East New Market, Maryland - Notable People

Notable People

• William Grason, 1788–1868, 25th governor and the first directly elected by the general electorate as Governor of Maryland. He was the first elected governor from the Eastern Shore of Maryland due to a system that rotated the governorship by requiring the governor come from one of three regions in sequence. Marrying Susan Orrick Sullivane (daughter of Dr. James Bennett Sullivane) They resided at the bride’s father’s residence known as Edmondson House a.k.a. “Liberty Hall” from their marriage in 1812 until their removal to the future governor’s original home county of Queen Anne in or after 1814. From Q.A. County he served in the Maryland House of Delegates 1828-1829, unsuccessfully ran twice for the U.S. House of Representatives, and then was elected Governor of Maryland 1839-1842, Maryland State Senate 1852-1853.
• Samuel Green (freedman), African-American slave, Freedman, Minister; jailed in 1857 for possessing a copy of the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
• Thomas Holliday Hicks, 1798–1865, Initially a Democrat, later a Whig, Hicks was one of the most successful and wily elected officials in Maryland history concluding his elective career with the post of governor of the state as a member of the American Nativist Part or “No Nothing” Party. Prior to his election as governor in 1857 as a “Know Nothing” Hicks had been elected in 1827 as the Sheriff for Dorchester County, then 3 times to single year terms in the Md. House of Delegates (1829, 1830. and 1836) as well as to the November 1836 special session (one of 2 special sessions that year). In 1837 he was the last person elected by the state legislature to the powerful Governor’s Council prior to that body’s abolition. In 1838 he was appointed (as a Whig) to be the Chief Registrar of Register of Wills of Dorchester County and served until 1857. As Governor of Maryland (1858–1862) he was instrumental in the Presidential election of 1856 in carrying Maryland as the only State to cast its electoral votes for Millard Fillmore, the nominee of the Native American Party. Hicks was also crucial in the efforts maintaining Maryland within the Union. Though an opponent of foreign immigration and a supporter of slavery, he was a more ardent supporter of the Union. Playing both sides for time he authorized the destruction of bridges across the Susquehanna River to delay pro Union Federal Volunteers from coming into Maryland while simultaneously sanctioning the arrest of southern sympathizers immediately preceding his snap call of the Maryland general assembly into special session to consider secession. The session was convened in the somewhat removed town of Frederick City which delayed secessionist supporters not already arrested from attending. As noted above his efforts to avoid conflict between Federal Volunteer Troops of the 16th Massachusetts ultimately resulted in the federal occupation of Baltimore City thus inadvertently guaranteeing Union control of the city (then 4th largest in the nation) and secured enough time for the same delayed troops through a circuitous routing, to reach and seize the nation's western most Atlantic coastal port city and its critical rail hubs. This prevented the Confederates from effectively isolating the Federal capital by surrounding it and perhaps handing them an early victory. Appointed by his successor governor, he became an U.S. Senator in 1862 until his death in February 1865.
• Charles F. Hurley, Sr. 1910-1997, Educator and community activist, he was chosen to lead the efforts of one of the state's earliest school consolidations which created what is now North Dorchester High School. His efforts initially through the Maryland State Teachers Association and later a letter to the editor of the then Baltimore Morning Sun is one of the first known calls for what would come to be known as the G.E.D. (General Equivalency Diploma). His desire was to aid those forced to leave school to support their families in economically depressed times as well as to aid those fighting in the U.S. armed forces in W.W.II who had not graduated high school to obtain their equivalent diploma. As a high school principal and later as a member of the professional school board he worked to smooth the way for integration of African-Americans into what had been previously all white schools. As a member of the supervisory staff he along with others insisted that until that integration was accomplished that all students and schools in the county be treated equally in the allocation and distribution of supplies and resources. Active in and a leader of many community service organizations including the Masons and The Lions Club where he was elected and served as district governor. He was awarded the highest state honor from the Boy Scouts of America for lifelong service. His defeat in an at-large county councilmanic election led to a subsequent action on the part of the United States Justice Department which resulted in a consent decree forcing Dorchester County to adhere to the Supreme Court's Baker v. Carr ruling of one man, one vote and the end of at-large races for single county councilmanic seats as well as affecting the drawing of lines in other county and state elections..
• Dr. George P. Jones, M.D. – resident and practicing physician in the community, Dr. Jones was active in many groups including the local Masonic lodge and served as mayor of the town. His greatest accomplishment though was in the establishment of the public general and teaching hospital in Cambridge, Md. and known as Cambridge hospital (predecessor to present day Dorchester General Hospital). This marks it as the earliest known hospital on the Maryland portion of the Delmarva Peninsula.
• F.A. Newton, a.k.a. Francis Asbury Newton 1848-1922, farmer, and former postmaster of East New Market, Newton was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1880 as one of two Republican delegates out of a total of three elected from the county (usually a democratic stronghold). Never marrying and with no known issue and though not known at the time, Newton is one of the earliest now known members of the Maryland House of Delegates who was in fact “gay” as confirmed later by family members. After serving his term as delegate he did not seek re-election but moved to Baltimore City working as a commission-man (a merchant specializing in the purchase of produce directly from producers or their agents for resale in the wholesale market) in the Baltimore area. He remained in Baltimore City returning only on a regular annual family visit until just prior to his death in 1922 at the home of his niece Susan Stephens Hurley, née Newton.
• James Sulivane, who was a member of one of the town's and county's more prominent families. He served as a Captain in the American Revolutionary War, was a gentleman merchant, and was among Maryland's leading horse racing enthusiasts and elite. Sullivan created the town's first formal building lots laid out on a part of a resurvey of land granted in 1776 named "Newmarket" from which the town subsequently derived its name. During the American Revolution, Sullivan (who operated a grainery within the traditional town limits) served as a commissary officer for the Continental Army on the Delmarva Peninsula. He established a race track facility, known state wide, on his home farm "Friendship Hall" in what is now East New Market.