USA > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 74
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 74
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liever in the principles of Jefferson and Jackson, Mr. Coudon was not a politician in the generally accepted sense of the term; possessed of liberal and broad views upon questions of public policy and a large experience in business, and gifted by nature with a mind of more than ordinary capacity, and a presence and address at once cap- tivating and commanding, he enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his acquaintances to an unlimited degree, and might have attained to almost any position within the gift of the people; but was never induced to quit the retire- ment of private life, except to occupy a seat upon the bench of the Orphans' Court. In the management of the trust thus confided to him, he was universally acknowledged to have had no superior. The interests of the widow and orphan were never guarded with greater wisdom and fidelity than during his stay upon the bench. The fruits of Mr. Coudon's second marriage were three children,-John Stump, who died in infancy, Joseph, and Henry Stump; Joseph, the elder of the surviving brothers, married Caroline, only daughter of George P. Whitaker, of Principio Furnace, an extensive iron manufacturer, and lives at the old home- stead; he had two sons, George P. and Joseph ; the first- named died in childhood. Henry S. married Martha B., eldest daughter of Thomas W. Levering, of Baltimore, and has five children,-Anna, Wilson Levering, Joseph, Lydia, and Martha. He lives upon a part of the paternal estate known as " Ellerslie," and has also a fine farm in Carpen- ter's Point Neck, a portion of the same estate known as "Chowder Hall." Both of these gentlemen have devel- oped a fondness for agricultural pursuits, the latter being a prominent member of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. Mr. Coudon's wife died April 12, 1857, and he was com- pletely prostrated by the shock, they having lived together for a period of nearly forty years. He never recovered from the depression consequent upon the separation, and died May 23, 1860.
PRICE, WILLIAM SKINNER, was born near Ingleside, in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, in 1804. Ilis father, Basil Price, was a farmer, and died in 1829. Ifis mother was Elizabeth, daughter of William Skinner. She died in 1824. He attended a private school during the winter season from his seventh to his twenty-first year, giving the remaining months to the labors of the farm. His father paid for his schooling during his carlier years; as soon as he became old enough to earn money he defrayed his own expenses. He was married soon after he came of age to Eliza A., daughter of John and Mary Potts, both of Ingleside. One year afterward he com- menced farming for himself on borrowed capital, removing the following year to Corsica Neck, where he rented a farm and remained thirteen years. In i'840 he purchased a farm known as the " Fork's Farm," belonging to his unele, Wil-
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liam Skinner, which at the end of one year he sold to ad- vantage, and purchased a farm of three hundred acres, on which he lived until 18 jo, when he sold it and bought the farm known as " Powell's Park," about three miles hom Queenstown. In 1853 he purchased the estate known as " New Market," to which, after erecting a good house and out-buildings, he removed in January, 1854. . Remaining here until 1858, he removed to Queenstown, and commenced mercantile business. In 1861 he sokl " New Market" and purchased a large tract of land on Kent Island, lying on the Chesapeake Bay, to which two years later he removed his family, and conducted the farm, while still continuing his business in Queenstown. To this place he returned in 1868, and devoted himself entirely to mercantile affairs. On leaving Kent Island he divided his estate, which he called " Bellview," into three farms, on which he settled three of his sons, John W., Philemon F., and James B Price, by whom they are still occupied. In October of the same year his wife died, leaving him four sons and four daughters, having previously lost four children. Mr. Price then re- moved to Baltimore, where he resided till 1878, when he returned to Queenstown, where he had built a commodious residence, which he still occupies. His business in that place was closed in 1872. The parents of Mr. Price were devoted and consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which he also united in 1825, at Ingleside, and for a period of fifty-three years has filled the position of leader, steward, and trustce. He was married a second time to Mrs. Pamelia A., widow of George W. Burke, of Baltimore. By the children of his first wife he has forty- six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
FRIOR, EDWARD A., Merchant, was born in the village of Oldendorf, near Osnabruck, in the late Kingdom of llanover, Germany, in March, 1841, where, in addition to the tuition received in the village schools, he was instructed in the different languages by private teachers, fle was the son of Christian Frederick and Lonisa Prior. flis mother's name before marriage was Schrader. . His father has been doing business as a country merchant in the same building occupied by his ancestors for the same purpose for more than two hundred years, which yet bears the date of its erection, 1641. In 1852 his father added to that of linen the manufacture of cotton sheeting, and had on an average one hundred hands em- ployed. . The factory had Edward's particular attention, and he would have preferred to enter a larger business of that kind; but his father desired him to commence his mercantile- career in a retail store, and he was, therefore, apprenticed in a drygoods establishment in the city of Han- over. At the end of his apprenticeship, he was influenced by his father to accept a situation in a banking and for-
warding house in Bremen. That position enabled him to support himself and to be no longer dependent on his father, who had still to provide for you other children. While in Bremen he received an offer of a situation in Baltimore, Maryland, and, with the consent of his parents, he sailed for America, arriving in New York in August, 1859. A few days afterward he reached his destination, and at once entered upon his duties as bookkeeper in the fancy goods and toy house of Il. F. Alberti & Co., with which, and the firms succeeding it, he has been connected until a recent period. After filling the position of bookkeeper for two years in that establishment he changed it for that of salesman, which, in addition to giving him a more prac- tical knowledge of the business, afforded him an oppor- tunity to become more thoroughly acquainted with our lan- guage. During the civil war a branch house was tempo- rarily established in Washington, of which he was placed in charge. At the close of the war he became travelling salesman for the firm, and visited in that capacity nearly all the Western and Southern States, making many ac- quaintances. In 1865, on a trip to Europe, for the purpose of celebrating his parents' silver wedding, he closed a con- tract with the senior member of the firm for whom he had been employed in Baltimore, to receive an interest in the Baltimore business. Accordingly, on January 1, 1866, the name of the firm was changed to Alberti, Brink & Co. During the continuance of that firm, he was actively em- ployed as salesman, when the decease of Mr. Brink made a change necessary, and the firm then became Alberti, Prior & Co., and conducted a highly prosperous trade until De- cember 31, 1877, when he commenced a new firm under the present name of Prior & Hilgenberg This new ar- rangement necessitated several trips to Europe, tending to the improvement of the business, which reached in 1872 nearly half a million dollars. Mr. Prior is a member of the German Society for Protection to Emigrants and the Improvement of their Condition. Ile was a Lutheran by birth and baptism, but is not a member of that church now. He takes no particular interest in politics, but is in- clined to Democratie principles. In the lite war he favored the Southern cause. He has been married twice ; first, on April 4, ISOS, to Bertha, daughter of Dr. Pape, who after a happy union of seven years died, leaving three children, two of whom are living. His second wife, whom he mar- ried May 8, 1877, was a cousin of his former wife.
BURNER, HON. JonN, Farmer and Merchant, was the son of John and Judith ( Price) Turner, and was born in Somerset, now Wicomico County, Maryland, in the year 1813. His mother died when he was a child ; his father lived until 1840. Hle commenced attending school in his seventh year, but after he reached the age of ten was for the most part employed
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in the work of the farm. He, however, attended school at such times as he could until he reached manhood. At eighteen he became a sailor, and at nineteen was master of a schooner owned by his father, which he employed in trading on the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. He was thus engaged until his twenty-third year, when he pur- chased the farm on which he still resides, and devoted himself to agriculture. In 1845 he added to this the busi- ness of a country merchant, in which he has now been en- gaged for thirty-three years. Of late years he has also owned a number of vessels, trading in grain, lumber, and oysters. Mr. Turner began public life in 1845, when he was nominated on the Whig ticket, and elected to the State Legislature, from December of that year to the follow- ing March. Ile was soon after elected one of the County Commissioners, and served for four years. Ile was next appointed School Commissioner by the Governor, which office he also held for four years. In 1861 he was elected to the House of Delegates, and served in the extra session, taking a leading part as a Union man in the measures of that stormy period. Ile served also in the regular session afterward, in which he was recognized as an unflinching patriot on all questions that concerned the honor of his country. Ile zealously supported the right of the National Administration to maintain its authority in all parts of the Union, and though all his slaves, valued at ten thousand dollars, were set free, his sentiments were not changed for a moment. He still says that the course he then pursued at great pecuniary cost to himself he has never regretted. He is a brave, unselfish, and honorable man, and his influ- ence in the community is very decided. He was married in 1833 to Alice, daughter of Matthew and Priscilla Travis, of Somerset County ; after her death he married Cornelia A., daughter of John D. and Leah J. Anderson, also of Somerset County. Ile was baptized in infancy in the Prot- estant Episcopal Church, but his preferences led him in early life to the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he and all his family are members. One of his sons, the Rev. William Pitt Turner, is a man of distinguished ability, and a member of the Pittsburg Annual Conference.
SEATES, HENRY P. P., M.D., was born in Balli- more, Maryland, October 21, 1824. His parents were John L. and M. J. (Pennington) Yeates; his father was a native of Harford County, Mary- land; his mother, of Baltimore. They had four sons and one daughter, all of whom are dead except the subject of this sketch. He received his early education in the schools of his native city, and at the age of thirteen entered Dickinson College, Pennsylvania. He began the study of medicine in his' father's office at eighteen, and afterward spent one year with Dr. N. R. Smith. Ile grad-
nated in February, 1845 ; and after remaining in Baltimore about six months went to the South, where he practiced his profession for three years. He then returned to Balti- more, and has been engaged in the practice of medicine ever since. During the late civil war, he was in active . professional service in the Union Army. He was formerly an old-line. Whig, but is now identified with the Demo- cratic party. At the age of twenty-four, Dr. Yeates mar- ried Miss Martha R. Knighton, daughter of Thomas Knighton, Esq., of Baltimore, but formerly of Anne Arundel County. They had six sons and two daughters, of whom a son and a daughter are deceased. Thomas, the eldest of their children, is now twenty-nine years old, and Milton Garland, the youngest, ten.
CKAIG, HON. W. McMAHON, Lawyer and Leg- islator, was born in Cumberland, Maryland, July 29, 1845. He is the son of Robert Stewart and Sarah A. McKaig. His father was educated for a physician, and practiced for some time in Ohio, then removed to Maryland, where he engaged in the business of shipping coal. Mr. MeKaig was educated in the Alleghany County Academy; studied law in the office of General Thomas J. Mckaig, and was admitted to the bar of Cumberland in 1867. He practiced law in Cumberland until 1873, when he went West on account of his health. He visited Colorado, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, spending some time among the orange groves, then extended his trip to Acapulco, Mex- ico, Pontaranus, Costa Rica, Panama, and across the Isthmus to Aspinwall. From there he went to Savanilla, at the head of the Magdalena River, and from thence to New York, by ocean, and back to Cumberland in May, 1875, where he resumed the practice of law. He was Chairman of the Democratie Executive Committee for Alleghany County, and in 1877 was elected to the House of Delegates. Dur- ing the session of 1878 he was appointed Chairman of the Engrossing Committee, and was made a member of the Committee on Elections and the Committee on the Judiciary. He has been'an active and useful member of the Legislature, and has attained considerable popularity.
HONEY, HENRY DONNELLAN, Lawyer, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, November 14, 1834. He at- tended various private schools in Baltimore until he attained the age of seventeen years. Among his preceptors were the Rev. William N. Pendleton, a distinguished Episcopalian clergyman, and Professor E. M. Topping, who had held the professorship of Greek at Princeton College. At the age heretofore mentioned he
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entered the Junior Class at Princeton, and gradnated with honor in 185.1. Returning to his native city he commenced the study of law in the office of the late Hugh Davy Evans, an eminent lawyer, where he remained for two years, when he entered the office of Messrs. Wallis and Thomas. At the expiration of a year Mr. Loney was ad- mitted to the Baltimore bar, and at once entered upon a lucrative practice. Mr. Loney is a general practitioner, but gives special attention to bankruptcy cases before the United States courts in Maryland and other States. Ile was, for fifteen years, a member of the well-known law firm of Matthews & Loney, which had a very extended prac- tice in bankruptcy cases. In the autumn of 1873 Mr. Loney was elected a member of the Baltimore City Council (Second Branch), from the Eleventh and Twelfth wards. Ile there inaugurated the famous fight against the frauds then existing in the Municipal Government, notably among which was what was known as the " City Yard," where the dredging of the harbor of Baltimore, and all the work incidental thereto was conducted. He was one out of thirty members of the City Council who worked and voted against appropriations for that purpose. After serving two years in the Second Branch, Mr. Loney was returned by the Twelfth Ward to the First Branch of the City Council, when the Reform party, of which he was the representative and the acknowledged leader, secured sufficient votes in the Council to enable its mem- bers, through the influence and efforts of Mr. Loney, to withhold any appropriation for the "City Yard," and to have an ordinance passed creating the present Ilarbor Board, which is composed of gentlemen who serve without pay, the new system accomplishing a reduction in the mu- nicipal expenses of $250,000 per annum, whilst it is far more efficient and satisfactory in its workings and results than the former. Mr. Loney may be regarded as the prime mover in this important measure of municipal reform. In April, 1878, upon the nomination of Hon. Robert Gilmor, Judge of the Circuit Court, he was appointed Auditor of the Court of Chancery by the Supreme Bench of Balti- more, which position he holds at the present time. Mr. Loney has been an active member of the Fifth Regiment, Maryland National Guard, ever since its organization in 1867, and was really its founder, the first meeting for its formation having been held in his office. He was elected its Major in 1868, Lieutenant-Colonel in 1871, and Colo- nel in 1876. May 10, 1877, he resigned the Colonelcy after a faithful service of ten years as a soldier and an offi- cer. Colonel Loney's father was the late William Loney, a prominent and extensive wholesale drygoods merchant of Baltimore. He died in 1866. The latter was a son of Amos Loney, a highly respected citizen and farmer of Baltimore County. The progenitors of the Loneys were of English birth. The mother of the Colonel was Miss Rebecca , Tryer, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Colonel Loney married, April 26, 1864, Miss Anna M. Van Ness,
daughter of the late Colonel Eugene Van Ness, Deputy Paymaster-General United States Army. He has but one child, Matilda Van Ness Loney. Colonel Loney is an ac- complished lawyer, and a gentleman whose purity of char- acter and honesty of motives were demonstrated by the bold and independent stand he took against political cor- ruption, at the periods already referred to; an attitude which he had the moral courage to assume, though, in thus doing, he was acting counter to the sentiments of the party which elected him for his first term in the City Council.
ENNEDY, WILLIAM, Cotton Merchant and Manu- facturer, was born in Philadelphia, February 26, 1801. His father, John Kennedy, died when the subject of this sketch was nine years of age, and William was compelled, early in life, to rely upon his own exertions and energy for the support of his widowed mother and himself. When but fourteen years old he adopted a scafaring life in the merchant service. So apt and efficient was he in the profession he had chosen, that we find him, at the age of nineteen years, Captain of a vessel, and from thence, 1820, until he aban- doned the sea, in 1834, he continued in command of various first class merchant ships. As master of vessels sailing out of the port of Baltimore he was in that city at different pe- riods from 1828 until 1831, when he took up his permanent residence therein. In the latter year he married Mary Ann Jenkins, daughter of William Jenkins, a prominent merchant of Baltimore. After a business connection of several years with the house of William Jenkins & Sons, Mr. Kennedy, in 1846, entered into the cotton business, three years thereafter becoming the President of the Mount Vernon Cotton Manufacturing Company, whose extensive mills are located in Baltimore County. He was one of the founders of that corporation, and the chief stockholder therein. Ile occupied the Presidency thereof until his death, October 4, 1873. Mr. Kennedy occupied many other positions of honor and responsibility. He was Director in the National Bank of Baltimore ; the Baltimore Savings Bank ; the Equitable Fire Insurance Company ; the l'ea- body Insurance Company ; the Baltimore Dispensary ; St. Mary's Industrial School ; was one of the founders of the First National Bank of Baltimore; was a " Protector " in St. Mary's Female Orphan Asylum, and Trustee of the Cathedral He was the first Treasurer of the Boston Steam- ship Company, and held the position ten years. He was one of the earliest contributors to the stock of that com- pany, and one of its vessels bears his name. All through the American civil war Mr. Kennedy was a stanch and devoted supporter of the Federal Government, and con- tributed substantial aid to the patriot cause, whenever the exigencies of the times required it. With him the love
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of country was a deep and pervading sentiment, and he considered no sacrifice too great in the maintenance of the integrity of the American Union. ITis residence was on the York Road, Baltimore County, a short distance beyond the northern boundary of the city. It is known as " Oak Hall," and was the centre of unbounded hospitality
- during its occupancy by its highly respected owner, as well as that of his son-in-law, the late Colonel William M. Boone. The above property, which was acquired by Mr. Kennedy through his wife, had been in the posses- sion of the Jenkins family for many years. Through his munificence St. Ann's Church, near his residence, was constructed, he also donating the land on which it stands. It was called St. Ann's in deference to the wishes of Mrs. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy died, as already mentioned, in October, 1873, after two years of ill health. A solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated at the Cathedral, by Rev. B. J. McManus, and the venerable building was thronged with the sympathizing friends of the deceased. A touching and beautiful funeral address was delivered by Bishop Gibbons, the present Archbishop of Baltimore. Though engaged in extensive enterprises, and having hundred's of employees under him, Mr. Kennedy devoted a large portion of his time to the interests of the Catholic Church, of which he was a devout member. He was a man of striet integrity of character, whose word was his bond. He possessed great Christian charity, and dispensed aid to worthy objects with a liberal hand. Mr. Kennedy com- manded universal respect, and his death occasioned wide- spread grief. His benevolence and Christian virtues will be perpetuated in the memories of men, by the stately church of St. Ann, and the recollection of his charitable deeds cannot soon pass from the minds of his numerous beneficiarics. Mr. Kennedy had two children, one of whom was Mrs. Richard Cromwell, deceased, the other Mrs. William M. Boone, whose husband's biography ap- pears in this volume.
GLUUrU.O RAMNER, JAMES GARLAND, D.D., was born in Al- bemarle County, Virginia, January 6, 1798, and was educated at Ilampden Sidney College, in Prince Edward County, under the Presidency of Dr. Moses Hoge. After his death, in 1820, he contin- ued and completed his theological studies at Princeton Theological Seminary, in New Jersey; was licensed to preach by the Hanover Presbytery in 1822, and ordained at Charlottesville in 1825. Ile commenced his ministry in Hanover County, Virginia, in Pole Green Church edifice, the original ecclesiastical organization of which had become extinct. His labors there resulted in the re-gathering of a church, which exists to this date. In 1826 he was called to and settled in the Presbyterian Church at Fayetteville, North Carolina, and while there married Miss Olivia
Murry, of New York, September 18, 1827. This lady died April 14, 1829. His health failing at this time, Dr. Ilamner retired from the charge of that church, until August, 1830, when having recovered he was called to the church in Frederick City, and remained there mutil June, 1833. On December 9, 1830, he was married to Miss Jane McElderry, of Baltimore, who died August 8, 1871. In June, 1833, at his own request, he was dismissed from the church in Frederick, Maryland, by the Presbytery of Baltimore, and commenced a new enterprise in that city, which resulted in the organization of a Fifth Presbyterian Church, by that Presbytery, in October of that year, he being installed the first pastor. In 1852 he was released from his pastorate, in consequence of impaired health, leaving a membership of between three hundred and four hundred persons. For the thrce following years he was wholly disabled from preaching, until, in 1855, having re- cuperated, he was invited to preach in a Congregational Church which had just been completed in New Haven, Connecticut. Ilere he remained for ten months, having in that time organized a church of about one hundred communicants, and then retired because they were unable to extinguish the heavy debt on the building. From that date Dr. Hammer preached as a self-directed evangelist, until 1860, when he was installed pastor of the Presbyte- rian Church in Newark, New Jersey. In 1861 he with- drew from that charge, in consequence of the political agitation of the country; since which time he has been laboring wherever Divine Providence has opened the way before him, his residence all the while being in the city of Baltimore. His health is excellent for an octogenarian, and he still preaches with unction and success, as he has done through his ministerial life. He is a learned divine, and has been an eminent revivalist.
RAVERS, HONORABLE LEVI D., was born on Tay- lor's Island, Dorchester County, Maryland, No- vember 21, 1828. Ilis parents were Levi D. and Prudence (Spedden) Travers. His father was a man of excellent character, a merchant and planter, and through life took an active part in county and State affairs. He was several times an unsuccessful candidate for public office, as the Democratic party, to which he belonged, was then greatly in the minority. The first of the family of this name in Maryland was Henry Travers, who came from England and settled in Dorchester County. He was an educated man, and highly esteemed as a teacher. He held the office of " Lordship Justice," in the colony of Mary- land, and took an active interest in militia service, passing through the several ranks from captain to colonel. Be- tween the years 1750 aud 1770 he was a member of the Colonial Legislature. The carly educational advantages of the subject of this sketch were excellent. He studied
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