George Rogers Maguire
The only information found about this man’s childhood was that he attended Girard College in Philadelphia. Despite the name, the school was not (and still isn’t) an institution of higher…
Read MoreGeorge Washington Maybery
George was the third of seven children, with three brothers and three sisters. They probably grew up correcting people who should have spelled their last name with just one r,…
Read MoreGeorge Thomas Berry
A “Southerner” by birth, George’s hometown was Portsmouth Virginia. He must have grown up without his father, who wasn’t listed in the earliest available census. In 1850 his mother, Jane,…
Read MoreJohn Henry Harres
Although the surname Harres is not of German origin, that’s the country John’s father, Gebhard, left to settle in Philadelphia and have nine children. John went to Central High School…
Read MoreWilliam H. Letford, Jr.
The name Letford derives from a village named Latchford in either Cheshire or Oxfordshire, England. Only a little more is certain about William’s roots. His parents were both born in…
Read MoreGeorge Young
It’s extremely rare to find a gravestone that mentions a person other than the one buried there, but this man’s marker (shown below) includes a reference to Napoleon Bonaparte. The…
Read MoreWatson Holbrook Farrington
A Hollywood screenwriter making up a fictitious name for the son of a fabulously wealthy oil baron could not have found a more prosperous-sounding name than this. However, the real…
Read MoreWilliam James Wallace
It is often said a man isn’t defined solely by the work he does. However, most men in the Wallace family held one occupation for their entire lives, and most…
Read MoreWilliam Marshall
Bill’s mother was about 17 when she married Thomas Marshall on April 22, 1935. She gave birth to Bill a little more than three months later. Thomas was a cooper,…
Read MoreGeorge Potts McLean
Both of George’s parents were from Scotland who married in 1800 in Philadelphia and had 13 children. His early years weren’t documented until sometime just before 1850 when he married…
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