66 MARYLAND MANUAL.

W. D. Pyles.

W. D. Pyles, of Prince George's county, Republican, was born
March 11, 1855. He worked for his father at fruit-growing till
twenty years of age. He obtained his education after he was
twenty-four years old by working during the day and attending
a business college at night. At the age of twenty-six he went
to Austin, Texas, and joined a company of Texans. As civiliza-
tion advanced and followed the troop, Mr. Pyles was selected
the captain of it, as the one man in the company capable
of filling the place of the teacher of a public school there. Mr.
Pyles returned to Prince George's county and purchased fifteen
acres of land for $750, going in debt for it, having only money

enough to buy teams, etc., to work the land. He built a house
and barn and paid for all in six years, purchasing in the next
few years several other small tracts. In the fall of 1889 he was
appointed clerk of the county commissioners. In 1891 he was
nominated for sheriff, but was defeated. Later on he sold his
farm and bought a larger one near Washington.

He is a member of committee on agriculture, on public records,

on temperance and regulation of liquor traffic, on currency, on
internal improvements.

George Holmes.

George Holmes, delegate from Prince George's county, was
born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1843, of Irish parentage;
was educated at the public, schools of Philadelphia, enlisted in
the Union army in 1861 at the age of seventeen, and was finally
discharged in 1863, after the battle of Gettysburg. He came to
Washington, D. C., the same year and was engaged in the pro-
duce business until 1870. He was then appointed chief engi-
neer of the city fire department and served as such until
the change of government. Afterward he was in the hotel
business, and in 1885 purchased a large tract of land at what is
now Landover, in Prince George's county, Maryland, where he
now resides. He has been engaged in farming, and later in mer-
cantile business there. He ran for the House of Delegates once
before, the whole Republican ticket being then beaten.

He is a member of committee on organization, on revaluation
and reassessment, chairman of committee on inspections, on con-
tingent fund.

QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY. —3 Members.
George M. Vansant.

George M. Vansant, Democrat, appears as a public official for
the first time, never having filled any political office before. He