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 36
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 36
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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
While yet a resident of Urichsville, in June, 1861, and continued there for one Ohio, Mr. Wolf went in 1860 as alternate year. The rebellion had now broken out delegate to the national democratic con- and Wolf's patriotism was stirred. He vention that met first in Charleston, S. volunteered to enter the service of the C., and subsequently in Baltimore. Mr. Union, and was elected quartermaster of the Fifty-first Ohio volunteers, com- manded by Col. Stanley Matthews, subse- quently justice of the United States su-
Wolf there received his first great lesson in politics; but it was a sad one; passion, not patriotism, ruled the hour. Douglas and Breckinridge were nominated, and preme court. Though selected to this this constituted the prelude to the great position, Mr. Wolf was not accepted into drama that was to follow. When the war the army, owing to his imperfect sight, broke out Wolf joined the republican from which defect he recently also suffered a severe accident. Then (in July of 1862) he went to Washington, D. C., to secure a position in the civil service of the govern- ment.
party, of which he has always since been a stanch and bold, though not a sub- servient, member. His settlement in Washington brought him in direct con- tact with the leading minds of the nation - Lincoln, Grant, Seward, Stan- ton, Chase and Stephen A. Douglas were only a few of the many great men with whom he walked on rms of
When he entered the city of his future residence, there was at least one point of similarity between the town and the man - both.contained within themselves great possibilities; but the actual realities were friendly intimacy. then in both cases extremely meager. It was in April, 1869, while he was ab- sent in New York, that, without his knowl- Washington was a mud village of " mag- nificent distances, " full of dust and dirt, edge or solicitation, President Grant
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appointed Mr. Wolf to the responsible| his own accord and with the consent of office of recorder of deeds for the District the state department, and returned to this country. This ended Mr. Wolf's official tenure under the United States govern- ment. of Columbia. The office was in many re- spects congenial to one of Mr. Wolf's temperament. The routine work was not severe, the income considerable, and gave In secular organizations Mr. Wolf has taken an active interest. A prominent Mason; for twelve years president of the Washington Schuetzen Verein ( the lead- ing German association in Washington, owning a park of twelve acres ) - a posi- tion to which, in spite of his declination, he was again elected in 1887 and has since held; for many years president of the Schiller Bund, a literary society of a high order, which included among its members some of the most prominent residents of Washington - these are only some of the various positions which he has held, and serve to indicate the confidence and re- gard in which he is held by his fellow- citizens, Jew and Gentile alike. him a free footing to engage in that work of philanthrophy, of humane service to his fellow-men, of advancing the welfare and standing of his co-religionists, which he loved most dearly. His official posi- tion enabled him to use his influence to excellent advantage, and his intimacy with Grant, and the implicit confidence which the president reposed in him, was unselfishly utilized for noble purposes. The nine years that Mr. Wolf occupied the office of recorder of deeds (April, 1869- May, 1878) were among the hap- piest of his life. When he retired from the office, which by his efforts and zeal he had raised to a standard of perfection that it had never before attained, it oc- casioned a very general and sincere feel- ing of regret. The Washington bar and the bankers and brokers of that city pub- licly thanked him for his very valuable services.
It but remains to add a few of Mr Wolf's personal traits. As an orator, both in English and German languages, which he wields with equal dexterity, Mr. Wolf possesses fire, earnestness and en- thusiasm. What he lacks in polished elegance and finish, he abundantly makes up in that largeness of heart and that sympathy with human suffering that draws
When Mr. Wolf again resumed his law practice he was without clients and with- out means, other than his integrity, his splendid and extended reputation and his his audience with him by a common fra- indomitable pluck and energy. But with ternal impulse. Whilst others may strive to equal the force and power of a Web- ster, Wolf possesses the natural elo- these he soon recovered the ground he had lost while holding office. His retire- ment to private life, however, was to be quence of a Patrick Henry, that springs only of brief duration. In July, 1881, from the heart. Of the oration that he President Garfield appointed Wolf coun- delivered at the unveiling of the Baron sel-general to Egypt. His was the last Steuben monument in 1870, five hundred commission that the lamented Garfield ever signed. Consul-general Wolf left
copies were ordered by Baron Gerold and sent to Berlin. Throughout the country for Egypt on the ninth day of July, 1881, his lectures on "The Jews," "Roger Will- and spent nearly a year in that country. iams," "The Stage," " Illustrated Egypt," In May, of 1882, Mr. Wolf left Egypt of " The Poets of All Ages," "Germany Re-
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visited," "Unheralded Heroes," and the Woods himself has done faithful service like, have been well received, but it is on in the army of the republic. Thomas E. the floor of a convention, or when sud- Woods was born in Windsor, Vt., August denly called upon to speak upon a topic 20, 1837, and was primarily educated in which he has much at heart, that Wolf the district schools; subsequently he sup- moves most deeply the hearts of his aud- plemented this education by attending itors. Whilst but little learned in the college at Newbury, in his native state. schools, his passionate love of books has kept him well informed on all matters of present moment. His well-stocked library is one of his greatest delights.
In 1859 he withdrew from his alma mater and passed his time at home until April, 1861, when he enlisted in company A, Third Vermont infantry, and served as a
Mr. Wolf was married in Cleveland on private in the battles at Lee's mills and the 2d of August, 1857, to Miss Caroline Williamsburg, in the engagements on the Hahn, and is thus completing the thirty- Chickahominy, and many skirmishes, but sixth year of his married life. Six was obliged to withdraw from the army children have blessed their union, only eventually on account of disability. He four of whom are still living. The eldest then passed a year in the war department daughter, Florence, now Mrs. Fred Gott- hold, of New York, has attained distinc- tion as an artist, and her painting was a few years ago purchased by the Corcoran Art gallery. She is in other ways a woman of rare culture and refinement. One of his other daughters is the wife of his law-partner, Myer Cohen, Esq. His son recently graduated at Johns Hop- kins university and is now studying in Berlin. at Washington, after which he went to Joliet, Ill., where he carried on mercantile business for ten years, and then went to Lutterell, Kan., where he engaged in the abstract and real estate business until 1886, when he returned to Washington, D. C., where he also entered into real estate transactions, which he conducted until July, 1890, when he opened up his present banking establishment under the firm name of Woods & Co., which he has THOMAS E. WOODS. engineered so skillfully that it now stands in the front rank of the financial institu-
This gentleman, who is now conducting tions of the district. Although his busi- an extensive banking business house in ness affairs are vast and exacting, Mr. Washington, D. C., under the firm name Woods' intelligence and capacity for men- of Woods & Co., descends from an ante- tal labor are equal to the task of expediting Revolutionary family, his great-grand- them in a most satisfactory manner, and father, Ebenezer Woods, having been a still leave him time to attend to social captain in the patriot army and having and sodality duties. He is a member of taken part in the battle of Bunker Hill the W. H. L. Wallace post, G. A. R., of and in other memorable struggles, while Eldorado, Kan., which he himself organ- his son Daniel, though only twelve years ized, and of which he was commander for of age when the war broke out, was equally three years; he is past eminent comman- patriotic and for a time served under his der of Eldorado commandery, No. 19, father; nor has the martial spirit yet be- Knights Templar, at Eldorado, Kan., and come extinguished in the family, as Mr. is now a member of Columbia command-
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Mr. Woods is identified with important
ery, No. 2, Knights Templar, of Washing- ton, D. C., and is also past high priest of local interests. He was a member of the the royal arch chapter, A. F. & A. M., of finance committee of the citizens' associa- Colorado. Mr. Woods was married, in . 1867, to Miss Laura L. Thorpe, of War- saw, N. Y., and is as happy in his domestic the Grand Army of the Republic during life as he is prosperous in his business affairs. tion, that had charge of the preparations for and entertainment of the members of their twenty-sixth annual encampment at Washington in 1892. He is among the prominent fraternity men of Washington, HOWARD THORPE WOODS. being a Knight Templar, and having taken the 32nd degree in Masonry. He
Howard Thorpe Woods, a member of the Washington banking house of Woods is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. & Co., is a progressive exponent of the His mother was Miss Laura L. Thorpe, a representative young business men of the native of Wyoming county, New York, who was married to his father on the twenty-third of April, 1867. Mr. Woods was married on the second of September, 1889, to Miss Jennie M. Swander, of Wash- ington, D. C.
national capital. He was born in the city of Joliet, in the state of Illinois, on the twenty-second of December, 1868. Mr. Woods comes of good old New England stock, his ancestors having fought in the Revolution. His father is Thomas E. Woods, who is a native of WILLIAM RYLAND WOODWARD, Vermont, and who enlisted in the late attorney and president of the Washington Real Estate Title Insurance company, is a native of Georgetown, D. C., and was born July 9, 1819. His education was ac- quired at Dickinson college, Carlisle, Penn., from which he graduated in 1838. He then studied law in Georgetown under war as a member of the Third Vermont regiment. After the surrender, he joined the tide of western emigration and settled in Joliet, Illinois, removing sub- sequently to the town of Eldorado, in the state of Kansas. Here his son, Howard Woods, attended the public schools Clement Cox, preparatory to entering until 1885, when he received an ap- pointment as a cadet in the United States naval academy, where he re- mained two years, resigning in 1887, and coming to Washington that year. He at once entered upon an active busi- ness career, in the real estate and loan
Cambridge university, where he was grad- uated from the law department in 1840, having acted as law librarian from 1838 until his graduation. In 1840 he returned to Georgetown and formed a partnership with his early preceptor, Clement Cox, but in two years, or a little over, started business, joining his father, who with his on his sole account, having been admitted family had removed to the capital from to the bar in 1841. He met with much Kansas. In July, 1890, the banking firm of success in general practice, although, since Woods & Co. was established, since 1846, he has devoted the greater part of which time the house has enjoyed a pros- his attention to the examination of land perous career, and securely ensconced titles. He was, during his residence in itself with the confidence and high esteem Georgetown, quite popular both individ- of Washington business circles.
ually and professionally, and in 1851 he
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acted as deputy district attorney, and for George Roszel, and this union was proli- three or four years was a justice of the fic in the birth of thirteen children, of peace. In 1853 he moved to Washington, whom, however, but four survive: Will- where he has since followed his specialty iam R., Virginia (widow of Rev. Samuel Cornelius), G. Thomas, and Ros- zel. The father and mother died re- spectively in 1868 and 1862. as title investigator, and in 1889, when the Washington Real Estate Title Insurance company was organized, he was elected president. Prior to this event, however, he had done service as secretary to the NATHAN SMITH LINCOLN, M. D., LL. D., commission appointed by congress in 1862 to consider the question of the emancipa- tion of slaves in the District of Columbia, and later did duty in the treasury depart- ment in assisting Secretary Chase in pay- ing the awards made by the commission. Mr. Woodward was also for ten or twelve years a trustee of the public schools of the District of Columbia under the terri- torial form of government, which has since been abolished. The marriage of Mr. Woodward took place in 1852 to Miss Mary A. Redin, daughter of William Redin, an eminent lawyer of the city of Washington, and a native of England. To this blissful union four children have been born, of whom, however, but two survive-William Redin Woodward and Nanny R., the wife of Rev. Page Mill- burn.
Thomas .Woodward, the father of Will- iam R., was of English descent and was born in Anne Arundel county, Md., in 1793, but when a young man moved to Georgetown, D. C., where he was en- gaged in mercantile business until 1824, when he was appointed deputy United States marshal for the District of Colum- bia, which position he held for twenty-five years, and during part of that time served also as coroner of the district. He had served in the war of 1812 and took part in the battle of Bladensburg, near the city of Washington. He married Miss Octavia O., daughter of Rev. Stephen
was born at Gardner, Mass., and is the eldest son of Gracia Eliza Smith and the Reverend Increase Sumner Lincoln. His ancestors are English, on both sides, his father being a descendant of the famous Lincolns of Hingham, Mass., who emi- grated to this country in 1635. On the maternal side, Dr. Lincoln is descended from the Reverend Peter Bulkley, of Bulkley Manor, England. His great- grandfather was General Jonathan Chase, of Revolutionary fame, and it is a curious coincidence that while, on the one side, General Chase drew up the articles of surrender for Burgoyne's army at Sara- toga, General Benjamin Lincoln received the sword of Lord Cornwallis when he surrendered to Washington at Yorktown. Dr. Lincoln belongs to a family distin- guished not only in war, but in the ranks of science and learning. His grandfather, Dr. Nathan Smith, was the most cele- brated,surgeon of his day, having founded the medical schools of Yale and Dart- mouth, occupying the surgical chair of Yale at the time of his death in 1829. Dr. Lincoln was graduated from Dart- mouth college in 1850, receiving at that time the degrees of bachelor of arts and master of arts, and since then, that of doctor of laws from his alma mater. He studied medicine under his uncle, the famous Dr. Nathan R. Smith, of Balti- more, and received his degree of doctor of medicine from the university of Mary-
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land in 1852. Until January, 1854, he |the name of Riggs, which is equally as practiced his profession in Baltimore, and closely identified with the business of banking. since that date has been established in Washington, holding many offices of dis- tinction. The Columbian university has elected him in succession to the chairs of chemistry, theory and practice, anatomy and physiology, and, in 1861, professor of surgery. The latter chair was retained until 1874, when he resigned it on account of the pressure of private practice. In 1861 he was appointed, by President Lincoln, surgeon to the District of Colum- bia volunteers, and having served three months, was made surgeon-in-chief of the hospitals established in Washington by the quarter-master's department of the army, a position which he held during the war of the rebellion, and for some months after its close. In 1866 he was elected one of the surgeons to the Providence hospital, an appointment that he resigned in 1875. Having made a specialty of surgery he has performed successfully a large number of important operations, in- cluding amputations at the hip-joint, lithotomy, removing tumors from the region of the head and neck, ligation of the large arteries, etc. He is a member of the District of Columbia medical society, was its vice-president in 1872 and its president in 1875-76; a member of the American medical society, and of the Archæological society of the United States, president of the alumni association of the university of Maryland, and a member of the Philosophical society of Washington-
ELISHA FRANCIS RIGGS,
The Riggs ancestry was English. John Riggs of Anne Arundel county, Md., was born in 1687, and married a daughter of Thomas Davis, of the same county. He had seven sons and five daughters, and died in 1762. His fourth son, Samuel Riggs, a successful farmer, a public-spirited citizen who held official position in Anne Arundel county, was born October 6, 1740, and married Miss Amelia Dorsey, daughter of Philemon Dorsey. Elisha was a son of this union. He was born in Montgomery county, Md., whence, when a young man, he went to Georgetown, D. C., and engaged successfully in business, subsequently admitting to partnership his book-keeper, who in after years became known to the world as the distinguished philanthropist, George Peabody. Elisha Riggs married Alice, a daughter of James Lawrason, Esq., a prominent merchant of Alexandria, Va. His two sons by this union were George Washington and Lawrason. The first of these was the father of Elisha Francis Riggs, of the present firm of Riggs & Co. George Washington Riggs was born on the 4th of July, 1813, and educated at Round Hill school in Massachusetts, and at Yale college, being a member of the class of 1833. He was married to Miss Janet Shedden, in 1840, and during the same year the great banking house of Corcoran & Riggs was started upon its historic career, the senior member of the firm be- ing William W. Corcoran, who subse- quently erected for himself within the hearts of his countrymen a monument more enduring than the magnificent museum of art that bears his name, or the .
of the banking house of Riggs & Co., was born October 2, 1851, at "Corn Riggs" (Soldiers' Home), then the country seat of his father. Inseparably connected with the interests of Washington city is friendly refuge for gentlewomen his
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charity endowed. This house at once | bitterness. The loan, however, was nego- assumed a prominent position among tiated above par, paying the treasury a handsome premium, and not more than half the bidders could get a share of it. Thus, in spite of the opposition and ob- stacles referred to, the house most sig- nally sustained both its own and the credit of the treasury of the United States. the leading financial institutions of the country, having valuable con- nections abroad, where its early and intimate friend, George Peabody, was already an eminent person. During the war of this country against Mexico, which lasted through 1846-8, this firm was en- Mr. George W. Riggs died at his coun- try seat in Prince George's county, Md., August 24, 1881, at which time the bank- ing firm consisted of himself, his son Elisha Francis Riggs, Charles C. Glover, Thomas Hyde and John Elliott. One of the monuments that marks the progress of improvements at the capital, is the Riggs house, at the corner of Fifteenth and G streets, which he built and owned, and which has always been one of the leading first-class hotels of the city. He was a man of singularly unostentatious nature, and of kind and charitable im- pulses. He manifested an enduring fond- ness for literature, keeping up his early habits of reading, and profiting by the possession and knowledge of books, as a result of his liberal and classical educa- tion. He was the very soul of honor in every way, was prompt in his judgment, and none stood higher in the estimation of the community in which he lived. trusted by the government, then under the administration of President Polk, with the negotiations of the needed loans for carrying on that conflict. The period was a peculiar and critical one for the perform- ance of that task. It was at a time when the financial affairs of the country were in a very unsettled and disturbed condi- tion. Repudiation, threatened or accom- plished, in various quarters, had seriously tarnished American credit in the markets of the world. The fierce conflict between the friends and enemies of the then re- cently suspended United States bank, and the passions and prejudices engendered thereby, still agitated the public mind. The new fiscal system of the government, known as the Independent Treasury, was about equally derided and feared by the banks and other financial operators, and many were the predictions and wide- spread the belief and hope that under it the government would entirely collapse He left at his death two sons in the banking business, and three daughters, one of whom married Mr. Henry How- ard, of the British diplomatic service. An only brother of Mr. George W. Riggs was Lawrason Riggs, who was for many years a prominent merchant of St. Louis, and who married a daughter of Hon. Jesse D. Bright, for many years a distin- guished United States senator from Indiana. financially in its efforts to carry on the war. It was under such circumstances that the firm of Corcoran & Riggs under- took to negotiate the first Mexican war loan, which was authorized to be for the sum of $23,000,000, and although the most strenuous efforts were made by the jeal- ous and hostile banks of other cities to prevent it, their success was signal and triumphant. In the negotiation of the second loan of $16,000,000, the opposition Elisha Francis Riggs received his early was renewed with increased vigor and education from private instruction, and
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in 1867, when sixteen years of age, went to England and entered St. Mary's col- lege at Oscott. He remained abroad until the year 1871, when he returned to this country, and entered upon an active business career in the banking house of his father, becoming a member of the firm in 1876. He is identified with many of the city's most important interests, and is to an eminent degree an exponent of the renaissance that has made the old capital city a new Washington. He was married in 1879 to Miss Medora Thayer, daughter of James S. Thayer, Esq., of New York city. They have two sons, Elisha Francis, Jr., and Thomas Law- rason.
HENRY TAYLOR WRIGHT.
Among the young men who enlisted in the service of their country before they had reached their majority, and rose from the ranks to high position, is the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this sketch. He was born in Syracuse, N. Y., February 6, 1843, and was educated in his native city and partly at Janesville, Wis., where he had been taken by his parents in 1854. Leaving his school books in 1862, he enlisted in the Twelfth Wisconsin battery, and served as a private about four months, when he was detailed to the headquarters of Gen. McPherson, and appointed clerk to his chief of artillery, under whom he served about a year in the Tennessee campaign, including the battle of Corinth and siege of Vicksburg. In February, 1864, he was appointed acting assistant pay-
master in the navy and for two years was with the Mississippi squadron; in July, 1866, he was appointed post assistant pay- master, and transferred to a salt-water fleet, and March, 1870, was promoted to be paymaster, and still holds that position. Josiah Wright, the father of Henry Taylor Wright, was a native of Lenox, Mass., and born January 2, 1799, a son of Samuel Wright. In early life he re- moved to the state of New York, and in Albany and Syracuse, that state, was en- gaged in mechandising. He was also a captain in the New York militia, in his earlier days. He was first married to Miss Mary Taylor of New York, and of the several children one only reached maturity- Josiah Taylor Wright, who married Miss Fanny Hunt of Albany, N. Y., and subsequently removed to Janes- ville, Wis. The second marriage of Josiah Wright was to Miss Celia Bliss, of Springfield, Mass., and of the five children born to this union four are still living, viz: Mary Elizabeth, wife of Robert T. Deakin, of Philadelphia; Sarah Bushnell, wife of Edward Ruger, Janesville, Wis .; Edward Osgood, who enlisted in the Fifth New York zouaves (Col. Duryea), rose to the rank of second lieutenant, and died from wounds received at the second battle of Bull Run, and finally Henry Taylor Wright. The father of this family died in 1889, in the ninetieth year of his age; the mother passed away in 1870.
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