USA > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 56
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 56
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more buildings than that of the combined concerns of the country. For several years, commencing in 1863, the firm conducted the vast business of the " Winans Locomotive Works," employing at that time, in connection with their other business, upwards of sooo men. After a few years they abandoned that portion of their business, the remain- der having grown to such proportions that it required all their time and attention ; and probably there is no concern in the country that have specimens of their ingenuity and skill scattered over a greater area of territory, there not being a single city on either the Atlantic or Pacific coasts in which they have not erected either iron warehouses, heating apparatus, or some other specimen of their bandi- work. Mr. Hayward attended almost entirely to the out- side business, and travelled extensively. This business is still conducted by the surviving partners, Mr. David L. Bartlett and Horace W. Robbins, under the style of Bart- lett, Robbins & Co., both of whom are prominent citizens of Baltimore, and their names are to be found associated in the direction of its banks and various other corporations of wealth and distinction. Mr. Hayward was a man of re- markable endurance and activity, of a fine physique and most pleasing address. He was entirely free from vices, and had always a tender regard and sympathetic feeling for his fellow-men. Politically, he was originally a Whig, subse- quently a Republican. Religiously, he was a member of a Congregational Church. He died May 15, 1866. On March 16, 1842, he married Mary A. Bromwell, of Balti- more, who still survives him. They had eight children, namely, Josephine; Thomas, who married Blanche A. Roberts; Charles; Clara, who married Samuel K. Harris ; Elenora, who married John F. Gibbons; and two were each named Isabella, both dying in infancy, and Mary R. Of these children there are but three at present living, Clara, Elenora, and Thomas; the latter has succeeded his father in the business, and conducts that portion of it to which he formerly gave most particular attention.
ICHOLAS, JOHN SPEAK, was born at Richmond, Virginia, in the early part of the present century. He was educated in Virginia, and went to Balti- more in 1823 to study law under Judge W. Dor- sey, at that time a Judge of the Court of Appeals, who had a law school, and also lectured on law. Mr. Nicholas remained as his student one year. He was ap- pointed prosecutor for the State in Baltimore City Court. Ile was one of two representatives of the city of Baltimore in the sessions of the Maryland Legislature of 1829-30, where he soon acquired a leading influence by his concilia- tory manner and ability in debate. Ile has been in public life but once since. During the exciting period of 1860, by special request, he took a seat in the City Council.
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With these exceptions, he has since confined himself to the practice of his profession. Mr. Nicholas was a partner of David Hoffman, a professor of law, two or three years. For a number of years he has been a Director in the Bal- timore and Ohio Railroad Company, on the part of the State, and subsequently on the part of the stockholders. Mr. Nicholas is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, which he has attended from an early period. llc has been a Democrat all his life, but when Mr. Polk was nominated against Mr. Clay, he voted for the latter. IIc was married in the year 1834 to Mary Ann, a daughter of the late William Gilmor, of the well-known firm of R. Gilmor & Sons. He is a nephew of General Smith, and his mother was a niece of the distinguished Samuel Smith. At an early period he assisted J. 11. B. Latrobe (who was a graduate of West Point Military Academy) in training one of the companies of the Fifth Regiment, and after- ward held the command of the Fifty-third Regiment of Maryland Militia, comprising a number of well-drilled companies, whose officers were among the best in that branch of military service. That regiment, co-operating with the Fifth and many prominent private citizens, who volunteered to meet the emergency, conducted itself with firmness and marked discretion, as well as great success in defence of the Carmelite nunnery in Aisquith Street, then imminently threatened by a large and infuriated mob. The defence was happily unattended by any violence or blood- shed, or cause for regret.
ROOME, CHARLES, was born in Kent County, Mary- land. lle was the son of Samuel and Margaret Groome. llis father was one of the church war- dens of St. Paul's Parish in 1726. He was reared an Episcopalian, and became a bright omament of the Church. He was the Register of Chester Parish from Feb. mary 4, 1766, until the day of his death, March 20, 1791. His son, Dr. John Groome, married, August 31, 1799, Mrs. Elizabeth ( Black ) Wallace, daughter of James and Jean- nette Wallace Black, and was the father of General John Charles Groome, who married, December 6, 1836, Eliza- beth Riddle Black, daughter of Judge James Rice and Maria E. Stokes Black, and died in Elkton, Maryland, November 30, 1866, leaving the following children : llon. James Black Groome, Governor of Maryland, 1874-1876, and now United States Senator, who married Alice L. Edmondson, daughter of Colonel Horace Edmondson; Maria Stokes Groome, who married Ilon. William M. Knight; Elizabeth Black Groome, who married Ilon, Albert Constable; and Jane Sarah Groome, who married Dr. John Janvier Black.
CAMILL., GILMOR SEMMES, was born, December 11, 1849, in Westernport, Alleghany County, Maryland. He is the son of Honorable Patrick Hamill and Isabella Kight, both natives of that vicinity. His father filled many publie positions of profit and trust in the State, having several times rep- resented his district in the Maryland Legislature, and also represented the Sixth Congressional District one term in Congress. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Patrick Hamill, was a Protestant Irishman, exiled from his native country during the great rebellion of 1798. Gilmor S. Hamill received his rudimentary education in the common schools of his native county, and in the year 1865 entered the Academy in Frederick County, Maryland, where he remained one year. The following three years were spent at the Cool Spring Academy, Clark County, Virginia, and the University of Virginia, at Charlottes- ville, where he graduated in 1870. llis studies embraced all the English branches, mathematics, law, and the clas- sics, his law studies being prosecuted in the University of Virginia. Mr. Hamill's habits of life have always been of an exemplary character, modest and retiring, and in- clined to shun public notoriety. Immediately on leaving school, at the earnest desire of his father, he entered the law office of J. 11. Gordon, Ext., of Cumberland, to en- gage in the practical study of law. After his admission to the bar in 1871, he practiced law in Cumberland one year, and then removed to Oakland, where he soon built up a fair and lucrative practice. He was the first State's Attorney for Garrett County, receiving his appointment from the court. Ile held the office one year and then re- signed. Mr. Hamill is a member of the Masonic frater- nity, and was raised to the degree of Master Mason in Potomac Lodge, number one hundred, in Cumberland, Maryland. He is an earnest and enthusiastic supporter of the principles of Democracy, and was Vice- President of the Tilden and Hendricks Club at Oakland. He has travelled extensively through different portions of the United States and parts of the Canadas, from which he derived material benefit. Mr. Hamill was carly instructed in the doctrines of Methodism, but entertains very liberal views on religion. He is an earnest worker and advocate of Sunday school interests, and is a teacher and also treasurer in the Presbyterian Sunday-school of Oakland. Ile was married, June 29, 1876, to Miss Lizzie Maria, daughter of James R. Bishop, Esq., of Oakland.
State.
1 ILLIAMS, GEORGE HAWKINS, A. B., was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in October, 1818. Ilis father, George Williams, was a native of Rox- bury, Massachusetts, and a descendant of the Wil- liams family, celebrated in the carly history of that Removing to Maryland, he married Elizabeth B.,
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daughter of Matthew Hawkins, of Queen Anne's County, [ In his profession he is able to cope with the most profound Maryland. Her family, equally celebrated, settled in that and intricate problems of the law, and to present his argu- ments to the jury with unusual force and cloquence, A> a citizen, his honorable career has won for him the entire respect and confidence of the community ; while person- ally, his easy, warm-hearted, and cordial manner has made him hosts of friends. region, then known as Kent Island, previously to the grant of the chatter to Lord Baltimore by King Charles. Mr. Williams was carefully educated and prepared to enter the University at Harvard, but before going there was required to serve eighteen months in the counting-room of a foreign shipping merchant. He had, however, no taste for mer- cantile life, and gladly escaped from it to the more con- genial atmosphere of the University. Graduating in 1839, he returned to his home and pursued his legal studies with the distinguished William Schley, a hard-working profes- sional man and an enthusiastic student. Almost from the time of his admission to the bar, Mr. Williams has taken the first rank among the lawyers of Maryland. Ile has also, notwithstanding all the exactions of his profession, kept up his classical studies in the retirement of his home, and preserved, unimpaired, his proficiency in several of the modern languages. The Williams family, who had by fre- quent removals from Massachusetts to Baltimore, become quite numerous in the State, were some seventy years since among the leading and wealthiest merchants of that city, and were all of the straitest sect of Jeffersonian Demo- crats. In those doctrines Mr. Williams was carefully nur- tured, and to them he still steadfastly adheres. He also closely resembles his family in this, that while possessing most decided political opinions and convictions, he has care- fully abstained from seeking office or engaging in political life. Ile was, however, induced, in 1875, to be one of the candidates on the Democratic ticket, in Baltimore County, for the House of Delegates, but his party was not successful. lle was again a candidate in 1877, when the entire Demo- eratie nominations were elected by large majorities. It was alleged, and was indeed true, that to him the chief inducement in entering the political field was not to seek distinction, but to use his influence to defeat the proposed extension of the city limits into his county, to which pro -. ject he was implacably hostile. In defeating this he was successful, as also in retaining the law on the statute-book, which continues to the Eastern Shore the right always to have one of the two United States Senators, Mr. Williams being chairman of the special committee, and writing the report in favor of this decision. Having accomplished what he desired, he retured at the termination of the ses- sion to the quiet routine of professional life. He was married in 1841 to Eleanor, the only daughter of John S. Gittings, one of the first bankers of Baltimore, . Mr. and Mrs. Williams have seven children,-George May, the eldest, now practicing law in partnership with his father, graduated in 1872 from the College of St. John the Bap- tist, Oxford, England. All the sons have been educated in that country; the youngest is now studying at the Char- ter House. In the thoroughness, variety, and accuracy of his scholarship, Mr. Williams is an ornament to the university from which he graduated, the first in America,
SARRIS, JOSEPH, the third son of George and Mar- garet (Bush) Harris, was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, October 19, 1819. Ilis pater- nal ancestors were English, and were among the earliest settlers of the State. Ilis mother was of German ancestry. Ilis father was a business man of en- terprise and ability, and held a high social position. His grandfather, Thomas Harris, a farmer in Baltimore County, bore also the same character, and was greatly re- spected. Mr. Harris was educated largely at the public night schools. At the age of sixteen he took charge of a farm, which he worked successfully for three years. Ile then indentured himself to learn the tailor's trade, at which he served three years, working a short time afterward as journeyman .. Ile next engaged in cutting for the trade till 1847, when he started in business for himself, entering into a partnership which bore the name of Dulaney & Harris. The firm continued prosperously till 1860, when it was dissolved, and Mr. Harris carried on a flourishing business alone until 1866. Previously to the civil war he had been a States Rights man, and held those opinions until he saw there was a point to which they conkl be carried to the peril of the national life. On the memorable April 19, 1861, he took sides strongly with the Union forces, and from that time exerted himself strenuously to further the interests and maintain the integrity of the General Government. In his business, having much to do with supplies for the army, he prospered greatly while the war continued. During the year 1865 he had an office for nearly a year in Washington, where he settled the claims of many of the army officers. In the fall of 1866 he was appointed to a position in the Revenue Department in Baltimore city, as District Deputy, which office he filled faithfully and acceptably for about a year. This position he resigned in the fall of 1867, and returned to his busi- ness as merchant tailor on Eutaw Street, where he has since continued with a good degree of prosperity. Hav- ing previously taken a deep interest in public affairs, in promoting the draft, and providing for the families of soldiers, and becoming conspicuous as a Union man, Mr. Harris was, in the fall of 1864, elected by a heavy majority to the Legislature of the State for the year 1865, which was perhaps the most noted Legislature of Maryland under the new free Constitution. Both branches were strongly Republican, and upon its adoption of the amendment to
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the United States Constitution proposed by Congress, abolishing slavery in the United States, Mr. Harris moved the concurrence of the House in the resolution ratifying the amendment. Under a resolution introduced by him, he was made chairman of a committee of seven, to pre- pare a succinct statement in reference to the character and condition of the soil in different sections of the State, and of its peculiar adaptation to the various productions of agriculture; the proximity to market; the course and capacity of our navigable streams ; the water powers, and facilities and materials for manufactures, and the mineral resources and deposits of the country. He prepared the report in an able manner, and the General Assembly ordered a large number of copies to be printed in the English and German languages, which were distributed extensively throughout the Northern and Western States, and had a most favorable influence in inducing large num- bers of people to settle in the State. About that time a strong influence was brought to bear, to effect the removal of the United States Naval Academy from Annapolis to Newport, Rhode Island. Mr. Harris exerted himself powerfully to prevent this removal, which he regarded as most injurious to the interests of the State and the nation, and succeeded in turning the tide in favor of re- taining the Academy at Annapolis, and in greatly enlarg- ing and beantifying the grounds. The enlargement was effected by a sale to the General Government of the southern portion of the present property. He also made a personal application to President Johnson, and secured the appointment of Admiral Porter as Superintendent of the Academy, under whose able management and pa- triotic spirit the school became not only flourishing, but a nursery of patriotism and of national honor, loyalty, and liberty. Admiral Porter remained in charge of the Academy until 1878. While in the Legislature Mr. Harris became the author of a new law in regard to the pay of the police of Baltimore, raising it to eighteen dollars a week. He took a deep interest in all measures designed to advance the commercial and agricultural interests of the commonwealth, all internal improvements, and in what- ever tended to maintain the financial honor and integrity of the State. He was one of the most active, cathest, faithful and useful members of that memorable Legislature. The existence of Perkins Spring Square, in Baltimore, is chiefly due to the enterprise and public spirit of Mr. Harris. For over twenty years, unavailing efforts had been made to have that square purchased by the city. Find- ing in 1872 that the grounds were about to be leased for building purposes, he at once interested himself in the matter, secured petitions, and brought so much influence to bear on the City Council, that the square was purchased and made a beautiful park. Within the inclosure is a spring, which discharges about forty gallons per minute of excellent water, slightly mineral, and which is resorted to for its supposed healthful qualities by the residents of many
blocks distant. The park itself is a very popular place of resort, particularly in the warm season. Mr. Harri, has always been one of the commissioners. Mr. Harris hap- pily combines in mind and address those qualities which render him populair in social and political circles. He is a prominent member of many societies. Among the Odd Fellows he has been through all the offices up to the Chap- ter. He is a member of three Masonic orders, the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery, also of the United Order of American Mechanics, in which by two elections he has been made State Councillor-the highest State officer in the order-his second term expiring February, 1879. He is also a member of the Strictly American Or- ganization-a society neither religious nor political; also of the Knights of Pythias, and the Heptasophs. In 1846 he married Miss Eliza A. Hobbs, of Baltimore, daughter of Samuel Hobbs, a prominent contractor and builder of that city. A danghter, Emma A., the only child of this mar- riage, died in 1860, when only eleven years of age.
CCART, JOHN, was born in County Tyrone, Ire- land, June 18, 1828. Two years later, in 1830, his parents, Lawrence and Ann (Owens) Me- Cart, brought him to Baltimore, where they set- tled. Ilis father was a hard-working, industrious man, supporting his family by his daily labor. Mr. and Mrs. McCart had six sons and three daughters, of whom four sons and two daughters are still living, and all of whom reside in Baltimore. Their son John attended the public and private schools of that city, but for the most part his education was obtained at St. Patrick's Private School, taught by Martin J. Kearney, who afterwards be- came a lawyer, a noted politician, and a member of the Legislature, At fourteen years of age young MeCart left school, and was employed for about a year in a drygood, store, when he bound himself by indentures to Boss & Hall, plumbers, with whom he remained till his majority, acquiring a full know ledge of all the details of the business. After his apprenticeship was concluded he worked for the samic firm as a journeyman for five years, During that time his employers offered to set him up in business, but he declined assistance, and in 1854 started in business for himself, locating on the corner of St. Paul and Centre streets, where he still remains, meeting with good success. As a plumber he has done a great amount of work in Bal- timore. Mount Vernon Hotel, the State Penitentiary, the City Jail, Peabody Institute, and many other luige build- ings attest his skilful workmanship. He employs about licen hands, to whom he always makes it a principle to pay the best wages. In 1862, besides carrying on his regular trade, Mr. McCart became interested with Mr. Henry Lee Kendell in the steam oyster business, That
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was the first effort ever made to prepare oysters in that style for the retail trade of the city, and was very success- ful. Mr. McCart sold ont bis interest in 1866. He has for many years taken a deep interest in politics, endeavoring at all times to get honest men into office. In 1877 he was elected to the First Branch of the City Council, in which body he took his seat as the workingman's candidate, and in which his course was conspicuously honorable and able. Hle is a member of the Democratic party and of the Cath- olic Church ; was married April 1, 1856, to Bridget Ann Riley, of Baltimore, by whom he had five children, all of whom are living,-Mary Ann, James, Alice, John, Jr., and William. His two eldest sons work with him at the trade. Ilis wife died March 1, 1864, and eight years afterward, February 23, 1872, he married Amelia Reed, also of Bal- timore.
QUINAN, PASCAL ALFRED, M.D., was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1832. Whilst he was an infant his parents removed with him to Phila- delphia. There he attended various private schools up to the age of fourteen years, when he entered the celebrated Episcopal Academy, then conducted by the Reverend Alonzo Potter, D.D. Hle remained there for four years, and then commenced the study of medicine in the office of Doctor J. K. Mitchell, Professor of Thera- penties in the Jefferson Medical College. After attending the lectures of that institution during one session, he was transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, and became a private pupil of William E. Horner, M.D., Professor of Anatomy. After attending a winter's course of lectures at said college he removed to Baltimore with his parents, and matriculated at the University of Maryland. He en joyed the rave advantage of being a private student of the late Professor Nathan R. Smith, and received his diploma as Doctor of Medicine in the spring of 1851. After prac- ticing his profession for two years he entered the United States Army as a surgeon, serving therein mtil 1862, when be resigned the position, and resumed his private practice. In 1Sos he was appointed surgeon on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Mail Steamship Line, between Baltimore and Liverpool, in which capacity he remained until the .discontinuance of the line. In 1869 he was appointed Medical Director and Superintendent of the Navassa Phosphate Company at the island of Navassa, and served as such for the period of one year. Doctor Quinan's father was Reverend Thomas Henry Quinan, who was born in Balbrigan, Ireland, in 1705, and came to America in 1817. settling originally in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Soon after locating in Baltimore he became the assistant minister of Christ Church, which was then under the pas- toral charge of Reverend Doctor John John, who was
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subsequently Bishop of Virginia. He remained in that field of religions labor for many years, and was subse- quently appointed Agent of the Maryland State Bible Society in 1850, serving as such most zealously and faith- fully until 1868. He died in 1874, leaving behind him the record of a well-spent Christian life. Mr. Quinan was one of the oldest members of the Masonic fraternity in Maryland. His father, Doctor Quinan's grandfather, was Chancellor Quinan, of Dublin, Ireland, Master of the Rolls. The family traces back for many centuries through a high and honorable line, and includes among its blood relatives the Emmets, Thompsons, Blakes and Russells. The doctor's mother was Eliza Hamilton, daughter of William Henry Hamilton, one of the leaders of the United Irishmen of 1798 and 1803, in the rebellions of those year. Iler maternal grandfather was Major John Russell, of the Ninety-third Highlanders. Dr. Quinan is a gentle- man of extensive and varied knowledge, a fine literary and classical scholar, and a most skilful and accomplished sur- geon and physician.
ARD, FRANCIS XAVIER, was born July 11, 1839, in the city of Baltimore, where his early youth was spent. He was a constant and diligent pu- pil in public and private schools. At the age of fourteen years he entered Georgetown College, Dis- triet of Columbia, where he remained for five years, at the expiration of which time he graduated with honor. Im- mediately after receiving his diploma he was appointed Secretary of Legation to Central America, under Presi- dent Buchanan's administration, Alexander Dimmitry, the distinguished linguist and classical scholar of Louisiana, being the then United States Minister Resident at San Jose, Costa Rica. Mr. Ward had previously declined an appointment at large as cadet at West Point. Shortly after the arrest and execution of the famous filibuster, General Walker, young Ward returned from Central America, with dispatches from the United States Legation to Washington; after the presentation of which to the American Government, he resigned his secretaryship, and located in his native city, where, in iSor, he commenced the study of law in the office of the Honorable Charles J. M. Gwynn, Attorney General of Maryland. During the memorable occurrence of April 19, 1861, when the Mas- sitelisetts troops passed through Pratt Street, Baltimore, en route to the National Capital, Mr. Ward was a member of the battalion of Maryland Guards, a military organiza tion of Baltimore. Whilst discharging his military duties on that occasion, he was severely wounded in the right hip, the ball being propelled with such force as to detach a portion of his hip bone and cater the body of a citizen who was standing behind Mr. Ward, killing him instantly. Six weeks subsequent to the above events, Mr. Ward went
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