USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 77
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 77
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the city of Baltimore, of which he has since been the rector. In his religious views Mr. Watkins is what would be called a conservative churchman, holding evangelical views, but is not identified with either the High or Low Chuch patty. As may be inferred from the many impor- tant positions which have been ably filled by him in his . past career, he possesses in an eminent degree the essential qualifications of a successful, earnest, and eloquent preacher, affording in his own life a proof of his sineere belief in the principles of the Christian religion and of his attachment to them. In his private and domestic rela- tions, as well as in his public life, he gives daily evidence of having inherited the kindness of heart, liberality, and integrity, which distinguished his father. In 1860 Mr. Watkins married Miss Esther Griffen, daughter of Mr. Schureman Halsted, a retired merchant of New York, and has five children.
- ENNIS, HON. JAMES UPSHUR, Lawyer and State Senator, was born in 1823, in Somerset County, Maryland. His parents were John Upshur and Maria ( Robertson) Dennis. A full account of his ancestry is given in the sketch contained in this volume of his brother, Hon. George R. Dennis, M.D., United States Senator. , James U. Dennis inherited the family talent, and has been kept almost constantly in office since the conclusion of his professional studies in 1845. Ile was educated at Princeton College, New Jersey, from which he graduated in 1842, after which he studied law in the office of the late William W. Handy, and was admitted to the bar in 1845. In the fall of the same year he was elected to the Legislature from Worcester County. In 1850 he was elected to the State Constitutional Convention, and in. 1855 to the office of State's Attorney for Somerset County, where he has always resided, and where his family have lived for over two hundred years. In 1859 he was elected to the Legislature from the same county, and to the State Constitutional Convention in 1864. In 1876 he was elected State Senator from Somerset County for four years. Senator Dennis was married in 1846 to Cecilia B. Ilove, who died in 1861, leaving him three daughters, Nellie Hove, Maria Robertson and Cecilia Bisco Dennis. In 1863 he married Mary Wilson Treakle, of Baltimore, by whom he has one son, James Treakle Dennis. The Dennis family brought with them to this country their strong attachment to the Church of England, which through all the generations they have retained, and Senator Dennis worships in the faith of his fathers. In the Senate, and as a member of the Democratic party, he is prominent, inde- pendent and outspoken. Ile. is talented, and possessed of a high sense of honor. Ilis great popularity and the con- fidence reposed in him is abundantly attested by the fact that ; he, has been so long and so constantly retained in public life.
STEWART, HON. WILLIAM A., Lawyer, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, December 29, 1825. llis parents, who are still living, at an advanced age, both sprang from a handy stock. His father's ances- tors emigrated from the North of Ireland in the carly part of the eighteenth century, while his mother is de- scended- from one of the refugees from France, who, on account of religious persecution, fled to this country in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Branches of each family are numerous, and have representatives in nearly every Southern State of the Union. Mr. Stewart received his early education in the publie and private schools of his native eity, and afterwards pursued a thorough course at Baltimore College, which was then, and remained until recently, one of the departments of the University of Mary- land. Having chosen the profession of the law and pur- sued the preparatory studies, Mr. Stewart was, at an un- usually early age, admitted to practice by the Baltimore County Court, May 17, 1847. His success, assured from the first, has been due in great measure to the fact, that he has devoted the greater part of his time to his profession, and has never slighted it, or the labors attendant upon it, for other pursuits, in however attractive form they may have been presented. In the years 1849, 50, and 51 he was Chief Clerk of the First Branch of the City Council of Baltimore, and in 1854, having in the interval been a mem- ber of the House of Delegates, he was chosen as Chief Clerk of the House of Delegates of Maryland. In the per- formance of his duties he gave general satisfaction, and his efficiency and uniform courtesy' elicited the highest commendations from the correspondents of the daily press. In 1851 Mr. Stewart was elected a member of the House of Delegates from the city of Baltimore, and served in that body with great credit and acceptability during the two long sessions of 1852 and 1853, immediately subsequent to the adoption of a popular Constitution by the people of Maryland. The records of these two terms show him to have been one of the most active and efficient members, and although one of the youngest, he was regarded by his colleagues as one of the most useful and influential. Va- rious reports written by him at this time show the charac- ter of his mind, and the high moral tone which pervaded his course as a Legislator, among which reports may be mentioned that on the claims of the Nanticoke Indians, and also that on the subject of an appropriation to the House of Refuge. . In 1867, returning from a somewhat extended tour in Europe, Mr. Stewart was immediately elected again to the House of Delegates, and at the session of 1868 was chosen Speaker of that body. The following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted by the members at the close of the session, attest the estimation in which he was held by his colleagues :
" Resolved, That our sincere thanks are due, and they are hereby given to the Hon. William A. Stewart, Speaker of this House, for his kind and courteous deportment during
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this session, to each and all of its members, and for the im- partial, remarkably able and dignified manner in which he has discharged the arduous duties of his high and respon- sible position.
" Resolved, That in the Hon. William A. Stewart, Speaker , of this House, distinguished as he is for his integrity, ability, and patriotism, we recognize the true type of the Maryland statesman, and that knowing him to be as brave as he is true, able, and patriotic, we have every confidence that in whatever position he may be placed in the future, he will battle for the interest, honor, and sovereignty of our gallant, noble, and beloved commonwealth."
The above sentiments were echoed by the Annapolis press, giving to Mr. Stewart the most unqualified praise as he retired from the position he had so ably filled. In 1852, during the absence of the Consul, Mr. Stewart acted as Commercial Agent for the Republic of Venezuela, at the port of Baltimore. In 1858, under authority of the corpo- ration of Baltimore, he revised the ordinances, and di- gested the acts of Assembly relating to that city. On July 10, 1868, he was appointed by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, one of the Trustees of the McDonough Farm School and Fund, and for several years past he has been Vice-President of the Board. From an early age Mr. Stewart has 'been identified with the Sunday-school cause, and for twenty-five years he served acceptably as a teacher and superintendent, and also as Secretary of the Protestant Episcopal Sunday-school Society of the City of Baltimore. For many years he served as vestryman of the church of the above denomination of which he is a member, and repre- sented it as a lay delegate in the Convention of the Diocese of Maryland. Mr. Stewart was married, March 16, 1869, to Miss Emily Gallatin, daughter of the late Commander Al- bert G. Slaughter of the United States Navy ; and by her . he has two children, -a son, William A. Stewart, Jr., and a daughter, Emily Slaughter Stewart. This brief and im- perfect outline of Mr. Stewart's varied and multiplied labors will enable the reader to form some idea of his abilities and usefulness, and the high respect and esteem enter- tained for him by the people of his native State. He is one of the first members of the bar of Maryland, and the State has no son of whom she is more justly proud.
STONE, HON. FREDERICK, Ex-Member of Congress, was born February 7, 1820. Ile is the only son of Frederick D. and Eliza (Patton) Stone, of Charles County, Maryland, and the grandson of Judge Michael Jenifer Stone ; a memoir of whom is contained in this volume. He was reared in the Episcopal Church, liberally educated, studied law, rose to eminence in the legal profession, and has been for many years a prominent and leading citizen of Charles County. In 1852 he and Samuel Tyler, with William Price, were appointed by the
Legislature of Maryland, Commissioners " to simplify and abridge the rules of Pleading, Practice and Conveyancing," in Maryland, and performed that duty with great ability and to the utmost satisfaction of the bar, the bench, and the public. At his first election to Congress, his opponent re- ceived only four votes in Charles County. He was senior counsel for the defence in the trial of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, charged with being privy to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and was also an associate counsel with IIon. Thomas Ewing, for the defence of David E. Harold, one of the conspirators. In both of these cases he displayed so much ability, address, dignity, and firmness, that he was highly complimented by the attorneys of the Government. Ile is now successfully engaged in the practice of his pro. fession, at Port Tobacco, Maryland. He was elected a member of the Maryland Constitutional Convention of 1864, and in the fall of the same year was elected by the Democratic party to the Legislature. He was a member of the Fortieth and Forty-first Congresses, from March 4, 1867, to March 4, 1871, and served on the Committees on Private Land Claims, on Education and Labor, and on the . District of Columbia. In 1871 he was again elected to the Legislature of Maryland. Mr. Stone has been married twice. He married first, June 10, 1852, Maria Louisa Stonestreet, the daughter of Nicholas and Ann E. Stone- street. She died in November, 1867, leaving four children, Annie Stone, who married November 19, 1875, Henry Guard Robertson, son of Walter HIanson and Catharine ( Barnes) Robertson ; Elizabeth Ellen Stone, Jennie Stone, and Maria Louisa Stone. June 15, 1870, he married Mrs. Jennie (Stonestreet) Ferguson, a sister of his first wife.
HOWARD, GOVERNOR GEORGE, was born November 21, 1789, at " Belvedere," Baltimore, Maryland. lle was the second son of Governor John Eager Howard. Ile succeeded Hon. Daniel Martin, Governor of Maryland, who died July 10, 1830; was elected to that office and served until the election of James Thomas in 1832. Ile was a Presidential Elector in 1837 and 1841, and on both, occasions voted for William Henry Harrison for President of the United States. Ile died August 2, 1846. He married December 26, 1811, Prudence Gough Ridgely. Ilis children were Jolin Eager IToward; Priscilla Ridgely Howard, who married Eugene Post; Margaret Elizabeth Howard, who married her brother-in-law, Eugene Post; Charles Ridgely Howard, who married Elizabeth Ann Waters; Sophia C. Howard, who married Richard Norris; George Howard; Jacob Hollingsworth Howard ; William Howard, who married Octavia Duvall; Cornelius Iloward; Rebecca Hanson lloward; James Howard ; David Ridgely Howard; Eliza Carroll Howard, and James Carroll Iloward.
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.
BYT THOMPSON, GENERAL HENRY ANTHONY, Presi- dent of the National Bank of Baltimore, was born in that city August 14, 1800, His father, Henry 'Thompson, came to America from England in 1792, and settled in the city of Baltimore, where he embarked in commercial pursuits, continuing therein until his death in 1838. He married Miss Ann L. Bowly, the eldest danghter of an honored and prominent citizen of Maryland, Daniel Bowly, Esq., of Furley Hall. During General Thompson's childhood, his father resided on Gay, near what is now called Fayette Street, a quarter of the city that, in those early days, was occupied by the resi- dences of Baltimore's leading citizens, but is now almost exclusively devoted to business purposes. In 1808 young Thompson was placed at Charlotte Hall College, St. Mary's County, Maryland, and in June, 1815, entered the Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated with high distinction in June, 1819, and was appointed Second Lieutenant of Artillery. He was at once detailed for duty with the Topographical Engineer Corps, then surveying the harbors, etc., under the orders of the Board of En- gineers. Ile continued on this duty until ordered to the headquarters of his regiment, Fourth Artillery, as Adjutant thereof, at Pensacola, Florida, October, 1822. In Febru- ary of 1824 he was transferred to Fort Monroe, Old Point Comfort, Virginia, as Adjutant of the Artillery School of Practice, and in 1826, was stationed at Savannah, Georgia, to which place the headquarters of his regiment had been changed. After being stationed at various localities, he was, in June, 1836, ordered to the Creek Nation, as aid of General Fenwick, United States Army. After the removal of the Indians he was ordered, on engineer duty, to repair to Fort Mellemry, Maryland. In October of that year he resigned from the army, and was appointed Civil Engineer, in charge of the same work, under the Chief Engineer, which he completed in December, 1839, when he removed to Baltimore, and became connected with the well-known mercantile house of Henry Thompson & Son, commission merchants, which, many years before, was founded by his father. In 1845 he was appointed Inspector-General, with the rank of Colonel, Maryland Militia, and in 1847 was appointed Brigadier-General of Artillery by Governor Thomas, which position he resigned in 1861. From his earliest manhood General Thompson has been an active, zealous, and consistent member of the Protestant Episco- pal Church. Ile was elected a vestryman of Christ Church, Baltimore, in 1841, which position he retained until 1854, when he was elected a vestryman of Emanuel Church, corner of Read and Cathedral streets, Baltimore, which position he still occupies, adding to its duties those of Register and Treasurer, as he had also done when in the vestry of Christ Church. General Thompson has been, and still is, officially connected with several leading eor- porations in Baltimore," In 1855 he was elected a Director in the Bank of Baltimore, and in October, 1863, President
of that institution. When it became the National Bank of Baltimore, he was, in August, 1865, again elected its Pres- ident, which position he continues to fill, performing all it's duties, as he does those of the positions he holds in other corporations, with all the attention and activity of one in the prime and vigor of manhood, though now verg- ing upon his octogenarian year. In 1827 General Thomp- son married Miss Zelina 1. De Macklot, of St. Louis, Mis- souri, who died in 1861, leaving a large family. As a col- lege student, he was assiduous in the acquisition of knowl- edge; as a cadet, he took the highest honors of our Na- tional Military School, when only nineteen years of age ; as an officer of the United States Army, he served ably and patriotically ; as the incumbent of high and responsi- ble civil positions, he was diligent and conscientious in the discharge of his duties; as a Christian gentleman, he has been faithful to his religious vows, devoting the better part of his life to the services of the Church; as a husband, he was loving and faithful ; as a father, he has ever been kind and indulgent; and as an individual, courteous and dignified in his manners, and generous in all his impulses. His history is the record of a life well spent.
TO EETEER, DOCTOR WILLIAM HENRY, was born November 24, 1824, in New Castle County, Delaware. His parents were Samuel and Ann (Chamberlain) Meeteer. He was educated and be. graduated at Delaware College, Newark, Dela- ware, adopted the medical profession, studied with his uncle, Dr. Joseph Chamberlain, of Newark, and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, in March, 1847, from Jefferson Medical College, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Soon after his graduation he went South, and practiced medicine for about two years in Mississippi. In the winter of 1852-53 he settled in Chestertown, Kent County, Maryland, where he still resides and has a large and lucra- tive practice, and enjoys the esteem and respect of his fellow-citizens, for his high qualities as a Christian gentle- man and skilful physician. He is a Democrat, and a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He married, June 4, 1868, Margaret Horsey, daughter of Thomas and Elnora (Palmer) Horsey, of Kent County, Maryland, and has had two children, William Henry Meeteer, born August 28, 1870, and died July 12, 1871, and Margaret Horsey Meeteer.
THOMAS, MAJOR DOUGLAS HAMILTON, was born January 1, 1847, in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the son of Dr. John Hanson and Aunie Campbell (Gordon) Thomas, and the grandson of Hon. John Hanson Thomas, a memoir of whom is contained in this volume. Ilis mother, Mrs. Annie Campbell (Gordon)
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Thomas, is the daughter of Bazil and Annie Campbell ( Knox) Gordon, of Fahnouth, Virginia, and the grand- daughter of William Knox, of " Windsor Lodge," Culpep- per County, Virginia, who married in 1766 Susannah Fitzhugh, only daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Stumit) , Fitzhugh, of " Boscobel," Stafford County, Virginia. Wil- liam Knox, whose mother was Janet Somerville, was a native of Scotland, and of consanguinity with John Knox, the celebrated reformer in the time of Queen Mary. Mrs. Sarah (Stuart) Knox was descended from Kenneth II, who was erowned King of Scotland in the year 854. Bazil Gordon was the son of Samuel and Nicholas ( Brown) Gordon, of " Lochdougan," Scotland, and the grandson of John Gordon, who married Grace Newall, and died August 23, 1738, aged 56 years. Mrs. Nicholas (Brown) Gordon, daughter of John Brown, of Craigen Callie, and his wife, Margaret MeClamrock, of Craigen Bay, was the last person baptized by Rev. James Renwick, beheaded at the eross of Edinburgh ; she was from the Carsluth family, her grandfather and unele were ministers in the Parish of Kirkinabrook. John Gordon, above named, was the son of Samuel Gordon, of " Stockerton," who was born in 1656, married Margaret MeKinnell, and died April 15, 1732, at " Stockerton," his country-seat, in the Parish of Kirkeud- bright, Scotland. Ile was related to the families of Lord Kenmuir and the Gordons, of Greenlaw, and was visited by both families, especially by Sir Alexander and Lady Gordon, of Greenlaw. Major Thomas was educated in Baltimore city, at the University of Maryland. During the late civil war he started in 1863 to join the Southern army, but was arrested on his way and confined for a time by the military. After his release on parole, he entered the Farmers' and Merchants' National Bank of Baltimore, and after an experience of a year and a half, displaying unusual aptitude and capacity for the business of banking, at the early age of eighteen years he was promoted to the position of teller, and remained in the bank eight
years. Subsequently, until recently, he was a member of the firm of Winchester & Thomas, doing business on Second Street, Baltimore. In 1876, by appointment of the United States Centennial Commission, he was a mem- ber of the " Centennial State Board of Maryland." Ile was also a member of the Congress of Authors which assembled, July 1, 1876, in Independence Hall, Philadel- phia, and by invitation of the " Committee on the Resto- ration of Independence Hall," presented on that occasion a very valuable memoir of President John Hanson. During the railroad riots of 1877, he raised in twenty-four hours a company of eighty-five men for service in the Fifth Regi- ment of Baltimore, and performed good service to his State and country in that perilous emergency. He was, May 9, 1878, being then Captain of Company A, unani- mously elected Major of the Fifth Regiment. On August 1, 1878, he became by an unsolicited election the Cashier of the Marine Bank of Baltimore. He is the author of a
work, printed for private distribution, entitled " Genealogi- cal Record of the Family of Thomas, compiled from papers in possession of Dr. J. Hanson Thomas, Baltimore, 1875." lle married, January 25, 1870, Mice Lec Whitridge, daughter of Dr. John and Catharine C. Whitridge, of Bal- timore, and has two children, viz., Douglas Hamilton Thomas, and John Hanson Thomas,
6 ENNICK, JOHN M., Chief Engineer Baltimore City Fire Department, was born September 11, 1835, in Baltimore. He is the son of John C. Ilen- niek, who commanded a company of militia during the Maryland bank and nunnery riots, and was in- the saddlery business. His grandfather, on the paternal side, was a major in the war of 1812 ; his great-grandfather, who was of Polish descent, was killed at the battle of Cowpens, in the Revolutionary war. His mother, Sarah Rutter, was the daughter of Josias Rutter, who was second in command of the Chesapeake flotilla at the bombardment of Fort Mellenry, at the battle of North Point, in 1812. Ile succeeded Commodore Barney, who was killed, and ordered Lieutenant Webster to the battery of six eighteen pounders, located at Spring Garden, at present Winans' Wharf, on the night of September 13. The British flotilla of twenty-two barges, passed Fort MeHenry and moved up Spring Garden, intending to land and take the fort in the rear and burn the city. Lieutenant Webster's battery, in conjunction with one above it, opened fire upon the British, beating them off, sinking and capturing a number of the barges. Ilis great-grandfather on the maternal side was of English descent. His father and mother were both Methodists. Ile attended pubhe school until twelve years of age, after which he entered a feed store. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to James Browne, a well-known hatter of Baltimore, with whom he remained ten years, serving an apprenticeship of five years and working five years as a journeyman. He then worked four years for . James V. Davis, of Washington, District of Columbia. In 1865 he started a silk and cassimere hat and cap manufac- tory and store at 13 South Sharp Street, Baltimore, and conducted a successful business with his brother, Josias G., who died in 1872, when he sold out the establishment. Mr. Hlenniek was one of fifteen children. His brother Jesse was mate of the steamship Rebecca Clyde, of the Baltimore and Wilmington Line of Steamers, which was lost off the coast of North Carolina in September, 1876. He has two brothers and two sisters living. He has been identified with the Fire Department in Baltimore for nearly a quarter of a century, having, at the age of seven- teen, joined the Washington Ilose Company, under the old volunteer system, and served in that company for seven
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years. When the Paid Fire Department was inaugurated, under Mayor Thomas Swann's administration, he was made foreman of No. 2 Engine, and served in that position until 1802, when he went to Washington, as before stated. In April, 1808, he was reappointed as fareman of the same engine, In 1809 he was promoted to the position of Assistant Engineer in place of William C. Rose, who was killed with two others at the fire in McClelland's Alley. Ile served acceptably in that position until April, 1876, when he was appointed Chief Engineer by the Board of Fire Commissioners. In the discharge of his duties Mr. IIen- nick has had many hair-breadth escapes ; nor has he always escaped unscathed. He was badly burned with five others, April 11, 1875, by the explosion of a barrel of gasoline in a cellar on Garden Street, from the effects of which Lewis Rudolph, foreman of No. 2 Hook and Ladder Company, died. He was thrown from a carriage and badly bruised on the head. At the burning of the Consolidated Building, corner of German and South streets, he and others were saved when the stairs burned away by mounting to the roof, and by means of a ladder thrown across an alley from a roof on the other side made their escape. In its Chief En- gineer Baltimore has a competent officer, of undaunted cour- age and promptitude, and entirely devoted to his calling. In politics Mr. Ilennick is a Democrat, and in religion an atten- dant with his family on the Lee Street Baptist Church. He has been a member of the Odd Fellows and Red Men about twenty years, and is also a member of the Indepen- dent Order of Mechanics. He married Miss Mary E. Jones, daughter of William C. Jones, a machinist and moulder of Baltimore, of an old Maryland family. They have had four children, three of whom are living.
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