The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1, Part 11

Author: National Biographical Publishing Co. 4n
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Baltimore : National Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 844

USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 11
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 11

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BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

world only served to develop still further the ability within him. In the summer of 1868, a few months after his re- turn from Paris, Dr. Evans married Edith, daughter of John B. Wiltberger, Esq., only son of Charles II. Wiltber- ger, an old and highly esteemed resident of Washington, District of Columbia. This somewhat changed his plans, ns he had intended to locate in San Francisco. In conse- quence of financial embarrassment and ill health he had a . hard struggle until a year after his marriage. About that time, Rev. B. A. Maguire, President of Georgetown Col- lege, wrote him to come and take charge of that institution professionally. That invitation brought with it hope and relief. His skill soon made itself known. Ilis inventive genius, artistic taste, high moral character, and gentle, un- assuming manners have raised him in a few years to the highest position in his profession. In the Capital of the Nation his name stands pre-eminent, as does his uncle's in Europe. There his uncle waited on royalty. Among his patients were numbered the talent, the wealth, the no- bility of France. Here, the nephew works for the Presi- dent's family, together with Cabinet officers and high officials. Dr. Evans rarely goes into society, though fre- quently importuned by his patients. The pleasures of home and the companionship of a devoted wife and beau- tiful children, together with love for work, render him in- different to society life. Ilis professional apartments are the grandest in Washington : with his laboratory they be- speak the delicate taste and refinement which have always marked his work.

QUESPORANTLY, REV. W. T., Doctor of Divinity, and Pastor of the Seventh Baptist Church, Baltimore, Maryland, was born May 1, 1816, in Beaufort, South Carolina. His father, Rev. W. T. Brantly, D.D., a distinguished clergyman and excellent scholar, was the preceptor of the late Rev. Richard Ful- ler, D.D., of Baltimore, and was for many years pastor of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia. He died in 1845. The mother of Dr. Brantly was Anna, a sister of Han. Charles J. McDonald, Governor of Georgia. During his father's pastorate in Philadelphia, Dr. Brantly received his elementary education in the best private schools in that city, preparatory to his entering Brown University, Provi- denee, Rhode Island. He graduated at that institution in the year 1840, under the presidency of the eminent edu- cator and author, Rev. Francis Wayland, D.D., and was elected by the Faculty a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, an honor conferred only upon distinguished gradu- ates. Previous to his entering college, he was converted, and in the year 1834 was baptized into the fellowship of the First Baptist Church, of Philadelphia, by his father, who was then the pastor. Several inviting opportunities to enter mercantile life in Philadelphia were offered him ;

among them an interest in the successful banking house of Drexel & Company, all of which he declined. He believed himself called of God to the profession of the Gospel min- istry, and he therefore preferred to enter the University and qualify himself for the work. After graduating with honor, he received and accepted the same year a unani- mous call to the pastoral care of the First Baptist Church of Augusta, Georgia, which had been constituted by his revered father twenty years before. His pastorate there was a happy and successful one, lasting eight years. Though the church was large and influential at the com- mencement of his pastorate, it did not reach the full meas- ure of its usefulness or strength until the days of Dr. Brantly's leadership, when its numbers were doubled, and it became one of the strongest Baptist churches in the State. Dr. Brantly resigned the pastoral care of the church in Augusta, to accept the chair of Belles-lettres, Ilistory, and Evidences of Christianity in the University of Georgia, the leading denominational institution in the State, located at Athens, and at that time under the presidency of Rev. Alonzo Church, D.D., a distinguished Presbyterian. Ile entered upon the duties of his professorship in 1848. ITis service of eight years in that State University, is sufficient evidence of his qualifications to meet successfully the im- portant duties which devolved upon him. During those years he was often and often solicited to become the pastor again of some of the largest churches in the country -- among them that of the First Baptist Church in Phila- delphia-but he declined, At length, in 1856, he ac- cepted the call of the Tabernacle Baptist Church of Philadelphia, and became its pastor. This church had a very numerous membership, and a large and costly house of worship, with whom he remained until 1861. His ministry in that church was greatly blessed; and it was during his pastorate that, besides meeting the current ex- penses, ten thousand dollars were paid on an indebtedness of twenty-five thousand with which the Tabernacle had been burdened at the beginning of his ministry with that people. In January, 1861, he went South, and became pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia, which is now, probably, the largest Baptist church in the State, numbering about five hundred members. The suc- cess which crowned his efforts there may be inferred from the improvements made in their house of worship, costing twenty thousand dollars, and making it one of the best church edifices in the State ; and that, too, in the troublous times of the civil war. Besides his pastoral work at At- lanta, he was for a time the editor of the Christian Index, the denominational paper of that State. Atlanta, during the wa., being the centre of military operations in Georgia, and there being at times at least ten thousand strangers in the city, his large church would be often crowded to over- flowing. In the summer of 1864, the necessities of army operations compelled him to change his residence ; he took up bis quarters in Augusta, returning to his old flock at

I. S. rebert 5

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Atlanta after the war, and remaining there until 1871-ten years. In consequence of the resignation by Dr. Fuller of the pastorate of the Seventh Baptist Church of Balti- more, that church manifested its usual good judgment by extending a unanimous call to Dr. Brantly to till the vacancy. The Doctor accepted the call, and in the dis- charge of the important duties of his office he has proven himself an acceptable minister of Christ. The purity of his diction, and the earnest and graceful style of his deliv- ery, together with the cultured thought and logical reason- ing of his sermons draw to him large congregations. The membership is large, and the improvements recently com- pleted in the Lecture and Sunday-school room indicate present prosperity and prospective success. Since his pas- torate, a handsome parsonage, in which he resides, has been purchased at a cost of nearly fourteen thousand dol- lars. Dr. Brantly is now one of the associate editors of the Religious Ilerald, the denominational paper of the South, the place having at one time been filled by Dr. Fuller. Socially, Dr. Brantly is a modest, refined gentle- man, and the part he takes at conventions is always in- structive and interesting. In 1841, he married Miss Mary Ann, daughter of Dr. W. Il. Turpin, of Augusta, Georgia. She died in 1866, leaving a son, W. T. Brautly, Esq., an attorney-at-law, practicing in Baltimore, and a daughter, Louisa D., who married Colonel J. L. Morehead, son of Governor Morehead, of North Carolina. In 1870, Dr. Brantly married Mrs. Mattie Marston, a young widow of Georgia; they have one child, Anna Eva. The Doctor was ordained to the Gospel ministry December 27, 1840, at Augusta, Georgia, and received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Georgia.

AYNER, ISIDOR, a member of the Baltimore Bar, son of William S. Rayner, a well-known citizen of Baltimore, was born in that city, April 11, 1850. Although quite a young man, Mr. Rayuer occupies a very prominent position at the 3 Maryland Bar, and is generally recognized as one of its ablest members. He was educated in part at Maryland University, and in his sixteenth year went to the University of Virginia, where he graduated at the age of nineteen. He then attended the law school of that institution, and on completing his course, returned to Baltimore and entered

the office of the well-known law firm of Brown & Brune, composed of the Hon. George William Brown and Fred- erick W. Brune, Esq. He continued his studies with this firm until 1870, when he was admitted to the bar and opened an office at No. 30 St. Paul Street, Baltimore. Ile remained there six years, and then removed to No. 51 Lex- ington Street, Rayner Building, where he is at present (1878) located. He has been in continuous practice ever

since his twentieth year, confining himself principally to civil.business, only occasionally engaging in criminal cases. Ile has lately taken a very prominent part in politics, but has never allowed his participation therein to interfere with his law practice. Being an eloquent speaker, and skilful debater, he rendered his party efficient service during the gubernatorial campaign of 1875, and the Presidential con- test of 1876. His first political speech, delivered in Bal- timore, October 7, 1875, attracted great attention, and was published in full in the Baltimore Daily Sun, at the request of several of the most prominent citizens. At the solicitation of many leading members of his party, he pre- pared an elaborate address, in 1876, discussing the politi- cal issues of the day, which was also published in the same paper, occupying five columns, and was extensively circulated as a campaign document during the Presidential contest. Mr. Rayner was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, on the Democratic ticket, in 1877, from the Twelfth ward of Baltimore. Ile was the chairman of the Baltimore city delegation, and introduced many of the most important measures of the session, among which were the law prohibiting building associations from issning promissory notes, the law for the relief of the Western Maryland Railroad, the law to relieve charitable institu- tious from taxation, the law giving jurisdiction to the Ap- peal Tax Court to revise and correct erroneous assessments of property, and the law prohibiting children from attend- ing immoral places of amusement. Ile was also an earn- est advocate of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal bill, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bill, and the Militia bill, pro- viding for an appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars annually for the Fifth Maryland regiment, and has dis- played as much ability in framing as in advocating bills. Hle was Chairman of the Committee on Internal Improve. ments, and in the absence of the Hon. Montgomery Blair, acted as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. In his twenty-first year, he married Miss Virginia Bevan, daughter of William F. Bevan, of the firm of Bevan & Sons, Balti- more, and has one child living.

ELBERT, HON. WILLIAM JULIAN, ex-member of Congress from Maryland, was born in Balti- more, August 4, 1816. Hle is of German descent, his great-grandfather, Lawrence Albert, having emigrated from Wurtzburg, Bavaria, to America, in 1752, and settled in York County, Pennsylvania. Here, by thrift and industry, he acquired a respectable for- tune, which was augmented by the diligence and abilities of his son Andrew. The original estate remains in the possession of the family. Jacob Albert, the father of the subject of this sketch, finding an agricultural life unsuited to his tastes, removed to Baltimore, in the year 1805, and

BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

with a small capital, furnished by his father, embarked in the hardware business, by which, in the course of time, he acquired a large fortune. Mr. Albert was destined by his father for the profession of the law, and pursued a col- legiate course at Mount St. Mary's College, near Emmetts- burg, Maryland, where he completed his education in 1833; but the state of his health prevented him from pursuing the course of study necessary to fit him for the bar. In 1835, he travelled for the benefit of his health through the Western States, and as far south as New Orleans, regaining his health and strength by the tour. Returning to his na- tive city he determined to engage in mercantile business, and became associated with his father and brother, Angus- tus James, in the hardware business, which they carried on with success until the year 1855, when they retired. On May 15, 1838, Mr. Albert was united in marriage with Emily J., daughter of Talbot Jones, a well-known and re- spected merchant of Baltimore. The young couple sailed for England, and arrived in time to witness the coronation of Queen Victoria, in June. They were also present in the same month at the opening of the London and Birming- ham Railroad, the first in Europe. They travelled all over Europe by post, visiting Paris, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, all the historic places. Mr. Albert has made several visits to Europe since, but the greatest pleasure of his life was that first slow, old-fashioned journey. Mr. Albert still looks back with pride to the days when he was a fireman, under the old volunteer system, twenty-five or thirty years ago, and to the efforts he put forth to have that system re- placed by the paid department. He was one of the first and most influential in proposing and securing that change. So enthusiastic was he in the enterprise that he had Latta's Steam Fire Engine brought from Cincinnati to Baltimore, for trial, almost entirely at his own expense. In 1856, Mr. Albert assisted in reorganizing the Baltimore and Cuba Smelting and Mining Company, and as a director from that time to 1860, devoted much of his time and energies to the interests of the company, which, during the whole period of his directorship, was eminently prosperous. In the vio- lent political agitations which followed the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, in 1860, Mr. Albert espoused the Union cause with zeal and energy, and brought all his influence to the support of the Administration, At the first meeting of citizens of the Union party, held in Maryland, to denounce the proceedings of South Carolina, and to pledge the State to the support of the Government, Mr. Albert presided. At the outbreak of the war and during its continuance, he remained firm in his political principles, and his social position made him a central figure in the va- rious movements designed to prevent Maryland from join- ing the seceding States. In the autumn of 1861, he was appointed a member of a delegation sent to wait upon the President and solicit a portion of the patronage of the Government in behalf of the people of Baltimore, who were suffering in trade as a consequence of the strong an-

tagonism of the dominant party in the city and State to the Administration, and this mission was entirely successful. At this time Mr. Albert's house had become the head. quarters of the friends of the Administration, and the offi- cers of the Army and Navy frequently enjoyed his hospi- tality. In 1863, " The Union Club" was formed for the purpose of centralizing the Republican party of the State, and Mr. Albert, one of the founders, became subsequently its President. In the autumn of the same year he co-oper- ated in the organization of the First National Bank of Bal- timore, of which he has ever since been a director. At Mr. Albert's house, in the winter of 1863, was held a meet- ing of the friends of the Government, who resolved to call a convention to amend the Constitution of the State. With the co-operation of the Hon. Heury Winter Davis and Judge Hugh Lenox Bond, a majority was returned favor- able to the abolition of slavery. During this winter Mr. Albert was elected President of the Maryland State Fair, intended to aid the Sanitary and Christian Commissions in their benevolent labors. This fair was opened during the Easter holidays by President Lincoln, who was the guest of Mr. Albert. This is believed to be the only occasion on which Mr. Lincoln, during his Presidency, partook of private hospitality. In 1864, Mr. Albert was nominated by the Republican Convention as Elector at Large for the State, in the approaching Presidential election, and being elected, was chosen President of the Electoral College of Maryland. The Constitution of 1864, having declared the abolition of slavery in Maryland, Mr. Albert turned his attention to the condition of the freed blacks. He took a leading part in founding the Association for their Moral and Intellectual Improvement, and was its President dur- ing the term of its existence. This association established more than a hundred schools in the rural districts alone ; affording educational facilities to at least four thousand colored children, at an annual cost of $50,000. This lib- eral bounty is derived almost entirely from private charity. In this connection should be mentioned the " Normal School," situated in Baltimore, a seminary intended to sup- ply teachers for the colored population; an institution which has ordinarily about two hundred pupils in attend- ance, and is estimated to have cost $25,000. During the period of the war, Mr. Albert was a member of the Vestry of Grace Church, and his management of the affairs of the church, at a time when he was left alone by the resigna- tion of the other vestrymen, will be long remembered by the congregation. For over thirty years he has been Treas urer of the Convention of the Episcopal Church, in which office, despite differences of political opinion, he has ever retained the confidence of both clergy and laity. Not- withstanding the many and arduous duties to which he was thus called, his warm sympathies with the soldiers of the Union armies in the field, led him to miss no occasion of ministering to their comfort or alleviating their sufferings. To this end he assisted in establishing " The Soldiers'

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Home," for sick and disabled soldiers, and also the Asylum for their orphan children. He visited the battle fields of Antietam and Gettysburg, where he ministered to the dying and wounded on the field. The dissensions which arose in the Republican party during the Presidency of Mr. John son, greatly weakened their numbers in Maryland, A call was therefore made for those of the party who supported the policy of Congress, in opposition to that of the Presi- dent, to meet at the Front Street Theatre, to urge upon Congress the passage of the Civil Rights Bill. At this meeting Mr. Albert was chosen Chairman. In 1866, the Republican party of the Fifth Congressional District, nom- inated Mr. Albert as their candidate for Representative in Congress, and he was re-nominated in 1868, in which year also he received their nomination as Elector for Grant and Wilson, in their Presidential campaign. In 1872, he was elected a Representative from Maryland to the Forty-third Congress, in which he served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. A model gentleman and a faithful representative, he was recognized among the most distinguished men who have represented Maryland in the Congress of the United States. During the last session that he was in Congress he began to be afflicted with rheumatic gout, from which he has since been a great sufferer. In 1875, he visited Cali- fornia, to view the glories of the Golden Gate and the won- ders of the Yosemite Valley, also hoping to receive benefit to his impaired health. During the winter of 1877-78, he was confined much of the time to his room, and spent most of the summer of 1878 at the Hot Springs, in Arkansas,

FORDLEY, JOHN BEALE, Lawyer, and one of the Judges of the Provincial Court of Maryland, was born in Annapolis, February 11, 1727. Ile was the son of Thomas and Ariana [Vanderheyden ] Bord- ley, the former a native of Yorkshire, England, and the latter, of Cecil County, Maryland. ITis father came to America, in 1694, with an elder brother, a clergyman, and settled in Kent County, Maryland, where he studied law and became one of the leading members of the legal profession. A few years after the death of his father, Judge Bordley's mother married Edmond Jennings, of Annapolis, and in 1737, accompanied him. to England, where she soon afterward died. Before leaving America, she placed her son John Beale, then ten years of age, un- der the care of Colonel Hynson, of Chestertown, Mary- land, where he received a common school education. Young Bordley exhibited such capacity and desire for knowledge that his teacher prolonged his hours of instruc- tion, by private lessons, and manifested the deepest interest in his pupil. In his seventeenth year he removed to An- napolis and became a law student in the office of his eldest brother, Stephen, who had just entered upon a successful

practice in that city, after a thorough course of law-study in England. As his brother's legal attainments were of the highest order, and he was in possession of an extensive miscellaneous and law library, very superior advantages were afforded Mr. Bodley for pursuing his legal studies, and acquiring a knowledge of literature. He became a . diligent student of the law, and devoted considerable time to history, philosophy, and mathematics, evincing great partiality for the latter study. Ile frequently practiced sur- veying as a pastime, which he afterward found to be a very useful branch of knowledge to him. He was admitted to . the bar in due time ; but not having a very decided prefer- ence for the profession, tried other pursuits. He gave suf- ficient attention to commerce to acquire an insight into business transactions. During his early years, he was rc- markably modest and diffident, a trait of character which he said led him to'self-examination and improvement, and caused him to be just and forbearing toward others. In entering upon his professional career he was not compelled to rely upon his own exertions for support. He inherited a landed estate, which yielded him a handsome compe- tence; and, in his twenty-fourth year, he married Miss Margaret Chew, daughter of Mr. Samuel Chew, a promi- nent citizen of Maryland, who possessed some fortune from her father, which afterward received an addition on the death of her mother. Looking forward to a useful career, Mr. Bordley resisted the temptation to indulge in the luxury and ease of the fashionable society of Annapo- lis, then held out to him, and removed to Joppa, a small town on the Gunpowder River, between Harford and Bal- timore, in the neighborhood of his landed estate, where he established a solid reputation for industry, and exhibited traits of character which made him very popular through- out the community. In 1753, in his twenty-sixth year, he was appointed by the Governor to the office of Prothono- tary, or Clerk of Baltimore County, which then included Ilarford County. This was the most important and lucra- tive of any of those clerkships. While filling this position, he continued to reside at Joppa. He filled this office with entire satisfaction for more than twelve years, when he was impelled by his own feelings to resign it, rather than be answerable under the Stamp Act, and the other " arbitrary and cruel proceedings," as he called them, of that period. During his attendance on the courts as prothonotary, he became so well reconciled to the law, that he entered upon the practice of his profession, which he pursued for sev- eral years with great success. At first, his practice was confined principally to Cecil County. On relinquishing the office of prothonotary, he removed to Baltimoretown, as it was then called, where he continued to practice his profession. In 1766, he was appointed one of the Judges of the Provincial Court of Maryland ; and in 1767, he also received the appointment of Judge of the Admiralty Court, both of which offices he held until the change of govern- ment in 1776. As a judge, he was noted for his love of

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

justice and mercy, and for his attention to the interests of the poor and oppressed. In 1768, he was appointed one of the Commission to run the Tangent Line between Mary- land and Delaware. He was one of the Governor's Conn- cil during the greater part of the administration of Gov. ernor Sharpe, and during the whole of Governor Eden's administration. An intimate friendship existed between him and these gentlemen, and Governor Sharpe, even late in life, never spoke of him without terms of strong affec- tion. In 1770, he came into possession of a beautiful estate at Wye Island, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, to which he soon afterward removed, and where he lived in elegant retirement, resigning himself entirely to the plans he had formed for making himself an independent farmer. On quitting the Western for the Eastern Shore of Maryland, he voluntarily withdrew from public life, be- cause, as he expressed it, he felt himself in a state of slavery to the British Ministry. In 1774, however, he was called by the general voice of Maryland to join the Com- mittee of Public Safety, formed by the Provincial Conven- tion, assembled in Annapolis, and in 1777 was appointed one of the Judges of the General Court of Maryland. Ilis estate at Wye Island consisted of sixteen hundred acres of good arable land, with a fair proportion of wood. land. Ilaving been extensively engaged in raising tobacco on the Western Shore, he endeavored to cultivate the same crop on Wye Island without success. He therefore turned his attention to the culture of wheat, for which he found the soil and climate peculiarly adapted. In a few years, the Wye River wheat was abundant, of superior quality, and brought the highest market price. Judge Bordley's farms were remarkable for their general order and excel- lence. He loved agriculture, and tried to promote improve- ment in this branch of industry. In 1771, he purchased Pool's Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, about half way be- tween the Susquehanna and the Patapsco, and near Joppa, his former residence. The Revolutionary War prevented the carrying out of the plans by which he intended to bring this spot into a state of improved cultivation. It

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1, Part 11

Author: National Biographical Publishing Co. 4n Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Baltimore : National Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 844

Author: National Biographical Publishing Co. 4n
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Baltimore : National Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 844