The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1898-02-11


200 yards long, had tram along it for
freight and some horses and on teams
and negroes were at the shore end. A
young lad cried to his sister or other
relative by way of greeting her home,
"You've been drinking!" Two or
three wooden farmhouses were in sight,
one of them belonging to a man named
Hanse, a native, but of the Sw,d =;
stock which moved from Delaware af
ter the Dutch reduced the Swedes and
brought a good many Dutch to Mary
land with them 1t was easier for
Baltimore to draw immigrants from
his neighbors than to import them.
The living Hanse had lately obtained
forfeit for farm he sold which the
purchaser did not reclaim at the fancy
price of $4,000, true worth said to be
$4,000. The inland here rose to a
height of l2O feet and more, and was
naturally wooded.
Taney's birthplace, on closer ap-
prOach, was seen to be a square wooden
building of two stories, with conical
roof and three or four end chimneys in
closed within the clap-boarding. A
square porch is in the middle, two win
dows on each side of the porch, and
five windows in the second story.
There are no front dormers and the root
is low-pitched. Another small, square
perch is at the end, prolonging the
front The timbers are set on brick
foundation, in which are cellar ventila-
tors. In this house Michael fancy
murdered his neighbor. His dust is
probably in the old burial lot.
look up at that wide, low, white
washed house on the distant hill and
see its historical scion, one of the mourn
ful-taced, tide-water Marylanders, with
a lean, straight nose and little tucked
under chin, sunken chops, high cheek
bones, withered eyes, forehead narrow
tempted. dry, frowsy hair, many
wrinkles, and amid them intellectually.
1t is sere and hopeless face, the eN-
preston that ofone preserved by high
temper, which still draws up the shroud-
like skin of the face to the pins of the
little lid-heavy eyes.
The Hungerford story was probably
ill-told, like any hearsay tale. The
context from Taney'S own biography
makes it probable that the elder
Taney's habits had separated him from
his wife and that he was murdered while
his sister was his housekeeper and he
distraught from the violence of his own
passions.
ale had finished his education" says
Roger Taney, "and returned home
some years before the commence ment
of the American Revolution, and his
father being dead, he took possession
of his estate and married my mother,
Monica Brooke, about the year l17O."
The Brookes were from Battel, Sus-
sex. observation-disclosures Battel Creek,
Patuxent-in 1850. 1t does not seem
that the senior Taney, though all
through the war he was in Maryland,
entered the army. He kept a pack OF
hounds, hunted whole weeks with other
neighbors and their packs, drank egg
nog freely at breakfast, returned home
late, and played whist for stakes. "His
frequent election to the House OF Dele
gates had given him taste for public
life and an ambition for public emf
nence. lie looked upon distinction in
the profession of law as stepping
stone to power"
fancy says that his parents lived to
Ian advanced age and had seven chill
dren, four sons and three daughters.
| was the third child and second SON.
Roger Taney was elected at the
Court House, the Sheriff presiding, the
election lasting four days, and the votes
being viva voce The candidates were
all on show behind the Sheriff and all
surrounded each voter as he arrived to
get his vote. fancy alone of four can
ddates could make speech. He had
''morbid sensibility' he never con-
uuered through life, "a want Of phys
cal firmness" Such men have also
thin skins and feel attacks keenly
: Taney at Annapolis was awkward and
ditfdent in society. When defeated
for reelection in 1900 his father and
, himself were both sufficiently morti
fed" His father wanted him to settle
in Baltimore; he preferred Frederick
and went there the month he was -
Taney's mother, says Biographel
Tyler, left her home in 1912 and liveC
under her sons roof until her death, il
, 1914. Not one word is said about bis
fathers death. To Ethclbcrt fancy
his cousin, a humble farmer in western
: Maryland, fancy wrote in 1888: ''Io,
: are the only one left of the name from
2 whom l ever receive letter. Tyler
) says indefinitely, ''In eally life h'
manumitted all the slaves he inherited
| from his father The author of th'
| Dred Scott declsion invested "all lii
very small fortune" in Virginia STATE
f stocks and after January, 1861, re
ceived nothing from it. His biographel
does not state when this investment
:, was made.
The Tyler biography is not Sum