Mary Shellman

The closely spaced graves lying

parallel to the paved road belong to Civil War soldiers, and the lot in which they are

buried was given to Mary Bostwick Shellman by the Westminster Cemetery Company

in 1886 because of her deep concern for the proper burial of Union veterans. The

stone of O. T. Andrews is typical of the marble monuments the U.S. government

provided free for qualified Union soldiers. No birth or death dates were included, just

a soldier’s name, rank, and the unit in which he served, but families could add

information later if they chose. Research shows that Lieutenant Orville Andrews was born in New York State, moved to Illinois where he enlisted in the army as a teenager, and lost a leg at the bloody

Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, in April 1862. After the war he married, became a teacher

in a school for newly freed blacks in Tennessee, but somehow ended up living alone in

a hotel in Westminster where he died in 1885. Mary Shellman wrote to a friend, “You

surely remember Capt. Anders [sic] with his artificial leg which he used sometimes

[two other words illegible] against the wall of the Main Court [Inn]. People passing

would say „Poor old Cap was on a [spree?] last night.” Andrews was not the only

former soldier whose life fell apart after the war. Irish-born Malachi Buckley, who lies

beside him, lost a forearm during the Battle of Antietam in 1862 and spent years in hospitals trying to recover. He died in 1895 with no one but Mary to claim his body and ensure he had a

decent burial in the lot which given to her. Although Andrews and Buckley were not from Carroll County and did not serve in Maryland regiments, Mary’s lot became their final resting place.

The large stone at the end of the row belongs to Robert H. Clarke, a young soldier from Maine who died in a local hotel from either typhoid fever or severe sunstroke while on his regiment’s march to Gettysburg in late June 1863. Mary sat by his bedside as he lay dying. The accompanying photograph shows her with a flag and flowers to decorate his grave on Memorial Day. She learned the name of the young son Clarke left behind, acquired a picture of him, and they later corresponded.