Tag: Preston MD

A Field of Dreams – Dr. Henry Noble Willis (1865-1926)

Dr. Archibald W. “Moonlight” Graham of “Field of Dreams” fame did not play a half-inning of baseball for the Pocomoke City Salamanders of the Eastern Shore amateur league. And neither did Dr. Henry Noble Willis. But Doc Willis was the team manager in 1892, maybe longer. During his tenure, he was not involved in any time travel that we know of. His trips with the team seem to have been limited to neighboring towns in Worcester and surrounding  counties. However, that travel just might have helped him find a second wife after the mother of his two young children died unexpectedly. But I am ahead of myself.

Back to the Beginning

Henry Noble Willis was born in Preston, Caroline County, Maryland on 23 Dec 1865.[1] He was baptized at age 20 months on 16 Aug 1867 at Hubbard Farm a few miles north of Preston.[2] The occasion was likely a Methodist revival or encampment of some sort. Ten children from several families were baptized at the event. Henry was the fourth child and only son of Dr. Henry F. Willis  (1831-1890) and Emily Rumbold Patton (1836-1921). Two of his sisters died young — Cora (1857-1875) and Emma (1862-1863). Only Mary (1860-1941) lived well into adulthood.

The Noble Name

As noted in an earlier article Henry’s middle name seems to have been borrowed from a family highly regarded by the elder Dr. Willis rather than coming from a marriage between the two families. The most likely person is Twiford S. Noble.[3] Mr. Noble was a decade older than Henry F. Willis. Was he a  mentor? Both were trustees of Bethesda Methodist Episcopal (now United Methodist) Church in Preston and were possibly friends before that.[4] When Twiford’s son Jacob graduated from medical school in 1876, Dr. Willis took him into his practice for a while before Jacob moved to Dorchester County and established his own practice.[5] Whatever the reason for its adoption, the Willis family has used Noble as a first or middle name for five generations of men beginning with Henry Noble Willis.[6]

Little is known of Henry’s early life in Preston. He attended local public schools and then Williamsport College (now Lycoming College) in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. He then went to the University of Maryland College of Medicine in Baltimore, graduating in 1888 as a medical doctor.[7]

He had an obvious sense of humor. He wrote on the back of a photo taken while in medical school, “When you get sick, go have your picture taken. Be sure you are ugly a ton and break the camera at each sitting.”[8]

Moving On

Like his father, young Henry looked outside Caroline County to begin his medical practice. He went further south on the Delmarva Peninsula to Pocomoke City in Worcester County. At the time, Pocomoke City was more than ten times the size of Preston.[9] It makes sense that he opted for a location with more potential patients. The young doctor may have been invited to Pocomoke by Dr. John T. B. McMaster (1828-1889). He had graduated in 1850 from the same medical school and had become a prominent citizen of the region.[10] However, Dr. McMaster was apparently not in good health at the time. He died about a year after Henry arrived in Pocomoke City.[11] It is possible that Henry took over the elder doctor’s practice. Henry definitely was close to the McMasters. He and Mary E. McMaster, the youngest daughter of the family, married on 28 Oct 1890 at Beaver Dam Presbyterian Church in Pocomoke City.[12]

Henry and Mary had two children – Mary Catherine born 9 Jul 1891 and Harry McMaster born 27 Jul 1893.[13] Like Dr. McMaster, Henry’s father did not live to see the wedding or his grandchildren. The elder Dr. Willis died six months before the wedding. Young Henry went back to Preston to help administer his father’s estate along with his brother-in-law Joshua B. Clark.[14] (See this link). The elder Henry Willis had died intestate. Son Henry and his sister were each entitled to half the estate after their mother’s right to one third. Shortly thereafter, Henry purchased a house and lot on Second Street in Pocomoke City.[15] Mary McMaster Willis was also the beneficiary of an inheritance. Her father devised his half-acre homestead lot in Pocomoke City to his wife, who gifted the property to her four surviving children.[16] In 1893, the four divided the property with Mary and Henry Willis receiving a small part that contained an office building.[17]Henry may have established a drug store in the building. In 1896, he purchased soda fountain equipment of the type common in ice cream parlors or at drug store counters.[18]

Baseball

In addition to his medical practice and possibly running a drug store, Dr. Henry N. Willis managed the town’s amateur baseball team. An 1892 photo of the Pocomoke City baseball team with Dr. Willis as manager appeared in the local newspaper.[19] Some team members appear to be high school students, others young adults. This was typical of the era – think “Field of Dreams” – when towns fielded amateur teams for friendly competition.[20] Other towns with teams in the Eastern Shore League included those nearby, such as Crisfield in Somerset County, and others some distance away, such as Cambridge in Dorchester County.[21] As the competition grew more intense, some towns employed “ringers” – semipro or college athletes – to bolster their teams. We do not know if Henry cheated in this manner. Had he managed long enough and were so inclined, however, he might have gotten help from “Moonlight” Graham. You see, Archie Graham also went to medical school at the University of Maryland graduating in 1905. He played several sports including baseball.[22] We can imagine that for a few bucks he might have caught a train from Baltimore to help out the Pocomoke City team, especially if asked by a doctor from the same school.

Tragedy Followed by Good Fortune

The family suffered a devastating blow in 1898 when Henry’s wife died, leaving two children ages seven and five.[23] They were not without a mother for long. Henry remarried on 7 Sep 1899, less than a year after Mary’s death.[24] His bride was Jessie Sensor, the eighteen year-old daughter of Rev. George Guyer Sensor (1852-1913) and Julia Frances Mendenhall 1857-1941). The reverend was the Methodist minister of several churches in the region, conducting services in Pocomoke City and Crisfield in Maryland and Accomack in Virginia. We do not know how Henry and Jessie met. Possibly Jessie accompanied her father on his Sunday visits to Pocomoke. However, Henry’s affiliation through the McMaster family had been with local Presbyterian churches rather than Methodists. I like to think that they met because of his travels to Crisfield with the baseball team. In any event, they were married in Somerset County, so we can assume it was at the Crisfield Methodist Church with her father officiating.

It must have been quite a challenge for Jessie becoming the stepmother of two children, especially being only eleven years older than her stepdaughter! But that will have to wait for the second part of this story.

_____

[1] There is no birth certificate for Henry Noble Willis, and other evidence of his birth date is inconsistent. State of Delaware, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death #1274 states his birth date as 23 Dec 1866 and date of death as 11 Apr 1926. However, the 1900 Federal Census shows his birth as Dec 1865. That month and year is supported by his baptism on 16 Aug 1867 at age 20 months. His tombstone indicates birth in 1865.

[2] Methodist Episcopal Church Records, Dorchester District, 16 Aug 1867, Henry Noble Willis, parents Henry and Emily Willis, age 20 months, lived near Preston, by E.G. Irwin, at Hubbard Camp, http://www.collinsfactor.com/church/mec1866baptisms.htm

[3] Another Noble family, Isaac L. and his wife Mary E Noble, was a Willis neighbor in the 1870 census. I have not found any relationship between the Willises and Isaac Noble.

[4] Email 13 Jun 2012 with Dr. Eric Cheezum, historian at Bethesda Methodist.

[5] Jensen, Dr. Christian E., MD, Lives of Caroline County Maryland Physicians, 1774 – 1984, Printed by Baker Printing Company, Denton, Maryland, 1986, 118.

[6] They are Henry Noble Willis’s son Noble Sensor Willis, grandson Gary Noble Willis, great grandson Noble Sutherland Willis, and great-great grandson Christopher Noble Willis.

[7] U.S. College Student Lists, 1763-1924 on Ancestry, University of Maryland, 1891. At p 228, H. N. Willis, 1888, MD.

[8] Photo printed on front, Richard Walzh, 205 West Balto. Street, Baltimore, 477 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC

[9] https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1900/bulletins/demographic/28-population-md.pdf. Pocomoke City population in 1900 was 2,124 versus 192 for Preston.

[10] U.S. College Student Lists, 1763-1924 on Ancestry, University of Maryland, 1891. At p 212, John T. B. McMaster, 1850, MD

[11] McMaster died 27 Aug 1889 per Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/160117722/john_thomas_bayly_mcmaster

[12] Dryden, Ruth T., Lower Eastern Shore Maryland Marriages (including the counties of Somerset, Worcester, Wicomico) 1865-1906; Compiler and Publisher: Ruth T. Dryden, San Diego, CA, 1991, 527. Willis, Henry N, 24, McMasters, Mary E., 23, 28 Oct 1890, Wor.

[13] Social Security Death Index provides the birth date for each.

[14] Caroline County Administrations Key, online at Family Search, 169. Widow Emily P. Willis and daughter Mary W. Clark renounced their right of administration of the estate of Henry F. Willis. Letters of Administration granted to son Henry N. Willis and son-in-law Joshua B. Clark with bond of $5,000 and securities Jeremiah B. Fletcher and Robert Patton [GNW Note: Robert Patton is Emily’s brother]

[15] https://mdlandrec.net/main/. Worcester County, Maryland Deed Book FHP 1:116. 28 Sep 1890, Henry N Willis purchased for $350 from Samuel F Farlow et al a lot on the west side of Second Street with all improvements.

[16] https://mdlandrec.net/main/. Worcester County, Maryland Deed Book FHP 1:202. 25 Dec 1890, Elizabeth Grace McMaster (widow) conveys to her four named children for love and affection and $1.00 the McMaster Homestead lot, about a half-acre, between Market Street and Vine Street while retaining during her lifetime the right of use the property, including the right to lease but not mortgage it.

[17] https://mdlandrec.net/main/. Worcester County, Maryland Deed Book FHP 4:524. 1 Dec 1893, Harriet McMaster King and husband Herbert H. King of Pocomoke City, John S. McMaster of Jersey City, New Jersey, and Samuel B. McMaster of New York City sell to Mary E. Willis wife of Henry N. Willis for $1.00 the southwest part of the McMaster Homestead with 30 feet fronting on Market Street by about 100 feet deep. The lot contains an office building referred to in the boundary description of a lease recorded at FHP 8:548.

[18] https://mdlandrec.net/main/. Worcester County, Maryland Deed Book FHP 7:511, 1 May 1896, Henry N Willis purchased soda fountain equipment for $166.50 from Robert M Green & Sons of Baltimore.

[19] The photo appeared in the 1955 Anniversary Edition of the local newspaper, the “Worcester Democrat,” copy of the clipping in possession of the author.

[20] See, e.g., https://libapps.salisbury.edu/nabb-online/exhibits/show/friends-rivals-baseball-delmar/early-days-of-baseball-on-the-

[21] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Shore_League. The amateur competition grew into a professional minor league in 1922.

[22] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_Graham

[23] Dryden, Ruth T., Cemetery Records of Worcester County, Maryland, reprint by Heritage Books, 2013, p. 202. Mary E. McMaster Willis died 19 May 1898 with burial in Pitt’s Creek Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Pocomoke City, Maryland.

[24] Dryden, Ruth T., Lower Eastern Shore Maryland Marriages (including the counties of Somerset, Worcester, Wicomico) 1865-1906; San Diego, CA, 1991, 527. Willis, Henry, 34 w(idower), Senser, Jessie, 18, 7 Sep 1899, Somerset.

Revised – A Surprising Willis – Quaker Connection

Subsequent to the original posting of this article, significant new information came to my attention requiring a substantial rewrite. I have deleted the original and post this revised version in order to clear the record of incorrect information. 

During the 18thand 19thcenturies, several Willis families on the Eastern Shore of Maryland were Quakers. I have long believed that the John Willis family who lived on land called Wantage in Dorchester County was not one of them.[1]The evidence I had found to date supported that conclusion.

For example, Wantage John’s eldest son John, Jr. lived on Marshy Creek in what became Caroline County. Several Quaker Meetings and the Anglican St. Mary’s White Chapel Parish served the region. The Anglican records do not survive, so whether John Jr.’s family attended there is lost to history. On the other hand, numerous Quaker Meeting records of the period exist. John, Jr.’s family does not appear in any of them. Apparently, the family was not Quaker.

The record for Wantage John’s son Andrew is more straightforward. Andrew lived in Dorchester County. Three of his four sons appear in the records of Old Trinity Church near Church Creek at the baptism of several children between 1754 and 1775.[2]No Quaker record names any of these people. This family was clearly Anglican and not Quaker.

The elder John had two other sons, Thomas and William. Thomas lived adjacent John Jr. on Marshy Creek. William inherited Wantage from his father and lived there until moving close to his wife’s family on Hodson’s/Hudson’s Creek in the Neck Region of Dorchester County. Neither of these sons appears in any religious record, Anglican or otherwise. Therefore, no evidence suggests a connection to Quakerism for anyone in the Wantage John family for the first couple of generations. And, there is evidence that one family group was Anglican.

Beyond these first generations, descendants of John of Wantage and related families were prominent in Methodism. Barratt’s Chapel in neighboring Kent County, Delaware was the birthplace of Methodism in America.[3]Lydia Barratt, granddaughter of Philip Barratt who built the chapel in 1780 is the great grandmother of Henry Fisher Willis, a direct descendant of Wantage John. Henry was a significant supporter of the Bethesda Methodist Church in Preston, Caroline County, Maryland, with a stained glass window honoring his service in the late 1800s. Henry’s father Zachariah Willis was a trustee of the Methodist Church whose twin brother Foster gave land for a church in 1831.[4]

I concluded from this data it highly unlikely that any of Wantage John’s descendants belonged to the Society of Friends. In fact, I used membership in the Society as a screening tool to eliminate various Willis lineages as being related to John of Wantage. For example, there is a Quaker Willis line in eastern Dorchester County and in the Federalsburg region of Caroline County.[5]Another Willis line in Talbot and Caroline County attended the Tuckahoe Monthly Meeting. Indeed, many researchers have conflated a Richard Willis in that line, who married Margaret Cox, with a Richard Willis in Wantage John’s line. A third line of Willises who lived in Kent County, Maryland were also Quaker. None of these families are related to John Willis of Wantage at least on this side of the pond.

With a high level of confidence in the religious affiliation of the John Willis family, or at least its lack of affiliation with the Quakers, imagine my surprise when I came across the following entries reportedly from the birth records of the Wilmington Monthly Meeting, New Castle, Delaware.[6]Oops:

  • Richard Willis 24 of 1 mo 1794    Son of Richard Willis and Britanna his wife
  • Ann Willis 2 of 6 mo 1799      Daughter of Do & Do
  • Senah Willis 19 of 4 mo 1802    Son of Do & Do
  • Zachariah Willis and Foster Willis     27 of 12 mo 1804   Sons of Do & Do
  • Peter Willis 21 of 4 mo 1811    Son of Do & Do

The same document contains the following burial records:

  • Richard Willis 27 of 5 mo 1820    in 26thyear
  • Richard Willis 2 mo 14 1823        63rd
  • Britanna Willis 1 mo 2 1826          in the 59th

The listed parents Richard Willis and Britanna (Britannia Goutee) are well known to me, but I had no inkling they were Quakers. Richard, born 8 Aug 1759, is the son of Richard Willis, died 1764, and the great grandson of John of Wantage.  Richard and Britannia, born about 1765, married in Caroline County on 22 Jan 1788.[7]She is descended from John Gootee and Margaret Besson/Beeson, who came to the colony from France with Margaret’s father and became naturalized citizens in 1671.[8]So, have I been wrong all along about this Willis line and Quakerism?

Well, I don’t know. Certainly, I was wrong about Richard and Britannia, however, these seem to be the only Quaker records online for the family … no marriages, no grandchildren’s births, no deaths recorded after Britannia’s in 1826.

This particular record does reveal some other information. First, the record is handwritten … an Index plus a section of Births and one of Burials. However, the cover page is typewritten, stating that it is from the Wilmington Monthly Meeting.[9]An examination of the contents reveals, however, that the cover page is incorrect. The record is actually from the Northwest Fork Meeting in Federalsburg based on the following. For one thing, the record noted that two of the listed people were “Elders in the NW Fork Monthly Meeting.” Additionally, surnames in the record, such as, Charles, Dawson, Kelley, Leverton, Noble, and Wright, are of Quaker families known to have lived near the Northwest Fork of the Nanticoke River. Finally, the record indicates the residence of a few of the listed persons. The record mentions only three counties: Caroline and Dorchester, Maryland, and Sussex, Delaware. Federalsburg is located at the intersection of those counties. Clearly, the record is from that Meeting and not Wilmington.

The second thing apparent from this register is that it is a copy and not the original register. The handwriting is identical throughout, both in the index and the birth and death entries. Had the entries been made at the times the events occurred from 1790 to 1828, the person making the entries surely would have changed from time to time. Therefore, the handwriting would have varied. Furthermore, many entries relating to a single family are grouped together regardless of date. For example, all the Willis birth entries are on a single page.[10]The same is true of some other families. One would expect the original register to be in chronological order with the family names mixed together. Apparently, a clerk prepared a copy of the original register, reorganized and indexed it. Likely, this document was intended for the files of a Quarterly or Yearly Meeting to which the Northwest Fork Meeting was subordinate. That would have been the Southern Quarterly and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting during the years in question.[11]

One additional Quaker reference to this family is Kenneth Carroll’s Quakerism on the Eastern Shore.That source lists under the Northwest Fork Monthly Meeting the birth of Ann Willis, daughter of Richard and Britannia and the death of Ann Willis “daughter of Richard.”[12]If this is the same Ann, she died unmarried at age 35. Interestingly, Carroll’s work does not include the other data found in the mislabeled Northwest Fork record. Obviously, he did not have access to that register.

In conclusion, it is clear that Richard and Britannia Willis affiliated with the Quakers. Apparently, the Friend’s connection ended with Ann’s death. Possibly she was the motivating factor for the family’s involvement in the sect.

_____________________

[1]John Willis, died 1712, patented a 50-acre tract named Wantage in Dorchester County in 1702.

[2]Palmer, Katherine H., transcribed Baptism Record, Old Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, Church Creek, MD, (Cambridge, MD), 19, baptisms of son Richard’s children Mary (1754), John (1755), Elizabeth (1758) and Richard (1761); son John’s child Jarvis (1758); son Andrew’s children Keziah (1770) and George (1775).

[3]See www.barrattschapel.org

[4]Caroline County, MD Land Records, Liber JR-R, Folio 115, 29 Oct 1831 deed for ½ acre from Foster Willis and Wife Ann to trustees of the Methodist Church, proved 31 Jan 1832.

[5]Actually, this family were Nicholites, or New Quakers, until that sect reunited with the Quakers in 1798. See Carroll, Kenneth Lane, Joseph Nichols and the Nicholites: A Look at the “New Quakers” of Maryland, Delaware, North and South Carolina (Easton, Maryland: The Easton Publishing Company, 1962), 78, Births of the children of Andrew and Sarah Willis: Andrew, 3 Nov 1774; Mary, 5 Dec 1770; Rhoda, 18 May 1766; Roger, 14 May 1768; and Shadrick, 15 May 1772. Births of children of Thomas and Sina Willis: Anne, 5 Dec 1770; Elic, 1 Feb 1785; Jesse, 15 Feb 1773; Joshua, 15 Dec 1774; Milby, & Aug 1768; Milley, 3 Feb 1784; Thomas, 28 Oct 1776; and William 20 Sep 1771.

[6]Ancestry.com, U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935: Births & Deaths, 1790-1828, Wilmington Monthly Meeting, New Castle, Delaware. Birth records are all at p. 19; Burial records at pp. 7, 8, and 10, respectively.

[7]Cranor, Henry Downes, Marriage Licenses of Caroline County, Maryland, 1744-1815(Philadelphia: Henry Downes Cranor, 1904), 18.

[8]Browne, William Hand, Archives of Maryland v.2, Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland, April 1666 – June 1676(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1884), 270, Naturalization of John Gootee and Margarett Gootee his wife of Dorchester County and Stephen Besson of Dorchester County all born in the Kingdom of France. Act read as being passed by the Assembly at 19 Apr 1671 closing of the session on the General Assembly, which began 27 Mar 1671 in St. Mary’s County.

[9]The typewritten text on the cover page reads, “II Department of Friends’ Records, 302 Arch Street, Phila., PA, Wilmington Monthly Meeting, Del., Births and Deaths, 1790-1828, Births 22 pp.; Deaths 11 pp.; Index 32 pp.”

[10]This record, however, does not include the couple’s two eldest daughters, Rebecca, born 9 Nov 1788, and Dorcas, born between 1790 and 1793.

[11]Jacobsen, Phebe R., Quaker Records in Maryland(Annapolis: The Hall of Records Commission, State of Maryland, 1966), 78, In 1800, by permission of the Southern Quarterly, a Monthly Meeting was established at Northwest Fork, consisting of Marshy Creek [Note: later named Snow Hill and then Preston], Centre, and Northwest Fork Preparative Meetings … When the Separation occurred within the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1827, the Southern Quarterly Meeting was simply dissolved by the Orthodox.”

[12]  Carroll, Kenneth Lane, Quakerism on the Eastern Shore(Baltimore: The Maryland Historical Society, Garamond/Pridemark Press, 1970) 255, Ann Willis daughter of Richard and Britana [sic] born 19 Apr 1799; 260, Ann Willis daughter of Richard died 22 Sep 1834.