The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1, Part 5

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

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To this he consented. Type and materials were at once ordered, a Hoe cylinder press purchased, that being the best printing press then extant, and on the 17th of May, 1837, the first number of THE SUN was issued from the of- fice of publication on Light Street, and a copy left at the door of nearly every house in Baltimore. In its salutatory it laid down the platform by which the editorial conduct of the paper was to be governed in the following words : " We shall give no place to religious controversy nor to political discussions of merely partisan character. On political principles and questions involving the honor or interest of the whole country we shall be firm and temper- ate. Our object will be the common good, without regard to sections, factions or parties, and for this object we shall labor without fear or partiality." These principles, so clearly enunciated at the outset of the career of THE SUN, have been steadfastly adhered to ever since. The Sun was better received in Baltimore than the Ledger in Phila- delphia. It made friends from the first. In less than three months it had a larger circulation than the Ledger had been able to attain at the end of nine months. Within a year it had more than twice the circulation of the old- est-established paper in Baltimore. The position it thus early reached it has maintained and strengthened year by ycar ever since, its circulation keeping pace not only with the increase of population, which has been nearly quad- rupled since. The Sun was started, but extending into every part of Maryland, and into many portions of the adjoining States. At the end of two years the business of The Sun had outgrown its original quarters, and in 1839 Mr. Abell purchased the property at the southeast corner of Balti- more and Gay Streets, and after adapting it to its new uses, removed the whole establishment to that location. In the course of a few years the business had increased so much that more extensive accommodations became necessary. It was then decided to buy the ground and erect such a building as would be complete in all its appointments for newspaper purposes, whilst in the beauty of its design it should be an ornament to the city. The lot at the corner of Baltimore and South Streets, in the very centre of the business part of the city, was bought by Mr. Abell for about fifty thousand dollars, and an iron building-the first of its kind in the United States, if not in the world-erected thereon, according to the plans of the inventor, Mr. James Bogardus, of New York. At the death of Mr. Simmons, in December, 1855, Messrs. Swain and Abell formed a new partnership and continued as before the business of the two establishments-Mr. Swain remaining in Philadel- phia and Mr. Abell in Baltimore. At the breaking out of the war the position of Mr. Abell was peculiarly trying. His personal feeling inclined to the Southern side ; those of Mr. Swain to the extreme Northern. In the heat of sectional antagonism it required the most delicate manage- ment of The Sun to save it from suppression on the one hand, or loss of circulation on the other. At the same

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

time the ill health of Mr. Swain prevented him from giv- ing the Ledger his active personal supervision. Under these circumstances Mr. Abell notified Mr. Swain of his willingness to dispose of his interest in the Ledger, and in 1864 that paper was sold to Messrs. Childs and Drexel of Philadelphia. The interest of Mr. Swain in The Sun con- tinued until his death, in 1868, but Mr. Abell had the en- tire conduct of the paper in his hands as from the begin- ning. At the death of Mr. Swain Mr. Abell became sole proprietor of the paper, of which he was the founder and whose reputation was of his making. The Sun under Mr. Abell's careful and judicious management had been a suc- cess from the beginning. As population enlarged The Sun kept pace with the times and with the progress of journal- ism in the country. It has studied the wants of its par- ticular community, and the aim of its proprietor has been to make it a faithful and full record of current events and incidents. Its field in Maryland, Virginia, and at other accessible points in the adjacent States, it has occupied without a rival, and has built up a reputation for the fresh- ness of its news, the trustworthiness of its reports, and the impartiality of its editorial comments on public questions, that has given it great power and influence within its par- ticular sphere, and made its name a familiar household word. In his conduct of The Sun and in his relations with his partners Mr. Abell has exhibited sound judgment, a spirit of enterprise, and the faculty of holding on under circumstances of discouragement. When his partners faltered he stood firm. It was this tenacity of purpose that saved the Ledger when, after a precarious existence of a few months his partners would have abandoned the en- terprise.' Yickling to his persuasions they held on. Then came a favorable turn in its affairs. It began to prosper, and that other great journalistic venture upon which he had set his thoughts-the establishment of a penny paper in Baltimore-became possible. Messrs. Swain, Abell and Simmons were the first printers and publishers to adopt the rotary printing machines invented by Mr. Hoe of New York. They had been pronounced impracticable by the New York publishers of newspapers. They examined, and being satisfied they would work smoothly and much more rapidly than the old style of printing press, intro- duced them into their respective establishments in Phila- delphia and Baltimore, and thus led the way for tlcir general use. They were of the four-cylinder class, aver- aging about twelve thousand impressions per hour. No less than five hundred million impressions of the Daily and Weekly Sun were struck off by them between the time they were put up and October, 1870, when they were replaced by two improved Hoe machines, capable at ordi- nary specd of throwing off thirty thousand impressions per hour. In the gathering and publication of important news in advance of other journals, the Sun was always fore- most. During the Mexican war Mr. Abell bore his share of the expense of the once famous " Pony Express,"

whereby, with relays of fleet horses, through those parts of the Southern States in which the mail service was slow and unsatisfactory, The Sun was enabled to furnish the country with the latest news from the seat of war, and the Govern- ment with information of important military operations, days in advance of its own dispatches. On many other occa- sions subsequently, until the magnetic telegraph was brought into general use, similar forethought and vigor of action was displayed. The same energetic policy has ever since been pursued by The Sun in the collection of news of local or public interest from outlying points untouched by the tele- graph, and also in its foreign and domestic correspondence. In that greatest of all modern inventions, the Morse mag- netic telegraph, Mr. Abell, at an early day, took a deep interest, and when Congress was at length induced to ap- propriate thirty thousand dollars for the construction of an experimental line between Washington and Baltimore, the first document of any length transmitted over the wire was the President's message, telegraphed to the Baltimore Sun. The achievement created profound interest abroad, and as a matter of scientific history, the Sun's telegraphic copy of the message was reprinted by the Academy of Sciences of Paris, side by side with an authenticated copy of the original. Afterwards, when a company was formed for the extension of telegraphic communication from Wash- ington to New York, Messrs. Swain, Abell & Simmons were associated with Professor Morse, the Hon. Amos Kendall, R. M. Hoe, and others in the enterprise. The history of the Baltimore Sun is thus intimately connected with the introduction and utilization of three great modern inventions,-the construction of iron buildings, the use of rotary printing machines, and the magnetic telegraph. When the civil war was brought to a close, The Sun, re- flecting the conservative disposition of its proprietor, took the lead in counselling moderation, and the exercise of a spirit of conciliation and forbearance on both sides. It took some years for the hot blood, engendered by the strife, to cool. But the views then held by The Sun, and the calm, steady, persistence with which it continued to urge them, there is reason to believe, aided very materially in bringing about a kindlier feeling between the sections. Whatever power and influence The Sun has acquired- and it is acknowledged to be very great-is due solely to Mr. Abell. From the first he has been the controlling spirit. Calm, cautious, and methodical, he brought to the conduct of the paper, business qualities of a high order, and a quiet firmness that was felt in all its departments; whilst his close personal supervision has kept it true, both to the letter and spirit of its salutatory. He has put the impress of his own character upon it so strongly that it may be said to have become indelible. Never sensa- tional; always aiming to be just; temperate in general, but bold enough when the occasion demands it, there is no journal in the country whose opinions have more weight, or in whose judgment more confidence is reposed.

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

Although offices of trust or honor have frequently been pressed upon Mr. Abell, he has invariably declined them. Ile has held, at times, the position of director in a mun- ber of corporations, to which he has been elected without desiring it, and sometimes without his consent, The Sun and the Ledger have been to him an ample fortune in themselves; but his investments outside of these enter- prises have been judicionsly made. Besides those that are immediately profitable, he holds several large landed estates in the vicinity of Baltimore, that are prospectively of very great value. Upon one of these, "Guilford," a noble suburban estate of three hundred acres, within a short distance of the city, and bounded by the two main avennes leading northward from it, he resides during the summer with the younger members of his family. His former country residence, " Woodbourne," a handsome property, of some two hundred acres, is occupied by his two elder sons. The wife of Mr. Abell was the second daughter of Mr. John Fox, born in Peeksville, N. V., an estimable lady, full of all charity, and freely dispensing of her means to the poor. She died in 1858. The fruits of this union were twelve children, eight of whom, three sons and five daughters, still survive.

ROW, JOHN TAYLOR, Managing Editor of the Bal- timore Sun, was born at Adelphi Mills, Prince George's County, Maryland, December 29, 1822. His grandfather, John Crow, emigrated with his

2 family to this country from England, and at first engaged in the importing business with the late Thomas C. Wright, of Georgetown, D. C., but afterwards removed to the neighborhood of Snicker's Ferry, on the Shenandoah River, Frederick, now Clarke County, Virginia. Here, his son, John, father of the subject of this sketch, spent his boyhood, returning, however, in his minority to George- town to engage in mercantile pursuits. Some time later he purchased the property of Adelphi 'Mills, where he. married Aun Mildred Newton, the mother of John Taylor Crow. While the latter was still a youth, his father again returned to Georgetown and resumed business there. Dur- ing his boyhood Mr. Crow manifested a strong inclination to enter journalism ; and in 1841, at the age of nineteen, he purchased the Georgetown Advocate. The first number issued under his editorship appeared on the Ist of May. In his salutatory, the young editor boldly espoused those principles of independent journalism which have charac- terized his editorial career. At the same time he expressed a preference for the fixed principles of the Whig party of 1776 and 1840, as those which should govern the future course politically of the paper. The Advocate prospered, and when, in February, 1843, the office was destroyed by fire, Mr. Crow was equal to the emergency. Within the fortnight following he had fitted np a more complete estab.

lishment and enlarged the paper. Noting this piece of enter- prise, the Washington Spectator, a Democratic journal, edited by the brother of General Joseph E. Johnston, said at the time : " We are glad to hear that the Georgetown Advocate will not be extinguished by its recent conflagration. It is a paper conducted with spirit, intelligence, and decorum ; and as such, its extinction would be generally regretted." During much of this period, Mr. Crow was also actively engaged m mercantile business with his father. Under his jndicions and enterprising direction, the Advocate was suc- cessful beyond expectation, winning its way into public . confidence and favor by the reliability of its news, and the vigor and fearlessness of its editorial utterances. In 1847, however, he disposed of the paper to Ezekiel Hughes, in- tending to establish a daily paper in Chicago, then a small city of bright promise; but, pending the settlement of his affairs in Georgetown, he was offered by A. S. Abell & Co. the position of assistant editor of the Baltimore Sun, which he accepted, and entered upon his duties the follow- ing spring. The onerous and responsible duties of that position he continued to discharge for fourteen years ; hav- . ing postponed and finally abandoned on account of deli- cate health his contemplated newspaper enterprise in Chi- cago. The outbreak of hostilities, in 1861, found his health so seriously shattered, sorely tried as it had been by domestic affliction and the excitements and anxicties inci- dent to the times just preceding the civil war, that com- plete rest became indispensable, and he was forced to tem- porarily withdraw from active newspaper work. On the eve of the memorable third session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, in 1862, his health having by that time some. what improved, he undertook the then delicate charge of conducting the Sun's bureau of Washington correspond- ence, including the reports of the proceedings of Con- gress, for that and other journals. Through all this critical period, ending only with the near conclusion of the war, he continued at his post, attending personally the Senate, and reporting its business and debates. But a far greater work awaited him, The conclusion of the war found the State of Maryland in a condition peculiarly trying in a political as well as national sense. She had been of the middle ground in the struggle, bound by her geographical and general interests to the preservation of the Union, and allied by her labor system to the cause of the South. With her people divided in sentiment in the outset, but conform- ing to the law ultimately, she had, nevertheless, felt the heavy hand of military rule. During the progress of the contest she underwent great changes, including the anomaly of the formation of a new constitution in time of war. Thus, at its close, the popular will had been thwarted by a registry law, which disfranchised thousands of her citizens; with the civic government controlled by a small minority. On the other hand, the results which should follow the abolition of slavery, which had been accomplished by con- stitutional provision and the war itself, lay fallow. Not a

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

step had been taken to conform the laws of the State and the relations of society to the altered conditions. It fell to the Sun, as the leading exponent of public opinion, to aid to the best of its ability in bringing about the sorely needed rehabilitation of the State. Being strongly im- bued with democratic-republican principles and a love of popular rights, Mr. Crow felt deeply this condition of his native State and its people. Ile had just been intrusted with the managing editorship of the journal; and he en- tered into the work with spirit and courage. Ile foresaw that to the restoration of State unity two things were essen- tial,-the obliteration of restrictions on suffrage imposed in the heat of war times, and the recognition in the statutes of the State of the new status of the colored people. Ad- vancing step by step, and crystallizing public sentiment as it proceeded, the Sun directed its best efforts to bring- ing about a complete transformation in political affairs. The first response came from Howard County, where a mass meeting was held in the summer of 1865, and the Registry Act boldly denounced. Similar movements fol- lowed in other sections of the State, and a test case of the validity of the law was made in the courts. This, how- ever, on being carried to the Court of Appeals, as then organized and assembled, was decided against the con- testants, and there remained no recourse but an appeal to the Legislature. Yielding to a strong pressure, Governor Bradford convened it in extra session ; and it was hoped that something would be done towards the removal of the disabilities of Maryland citizens. . It was strenuously urged by the Sun that at that time there was no need of calling a constitutional convention, the Legislature having sufficient authority for the purpose. And so readily did public sentiment adopt this view, that the succeeding Jan- mary saw a convention of prominent Conservatives, gath= ered from every county in the State, at Temperance Tem- ple, in Baltimore, to give formal expression to the voice of the people. Then, for the first time since the war, were assembled together those patriotic citizens of Maryland, who, divided on national issues, were a unit on those upon which they foresaw depended the prosperity of the State. The Honorable Montgomery Blair presided, and the Hon- orable William M. Merrick read an address which he had drawn up to the people of Maryland, and which was unanimously adopted by the committee, calmly setting forth the grievances to which they had been subjected, app: aling to the Legislature to speedily redress them, and declaring it to be the duty of all citizens to continue to assert their rights. At the same time resolutions of a sim- ilar tenor were adopted and a committee appointed to pre- sent the proceedings of the convention to the Legislature and secure signatures to a memorial previously prepared, praying the repeal or modification of the Constitution and law of the State which disfranchised so large a majority of its citizens. This memorial was presented to the Legisla- ture in due time, but the Senate failed to take action on it.

The only resort left was the ballot-box. The Sun did not shrink from the issue. To its good-tempered and concili- atory though outspoken articles, which, under the inspira- tion of Mr. Crow, it published during this critical period, may be directly traced the Conservative victory at the autumnal election following. That election gave Mary- land for the first time since the early days of the war a representative Legislature, and insured the erasure from the statute-book of the odious suffrage proscriptions. It was now possible, also, as Mr. Crow at once saw, to secure a new constitutional convention to undo the unfortunate work of its predecessor of 1864, and accomplish that which it had left undone. This, the Sun advocated with unanswerable arguments, and among the first acts of the session was that providing for its call. The convention met in Annapolis, May 8, 1867, and accomplished the ob- ject in view. At the same time that this movement was going forward in Maryland, President Johnson was inaug- urating his Southern Reconstruction policy, and into this work Mr. Crow entered heartily. He saw clearly that the two movements should advance hand in hand, each con- tributing strength to the other, and that in sustaining the hands of the President, the Sun would be helping on the canse at home. The editorial utterances of the Sun during this period were distinguished for the eloquence and logic with which they advocated the restoration of the revolted States to their former status in the Union, the acceptance on all sides of the inevitable results of the war, and the resumption in all sections of amicable business and social relations. From the first Mr. Crow accepted the results of emancipation and persistently urged the enactment of a law by the State Legislature making negro testimony ad- missible in all cases in the courts on the same basis as that of white persons, to be received and vahied according to its worth, and he had the satisfaction of seeing that his appeal was answered simultaneously with the full restora- tion of government in Maryland. Since these events Mr. Crow has remained at his post, directing the course of the Sun with his usual good judgment, and taking an active, though an impersonal part, in public affairs, paying atten- tion especially, as has always been the purpose of the Sun, since its foundation in 1837, to the development and promotion of the material interests and general well-being of the city of Baltimore, the State of Maryland and the country at large. Though twice married, Mr. Crow has enjoyed but five or six years of wedded life. In 1845, he married Chloe Ann Boucher, at Georgetown, District of Columbia. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were Huguenots, and were among the emigrants of that class from France, who settled in Fairfax County, Virginia. This lady lived less than a year after marriage, leaving a son. In 1855, Mr. Crow married Mary E. Owens, daughter of Captain Jonas Owens, of Cecil County, Maryland, who died in 1860. A daughter was the fruit of the last mar- riage.

BIOGRAPHICAL. CYCLOPEDIAA.

.. : 9 ULTON, CHARLES CARROLL, Senior, Editor and Proprietor of the Baltimore American, was born in Philadelphia, in 1816. His father, George Fulton, was of Scottish birth, and his mother, Anu Ware, was a member of a well known Delaware family. Miss Ware was a ward of the celebrated Benja- min Chew, whose mansion, in Germantown, still stands, a memento of the Revolutionary struggle. In her maiden days she was an intimate friend of Miss Harriett Chew, who subsequently became the wife of Charles Carroll, the son of the Revolutionary patriot and signer of the Decla- ration of Independence. That friendship led to the sub- ject of this sketch being named Charles Carroll by his mother, as a token of respect to the husband of her former associate. When only ten years of age, he lost both pa- rents in a single year, and by this bereavement five boys were left orphans, ranging in age from six to fourteen years. The eldest, George Washington, in a few years wandered away to what was then the far West. He vol- unteered to assist the Texans in their struggle with Mex- ico, and is now the principal owner of the largest cattle pasture in that State. The four brothers left behind in Philadelphia, were nurtured by a sister of their deceased mother, who eked out a narrow income by teaching a pri- vate school for small children, and in this way provided a home for the orphans, a failure in business having pre- ceded the death of their father. Charles, who was the third in age, decided to learn the printing business, and entered on an apprenticeship in the office of the Philadel- phia National Gazette, published by William Fry, and edited by Robert Walsh. His three brothers followed his lead in the choice of a trade, and, at one time, all were en- gaged in the same office with him, acquiring a knowledge of "the art preservative of arts," and gaining an insight into the vast fund of general information embraced in the columns of a well-conducted daily newspaper. The editor, Robert Walsh, a Baltimorean by birth and education, stood at the head of the editorial fraternity of his time, and had also made his mark in the literary world by numerous pub- lications. With such an exemplar, Mr. Fulton obtained more practical knowledge of the conduct of a newspaper than he could have acquired as a collegiate graduate. When of age, he added to his experience by working in New York city, and subsequently went to Baltimore, where, in 1836, when twenty years of age, he was married to Miss Emily Jane Kimberly, being at the time a journey- man printer in the office of the late John D. Gay. Hlav- ing an ambition to become an editor, he bought the George- toren Advocate, which he conducted for five years, In the meantime, he returned to Baltimore, obtaining employ- ment, first as a compositor, then as reporter, and by his attention to the interests of his employers, secured his pro- motion to the managing editorship of the Baltimore Sun, which position he held for about twelve years, The con- nection of New York and Philadelphia with Baltimore and

Washington by maguctic telegraph was soon afterwards made, and Mr. Fulton became the Baltimore agent of the New York, Western and Southern Press, in connection with his editorial duties, and for many years maintained that position with the assistance of a younger brother, who had by that time drifted to Baltimore. The old firm of Dobbin, Murphy & Bose, which had, for half a century, published the Baltimore American, was dissolved on the 30th of June, 1853, Mr. Dobbin purchasing the interest of Mr. Murphy, and Mr. Fulton that of Mr. Bose. For the following elever years the American was owned and pub- lished by Messrs. Dobbin & Fulton. With the infusion of new blood into the management of the American, a com- mendable spirit of enterprise was adopted in the gathering of news from distant points; in giving a faithful record of local events, and in bold and fearless editorials during the most exciting times. The political agitation that sought to sever the Union in 1861, did not cause the American to swerve from its love for the old flag. It circulated among the commercial classes, who had the largest interest at stake, and the most to lose by the disruption of the Union. Though public sentiment was at times opposed to its teach - ings, through the whole of the revolutionary period the American was able to give a calm, steadfast, and effective support to the Union and the National Government. Many of its old friends dropped away, and powerful in- terests were arrayed against its editor, but the paper was too deeply rooted in the great commercial heart of the Monumental City to be seriously crippled. Charles C. Fulton was, in those troublous times, the pilot who kept the American out of the current of public opinion when it set too strongly towards the breakers of disunion. Mr. Dobbin died in September, 1862, and Mr. Fulton pur- chased the interest of the estate in the American, and be- came it> sole proprietor. By that time social order had resumed its sway in the city, and the turbulent elements, whose unrestrained violence had brought disaster, and drenched its streets with blood, had been subdued. The American had become a power in the State, and a widely- read journal throughout the section of the Union that re- mained faithful to the flag. It became the recognized leader of the loyal public opinion of Maryland. Its " Special Correspondence" during the war was exten- sively copied, and the signature of " C. C. F." was a war- ranty that, the writer gave expression to what he knew, and described what he saw. Mr. Fulton was with the Army of the Potomac during two of its most important campaigns, and the readers of the American got the benefit of his candor, his accurate habits of observation, and his indomitable enterprise in gathering news and dispatching his letters while the incident, were fresh, so that they were frequently far in advance of all competitors. Ilis dispatches very often distanced the official reports of the War Department, and gave the first tidings of vital events to the Government. Mr. Fulton accompanied the first iron-

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1, Part 5

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