Book excerpt: Edward Maurice Blackwell was born 18 September 1865 at "Farms View" in upper Fauquier County, Virginia to Moore Carter Blackwell and Sarah Alexander Foote Blackwell. In 1897 he married Mary Saunders Bowen (1872-1942), daughter of Andrew Jackson Bowen and Kane Kerfoot. A doctor by profession, he served in the Spanish American War 1898 where he was appointed Asst. Surgeon, U. S. Navy, and also in World War I, as Commander of the Hospital Ship Solace. Ancestor Joseph Blackwell, King's Surveyor, appears to have been the first emigrant from England to Virginia in 1636. Descendants lived mainly in Virginia.