Biography:
Ms. Bessie McCann was born in 1878 in Carroll County, Maryland. Her father, Mr. Thomas McCann, was a schoolteacher, and her mother, Annie, kept house.
Mr. McCann was placed on the juror’s list by Judge Hayden in April of 1880. He was never selected to sit on a jury, although would have been paid for every day he showed up to potentially be selected. Mr. John M. Snowden, who is buried at Ellsworth Cemetery, was the first Black man to sit on a jury in the County.
Sadly, Bessie died in the fall of 1881. Her parents selected a lovely, small headstone for her with the following epitaph:
A little flower of love,
that blossomed, but to die
transplanted now above,
to bloom with God on high
Headstone