Emily Georgia Willis

This small headstone notes

that Emily was the daughter of William and Mary Willis, a prominent couple in the

Westminster community before the formation of Carroll County. A brother and sister

are interred beside her; all three were under the age of five when they died although

their father was a respected physician. Their stones are a reminder that infant mortality

was extremely common in the early 19th century no matter what the social position of

the family might be. Only one of the children born to William and Mary apparently

survived to adulthood. William Willis is remembered as the bright and ambitious son of Henry Willis, a famous itinerant preacher who spread Methodism across the mid-Atlantic in the late

18th century, and his wife Ann Hollingsworth. William was born in 1800 at the Willis

home in Wakefield Valley between Westminster and New Windsor. He graduated

from the University of Maryland School of Medicine at age 18 and served the

Westminster community as a doctor until his early death in 1841. He and his family

lived several doors east of Jacob Sherman in a building which operated as a tavern, but

also served as a residence. In addition to his medical practice, William commanded a

militia unit, was a prominent Whig politician, president of the Westminster Savings

Institution, and the first Clerk of the Court when Carroll County was founded in 1837.

These multiple responsibilities were typical of many doctors or other well-educated

people in the 19th century. William and Mary Willis are buried elsewhere.