USA > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 48
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 48
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as the question of a successor was considered, differ- ences of opinion on church cultus and worship manifested themselves, and these soon developed into partisanship, until the congregation was sadly toru by dissensions and in imminent danger of complete and permanent disruption. After several fruitless efforts to choose a pastor, the mme of Rev. E. R. Eschbach was presented to the congregation as a candidate, without his consent, and he was elected. Then a very strong pressure was brought to bear upon him by the church at large, to accept the position, for the distracted condition of the congregation was widely known, and its bad effects felt, and he was looked upon as the only person who under all the circumstances could beal the breach. Ile yielded to this pressure, and leaving a devoted people and a pleasant field of usefulness in Baltimore, re- moved to Frederick, June 12, 1874. By a kind, but firm, decided and judicions management, the affairs of the con- gregation were in a short time reduced to quiet order and peacefulness, and it now entered upon a degree of pros- perity it had not known before. He continues to minister with acceptance to one of the largest, most influential and successful congregations in the State. The estimation in which he is held by his church may be inferred from the positions of confidence, trust, and responsibility he at this time holds, and to which he has been called by its choice. Ile has for the past ten years been continuously chosen a member of the Board of Ilome Missions by his Synod, and has during the most of this time filled the office of Sceretary to the Board. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Potomac Synod; a member of the Board of Visitors of the Theological Seminary at Lancaster, Pa .; and an officer of the Society for the Relief of Disabled Ministers and the Widows of Deceased Ministers of the Reformed Church; he is one of the delegates chosen by the Maryland Classis to represent it on the floor of the General Synod, the highest judicatory of the Church, and has been honored by a similar choice successively to all its sessions during the past twelve years. On June 18, 1878, Heidelberg College, at Titfin, Ohio, conferred upon Mr. Eschbach the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
PERNAN, EUGENE, was born in Baltimore, Mary- land, February 29, 1834. His parents were James and Annie Stacia ( Dwen) Kernan. Ilis father, a man highly respected, was a member of the firm of Kernan & Stillinger, commission merchants on Spear's wharf. Ile died in April, 1871. His wife died in 1857:' Mr. Kernan was educated at St. Mary's College, in his native city. At the age of sixteen be determined to be a sailor, and engaged on a vessel sailing out of the port of Baltimore. His superior intelligence and capac- ity advanced him rapidly, until he became the chief officer
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of the vessel. For thirteen years he followed the sea, visiting nearly all parts of the world, and experiencing all the hardships and perils incident to so long a period on the water, not failing of shipwreck, and exhibiting in every emergency coolness, bravery, skill, and judgment. During all those years he was in the service of the old established shipping firms of Baltimore. For some years he was en- gaged with the Navasa Guano Company of that city, and was Governor of Navasa Island, in the Caribbean Sea, having seventy-five men under his charge. In 1861 he left the sea, and opened a restaurant in Baltimore; continuing' prosperously in that business till he was elected a member of the City Council in 1877. His services in that body were so highly appreciated by his constituents of the Fourth Ward that he was returned in 1878 to the Council without opposition. In politics Mr. Kernan is allied to the Demo- cratic party, and in religion is a Roman Catholic. Ile married in 1864 Miss Mary Murphy, of New York. They have one child, a daughter, Mary.
TONEBURNER, J. C., was born December 9, 1821, ELA near Lovettsville, Loudon County, Virginia. His ancestors were Virginians for several generations. His father, Adam Stoneburner, married the daughter of John Mann, of the same county, an industrious and energetic farmer, who died at the age of eighty-four. Adam Stoneburner died at thirty years of age, leaving his wife and three children, of whom J. C. was the youngest. llaving received a business education, the subject of this sketch was placed in a store in Lovettsville, at the age of fourteen. Hle soon acquired such a knowledge of the busi- ness as to be able to take the charge of it. He remained in that employment until his mother and sister moved to Ohio (he accompanying them), to settle on land that had been inherited by his father. Soon after their arrival, he received a request from his former employer to return to Virginia. Not liking the Western country, he complied, and engaged in his old employment, at which he continued for years. By industry and economy he saved a sufficient amount to purchase property in Lovettsville, when he started in the mercantile business in 1848, and conducted it successfully for several years. In 1852 he was appointed Postmaster at Lovettsville, which he held until 1861, giv- ing general satisfaction, At the solicitation of a friend in Baltimore in 1863, he closed his business in Lovett>ville, at considerable loss to himself, on account of the war, and in 1863 he removed to Baltimore and entered the wholesale grocery business with II. K. Hoffman, under the style of H. K. Hoffman & Company. After a successful period of fifteen months, Mr. Hoffman's health failing, he sold his interest to George HI. Miller, changing the name of the firm to Stoneburner, Mart & Miller. In a few years Mr.
Mart retired on account of failing health, when his son Cal- vin purchased his interest. Messis, Stoneburner and Mil- ler in a short time purchased his interest and continued the business muider the firm of Stoneburner & Company. Mr. Miller becoming thed of business, sold his interest to B. 11. Richards, in 1868, when the name was changed to Stoneburner & Richards, and which continues to the pres- ent time. By integrity in their transactions and strict at- tention to business they have been successful. In 1851 Mr. Stoneburner married Miss C. E. Conard, the daughter of Mr. John Conard, of London County, of English descent. This young lady was a great favorite among her friends, and of a highly esteemed family. Her mother's uncle served seven years during the war of the Revolution, and was a companion of General Washington. On one occasion he headed a party and brought out General Washington when surrounded by the enemy and in danger of being captured. They have one son, Austin C., now preparing for college. For about forty years Mr. Stone- burner has been a member of the Lutheran Church. Dur- ing his residence in Lovettsville, he educated a nephew for the ministry, giving him a thorough college education, who now occupies a high position in the profession.
HAMILTON, W. CAMPBELL, was born in Baltimore, December, 1849. Hle is the son of the late William C. Hamilton, a talented lawyer, who gave his life to the Southern cause during tlie civil war. Mr. Hamilton's grandfather, the late William e Hamilton, a native of Scotland, enjoyed an extended reputation in the early days of Baltimore as a scholar and instructor of youth. On the maternal side, Mr. Hamilton is a nephew of the late Charles F. Mayer, an eminent lawyer, and of Brantz Mayer, the well-known author. Mr. Hamilton has had superior educational advantages, and ahhongh a young man, has attained considerable promi- nonce in his native city as a lawyer and politician. He was educated at the University of Virginia, from which institu- tion he graduated with honor, having been selected as the orator of his class. Having rendered the Democracy good service as a speaker in several political campaigns, he was chosen by that party as a candidate for representative in the Maryland House of Delegates and elected by a hand- some majority in the year 1877. He and the Hon. Robert M. MeLane, a member of the State Senate, originated and carried through the Legislature the bill to regulate the arbitration of disputes between employers and working. men, based on the English statute, passed in the reign of George the Fourth, which has amicably settled thousands of strikes in England; and similar in its provisions to the conseil des prud'hommes, a tribunal in France, which takes cognizance of disputes between employer, and laborers,
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the decisions of which are so satisfactory to both parties that strikes in France are now unknown. Mr. Hamilton was also instrumental in securing the passage of the bill to create an arbitration court for the settlement of disputes. between merchants and members of the Baltimore Board of Trade, similar to the creation of arbitration courts in New York and Philadelphia ; also, the enabling act for the city of Baltimore to subscribe to the Maryland and Dela- ware Canal, a work of national importance; and for the re-codification of the laws of Maryland; as well as other measures of general and local importance.
CONES, R. EMMETT, was born in Baltimore, Novem- ber 9, 1842. When he was an infant, his parents removed with him to Florida, and he there re- mained until he attained the age of seventeen years, attending the best schools of Quincy, and becoming thoroughly prepared for a collegiate course. He then en- tered Wofford College, South Carolina, and graduated therefrom with honor. Returning to Quincy ( Florida), he commenced the study of law in the office of Honorable Charles H. Dupont, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of that State. For three years he profited by the advice and instructions of that eminent jurist, closely applying himself to the study of the various branches of the legal profession. He was then admitted to practice in the vari- ous courts of the State, and was actively and successfully engaged therein when the American civil war began. Ile then (in 1861) entered the Confederate army, as a Lieuten- ant, under General Beauregard, serving therein until a few months before the termination of hostilities, when he was taken prisoner, and remained in captivity until the dec- laration of peace. In 1866 Mr. Jones was admitted to the Maryland bar, and at once, by reason of his natural abili- ties, the advantages which he had enjoyed as a law student under Chief Justice Dupont, and his practical ex- perience in his profession in Florida, entered upon an ex- tensive and lucrative practice, which he has maintained to the present time. Probably no young member of the Maryland bar has acted as counsel in a greater number of important cases, both civil and criminal, than Mr. Jones. Ile has been engaged, either as assistant counsel for the State, or as counsel for the accused, in many of the most celebrated murder trials that have been brought under the jurisdiction of these courts during the last ten years. Among the most notable of these, we would mention that of the State v. Stephen T. Denny (in 1868), for the murder of Charles Childs. Mr. Jones was employed to assist the State in the trial of Thomas Creamer, for mur -. dering Peter Wehr (in 1867) ; and he was also employed to assist the State in the trial of James Galloway, for the murder of Michael McCann. In 1873 he was counsel for
Charles R. Henderson, for the murder of Dr. Merryman Cole; and in 1878 was counsel for John Gephart, for the murder of Frank Baker. He has been engaged in over three hundred important criminal cases, and ha , been almost invariably successful. His civil cases also have been very manerons, exceeding the number of one thousand Mr. Jones is physically delicate and small in stature. In manners, he is social and agreeable, few men being more capable than he of making and retaining friends through personal in- tercourse. His father was George Harrison Jones, an ex- tensive and highly esteemed planter in Florida. Ile was of English descent. On the maternal side, the subject of this sketch is of German extraction, his mother being Louisa C. Hoffman, daughter of the late Daniel Hoffman, an extensive provision merchant of Baltimore, and sister of the late Charles Hoffman, of that city, who was also prominently engaged in the same business.
SMALLWOOD, GOVERNOR WILLIAM, was born in 1732, in Kent County, Maryland. On January 2, 1776, he was elected Colonel of the Maryland Bat- talion. It is recorded that " Smallwood's battalion of Marylanders were distinguished in the field by the most intrepid courage, the most regular use of the musket, and the judicious use of the body. When our party was overpowered and broken by superior numbers, surrounding them on all sides, three companies of the Maryland bat- talion broke the enemy's lines and fought their way through." In October, 1776, he was appointed, by Con- gress, Brigadicr-General, in recognition of the bravery of his men at Long Island on August 27, 1776. At the battle of White Plains, September 16, 1776, his troops were again called upon to save the fortunes of the day, and he was wounded. In the battle at Fort Washington, Novem- ber 16, 1776, the Marylanders bore the brunt and lost many valuable men. . At Germantown, October 4, 1777. Smallwood and his men retrieved the day and captured the camp of the enemy. In the winter of 1777-78, he was stationed at Wilmington, and captured a British brig in the Delaware laden with stores and provisions. Ile greatly distinguished himself in the battle near Camden, and received the thanks of Congress for his conduct. Soon afterward, in September, 1780, Congress appointed him Major-General, and he returned to Maryland. Ile re- mained in the army until November 15, 1783. He was elected to Congress in 1785, and in November'of the same year was chosen Governor of Maryland, to succeed William Paca, and held that position until his successor, John Eager Howard, was inaugurated in 1788. He died Feb- ruary 14, 1792, at the " Wood Yard," in Prince George's County, Maryland.
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SHEPPARD, MOSES, Founder of the Asylum for Curable Insane, in Baltimore County, Maryland, is supposed to have been born about the year 1773, but the exact date, as well as the place of his nativity, aure uncertain. He was a member of the Society of Friends. It is known that his parents were well to-do Quakers, residing in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, when the Revolutionary war began; that they were Roy- alists, and hence were forced to leave the country, moving to Nova Scotia. In their absence their property was con- fiscated, and in a short time they moved back into the United States, taking up their residence in Maryland. They died when Moses was quite young. Their condition in Maryland must have been one of great destitution, for Moses Sheppard's earliest recollection of himself was, he said, " being on an earth floor in a log cabin in Baltimore County." He obtained a place in a store at the Jericho Mills, about seventeen miles from Baltimore. In 1793 he went to Baltimore, and entered the grocery store kept by John Mitchell, on Cheapside, and as years passed, he was promoted, until at last he succeeded to the business, and became sole proprietor of a flourishing establishment. Ile subsequently retired from that line of trade, and after en- gaging for a time in the manufacture of cotton seine twine, gave up active business, and devoted the remaining years of his life to study and the employment of his fortune in judicious and remunerative investments. He never mar- ried, and his only relatives who lived with him, were a brother and his wife, both of whom died before him, leav- ing him quite alone in his home life. He amassed a for- tune of nearly six hundred thousand dollars, but all through life he seems to have been most charitable ; and he himself said that, " he had given away or lost more than he ever expected to become possessed of." Mr. Sheppard was a man of rare sagacity and prudence. Hlad he selected the law for his profession, or had he devoted his life to politics, he would have been one of the most in- fluential men of his time, such was his intellectual force, energy of character, and will-power. Ile shrank from notoriety, and was particularly averse to having his deeds of benevolence made public. He took a lively interest in the Colonization Society, of which Henry Clay was so long president ; and educated several colored men, who went to Liberia and became prominent officials of the little Re- public. One of these was Dr. MeGill, who named a ves- sel, which he had built in Baltimore, after his benefactor. Mr. Sheppard was not very enthusiastic in the movement to transport the free blacks to Liberia, but he was willing to give the experiment a fair trial. He was an earnest and wise friend of the colored race, and his home was the re- sort of the leaders of the several parties that were working for its emancipation or improvement. Theodore Parker, Henry Clay, and many other eminent emancipationists and abolitionists, consulted with him. By middle life, Mr. Sheppard had accumulated a large fortune, which he de-
voted to the erection and endowment of an Asylum for the benefit of the Curable Insane. His hrst impulse in this direction was received from the late Dr. R. S. Stewart, and Miss Dorothy L. Dix. In 1853 a chatter was obtained for the Asyhim, the amount of the endowment not being named, and the trustees subsequently appointed were J. Saurin Norris, president; David M. Perine, Richard II. Townsend, Dr. William Riley, Gerard H. Reese, Gerard T. Hopkins, and William II. Graham. The trustees are the same at the present day, with the exception of David M. Perine, who has been succeeded by his son, E. Glen Perine. Mr. Sheppard died February 1, 1857, and the estate, valued at nearly six hundred thousand dollars, under his will duly passed into the hands of the trustees. The Asylum is not yet (1879) finished, for by the provi- sions of the will only the income of the estate can be used in prosecuting the work. 'This amounts to about thirty thousand dollars per annum, and within this sum all expen- ditures are restricted. Ilence it is that year after year the work has gone on, and is still incomplete. It is probable that the Asylum will not be fully ready for occupancy be- fore the year 1885. Baltimore has produced no man of finer intellect. He had muusual foresight and insight. Ile read men easily and quickly. Ile wrote with great elegance, simplicity and vigor, and had a very select and copious vocabulary. Some of his letters and essays in manuscript are admirable specimens of English style. He was well-read and well-informed. He was a wonderfully thoughtful man, always thinking on some of the great questions in religion, science or politics that agitate society, and when questioned by one who knew how to draw him out, he was a brilliant, profound, and instructive talker. Ile held very decided opinions on certain questions, but was cautious and reserved in the expression of them. He was a good listener because a good student. He would guide the conversation of his distinguished visitors for hours, withont expressing an opinion of his own, and he could repeat the opinions of others with remarkable accuracy. Take him all in all, Moses Sheppard, considered intellectually or morally, was a striking character.
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ETZELL, JOHN G., was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, April 1, 1821. His father, George Iletzell, was a farmer and landowner in that
e, country, and died when John was eight years of age. In 1831, when about ten years old, he came 6: with his mother to Baltimore, Maryland, where he attended school for several years. He afterwards entered the service of William R. Wilson and Alfred H. Reip, with whom he remained six years, acquiring a thorough knowledge of their business. He then went to Cumberland, Maryland, where he worked some time as a journeyman for the father
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of the Honorable Henry Hoffman. Returning to Balti- more, after one or two changes in his place of employ- ment, he became foreman in the shops of Mr. Christian Gross, with whom he continued until the death of his cu ployer; and so highly was the industry, prudence, and kindness of Mr. Hetzell appreciated, that Mr. Gross left him in possession of his tools, and constituted him his suc- cessor in business. Thus when about twenty-three years of age he became the owner of a business with every phase of which he was intimately acquainted, thereby assuring his success from the very beginning. After sev- eral changes as to locality, Mr. Hetzell finally established himself permanently, on the northeast corner of Iloward and Lexington Streets, where he has successfully prose- cuted the business of manufacturing roofing, spouting, gal- vanized iron cornices, and tin and zinc work in general, to the present time (1879). He has become widely known and appreciated as a most reliable man in his line, and is therefore frequently called upon to execute work in differ- ent parts of his own State, Virginia, Philadelphia, and other portions of Pennsylvania. He placed the roof on the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, and did the copper, tin, and galvanized iron work of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His business has amounted to fifty thousand dollars in a year. Mr. Iletzell's shops are fitted up with the best ma- chinery necessary, and his employees are all well trained in their several departments of labor. Although of decided political views, Mr. Hetzell has invariably declined nomi- nations to public office when tendered him. He married Miss Annette 1 .. , daughter of Moses Webster, of Philadel- phia. Mrs. Hetzell is deceased, leaving one son and two daughters.
BARTIN, LUTHER, was born February 9, 1748, in Piscataqua Township, near New Brunswick, in the State of New Jersey. He was the son of Benjamin and Elenora Martin, and the third in a family of nine children. Their ancestors, of Eng. lish birth, had originally settled in Piscataqua, New Eng. land, and from thence two Martin brothers had come with the first settlers to East Jersey, giving the same name to the place of their new abode. "1 am American born," says Mr. Martin, "of the fourth or fitth generation. My an cestors were, and most of their descendants have been, of that class of people known as agriculturists or cultivators of the soil." That part of the Jerseys to which they emi- grated, he describes " as an uncultivated wilderness, inhab- ited by its copper-colored aborigines," and tells humorously of their rapid multiplication in the State, and of the large mimber who soon bore the name. " From the moment I could walk," he says, " until twelve years of age, my time, except what was devoted to the acquisition of sci. ence, was employed in some manner or other useful to
the family ; when too young for anything else, I rocked the cradle of a' brother or sister that was younger." In his thirteenth year, in the month of August, he was sent to Princeton College, curating the grammar school, and began the first rudiments of the latin language. In Sep- tember, five years after, when in his nineteenth year, he graduated as the first scholar of his class, of thirty-five students. " During this period," he says, " I also studied the Hebrew language, made myself a tolerable master of the French, and among many other literary pursuits, found time fully to investigate that most important of all ques. tions, the truth and the divine origin of the Christian re- ligion." Among those who were his classmates and grad- uated with him were the Hon. Oliver Ellsworth, Chief Justice of the United States, the Rev. Mr. Bacon, one of the members of Congress for Massachusetts, and " the amiable, the worthy, the brave John McPherson, who fell with Gen- eral Montgomery, in the cause of Ins country, before the walls of Quebec." Of the intimacy and affection between the last-named and himself, he speaks in the warmest terms. Ile also formed strong friendships with others who were not of his class, who afterwards became men of prom- inence. His character and standing at college, his friend- liness of disposition, and assiduity in study and literary at- tainments, are attested by all these. " From my parents," he says, " I received a sound mind, a good constitution, and they deeply impressed on my young mind the sacred truths of the Christian religion, the belief of which is my boast. These with a liberal education were all the patri- mony they could bestow upon me ; a patrimony for which my heart bears toward them a more grateful remembrance than if they had bestowed upon me the gold of Peru, or the gems of Golconda." The generosity and nobleness of his nature he showed in the conveyance to his two elder brothers, as soon as he came of age, of a small tract of land on South River, near New Brunswick, given him by his grandfather. This he gave "as a trifling compensation for the additional toil they had experienced in contributing to the support of a family, the expenses of which had been increased by reason of my education," He now determined to be no longer a burden to his family. He had fixed upon the profession of the law, and in pursuance of his plan of self-support during the time he should find necessary for the acquisition of a competent legal knowledge, he left Princeton the second day after his graduation, with no other resources than his horse, his small remains of pocket-money, and a college testimonial. Proceeding south, to Maryland and Virginia, he was engaged in teaching and study until September, 1771, when, having undergone a satisfactory examination at Williamsburg, before John Randolph, Attor- ney-General of Virginia, and George Wythe, the Chancellor of the State, he received a license authorizing him to prac- tice law in the county courts throughout Virginia. ITis rise at the bar and in popular favor was marked and rapid, and his success was spoken of as wonderful. At the time
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