USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 64
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 64
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ETTERHOFF, HIRAM RICHERT, Physician and Surgeon, was born in Franklin County, Penn- sylvania, May 10, 1837. His grandparents were Germans, and emigrated to America in the early settlement of the Cumberland Valley, of which Franklin County forns a part. 'The Indians had not then deserted it. They took up several hundred acres of land, of which their son Jacob, the father of Dr. Fetterhoff, in- herited the mansion farm. Hiram had the misfortune to lose his father when he was but eleven years old. He at- tended the public school and the Fayetteville Academy, but for the best part of his education he is indebted to his own unaided exertions. Not only did his tastes make him averse to farming, but he had not the necessary physical strength. The idea of being a physician early took pos- session of him, and he longed to go to college, but was unable. After completing his sixteenth year, he tried one occupation after another, in the vain attempt to satisfy himself. Ile apprenticed himself to learn cabinet-making, but after a few months was taken sick, and did not return to it; he next taught a public school, studying hard also himself, and at the age of twenty several clergymen of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, to which he be- longed, persuaded him to enter the ministry. But in two years he was compelled to abandon that calling on account of a chronic affection of the throat. Then he tried photo- graphing, became quite proficient in dentistry, and during the war was a military telegraph operator at headquarters of the Signal Corps, Department of the Susquehanna. But his determination to become a physician was now fixed, and these employments were followed merely as a means of support while he earnestly pursued the necessary studies. He became convinced from instances under his own immediate observation of the great superiority of the homeopathic practice, and resolved to devote his life to the great good he saw that through its means he could ac- complish. He had now a family, having married at the age of twenty. He had inherited, since coming of age, a sum of money from his father's estate, which, with his own accumulations, and the care and self-denial of his wife, finally enabled him to give his whole time to study. This he pursued with ardor, and graduated March 3, 1869, at the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, among the first in the class. The following month he commenced the practice of medicine at Newville, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Homeopathy was in that place compara- tively unknown. His successful treatment of several well- known cases which the allopathic physicians had pro- nounced incurable, gained him in a short time the confidence of the people, and he had soon an extensive practice among the most substantial and intelligent families of the community. But the long distances he was obliged to travel in a country district consumed so much of his time that he had little rest day or night; and convinced that his health would not longer permit such an exhaust-
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ing practice, he removed, April 1, 1874, to the city of Bal- timore. Ilene the same energy, fidelity and zeal that has characterized all his undertakings, has been rewarded with success beyond his most sanguine expectations. Wholly absorbed in his professional duties, and believing that singleness of aim is necessary to achieve the highest re- sults, he has paid no attention to politics. Both in Pennsyl- vania and in Maryland he has been highly honored among his professional brethren. Ile was a member of the Cum- berland Valley Homoeopathic Medical Society, the Penn- sylvania State Medical Society, and the American Institute of Homeopathy. In the last-named he still retains his membership. He represented in February, 1871, and in the same month in 1873, the Cumberland Valley Society in the Pennsylvania State Homeopathic Medical Society, and also in the American Institute in June, 1871. He was also a delegate from the State Society to the American In- stitute in June, 1872. He was elected Vice-President of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society in February, 1873. In 1875 he assisted in organizing the Baltimore Homco- pathic Medical Society, of which he was elected Vice- President, and the following year was elected President. In 1876 he assisted in organizing the Maryland State Ilom@opathic Medical Society, and was elected Vice- President. Ile is a Mason, and a member of several other societies. Dr. Fetterhoff was united in marriage, April 2, 1857, with Mary Ellen, daughter of Major John C. Kees, of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and formerly of Vir- ginia. They have two children, a daughter, Selina Cole- man, and a son, Ira Lincoln. Dr. Fetterhoff is exceedingly kind, genial, and sympathetic in manner. Ile is a close and careful observer, and a constant student.
EPBRON, HON. WILLIAM THOMAS, Farmer and State Senator, was born in Kent County, Mary- land, within a mile of his present residence, March. 8, 1832. His parents were Thomas and Elizabeth ( Wilson) Hepbron, both of whom were of Scotch descent. The Hepbron, Wilson, and Stavely families were the first who settled in that county, the two first named be- ing Mr. Hepbron's direct ancestors. The first Hepbron who came to this country bore the name of Thomas, and `the Senator now owns a farm of three hundred acres, which is a part of the original land grant that made up the Ilep- bron estate. The name Thomas became a common one among the descendants ; in the time of the Senator's father there were two others besides himself in the near neigh- borhood ; their friends were in the habit of distinguishing them by number. Senator Hepbron's father was called Thomas third. Ile was a farmer, and died in 1844, at the age of forty years ; his wife also died soon after at the age of thirty-seven, and the young son, twelve years old, was left an orphan. Up to this time he had attended the pub-
lic schools, but was now apprenticed to a blacksmith, with whom he served his time till he was twenty-one years old, but he retained his schoolbooks and pursued his studies by himself most perseveringly. The result was that he grew up exceedingly well informed, and upon a wide range of subjects. Ile is a well-educated and self-made man. Immediately on coming of age he left the blacksmith's trade and purchased the estate above mentioned, he being one of four or five heirs, and at once went to reside upon and to improve it. Soon after he planted extensive peach orchards. He lived on this farm till 1855, when he was married to Miss Fanny Webb, of the same neighborhood. She received as a wedding gift from her parents a farm ad- joining their own, on which they desired their daughter to live, that they might keep her near them ; accordingly here Mr. and Mrs. Hepbron have since resided, having as the years passed by added to their landed property, till now they own seven or eight hundred acres, part of it having come to Mrs. Hepbron by inheritance. Senator Ilepbron is among the largest peach-growers of Kent County ; he also raises large quantities of other farm products. Ilis wife's father was Joseph W. Webb, a large farmer of the same county. He died in 1872, at the age of sixty-five, leaving three children. Senator Hepbron has been a Demo- crat all his life. In 1857 he was appointed constable, and since that time has taken an active part in political af- fairs. Ile was the next year elected to the same office, and continued to hold it till 1861. He was drafted in 1863, but obtained a substitute. In 1862 he was disfranchised, and did not vote from that time nor take any part in poli- tics until 1866. In 1867 he was elected one of the County Commissioners for two years; was re-elected in 1869, and made President of the Board for two years. In 1871 he was appointed Judge of the Orphans' Court, by Governor Bowie, for four years, and at the close of that office, in 1875, was elected to the State Senate by his party for a term of four years. Ilis wife is a member of the Methodist Church, towards which he also inclines ; they have four children, Mary Elizabeth, Delia, Wilhelmina, and Addie.
LER, WILLIAM II., was born in Baltimore, Mary- land, September 6, 1818, and was the oldest son of George and Sarah ( F'ringer) Oler. His ances- tors were Germans; three brothers came to this country early in the eighteenth century. One settled 6 in Pennsylvania, one penetrated farther west, and the re- maining one, the great-grandfather of Mr. Oler, settled in Frederick County, Maryland. One of his sons removed to Baltimore before the Revolution. Ile was a carpenter, and had four sons, Peter, John, Jacob, and George, whom he brought up to the same trade. Ile lived in a log house on what is now Pennsylvania Avenue, near Boundary Street. He was a plain unassuming man, of thorough in-
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tegrity, great energy, and prudence. Ilis son George, the father of Mr. Oler, was a master mechanic in the building business in Baltimore, and fought on the side of his coun. try in the war of 1812. His wife was from Carroll Com- ty, daughter of Michael Fringer, a tanner by trade. Mr. Oler has one brother, Samuel, and one sister, Margaret, wife of Elisha Whiting, of Havre de Grace. Mr. Oler at- tended the schools of Baltimore until fifteen years of age, at which time his father died, and he found himself the main dependence and support of his mother and the two younger children. He had also to look after and protect the small property his father had left. At the age of seventeen he entered as an apprentice the tanning and morocco business. Ilis time expired when he was twenty- one, when he went into the same business for himself, and continued in it until 1855, making and losing a good deal of money, but left it at that time with quite a fortune. There was then but one ice firm in the city of Baltimore whose business could be called large. His attention was casually directed to it, and without any great expectations he was led to take hold of it. He commenced with using only one wagon, but the business grew rapidly on his hands, till now he is driving fifty wagons for the supply of the city and retail trade alone, while they do an equally large wholesale business; one customer taking one thousand tons at one time. They have a good deal of property on the Susquehanna River, lands, immense ice-houses, and every appliance, and all kinds of machinery for taking care of and handling the ice, the great blocks of which are carried by steam up an inclined plane to the tops of the ice- houses, which hold seventy thousand tons each. They also own their own barges for bringing it to the city. Oc- casionally a mild winter causes a failure of the ice crop here, in which case they have recourse to the property which they also own in Maine; the ice is brought from that State in sailing vessels. Mr. Oler has two sons with him in the business, William George and Westley Marion, the former has charge of the building and repair shop where the vehicles are built and kept in order, and their horses and mules are shod. Mr. Oler has been married twice ; his first wife was Miss Catherine Hall, and their families were near neighbors in his boyhood. He was married to her in 1845; she died in 1860. She had seven children, four sons and three daughters. His second son, Millard Fillmore, a young man of great promise, died in June, 1877, aged twee seven years. 'Two of the daughters are living, Sarah B., wife of Henry Head, Esq., of Baltimore, and Ella Grace. The maiden name of the present wife of Mr. Oler was Miss Helen Brown, of Baltimore. Mr. Oler is one of the trustees of the Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has been a member for over forty years, and with which he united when he was sixteen years of age. Ile has travelled a great deal in the United States and in Canada. In politics he is a Republican, and feels deeply interested in the welfare of the country.
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THOMSON, WILLIAM, Journalist and ex-Sheriff, was born in Georgetown, D. C., July 6, 1817. Ilis grandfather came to America, from Torres, Aber- deenshire, Scotland, and settled in Annapolis, Mary- land, where the father of this sketch was born. After remaining in Annapolis for a few years the ekdlest Thom- son removed to Georgetown, D. C., where some half a dozen Scotch families from his section of country had set- tled and engaged in mercantile business. William's father engaged in mercantile pursuits in Georgetown, and died during the former's youth. Mr. Thomson's mother was Elizabeth Bahzer, a descendant of a German family that settled in Pennsylvania in the early part of the seventeenth century. Young Thomson was educated at the best private schools of his native town, and at the age of sixteen years was placed as an apprentice at the printing business, in the establishment of Benjamin Homans, editor and publisher of the Army and Navy Magazine, Washington. Mr. Homans discontinuing his printing office two years there- after, Mr. Thomson entered the office of Duff Green, pro- prietor and editor of the Telegraph, which was the organ of General Jackson's administration. He remained there until he attained his majority, shortly after which he re- moved to Baltimore. At the time of the breaking out of the American civil war, Mr. Thomson was employed by Moses Y. Beach, of the New York Sun, to procure news in advance of the mails. He received a carte blanche from Mr. Beach to use the telegraph, establish expresses, or use any means that would accomplish the object. When the telegraph lines were completed to New York and the West, at the suggestion of Mr. Beach, Mr. Thomson removed to Philadelphia, to be in a more central position. He there became a correspondent of all the leading journals of the West, as well as a portion of the New York city press. The New York Associated Press, upon its establishment, endeavored to monopolize the correspondence of the coun- try, but Mr. Thomson frequently excelled them in the ob- tainment of the freshest news. When Henry Clay deliv- ered his famous speech at Lexington, Kentucky, shortly after the commencement of the Mexican war, there was a general desire throughout the country to learn his views, and consequently, extraordinary rivalry among the leading journals to procure the earliest reports thereof. Mr. Thom- son had a corps of reporters stationed at Lexington, and established relays of horses from thence to Cincinnati, which carried the report between the two cities in fom hours and a half. From the latter city it was dispatched by wire to the New York Herald and other paper. In this feat he distanced the Associated Press and rendered futile their effort, to give the first reports to the public. Mr. Thomson was the first person who used pigeons success- fully as carriers of news for the press. In IS4S, prior to the laying of the Atlantic telegraph cable, he sent an agent to Halifax with some trained carrier pigeons, the agent taking passage at that place on the Cunard steamer, bound
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to Liverpool from Boston, and who, within about ninety miles of the latter city, tied his dispatches (confined in a silk bag) around the neck of a pigeon, which brought the news to Boston, and which was published in the Baltimore San twenty four hours in advance of the Associated Press dispatches. After remaining two years in Philadelphia, Mr. Thomson returned to Baltimore, where he continued to conduct a special correspondence with leading papers. When Honorable Thomas Swann was elected Mayor of Baltimore he appointed Mr. Thomson his Private Secretary, which position he continued to hold during the two terms of Mr. Swann's administration. Soon after our civil war commenced Mr. Thomson was appointed to a clerkship in the United States Custom-house, Baltimore, and in 1865 was elected by the Union party Sheriff of Baltimore, which he held for the usual period of two years. Whilst occu- pying the Sheriffalty, Messrs. Ilines and Woods, who were then Police Commissioners, had certain charges preferred against them. They were tried before Governor Swann and removed from office. The Governor appointed as their successors, Messrs, Voung and Valliant. The former Com- missioners refused to vacate their positions, whereupon Messrs. Young and Valliant called upon Sheriff Thomson for a posse comitatus to enable them to enter upon the du- ties of their office. Mr. Thomson, whilst in the act of swearing in the posse, was arrested by the Coroner, on a warrant issued by Judge Hugh L. Bond, who demanded that Thomson should give bail for twenty thousand dollars that he would not interfere with the functions of Messrs. Ilines and Woods, as Police Commissioners. As the Sheriff was liable to a fine of twenty-five thousand dollars for refusing a posse, when called upon by the rightful Com- missioners, he refused to give the required bail, and he, to- gether with Messrs. Voung and Valliant, were committed to Baltimore city jail. After an incarceration of five days they were brought before Chief Justice Bartol on habeas corpus. The Sheriff was promptly released and was com- plimented by the Chief Justice for the manner in which he had performed his duties. The arrest and imprisonment of Sheriff Thomson caused great excitement in Baltimore, and thousands of his sympathizing friends gathered around the jail during his confinement, threatening dire vengeance upon the perpetrators of the outrage. After his retirement from the Sheriffalty Mr. Thomson ceased to take any active part in political matters. He married in 1843 Miss Mary Delano, of Washington. He has three sons and a daughter. The oldest son, William J. Thomson, is a Paymaster in the United States Navy, and the second son, Curtis II. Thomson, is a Past Assistant Paymaster in the same service. Mr. Thomson has always manifested a great pride in his Scottish ancestry, and is a member of the Caledonian Club of Baltimore, He is a gentleman of genial disposition, possesses a vast fund of general and varied information, and is a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church, in which he manifests a more than ordinary interest.
THOMAS, COLONEL, GEORGE P., Merchant, and President of the Maryland Life Insurance Com- paty, was born April 1, 1828, in Frederick County, Maryland. His father was a farmer in بـ prosperous circumstances and brought up his son to the same vocation. At his death, however, which oc- curred when Mr. Thomas was but twenty years of age, George started out to seek his fortune in a wider field than was offered him on the paternal acres. His first venture was in Winchester, Virginia, where he remained but a short time, as in January, 1849, we find him removed to Baltimore, associated with a former resident of Fred -- erick County, in the management of the Globe Inn, which then stood at the corner of Baltimore and Howard streets. After eighteen months in this occupation Mr. Thomas be- came a clerk in a wholesale drygoods house, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of business, and a con- siderable acquaintance in the business community. After serving for some time in the drygoods house, he entered the wholesale wine and liquor trade, and in August, 1852, became a partner in a house engaged in this business, which was successfully carried on for fourteen years. In 1866 Colonel Thomas withdrew from this firm and estab- lished a new house in the same business, of which he re- tained the entire control in his own hands. In the prose- cution of this business, in which he is still engaged, he has been remarkably successful. During these years, Colonel Thomas, as he is generally called from having been appointed, with the rank of Colonel, upon the Mili- tary Staff of Hon. E. Louis Lowe, when Governor of Maryland, was called upon at various times to fill different positions of honor and trust. In 1852 he was elected as an independent candidate for the City Council from the Fourteenth Ward, in which he then resided, and served as Chairman of the Committee on Internal Improvements during that session of the Council. In 1855 he was again elected to the Council from the Twelfth Ward, having removed his residence to that part of the city, but at the close of the session of 1856, in which, as before, he proved bomself a useful and valuable member of the Council, he withdrew entirely from politics, that he might have more time to devote to his private affairs. This de- cision has not prevented him, however, from taking an active part in a number of important public enterprises. In 1868 he was appointed by Hon. R. T. Banks, Mayor of the city, a member of the Board of Water Commis- sioners, which position he still holds, having been reap- pointed successively by Mayors Vansant, Latrobe, and Kane. The ten years for which Colonel Thomas has been a member of the Water Board have been the most im- portant in its history, for during that time the works can- ducting the water from Jones's Falls were completed, and the far more extensive and important works, introducing the bountiful supply from the Gunpowder River, have been undertaken and carried well toward completion. la
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1876 Mayor Latrobe tendered to Colonel Thomas, who had been in no way an applicant for it, the position of City Collector, one of the most responsable and honorable in the gift of the city, and which emies with it at a under the present law, the office of State Collector. This post tion, after some hesitaney, Colonel Thomas concluded to accept, and held until March, 1878, discharging his trust with great fidelity and honor. During the two years of his administration the revenues of the city, received and turned into the City Treasury by him, amounted to more than eight millions of dollars. Conspicuous among the evidences of energy and wisdom displayed by him are the results accomplished by him in the establishment of the Maryland Life Insurance Company. Recognizing the value of such 'institutions in promoting habits of thrift, economy, and providence, and the importance in a finan- cial point of view of retaining in his own city a portion of the vast sums which are intrusted to these companies, Colonel Thomas was, in 1865, the originator and prime mover in the establishment of the company referred to, which was the first Mutual Life Insurance Company ever successfully established in Baltimore. The necessary sub- scriptions were obtained chiefly through his personal efforts, he himself heading the list of subscribers to the guar- anteed capital required, and receiving the first policy of insurance issued from the office of the company. The company was organized in July, 1865, by the election of a Board of nine Directors, of whom Colonel Thomas was one, and at the first meeting of the Board he was elected President. To this position he has been unanimously re- elected each succeeding year, and has conducted the busi- ness, in all its details, in a manner most conducive to its success. The assets of the company now amount to over a million of dollars, and it holds a position of unques- tioned credit in the community. It owes not only its first institution, but largely the success which has attended it, to the liberality, foresight, enterprise, and energy of its President. Colonel Thomas has for twelve years served as a Director in the Home Fire Insurance Company of Baltimore, and in the Eutaw Savings Bank, two of the leading corporations of the city. In private and social life, his ever-ready courtesy, his kind good nature, and true-hearted friendship, make him as warmly regarded, as in his more public relations he is highly esteemed.
ODGES, JAMES, Merchant, Was born August II, 1822, at Liberty Hall, Kent County, Maryland. He is the eldest son of Honorable James and Mary Hanson ( Ringgold) Hodges, and is descended from William Hodges, a member of the Angli- can Church, who came to Maryland, from Virginia, about
the year 1665, and settled on a tract of land, between Gray's lun Creek and Chesapeake Bay, known as " Lib- city Hall." He died in tog7, leaving his eldest son and heit, Robert Hodges, who died in 17.30. The latter left a son, Captain James Hodges, who served with credit dur- ing the Revolutionary war. He married Sarah Granger, and died in 1816. Hlis eklest son, James Hodges, of " Liberty Hall," was born in 1759, married, in 1797, Mary Claypoole, and died in 1815, leaving a son, Honorable James Hodges, father of the subject of this sketch. Ile was a farmer of the old Maryland type, genial and gener- ous in disposition and hospitable to the greatest degree. Hle represented Kent, his native county, in the Legislature of Maryland, in the sessions of 1823 and 1824. He mar- ried in 1821 Mary Hanson Ringgold, and died in 1832, leaving five children, the eldest of whom is James Hodges, a prominent Baltimore merchant. Mary Hanson Ringgold was the youngest daughter of Doctor William and Martha (Hanson) Ringgold. Her father was the son of Major William Ringgold, a memoir of whom is contained in this volume. For a period of over two centuries the Ring- golds have been among the leading families of Maryland. " At the period of the Revolution they were conspicuous for their patriotism, and have been represented in the halls of Congress and upon the battle-field." James Hodges is lineally descended from six of the earliest settlers of Kent County, Maryland, viz., William Hodges, who settled in the county in 1665 ; Thomas Ringgold, in 1650; Andrew Hanson, in 1653; Simon Wilmer, in 1688; Thomas Ilyn, son, in 1650, and Marmaduke Tylden, grandson of Sir William Tylden, in 1658. They were all members of the English Church and prominent in the annals of the county, as many of their descendants are also distinguished in the history of the country. James Hodges, at an early age, gave indications of unusual talent, and his father resolved to educate him for the bar, but dying during the boyhood of James, and having left his estate seriously impaired, Mrs. Hodges, with the hope of opening up new opportu- nities for the advancement of her children, removed to Baltimore and procured a commercial situation for James, The position was not congenial to his tastes, but being without influential friends in the city, he was compelled to be content with it, and he proceeded with great steadiness of purpose to make the best use of the position, resolved to acquire mereantile knowledge, and reconstruet by all honorable means the shattered fortunes of his family. In his early career this was the controlling thought of his life. Encouraged by that hope he rapidly advanced in business knowledge, and soon became a valued and trusted clerk. In 1846 the house of Hodges Brothers was established. At the period of its organization, the firm consisted of James and William Ringgold Hodges, aged, respectively, twenty-three and twenty-one years. Twoadditional mem. bers have since been added, Robert Hodges and William Penn Lewis. Few importing drygoods houses in this
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