USA > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 76
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 76
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now the Senior Warden. fle is nentral in politics. In iSo he was united in marriage with Margaret Jane, eldest daughter of Charles M. Keller, a distinguished patient lawyer of New York city.
HOMAS, HONORABLE PHILIP FRANCIS, was born at Easton, Talbot County, Maryland, and was edu- cated at the Easton Academy, and Dickinson Col- lege, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1831. He was elected as a Democrat to the House of Delegates in 1838. In the following year he was elected to the Twenty-sixth Con- gress from his district, composed of Talbot, Queen Anne's, Caroline, Kent, and Cecil counties. The late Senator, James Alfred Pearce, was the Whig candidate. Mr. Thomas served through that Congress and was renomin- ated to the Twenty-seventh Congress, but declined to be a candidate, and resumed the practice of the law. He was twice afterwards elected a member of the House of Dele- gates from Talbot County. In 1847 he was nominated by a Democratic convention a candidate for Governor, elected, and served a term of three years, retiring in 1851. In 1851 he was nominated and elected Comptroller of the Treasury, an office created by the Constitution of 1851. Ile resigned that office in 1853, and accepted the office of Col- lector of Customs of the Port of Baltimore, under the ad- ministration of President Pierce, and served during that Presidential term. Mr. Thomas was offered the place of Governor of Utah Territory during the Mormon war, by President Buchanan, but declined to accept it. Subse- quently he was offered the office of Treasurer of the United States by President Buchanan, vice Casey, deceased, but declined it. Ile was soon after appointed Commissioner of Patents, and continued in that office until December, 1860, when he was appointed by President Buchanan Secretary of the Treasury, resigning that office in January, 1861. Mr. Thomas was again elected to the llouse of Delegates in 1866, and during the session of that year was elected to the Senate of the United States, but was refused admission, and finally rejected February 19, 1868, for alleged dis- loyalty. He was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress and served through that term. He is now a member of the Ilouse of Delegates.
ALL, REUBEN JAMES HOOPER, M.D., was born July 9, 1843, at Tobacco Stick, Dorchester County, Maryland. Ilis father, Levin W. Tall, and his mother, Mary ( Harrington) Tall, were natives of the same county. They had six children, two sons and four daughters, of whom Reuben was the youngest. Their first-born, Lake Tall, died in Philadelphia, at the
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age of twenty-eight years, leaving a wife and two children. His parents removed to Baltimore when the subject of this sketch was but eighteen months old. He attended the public schools of that city until he was fourteen years of age, when the family returned to Dorchester County. lle continued his studies in his native town until he was six- teen, and was then appointed teacher of the school. While employed in that capacity he began the study of medicine. lle went to Baltimore, and entered the University of Mary- land, where he graduated. Having attended two courses of lectures, he commenced the practice of medicine in Bal- timore in 1865, and has prosecuted it with much success ever since. When twenty-four years of age he married Miss Mollie C. Blake, daughter of J. W. Blake, Esq., of Baltimore, April 14, 1869. They have one son, Harry B. Tall. Dr. Tall is not a member of any religious denomina- tion, but his views and inchnations are Methodistic. In politics he has always been a Democrat.
ARMICHAEL, HONORABLE WILLIAM, was born in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, in 1775. llc. studied law at Annapolis in company with Chief Justice Taney ; located at Centreville, and for thirty years engaged successfully in the practice of his pro- fession. He was regarded as one of the most prominent lawyers of Maryland. He was a member of the Mary- land Senate from 1816 to 1821. In 1830, he retired from the practice of law and devoted his time to farming, until his death, which occurred in 1853. He was married in 1803 to Miss Sarah Downes, daughter of Edward Downes, Esq., a prominent farmer of Queen Anne's County, who died in 1817, leaving two daughters and one son, the llon- orable Richard Bennett Carmichael. In the " Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney, D.D.," by Tyler, Judge Tancy thus speaks of Mr. Carmichael : " I have always deemed it a fortunate circumstance that William Carmichael, of the Eastern Shore of this State, came to Annapolis to read law while I was there. We became intimate friends, and roomed together for a year. We read in different offices, but we read the same books, and at the same time ; and every night we talked over the reading of the day and the principles of law it established, and the distinctions and qualifications to which they were subject. We did not talk for victory, but for mutual information, and neither of us felt or was entitled to feel any superiority of genius or information over the other. Ile afterward became emi- nent at the bar ; but inheriting, by the death of his father, a large landed estate, and attached to a country life, he gradually withdrew from the profession, and finally, while he was yet in the prime of life, abandoned it altogether and devoted himself to the pursuits of agriculture. Ile died a few months ago. The . friendship formed between us when students continued unbroken and undiminished
to the hour of his death ; and I could not write my biog- raphy without recording our early associations, nor can I introduce his name without expressing the cordial friend- ship I entertained for him. He was a frank, manly, and high-minded gentleman."
ARMICHAEL, HONORABLE RICHARD BENNETT, JR., Farmer and Legislator, was born in Talbot County, Maryland, July 2, 1836. Ile is the son of Honorable Richard B. Carmichael, of Queen Anne's County, Maryland, a prominent Lawyer, Jurist, and Legislator. Mr. Carmichael was educated at the Univer- sity of Virginia, and has devoted his time principally to farming in Queen Anne's County. lle is a Democrat in politics, and was a member of the State Conventions of 1869 and 1873. In 1877 he was elected to the House of Delegates, receiving the largest majority received by any member from that county since the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment.
ATIIELL, DANIEL WEBSTER, M.D., the fourth son of Colonel Levi Cathell, was born in Worcester County, Maryland, in November, 1839. His pa- rents, descended from the earliest settlers of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, removed to Baltimore when he was but four years of age. His education was ac- quired at the public grammar and high schools, after which he took a private course at Loyola College. On completing his education, failing to find an occupation suited to his tastes, he took a trip to New Orleans, where he secured an excellent situation, but becoming tired of the South, he returned to Baltimore, and thence again to Worcester County, where he engaged in milling with his brother James, until the commencement of the civil war. Then, having strong Union sentiments, he quit business and assisted in forming the Purnell Legion of Union Vol- unteers, from which he never separated until disabled by wounds received at the battle of Antietam. After conva- lescing from these wounds, he was sent to attend upon some sick and wounded men at the Brigade Hospital. While there his untiring energy in attending to his duties attracted the attention of the attending surgeon, under whose advice and tutelage he commenced the study of medicine, using Wilson's Anatomy as his only textbook. Soon afterward he was sent to assist Surgeon Cadden in organizing West's Buildings Hospital, at Baltimore, where for six months he availed himself of rare chances for study within its wards and dead-house. Having thus prepared himself, he left the army and continued his studies under the preceptorial care of Professor Nathan R. Smith, meanwhile attending a
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course of lectures at the University of Maryland. Ile rc- mained under Professor Smith for twelve months, when, by advice, he went to New York, matriculated in Balti- more flospital, and attended a clinical course upon auscultation and perenssion in its hospital wards by Pro- fessor Austin Flint, and one on military surgery and frac- tures by Professor Frank 11. Hamilton. Ile then proceeded . to Brooklyn, and after placing himself under the celebrated Professor A. J. Skene, took a very complete course of lec- tures at Long Island Medical College, where he graduated in 1865, ranking second in a class of fifty-three. After graduating he returned at once to Baltimore and began practice on North Exeter Street, in a section where he was al- ready favorably known. Ile entered upon an excellent prac- tice almost at the start. Besides laboring assiduously for the welfare of the thousands who have since confided to his medical skill, he has ever striven to guard the general interests of his profession. Ile assisted in creating the Baltimore Medical Association, the Epidemiological So- ciety, and the Medical and Surgical Society of Baltimore, also the Alumni Association of the Brooklyn College, in all of which he has held various offices of trust and honor. He was a member of the Library Board of the State Medi- cal Faculty that established its Journal Department. Ile was a Delegate to the National Convention to revise the United States Pharmacopoeia. He is a member of the Alumni Association of the College of Physicians and Sur- geons; a member of the American Medical Association; has been eleven times delegated to represent various medi- cal societies at its annual sessions; and is also an honored member of the Medico-Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland. Ile accepted the appointment of Surgeon to the Eighth Regiment Maryland National Guard, at its organization, and served as such during its whole career ; also that of Examining Surgeon United States pensioners. Lack .of time has prevented him from accepting many other posi- tions tendered him. In May, 1873, he accepted the posi- tion of Professor of Pathology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore ; but after lecturing for a few years was compelled to withdraw for lack of time to attend to the duties of that position. The College Faculty, upon re- ceiving his resignation, at once elected him one of the Board of Visitors of the college. Ile has also during his entire professional career been a constant worker in the different medical societies, and has contributed liberally to medical literature. He has been preceptor to a number of medical students, to each of whom he has taught both medicine and industry. Hle is the donor of the massive gold medals bearing the inscription : " Detur Digniori," one of which is annually bestowed, at the commencement of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, upon the student who gradu- ates with most credit. 'This, the " Cathell Prize," is in- tended to create a spirit of emulation among the students, and thus lead to deeper study. Besides being ever ready to give his own services to the meritorious poor, free of
charge, he has been very active in organizing public medi- cal charities. He was the originator of the People's Special Dispensary, in which, free of charge, he attended all pa- tients suffering with throat, lung, and heart diseases. He was also one of the founders of the Central Free Dis- pensary, which annually gives attendance and medicines to about ten thousand patients. Ile was one of the fore- most in establishing the Maryland Lying-In Asylum. Dr. Cathell has merited and achieved great success in his pro- fession.
ERINDALL, CHARLES SYLVESTER, D.D. S., was born in Baltimore, Maryland, July 8, 1849. Ile is descended from one of the oldest and most re- spectable families of Maryland, the founder of the American branch having been a ward of Lord Balti- more, whom he accompanied on his voyage to America, in the capacity of secretary, and finally settled in St. Mary's County, which continued to be the place of resi- dence of his descendants, until Dr. John Grindall, great grandfather of the subject of this sketch, removed to llar- ford County, where he became an extensive land-holder. llis son, John Gibson Grindall, resided on the large estate, near Bel Air, Harford County, bequeathed him by his father, and became noted for his hospitality and genial and generous disposition. During the war of 1812 -15, he formed one of a band of one hundred volunteers, raised in the county, for the protection of the city of Bal- timore, and was present and did good service at the battle of Bladensburg, after which he again retired to his resi- dence, and resumed his former mode of life. In conse- quence of losses sustained by indorsing notes for some of his friends, which he paid in full without attempting to take any advantage that the law afforded him, he decided to remove with his family to Ohio, then mostly a wilder- ness, and settled at the point selected as the site of the city of Circleville. Ilis eldest son, John T. Grindall, remained in Maryland, and came to Baltimore from Ellicott's Mills on the first train of cars ever run from that place. lle entered into the iron and chemical business, in which he continued for many years, which he was forced to relin- quish on account of his health. Ile afterwards occupied himself in erecting buildings on lots which came into his possession by marriage. Ilis name has been given to one of the streets in Baltimore. He married Eliza, daughter of Thomas Armstrong, an Irish Protestant, from County Tyrone. Charles Sylvester Grindall, son of John T. Grin- dall, was sent at an early age to a private school in his na- tive city. Some years later he entered St. Mary's College, at Wilmington, Delaware, but leaving that institution be- fore graduating, he continued his studies at Loyola College, in Baltimore city, upon leaving which he assisted his father in business. Being desirous of studying for some
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profession, he at first chose that of medicine, and took a partial course at the Maryland University. Having finally decided, however, to follow the dental profession, he re- ceived a course of instruction under the tuition of Dr. II. 11. Keech, and entering the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, matriculated and had conferred upon him the de- gree of D.D. S. in February, 1873. The following April . he began the practice of his profession. The same year he was elected a member of the Southern Dental Associa- tion, and was appointed, November 1, 1877, dentist to Woodstock College, a noted Jesuit institution near the city of Baltimore. By perseverance, professional skill, devo- tion to his profession and pleasing manners, Dr. Grindall has succeeded in acquiring a lucrative practice and taking a prominent place among his professional brethren.
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RAHAM,. COLONEL SAMUEL ALEXANDER, Soldier and Lawyer, of Salisbury, Maryland, was born in Tuscarora Valley, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, November 30, 1828. Ilis parents, William and Martha Graham, were of Scotch- Irish descent, whose ancestors settled in Tuscarora Valley many years before the Declaration of Independence. The first sermon preached in that valley was by a Presbyterian minister at the house of John Graham, the Colonel's great-grandfather, who was an Elder of that denomination ; and a warm at- tachment for that Church has been a . characteristic of the family ever since. Both his grandfathers, William Gra- ham and William Patterson, participated in the war of the Revolution. In 1834 the Colonel's father, who was a farmer, settled in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and in 1840, for the purpose of educating his children, estab- lished himself in Carlisle. Samuel A. graduated at Dick- inson College in the summer of 1849, and wishing to be- come self-supporting as soon as possible, immediately after took a school at Landisburg, and in April, 1850, took charge of the Academy in Salisbury, Maryland, the town in which he has had his residence ever since. While teaching he studied law, was admitted to practice in 1856, and met with immediate success. In 1859 he was elected State's Attorney for Somerset County for the term of four years. Before the expiration of his term of office the war of the Rebellion broke out, and he raised a company and cnlisted in the Infantry Regiment of the Purnell Legion, September 15, 1861. At first the regiment was under the command of Colonel William II. Purnell, then that of Colonel William J. L.conard. After organization the regiment was sent to Virginia to guard the waters of Accomac and Northampton counties, and prevent block- ade running. In March the regiment was sent to Balti- more, and after the disastrous retreat of General Banks from Winchester it was sent to reinforce him, and was
among the first that entered Winchester on the second ad- vance. When General Pope took command of the part of the army near the Rappahannock the regiment formed part of the Twelfth Army Corps, and took part in many skirmishes but no severe engagements, At Catlett's Station, during a niglit raid by the Confederates, a number of the men were captured and Colonel Leonard taken prisoner, and held as such for several weeks. While so detained the regiment participated in the battle of Antictam, under General Mansfield, who was killed. Soon after his release Colonel Leonard resigned, and the Lieutenant-Colonel and Major both resigning soon afterwards Captain Graham was appointed Colonel. For some months the regiment was assigned guard duty, first at Frederick, then the Relay House, then Fort Delaware, then on the Potomac. In the spring of 1864 it was ordered to join the army under Gen- eral Grant, then fighting in the Wilderness. . On arrival if was assigned to the Maryland Brigade, under Colonel Dushane, a part of the Second Division of the Fifth Army Corps. From the time of joining this corps there was al- most constant activity until the end of the service. Shady Grove Church, Cold Harbor, where Colonel Graham's horse was shot, thence across the Chickahominy and the James River to Petersburg, where there was daily firing for a month. Hle was a witness of the blowing up of the Fort, July 30, 1864, with his regiment ready and expect- ing orders to charge, and while so waiting received a slight wound in the hand from a musket-ball. On August 18, the Fifth Corps took possession of the Weldon Railroad, at the Yellow House, and advanced towards Petersburg. They were soon met by the enemy and a severe engage- ment took place, in which one-third of Colonel Graham's regiment were killed or wounded, but the corps was vic- torious. ITis horse was shot under him in the early part of the battle, and fell dead almost instantly. The fight was renewed daily the three following days, but the enemy were repulsed cach time, and on the last day with im- mense slaughter. The Maryland Brigade suffered a severe loss in the death of Colonel Dushane, who was killed by a cannon-ball near the close of the battle. The command of the brigade then devolved on Colonel Graham, which he retained until a short time before the expiration of the regi- ment's term of enlistment. While in command of the Brigade no battles were fought, but a number of skirmishes and constant expectation of battle left but little time for rest. In October, 1864, the regiment was mustered out of service, and the Colonel returned home and resumed the practice of the law. He was a delegate to the Chicago Convention in May, 1868, at which General Grant was nominated for his first Presidential term. Ile was ap- pointed Assessor of Internal Revenue for the First Con- gressional District of Maryland, and entered upon the duties of the office May 1, 1869, and when the number of districts was reduced by consolidation, Colonel Graham was retained as Assessor of the new district, formed by
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uniting the first and second, which position he retained until, by a change in the Internal Revenue Law, the office of assessor was abolished. Since that he has held no office or political position, except that of Presidential Elector for the State of Maryland on the Republican ticket in 1876. He married, September 1, 1852, Miss Louisa A. Collier, of Wicomico County, Maryland, sister of Kev. Robert Laird Collier, a distinguished Unitarian divine. They have several children. The eldest, Joseph A. Gra- ham, is a member of the bar, and engaged with his father in practice. The Colonel stands at the head of his pro- fession in his county, and has a large practice. Ile is a constant attendant and supporter of the Presbyterian Church.
ATKINS, REV. WILBUR FISK, A.M., was born in the city of Baltimore, July 9, 1836, his pa- rents, Thomas C. and Elizabeth A. Watkins, both being natives of the same place, the former being of English and the latter of German de-
scent. They are still living. His father, a prominent merchant, was for many years at the head of the largest wholesale boot and shoe house in Baltimore, retiring from business in 1860. He was noted for great kindness of heart, liberality, and integrity. Mr. Watkins received his early education at the best private schools in his native city, and was prepared for college at Govanstown Academy in Baltimore County. . Ilis health becoming impaired by excessive study, he spent a year in the office of Thompson & Oudesluys, a large importing and commission house, acquiring there business habits of great benefit to him in after-life, In 1852 he entered Dickinson College, at Car- lisle, Pennsylvania, and during his sojourn there, ranked with the highest scholars of his class : hut his health again being impaired by severe application to his studies, he was obliged to leave at the beginning of the junior year. P're- vious to luis admission to college, he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which his parents were connected, and became a devout Christian, while at college being noted for strictness of opinions and habits. lu order to regain his health, Mr. Watkins joined the Rev. John Poisal, D.D., a presiding elder of the Baltimore Conference, in his district among the mountains of Central Pennsylvania. While thus engaged, he rode many hun- dred miles on horseback, which exercise, combined with out-of-door life, completely restored his health. Ile became a licentiate of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and, at the age of eighteen years, was preaching as junior pastor in a large circuit. Having regained his health, he became desirous of returning to college in order to finish the course, but yielding to the pressure of ministerial friends, who thought him sufficiently well prepared for the ministry, he continued to preach, spending nearly two
years in Centre and Huntingdon counties, Pennsylvania, one year in Harford County, Maryland, and one year as Assistant Minister of the Charles Street Methodist Church, in Baltimore city. At the close of the year 1857, having decided to resume his studies, he entered the Methodist Theological Seminary, theu located at Concord, New Hampshire, but . since removed to Boston, where he re- mained two years. In the spring of 1859, he joined the New York East Conference, and was settled at Mamar- oneck, a beautiful village on the New Haven Railroad, near New York city, at which place he spent two years, the term of ministerial service allowed by the itinerant system ; after which he was settled successively in New York and Brooklyn, as pastor of the leading Methodist churches, and in the spring of 1869 he was called to the First Church in New Haven, Connecticut. At this time his mind became greatly exercised on the subject of the superior claims of the Protestant Episcopal Church, although for ten years previously the idea of changing to that Church had presented itself. In the year 1861 he had an interview on that subject with Bishop Potter, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York, but being unwilling to surrender the position of usefulness he held, and to rup- ture the associations of a lifetime, he could come to no decision in the matter at that time. Finally, however, he became convinced that it was his duty to make the change ; his dislike to an itinerant ministry being also an induce- ment, besides which he preferred a Liturgical service, and was impressed with the value of a true Episcopal ordina- tion. These views gradually took shape, and in the sum- mer of 1870 he withdrew from the Methodist denomina- tion, and was confirmed in the Protestant Episcopal Church by Bishop Williams, of Connecticut. Ile at once became a candidate for Holy Orders in the diocese of Long Island, under his devoted friend, Bishop Littlejohn, spending six months of his candidateship in Knoxville, East Tennessee, where he officiated as Lay-reader in the Chapel of the Epiphany. On February 5, 1871, he was ordained a Dean by Bishop Littlejohn, in St. James's Church, Brooklyn, and immediately assumed the duties of assistant minister of that church, having charge of St. Barnabas Chapel. The congregation increased very rap- idly under his ministry ; lots were bought, and a beautiful and commodious chapel erected. On Trinity Sunday of the same year, Mr. Watkins was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Littlejohn. In the following winter, a tempo- rary loss of voice compelled him to cease preaching, and he made a trip to Nassau in the Bahamas, whence, after a few weeks' sojourn, he returned entirely recovered. Im- mediately after his arrival in Brooklyn, he received a unanimous and urgent call to the Parish of the Epiphany in the city of Washington, D. C., the largest and most im- portant congregation there, and began his ministry at that church, April, 1872, where he remained until June, 1876, when he received and accepted a call to Christ Church, in
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