E. G. Kilbourn (c.1807-1873)
MSA SC 3520-12512
Born Elbridge George Kilbourn circa 1807 in Massachusetts. Married Elizabeth Ann Hall, November 6, 1849, in Baltimore. Died March 13, 1873 near "Jessup's Cut" in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Buried St. Lawrence's Church, Jessup, Maryland.
Prior to being admitted to the Baltimore bar, E. G. Kilbourn taught school in Baltimore City. He practiced law in Baltimore until moving to a farm near Jessup's Cut in Anne Arundel County. In 1859, he was elected to the House of Delegates from Anne Arundel County. Kilbourn served as Speaker of the House during the regular and special sessions of 1860 and 1861. During the Special Session held in Frederick on September 17, 1861, Kilbourn was arrested for his vote in favor of a resolution to recognize the independence of the Confederacy. He was held as a prisoner at Fort Lafayette and at Fort Warren for nearly a year, and was released without taking an oath of allegiance. In 1864, he campaigned for a seat at the Maryland Constitutional Convention, but withdrew upon learning all elected candidates must swear that he had "never either directly or indirectly...given any aid, comfort or encouragement to those in rebelion," prior to taking a seat.1 By 1866, the Unionists, who kept Kilbourn out of the 1864 Constitutional Convention, had been voted out of power. Kilbourn successfully campaigned for a seat at the new convention to be held in 1867, and served as a prominent member of the Committee on Education and the Select Committee on Rules. Three years later in 1870, he was re-elected to the House of Delegates for one term.
1. Wagandt, Charles Lewis. The Mighty Revolution: Negro Emancipation in Maryland, 1862-1864. (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1964), 208.
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