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 29
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 29
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towns of Milford and Wolcott and mar- ried, in 1739, Sarah Newton, who bore him a family of seven children, the third of whom, John Smith, was the great-grand- father of the gentleman whose name in- troduces this sketch. John Smith appears to have been a resident of Milford and Washington, Conn., and married, Febru- ary, 1764, Mary Ford. They reared a large family of thirteen children, the eldest of whom, Samuel, was born in Milford, Conn., and by his marriage with Lucy Hall, solemnized May 17, 1786, was the father of eight children, Samuel Mansfield Smith, the fourth in number, being the father of Francis H., for whom this biography is prepared.
The following are the names of the Second National bank, and to his efforts children born to Samuel M. and Eliza is largely due the organization of the (Wheeler) Smith: Nancy, John W., Francis H., Harriet and Albert M.
Lincoln Fire Insurance company, of which he was one of the original incorporators. Francis Hickox Smith is a native of In the year 1876, in partnership with Washington, Conn., and dates his birth Messrs. Birge and Robinson, under the from the year 1829. He received his firm name of Smith, Birge & Co., Mr.
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Smith became connected with the Potomac agricultural pursuits and learned the Iron works, which were operated under the management of said company for a period of two years. For four years Mr. Smith has been president of the Y. M. C. A. of the District of Columbia, and since his residence in Washington has been con- nected in various ways with nearly all the charitable institutions in the district. On the 14th of April, 1858, Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss E. Birge, daughter of Cyrus and Emmeline Birge, a union blessed with the birth of the fol- lowing children: Frank B., William W., Adeline E., Edward Q. and Louis P.
Mr. Smith is a man of the most un- swerving integrity, and during his long and active business career in public and private capacity no breath of suspicion has ever been uttered against his record. He possesses in an eminent degree the respect and confidence of his fellow-citi- zens as is attested by the positions he has been called to fill, and among the wide- awake, energetic men of the national capital few are more widely and favorably known.
THOMAS WILSON SMITH.
Conspicuous among the active business men of Washington city is Thomas W. Smith, whose long connection with the lumber interest has brought him into prominent notice in several of the east- ern and a number of the southern states. Mr. Smith is a native of Pennsylvania, born in the town of Gordonville, Lan- caster county, January 1, 1846, and traces his family on the father's side to Ger- many, while maternally he is descended from Irish ancestry. His father, Henry W. Smith, was born in Lancaster county in 1816, and spent his youthful years on a farm, but in early manhood abandoned
trade of wood carving, in which he ac- quired great proficiency. In 1836 he em- barked in the agricultural implement business in Lancaster, and four years lat- er removed to Columbia, Pennsylvania, where for some time he was engaged in the construction of agricultural ma- chinery, such as corn mills, threshers, etc., which he continued from 1840 to 1850. He was a skillful machinist, and a num- ber of valuable improvements in agricul- tural implements are the results of his ingenuity - among which may be men- tioned the power wheat drill, which he invented and perfected. Since 1856 he has not been engaged in any regular busi- ness, having retired from active life that year. The paternal grandfather of our subject was Henry Smith, a native of Pennsylvania, in which state he, with a number of others, was massacred by the Indians about the year 1818. Peter Smith, ' the father of Henry, and the first of the family of whom there is any authentic record, came from Germany to America as early as 1700 and settled in Pennsylva- nia, where his death occurred many years ago. The subject's maternal grandfather was John Wilson, a native of Ireland, whose wife, Mary (Todd) Wilson, was born in England. The two families were early represented in Maryland, having migrated to the eastern part of that state a short time after the close of the Revolutionary war.
Thomas Wilson Smith was reared to manhood in his native county and state, in the common schools of which he re- ceived his elementary education, which, supplemented by a course in the higher branches in Columbia academy, has en- abled him successfully to transact the duties of a very active business life. In
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the year 1862 he abandoned his studies for a number of years was a member of and entered a drug store in Columbia, in the board of trade, in which he held the which place and Lancaster he was iden- responsible position of chairman of the committee on membership. tified with that business until about 1864, when he accompanied his father to Mary-
In addition to his business enterprises land, where for two years he followed the in the national capital Mr. Smith has pursuit of agriculture, and later for a large interests elsewhere, notably in limited period found employment in the North Carolina, where he owns a half in- gold mines of Montgomery county, that state. Subsequently he went to Washing-
terest in the Beaufort lumber company; also an interest in the G. H. Toaddine ton city and took service with the Metro- lumber company of Elizabeth City, a very politan street car company, and after a extensive enterprise, of which he is one of short time in that capacity accepted a sit- the directors. He has other important uation as clerk in the large lumber firm of trusts to look after, including among G. W. Linville & Co., corner of Second others that of the presidency of the Ra- street and Indiana avenue, where he was nona land company of Virginia, a corpo- employed for a period of two years. At ration which owns large tracts of land on the end of that time he was nominated for the line of the B. & O. railroad near the the position of lumber inspector by May- District of Columbia and Maryland boundary. Mr. Smith's life has been one of unceasing activity, and his integrity
or Bowen and elected to the same by the common council and board of aldermen, the duties of which he discharged for and fair dealing have placed him in the nearly two years, resigning at the end of foremost rank of Washington's repre- that time and engaging in the lumber sentative business men.
trade as a member of the firm of G. W. Linville & Co. Two years later the firm name was changed to that of W. P. Cot- trell & Co., Mr. Linville retiring, Mr. Smith retaining his interest in the busi- ness two years longer, when the partner- ship was dissolved by mutual consent. In
BENJAMIN PETTIT SNYDER,
the banker of Washington, D. C., was born in Doylestown, Penn., July 20, 1835, and attended the Doylestown academy until about eleven years of age, when ill health compelled his withdrawal from May, 1874, Mr. Smith embarked in the school. Shortly after he entered the lumber business at his present stand, and printing office of his father (the Inde- since that time has conducted a very exten- pendent Democrat). After completing the sive and lucrative trade, being one of the regular four years' apprenticeship as a largest dealers in the city. He has always printer, he entered the telegraph service taken an active interest in public affairs, of the Philadelphia & Wilkesbarre Tele- graph company, having in charge offices at Mauch Chunk and Hazleton, Penn., Frederick, Md., Wheeling, W. Va .; and thence to Washington, D. C., in 1853, in the service of the old Washington & New Orleans, and magnetic telegraph
and in 1888 was chosen a member of the committee of one hundred appointed to look after the interests of the district in the matter of congressional legislation. He has also served as president of the Ches- apeake and Columbia Investment Co., director of the Eastern dispensary, and companies at various points, Cincinnati,
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Augusta, Ga., New York and Philadelphia, | (German), and subsequently the Inde- returning to Washington, D. C., in April, pendent Democrat. Being a stanch demo- crat and an able writer, his influence in that congressional district was considera- ble. He was married in 1831 to Elizabeth Pettit, daughter of Elnathan Pettit, of Doylestown, and reared a family of four sons, as follows: John C. Calhoun, B. P. Snyder (whose name opens this sketch), Edwin and William Field. Manassah H. Snyder's father was a Pennsylvanian by birth, a banker and large lumber dealer for many years in Allentown. 1861, as manager of the civil interests of the then American Telegraph company, which important position he held until 1866, as well as filling the office of acting censor of the press at intervals during the period of the Civil war. In February of 1867, Mr. Snyder was elected secre- tary and managing director of the National Safe Deposit company, of Washington, just then organized. In May, 1870, the National Savings bank of the District of Columbia was organized, and Mr. Snyder was made treasurer, GEN. ELLIS SPEAR which two positions he held until 1881, has been a resident of the District of Columbia since 1865. He was graduated at Bowdoin college in Maine, his native state, and in 1862 entered the United States volunteer service as captain. He was promoted through the intermediate grades to that of colonel and brigadier- general by brevet. After the war he en- when he was elected president of both corporations. In 1891 the two corpora- tions were reorganized and merged into what is now the National Safe Deposit Savings and Trust company of the Dis- trict of Columbia, of which Mr. Snyder still retains the presidency.
The marriage of Mr. Snyder took place tered the patent office as assistant exam- in 1865 to Clarinda Collings, daughter of iner. He filled various intermediate Daniel Collings, of Wilkesbarre, Penn., grades, and was finally appointed commis- the issue of which union has been six children, of whom five survive as follows: Elnathan Pettit, Jessie, Elsie Alice, Ben- jamin Pettit, and Grace Snyder.
sioner of patents. This office he resigned in 1878. He is a member of the bar, making patent law and soliciting of patents a specialty. He has taken active interest in Mrs. district matters and is a director in some
The maternal grandfather of B. P. Snyder was Eleazar Blackman, prominent financial institutions.
who opened the first coal mine in the Wyoming valley. His wife was AINSWORTH RAND SPOFFORD Clara Hyde. Eleazar Blackman's father was born at Gilmerton, N. H., on the 12th of September, 1825. His_ ancestry, like that of all the Spoffords in America, is traced to John Spofford, a native of Yorkshire, who settled at Rowley, now Georgetown, Mass., in 1638. The father of A. R. Spofford was a clergyman, Rev. Luke A. Spofford, who was born at Jaffrey, N. H., November 5, 1785, gradu- was Elisha Blackman, who was an officer in the Revolutionary army. Manas- sah H. Snyder, the father of B. P. Sny- der, was born in Allentown, Penn., in 1808. Educated in the common schools at home he was an editor and publisher at Allentown and Doylestown, that state, where he established The Doylestown Democrat (English), and the Express ated at Middlesbury college and held
Ainsworth RSpocloud
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pastorates in Gilmerton, Brentwood, volumes, with 200,000 pamphlets, rich in Lancaster, Atkinson, Chilmark, Martha's every department of science, literature, Vineyard, and also in New Hampshire, law, history, politics, and the great besides being missionary in several west- specialties. Under Mr. Spofford's per- ern states and founder of a number of sonal influence the law was enacted mak- ing the national library the office for all churches. He was married to Grata Rand, the mother of A. R. Spofford, No- records of copyright and permanent de- vember 12, 1816, and she died at Will- pository for all copyrighted publications. .iamsburg, Ohio, February 25, 1857. The As the librarian for congressmen, Mr. father died at Rockport, Ind., September Spofford is one of the most remarkable 27, 1855.
men in the world. His long experience
Mr. Spofford's early education was of in charge of the library has equipped him a thorough and classical character, re- with a wonderful and comprehensive ceived from a private tutor. When yet a knowledge of the contents of books seem- boy he developed that passion for books ingly without number. His is not alone which gave bent to his later career. He the knowledge of the scholar, but more was amply prepared for college, but be- impressively that of the librarian. He ing denied the advantages of a college has written largely for the periodical course, by reason of failing health, he press on historical, economic, and literary topics. He has published catalogues of the library of congress; "The American Almanac and Treasury of Facts;" an annual compiled by him from official sources, 1878-89; the " Library of Choice Literature," ten volumes, 1881-88; the "Library of Wit and Humor," five vol- umes, 1884; " Manual of Parliamentary
went to Cincinnati, Ohio, when sixteen years of age, and became clerk in a book- store, occupying his winter evenings in studying the French and German lan- guages, and becoming in 1850 one of the founders of the Literary club of Cincin- nati, a vigorous intellectual organization. He became connected with a book pub- lishing firm which failed in 1859, and he Rules," 1884, and other books. He has then entered upon his career as associate been a contributor to Chambers' Ency- clopedia, Political Encyclopedia, John- son's Universal Encyclopedia, and the Cabinet Encyclopedia, 1891. He is a member of many historical and philo- sophical societies. In 1884, the degree of editor of the Cincinnati Commercial, which position he retained until 1861, when he moved to Washington to enter upon the duties of first assistant librarian in the library of congress at the capitol. to which position he had been appointed. LL. D. was conferred upon him by Am- Three years later he became librarian- herst college.
in-chief, and has occupied and elevated Mr. Spofford was, on September 15, 1852, married to Sarah P. Patridge, who was born in Franklin, Mass., November 10, 1823, and died at Washington, May 11, 1892. that important and honorable post up to this writing. Mr. Spofford's services are indissolubly associated with the remark- able growth and development of the nation's great library. During his ad- The interesting sketch of the District ministration the number of books has in- of Columbia, at the opening of this creased from 70,000 to more than 655,000 volume, is the handiwork of Mr. Spofford.
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REV. CHARLES AVERETTE STAKELY, D. D.
This brilliant, eloquent, and talented young divine, pastor of the First Baptist church of Washington, D. C., was born in Madisonville, Monroe county, Tenn., March 3, 1859, and was reared to the practice of the law. He was educated in Montgomery, Ala., and La Grange, Ga., and studied law under Hon. A. H. Cox, at the latter place, where he was admitted to the bar when he was about nineteen years of age. He practiced in La Grange until he was about twenty-two years of age, in the meantime, at the age of twenty, having been elected county solicitor, which office he filled until 1881. At the age of thirteen he was baptized into the fellowship of the First Baptist church, Montgomery, Ala., by Rev. Dr. D. W. Gwin, and in his twenty-second year was ordained to the ministry by the church at La Grange, Ga. His first charge was at Elberton, Ga., the church at this place calling him to ordination; he then passed a year in ministerial work at Augusta, Ga., whence he went to Charleston, S. C., where he was pastor of Citadel Square Bap- tist church and where he remained until 1888. Dr. Stakely lent valu- able aid to the Baptist churches of Charleston in their recovering from the earthquake of 1886. In 1888 he was called to the pastorate of the First Baptist church of Washington, D. C., where he has since filled the pulpit with eminent ability, and to the great satisfac- tion and edification of the congregation. Dr. Stakely has had conferred upon him the degree of A. M. by the Mercer uni- versity of Georgia, and that of D. D. by the Richmond college, Virginia. He is very diligent in church work and active in advancing and expanding the doctrines of his denomination. As one of the Johnston, a relative of Gen. Joe John-
managers of the American Baptist Publi- cation society, he has been useful in aiding to spread abroad the literature of his church and general christian literature. The doctor is also one of the trustees of of the Columbian university at Washing- ton, and is ever ready to aid, with his time and talents, every project of educational, religious or charitable tendencies. He has represented his denomination in con- ferences both at home and abroad, in 1890 attending as delegate the conference of the Regular Baptists of England, held at Manchester, where also he preached the commencement sermon of the Manchester Baptist college. During the same year he traveled in Europe. Dr. Stakely was united in the holy bond of matrimony, in 1882, with Miss Jessie Davis, daughter of Rev. William H. Davis, of Richmond county, Ga., the result of this union being four children, viz: Davis Fonville, Sarah Anne, Susan Frances, and Flora McIver Stakely. The father of the doctor, Samuel Smith Stakely, was also a native of Mon- roe county, Tenn., and was a merchant at Madisonville, in the same state, and also at Montgomery, Ala. His mother, who still lives, was Susan Frances Fonville, daughter of Rev. J. A. Fonville, a Baptist minister of South Carolina and of Hugue- not descent. Dr. Stakely's father fought in the Confederate service, entering that service with one of the first of the Tenn- essee regiments that entered the field. The grandfather of the doctor, William M. Stakely, is still living, and is a resident of Union Springs, Ala .; he was born in Tennessee, in 1804, and has been a mer- chant, a planter and a banker. He has been twice married; his first wife, née Smith, was the grandmother of the doctor; his second wife was a Mrs. Caldwell, née
Ilarbilo
GRANT & FULLER PLUS
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ston. The great-grandfather of the doctor first case he tried he was associated with was John Stakely, who was of German Mr. Coxe, but he fell so far below his own standard that he locked himself in his descent. Dr. Stakely has also English blood in his veins, deriving it both from room, refusing to see his mother, to whom father's side and his mother's, and an- | he was very devoted, or to take any food cestors of his on both these sides fought in the Revolutionary war.
JAMES M. CARLISLE.
James Mandeville Carlisle, born in Alexandria, while that city was still a part of the District of Columbia, May 22, 1814, was the only son of Christopher Carlisle and Anne Mandeville. When about eleven years of age, he moved with his widowed mother to the city of Washing- ton. He was educated at the Catholic seminary which occupied the old capitol building, and was for a time at the mili- tary school of Major Partridge.
He was a faithful and earnest student, having a special fondness for the langu- ages, ancient and modern, becoming pro- ficient in French and Spanish at school, and successfully teaching the latter while he was a law student as substitute for and assistant to his old professor. He early developed the decision of character and steadiness of purpose which brought him his success. Soon after his mother's re- moval to Washington, in her straightened circumstances she could not pay cash at her grocer's for her supplies, and the lat- ter was unwilling to give credit; her son discovering the situation went from
would be responsible. The earnestness and manliness of the little fellow so
He studied law under William Wirt, in Baltimore, and completed his studies with Richard S. Coxe, in Washington. In the
until late in the evening, when Mr. Coxe came in to pay his own compliments to the mother, and to rehearse what he had heard said in commendation of her son's first effort by the judge and the older members of the bar.
His rise in the profession was rapid and brilliant, and he soon won a place in the front rank of the Washington bar, then one of the ablest in the country. He never held any office except that of corporation attorney, which he accepted several times.
The causes at the local bar which caused him to be most widely known out- side of the district, were the two Gardiner trials, and the Sickles trial, all three of which excited interest throughout the country. In 1837 he was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the United States, and early argued several cases of importance as junior to Mr. Coxe and Mr. Bradley. His knowledge of French and Spanish brought him cases, involving Spanish and French titles, and he was the legal adviser of nearly all the Spanish speaking legations. In 1852 he was regu- larly appointed "Asesor," or legal adviser of the Spanish legation, and about the same time legal adviser of the British
school to the grocer's, asked for credit legation. Both these positions he held for his mother, and declared that he till his death in 1877.
He was counsel for Great Britain before the commission which sat in Washington pleased the tradesman that he offered the under the XII article of the treaty of credit to the mother and all went well.
May 8, 1871, and also advocate for Spain before the mixed commission under the agreement of February 12, 1871. In the meantime he had been advocate before
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mixed commissions sitting in Washing- United States, besides a great number of ton, for Paraguay, Columbia, Costa Rica, cases of vast importance to the parties Peru, Venezuela, Nicaragua, New Gra- and the profession, may be mentioned nada, and had large and important cases the prize cases reported in 2 Black, before the Mexican and other commis- and the de Haro case, involving a large sions.
About 1863 he formed a partnership with Hon. George E. Badger, of North Carolina, for practice in the supreme court of the United States, and afterwards in the Klein and Carlisle cases.
portion of the city of San Francisco. Two of his best arguments were in the court of claims and the supreme court on the effect of pardon and general amnesty
in the court of claims. This practice, as Mr. Carlisle was rather below the average height, but the beauty of his head and face, his dignified bearing, and well as that at the local bar, increased until 1863, when the old circuit court was replaced by the supreme court of the his magnetic manners made his at once District of Columbia, and the iron-clad an attractive and commanding personal- oath was required for admission to the ity, whether before the masses, whom he new court. He would not take this oath, delighted in his youth by his political speeches, with the courts and juries, or in practice, though he still had a very large the ordinary intercourse of life. His natural gifts he sedulously cultivated, and his memory, always remarkable, he devel-
and in consequence abandoned his local office business as counsel. Mr. Carlisle, who had been a Clay whig from his youth up, had in common with many of his oped to an almost incredible extent after friends and associates become a demo- losing his sight. He was a ripe scholar, crat about 1856.
a learned and accomplished lawyer, and, like most persons of high spirit and quick
He was an intimate friend of James Buchanan's, and was offered a place in sympathies, he had a keen sense of his cabinet towards the end of his adminis- tration, but as it was not that of attorney- general, and he was steadfastly purposed
humor. He indulged this when he first came to the bar by making humorous re- ports of local cases, real and imaginary, not to turn aside from his profession, he in the style of the Year Books, and in the declined. From 1863 to 1873 he had the supreme court of the United States he largest docket in the supreme court of wrote many a squib which delighted not the United States, and a large and lucra- only the bar, but every member of the tive practice in the court of claims, and bench, including Chief Justice Taney, this in spite of a paralysis of the optic among whose papers have been found
nerve which deprived him of his sight in the summer of 1866, so that he was never able thereafter to read a printed book, though the appearance of the eye re- mained unchanged, and he was able to read very large writing with the aid of a powerful magnifying glass, suggested by the celebrated oculist, Von Graefe of Berlin. In the supreme court of the
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