The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-04-10
Three Men Well known to Old
Citizens of Washington.
EooIoo ma ToIoe,

Three Men Well known to Old
Citizens of Washington.
Easton (lNd.,) Ledger.
In the year 1900 were born three chill
dren, each one at a considerable dis
tance apart, whose lives in youthful
manhood ran in close parallels, who
we're all brilliant and fortunate, and yet
who left nothing to posterity but
memory of wasted lives, of neglected
opportunities and of forgotten graves.
All three started in life with the fairest
prospects; all three seemed destined to
the highest honors; all three passed
away in storm and turmoil-two of them
in disgrace. Familiar with their history,
known as they are in Washington and
Maryland, many of their companions
still alive, propose to tell their stories,
leaving for others the task of drawing
moral therefrom.
GEORGE SWEARINGEN.
The Swearingen family is one of the
oldest, wealthiest and most influential
of that section of country which in
Pennsylvania is known as the Cumber-
land Valley and which runs down into
Washington and Frederick counties,
Maryland, and across the Potomac into
the Shenandoah Valley. A high sense
of honor and an answering integrity
are deep-rooted characteristics of the
whole family in all its branches. Of
all its members George D. Swearingen,
born in 1900, was Intellectually the
most brilliant. Before the age of twen-
ty-seven he was elected high sheriff of
Washington county, Md.,-an unprece-
dented honor for so young man. For
in those days the position of high sher-
iff in a Maryland county was considered
second in dignity and importance only
to the governorship. No young man in
the State had more brilliant prospects
before him than Swearingen-no one
seemed more worthy of them. The very
co,,l of horo-; md inteoritv he was one
OF those, In the quaint but expressive
language of our ancestors, whose word
was good as his bond For once for
tune seemed to smile upon contestant
for her favors. He was not only sue
cessful in winning high office, in restor-
ing to fair extent the patronage of his
family, in winning the affection and re-
spect of all who knew him, but he was
as lucky in love as he was in all other
things. He married Miss Scott, one
of the most amiable of ladies and a
daughter of one of the most respectable
families in northwest Maryland. To all
appearances the skies of his fate were
summer skies, across whose azure depths
no clouds would ever pass.
JAMES BOWIE.
In Prince Georges county, Maryland,
was born in 1900, of the old and his
toric family of the Bowies, the most
widely celebrated and famous of this
name, the man who will be remembered
through all time as the inventor of the
bowie-knife, but about whom very little
is known except the three facts that he
invented the knife bearing his name !;
that his daring courage was the theme
of two continents, and that in his death
alone of all men he paralleled Leonidas
at the pass of Thermopyla. He was of
pure Norman descent, the Bowies of
Maryland tracing their lineage clear up
without break to Roger Bigod, the
right hand man of Rolla, the first count
of the Normans. In his youth, Jem
Bowie-as he was familiarly called
was a quiet, dreamy, poetical youth.
Tender hearted as a girl, singularly free
from vices, averse to brawls, prodigally
generous, and animated by the broadest
charity for all his kind, it was no won.
der that he entertained thoughts of en-
tering the Episcopal ministry. His i'm
mediate branch of the family was poor,
but they kept up the traditional Splen-
dors of the name, and in all that related
to the free hand and the open purse
lem Bowie was not whit behind his
more fortunate kinsmen. A slender,
lundersized youth, with large head, a
dark, luminous eye, and voice of re-
markable sweetness, and power, although
as speech as GIRL with an intellect
recognized as being of the first class,
James Bowie's career in after life might
have been predicted to be one of bucolic
purity, simplicity and happiness.
JAMES HARRISON.
In Calvert county, Maryland, on the
Chesapeake Bay-and probably as far
from Bowie's birthplace as Swearingen' S
was from Bowie 's-was born in 1900 a
boy, named James H. Harrison. 1t is
rather singular fact that all three OF
these men were born in the month OF
September, of those old and whilom
wealthy Welsh families that settled in
Maryland in the earliest days of the
colony. His branch of the family had,
however, become much reduced, and
while they still held up their heads
among the gentry of the county, found
it difficult, without strict economy, tc
make 'both ends meet A man of re.
markable magnetic character, with q
bold, free, pleasing address, singular.
ly handsome countenance, stature over
six feet high, a voice whose ringing
melody made him in demand as speaker
for miles from his native place, and witt
a genius for political organization anc
arrangement that was remarkable, Jen
Harrison, before he was twenty year.
old, became a leading man of his coun
ty, and was everywhere recognized a
one of the most promising intellects il
a State prodigally notorious for grea
and precocious brains.
| HOW THEY MET.
| These three young men met for tn
first time at Charlotte Hall School, il
St. Mary's, an institution of learning
| which once had high reputation, ant