter and co-heir married Robert Bruce (not the king), and thus founded the family of the Bruces of Airth. The Bruces of Airth , flourished for centuries, and finally terminated in Jean Bruce, a daughter who married in 1674, Richard Elphinston, and thus termi- nated the family name of the Bruces of Airth. But the name had during these centuries become prominent to such an extent that a curious story resulted. In 1631, King Charles I conferred upon William Graham, Earl of Menteith, who was a descendant of the royal Stewart line, an augmentation of honors by creating him Earl of Strathern and Menteith. The Court of Sessions in Edinburg, in 1633, resisted the creation of the Earldom of Strathern, and the King waived the matter, and in order to compensate Graham raised the Barony of Airth, then held by Graham as one of his titles -- having come to him through the female line, into an Earldom, creating him Earl of Airth and Menteith. William Graham Earl of Airth and Menteith, a grandson of the preceding, who lived from 1661 to 1694, having no heirs of his own, resigned his honors in favor of James Gra- ham, known as the great Marquess of Montrose. With the death of this second William Graham and the death of Montrose, the Earldom of Airth became extinct. And here comes in the connection of the Elderdices: One hundred and forty years after the death of Mont- rose, Robert Barclay Alderdyce, or Elderdice, claimed the title of Earl of Airth by virtue of documentary evidence offered by him before the House of Lords to establish the fact that the Earldom had never become legally extinct and that he was the direct heir. The result of that suit was merely to show that he was the legitimate descendant of the Bruces and Grahams of Airth; but the decision of the House of Lords was against recognition of the Earldom of Airth; on the ground that with the death of William and James Graham · in 1694, there was no male issue left, and the title was only descend- able through the male line.
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JOHN GREY HOPKINS LILBURN
T HE old mother county of Maryland owes nothing to the outside world. From the day when it was first settled down to the present, a period of two hundred and eighty years, it has had to depend on the descendants of the early settlers. No foreign immigration has flowed in upon it since those first days, but on the contrary it has through the generations been contributing most valuable men, not only to Maryland, but to other States. It has given out much to the outside world and gotten back but little in return. However, there is another side to the picture, and the native sons of St. Mary's have gallantly maintained the prestige of the old historic county and in the present generation can show men of quality equal to the best that can be offered by any other section.
Among these loyal sons who have adhered to the old homeland and worked out a fair measure of success, is John G. H. Lilburn of the old centre of St. Inigoes, one of the most ancient settlements in our republic. Mr. Lilburn was born at Pleasant Valley, St. Mary's County, on November 9, 1855; son of Robert Franklin and Emeline Valeria (Hopkins) Lilburn. His father, a man of genial tempera- ment, social habits and great hospitality, was a planter. The family was founded in that section of the State by his paternal grandfather, Robert Lilburn, who came from Scotland in 1789 and settled on a part of „Cross Manor which they called "Pleasant Valley." His maternal grandfather, John Hopkins, was one of the early promoters of Washington, D. C. and owned all of what is now northwest Wash- ington :.
As a boy, Mr. Lilburn was not strong, but he occupied himself with all sorts of labor on the farm, and in this way developed both physical and moral strength, acquired common sense and good habits, with freedom from vices. At this period of his life his mother's influence was particularly powerful and effective. He had a hard struggle in youth. His father died when he was but ten years old, just at the close of the Civil War; and deprived of their slaves by the result of that struggle, his mother found herself left in straitened
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B.F. Johnson Inc Washinton D C
John & Ahillun
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circumstances, as many Southern people of that period did. The lad attended private and public schools, and Charlotte Hall Acad- emy for a short time, helping in the farm duties in intervals be- tween school terms. At seventeen he took hold actively of Pleasant Valley, his mother's farm. He felt that the time had arrived when he must undertake seriously the care of the mother who had been struggling so hard to give him proper training. In doing this, he abandoned his early ambition, which was to be a lawyer. A man of sound judgment, his contact with other men in active life incited him to greater efforts to overcome the difficulties which beset the path of a farmer without capital. He has succeeded in overcoming them all; has improved his farming interests; engaged in the oyster business, and finally established a prosperous sawmill and lumbering interest.
An active Democrat-for all men in Southern Maryland who " take any part in politics at all are active on one side or the other- · he was in 1899 elected county commissioner by his party friends, and in 1901 made president of the board. Since 1881 he has been a vestryman of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church in St. Mary's Parish. He is a great lover of nature and of the out of doors and finds his recreation in shooting, fishing, and fox hunting,-and does not even despise coon hunting, a pleasure known only to the initiated. Mr. Lilburn has wasted no time in looking for a better field. He has spent his life in the home county; made the best of his opportunities, and shown that even in the ancient county of St. Mary's, the right sort of man can achieve a substantial measure of success.
On July 26, 1893, Mr. Lilburn was married to Miss Annie Elizabeth Thomas, daughter of James Richard and Jeannette Eleanore (Briscoe) Thomas.
The Thomas family came from Wales to Maryland and the Bris- coes are an ancient North of England family, long settled in St. Mary's County.
His advice to the young man beginning life and his judgment as to how best to serve the interests of the State, cannot be put better than in his own words, which are here quoted: "Early life in the country producing strong physical development upon which to build mental development. Abstinence from liquor, energy and perseverance will enable any youth to attain success in life. In my opinion, the best interests of Maryland may be served by electing
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men to the State Legislature of good common sense and sound business principles, and by the united efforts of that body, on a non- partisan principle, to enact laws to promote the best interest of Maryland."
Considering the environment, Mr. Lilburn has worked out a most unusual degree of success. He looks carefully after each inter- est. The five or six farms which he has acquired are all cultivated in a thorough manner, and he carries this sort of work into every- thing which he undertakes.
Both Mr. Lilburn and his wife are descended from old Maryland families, which in turn are descended from very ancient Scotch and Welsh families. Both families have been armigerous for centuries, and the Briscoes certainly were among the Crusaders of seven or eight hundred years ago, and the Lilburns probably so. "This origi- nal Maryland stock has made a record in our own country second to that of no other State. From 1750 down to the present, in every generation the little State has contributed its full quota of leaders both in peace and in war, and when it can be said of a man, as in this case it can be said of the subject of this sketch, that he has lived up to the Maryland standard of patriotism, it is equal to saying that he ranks among the best that our country affords.
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Marcel July me
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EDGAR MARION NOEL
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E DGAR M. NOEL of Baltimore, president of the Noel Con- struction Company, a concern which now ranks among the leaders in the construction of great buildings, is a Virginian, born September 13, 1865; son of Lemuel and Mary Jane (Burgess) Noel.
There are some matters of special interest connected with the Noel family. It is a rare name in America, not often found outside of Virginia, to which the family came probably about 1700. The name was originally French and was derived from Noailles, a locality in the Department of Oise in the District of Normandy, France. Apparently a branch of this family followed William the Conqueror to England, for it appears in the Domesday Book. The French spell the name exactly like the place from which it was taken, but pronounce it Noel. The English changed the spelling in accord with the pronunciation, and derive from that also the name Nowell The French locality for centuries gave a name to a Dukedom in France, and we find all along down French history mention of a Duc de Noailles in each succeeding generation. The Noels prospered in England and won several coats of arms. One branch of the family did yet better-the Noel of this branch became a Baronet. Sir Gerard N. Noel, the second Baronet, married the daughter of Charles Mid- dleton, Baron of Barham, and thereby acquired that title. The son of this marriage was granted the additional titles of Baron Noel, Viscount Campden, and Earl of Gainsborough. The present holder of the title is Charles William Francis Noel, third Earl. A favorite given name in this family is Baptist, which shows their strong tend- ency to hold on to the old French names. A younger brother of the first Earl of Gainsborough, the Honorable Baptist Wriothesley Noel, became a clergyman and was one of the distinguished preachers of the last century.
The Noel families of Virginia claim direct descent from Baptist Noel of England, which shows connection with the family now holding the Earldom of Gainsborough, as that is a favorite given
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name in that family. It cannot be definitely stated when they first settled in Virginia, but that they were located in Essex County in the earlier period is proven by the marriage of Veranda Noel of Essex to James Newman in the first half of the eighteenth century. Evi- dently a branch of the family drifted to Bedford County, for we find where John W. Noell, born in that county in 1816, moved to Missouri; became a leading lawyer and public man, and died while serving his third term in the Federal Congress. He was succeeded in Con- gress by his son, Captain Thomas E. Noell, of the Nineteenth United States Infantry, who also died while a member of Congress.
Edgar M. Noel passed through the Oldfield School, which com- pleted his education as to books, and learned the carpenter's trade. In 1885 he left his native State; settled in Baltimore, and worked at his trade for about three years. That he made an impression even at that early period of his life is proven by the fact that he was then engaged by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as superintendent of construction between Canton and Philadelphia. He held this place for two years; returned to Baltimore where he continued his work at his trade, and a little later engaged in contracting on his own account.
In 1901, he had made sufficient headway in business. to enable him to organize a strong corporation the NOEL CONSTRUCTION COM- PANY, with the following officers: Edgar M. Noel, president; George . E. Merrill, vice-president; J. A. Schley, secretary and treasurer. That his plans were well laid, and his business well founded, is proven . by the fact that in the ten years since its establishment, there has . been no change whatever in its official staff-and yet in these ten years this company has been responsible for some of the largest buildings in the country. Some of their work has been so notable as to justify , mention. The group of buildings of the Naval Academy at Annapolis is of their construction. At Dayton, Ohio, the National Cash Regis- ter Company have the finest manufacturing plant in the United . States, and that plant is the work of the Noel Construction Company; also in Dayton, Ohio, the new and splendid quarters of the Young Men's Christian Association. In Chicago the new City Hall and the . Naval Training Station are other monuments to their skill. At Evanston, Illinois, the beautiful First Methodist Church is of their : workmanship; and in Baltimore, the Fifth Regiment Armory, one of the most unique structures in the country and the most commodious regimental home in the United States, is another one of their monu-
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ments. The company now stands in the front rank of builders, and its work is a standing expression of the ability of the men who manage it.
In 1890, Mr. Noel was married to Sadie E. Rue, daughter of Captain Rue of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and a resident of Harford County, Maryland. They have nine children-a truly patriarchal family. These children are: Edna M., Marie Louise, Helen Rue, Mildred L., Edgar M., Jr., Wilbur B., Marjorie E., Gladys Vir- ginia, and Eugene Merrill Noel-their ages ranging from twenty years down to five. Certainly a man with such a family as that who could not get enjoyment out of life would lack capacity for enjoy- ment.
Mr. Noel's father was Lemuel; his grandfather was James N., a large slave-holder; and his great-grandfather was John G. This would go back to about the period of the Revolution, and indicates that John G. Noel, great-grandfather of Edgar M. Noel, was himself a grandson of Baptist Noel, the immigrant.
CHARLES MASSEY PETERS
C HESAPEAKE BAY is the noblest body of water on either coast of the United States. It has always been a paradise for the hunter and fisherman. It is far enough south to escape the inclement climate of New England, and but for the fact of New York's nearness to the open ocean, the great city of our Union would be where Baltimore is now situated, for in many re- spects it has a far superior location to New York. The eastern shore of Cheaspeake Bay is formed by two counties of Virginia, the little State of Delaware, and the Eastern Shore of Maryland, these con- stituting the peninsula between Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. From this little strip of country has come as many strong men as from any other equal area in the United States, and it has developed a population which have clung to the home land with a tenacity almost unknown elsewhere in our country. The attractions made by a fertile soil, a temperate climate, and a great body of water rich in game and fish, have made it one of the most desirable home sections of the Union. The Eastern Shore has been the pioneer in the great oyster and fruit-packing industries of our country and in the great trucking industry which now amount to such colossal sums with each recurring year.
"One of these good citizens of the Eastern Shore, identified with its soil by reason of his occupation as a nurseryman, is Charles Massey Peters, now a resident of Salisbury. Mr. Peters was born at Rose's Bar, Yuba County, California, on March 3, 1854; son of William M. and Caroline (Massey) Peters. His father was a native of Delaware, in which State he was born May 24, 1830, descended from a family which at one time owned the land upon which stood the old Swedes Church in Wilmington. His mother was a daughter of Charles and Jane Massey, and was born in Kensington, Pennsylvania, on January 19, 1832. The elder Peters was an adventurous spirit. In his youth he was bound out to a drug firm, and when the California gold ex- citement broke out in the late 40's of the last century, he was within a year of the expiration of his apprenticeship. He gave one thousand dollars to his employer to be released from his last year of service;
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yours very they Chas M. Paleis
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and 1850 found him in California, one of that band of choice spirits who have made of the State of California the marvel of the world. He was adventurous in another way. He only remained in Cali- fornia a short time, when he returned East and was married on November 27, 1850 (by the Reverend A. Barnes of the First Presby- terian Church of Philadelphia), to his wife, she a girl of eighteen, he a boy of twenty. Returning immediately to California, he remained there for eight or nine years. In the earlier years of his residence in California, he was the first man to invent the flume for the purpose of washing out placer gold.
Returning from California, he located in Philadelphia about 1859, and engaged with his brother, Randolph Peters, in the manu- facture of the Boss patent watch case, having bought the patent from his half-uncle, James Boss, the inventor. During the latter part of · the war, William Peters' health broke down; he gave up manufactur- ing and moved to Newark, Delaware; and still in partnership with his brother Randolph, engaged in the nursery business. After a period of successful business, the partnership was dissolved, and Wil- liam M. Peters went to Centerville, Delaware, where he founded the Centerville Nurseries. William M. Peters was a 'man of unusual force. Practically self-educated; of vast energy, and of good business capacity, he was never cast down by any misfortune. While in California, he was washed out once by a flood, and burned out twice, but he never wasted any time in useless repining, and never found anything so big that it daunted him.
The son, Charles Massey Peters, born in 1854, was possessed of rugged health, and was reared mainly on the farm and in the nursery. He attended the public schools of Philadelphia; private schools at Newark; was two years at the public school at Centerville, Delaware; then at a private school at Centerville, and one year at a private school at Wilmington. From the time he was a boy of ten or twelve up to the age of seventeen, his summers were put in at tasks upon the farm and in the nursery, and the remainder of the year at school. By the time he arrived at the age of nineteen, he was a capable nurseryman. He went to Snow Hill in February 1873, and acting for his father founded the Snow Hill Nurseries. His father joined him there in 1875.
Mr. Peters' active business life has been spent in agricultural and horticultural work, his efforts being mainly directed to nursery
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work. He has prospered in his undertakings; has served his county for four years as one of its commissioners; for four years as its tax collector, and is in all respects one of its best known and leading citizens.
Mr. Peters was married on October 31, 1874, to Miss Annie C. · Timmons of Worcester County, Maryland; born at Wesley Station, August 1, 1852; daughter of John B. and Annie M. Timmons. Of the six children born to them, one little son, Charles T., passed away in 1884 in his seventh year. The living children are: Carrie M., born September 13, 1875, at Snow Hill, who married T. Howard Moore, who lives at Plainfield, New Jersey; is a salesman for Rogers, Peet and Company, and whose father was the Honorable T. Howard Moore, State's Attorney of Worcester County, Maryland. The second child was the little boy who died. The third, Frank H. Peters, was born September 30, 1879, and is now in charge of his father's farm and Snow Hill Nurseries at Snow Hill. The fourth, Annie Hoffman Peters, born April 3, 1887, is now in charge of the shorthand depart- ment of the Salisbury Business College. The younger children are: Edna I. Peters, born November 5, 1890, and Maryvin Peters, born April 4, 1894. Mr. Peters has reared a fine family in addition to the discharge of all his other duties as a good citizen, and has thus con- tributed to the future welfare of the country.
He is a Mason, an Odd Fellow, a Red Man, and a member of the Methodist Church.
The Peters family in the old country is about equally divided between England and Scotland. Mr. Peters is probably descended from the English branch, and during the days of Cromwell in England, several members of this family were noted fighting men in the ranks of the Puritan party. On the maternal side of the family, Mr: Peters' first ancestor in this country came over in the Mayflower to New England in 1620; and in his ancestral line on the maternal side looms up the figure of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. He has in his veins as good blood as our country can show, and has demonstrated by his work that it has been to him at least an inspira- tion.
· Mr. Peters' family history presents features of unusual interest. There unite in him certainly English, Scotch and Swedish blood-and probably Welsh blood. In his English blood there appear two dis- tinct strains, the Anglo-Saxon and the Norman. Let's look at this
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a little and see just what a modern American is. Mr. Peters' father was William M. Peters, who married Caroline Massey. William M. Peters was a son of William Peters, Junior, and his wife, Sarah Black. William Peters, Junior, was son of William Peters and his wife, Mary Grub. William Peters was son of Reese Peters and his wife, Catherine Wilson. Reese Peters was son of William and Ellen Peters of Aston, Pennsylvania. All these were residents of Pennsylvania and apparently of Scotch-English stock. But it will be noticed in following the connection, that William Peters, Junior, married Sarah Black. Sarah Black was the daughter of Joseph Black by his wife, Elizabeth Lungren. Elizabeth Lungren was a daughter of John Lungren, a native of the Province of Smaland, Sweden, born April 30, 1751, and died in Pennsylvania, March 3, 1816. John Lungren, arriving at his majority, undertook to emigrate to America. His vessel was blown out of its way by storms and wrecked on the coast of Africa. Rescued by an English vessel, he was conveyed to England; and finally reached America about two years before the outbreak of the Revolution. Penniless and in a strange land, he went to work as a laborer in a paper mill. On April 30, 1777, he married Sarah Garrett at the Falls of the Schuylkill, Philadelphia. He learned the paper mill business; was evidently a capable and industrious man, and for many years was a successful paper manufacturer, leaving a sub- stantial estate at his death.
It will have been noted that Mr. Peters' mother was a Massey. His mother, Caroline Porter Massey, was a daughter of Charles R. Massey, who married a widow, Jane Lee (Elliott) Irwin. She was the daughter of Israel Elliott, who was the son of Christopher Elliott. who was the son of Enoch Elliott, who was the son of John Elliott, who was the son of Peter Elliott, the immigrant. This Peter Elliott pre- sents a very interesting case. He came to America in 1682, with William Penn, and settled between Darby and Cobb's Creek. He . married Lucy Bonsall. When he came to America, his name was Peter Ellet. The next generation changed it to Eliot; and another generation to the present spelling, Elliott. The correct name of this branch of the family, therefore, is Ellet, which is English, and not Elliott, which is Scotch. Peter Elliott (as the name is now known) claimed to be Earl of Warwick, probably through the Guy family, from which he was apparently descended, and into which his son married-the Guys having been Earls of Warwick. This title has
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been broken in upon several times by the extinction of the main lines, and has been held at times by the Beauchamps, Nevilles, Guys, and Grevilles. Of Peter Elliott's marriage to Lucy Bonsall there were four children-two sons and two daughters. John, the son who lived to middle life, married Elizabeth Guy, a daughter of Robert Guy, a farmer. There is quite a little romance comes in here. Eliza- beth Guy appears to have been a niece of William Penn. She was sent from Aughton, Lancashire, England, in 1666, to Pennsylvania. and indentured to a man named Edward Poorson, of Calcus Hook (Darby). This indenture is dated July 2, 1687. Something less than two years later, John Elliott wanted to marry Elizabeth Guy, and so he compounded her remaining service for 7£ Sterling. This Elizabeth Guy was not only the niece of William Penn, but was also the niece of that Thomas Guy who founded the famous Guy's Hospital in London. Of the marriage of John Elliott and Elizabeth Guy, there were four children. One of the sons, Enoch, married Martha Taylor, and they had five children. Christopher, the eldest son, "married Ruth B. Merrion. They had one child, ' Israel, who married twice. Israel's first wife, Sarah Diehl, was a daughter of Captain Nicholas Diehl, who came from Germany in 1734. Israel's second wife was Mary Short. Of the first marriage there was only one daughter; but of the second marriage there were nine children. Of these, Jane Lee, next to the youngest (born Novem- ber 30, 1803), married as her second husband, Charles R. Massey, and was the great-grandmother of Mr. Charles M. Peters. Israel Elliott evidently held on to the family traditions. His life was spent in Darby, and he was always known as "Squire" Elliott. He dressed in knee breeches, wore gold knee buckles; was a man of distinguished presence, traveling preferably on horseback, and always wrote . "E. N. C. of Warwick" after his name.
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