Colonel Gassaway Watkins and "Walnut Grove" family cemetery

Gassaway Watkins (1752-1840) fought in the Revolutionary War, and later as a Colonel in the War of 1812. He lived at "Richland" until his father-in-law Capt John Dorsey died and with wife Ruth (Dorsey) Watkins moved to the nearby Dorsey lands and built their home "Walnut Grove". He and his third wife are buried on a hill by their home (right side of photo), which was cleared, sodded and the site of July 15 Boy Scout Eagle Project commemoration. Links with more info at end of post.

Oliver Cromwell Gilbert : a run-a-way slave's success story and 2 Walnut Groves

Oliver Cromwell Kelly was born in 1832 on "Walnut Grove" (owned by Gassaway Watkins), to Cynthia Snowden, the enslaved cook and freedman Joseph Kelly. Later he escaped from nearby "Richland" plantation in Clarksville, Howard County. Gilbert wrote an account of his flight to Philadelphia and his name change, then to several other cities as far north as Walnut Grove Quaker School in Lee, New Hampshire before returning to Philadelphia where he died in 1912.

5 Maryland Governors and Howard County

Four governors lived in the county, and it was named for a fifth governor with extensive land holdings there - Col. John Eager Howard.  When the Revolutionary War hero lived in Jennings House (left) in Annapolis, his son George Howard was born in 1789, and would return to Jennings House (the official residence from 1777-1870) when he too became governor in 1831. Other governors: Thomas Ligon of "Chatham" in 1854; John Lee Carroll of "Doughregan" in 1876 and Edwin Warfield of "Oakdale" in 1904.