Baylus Boyer

Biography:

In about 1845, Mr. Baylus Boyer was born to a free African American couple, Mr. Daniel and Delilah Boyer. Young Baylus was one of at least seven children. They lived in Frederick, and later Mount Pleasant. Mr. Boyer apparently amassed considerable property, including lots and homes along Charles Street.

He married Ms. Annie Brooks in 1880. They had one son, John Edwards. The couple moved to Philadelphia, where he worked as a cook and she worked as a housekeeper. In the early 1900s, they moved back to Carroll County, settling in Westminster. They lived in one of the houses he owned on Charles Street.  Mr. Boyer continued to hone his craft as a cook.

The Boyers took in Clarence and Carrie Dorsey after their parents died in 1906 and 1908. The two children were listed as their nephew and niece in the 1910 Census. In 1913, his stable and chicken coop burned to the ground in an accidental fire. Charles Street had no water main, and the area residents were forced to form a bucket brigade to prevent the fire from spreading to the nearby homes.

Mr. Baylus Boyer died on a Friday in January 1919. He was selling his sandwiches to a lunch crowd. Oddly, when his estate was probated, no real estate was listed. His pushcart, ice box and other tools of the lunch trade were included.

Mr. Boyer was buried in Ellsworth Cemetery, in Westminster, Maryland, in an unmarked grave.