About Dr. Mudd:

Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd was born December 20, 1833, in Charles County, Maryland, the fourth of the ten children of Henry Lowe Mudd and his wife, Sarah Ann Reeves. Young Sam was raised on the family plantation "Oak Hill," approximately 30 miles from downtown Washington, D.C., and received his early education at Frederick, Maryland, where he attended St. John's College for two years. On September 16, 1851, he entered Georgetown College, Washington D.C., and three years later enrolled as a student at the Baltimore Medical College (now part of the University of Maryland) from which he graduated.

Returning to Charles County with the ink still damp on his medical diploma, the young doctor married his childhood sweetheart, Sarah Frances Dyer (whom he called "Frank" for the reason that he already had a sister with a similar name) on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1857. They became the parents of nine children and grandparents of 33 grandchildren.