USA > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 61
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 61
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PSHUR, GEORGE M., was born at Snow Hill, in Worcester County, Maryland, December 14, 1847. His parents were George M. Upshur, M.D., and Priwilla A. (Towwwud) Upshur. They wrie united in marriage in 1839. His mother was a daughter of the Inte Levin Townsend, of Snow Hill. His father was a native of Northampton County, Virginia, where his ances- tors hved from the time of the first emigrant of the name, Arthur Upshur, who came from Warwickshire, England, some time during the seventeenth century. George's pa- ternal grandparents were James and Susan Upshur. This lady was a sister of Dr. John S. Martin, who practiced medicine for many years in Snow Hill. His father en- gaged for a short time in mercantile pursuits, but afterwards studied medicine and graduated at Jefferson Medical Col- lege, Philadelphia. He successfully practiced his profes- sion at Snow Hill for a number of years, but in 1864 he relinquished his practice and engaged in agriculture. Not meeting with satisfactory remuneration, he removed to Som- erset County, Maryland, and resumed the practice of medi- cine in 1867. He died, June 27, 1877, much lamented by a large circle of relations and friends. George received his preparation for college at Union Academy, Snow Hill, and when about sixteen years of age, was sent to Vale College. Soon after leaving college, he began the study of law under Ephraim K. Wilson, now (1879) one of the judges of the First Judicial Circuit of Maryland. Mr. Wilson soon after retired from active practice, Mr. Upshur continuing his studies under John 11. Handy, Esq., then of Snow Hill, but now a distinguished member of the Bal- timore bar. Mr. Upshur was admitted to the bar in Snow Ilill in October 1869, having been examined by the late Judge John R. Franklin. On his admission he opened an office and began practice, which he still continues. In January, 1874, he was appointed by the Board of County School Commissioners of Worcester County, Secretary, Treasurer, and Examiner of the public schools of that county. He was reappointed in 1876 and also in 1878. Ile still hills that position. There are sixty-eight schools in the county, of which three are high schools, four gram- mar schools, and nineteen exclusively for colored children, employing in all eighty-five teachers, and averaging nine months in the year. They are in a prosperous condition. Mr. Upshur is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as were his parents; he is a vestryman of All- Hallows Parish. Politically he has always been a Demo- crat. He was married June 11th, 1873, to Miss Emma Upshur, a daughter of the late Judge John R. Frank- lin. They have one daughter and two sons. Mr. Up- shur has manifested such great interest in educational matters, and devoted himself so assiduously to the pub- lic schools of his county, that he has become thoroughly identified with everything connected with the improve- ment and development of the intellectual tastes of the com. munity.
UMPHREYS, HON. THOMAS, Lawyer and State Senator, was born in Salisbury, Wicomico County, June 3, 1839, the only son, by his first mariage, of Dr. Cathell and Leah (Walker) Humplngys. The name is. Welsh, and the origi bal orthography is here given as found in " Bike's Landed Gentry." The Humphreys went to England at about the year 1100, and attained, at different times, to high positions. One is mentioned as an Admiral in the English Navy. A branch came to America early in the history of New England, and settled in Connecticut. The family history is indistinct till about the year 1725, when one of the Humphreys came to Maryland, and settled in what is now Wicomico County, where their descendants have for the most part remained to the present time. The mother of Senator Humphreys was closely allied to the Dorman family, one of the oldest in the State. His father was one of the Presidential Electors who nominated Franklin Pierce. Ile was also a member of the House of Delegates in 1838, and was tendered the nomination for Governor, when Governor Ligon was chosen, but de- clined. He was a candidate for the United States Senate in 1860, but was defeated by James A. Pierce, by three votes in the caucus. He died in September, 1866, in the seventieth year of his age. He was no politician, and dis- dained any office that was sought and obtained by the or- dinary means. Mr. Humphreys was educated at Princeton College, where he graduated B.A. in 1859, and three years later took the degree of A. M. Dr. David Magee, now Professor in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, was his room-mate at that institution, and among his classmates were Judge Stump, of the Second Judicial Circuit of Maryland, Theodore C. Lyons, Chan- cellor of the State of Mississippi, and other distinguished men. From Princeton he went to the Harvard Law School, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, but upon the breaking out of the war, finding it unpleasant for a man with Southern principles to remain, he returned home and en- tered the law office of the late William S. Waters, of Bal- timore, and was admitted to the bar in the Superior Court of Baltimore city, in May, 1862. He then established himself at Salisbury, now Wicomico, where he has since continued the practice of his profession. After the war he was attorney for several parties who presented claims against the United States Government, for the use of lands and property occupied by the army. Out of the four claims presented three were obtained. In 1867 he was nominated to the State Convention to frame the new Con- stitution, but declined on account of family affliction. He was, however, chosen to represent before that Convention the desire of the people to have a new county formed ... from Somerset and Worcester. This mission was success- ful. It was the measure of the young Democracy against the old placemen of the party, who had controlled the politics of the counties for many years, and monopolized
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all the offices. Salisbury became the county seat of the new county. On the formation of Wicomico, the new county, in October, 1867, Mr. Humphreys, although absent, was nominated for State's Attorney, and elected without opposition. This office he held for four years, declining a renomination. In 1874 he was the prime mover of a petition to secure a survey of the Wicomico River, and pressed before Congress the importance of an appropriation for its improvement ; securing in one instance an appro- priation of $20,000, and in another of $7500, by which the river has been made navigable to Salisbury. In 1874 he was a candidate for Congress, but was defeated by one vote in the convention, ex-Governor Thomas being the successful candidate. In 1875, when the Reform move- mient swept over the State, he, for the purpose of securing harmony in the Democratic party, accepted the nomination of State Senator, being clected by a majority of cight hundred and sixty-five. Although the youngest member of the Senate, he has been very active and influential in that body. He has been for two sessions the Chairman of the Committee on Engrossed Bills. He is prominent in all matters affecting the interests and prosperity of his county. Hle originated and is Treasurer of the Salisbury Library Association. He has a large interest in a gold mining company, which owns twenty-five hundred acres of mining lands in Georgia. He was married in 1867 to Miss Virginia Treney, of Salisbury.
ALL, HON. FRANCIS MAGRUDER, Farmer and Legislator, was born in Prince George County, Maryland, August 21, 1829, being the son of Francis and Ann Elizabeth (Snowden) Hall. Ilis father owned a large landed estate, and was an in- telligent and highly respected citizen of that county. This grandfather, Francis Magruder Hall, was an officer in the war of 1812, a man of high standing and influ- ence, who represented his county for several years in the House of Delegates, and also in the State Senate. Ilis remote ancestors were Catholics, and came to Mary- land from England with the Calverts, receiving patents for valuable estates. The Snowdens were also among the early settlers of Maryland; they were wealthy, and very numerons. Mr. Hall attended the best schools of his native county, and spent two years at the Georgetown College, D. C., when he returned home and engaged in agricultural pursuits, in which he still continues. He has a considerable estate, and before the war owned about fifty slaves. Mr. Itall has always been conspicuous as a turf- man, and for several years has been a member of the Ex- ecutive Committee of the Jockey Club of Baltimore. He
has in his time owned several celebrated horses. He has always been allied with the Democratic party, but has never taken an active part in public affairs. In the fall of 1877 he was nominated on a fusion ticket, made up of local issues in his county, and elected to the House of Delegates for the term of two years from January, 1878. In the House, he proves himself a popular and useful member, looking closely after the interests of his constitu- ents. Ile married Miss Rosalie Eugenia, daughter of Charles Henry Carter, of a distinguished family in that county. Her mother was half sister to General Robert E. Lee. Mr. Ilall's wife died in 1875, leaving seven chil- dren,-Charles Carter, Clarence, Ella, Nicholas Snowden, Robert Lee, Julia and Rosalie Eugenia.
B PRINSFIELD, SOLOMON, was born in Trappe Dis- trict, Talbot County, Maryland, April 15, 1821. llis parents, William and Nancy (Hopkins) Brinsfield, were both natives of the same county. Ile was the fourth of the five children of the family, four of whom were boys. When he was quite young his father died, and the family were left in straitened cir- cumstances. Ile commenced when very young to work upon the farm (his father having been a farmer), and at- tended school in the winter from his eighth year until he reached the age of eighteen, after which he devoted him- self entirely to agriculture. Conjointly with his brother James and a neighbor he purchased a tract of woodland, from which they cut and sold the timber, and afterwards sold the land. In 1852 he purchased the farm known as " White Hall," the residence of the Denny family for several generations, and the early home of Governor Ben- jamin Denny. Mr. Brinsfield now owns two hundred and twenty-seven acres of land in one body, lying on Irish Creek, in Deep Neck and St. Michael's District, and in addition rents and carries on a farm of one hundred and sixteen acres, owned by Dr. Hardcastle, of Trappe District. Ile is regarded as the most successful farmer in Talbot County. He keeps eight men hired by the year, and in the busy season employs twenty-five hands. The annual yield of his farm has been as high as twenty-two hundred bushels of wheat, and two thousand bushels of corn. Mr. Brinsfield owes his success entirely to his own energy and industry. Ile is an estimable citizen. . He married in February, 1866, Margaret A., daughter of John W. Mc- Daniel, of Bayside, Talbot County. Her mother was Sarah Wrightson, daughter of James Wrightsen; both families have long been known and honored in that lo. cality. Mrs. Brinsfield's brother, James McDaniel, is President of the St. Michael's Agricultural Society.
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LEESON, HON. WILLIAM E., was born in Balti- more, Maryland, November 30, 1837. His father, a professor of ancient languages, was the son of a wealthy landowner and farmer, but his patrimony
,9 being reduced by adverse fortune, he was driven to engage in the struggle for subsistence. Ile gave instruc- tion in the languages, maintaining an independent spirit, and preserving that general respect which integrity and honorable endeavor merit. His uncle on the maternal side was a Catholic bishop. Judge Gleeson's mother was of French origin on the mother's side, and was the daugh- ter of Counsellor John Roche, a prominent English bar- rister. His mother's uncle was a professor of languages and belles lettres, and principal of a flourishing academy at Washington, 1). C. In 1825, on the occasion of the visit of Lafayette to Washington, he was selected as one of the committee of reception. The subject of this sketch was left an orphan at the age of twelve years, and his father dying in indigent circumstances, he at that early age began the battle of life. Ile entered into the employ of James Hodges & Brother, now a leading mercantile firm. Ile also followed other pursuits, and by his industry and savings, accumulated sufficient means to complete his edu- cation. Hle entered Loyola College, and graduated with distinction at that institution July 10, 1856. During his collegiate career, he was noted for his love of languages, of which he was a very apt student. In July, 1858, Loy- ola College conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts. On leaving college he entered as a student at law with the Honorable James L. Bartol, now Chief Justice of the State of Maryland. In 1856 he was appointed librarian of the Baltimore Bar Library, and served in that capacity until the spring of 1859, when he was admitted to the bar, and opened a law office. The first address to a jury made by Judge Gleeson, was in a murder trial in the Criminal Court of Baltimore, in the defence of a colored man who went under the name of " Major Peterson." This was just after his admission to the bar, in the year 1859. Peterson was charged with wilful and premeditated murder in the killing of a fellow-stevedore, also colored, on the deck of a vessel lying at Bowley's wharf. He was an African of the Guinea type, and quite a young man, born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and a slave until his majority. Hle lacked Christian training, fireside, church, and Sab- bath-school, and was wholly destitute and friendless. Judge Gleeson gave this unfortunate negro his services without charge. It appeared in the course of the evidence that Peterson, immediately after he struck the fatal blow which crushed the skull of his victim, went for water to relieve the deceased, and this point skilfully handled saved the life of the client. The defence rested upon two grounds, that the neglected education and want of moral training in the prisoner rendered him less accountable, and that the killing was done under a sudden control of pas- sion, and was therefore brought within the statutory grade
of homicide in the second degree. The State's Attorney, Mr. Whitney, omitted to elicit that the accused was directed by some one to go for the water, and the defence dwelt strongly upon this fact to establish the absence of preinedi- tation on the part of the traverser, and his regret for his act. This satisfied the jury of their duty under the law. The prisoner was without relatives, and not a single friend appeared in court to evince an interest in his fate. These cirenmistances were pleaded and enforced to secure the sympathies of the jury. Up to this time, Mr. Whitney, the State's Attorney, had treated the obscure young advo- cate for the prisoner with an apparently studied contempt, the more marked in the present case, which Judge Gleeson sensitively felt, and which led him in his address to the jury to criticize the State's officer with unsparing severity. The argument of Judge Gleeson on this occasion occu- pied two hours and a half, and its conclusion was attended by a very uncommon incident. Mr. Whitney arose from his seat, and in the presence of the jury and the court, cordially took Judge Gleeson by the hand and congratu- lated him on his "very handsome and able speech." The effect was visible, and a point was at once added in favor of the prisoner. The jury, after a deliberation of twenty minutes, returned with the verdict asked for by the defence,-murder in the second degree. Then ensued another quite unusual scene; several of the jurors before being discharged, stretched forth their hands from the jury box to the counsel for the prisoner, and warmly congratulated him, saying: " We did all we could for you." Another interesting incident in the professional life of Judge Gleeson, was his argument before the Court of Appeals at a later period, of a case involving the con- stitutionality of an act of the Assembly. In the year 1874 the Legislature of Maryland enacted a law relating to the right of removal of civil enses. It provided that in case a party, either plaintiff or defendant, prayed a removal of the cause to an adjoining circuit for the reason that he be- lieved he could not have a fair trial in the court where the case was pending, unless he paid to the clerk the cost of the transcript and sent the record within sixty days after the order of removal was signed by the judge, then the case should be reinstated on the docket, and the right to remove thereafter extinguished. This law had been en- forced throughout the State, and had been regarded by the judges and lawyers of the circuits generally as a valid con- stitutional provision. The people had just adopted by a large majority the amendment to the Constitution revok- ing the right to remove in criminal cases, except for capital offences. Judge Gleeson, nothing daunted, brought up the question by appeal from the Superior Court of Baltimore to the Court of Appeals, to test the constitutionality of this law, claiming that it was unconstitutional, as it abrogated a vested right guaranteed by the Constitution of Maryland. He succeeded in obtaining the unanimous concurrence of the entire bench of the Court of Appeals, which decided
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in a most mmequivocal manner that the act of 1874 was un- constitutional and void, and it was accordingly set aside. The argument of Judge Gleeson was pronounced by one who heard it as the finest intellectual effort ever listened to on that subject by that tribunal. The only other instance in the history of the jurisprudence of the State, though ques- tions of the kind have often arisen, where an act of Assembly was declared void by the Court of Appeals, was in the year 1823, a case argued by the late Chief Justice Taney. Judge Gleeson first entered political life during the presidential canvass of 1860, and identified himself with the Republican party. Ile was an active and earnest supporter of Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency. In the fall of 1860, he ad- dressed an audience of six thousand people at the Richmond Market, advocating the principles of the Republican party, and despite the disturbed condition of public affairs and the mob spirit then rife, he was heard without interruption. Ilis personal popularity and the manner and matter of his ad- dress were such as to command the closest attention of his audience. Ile made several other speeches throughout the State during that campaign, and upon the accession of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, was nominated, upon the recom- mendation of the Hon. Montgomery Blair, of Mr. Lin- coln's Cabinet, as Judge of the Supreme Court of Dakota Territory. The appointment was confirmed in the United States Senate, May 9, 1861. lle was the youngest person ever appointed by the goverment to a judicial position. This position he filled acceptably until June 18, 1866, when he was tendered the appointment of United States Consul at Bordeaux, France, by President Johnson, which, desiring to go abroad, he accepted. lle served in that capacity until a change of administration. lle was re- called from Dakota by President Grant in the fall of 1869, when he returned to Baltimore and resumed the practice of law. In the year 1864 he was sent as a delegate to the National Convention that met at Baltimore and renominated President Lincoln. lle has taken no part in politics since the presidential canvass of 1872, when he ardently sup- ported the candidacy of Horace Greeley for President. By close application and devotion to his profession, Judge (leeson has built up a fine practice and taken a prominent position at the Baltimore bar. His success with juries has been very marked. As a speaker he is logical, lucid, chaste, and cloquent. At the meeting of the bar on the death of Chief Justice Scott, the eulogium of Judge Gleeson was conceded to be the most eloquent on that occasion.
IRT, WILLIAM, was born November 18, 1772, at Bladensburg, Maryland. The loss of his parents, at an early age caused him to be placed under the guardianship of his paternal uncle, Jasper Wirt, a resident of the same village. In his seventh year he was removed to Georgetown, District of
Columbia, but the chief part of his education was received at the school of the Rev. James Hunt, in Montgomery County, at which he was placed in his eleventh year, and continued till he was fifteen. Here he had the advantage of a good library, and became a student and author when about thirteen years of age. In 1789 he commenced the study of law at Montgomery Court-house, with Mr. Wil- liam llunt. Ile was afterward a student at Leesburg, Virginia, under Mr. Thomas Swann, was licensed for practice in 1792, and removed to Culpepper Court-house in Virginia, where he commenced his professional career. lle at this time possessed a vigorous constitution, with prepossessing manners; these, combined with great felicity of conversation, and a lively, fertile wit, made his society eagerly sought, especially by the gay and young. Hle married, in 1795, Mildred, the eldest daughter of Dr. George Gilmer, of Pen Park. Residing after his marriage with his father-in-law, who was an accomplished scholar and wit, and the intimate associate of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Monroe, he found in these celebrated men, who were attracted by the benevolent character and hospitality of Dr. Gilmer, very desirable friends. The death of his amiable and accomplished wife in 1799, in- terrupted this happy and profitable course of life, and sus- pended, for awhile, his professional pursuits. For change of scene, he was persuaded to go to Richmond, his friends procuring his election to the clerkship of the House of Delegates, which post he held during three sessions of the Assembly. That body gave him a signal mark of its con- sideration, by appointing him, in 1802, the Chancellor of the Eastern Chancery District of Virginia. The same year he married the daughter of the late Colonel Gamble, of Richmond, and resumed the practice of law. In the winter of 1803-4 he wrote the essays under the name of " The British Spy." They were published originally in the Richmond _Irgus. Some of the sketches in these essays had a wide popularity, especially that of the " Blind Preacher." In 1806, at the solicitations of his friends, he removed from Norfolk to Richmond, as a wider profes- sional theatre, then adorned by men of the first legal talents. Under the direction of President Jefferson he was employed as Prosecuting Counsel in the celebrated trial of Aaron Burr. This trial took place in 1807, and created an earnest interest in all classes of people. In the follow- ing winter he sat for the only time in a legislative body, being elected without canvass, a delegate to the Assembly from Richmond. . The appointment of Mr. Wirt, by Mr. Monroe, to the Attorney-Generalship of the United States, caused him to remove to Washington in the winter of 1817-18, and brought him into the arena of the Supreme Court. His practice soon became extensive, and his ce- lebrity kept pace with it. The Attorney Generalship he held through three P'residential terms, longer by many years than any of his predecessors ; and his labors seemed to surpass theirs in the same proportion. lle resigned his
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place at the end of Mr. Adams's administration and re- moved to Baltimore. In 1830 he received a nomination among the candidates for the Presidency of the United States. As a writer Mr. Wirt is chiefly known by produc- tions, which were the work, or rather amusement, of a very small portion of leisure. The essays of the " Spy," and the " Old Bachelor," were received by the public with uncommon pleasure, the " Old Bachelor " having gone through three editions, and the " Spy " through nine. The oratorical diction of Mr. Wirt was correct and elegant, various, rich, and remarkably perspicuous. Ilis figure was dignified and commanding; his countenance open, manly, and playful; his voice clear and musical ; his whole appearance truly oratorical. His aspeet expressed both benignity and intelligence; and his enunciation was distinct. Ilis action was unstudied, and perhaps less energetic than graceful.
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ICHOLLS, JOHN, was born in Caroline County, Maryland, in 1819. Ilis father, Edward Nicholls, was a farmer, and afterwards resided near Fred- ericksburg. Ile lost his mother in his infancy. Ile was early sent to school at Bloomery, in his native county. When fourteen years of age he went to live with his uncle, William Nicholls, a merchant of Seaford, Dela- ware, and at his death engaged as elerk for Mr. Harris, of Sharptown, Maryland, with whom he continued till he was of age. In January, 1850, his employer advanced him money, and he commenced business for himself as a country merchant at Gilpin's Point. He also became a vessel-owner and vessel builder, and engaged largely in the grain and lumber business. Hle owned at one time one thousand acres of land, which he sold in part. In 1857 he purchased the Fowling Creek mill, aud the following year a saw-mill, known as Nicholls's mill. Hle afterwards bought two other mills. Mr. Nicholls was County Com- missioner, and served by appointment of the court as trus. tee and administrator in the settlement of many estates. Ile was from early life a Methodist, and filled with great acceptability and usefulness the offices of steward, trustee, class-leader, and Sunday-school superintendent. A man of large business capacity and successful in life, he was very liberal in the use of his means, befriending those struggling to suceced in life, and always ready and helpful to assist the poor and unfortunate. Ile was a Mason and lived the teachings of his order. In politics he was a Re- publican. During the civil war he was a decided Union man. Ile was three times married; first to Elizabeth Walker, of Dorchester County, who died in 1849; in 1850 to Mary Ellen, daughter of John Elliott, of Fredericksburg. December 19, 1855, he was married to Mary Ellen, daugh-
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