Sally Campbell Preston McDowell Thomas Miller (1821-1895)
MSA SC 3520-2259
First Lady of Maryland, 1842
1. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Radoff Papers), MSA SC 1511. Morris Radoff, former Head Archivist of the Maryland State Archives was preparing a biography of Governor Francis Thomas. His death in 1975 cut the project short; however, his manuscripts and records provided valuable source material.
2. Dumas Malone and Allen Johnson, eds. Dictionary of American Biography, vol. VI. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934), 30. Thomas J. Scharf, History of Western Maryland (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1882), 403.
3. Malone and Johnson, eds., Dictionary, vol. VI., 30.
4. Ibid.
5. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Radoff Papers), MSA SC 1511: Sally McDowell Thomas's Statement.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Thomas Collection) Statement of Francis Thomas, 1845, MSA SC 2737, M 127.
8. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Thomas Collection) Statement of Francis Thomas, 1845, MSA SC 2737, M 127.
9. Ibid.
10. Merrill D. Peterson, The Great Triumvirate (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987)
11. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Thomas Collection) Statement of Francis Thomas, 1845, MSA SC 2737, M 127.
12. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Radoff Papers), MSA SC 1511: Sally McDowell Thomas's Statement.
13. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Thomas Collection) Statement of Francis Thomas, 1845, MSA SC 2737, M 127.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Frank F. White, Jr., The Governors of Maryland 1777-1970 (Annapolis: Hall of Records Commission, 1970).
18. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Radoff Papers), MSA SC 1511.
19. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Thomas Collection) Statement of Francis Thomas, 1845, MSA SC 2737, M 127.
20. Ibid.
21. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Radoff Papers), MSA SC 1511.
22. "The Divorce Case of Ex-Governor Francis Thomas," The Baltimore Sun, 29 December 1845, pg. 1.
23. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Radoff Papers), MSA SC 1511.
24. James W. Thomas and T. J.C. Williams, History of Allegany County Maryland, vol. I. (Baltimore: Regional Publishing Company, 1969), 284.
25. Dumas Malone, ed., Dictionary of American Biography, vol IX. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934), 429.
26. "Accidental Death of Ex-Governor Francis Thomas, of Maryland - killed on the Railway Track, &c.," The Baltimore Sun, 24 January 1876.
27. Necrological Report Presented to the Alumni Association of Princeton Theological Seminary at its Annual Meeting, 5 May 1896 (New Jersey: C.S. Robinson & Co., University Printers, 1896), 363. In the Radoff, papers, Sally C. P. Miller's age at the time of her death is given as "...76, the same age at which Thomas was killed..." However, if the birthdate of April 30, 1821 (stated in a March 12, 1855 letter from Sally C. P. Miller to her husband John Miller) and the deathdate of April 21, 1895 (given in several sources including the Necrological Report cited here) are correct, Sally C.P. McDowell was 74 at the time of her death. This confusion may stem from an obituary contained in the McDowell family papers which announces "...the death of Mrs. Miller, just one week after her husband, at about the same age." Sally Miller's second husband, the Reverend John Miller died at the age of 77.
28. Duke University, Perkins Library. Letter from Sally McDowell Thomas to her Father James McDowell (copy held at MSA SC 1511)
29. Maryland State Archives. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Thomas Collection) Statement of Francis Thomas, 1845, MSA SC 2737, M 127.
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