Cover-Long-Deekens photograph collection

The families of Margaret Lamar Deekens Cover (died 1986) and Loring Andrews Cover, Jr. (died 1982) include many illustrious ancestors.

Margaret Cover was born in Cumberland, the daughter of Francis S. and Mary Sprigg Long Deekens. She attended Sweetbriar College in Lynchburgh, Virginia, and came to the Baltimore area at some point, where she and her husband lived in Owings Mills. She was an avid collector of antique dollhouses and dollhouse furniture. Margaret's father, Francis S. Deekens was born in Australia, and came to the United States as a young man in 1881 via England, Canada, and France. A Cumberland business leader in real estate and insurance, he oversaw major real estate transactions and development in the region, and was a founder and president of the Real Estate and Securities Company (1903-circa 1918). Earlier he worked in the mining industry, as chief clerk for the Consolidation Coal Company at Frostburg (1885-1891), and as assistant vice president of the Union Mining Company at Mount Savage (1891-1902).

Margaret Cover's grandparents were J. Hampton and Sarah E. Sprigg Long of Cumberland, where J. Hampton Long was in the hardware business; her great grandfather was former Maryland Congressman (6th district) Captain Michael C. Sprigg. Other maternal ancestors were Revolutionary War heroes Colonel William Lamar (1755-1838; husband of Margaret Worthington Lamar, died 1821) and Captain Michael Cresap.

Loring A. Cover, Jr. was the son of Loring A. Cover (1867-1949), who was a prominent Baltimore businessman. Born at Western Run (Baltimore County), the son of a leather manufacturer/merchant, the elder Loring Cover attended Shenandoah Valley Academy in Winchester, Virginia and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1887. He worked with his father for about 17 years, during which time he married Grace Romayne Stayman (died 1935) of Winchester, Virginia. In 1907, Cover founded the Portland Cement Mill in Hagerstown in partnership with several other men, later known as Security Cement and Lime Company. Loring and Grace made their home in the Greenspring Valley (Baltimore County) at Garrison or Chattolanee. Their children were Loring, Jr., Thomas, III, Nelson, Grace (later Mrs. Symington), and Jane (later Mrs. Piper).

Loring A. Cover, Jr. worked mainly as an investment broker, with Baker Watts and Company as a young man, and for 25 years with T. Rowe Price and Associates until retirement in 1971. Raised in Baltimore, he attended Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, served in the Nary during World War I, graduated from Princeton University in 1921, and worked for the engineering dept. of the Bendix Radio Division plant in Towson during World War II.