Notes from Tina’s Presentation:
Starting with the Revolutionary War, we have Col Thomas Dorsey of Troy, who was in the Elkridge Battalion. There were rumors that secret meetings were held in Troy mansion by Hugh ups in the war effort. We can’t confirm that. But there is lots of documentation where he was asked to provide this and that for the war effort.
There is also Col. John Dorsey, no doubt a relative, but I haven’t had time to track the genealogy.
Elkridge was in a good location for goods and troops to pass through between north and south. We don’t know of any fighting here during the Revolution, but there was definitely activity, and troops that were sent forth.
Calendar of Maryland State Papers:
After the war, Thomas Dorsey’s fortune dwindled. In his will, he admits that through his own indiscretions, he wasted a lot. He left his widow in a pickle, and she had to sell property at Troy bit by bit. The entire estate then went out of the Dorsey family by 1809.
In the Civil War, William Henry Harrison Hudson (who was born in Deleware) served with the troops guarding the Viaduct at Relay. While there, he met and married his wife Mary Kane, and his family blossomed in Elkridge. His son James fought in the Spanish American War, and sadly was disabled. His grandson J. Francis Hubbard fought in the Korean War.
In the war of 1812, William Earp was a veteran of the Battle of Bladensburg. He was the grandfather of Charles A R Earp who owned the Brumbaugh House in the 1890s until his death in 1921. His widow sold the house to Dr B.
In WW1, our own Dr B was a veteran of the medical corp. It is our understanding that he stayed stateside but also was exposed to the horrors of war by the patients he treated when they returned.
For WW2, we have the uniform here of Edmund Lynn, husband of Elaine Lynn, who was a schoolteacher.
Now we’d like to talk about the Young family. Johnny Young, pictured here, was killed in a bombing in 1945. He already had one purple heart from an injury incurred on Solomons Island. By all accounts he was a very kind person. Before being drafted into the army, he attended Grace Episcopal Church and attended Elkridge High for 3 years. Then we went to work for a furniture company as a carpenter.
Two of his brothers, Merle Nelson, and Howard, also fought in WW2 and were decorated for bravery. Their brother George was several years younger and he served in the Korean War.
Their cousin Frank Crowson was also a veteran. He was a volunteer with the Elkridge Fire Dept. From his travel experiences, he also published some books. He grew up in Lower Elkridge and was going to give us a presentation in 2014, but he had a health crisis and ended up in the hospital. He died a year later.
In addition to Johnny, Elkridge High School lost 5 other former students during WW2. (See the slides)
Not included in that list, Melvin March was lost at sea during WW2. His family is part of the Polish immigration to Elkridge discussed at our Little Poland Event in 2020. Our president Craig Pool is part of that family!
Of course our historically black community had its share of veterans. Seawood Richardson, who was Dr B’s driver, enlisted in 1941, and was a warrant officer. Seawood’s brother Francis also served in 1945 from Feb to November. Their brother William registered for the WW2 draft but I can’t tell if he served.
Big John Merson served in Vietnam. Everyone loved him. He worked with the EVFD and he worked for HoCo Parks & Recs, devoted to Rockburn Park.
We had many many more veterans, and only a subset of those are in our records up here. You can peruse them at the Brumbaugh House upon request.
Mary talked about women vets, and Polly Cutler, a WASP. See https://elkridgeheritage.org/elkridge-knowledge-base/veterans/polly-cutler-white-wasp/ for the content of her talk.