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Miss Annie L. Layman
Cumberland Times on July 7, 1948 [INCORRECT DATE ~ HAND WRITTEN ON ARTICLE. SHOULD BE 1945]*
Miss Annie L. Layman is being honored today by her family, with a picnic and outdoor party at her home in Shaft, in celebration of her ninety-first birthday. The informal party will be held on the lawn of her home from 3 until 6 o'clock this afternoon at which time her family and friends will be recieved.
Mrs. Layman, who was born near Grantsville, July 8, 1854, has spent all of her ninety-one years in Allegany County, living mostly on farms near Midland and Carlos. She attended the Blucker School near Grantsville, walking four miles each way daily. The school, then on the National Highway, was torn down many years ago.
In reminiscing about her early days, Mrs. Layman has a vivid picture of the stage coaches which stopped promptly at 12 o'clock everyday at Layman's Inn, where she was employed, before her marriage, for the passengers to eat dinner. Mrs. Layman said the coach would dash up the road, seeming to be flying and suddenly on the stroke of 12, would stop dead still before the door. It seemed a fascinating sight to her and gave her a daily thrill.
Mrs. Layman, who before her marriage to Mr. Layman, on November 5,1873, was Miss Annie Louise Crowe, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Nelson Crowe, pioneers of Allegany County, is in very good health and wears glasses only for reading and mending, which are her hobbies. She is actively engaged in light household duties, using a cane at times to get around. Two years ago she had a severe attack of pneumonia and recovered in three weeks.
Up to that time she had never had a gray hair in her head, but due to the fever induced by the disease, she lost her hair, which rapidly grew in again thick and abundant, but came in white.
Mrs.Layman is the last one of her generation around her vicinity and her ambition is to live until the war is over so she can welcome her Grandchildren and Great grandchildren home again. She has lived through three wars, but has never had a son in the service, due to the age limits at the time.
She is the Mother of sixteen children, eleven of whom are living. They are Ernest and George, of Shaft; Robert of Detroit, Michigan, Benjamin, Syracuse, N.Y.; Lawrence, Alexandria, Va., Mrs. Nellie Burns, Mrs. Samuel Neat, and Mrs. Ada Koelker of Cumberland; Mrs. Russell Diehl and Mrs. Fuller Davis of Frostburg and Mrs. Charles J. Wolfe, Hagerstown. Mr. Layman died in July,1914.
Mrs. Layman has eight Grandsons and five Great grandsons in Military service. They include: Raymond, Navy Medical Corps. aboard a Hospital Ship; George, Lawrence, Jr., on duty in the South Pacific; Paul Layman, in the Air Forces; Charles Layman, recently inducted; Major Ernest Layman,Jr., with the Army in Germany; Harvey Diehl, with the Army in France; **John Koelker, USN, in the Atlantic; Jack Avery,Honorably discharged from Army service after serving in the South Pacific; Robert Avery, Army Medical Corps., in Germany; George Layman, recently returned to an Army Hospital from overseas; and Owen and Alvin Layman,Jr., serving with the Army in this country.
Two younger sisters of Mrs.Layman, Mrs. Mollie Hawkins, Akron, Oh., former resident of Frostburg, and Mrs. Aurelia DeVore, of Frostburg, are expected for the party this afternoon.
Transcribed by Roberta Guenther
*Recently (Feb 2008) a copy of the newspaper, containing the article, with the correct date (July 8, 1945) was found.
**INCORRECT ~ THIS IS HER SON-IN-LAW'S (JOSEPH H. KOELKER) BROTHER. Grandson Robt W Koelker served in the USN and grandson Jos. H Koelker, Jr. in the US Army during WWII,
June 23, 1948
MRS. LAYMAN, 94, WILL BE HONORED
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 1] Layman, 64, farmer and carpenter, who died at the family home in Carlos in 1913[sic 2]. 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, 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 they resided in varous 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 3] 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.
Cumberland Evening Times, June 23, 1948.
1. George Lewis. George Louis was his cousin, the Sheriff
2. Mr. Layman died in 1914
3. Burns
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