The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1, Part 71

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

USA > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 71
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 71

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GRIFFITH, HON. HOWARD, Farmer and Legislator, was born March 20, 1821, in Montgomery County, Maryland, where he now resides. His parents, Greenbery and Prudence (Jones) Griffith, the latter of whom is still living, were also natives of Mary- land, their ancestors coming to this country among the early settlers. Ilis father was a brave officer in the war of 1812. Mr. Griffith received only such education in the English branches as the common schools of that time afforded. Early in life he settled upon the farm where he still resides. He has been a successful farmer, and has added largely to his estate. Ile has been engaged exten- sively in raising and shipping stock. In local politics he has been quite prominent in his section for a number of years. From 1852 to 1856 he was one of the Commis-

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sioners of his county, and a member of the State Legisla- ture in 1860-61, the majority of whose members were ar- rested by order of the Federal authorities during the called session of the Legislature at Frederick City. Mr. Griffith, however, escaped arrest, having been at home on a visit, and was on horseback returning to Frederick City, when he was informed of what had transpired, and pru- dently turned again homeward. He was chosen again to the House of Delegates in 1876, and returned to the session of 1878. Ile was married in 1847 to Miss Sarah Chiswell, who died in 1859, leaving him four children, two sons and two daughters. Ilis eldest son, Charles G., is a farmer and miller; William T. is also a farmer. The names of his daughters are Georgia and Julia. Mr. Grif- fith is a highly respected and useful member of the House.

.. 0.0 cLAUGHLIN, DANIEL, second son of George and Mary A. (McCadden) Mclaughlin, was born, December 6, 1831, in the city of Balti- more. Ile enjoyed the advantages of the best public schools of the city till he was eighteen years of age, when he was apprenticed to Mr. John Armiger, a prominent builder of Old Town. While learn- ing that business he attended the Drawing School of the Maryland Institute, during the evenings of four winters, with the view of perfecting himself as an architect. He served out his apprenticeship faithfully, and worked for several years as a journeyman at his trade. About the year 1857 he entered into partnership with Mr. John Q. A. House in the same business. They continued together six or seven years, and their business was very prosperous, but during this time, in 1861, Mr. Mclaughlin also en- tered into partnership with his brother Kobert in the shoe business. Their first plan was simply to buy the shoes and sell them, but the existence of the war made it impossible to obtain them, and they were compelled to commence manufacturing. The business experienced the vicissitudes of all new enterprises, but their determined energy and readiness to adopt all new improvements in their line of business, soon turned the tide in their favor. . The MeKay sole-sewing machine, which had just been introduced, was of great service to them. The business soon grew to such proportions as to require the whole time and attention of Mr. Mclaughlin, and he withdrew his connection with the building partnership. In April of the same year, in the last draft, his services were demanded in aid of his country, aud feeling. that it was his duty to go, that his life was not more precious than that of others, he entered the army. Ilis five brothers had all been drafted at different times during the war, but had all procured substitutes. At the beginning of the contest his brother Henry enlisted and saw two years of service. He was taken prisoner,

and for six months endured the horrors of Belle Isle. All the family were strong Union people, and assisted the cause of their country to the extent of their power. Mr. D. Mclaughlin had been in the army about three months, when the news of the fall of Richmond reached his com- pany at Sandy Point, Virginia, and they returned to Tenally- town, near Georgetown. On July 31, having proceeded to Washington, they were honorably discharged at the Delaney House, D. C. Mr. Mclaughlin at once resumed business. The brothers were then located on Calvert Street corner of Mercer, and were prospering finely. Soon being unable to fill the orders they received, they decided to remove to 79 East Monument Street. In this place they had the advantage of stcam-power, and by the use of machinery they were enabled to meet the steadily increas- ing demand for their manufactures. Upon the introduc- tion of each new machine, Mr. D. Mclaughlin learned to opcrate it himself, and became an expert in that branch of the business. The knowledge and experience he had ob- tained in building proved of great use to him, for in 1875 the retail salesroom of the company, on the corner of Gay and Mott streets, was erected under his supervision, and in 1877, the business having greatly enlarged, the brothers decided to build a new factory, and Mr. D. Mclaughlin superintended the erection of the large and magnificent four-story building on the corner of Baltimore and Eden streets, to which they removed in November of that year. It is surmounted by a tower one hundred feet high, from which floats the banner of the company, which can be seen to a great distance. They have at their manufactory, also, one of the finest retail salesrooms in the city. They em- ploy about fifty hands and make all styles of shoes for men, women, misses, and children. At one time a whole- sale salesroom was established at 318 West Baltimore Street, and the brothers John and William were included in the partnership; but the business is now owned and conducted by Daniel and Robert Mclaughlin exclusively. M. D. Mclaughlin was married in March, 1872, to Miss Mary E. Rouse, of Baltimore. Ile attends the Universalist Church, but has never formally connected himself with any denomination. He inclines to the principles of the Re- publican party, but reserves the right to vote for the best men on any of the tickets. He is a member of the Society of Odd Fellows.

BOORE, HON. THOMAS BAILEY, Merchant, was born in Quantico District, Wicomico County, Maryland, October 10, 1823. Ilis parents were Benjunin and Hetty ( Bailey) Moore. His mother died when he was only six years of age, and he lost his father three years later, after which he was taken to the home of his uncle. From his sixth to his sixteenth year he attended the district school. At the age of seven-

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teen he apprenticed himself to learn the carriage-making trade, at which he faithfully served till he attained his majority. Ile then, in connection with his brother George, purchased a farm, and for three years they devoted them- selvas to the cultivation of the soil. But while fond of 'farming his carly tastes strongly inclined him also to mer- cantile pursuits, and after a long and careful consideration the brothers finally sold their farm, stock, and implements, and set out for the West, to see what inducements that por- tion of the country might hold out to them. Stage-coaches then afforded them the only means of conveyance over the route they traversed. They went through Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri. In travelling through these States the striking contrast between the towns, villages, and farmi- houses in the free State on one side of the river and in the slave State on the other side showed Mr. Moore in the . strongest light the evils and curse of slavery, and settled his convictions in regard to it for life. Still the strong home ties prevailed, and after their wanderings the broth- ers returned and began mercantile life in Quantico. As was largely the custom with country merchants at that time they sold ardent spirits; but Mr. Thomas Moore, be- lieving it to be his Christian duty, obtained the consent of his brother George, then his partner, and abandoned that objectionable part of his business, and thereafter prospered in all his worldly affairs. During that year, 1847, he united with the church of his parents. Mr. Moore is still a merchant, and also a landowner. In early life he was a Whig. In 1857 he was elected by the American party to the State Legislature for two years from January, 1858. On the breaking out of the war he strongly espoused the cause of the Union. In 1862 a mass meeting was held in Princess Anne, Somerset County, Maryland, for the purpose of sustaining the Crittenden resolutions, maintaining the right and necessity of the war in the defence of the Union. Of this meeting Mr. Moore was chosen President. In 1865 he was nominated and elected a Commissioner for Somerset County, and served in that capacity for the two years following, when he retired from the Board with the good will of both political parties. As an evidence of the regard and esteem in which he is held by people of all political creeds, it may be stated that he and his brother are frequently found named in the wills of individuals of entirely different political sentiments, leaving in their hands the settlement of large estates. In 1869 Mr. Moore or- ganized the Order of the " Knights of Pythias " in Quan- tico, becoming himself one of the charter members, and was constituted Prelate of the Order. The society still exists in a flourishing condition, and owes its snecess in great measure, from the beginning, to the energy and ability of Mr. Moore. It has now over fourteen hundred dollars in its treasury. In 1848 Mr. Moore married Rachel W., daughter of Major Ralph Lowe, of Wicomico County. They have had but one child, Mary Elizabeth, who died in the fourth year of her age. In 1876 Mr. Moore was

elected lay delegate' of his district for the Wilmington Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and took a prominent part in the action on the Presiding Eldership, and other matters of church policy.

OFFMAN, WILLIAM H., was born near Gunpowder Falls, Baltimore County, Maryland. He is now well advanced in years, of the third generation of the family of that name who have been operating continuously, for one hundred and two years, a paper-mill erected at the place of his birth, and the first ever erected in the State. Mr. Iloffman's grandparents on his father's side, William and Susanna lloffman, came to America from Germany, near Frankfort, about the year 1765, and landed in Philadelphia. Ile had learned the trade of paper-making in the Fatherland, and after his ar- rival in this country worked for a Mr. Sheets at paper- making for two years, to pay the expenses incurred in coming here. After a few years, he rented a small paper- mill, near what was then called Dunkertown, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Ilaving saved a small amount of money, about the year 1776 he went to the province of Maryland, and selected the locality where the subject of this sketch was born, about two miles and a half from Mason and Dixon's line. Mason and Dixon's line, of which so much used to be said in the days of the anti- slavery agitation, was established but a short time previous to Mr. Hoffman's settlement. There is a large stonc planted at the end of each mile. These stones were brought from England, some of them having a crown cut on them, and others a P on one side and an M on the other, denoting that on one side is Pennsylvania and on the other Maryland. It is said that a road two rods wide had been cut along this line; but little traces of it, however, are now to be found. Indian relics have been gathered there, showing that these aboriginals had once inhabited the ter- ritory. The land is hilly throughout that district, and not very productive ; but where not rocky, good crops are raised. It was here the original William Hoffman, finding the water very clear and pure, together with most excel- lent advantages for obtaining water-power, built the first paper-mill. The process of manufacturing paper was then slow, it being nearly all handwork, but little machinery being used or known. Hle made a good deal of paper under the circumstances. Nearly all, if not all, the paper on which the Continental money was printed was made by Mr. Hoffman in that mill. Congress deeming it inexpe- dient to remain in Philadelphia, had removed to York, Pennsylvania, which is only twenty-two miles distant from the mill, and there held a session and issued the Continen- tal money. Mr. Hoffman acquired a good deal of land there, for which he paid one dollar per acre, and so secured some of the most valuable water privileges in Baltimore

y KKCoffman

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County. lle died at the age of seventy-one years, and he, with his five sons, who lived and died there, are all buried in that vicinity. His son, Peter Hoffman, inherited the mill and much of the property around. He occupied his time between paper-making and a little farming, never carning a dollar in any other way. William Il. Hoffman was his only son, and to him the property was left by will. Hle has associated with him his three sons, G. W. S., W. E., and J. W., who are still operating the original mill, having rebuilt it, as also three other mills in the same county. These are all fitted up with the most improved machinery, making book and news paper, and manilla for paper bags, etc. Mr. Hoffman was a member of the Leg- islature in 1863, and voted for calling a convention to form a new Constitution. He was also a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1864, and advocated the in- sertion of the elause that slavery should no longer exist in Maryland, and also, that the General Government is supreme. He expresses himself as glad that he became associated in early life with the Whig party, as, by such connection, he had no trouble in being a Union man during the war. Although seareely willing to acknowledge him- self an old man, Mr. Hoffman retains many pleasant rem- iniseenees of noted personages and events of the past. Ile witnessed several grand processions, among which was one in honor of the visit of General Lafayette to Balti- more in 1824, and the great " Log Cabin " demonstration in favor of General Harrison, when he was a candidate for the Presidency. In 1828 Mr. Hoffman witnessed the ceremony of laying the corner-stone for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in a field near Gwynn's Falls, two or three miles from the city of Baltimore, on which occasion the venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton assisted in breaking the ground. He also saw, in the Senate Cham- ber, Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Benton, and Grundy, and heard Clay speak before a crowded house. During his boyhood, Mr. Hoffman having heard Mr. Morrison lecture on temperance, signed the pledge, sinee which time he has abstained entirely from all intoxieating liquors and the use of tobacco in all its forms. For many years he has been a consistent and active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and now holds the office of class-leader and steward. Ile built, at his own expense, a very conve- nient and pleasant church near his own residenec, and has set apart a fund toward its maintenance.

MIOMAS, JOHN 1 .. , JR., Collector of the Port of Baltimore, was born in that city, May 20, 1835. llis paternal ancestors were of German, and his maternal of French-extraction. His father was born at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and came to Baltimore in 1814, where he continued to reside. llis mother's 41

maiden name was Matilda I .. Seeley. She was a native of Vergennes, Vermont, and was a granddaughter of Col- onel John Wolthrop, of the Revolutionary army. When Mr. Thomas was quite young his parents removed to Cum- berland, Maryland, where he spent his boyhood days. Ile received an academic education at Cumberland, and at an early age began the study of law under the guidance of General Thomas J. MeKaig, then the leader of the Alle- ghany County bar. In 1856 he was admitted to the bar, and immediately upon his admission was selected as Coun- sellor for the town of Cumberland, which position he held until his removal to Baltimore in the fall of that year. He opened an office in Baltimore, on Fayette Street, near Charles, and assiduously followed his pro- fession until 1865, when he entered Congress as the Representative of the Second Congressional Distriet of Maryland. His faithful discharge of the various duties . devolving upon him, his elose attention to business and genial manner won for him many friends, and among the first to recognize his worth were John V. L. McMahon, John Nelson, T. Jates Walsh, Coleman Vellote, and other prominent publie men. When he returned to his native city, in 1856, he took part in the gubernatorial campaign of that year, espousing the cause of T. Holliday llieks. His efforts on the stump not only brought him into public notice, but into intimate friendly relations with An- thony Kennedy, John P. Kennedy, Henry Winter Davis, and the leading Native Americans in Baltimore at that time. He had been raised as an old-line Whig, his father being a supporter of llenry Clay. It was but natural, therefore, that Mr. Thomas should act in antagonism to the Demoeratie party of that day. It was during this period that he assisted in the prosecution of John Claggett for murder. Claggett was defended by S. Teackle Wallis and Henry Winter Davis. Claggett's trial excited great attention throughout the State. He was convicted of mur- der in the second degree. The efforts of Mr. Thomas in that case were the foundation of his future success. He was subsequently counsel in many leading criminal eases, notably for the defence in the Federal Hill riots in 1858, and in the case of William G. Ford for murder, in the last- named case being associated with John Nelson, In 1859 he was employed by Henry Winter Davis to manage his contested election case against William G. Harrison, and acquitted himself in such a manner as to secure to Mr. Davis his seat in Congress. At the first indications of re- bellion in 1860, Mr. Thomas was outspoken against the doctrine of sceession; and when in 1861 the first overt act of treason was committed, he was loud in his denunci- ations of the men who were the authors of the erime. On the night of April 18, 1861, he was at the Old Fountain Hotel on Light Street, in company with Governor licks, Ilenry Winter Davis, and other prominent Unionists, and at the peril of his life, made a conciliatory Union speceh from the veranda of the hotel to the mob assembled there

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to do violence to the Governor. During the delivery of his speech, Governor Hicks was taken from the hotel to a place of security, and when the mob discovered that Mr. Thomas had been put up to divert them until the Gov- ernor's escape had been made, they made a demonstration against him, but failed in their designs, as the police, under Captain Boyd, of the Southern District, had offered him protection. On the next day, April 19, he witnessed the firing of the mob on the Sixth Massachusetts regiment, and assisted to carry the wounded body of Needham, of Lowell, who had been shot, near the corner of Pratt Street, to a neighboring drug store, where he died. During the days succeeding April 19 and May 25, when General Butler made his entry into Baltimore, Mr. Thomas was true in his Union sentiments, and although frequently warned by note by the Volunteer Association, a secession organiza- tion, to leave the city, he stood his ground and never wa- vered. It was during this time that the City Council of Baltimore passed a law making it a penal offence to raise the American flag. A number of young men on Federal Hill had been arrested for a violation of this law. Mr. Thomas volunteered as their counsel, had them released on a writ of habeas corpus, and that night made the first Union speech delivered in Baltimore after April 19, on the. corner of Bank Street and Broadway. In June, 1861, he was appointed as Counsellor for the city of Baltimore. He was reappointed in 1862, and held the position until his selection as State's Attorney for Baltimore city in 1863. As City Counsellor, he tried many important cases, and had as antagonists such men as William Schley, Reverdy John- son, and J. Il. B. Latrobe, and the large vote he received as State's Attorney, showed the estimation in which he was held by the people. In 1864, while he was State's At- torney, he was elected as a member of the State Constitu- tional Convention. The records and debates of that body evince the prominent and active part taken by him in framing the organic law of that year. He framed the ju- dicial system adopted by that Convention, advocated thie immediate and uncompensated emancipation of all the slaves, and favored the adoption of such principles as would put Maryland on a footing with her more advanced Northern neighbors. In 1865 Mr. Thomas was elected to Congress from the district composed of Harford County, a part of Baltimore County, and the first eight wards of the city of Baltimore. It was the Congress immediately suc- ceeding the war, and was conceded to be the most import- ant of any that had met.since the adoption of the Federal Union. It had the task imposed upon it of wekdling to- gether the broken and dismembered Union, of instituting new governments for the South, providing for four million slaves who had been freed by the operation of the war, and protecting them in their civil and human rights; and of providing ways and means for carrying on the Government. It was a Congress composed of many of the most distin- guished men in the country, and of some who for the first

time had entered the national forum, but have since become famous. To be a member of such a body of men was a high honor. In Congress Mr. Thomas made for himself a record which has ever since secured to him the friendship of the great men of his party. Ile stood with Thaddeus Stevens and other leaders of the Republican party, in ad- vocating and voting for the great measures passed by Con- gress, and his name will be found recorded in favor of the Civil Rights Bill, the Freedman's Bureau Bill, the Recon- struction Laws, the Colorado Bill, and other measures of kindred importance. As a member of the Committee of Commerce, he secured the passage of a bill to deepen and widen the ship channel of Baltimore. He was also a mem- ber of the Joint Committee on Retrenchment. He was re- nominated for Congress in 1867, by the unanimous vote of his party, but his votes and speeches in Congress in favor of Republican ideas lost him his election, and at the end of his term he returned to the practice of his profession. In 1868 Mr. Thomas was sent as a delegate at large to the National Republican Convention that met at Chicago. He there supported Grant for President, and B. F. Wade for Vice-President. In 1869 General Grant appointed him as Collector of Customs for the port of Baltimore. This ap- pointment was made at the urgent solicitation of many prominent men of his party in Maryland, indorsed by James G. Blaine, Samuel Hooper, John A. Bingham, Henry L. Daws, Thomas W. Ferry, and a large number of Republi- can senators and representatives throughout the country, who served with him in the Thirty-ninth Congress. Rutherford B. Hayes, then Governor of Ohio, wrote to President Grant under date of February 3, 1869, in favor of the appoint- ment of Mr. Thomas, saying " that he was a member of the Thirty-ninth Congress, and was throughout a firm and able supporter of the Republican measures of that Con- gress in opposition to the policy of Andrew Johnson." Mr. Thomas filled the office of Collector for four years. At the latter part of his term he was taken sick, and his commission expiring, President Grant failed to re-com- mission him. In 1876 Mr. Thomas was sent as a delegate at large to the Republican National Convention, which met at Cincinnati. Ile was made Chairman of the Maryland delegation in that Convention, and voted for James G. Blaine. During the Presidential campaign that ensued, he was Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, and, June 22, 1877, was reappointed by President Ilayes as Collector of Customs for the port of Baltimore, vice E. Wilkins, who was removed, which position he still holds. In 1864 he was appointed by Governor Bradford to eurol the' militia comprised in the First, Second, Third, and Fourth wards, of Baltimore city. In March, 1867, he was again appointed as City Counsellor, but resigned on Mayor Banks taking possession of the Mayoralty. In 1866 he was a member of the Loyalist Convention, which met at Philadelphia, and of which John Minor Botts, of Virginia, was Chairman. Mr. Thomas was chairman of

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the Maryland delegation in that body. He married Miss Azalia Ilussey, granddaughter of John P. Strobel, one of the defenders of Baltimore in 1814, and has three children living.

COFFMAN, DANIEL P., Physician and Surgeon, was born in Baltimore, November 11, 1820. He was the eldest son of John and Margaret Ann (Peterson) Hoffman. The family is one of the oldest in the city. Dr. Iloffman was educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he pur- sued a full classical course. In 1838 he commenced the study of medicine in Baltimore under the instruction of Professor J. H. Miller. He afterwards entered the Mary- land Medical Institute, from which, having passed through a thorough course, he graduated March 1, 1840. The fol- lowing August he commenced in his native city the prac- tice of his profession, in which he has ever since been constantly and actively engaged, devoting his time to the general practice of medicine, and to obstetrics. He has no specialties. As a safe, sound, and successful physician he receives the well-merited respect of his professional brethren, and the confidence of the community. He is held in universal esteem as an honest, upright, and trust- worthy citizen. In 1872 he was elected on the part of the city a director of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and was re-elected in 1877, the duties of which position he fills with credit to himself and satisfaction to the city. In 1842 he was united in marriage with Maria Louisa Burot Hilbert, of Baltimore. He has four children ; the eldest, Mary Elizabeth, wife of Robert Emmet Jones, a promi- nent member of the Baltimore bar ; . Emily Lusby, wife of George H1. Huschart, recently of Cincinnati, Ohio, but now engaged in the pork-packing business in Baltimore; John llomer, twenty-one years of age, a graduate of Loyola College, Baltimore, who recently entered upon a pro- fessional course of study at the Maryland Medical Univer- 'sity ; and Daniel P., Jr., aged sixteen, whose preferences are for a mercantile life.

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1, Part 71

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