USA > Washington DC > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 17
USA > Virginia > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
162
PERSONAL SKETCHES-DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
ington Post and has since been editor of Havenner, who passed away in 1885. The the same. Mr. Hatton was married in father of Charles W. Havenner was 1867 to Miss Lizzie Snyder, daughter of named Thomas, who settled in Washing- Miller Snyder, of Iowa. They have one ton when a young man and became son, Richard Hatton, now nearing his largely engaged in manufacturing, fill- twentieth year. ing many large army contracts during the recent war. He was one of the found- . CHARLES THOMAS HAVENNER, ers of the Metropolitan Methodist Epis-
real estate and stock broker of Washing- copal church at Washington and contrib- ton, D. C., was born in that city August uted largely to all religious movements, 19, 1855, and is a son of Charles W. being always looked to for such aid, even Havenner, also a native of Washington, until the day of his death, which occurred born in 1829. Charles W. was the first in 1872.
broker Washington city ever had, hav- Charles Thomas Havenner was edu- ing been engaged in the business in part- cated primarily in the schools of Wash- nership with Pinckney Brooke prior to ington, whence he went to Maryland the breaking out of the Civil war, which Agricultural college, from which he re- calamitous event was the cause, in fact, tired, February 1, 1873, to read law at of his temporary withdrawal from his Washington. He alternated his residence peaceful pursuit and of his taking up in the city and in Prince George's county, arms in the cause of the Confederacy. Md., adjacent, from 1873 until about 1879, Having been born south of Mason and and then decided to make his permanent Dixon's line, his sympathies were natur- home in the national metropolis. In ally with the south, so that he was led, in 1861, to enter a company of Virginia cav- alry as a private, and with this regiment he served four years, being promoted from time to time for meritorious conduct. On his return to Washington he resumed brokerage business, which he assidiously followed until his death in 1882. He was always looked upon as a first-class business man and was on one occasion selected to accompany United States Sen- 1882 he established himself as a real estate and stock broker, and 1883 his bu- siness had so augmented itself that he found it to be convenient, if not neces- sary, to open branch offices in New York and Chicago, which are still maintained. Speculation necessarily stepped into the real estate department of his transactions. With two other gentlemen, he not long since purchased Oxon Hill, which com- prises 1,260 acres, situated partly in the ator H. D. Moore to Russia, to prosecute District of Columbia and partly in Prince an important business affair. He married George's county, Md., and this property Miss Margaret T. Wake, daughter of is beyond doubt destined to become, at a an officer in the British navy who had re- very early day, the handsomest suburb of signed his commission and had settled in the queen city of the world; beside this, Middlesex county, Va. This union re-
Mr. Havenner is making large specula- sulted in the birth of five children, viz: tive investments in New York realties. Elizabeth J., Charles T., Pinckney B., Mr. Havenner was one of the original Estelle B. (wife of Charles T. Hendler members of the present Washington of Pennsylvania) and Benjamin Charton stock exchange, is a stockholder in the
Ger.l. Hageltino
165
PERSONAL SKETCHES - DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
Belt Line Street Railroad company, and awake and intelligent New England is ever on alert for investments in all family, George naturally grew up a firm enterprises intended for public conven- believer in the equal rights of all men, ience and comfort. The marriage of Mr. and with decided convictions as to the Havenner was solemnized September 21, wisdom of the policy of protection for 1887, with Miss Helen M. Manning, American labor. When he was sixteen daughter of Dr. Wilfred Manning, of years old he entered an academic school Benning, D. C.
GEORGE COCHRANE HAZELTON,
at Derry, New Hampshire, and finished his preparation for college at Dummer academy, in Oldtown, near Newburyport, Mass., under the instruction of Prof.
attorney for the District of Columbia, was born in Chester, Rockingham county, Henshaw, who was afterward so well New Hampshire, January 3, 1833. He known in connection with Rutger's col- came of good stock, his father, William lege, in New Jersey. He entered the Hazelton, tracing his descent back sophomore class of Union college, at through many generations of English Schenectady, N. Y. Here, he had for ancestry. His mother, Mercy J. Cochrane, president of the faculty the venerable and comes of an old and noted Scotch family. celebrated Doctor Nott. And here, as in The homestead in which George C. was other places, he supported himself until born had been in the possession of their he graduated in 1858. In the same year family for three generations. His father was, for many years, a merchant, but finally turned his attention exclusively to of political life in our country is to be he was admitted to the bar at Malone, New York. One of the curious incidents the farm, and there raised a family of six children, of whom George Cochrane was found in the fact that Mr. Hazelton and Judge James, one of the four supreme the fifth. Up to his sixteenth year the court judges before whom he appeared life of George was that of a New England farmer boy. There was plenty of hard work during the summer, and the district for examination for admission to the bar, eighteen years later served together as members of the forty-seventh congress. school and chores during the long, cold After being admitted to the bar, with the winters. As was the case in such New exception of a few months spent in the England homes, politics was a subject of treasury department at Washington, D. family debate, and he listened to his C., he practiced law at Amsterdam and father and mother and the elder brothers Schenectady, N. Y., until the autumn of as they discussed the questions of the 1863, when he decided to settle in the National bank, the tariff and free trade, west. His elder brothers, William and which were soon to be supplemented by Gerry W. Hazelton, the late United that more absorbing topic, the anti- States district attorney at Milwaukee, slavery agitation. had settled in Wisconsin some years pre-
The elder Hazelton was a Henry Clay vious. To be in their vicinity was the whig, and a republican by natural in- principal reason of his settling, in Sep- heritance when that party came into tember, 1863, at Boscobel, in Grant existence, and he cherished its principles county, Wis., where he resided until 1884, to the day of his death. In this wide- when he entered upon the practice of his
166
PERSONAL SKETCHES - DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
profession at Washington, D. C. If there | which he came to Wisconsin for - a place is any one trait that eminently marks the character of Mr. Hazelton, it is self- reliance. Our great philosopher, Emer- son, in his essay on this admirable trait of American character. says: "A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who, in turn, tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles it, keeps school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always like a cat falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not studying a profession, for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. He has not one chance, but a hundred chances."
among men. These were no shilly-shally efforts, but direct, forcible work. He had chosen his profession. He was a born or- ator. The country debating schools and the college lyceums always had special at- tractions for him. In his new home, these natural gifts were soon brought into full play. In November, 1864, he was elected district attorney for Grant county, and in 1866, was elected for the second term. He was elected to the state senate in 1867, and was chosen president pro tempore of that body. He was again elected to the senate in 1869. At the expiration of his last term in the state senate, he gave five years of close and diligent attention to the practice of law in the state and United States courts. Here he soon became Mr. Hazelton was all this, and more, for he had the profession which he had struggled to obtain, and which he still loves, with a firm faith in his capacity to make his way upward and onward in life upon his own individual merits, and hav- ing decided in September, 1863, where his home was to be, in the following Novem- ber, poor as he was in this world's goods, but rich in more than "a hundred chances," he wedded Ellen Van Antwerp, of Schen- ectady, N. Y., an accomplished lady, who had been to him a helpmate in the high- est and truest sense of the word. Four children have blessed this union, two of whom -the eldest boy, Harry, and the only girl, Alice-are deceased. George and John Hampden still live, the former having graduated from the Columbian university at Washington, D. C., and the bate upon pending measures. But he was younger, John Hampden, being now a not thus to be repressed. Wherever op- student at Johns Hopkins university. known as one of the leading lawyers of Wisconsin. His success as a jury lawyer was most marked, and soon gained him an extensive practice and a wide experi- ence. If he was anything, he was an active and ardent republican. Each recur- ring canvass found him vigorously en- gaged. The result was that he was again called upon to represent his fellow-citi- zens, this time in the national legislature, being elected to the forty-fifth congress in November, 1876. He entered congress at a time when he found himself num- bered among the republican minority, when the democratic majority, through their committees, prepared and controlled all legislation, and when their speaker de- nied to new members of the house a just and fair recognition upon the floor in de- portunity offered, his readiness and abil- Having decided on a home, and found a wife to preside over it, the self-reliant ity to state a point, with rare terseness and force, soon began to command the young lawyer went to work to win that attention of the house. Such was the la
167
PERSONAL SKETCHES - DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
state of affairs with him when he was re- commented upon in the daily press. His nominated in 1878. The leading question efforts during this session ranked him in the third Wisconsin district was among the best orators in the house, and finance. Briefly stated, it was this: Shall in the autumn of that year he was in- the nation have an honest dollar and vited to go to California and assist in the keep faith with its creditors, or shall we canvass in that state. The election was for members of congress, and it was re- garded as a test election of the coming national campaign of 1880. The repub- licans carried the state and it was con-
enter upon another era of paper money inflation? All of Mr. Hazelton's convic- tions as to what was not only the best pol- icy, but the soundest politics, made him believe that a speedy return to specie ceded that no one man, from outside of payments was the only road to further it, contributed more to that success than prosperity. Although a majority of the Mr. Hazelton. He has, if any man has, votes of his district seemed against him, the courage of his convictions. He de- livered an oration at the famous Arling- ton cemetery on Decoration day, ISSO. This speech was also published in the daily press, and the Union soldiers all over the land spoke of it in the warmest terms. He has ever been their energetic and faithful friend. he never wavered for an instant. He was renominated in 1878, and at once took the stump on the republican financial plat- form. Both greenbackers and democrats united to beat him, and it was only by the most persuasive speeches and untiring la- bor that he overcame the majority, and was re-elected to the forty-sixth con- In 1880, he was re-nominated for the third time, and most triumphantly re- elected, his majority ranking among the highest ever given for any man since the close of the rebellion. In the forty-sixth congress Mr. Hazelton was a member of the committee of the District of Colum- bia and was instrumental in carrying through the appropriation for enlarging and improving the district court buildings and generally took a lively interest in district matters. He served on to the end of the forty-seventh congress and then established himself in the practice the majority were attempting to impede of law in the District of Columbia, taking part in each presidential campaign in Wisconsin and other states. In the Har- rison campaign he addressed the people in New York, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin, upon the political issues of the gress. In the first session of this congress he had the first opportunity to show the real quality of his intellect. In February, 1879, when the majority were threatening the immediate repeal of the reconstruc- tion measures, he delivered a speech on the "Powers of Government," in which he not only exhibited a thorough knowl- edge of the legal and political phases of the question, but a boldness of thought in applying principles that clearly showed that he had been a close stu- dent of our political history. And when the resumption of specie payments, he spoke on the subject of the national banks and their relation to the resump- tion of specie payments. This speech, made in favor of honest money and na- tional good faith, was one of his best day, at the request of the national repub- efforts. It attracted much attention at lican committee. In December, 1890, he the time and was widely published and was appointed attorney for the District of
168
PERSONAL SKETCHES- DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
Columbia, of which office he still is the doctor's wife in 1879 and to their union incumbent. He is admitted to practice have been born the following children: in all the New York courts, the United Emma, Bessie, and Katie. David Bar- States supreme court, the courts of Wis- clay Hazen, the doctor's father, was born consin, and of the District of Columbia. April 7, 1811, and was the son of Aaron and Elizabeth ( Vough ) Hazen, the former a native of New Jersey, born about the year 1772 and died February 10, 1839. Tracing the family history far- ther back, it is learned that Thomas Hazen, the doctor's great-grandfather, was born February 12, 1732, died Decem- ber 27, 1802, and was buried in the old "Dark Moon" cemetery, Johnsonburg, New Jersey. He was a son of John Hazen, the record of whose birth is March 23, 1683.
WILLIAM PATTERSON CLARK HAZEN, M. D., a prominent physician of Washington, D. C., was born April 27, 1853, in Northamp- ton county, Pennsylvania, and is the son of David B. and Susan ( Depue ) Hazen. He received a liberal literary education in the Belvidere academy, Belvidere, New Jersey, and completed a medical course at the Georgetown university, D. C., after which he located in Washington, D. C., where he has since conducted a a very extensive and lucrative practice. The doctor takes high rank in his profes- sion and is at this time attendant physi- cian of the Eastern dispensary and president of the Medical and Surgical society of the District of Columbia. He is also a member of the American Med- ical society and the Medical association of the district, in the deliberations of which he takes a prominent part, and has been a frequent contributor to a number of leading medical journals of the coun- try. The doctor was one of the origina- tors of the National Capital bank, having called the first meeting for that purpose at his office in September, 1889, since
JOHN ELI HERRELL,
capitalist, banker, and financier, and one of the shrewdest business men of Wash- ington, D. C., was born in Loudoun county, Va., July 26, 1830, a son of John and Phebe Herrell, natives of the same county. In 1840, the family moved from Loudoun county to Fauquier county, where John Eli was educated - princi- pally by Willis Brent. At the age of twenty-two Mr. Herrell settled in Wash- ington and in 1869 engaged in the manu- facture of brick, which business he still carries on, having built many houses and owning a great deal of property in the which time he has been a director of the city. In 1865 he was elected a member same. Always keenly interested in the of the "old" corporation council, and advancement of his profession, Dr. Hazen has endeavored to keep abreast of the times, and his skill and recognized ability as a practitioner in all departments of his chosen calling have won for him an en- was one of the original directors; since viable reputation as a physician and sur- geon.
served one term, but his talents chiefly turned toward finance, as will be seen further on. In 1886 he assisted in organ- izing the Columbia National bank and that year he has been a director in the National bank of the Republic; he as-
Catharine E. Wood, daughter of L. A. sisted in organizing the American Loan Wood of Washington, D. C., became the and Trust company, in which he is also a
169
PERSONAL SKETCHES - DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
director, as well as a director in the Peo- he still maintains his legal residence. He ple's Fire Insurance company; he is treas- is the son of Aaron W. and Nancy (Dus- urer of the Eastern Building and Loan tin) Baker. On both sides he inherited association, treasurer of the Capital In- the most heroic New England blood. His vestment company, and is interested in paternal ancestor, Capt. Joseph Baker, a the Traders' & Citizens' bank. Notwith- surveyor, married Hannah, daughter of standing the onerous duties attached to Capt. John Lovewell, the famous Indian these positions, he assisted, in 1889, in fighter, and settled in Lovewell township, organizing the National Capital bank and or Suncook, afterward Pembroke, before was made its president, which office he 1740. The town of Suncook included a still holds, controlling its monetary affairs large part of Bow. Another of his ances- with a masterly hand. As a secret so- tors married a daughter of one of the settlers of Londonderry. Another, his ciety and benevolent association officer Mr. Herrell stands without a peer. He grandmother, was a descendant of the is a thirty-second degree Mason, is a Rev. Aaron Whittemore. On his moth- er's side he is a descendant of the heroine, Hannah Dustin. member of lodge and encampment, I. O. O. F., and for twenty-two years has been treasurer of the Magenenu en- He received his education at Pembroke and Hopkinton academies, and at the New Hampshire Conference seminary, at Tilton, and graduated from Dartmouth college in 1863, receiving the degree of A. M. in 1866; the same year he received campment of the latter order at Wash- ington. He has twice been representative from the grand lodge of the District of Columbia Knights of Honor to the su- perior lodge of the United States; he is also a member of the DeMolay mounted the degree of LL. B. from the law school cominandery of Knights Templar. of Columbian university, and was ad-
In August, 1851, Mr. Herrell married mitted to the bar. In 1882 he was ad-
Miss Henrietta Q. Mahony, daughter of George Mahony, of Georgetown, D. C., and of their seven children six died in infancy, the survivor being Phebe Ellen, wife of Marcellus Cole, of Washington. To revert to the parents of Mr. Herrell, it is proper to state that his father, John, was born in Loudoun county, and mar- ried his cousin Phebe, who became the mother of five children, viz: Elizabeth, deceased wife of Alfred Brown, of West mitted to the bar of the United States supreme court. In 1864 he was appointed to a clerkship in the war department, and later, to one in the treasury department, at Washington, where he remained until 1874, when he resigned and entered upon the practice of the law, chiefly in cases of United States courts and before govern- ment commissions and departments. Al- though this practice has taken him much from his home in Bow, he has always been Virginia; Kent, of Upperville, Va .; John active in local and general politics, to E., George N., and James Martin which he has devoted a part of each year. ( deceased ). The father died in 1833, but the mother survived until 1870.
He has traveled extensively in the United States and Europe. He was judge advo- cate general on the staff of Gov. Currier,
HON. HENRY M. BAKER, . an attorney of Washington, D. C., was and is a republican, a Unitarian, is un- born January 11, 1841, in Bow, N. H., where married, and was elected by a good ma-
17
170
PERSONAL SKETCHES - DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
jority to the New Hampshire state senate [industrious, honest, pious and progressive in 1890, and served two years.
Henry M. Baker's grandfather was James Baker, who was born in Bow, N. H., March 8, 1765, and died in 1808. He was a farmer, and married Judith Whittemore. His brother, Philip, was a soldier of the Revolution. Joseph Baker, father of James, was born November 7, 1740. He married Marion Moore. The great-great-grand- father of Henry M. was Capt. Joseph Baker, who was born January 25, 1714, and married Hannah Lovewell, daughter of John Lovewell, the celebrated Indian fighter. Joseph Baker was killed at. the battle of Pigwacket, now Fryeburg, Me. Henry M. Baker's great-great-great- grandfather was Thomas Baker, who with two brothers, came over from England about 1670; two settled in Roxbury, Mass., but the other was killed in the Indian war soon after. Henry M. Baker is an active six children, the eldest of whom was member of a number of secret orders, Aaron W. Baker, who was born April 10, being a member of Lafayette lodge, No. 1796, and was only twelve years of age 19, F. and A. M .; Lafayette chapter, No. when his father died. The farm was new 5, F. and A. M .; Washington command- ery, Knights Templar, No. 1; Almas Tem- ple of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; the
citizens, and were prominent in the church and in the state. From that ancestry came Aaron W. Baker. His great-grand- father, Captain Joseph Baker, was a sur- veyor, and surveyed several townships in New Hampshire, among them Pembroke, where he settled in the early part of the eighteenth century and raised a family of eleven children. He was the first of this name to reside in New Hampshire. His son, Joseph Baker, was born November 7, 1740. He married a descendant of the Scotch covenanters and settled in Bow, N. H. Ten children blessed their home. One of these, James Baker, married Judith Whittemore, of Pembroke. He subdued a farm from the wild lands adjoining his father's estate, and resided there until he died, forty-three years old, from injuries received accidentally. He left a family of
and rough and required hard and continu- ous labor. This, Mrs. Baker and her small children were compelled to render. Anthropological society, all of Washing- Thus, from boyhood, Aaron W. Baker, ton, and the Historical society of New Hampshire.
was accustomed to the hardest of farm- work. Early morning found him in the
The early settlers of New Hampshire field, and darkness closed the labors of the were sturdy pioneers from the mother- day. His advantages for education were country or came from the older colonies, very limited. During the winter terms principally Massachussetts. Some of those only, could he secure even an irregular who came from the colonies were origi- attendance upon the public schools. By nally from England, but many were native the instruction there received and by his born. Of the latter class were the an- home-studies he acquired a fair common- cestors of the Bakers who settled in Bow. school education. To this he added a Their progenitors emigrated from England knowledge of vocal music, which he taught to Massachusetts during the last half of for several terms. He had a good voice, the seventeenth century, and at once which he retained until his old age. As he grappled with the difficulties and dangers attained manhood he helped his brothers of frontier-life. They were active, hardy, and sisters to better educational oppor-
171
PERSONAL SKETCHES - DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
tunities than he enjoyed, and by constant| Baker became their earnest advocate. labor improved and enlarged the culti- vated portions of the farm. He bought out the heirs and became its owner. In
He aided in the circulation and adop- tion of temperance pledges, and by his influence many signed them. His ex- later years he added to it until his farm ample and encouragement assisted in the included nearly all of the land originally maintenance of pledges and helped to render social or habitual drinking dis- reputable. In all the transactions of his owned by his father and grandfather and many acres besides. He married, March 10, 1825, Miss Nancy Dustin, who was life Mr. Baker was noted for his honesty, born in Concord, September 2. 1801. She integrity, energy, and faithfulness. He was a descendant of the heroic Hannah Dustin, and was a lady of excellent char- acter, good education and natural refine- ment.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.