Another Year Older

Mrs. Carrie Martin Billmyre, 83rd Birthday
August 1, 1962; Cumberland Evening Times
(Courtesy of Ruth Sprowls)

FROSTBURG BRIEFS
Frostburg, Md., Dec. 4 Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Bowen, 31 Washington street, entertained in honor of their four-year-old daughter, Jean. Those present were Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Skidmore, John W. Bowen, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Love, Earl Skidmore, William Parks, Miss Flossie Skidmore, Mr. and Mrs. M. B. Holzhauer, Miss Sally Skidmore, and Miss Elva Davis.
Cumberland Evening Times - Cumberland, Maryland - Wednesday - December 04, 1929 - Page 18
(Courtesy of Bob Thompson)
Posted July 25, 2010

Mrs. Caroline Inskeep; 82nd Birthday
September 12, 1935
(Courtesy of Ruth Sprowls)

To Be Honored--Mrs. Annie Louise Layman, 94, one of Frostburg's oldest residents will be the guest of honor at a birthday party and family reunion to be given by her children on July 7.

Mrs. Annie Louise Layman, 94, To Be Honor Guest At Party And Reunion
Frostburg - Mrs. Annie Louise Layman, 94, a native of the Porter Settlement, near Eckhart, and one of Frostburg's oldest residents, will be the guest of honor Wednesday July 7, at a family reunion and birthday party to be given by her children at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. Thelma Wilson, wife of Robert Wilson, Baltimore Pike, near Minke's, where part of the festivities will be held. Mrs. Layman, daughter of the late Nelson Crowe and Mary Ann Winebrenner Crowe, Garrett County, is the widow of George Louis[sic, Lewis] Layman, farmer and carpenter, who died at the family home in Carlos in 1913[sic, 10 Jul 1914] at the age of 64. Mr. and Mrs. Layman were married November 7, 1873, at the home of the bride, then residing with her parents on the Braddock Farm in Garrett County, near here. The ceremony was performed by the late Rev. Joseph Mason, a circuit riding minister of the Methodist Church. After their marriage, the young couple started housekeeping on the Graham farm, at Grahamtown, this city, residing first in one of the small farm houses near Wright's Crossing and later in the residence now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Zack Arnold. During their married life, .......... [rest of column missing]
[continued from previous column] ..........glasses in the afternoons. In discussing the early years of her life, one of the incidents that made the greatest impressions on her mind, she said, was watching the return of Civil War veterans traveling to the homes over the National Highway, following the close of the Civil War. On one occasion, she recalled, while she was at a family picnic of farmers in a grove near Layman's farm in Garrett County, there seemed no end of the wagons carrying Civil War veterans westward on the old pike. One of the most terrifying experiences of her life, she related, was the cyclone that struck Frostburg and vicinity in October, 1891, and razed many of the farm buildings in the Shaft area where she and her husband resided at that time.
about July, 1948, Cumberland Evening Times; Cumberland, Allegany County, MD.
(transcribed by Genie)

94th Birthday
FROSTBURG — A 94-year-old native of Porter Settlement, near Eckhart, and one of the Frostburg area's oldest citizens, Mrs. Annie Louise Layman will be guest of honor at a family party and reunion Wednesday, July 7, at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. Thelma Wilson, wife of Robert Wilson, Baltimore Pike. Mrs. Layman, daughter of the late Nelson Crowe and Mary Ann (Winebrenner) Crowe, Garrett county, is the widow of George Louis[sic, Lewis] Layman, a farmer and carpenter who died at the family home in Carlos in 1913[sic, 10 Jul 1914]. Mr. and Mrs. Layman were married November 7, 1873, at the home of the bride, then residing with her parents on the Braddock Farm in Garrett county, near here. The ceremony was performed by the late Rev. Joseph Mason, a circuit riding minister of the Methodist Church. After their marriage, the young couple started farming on the Graham farm, in Grahamtown, residing in one of the small houses near Wrights Crossing and later in the residence now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Zack Arnold. During their married life, they resided in various localities in the Georges Creek region, including the stone house on the Koontz farm, near Midland, Shaft and Carlos, moving to the latter place in 1894 and remaining there until after the death of Mr. Layman. Since that time, Mrs. Layman has been making her home with her children, residing at present with her daughter, Mrs. Ruth Davis, 15 Welsh Street, wife of Fuller Davis, governor of Frostburg Lodge, No 348, Loyal Order of Moose. Mr. and Mrs. Layman are the parents of 16 children, nine living and seven dead. The surviving children are Robert Layman, Detroit; Benjamin Layman, Syracuse, N. Y.; George Layman, Shaft; Mrs. Nellie Byrnes[sic, Burns], Mrs. Annie Neat and Mrs. Ada Koelker, Cumberland; Mrs. Oma Wolfe, Hagerstown; Mrs. Ruth Davis, Frostburg, and Lawrence Layman, Alexandria, Va. The deceased children are Mrs. Elsie Diehl, wife of Russell Diehl, manager of the Frostburg office of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, who died March 31, 1947, and Ernest Layman, president of the Shaft Water Company, who died March 25, 1948; Grace, John, Algie, William and Owen Layman. Mrs. Layman has 47 living grandchildren, 69 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great-grandchildren.
The Cumberland Evening Times, June 23, 1948
(Courtesy of Sheryl Kelso)
Posted February 5, 2011

Woman Nears 100th Birthday
FROSTBURG—Mrs. Maria Hamilton Powers, widow of James Powers, a former Frostburg resident, will observe her one hundredth birthday tomorrow at an "open house" at the home of her son-in-law and daughter, Mr, and Mrs. William Slaysman, Baltimore. Mrs. Powers left Frostburg after the death of her husband more than 30 years ago. She was born at Zihlman and spent her younger years in this 'city. The mother of eight children, she has three daughters living who will be with her for the event. Besides the hostess, Mrs, Slaysman, they are Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart, Akron, Mrs. John Lavin, Baltimore, and a son, James H. Powers, Pittsburgh. Enjoying excellent health for her advanced years, Mrs. Powers, attended a neighborhood Catholic Church daily until about two years ago and still gets to attend church services occasionally. She is active in her daughter's home, where she takes great pride In keeping her own room tidy. She has the following nieces and nephews in Frostburg: John W. Shea, West Main Street; Miss Ann Powers, Mrs Molly Byrnes, Maple Street; William Spates, Beall St; Frank T, Powers, Wood Street; John Dundon and Frank Rooney, Center Street, and Max Mathias, Frost Avenue. Last Sunday Mr. and Mrs. Mathias and their sons,- John, a student at Georgetown University, Washington, and William, Salem, Ohio, paid Mrs. Powers a pre-birthday visit. The Mathias' will go to Baltimore again Sunday to visit her, accompanied by Miss Kathleen Wolfe, a great niece.
Cumberland Evening Times; Cumberland, Allegany Co, Md., Wednesday, June 23, 1948 - pg 7, col 3
(Courtesy of Pat Dailey)
Posted July 25, 2015

STAKEM, Mrs. Anna C. Byrne

Party Honors Octogenarian
Midland
Mrs Anna C Stakem was honored with a party at the home of her daughter, Mrs Daniel O'Brien, on her 80th birthday. Among the guests were six of Mrs Stakem's sisters: Mrs Mary McGreevy, Wilmerding, Pa; Mrs Bridget Kelly; Miss Katherine Byrne and Mrs Helen Bullock, Baltimore and Mrs Agnes McGreevy, Cumberland. Mrs Stakem has two other sisters, Sister Mary Placide, the former Teresa Byrne, Mount DeSales Academy, Catonville, Md and Sister Mary Teresa, the former Margaret Byrne, Georgetown Visitation Academy, Washington. Others present were: Mr E B Bullock, Owen McGreevy, Mrs Catherine Scott, Mr and Mrs Joseph McGreevy, Mr and Mrs Eugene Mills and children, Larry and Paula, Dianne Snyder, Thomas P Stakem, Mr and Mrs John Stakem, Mr and Mrs William Malstron and children and Mr and Mrs Daniel O'Brien.
Cumberland Times; Cumberland, Allegany Co, Md., Sunday, July 29, 1962 - pg 27, col 3
(Courtesy of Pat Dailey)
Posted October 9, 2014

War Veteran is 81
George Winebrenner, who was a drummer boy in the Union Army, in the Civil War and who is a member of Tyler Post, No.5, Grand Army of the Republic, celebrated his eighty-first birthday Monday at his home, 22 Arch street. His daughter, Mrs. W. T. Crawford of Cincinnati, Ohio, assisted him in receiving his friends.
Cumberland Evening Times, Tuesday, July 27, 1926

WINEBRENNER, Mrs. Lydia
OLDEST PENSIONER IS WOMAN OF 103
GREENVILLE, Pa., Sept 7—The oldest pensioner of the civil war, Mrs. Lydia Winebrenner, is enjoying good health and doing her own work as well as keeping a garden at her little house in the foothills of mountains, near here. The exact age of Mrs. Winebrenner cannot be accurately determined, but she is thought to be 102 or 103 years old.
Granny Winebrenner tells of fighting off wolves that attacked her children more than seventy-five years ago.
"I remember that as well as tho it happened only last week," she said. "I was making apple butter on the Heachcock farm on the summit of the mountains, three miles up. A pack of mountain wolves attacked my two little children who were playing nearby. I pulled burned pieces of wood from under my kettle and beat the foremost wolves with the flaming wood.
"During the civil war my husband went into the army," said Mrs. Winebrenner, "and my oldest boy, Jacob, joined Col. George Covade's 4th Pennsylvania cavalry, and was present at Lee's surrender. I worked in the woods in the summer, peeling tan bark with the children near me. I could swing an axe as well as a man, and could fell the trees getting my boys to peel the bark. We cut cord wood too, and in this way I made fairly good wages for those times. I kept the family together until my husband and 'Jake' came back from the war."
When the Winebrenner family moved from Greenfield, Bedford Co., across the mountains to the present home, near New Florence, it was to work in the old Laurel Hill iron furnaces "I suppose this will be the last summer I will live on my farm," said Mrs. Winebrenner. "I get a pension and I will rent my little place and live in New Florence."
New Castle News,(PA) Sept. 7, 1920