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Major S. Fletcher was a prominent figure in East New Market and was a key in the success of the town in the 1800s. He built houses, ran stores, and parceled out the lots that line the north side of Railroad Avenue on the west side of Buckland. His family members as well as Kelby Fletcher and John Fletcher were prominent in town.
Portrait and Biographical Record of the Eastern Shore of
Maryland:
Chapman Publishing Co., 1898.
John W. Fletcher, Dorchester County, born 21 June 1848 on a farm near East New Market. He is the only child by the third marriage of his father. John H. Fletcher. His father had three sons by his first marriage: William M resides near Cambridge; the other two are deceased. By his father’s second marriage, he had two children: Jeremiah B. and Mrs. Mary J. Williamson, both residing in Caroline County. The Fletcher family is of English origin. The great-grandfather of John W. Fletcher was John Fletcher of Delaware. The grandfather John was a farmer while the father was John H. Fletcher. The family are members of the Methodist Church. The mother of John W. Fletcher is the former Sarah Andrews, daughter of Medford Andrews who owned land at Hurlock.
John W. Fletcher attended public schools and East New Market Academy. On 1 January 1886, he left the farm to reside in Cambridge as the Register of Wills. In February 1869, he married Miss Susan Higgins, daughter of Judge James Higgins, once Chief Justice of the Orphan’s Court of Dorchester County. Their children, Frederick H. Fletcher, age 26, is a lawyer in Cambridge; and Laura Fletcher, who is the wife of Thomas W. Simmons, attorney in Cambridge, and have three children: Harriett Ruth, Lawrence, and Mary. From 1871 to 1872, John W. Fletcher was a tax-collector for the 2nd and 12th districts. He was appointed to close the books of J.B. Nesbitt, collector. John W. Fletcher was elected Sheriff, then Register of Wills, and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. (p. 803 - #660).