Gover family photograph collection

People by the name of Gover lived in Harford County, Maryland dating back to the 1700s, and many were there throughout the 19th century, so it is difficult to accurately place the people depicted in this collection. There were Govers who owned land and slaves at Deer Creek Lower Hundred and Susquehanna Hundred in the late 1700s (the "Hundred" was a geographic area thought capable of producing one hundred men for military service). Gideon, Gittings, Philip and Samuel Gover all fought in the Revolutionary War. Robert Gover was a landowner at "Elberton", and Samuel Gover was appointed overseer of roads in 1785.

In the early 19th century (circa 1810-1825), Samuel and Elizabeth Giles Gover operated a boarding school and day school for young girls near Rock Run, with classes taught by their daughters Margaret, Hannah, Susan, and Caroline; after the school closed, the Gover daughters established a school at Street Paul and Saratoga Street in Baltimore. James A. Gover ran an inn in Belair sometime after 1830. Gerard (also written Jarrett) Gover built Gover’s Mill in 1854 on Deer Creek near Trappe Church, a flour mill which was sold to Benjamin Noble in 1869. This may have been the same Gerard Gover who married Cassandra G. Smithson in 1850.

There were also Govers in Baltimore in the mid-1800s who had ties to Harford County. Philip Gover of Baltimore married Sallie R. Moores of Harford County in 1854, possibly the same Philip Gover who was a stock and exchange broker in the city in the 1860s. Gerard and George P. Gover also worked in banking and brokerage in Baltimore in the 1850s-1860s. In 1860, the Baltimore directory listed both as working with the Josiah Lee and Company banking firm in Baltimore, but living in Harford County. By 1865, G.P. was principal of the Gover, Hardesty and Company brokerage, and Philip Gover has the Philip Gover and Company brokerage, both in the city. Another Baltimore financial institution with Gover participation was Gover and Gardner, commission merchants, with H.T. Gover and A.S. Gardner.

The exact lines of descent leading to individuals depicted in this collection are unclear, but identified people are as follows: Anna Moores Gover (1860-1933) who married Thomas Murdock MacRae, Anne Lee Moores (1841-1899), Mary Priscilla Gover, Cassandra Gover Hopkins, Viginia Lee, and Otho Parker. Most of the portraits were made at commercial studios in Baltimore.