Biographical Sketches of State Officers.

Governor: EDWIN WARFIELD (Democrat), of Howard
County.

Mr. Edwin Warfield was born May 7, 1848, at "Oakdale,"
Howard County, Maryland. His father was Albert G. War-
field, one of the leading citizens of the county, and his mother
was a daughter of Colonel Gassaway Watkins, a distinguished
soldier of the Revolutionary War, a member of the Mary-
land Line and its last surviving officer, who at the time of his
death, in 1840, was President of the Maryland Society of the
Cincinnati. His paternal and maternal ancestors were among
the first settlers of the State of Maryland, were prominent in
the early Colonial period, and in all subsequent important
political movements in the State and its government. He was
educated in the public schools of Howard County and at St.
Timothy's Hall, Catonsville, Md., but was prevented from ob-
taining a collegiate education by the civil war, involving, as it did,
the emancipation of his father's slaves. At the age of eighteen
he began teaching school and studying law, and did both at the
same time successfully.

His first political position was that of Register of Wills of
Howard County, to which office he was appointed in 1874 to
fill a vacancy, and was unanimously nominated by the Demo-
crats in 1875 and elected for a term of six years, leading his
ticket in the popular vote. At the expiration of his term he
declined re-election, preferring to take up the practice of law.

In 1881 he was elected to the State Senate to succeed Hon.
Arthur P. Gorman, who had been elected United States Sen-
ator; was re-elected in 1883, and made President of the State
Senate in 1886. During has first two sessions he was a mem-
ber of the most important committees. His rulings were made
purely upon the merits of the questions, and his decisions were
never appealed from.

President Cleveland appointed Mr. Warfield Surveyor of
the Port of Baltimore on April 5, 1886. He made no applica-
tion for this office, and was the unopposed choice of his party.
He entered upon his duties on the 1st of May, 1886, and served
until the 1st of May, 1890. Upon assuming the duties of this
office he resigned as a member of the Democratic State Cen-
tral Committee, in recognition of Mr. Cleveland's known views.
as to the participation of his appointees in politics.