MARYLAND MANUAL. 27

1885, when defeated for the House of Delegates by Francis V.
King, a defeat to which he evened up by beating Mr. King for
the Senate in 1893. Mr. Wilkinson has been prominent in the
Republican Party since 1880, and is at present the leader of the
party in his county.

When the Governor's "Green Bag" came down this session,
Senator Wilkinson's name was found in it for State Fire Inspec-
tor. He was promptly confirmed by his fellow senators. After
he was confirmed, it was discovered that the law that created the
office had been passed in 1894, whilst Mr. Wilkinson was
Senator. This rendered him ineligible.

He is on committee on inspections, on committee on Agricul-
ture and labor, on committee on engrossed bills, on committee on
public institutions, on committee on Chesapeake bay and tribu-
taries.

SOMERSET COUNTY.

Senator A. Lincoln Dryden.

A. Lincoln Dryden, Senator from Somerset county, was born
at Fairmount, Maryland, on the 18th of February, 1865, on his
grandfather's farm, where he remained until eight years of age.
In 1873 he removed with his father to Crisfield, where he
attended the public school, and at the same time was manager of
his father's oyster-packing house in that town, which gave em-
ployment to one hundred men. Having always cherished the
desire for a collegiate education, young Dryden had accordingly
been economical as well as industrious in business, and in the fall
of 1884 was successful, in a competitive examination for a
scholarship from Somerset county to St. John's College, at
Annapolis. Here he remained for two years, and at the expira-
tion of that time he entered Dickinson College, at Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, where he graduated on the honor list in 1888.
Mr. Dryden's last year at college was an eventful one. His
funds were insufficient to defray his college expenses, and to
complete the course, and to reach the goal toward which his
youthful ambition had ever been directed, he was compelled to
tutor under-classmen, teach afternoons in the preparatory school
and solicit sales for oysters in the near-by Pennsylvania towns.
After graduating, Mr. Dryden returned to Crisfield, and in 1889
was nominated by the Republicans for the House of Delegates,
to which he was elected with the entire Republican county
ticket. In 1894 he was named by the Republican convention at
Ocean City as their candidate for the Fifty-fourth Congress from
the first congressional district, and succeeded in reducing the
democratic majority in this district to 1, 000. In July last he
was nominated by his party for the State Senate, and was elected