One day in February I woke up and decided that I was going to write my March article about the five Congressmen who have called Caroline County home. In chronological order by terms served, they are Thomas Culbreth, George Waggaman, Thomas Alexander Smith, Thomas Alan Goldsborough, and William Oswald Mills. The United States Constitution does not require one be named Thomas in order to represent the Eastern Shore district, but apparently it helps.

My plan is to give you a capsule look at the respective legislators, offering at least something the five men are remembered for and what is or should be done to publicly commemorate the career of each.

Thomas Culbreth
If you have visited Harvest Ridge Winery in the vicinity of Henderson, or better yet, if you know what and where Mud Mill is, then you have participated in phase one of the Thomas Culbreth reality tour. Were you in Caroline County at the time? Even with GPS, it is difficult to tell. So some historians regard his birthplace as Kent County, Delaware, while others place him here. Regardless of the exact location of his childhood home, Culbreth gravitated to the Maryland side of the state border. He worked jobs in Greensboro and Denton early on as well as married into the prominent Hardcastle family of Castle Hall in Goldsboro. Apparently these connections were valuable ones as he parlayed them into a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1813, followed by the first of two terms in the United States House of Representatives in 1816. We would all benefit from knowing more about his platform beyond membership in the Democratic-Republican Party, his voting record, his constituency, and more, but Culbreth was frequently absent from Congress due to ill health. He returned to Caroline County after two unremarkable terms, but did wind up serving in several local capacities including Chief Judge of the Orphans’ Court. With that said, Culbreth either enjoyed maintaining a low profile or needed lessons in self-promotion. Not only is his specific birth site unconfirmed, modern researchers are not entirely sure where he was buried in 1843, likely a secluded burial plot on a privately-owned farm property outside of Greensboro, and he is the only one of the five Caroline County Congressmen to not have a surviving portrait or picture. Hopefully this column will reach the right people who can help solve these mysteries.

George Waggaman
There are at least two reasons why this entry stands out as special or different. George Waggaman is the only one of the five to serve in the United States Senate, but he is also the only one to represent a state other than Maryland. Research indicates that his family moved to Dorchester County from Virginia by way of Somerset County and primarily frequented circles there but was present in the Grove area of Caroline during at least the 1780s, possibly due to a bequest of land to his mother. Definitive details of his birth and upbringing are elusive, but several sources say Waggaman himself stuck around here long enough to pass the bar in this county before joining the War of 1812. For years, it was believed that no Caroline resident had participated in the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. In 2013, I confirmed that Waggaman did and was so honored for my find at the annual meeting of our county historical society. I have made it a personal quest to find out more about him: where he may have lived outside of modern-day Harmony, what his motivations were to fight alongside of Andrew Jackson in Louisiana yet represent the anti-Jackson faction later known as the Whig Party in Congress starting in 1831, and other fun facts. I continue to be curious to the extent that this year, at dawn on the same morning I endeavored to write on this topic for the March edition of the Caroline Review, I spontaneously got behind the wheel and completed a 1200-mile one-way road trip to Mardi Gras. Let me be clear when I say I investigated every nook and cranny along Bourbon Street and checked every float in the spectacularly elaborate Krewe of Endymion parade down Canal, but found nothing on Waggaman until I enjoyed a pleasant and informative conversation with a ranger at Chalmette Battlefield. This site, part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, interprets the Battle of New Orleans. The staffers at the Visitor Center were well-versed in Waggaman lore, from his Avondale plantation to his political ascendancy to his death from a duel at the hands of ex-New Orleans mayor Denis Prieur. I can’t help but wonder if while in Washington, DC, the Louisiana Senator ever ventured across the Bay to visit his Eastern Shore family. What a tremendous find that would be if correspondence confirming or describing such a trip was discovered.

Thomas Alexander Smith
There is no need to speculate about the roots of this Congressman, as Thomas Alexander Smith was born in Greenwood, Delaware, before moving to Ridgely. Say what you want about not being a local product, but to be fair, he was born before Ridgely existed. His was one of many families who relocated to Dream City as the arrival of the railroad made lucrative new business opportunities increasingly possible. He only served one term in Washington, DC, elected in 1904, but was irregardless a pillar of the community as teacher, postmaster, school board member, banker, and briefly a Maryland state senator. The town put his name on its welcome sign briefly in 2016. Wherever that plank is, it should be returned and made permanent as the feat of winning election to the House of Representatives is both difficult and rare. Perhaps the removal is why he “haunts” the town. I don’t believe in ghosts but I saw what I saw in 2018 and will leave it at that until perhaps an October column explores Caroline ghost stories.

Thomas Alan Goldsborough
Finally, I present to the reading audience a homegrown Congressman. Goldsborough was born and raised in Greensboro, part of the family tree that also produced Griffin Washington, Washington Elwell, and Washington Laird of the same surname. I will not steal his thunder by extolling the virtues of his kinsmen, but rather acknowledge that Thomas was easily the most successful of the bunch and the only local legislator in this study to have achieved both staying power and national notoriety: elected in 1920 to the first of ten terms, Goldsborough would eventually be appointed by President Roosevelt to a federal judgeship in 1939. Additionally, in 1938 when FDR hit the campaign trail in Maryland to stump for his Western Shore-chosen New Deal candidate in the Democratic primary for United States Senate, it was Goldsborough who hosted the president at his home in Denton prior to the nationally broadcast speech.

William Oswald Mills
Having a Congressman from Caroline County is not a thing of the distant past, nor does it take the backing of a heavily-populated area. A native of Bethlehem, Mills both entered and exited office in rather unique fashion. Mills ran in a special election as a Republican to replace Representative Rogers Morton in 1971, who had been appointed the next Secretary of the Interior. He won, but had accepted $25,000 from a Richard Nixon presidential campaign fund that would in time be scrutinized as part of the Watergate investigation. Worried he had broken the law and thus had ruined his political career as well as alienated supporters in the community, he was found dead at his home in 1973; the cause of death was apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound. It was later determined, sadly, that no fiduciary crime had occurred but in a series of suicide notes Mills indicated he was despondent over the failing health and passing of several people close to him. It makes one wonder what the legacy of William Mills might have been, what impact on the Shore and the county he would have made, if he had not chosen to take his own life. We have not had a resident Congressman since, and considering the isolated nature of Caroline plus the lack of serious attempts made by would-be leaders here, we may not again.

These men, for better or worse, should be household names in Caroline County. How can we promote this aspect of our history? I have tried to do my part, submitting a nearly 160 bullet-point timeline to the county commissioners this month celebrating our 250th anniversary including snippets about each of them. This is not the first time I have so highlighted those five, either. About eight years ago, when researching the names of all of the county commissioners to ever serve reached a dead end (largely because the first newspaper in Caroline was not published until 1831 and apparently any official records that might have been kept internally did not survive shifting the county seat between Melvill’s Warehouse, Greensboro, and Pig Point), I suggested that a display be created in the courthouse to acknowledge our resident Congressmen. Maybe that idea will be revived as part of this year’s semiquincentennial observance.

If not, here’s an alternative idea. I am partial to George Waggaman because Louisiana is my favorite state to visit. Since the good Senator died in March, that month each year we could host our own version of Mardi Gras, which kicks off the Easter season in opulent fashion before cutting back for Lent. The parade floats down Market Street bearing beads and other trinkets, the restaurant specials (gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish, shrimp, baby cakes, and hurricanes or Abita to wash it all down), and the serious historical scholarship presented would be the highlight of the entire year.