The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1, Part 3

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

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USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 3

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opened. A new and improved system of police and fire alarm telegraph was introduced, superior to that of any city in the Union. A reduction of nearly four hundred thousand dollars per annum was made in the municipal expenditures during the first year of his administration. The sinking fund was rigidly guarded and largely in- creased, and the price of city stock, subject to State tax, rose higher than the State bonds. But the crowning act of Mayor Latrobe's administration was the negotiation at par of five millions five per cent. bonds as a substitute for the five millions six per cent. loan of 1875; thus effecting a saving of fifty thousand dollars per annum-a good legacy left by his administration to the people of Balti- more. In June, 1877, Mayor Latrobe's name was presented to the Democratic Mayoralty Convention for a re-nomina- tion as candidate for Mayor; but, though receiving a large and flattering vote, his opponent, the late Colonel George P. Kane, was nominated. On the death of Colonel Kane, in June, 1878, the Democratic party, as with one voice, called General Latrobe to the Mayoralty by a unanimous nomination and overwhelming popular vote-a high in- dorsement of the able manner in which he performed the duties of that responsible office during his previous incum- bency. The same business tact, management, and financial ability displayed by Mr. Latrobe in conducting his personal affairs and those with which he has been intrusted by leading corporations and capitalists, have been brought to bear in the execution of his Mayoralty duties, and he can point with pride to the record of a faithful guardianship of the interests and prosperity of the city of Baltimore. That higher political honors yet await General Latrobe no one can doubt who contemplates his brilliant career in the past, and the ability as well as fidelity with which he has performed all the honorable and responsible duties which have devolved upon him. In 1860, Mr. Latrobe married the eldest daughter of Honorable Thomas Swann. That lady died in 1865, leaving one child, a sou, now ( 1879) in the sixteenth year of his age.

COMPRUNE, FREDERICK W., Lawyer, was born in Baltimore, January 26, 1813. His father, Frederick W. Brune, Senior, was a native of Bremen, and came to Baltimore in 1799, where he engaged in mercantile business, and in which he continued until his death, in 1860. His mother was Ann Clarke. She was a native of Dublin, Ireland, but in 1787, while yet an infant, was brought to Baltimore by her parents. She was a lady of great excellence and strength of character. The subject of this sketch received the best education which Baltimore then afforded. When fourteen years of age he went to the celebrated Round. Hill School, at Northampton, Massachusetts, which was

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the first in this country to elevate and broaden the stand- ard of academic education. He there acquired the French, German and Spanish languages, in addition to the usual school studies, when he entered the junior class of Har- vard College University, where he graduated in 1831. After his graduation he studied law for a year at the law school of that University, under the eminent teachers Judge Story and Professor Ashmun. lle then returned to Balti- more, where he completed his preliminary course of law study in the office of the late Judge John Purviance, and was admitted to the bar in 1834. At Round Hill and at Harvard he was the fellow-student and intimate with men who have since become eminent in literature, politics and science, including, among others, J. Lothrop Motley, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Wendell Phillips, Charles Sum- ner, and Dr. Shattuck, of Boston, who subsequently be- came his brother-in-law. In the years 1836-7, he trav- elled in Europe, passing the winter in Berlin, where he at- tended the lectures of Von Savigny on the P'andects, and Von Raumer on Staats Recht. In 1838, after his return home, he entered into a law partnership under the firm of Brown & Brune, with his friend and early schoolmate and fellow-student in the law, George William Brown, and the partnership was continued until 1873, when Mr. Brown was elected Chief Judge of the Supreme Bench of Balti- more City. In the meantime the firm had been enlarged by the admission first, of Stewart Brown, and then of Ar- thur George Brown. In connection with William Henry Norris and George William Brown, Mr. Brune prepared the first digest of the Maryland Reports, which was pub- lished in 1847. In 1852 Mr. Brune was nominated by the Reform party of that day for the office of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, a position for which he was emi- nently qualified; and that being the first occasion on which judges in this State were elected by the people, Mr. Brune, from patriotic motives, was induced to accept the nomination, although his election would have involved the relinquishment of a lucrative practice for a small salary ; but, fortunately for himself, though not for the public, the Reform party was defeated and he was not elected. He, however, led the ticket, with such men as Messrs, Latrobe, Wallis, and Charles Howard nominated with him. This was the only occasion when Mr. Brune had been a candi- date for public office. He was married February 2, 1853, to Emily S. Barton, daughter of Thomas B. Barton, of Fredericksburg, Virginia. From early childhood Mr. Brune was characterized by earnestness of purpose and sincerity and consistency of character. At school, while he was distinguished for persevering industry and good scholarship, he was also a leader in manly sports and a general favorite with his companions. Although he had devoted himself to the practice of the law with untiring assiduity, he yet found time to aid, with his means and personal efforts, public charities and religions enterprises. For many years he was a member of every diocesan con-

vention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland, and, since 1868, of every General Convention of that Church in the United States. Ilis faithful administration of important trusts, his prudent counsel, and his forensic efforts in the courts of the city of Baltimore, in the Court of Appeals at Annapolis, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, placed him among the leaders of the bar in Maryland. The second day before his deccase he was en- gaged in the argument of a case connected with the An- napolis and Elkridge Railroad, in the court-room at Annapolis, before Judges Hammond and llayden, of the Circuit Court of Anne Arundel County, where, in conse- quence of over-exertion and the intense heat, he was stricken down with the illness that fatally terminated so soon. He was immediately removed to the residence of A. B. Hagner, Esq., where he was attended by Dr. Claude. Early the following morning, his own physi- cian, Dr. Donaldson, of Baltimore, was at his bedside. Under his care Mr. Brune was carried to the steamboat that afternoon, and from it taken to his residence, where, at half-past four in the morning of the following day, July 18, 1878, he quietly expired. As was fitting, the Bar of Baltimore took appropriate action in the case; and the courts that were in session were adjourned in respect to his memory.

ROWE, HION. ENOCH LOUIS, Ex-Governor, was born August 10, 1820, in Frederick County, Mary- land; commenced his education, in 1829, at St. John's College, Frederick. In 1833, he went to Clon- gowe's College, near Dublin, Ireland, and afterwards matriculated in the Roman Catholic College of Stonyhurst, Lancashire, England, where he remained until the spring of 1839. Ile-passed through the full academic course of that institution, and received several silver medals for scholarship. In 1839, he left England, and, after a Con- tinental tour, returned to Maryland. He studied law in Frederick City, and was admitted to the bar in 1842. Ilis brilliant talents were quickly recognized and appreciated by the people, and in 1845, he was elected to represent his native county, in the Legislature of Maryland. From the period of his entrance into public life, he was acknowl- cdged as one of the ablest and most eloquent champions of Democracy in Western Maryland. In May, 1850, before he attained the constitutional age of thirty years, required for that office, he was nominated by the Demo- cratic party, and, on the 2d of October, 1850, triumphantly elected Governor of Maryland, and served until January, 1854. Ile was an influential member of the National Democratic Convention of 1856, and, in March, 1857, was offered, by President James Buchanan, the appointment of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to China, which he declined. On several occasions he was a

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Democratie candidate for Presidential Elector, and, in 1800, voted for John C. Breckenridge for President, and Joseph Lane for Vice-President. When the civil war broke out, and the proscription, persecution and imprisonment of leading Democrats was commenced by the military in Maryland, he left Frederick, and, in July, 1861, went South and remained there, leading a retired life, until No- vember, 1865, when he returned with his family to Mary- land. On the Ist of May, 1866, he removed to Brooklyn, New York, his present place of residence, and commenced the successful practice of his profession in the city of New York. He married, May 29, 1844, Esther Winder Polk, the daughter of Colonel James and Anne Maria (Stuart) Polk, of Princess Anne, Somerset County, Maryland. Colonel Polk was the son of Judge William Polk, of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, a cousin of President James K. Polk, of Tennessee. Mrs. Anne Maria (Stuart) Polk was the daughter of Dr. Alexander Stuart, a native of Delaware, and his second wife, Mrs. Mary (Perkins) Wilson, the widow of John Wilson, and daughter of Thomas and Ann (Hanson) Perkins, of the White House, Kent County, Maryland. Mrs. Ann (Ilanson) Perkins was the daughter of Judge Frederick and Mary (Lowder) Hanson, and the granddaughter of Colonel Hans Hanson, . of Kimbolton, a memoir of whom is contained in this volume. Governor Lowe had eleven children, Adelaide Vincindier, who married, October 16, 1867, Edmund Austin Jenkins, of Baltimore; Anne Maria; Enoch Louis, who died at Annapolis; Paul Emil; Vivian; Victoire Vincindier; a second Enoch Louis; Alexander Stuart, who died in the South in 1861; Esther Winder; Mary Gorter, and James Polk Lowe, who died in Brooklyn.

ENRY, PROFESSOR JOSEPH, LL.D., Jate Sec- retary of the Smithsonian Institution, was of Scotch Presbyterian descent. His grandpa- rents on both sides landed in New York the day before the battle of Bunker's Hill. lle was born in Albany, New York, December 17, 1797; but, having lost his father at an early age, was sent when seven years old to live with his grandmother and attend school at Galway, in Saratoga County. IIe remained there seven years, the latter part of the time being spent in a store, attending school in the afternoon. He showed no aptitude for learning, or for excelling in the ordinary sports of boyhood. He had become fasci- nated with works of fiction, which he procured from the village library, and these had well-nigh destroyed his relish for anything better. On his return to Albany he was apprenticed to his cousin to learn the jewelry trade ; but before he had acquired sufficient skill to support him- self by the art, his cousin gave up business, and he gave

himself up almost entirely to light reading and the amuse- ments of the theatre. In this course he was suddenly ar- rested by opening a book which had been left upon the table by one of the boarders at his mother's house. A single page of the book produced a remarkable change in his life. Hle resolved at once to devote his life to the ac- quisition of knowledge, and immediately commenced taking evening lessons from two of the professors in the Albany Academy. He also attempted to study the lan- guages under a celebrated teacher, and in the meantime to support himself by such chance employment as he could obtain. Failing in this, he abandoned it for that of a teacher of a country district school. He alternated this employment with that of a student at the Academy as he earned the means to meet the necessary expenses. After pursuing this course for some time, he was, through the recommendation of Dr. T. R. Beck, Principal of the Academy, appointed private tutor to the family of General Stephen Van Rensselaer, the patroon of Rensselaerwick. His duties in this position occupied him only about three hours in the day, and the remainder of his time was spent as an assistant to Dr. Beck in his chemical investigations, and in the study of anatomy and physiology, under Drs. Tulty and Marsh, with a view to graduating in medicine. His course of life, however, was suddenly changed by the offer of an appointment on the survey of a route for a State road from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, through the southern tier of counties. Ilis labors in this work were exceedingly arduous and responsible. Having fin- ished the survey with the approbation of the commissioners, and having become enamoured with the profession of an engineer, he very reluctantly accepted the professorship of mathematics in the Academy, which, in accordance with the wishes of his friend Dr. Beck, he had been elected to fill. The duties of his office did not commence for five or six months, and he devoted the interval to the exploration of the geology of New York, with Professor Eaton, of the Rensselaer School. IIe entered upon his duties in the Academy in September, 1826, and after devoting some time to the study of mathematics, and other subjects pertaining to his professorship, he commenced a series of original in- vestigations on electricity and magnetism-the first regular series on natural philosophy which had been prosecuted in this country since the days of Franklin. These researches made him favorably known, not only in this country, but also in Europe, and led to his call in 1832, to the chair of Natural Philosophy in the College of New Jersey, at Princeton. In the first year of his course in that college, he gave lectures in natural philosophy, chemistry, miner- alogy, geology, astronomy, and architecture. In this course he demonstrated the feasibility of an electro-mag- netic telegraph, with experimental illustrations. In the year of his call to that chair, he made the discovery of the secondary currents, produced in a long conductor by the induction of the primary current upon itself; and also,

Jouwk Houry

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simultaneously with Mr. J. D. Forbes, of Edinburgh, he produced the electric spark by means of a purely mag- netic induction. These discoveries embraced the germ of the science of magneto-electricity, which received subse- quently from Faraday so large a development, and of which the recent practical applications are so numerous and important. In 1835 he declined a most tempting offer made to him by the University of Virginia, to occupy the chair of Natural Philosophy in that institution. Notwith- standing the emoluments connected with the professorship in the Virginia University were greater perhaps than in any other country, he could not consent to leave Prince- ton, where he had experienced so much affectionate kind- ness and appreciation. That decision involved no small pecuniary sacrifice; as the salary at Princeton was small, and scarcely sufficient to support his family and to meet other demands upon him. Professor Henry visited Europe in 1837, and in London held interesting interviews with Professor Wheatstone, the inventor of the needle magnetic telegraph, to whom his discoveries were already well known, and whom he acquainted with his plans for pro- ducing not only signals, but large mechanical effects at distances indefinitely great, by means of electro-magnet- ism. In 1846 he was requested by some of the members of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, then just about to be organized, to give his views as to the best method of realizing the intentions of its founder. In compliance with this request he gave an exposition of the will, and of the method by which it might most efficiently be realized. On account of this exposition, and his scien- tific reputation, he was called to the office of secretary of the institution, which, in fact, constituted him its director. Ile had many difficulties to contend with at the outset, arising mainly from a misapprehension on the part of Con- gress of the terms of the will, and the commencement of a very expensive building ; but by constant perseverance in one line of policy, Professor Henry brought the insti- tution into a condition of financial prosperity and wide reputation. In 1849 he was elected President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1868 he was elected President of the National Academy of Sciences, and was present at the business sessions of its recent meetings, though fecbleness prevented him from presiding during the scientific session. lle was made Chairman in 1871 of the Lighthouse Board of the United States, an important bureau of the Treasury Department. At the time of the organization of this Board, he was ap- pointed onc of its members by President Fillmore; and in connection with it he has been engaged of late years in active and laborious duty. During the war he was ap- pointed one of a commission, together with Professor Bache and Admiral Davis, to examine and report upon various inventions, in the capacity of Chairman of the Committee on Propositions, intended to facilitate the oper- ations against the enemy, and to improve the art of naviga-

tion. He was a member of various societies in this country and abroad. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, from Union College in 1829, and from Harvard University in 1871. He published " Contribution to Elec- tricity and Magnetism " in 1839, and subsequently numer- ous papers of greater or less extent in various scientific journals, and a series of essays on meteorology. in the Patent Office Reports. He was the author of the annual reports of the Smithsonian Institution from 1846 to 1871, inclusive. In May, 1830, Professor Henry married Miss Alexander, of Schenectady, New York, sister of Professor Alexander, of Princeton; and from the ardent devotion of his wife, and the fraternal sympathy of her brother in his pursuits, he received assistance and support beyond that which usually fall to the lot of man. llc died May 13, 1878, leaving a wife and three daughters. Memorial ser- vices were held at Washington, Thursday evening, Janu . ary 16, 1879, in an editorial notice of which the Baltimore Sun thus referred to the work of Prof. Henry : " There is a very exquisite sort of propriety in the fact that the Congress of the United States, we might almost say the Government of the United States, should last night have participated in the services in memory of the late Professor Joseph Henry in the same hall and in the same manner that the services were held in memory of the late Samuel F. B. Morse. Henry, of course, was entitled to a distinct- ive notice by Congress and the Executive, from the fact of his long semi-official connection with the Government as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, member of the Lighthouse Board, etc. But, as distinguished from Morse, who represented in a peculiar manner what Americans are supposed to worship, success, llenry was the very type of the man who devoted himself to science for its own sake, and regardless of the pecuniary emoluments to be reaped from its pursuit. Each of these great men-and they were both very great men-was identified in a particular and specific manner with the discovery and application of the electro-magnetic telegraph. But while Henry, who first discovered the powers of the clectro-magnet, and first sent a message to himself over a three-mile circuit of wires, from tree-top to tree-top, back and forth, from his laboratory window at Princeton, was content to pursue the idea thus de- veloped simply in its scientific relations and developments, Morse applied himself at once to developing the practical uses of the discovery and invented the telegraph, the recording apparatus, etc., and gave' the whole civilized world one of its best and most useful tools. The exercises last night were full of the spirit of the occasion. Henry's old college at Princeton, to which he went direct from the Albany Academy, which never ceased to honor him, and which he never ceased to love, was fittingly represented in the person of Dr. MeCosh and many alumni on the floor. Asa Gray, of Harvard, spoke on the part of the most prominent of llenry's contemporaries in discovery, in those enthusiastic young days when every forthcoming

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number of Silliman's Journal had a new contribution to science from Henry's pen, while Professor William B. Rogers fittingly tepresented the junior schools of Ameri- can scientists, who have grown up with fleury's illustrious example before their eyes. Not that William Barton Rogers is so much younger a man than Henry was, but still he belongs to a younger school. Some of the ablest men in Con- gress also took part in the memorial services and delivered fitting addresses. Every true son of science must rejoice at this tribute to Joseph Henry, the more so because many unthinking people were used to say that he had frittered away the last twenty-five years of his life in routine duties at the Smithsonian, abandoning that field of discovery in which so much was expected of him. The fact is, he wasted not an hour, but was content to sink himself and his own individual aspirations and achievements for the sake of organizing systems of American research, which he knew would eventually bring forth a hundred fold as much fruit as could be plucked by his individual effort. Those who look back at the actual work done by him- who recollect that he instituted the meteorological observa- tions which have given us the Weather Bureau, that he was a founder of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science, that he first started the investigations into American antiquities, that he first organized the exploring expedition which men like Hayden are so splendidly carrying out ; that, in fact, he was the originator of half of our present systems of research-will be able to under- stand something of the absolute self-oblivion and self-ab- negation which, after all, were llenry's most noble charac- teristics."

J OYLE, REV. FRANCIS EDWARD, a distinguished Pul- pit Orator and Lecturer, was born September 6, 1827, in Baltimore, Maryland. Both of his parents were natives of County Fermanagh, Ireland. Ilis father, Edward Boyle, belonged to an old and highly cultured family, which gave to Ireland more than one bright mind and brave arm. He came to this country when quite young, and settled in Baltimore, where he married Miss Ellen Smith, Thirteen children were the issue of this marriage, the eldest of whom is the subject of this sketch. Francis's mother was related through her maternal uncle to the celebrated Father Bogue, one of Ireland's most gifted orators and distinguished scholars. When he was thirteen years of age, Francis was sent to St. Mary's College, Bal- timore, an institution governed by the Sulpitians. There he spent six years, graduating in 1846, after a thorough course in the classics, English and mathematics. Long before the completion of his college career, he determined to embrace the ecclesiastical state. With a view to this end, he began his theological studies in St. Mary's Seminary, soon after graduating from the college, which was at that

time the classical department of the seminary. As a semi- narist, Mr. Boyle was earnest, devout and studious. Hle was beloved both by his superiors and fellow-students: On the 21st of November, 1851, he was ordained a Priest by the venerable Archbishop Kenrick, and immediately placed in charge of the Missions in Montgomery County, Maryland, with his residence at Rockville. In the fall of 1853, he removed to St. Peter's Church, Washington, Dis- trict of Columbia, as assistant to the Rev. E. A. Knight, in which position he continued for a few months, when he became assistant to Rev. T. J. O'Toole, Pastor of St. Pat- rick's, in the same city; and in May, 1862, returned to St. Peter's, of which, on the death of Father Knight, he became pastor, and continued to discharge the duties of that position with zeal and efficiency until 1878. Upon the death of the venerable Doctor White, pastor of St. Matthews, the eminent abilities of Father Boyle, and his arduous and successful labors in the pastoral office, pointed him out to Archbishop Gibbons as a fit and worthy suc- cessor of the learned and saintly divine, whose death was a loss alike to religion and literature, Few men have worked in a wider field and accomplished more good than Father Boyle. Ile has a powerful and well-trained mind and a vigorous body; he is a noble-hearted priest and an accomplished scholar, respected, admired and beloved by all, irrespective of creed, party or position. He is a gen- erous friend to the poor, and the counsellor of the dis- tressed and the afflicted. During the civil war, President Lincoln selected him as a Chaplain in the army, and, as such, he had charge of six hospitals in and around Wash- ington. The hospitals were crowded with sick, wounded and dying soldiers. Day and night Father Boyle minis- tered to their physical and spiritual wants, consoling, cheering and preparing them for their final home, Father Boyle's work and home have not been confined to Wash- ington City. Ilis wide and varied learning, his gifts as a lecturer, and his sparkling wit have been called for and freely given to the furtherance of charitable purposes, and the promotion of good works in the distant parts of the country. His lectures, which embrace many subjects, are marked by a freshness of description and frankness of statement, as well as force and impressiveness. One of his latest lectures, " Reminiscences of an Army Chaplain," is characterized by a spirit of excellent good humor, and abounds in witticisms, for which Father Boyle is noted. His last lecture, "The Church and Civil Liberty," is de- servedly popular, and evinces a cogeney of reasoning and deep theological knowledge concerning both the dogmatic and moral teachings of the Catholic Church .. As a pulpit orator, Father Boyle holds high rank. His fine physique, prepossessing features, clear, resonant voice and scholarly language, all combine in making his sermons attractive and instructive. As an orator, nature has done much for him. lle is eminently social, and all who have occasion to ap- proach him are impressed with his genial, affable manner,

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1, Part 3

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