The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-02-07

their religious belief prevented them
from using these most desirable char
acteristics to subserve the more exten-
sive public interests of their country.
The grandfather of the present rising
generation was, by inheritance, man
of great wealth for his time, a time not
marked by merchant princes amassing
millions in one generation by trade,
and he was enabled to bequeath to each
of his seven children a fine property,
the aggregated acres of which represen-
ted no mean portion, for the sixth gen.
eration's heritage, of ancestral posses
sions. He had owned beside large
property in Baltimore, portions of
which are now occupied by Guys and
Barnum's Hotels-worth at the present
day, perhaps, millions of dollars-but,
as his step-brothers, envious of his sem
iority and wealth, threatened to resort to
law to obtain this property, and as he
his religious convictions preventing his
instituting legal proceedings resigned,
to use his own words, 'tfor the sake of
Lleace," all claim to the same, although
his sons attempted after his death to
recover it, they were prevented by the
statute of limitations, and thus this
valuable inheritance was lost to them
forever.
His four sons, forsakiug the faith of
their fathers as we'll as their ancestral
acres, purchased, in 1S4S, portion of
the old Owings estates of Baltimore
county, comprising many hundred acres
of land, twelve miles northwest of Bal
timore. In their efforts to restore the
old Owings Mills, which in their prime
had been no mean source of supply to
the immense flour market of Baltimore,
and various other injudicious invest
ments, their property gradually slipped
through their hands, only small por-
ton of it remaining to-day in the pos
session of the youngest brother, Mr.. B.
F. Croft, member of the present de-
clining generation.
The Grofs have always been noted
for great physical strength, and pas
sion for fine horses. An interesting in
cident given in the old history of Ian
caster county, concerning Johannes
Graf (familiarly known as Hans Graf,
shows the same traits in their first an
cestor, who was of great physique, and
who always rode, according to the
printed records, 'Fmost noble, loftie
steed."
The oldest male representative of
the direct line now living, is Mr.. F.
B. Croft, of Washington, D. C. Mr..
7. B. Croft, of the Washington Critic
Mr.. A. E. Croft, of Baltimore county;
and Mr.. B. F. Croft mentioned above,
make up the male members of that
generation, two of whom have in late
years returned to their fathers faith.
In strict accordance with their denom
national and painfully literal interpre-
tation of the command "Thou shalt
not make to thyself x the
likeness of anything that is in the heav-
en- above, the earth beneath, or the
waters under the earth," there has
never been taken portrait, miniature,
or likeness of any sort of any member
of this family, until the present genera
ton. A much valued portrait of the
mother of Mr.. J. B. Grof's wife. very
beautiful woman and member of the
same sect, which is in the possession of
the connections by marriage, was paint
ed by stealth, and almost entirely from
memory, by the gifted Mr.. Echholtz, of
Lancaster, a friend of Gen. David
Miller, whose wife she was.
An article published some fifteen
years ago in atlantic monthly, makes
honorable mention of this interesting
family.
The following is an extract of an en-
actment of the General Assembly of
Pennsylvania, which met in the year
1918:
"Be it enacted that Johannes Graf,
etc., etc., etc., all of Lancaster County,
shall be to all intents and purposes,
deemed, taken and esteemed His Maj.
esty's George l. of England) natural
born subjects of this Province of Penn
sylvania, as if they, each of them, had
been born in said province, and shall
| be entitled to all rights and privileges
of natural born citizens as fully to all
intents and purposes as any of His Maj
esty's natural born subjects of this prov
ince can, do, or ought to enjoy"
The date of the above goes to show
that much longer period of creditable
residence was required in the colonial
days to obtain naturalization and rights
of citizenship, than marks the constitu-
tional demands of our independent ma
tionality. 1t were well, perhaps, if we
could strike happy medium at the
present day.
There are many branches of the
"familie of worth and Distinction" to
quote again the old printed records,
but most of them are widely scattered
and have lost, through indifference or
otherwise, all trace of their origin.
The head of the family in the pres
ent rising generation, according to the
preserved Bible records-the Oldest son
of the oldest son for four generations,
is DR.. c. A. Croft, of Philadelphia.
BG%On the St. Lawrence we once
met poor Indian who had just come
out of prison. A more woebegone and