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 20
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 20
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TALLMADGE A. LAMBERT.
This well-known lawyer of Washington, D. C., was born in Madison, Wis., Decem- ford, Ga., in 1845. He was admitted to ber 20, 1842, but when an infant was the bar in 1847 and returned to Oxford, taken by his parents to Washington, Miss., in 1849. He became adjunct pro- which has since been his home. He was fessor of mathematics in the university of Mississippi, resigning after a year's service and resuming the practice of law in Covington, Ga. In 1853 he was elected educated at Georgetown university, from which he graduated in 1862; his knowl- edge of the law was gained in the office of the late Richard T. Merrick, Esq., and
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at the Columbian university, from the turned to Madison, Wis., practiced law a law department of which he graduated in year, and then went to St. Paul, Minn., 1869, and the same year was admitted to where he died November 3, 1849. He the bar. He at once opened his office at was married in August, 1841, to Miss Washington, where he soon made his Frederica R. Preuss, daughter of Augus- mark as a well-posted man of law as well tus Preuss, of Prince George's county, as a student and accomplished gentleman. Md., and granddaughter of General Pierre Savary, a cousin of Napoleon's marshal, the Duke de Rovigo. This lady died May 23, 1880, the mother of two
He was happily married, April 27, 1870, to Miss Avarilla Van Riswick, daughter of the late John Van Riswick, of Wash- ington. Mr. Lambert is a member of the children, of whom one only survives- the board of trade, and since 1880 has been gentleman whose name heads this sketch. attorney for the Mutual Fire Insurance company; from 1878 to 1881 he served on the board of trustees of public schools;
Henry B. Lambert, the father of David, was born at the family homestead in Wilton, Conn., and was a descendant of since 1883 he has been president of the an old family that settled in Connecticut Great Falls ice company; he is also treas- in 1672. urer of the Union Savings bank and attorney for the Lincoln National bank, and fills other positions in which integrity and ability are equally requisite.
David Lambert, the father of Tall- madge A., was a native of Wilton, Conn., born in 1819; he graduated from Trinity college in 1837, studied law with Judge J. J. Noah of New York, and was ad- mitted to the bar about 1839; he then be- came connected with the Star, of New York, and was sent to Washington in the John B. Larner received his literary education at the Columbia college and in 1876 commenced the study of law in the offices of Merrick & Morris in the city of Washington. In 1877 he entered the junior class of the law department of the Columbian university. In May, 1879, two months before he reached his majority, he was admitted to the bar of the su- preme court of the District of Columbia, interest of that journal, and here became acquainted with such statesmen as Clay, Webster, and others, and was appointed to office by President Harrison, but after the latter's death, went to Lexington, Ky., and to Little Rock, Ark., in both of which cities he was engaged in newspaper and other literary work. He returned to Washington about 1841, was appointed secretary of state of Wisconsin, under its and in June of that year he graduated territorial form of government in 1842, with the degree of LL. B., taking the and for three years was a clerk in the second prize with an essay on the " Law United States Treasury department; the of Mortgages." Immediately after his next year he served as an officer in the admission to the bar he commenced the New York custom house, and in 1845 re- active practice of law, still remaining in
JOHN BELL LARNER
was born in the city of Washington on the 3rd day of August, 1858. His grand- father, the late Michael Larner, and his father, Noble D. Larner, were also born in Washington. His father has for a number of years been identified with the business interests of the city and since 1865 has been the secretary of the National Union Insurance company.
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the offices of Messrs. Merrick & Morris. 1863. In April, 1862, he was licensed to At this time on the recommendation of preach by the presbytery of New Albany, Mr. Merrick, who was the senior counsel, he was appointed the junior counsel of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad company, for the District of Columbia. After hold-
Ind., and supplied the church at Vevay, Ind., during his senior year at the semi- nary. The following year he preached at Birmingham, Penn., and was then called ing this position for about two years his to the Second church at Fort Wayne, increasing private practice compelled him to resign it and open offices of his own. Ind., where he filled the pulpit with great satisfaction to the congregation until By great industry Mr. Larner has built 1871, and then went to Connersville, Ind., up one of the largest law practices in the where he remained until June, 1873, when city of Washington. He has given much he was called to Washington to assume attention to the law of private corpora- his present charge. Here his labors have tions and many of the largest corporations been crowned with success, and his con- in the city have been organized under his scientious diligence and piety are uni- counsel, among which may be mentioned versally recognized, while his personal the Washington Loan and Trust com- amiability and gentlemanly deportment pany, the first trust company organized have endeared him to his people. Mr. in the District of Columbia. He was Little has three brothers, all of whom are also active in securing the passage of the in the ministry, and four sisters. They act of congress of October 1, 1890, by all attended their parents' golden wed- which trust companies were permitted to ding, which interesting event occurred in do business in the District of Columbia. March, 1881, at Madison, Ind. The mar- riage of Rev. G. O. Little took place September 3, 1863, to Martha Hart, daughter of Jethro and Martha Mitchell, of Mount Auburn, Cincinnati, Ohio. There have been born to this married couple four children. One of these,
Mr. Larner is the general counsel of the Washington Loan and Trust com- pany, the National Life-Maturity Insur- ance company, the Home Plate Glass Insurance company, in all of which com- panies he is also a director. He is also a director of the Columbia National bank, Edward N. Little, when not quite sixteen, was drowned at Ogunquit, Me., August
and is a director and one.of the vice- presidents of the Young Men's Christian 23, 1883, while bravely trying to save the association. In addition to his corpora- life of a lady who was one of the bathing party. The three now living are Rev. Arthur M. Little, Norton M. Little, and Edith M. Little. tion business Mr. Larner has a very large general law practice, and has always been identified with the business interests of the city.
The Little family, notwithstanding the acknowledged piety of its individual REV. GEORGE O. LITTLE, members, has ever been a warlike one --- the talented pastor of the Assembly's six of its members having served in the church, Washington, D. C., was born in French and Indian wars, sixteen in the Madison, Ind., May 2, 1839. He gradu- war of the Revolution (one being a ated from Amherst college in 1860, and colonel in command of a regiment at from the Lane Theological seminary in Lexington and Bunker Hill), fifteen in
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the war of 1812, and one hundred and John Lawson, from Scotland, settled in thirteen in the late Civil war, and all Prince George's county, Maryland, about seem to have possessed that intrepidity, the year 1670. John, the grandfather of determination and tenacity of purpose, J. N. Lovejoy, Sr., married Margaret, characteristic of their race-the Anglo- daughter of William Miles; their son, Saxon. The family is, moreover, a very also named John, married Rebecca, ancient one, George Little, great-great- widow of George Ransom, and daughter great-great-grandfather of Rev. G. O. of George and Lettice Naylor, Lettice Little, having come to Newbury, Mass.,
being the daughter of John Lawson of in 1640, from London, England. Rev. Nottingham. George and Lettice Naylor Henry Little, D. D., the father of Rev. G. O. Little, was born in Boscawen, Mer- rimack county, N. H., March 30, 1800. He graduated from Dartmouth college, New Hampshire, in 1826, and at Andover, Mass., in 1829, and was ordained Septem- ber 24, 1829. He was pastor of the Sec- ond Presbyterian church at Madison, Ind., from 1838 to 1840; from 1833 to 1861 he was connected with the Home Mis- sionary society, and from 1861 to 1869 with the Presbyterian committee of home missions, and from 1869 to his death in were parents of Ann, wife of Edward Swann and grandparents of the late Thomas Swann, governor of Maryland, and senator of the United States, and also of Captain John Lawson Naylor, who was wounded at the battle of Germantown. John Naylor Lovejoy, who was born in Prince George's county, Maryland, Octo- ber 24, 1769, and whose ancestors, above mentioned, were all planters in that state, married Susannah Elizabeth, widow of Dr. James Kirby, and daughter of Vin- cent Boggess and Elizabeth, his wife,
Madison, February 25, 1882, with the daughter of Robert Bayly, and sister of board of home missions. He was an able worker in soliciting funds in aid of charitable and educational enterprises, and through his peculiar talent in this direction he raised $50,000 for the Lane Theological seminary and $10,000 for the Western Female seminary of Oxford, Ohio, and was, beside, a prime mover in the establishment of public schools in Indiana.
General Mountjoy Bayly, sergeant-at- arms of the senate in the presidency of Mr. Madison and for a period of about twenty-four years altogether. He after- ward removed to Georgetown and to Washington, when founded, and for a long time held an office under the gov- ernment, and died November 19, 1854. The sole issue of this marriage, John Naylor Lovejoy, Jr., born June 15, 1798, JAMES W. H. LOVEJOY, A. M., M. D. in Georgetown, married Ann, daughter of Absalom Beddo, a resident of Mont- The subject of this sketch is probably the oldest native-born physician of Wash- ington, D. C. His family were among the earliest settlers of Maryland and Virginia. The four great-grandfathers gomery county, Maryland, but a native of England. J. N. Lovejoy, Jr., was for fifty years a clerk under the general gov- ernment at Washington, occupying for many years the responsible position of of his grandfather, John Naylor Lovejoy, appointment clerk in the office of the viz: John Lovejoy, William Miles, secretary of the treasury. The children George Naylor, all from England, and of this marriage were James W. H., the
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subject of this sketch; Ellen White, who secretary. He is a member of the Medical society of the District of Colum- bia, of which he has been president; he is
married Williams E. G. Keen of Phila- delphia, and is now a widow; Susannah Elizabeth; John Singleton, who married also a member of the Medical association Sarah A. Herbert, and died January 17, of the District of Columbia, of which 1876; Harriet Ann, who married William he has been three times elected president. H. Greene of Brooklyn, New York; Vir- He has been president of the Alumni ginia Lucretia; Henry, who married association of the Columbia college. Augusta Ferree Steiger, and died March He has been for a number of years a 31, 1880, and Benjamin G., A. M., LL. B., director of the Children's hospital of the author of "Life of Francis Bacon," etc., District of Columbia, and a member of its etc. He died unmarried, November 21, consulting medical staff; he is also a 1889.
member of the consulting staff of the Garfield Memorial hospital and is a direc-
Dr. J. W. H. Lovejoy was born Decem- ber 15th, 1824, and was educated in tor of the. Arlington Fire Insurance com- private schools of Washington and in the pany, of the District of Columbia.
Columbia college, D. C., receiving his degrees of A. B., and A. M., from that CHARLES LYMAN, college. He was graduated from the son of Jacob and Dorcas Lyman, was Jefferson Medical college, of Philadel- born at Bolton, Conn., April 10, 1843. His boyhood and youth, until the age of fifteen, were spent on his father's farm, and were probably characterized by much the same incidents as mark these periods
phia, in March, 1851. He at once re- turned to Washington and engaged in the practice of his profession, in which he is still actively employed. He became, shortly after his graduation in medicine, in the lives of farmer's sons generally, in professor of chemistry in the medical New England towns. Hard work, and department of Georgetown university, plenty of it, begun at a very early age, which position, after a few years, he was young Lyman's lot. From six years resigned. November 24th, 1858, he married of age until ten he attended both summer Maria Lansing Greene, daughter of Will- and winter terms of the district schools; iam A. Greene, attorney and counsellor but after ten, only the winter terms, being at law, of Brooklyn, New York. His wife required during the rest of the year to do died November Ist, 1866. He has not farm work. At fourteen he had mastered re-married. Their three daughters are all the studies taught in the district named Kate Rebecca, Annie Beddo, and |schools, and had made considerable prog- Maria Nellie. In 1880 he received the ress by private study in branches not appointment of professor of materia embraced in their curriculum. At fifteen medica and therapeutics in the medical he hired out to his uncle, Andrew W. department of the Georgetown university, Chapman, to work on his farm in Vernon, and now holds the professorship of the a neighboring town, where he remained theory and practice of medicine in that institution. He is a member of the two years, and attended, during the winter of both years, the select school at American Medical association, in which Vernon Center. The next two winters he has held the position of assistant he taught the Birch Mountain school in
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Bolton, and worked on his father's farm advanced to within two hundred or two in the intervals, except that, in 1861, he hundred and fifty yards of the house, in attended the fall term of the Rockville the yard of which the rebel General Cobb high school. In the spring of 1862 he took charge of the farm of Mr. King at Vernon Depot, and in July of that year,
received the wound from which he died in a few minutes. Lyman was the last uninjured man of the regiment to leave at the age of nineteen, enlisted in Com- this part of the field. In this battle Ly- pany D, Fourteenth Connecticut volun- man's clothing was three times pierced by the enemy's bullets, one bullet penetrat- ing his blanket ( which undoubtedly saved his life ), passing through fourteen folds of it. The regiment retired to the city teers. On the organization of the com- pany he was made corporal. Theregiment left the state in the latter part of August and joined the army of the Potomac, near Washington, after the second battle of from the field after the charge badly crip- Bull Run, early in September, and from pled, the loss in killed and wounded being that time on to the close of the war about fifty per cent. of those engaged; shared in all the campaigns and battles but Lyman remained on the field through- of that army. In the battle of Antietam, out the remainder of the afternoon and all night to care for a wounded comrade, and with the aid of another brought him and not more than two feet from Lyman's off in the morning, under a brisk fire from the enemy's sharpshooters, and placed him in the hospital. September 17, 1862, a shell from the enemy burst in the midst of company D, head, killing outright four, and seriously wounding five other of his comrades, none of the nine being more than eight
In February, 1863, Lyman was pro- feet from him, and most of them within moted to second lieutenant of company four or five feet. He was uninjured, K upon examination, jumping the inter-
though a piece of the shell tore his cloth-
mediate grades above corporal, and ing and made a slight abrasion of the about a week after his promotion was as- skin on his stomach. The right side of signed to the command of company E his face was covered, and his ear filled, by Captain Samuel Fiske (Dunn Browne), with brains and blood of the comrade then in command of the regiment, over next to him, the top of whose head was torn off.
In the battle of Fredericksburg, on ment, he'long afterward learned, was made December 13, 1862, the Fourteenth was engaged back of the town, and was in habits, he had refused to "wet his com- one of the numerous and deadly charges made against the enemy's position on
the head of many seniors, both in rank and date of commission. This assign- because, being strictly temperate in his
mission " when promoted, and was there- fore thought to possess moral qualities Marie's Height. The position of the regi- that fitted him for command. He ment at the time was about opposite the retained this position until he retired from the service in the following June, leading the company in the battle of Chancellorsville, in May.
small house of Mrs. Stephens, on the sunken road, on the lower side of which was the stone wall that afforded the Con- federates such perfect cover and protec- After leaving the army Lyman returned tion from the Union fire. The regiment to his home, and in the winter of 1863-4
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taught school on Grand Island in the that time he had been a believer in, and Niagara river. In the spring and sum- an earnest advocate of, civil service re- mer of 1864 he pursued a course of study form, giving much study to the subject, in the Bryant & Stratton Commercial and this study and the practical ex- college at Hartford, and in the fall perience he had acquired as a civil taught military tactics and drill at a select service examiner during president Grant's school in Ellington. In December of administration, in a peculiar manner fitted this year he was appointed to a clerkship him for the duties of chief examiner, and in the treasury department at Washing- undoubtedly contributed to his success in ton, and was assigned to duty in the that office, which success is admitted on second auditor's office. Here he re- all hands. In April, 1886, upon the mained nearly five years, receiving in that resignation by Hon. Dorman B. Eaton of time two promotions. In August, 1869, his office of civil service commissioner, he was transferred to the office of the Mr. Lyman was appointed by President secretary of the treasury and made as- Cleveland his successor. From February sistant chief of division, which position he until May, 1889, Mr. Lyman was the only occupied for nine years, and during that civil service commissioner in office, and time served on several important com- upon the appointment by President Har- missions and boards, chief among which rison of Hon. Theodore Roosevelt of was the commission to investigate the na- New York, and ex-Governor Hugh S. tional bureau of statistics and the board Thompson of South Carolina, to the two of civil service examiners for the treasury vacancies on the commission, became department, under the commission of president of the commission and still which George William Curtis was the holds that office. Mr. Lyman has always first chairman during the administra- acted with the republican party and was tion of President Grant. During this appointed a civil service commissioner by period he also, at the request of the secre- President Cleveland as a republican.
tary of the treasury and the lighthouse board, formulated a set of rules for the examination and appointment of light- house keepers, and in 1878, at the request of John Sherman, then secretary of the treasury, made a digest of the laws relat- ing to loans, currency and coinage, which was published by the department, and at once became the standard authority on the subject.
Mr. Lyman was graduated, in 1875, from the National university law school of the District of Columbia, the valedic- torian of his class, and was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the District of Columbia, but has generally declined practice, the constant pressure of his public employment leaving him no time to attend to it.
Mr. Lyman united with the Con-
On the first of July, 1878, Lyman was gregational church, in Bolton, at the age appointed chief clerk of the United States of nineteen, and in 1865 transferred his treasurer's office, and held that position membership to the First Congregational until appointed chief examiner of the church of Washington, D. C., which he United States civil service commission, by helped to organize. Three years later, President Arthur, under the civil service at the age of twenty-five, he was elected act of 1883. For eighteen years prior to to the office of deacon. A year or two
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later, a difficulty arising in the church, he, with over a hundred others, withdrew and organized the Central Congrega- tional church, which was subsequently merged with the Assembly's Presbyterian church, of which he became an elder, and still holds that office. He has been many times a delegate to presbytery and synod, and has four times been a com- missioner from presbytery to the general assembly of the Presbyterian church. He has been for many years a member, and the secretary, of the board of trustees of the presbytery of Washington city. He was successively a director, vice-president and president of the Young Men's Christ- ian association of Washington, and is now
mother's maiden name was Sarah Mac- Arthur ( of a different family), and, strange to relate, both his maternal and paternal grandfathers were named John MacArthur, but they were in no way related. Judge MacArthur has a son ( a major in the army) who is named Arthur, and Major MacArthur has a son also named Arthur. As it is a hardy race, with bones of iron and sinews of steel, the name borne in Scotland is likely to be perpetuated in America.
Judge MacArthur's father died when the son was an infant, and he was brought to America over seventy years ago, when a mere child. He had all the struggles that boys usually have who carve out and has been for many years a vice- their own career. He was educated in president of the Washington city Bible Amherst, Mass., and at the Wesleyan society, and of the Washington branch of university, at Middletown, Conn. He the Evangelical alliance; he is also a studied law in New York, and was ad- companion of the military order of the mitted to the bar in 1840. He practiced Loyal Legion.
in that city and in Springfield, Mass., for some years with marked success. While residing in Springfield he occupied the position of judge advocate of the West-
Mr. Lyman was married, in 1865, to Miss Amelia B. Campbell of Hartford, and has two children, daughters. Mr. Lyman has been all his life a diligent ern military district of Massachusetts. student, having formed the habit of In 1849 he removed to Milwaukee, Wis., private study at a very early age. In where he at once became prominent. his public and private life he has always been governed by one principle, viz: To do present duty without fear or favor or regard to consequences either to himself or others.
JUDGE ARTHUR MacARTHUR.
The MacArthurs of Loch Katrine and Loch Awe belonged to an old race who were greatly distinguished, and Judge Barstow, and the latter, before the matter
Arthur MacArthur of the District of Columbia supreme court does no dishonor to the great name of his ancestors. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1815. l-lis father was Arthur MacArthur; his
Two years afterward he was elected city attorney. In 1855 he was elected lieu- tenant governor of Wisconsin on the ticket with Gov. Barstow. The title of Barstow was disputed on the ground that he was not elected. MacArthur ran ahead of his ticket, and his election was not disputed. Bashford, Barstow's con- testant, had a quo warranto issued against was decided, resigned. At this point a very important point arose. The consti- tution of Wisconsin provides that in case of the death, resignation or inability to serve on the part of the governor, then
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the duties of the office shall devolve on shows, however, that his sentences have the lieutenant governor. MacArthur been quite as severe as those of any of took the ground that he was entitled to his associates. The mild, gentle manner the vacant office, holding that the ques- and the kindly tone deceived both the tion was a political one-not a judicial prisoners and spectators. He did not one; that the board of electors had de- seem to think it necessary to be brutal to a prisoner because he had to pass sentence clared Barstow elected governor and that was a finality, the courts having no juris- upon him.
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