USA > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 78
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 78
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cena AVIS, HON. ALLEN BOWIE, was born February 16, 1809, at Greenwood, Montgomery County, Mary- land. Greenwood was the residence of his grand- father, Ephraim Davis, who died in 1769. His wife was Elizabeth Howard. The estate was in- herited and enlarged by his only son, Hon. Thomas Davis, who married Elizabeth Bowie, daughter of Allen and Ruth Bowie, of the same county. Thomas Davis died in 1833, leaving the larger portion of his estate to his only living son, A. B. Davis. Mr. Thomas Davis was a man of marked and decided character, who, although an agri- culturist by profession, filled many offices of public trust, with such fidelity and executive ability as wou univer- sal confidence and respect. Ile was a communicant and vestryman in his parish church during life; President of the Board of Trustees of the Brookville Academy from its foundation to his death ; a member of the State Legisla - ture for several years, and one of the Associate Judges of
the County Court, before the system was changed, permit- ting nane but members of the legal profession to hold that position. He wrote deeds, contracts, and wills for his neighbors, without compensation; and was considered good authority in all cases requiring adjudication, his ne. quaintance with its technicalities and provisions being re- markable for one who had not made law a profession. A. Bowie Davis, the subject of this sketch, married Rebecca Comfort, daughter of Hon. Thomas Beale Dorsey, Chief Justice of the State of Maryland. After her decease, he married her cousin, Ilester Ann, daughter of William Wilkins, Esq. In early life, his health being extremely delicate, his parents considered it unsafe to send him to college. He, therefore, received at the Brookville Acade- my what was then considered a good English education, with some knowledge of the classics. These carly ac- quirements, improved by reading, thought, observation, and intercourse with men of talent and culture, into whose society, birth and marriage introduced him, together with a mind naturally vigorous, strong will, and indomitable energy, have enabled him to successfully compete with many who had superior early advantages. Like his father, he has not confined himself to the simple routine of home supervision, but has held himself ready on every occasion to unite with others in advancing the interests of his county and State. He is a communicant and vestryman in his parish church, and represented it continuously for thirty years in its annual conventions. In 1833, as a Trustee of the Brookville Academy, of which he was afterward President, he assisted in securing the enactment of a law, prohibiting the sale of ardent spirits within a circuit of two miles of the Academy. This antedated the famous Maine Liquor Law. In 1862 he procured the amendment of this law so as to embrace a district of eigh- teen by twelve miles, unless it could be shown to the court expedient, and which to the credit of the county has never been done. Mr. Davis was a member of the " Board of Public Works " from 1840 to 1850, and suc- ceeded in procuring the reduction of tolls on fertilizers from four to one-quarter per cent. per ton, on the Chesa- peake and Ohio Canal, and from six to three cents on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. For several years he has been President of the Montgomery County Agricultural Society. In 1850 he was a member of the State Conven- tion to revise the Constitution, and in 1862 was a member of the State Legislature. For three years he was Presi- dent of the State Agricultural College. Believing that its charter limited it to instruction in such branches as were best calculated to develop agriculture as a science, practi- cally as well as theoretically, and seeing a determination to introduce studies altogether foreign, he found himself in an antagonistie position, and therefore withdrew. For three years he was President of the State Agricultural Society. Regarding the present site of the grounds as not readily accessible, owing to their distance from public
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thoroughfares, and objecting to the prominence given to sports of the turf, he resigned. He has ever been a warm advocate of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which he assisted to complete, maintaining that, with judicious man- agement, it would yield a large revenne to the State, and thus lessen the present burdensome taxation. In politics Mr. Davis was originally an old-line Whig. During the war he was opposed to disunion, and is still conservative. Ilis only aim in public life has been to acquit himself as a useful citizen, and the above record fully demonstrates his success in that direction. Although residing a large por- tion of the year in Baltimore, he still retains his citizen- ship and interest in his native county. Ilis only son, William Wilkins Davis, married, within one week of his decease, Nellie Ward, daughter of Right Reverend Henry B. Whipple, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota.
96 cMAHON, HON. JOHN VAN LEAR, one of the most distinguished lawyers of the Maryland bar, was born in Cumberland, Maryland, Au- gust 18, 1800. llis father, William McMahon, was a highly respected fariner of Alleghany
County. Mr. McMahon graduated when very young with first honors of Princeton College. He immediately com- menced the study of law with Roger Perry, of Cumber- land, and was admitted to the bar in the nineteenth year of his age. Ile was at once successful. As soon as he had reached his majority he was elected to the Legislature. The next year he was re-elected, and that session became the leader of the House of Delegates, and made his famous speech in favor of giving to the Jews of the State the equality of all rights. He subsequently removed to Baltimore and was elected to the Legislature twice in suc- cession by the Jackson Democrats. The same party unanimously nominated him as their candidate for Con- gress, which he refused to accept. He afterward became identified with the Whig party, and in 1840 was the Presi- dent of the great national Whig mass convention at Bal- timore. When General Harrison became President, Mr .. Mc Mahon was offered, by letter, any office, except one, in the Presidential gift. But he declined to accept any office of a political nature, although the highest honors of his State were also offered him. He was a Delegate to the State International Improvement Convention in 1825, of which Charles Carroll of Carrollton was president. In 1826 a meeting was held in Baltimore at which it was de- termined to construct the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Mr. McMahon was present and drew the charter, which has ever since served as a model for railroad charters in this country. In 1831 he published the first volume of his History of Maryland, but the work was never com- pleted. lle continued to be the leader of the Baltimore
bar from 1827 to 1859, in which year, whilst preparing a brief in a case in the Court of Appeals, he was stricken with partial blindness, which continued to grow worse thereafter. In consequence he gradually withdrew from the bar, and in 1863 removed to his native town, Cumber- land. Mr. McMahon retired with an ample competence derived from the practice of his profession. About twenty- five years before his death he was called upon by a lady of Charles County, Maryland, to draw her will, which he did at her request, leaving a blank for the name of the de- visee. Ile was greatly astonished at the death of the lady not long after to learn that his name had been in- serted in the blank places in the will, and that in admira- tion of his talents she had bequeathed him her property, valued at over $25,000. lle was a profound and astute lawyer, and an eloquent political speaker.
D UNOTT, JUSTUS, Physician and Surgeon, was born at Wilmington, Delaware, in the month of October, 1804. Ilis parents were Justus and 20 Rachel Dunott. Ile received his early education at the Academy at Wilmington, and afterwards entered the drug store of Dr. Johnson in that city, where he re- mained about two years, and became so much interested in medicine, that at the solicitation of Dr. Johnson, he entered his office, and applied himself diligently to the study of the healing art. He also attended two full courses of lectures at the University of Philadelphia, from which he graduated in the spring of 1824, and the same year com- menced the practice of medicine in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. After remaining in this place five years, he yielded to the advice of his friend Dr. Dewees, and re- moved to Philadelphia, where he continued the practice of his profession. While there, as Demonstrator of Anatomy and Superintendent of the dissecting classes connected with the University of Philadelphia, he for a number of years occupied the rooms formerly used by Dr. Joseph Pancoast. After a long practice, covering a period of twenty-one years, finding that his physical energies had been overtaxed, he decided to retire for a time from the more active duties of his profession, and purchased a farm in Cecil County, Maryland, to which he removed, and re- mained for eight years, managing his farm and practicing medicine as time and inclination permitted. At the end of that period, his health being entirely restored, he com- menced practice in Elkton, Cecil County, and continued it until after the war. In April, 1865 he removed to Fred- erick City, where he now resides, winning high regard as a physician, and as an esteemed member of the community. Dr. Dunott has been twice married, and has two children living ; one residing in San Francisco, and the other in Ilarrisburg, Pennsylvania, practicing medicine.
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FREENFIELD, HON. AQUILLA H., was born in Bal- timore, September 1, 1831. His father's name was also Aquilla 11. Greenfield. His father was a mer chant, and a man of prominence in the city govern- ment, a member of the Council, and from 18.10 to 1850 served as coroner. The maiden name of his wife, the mother of the younger Aquilla, was Harriet M. Hatton. The great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Nelson Greenfield, was a Methodist preacher in Baltimore County, about the year 1740. Mr. Greenfield was educated at the High School in Baltimore, and afterwards at the City Col- lege, from which he graduated with honor in 1848, when only seventeen years of age. He then entercd his father's house-furnishing store on Lexington Street, and diligently applied himself to master the details of the business. Ilis father died September 14, 1850, and he succeeded him in the business, which he maintained at its former degree of prosperity, and which, under his excellent management, is still flourishing. The political career of Mr. Greenfield commenced in 1871, when he was elected to the First Branch of the City Council, where he served on several important committees. Ilis course in the Council was re- garded with such favor by his constituents of the Thir- teenth Ward, that he was returned in 1872 by a largely in- creased majority, and was honored with an election to the Presidency of the First Branch, which made him ex-officio Mayor, in the absence of that officer. At the time of the disastrous fire of 1873, which devastated such a large por- tion of the city on Park, Clay, Saratoga, Mulberry, and other streets, Mr. Greenfield acted as Mayor, and by his ability and prompt decisive action, contributed largely to save the city from the general conflagration that for a time . seemed inevitable. His success as President of the City Council brought him into such prominence and favor, that in the next year, 1874, he was elected to represent his dis- trict in the State Legislature for the term of two years. In that body he became prominent as the author of the bill for the establishment of the House of Correction. This bill he introduced and defended till in the face of the most bitter opposition it became a law. This important institu- tion is situated near Jessup's Station, thirteen miles from Baltimore, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In the fall of 1877 Mr. Greenfield was returned to the popular branch of the City Council, and was made Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. When quite young Mr. Greenfield made a profession of religion, and has since been connected with and an office-bearer in the Fayette Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Ile was married in September, 1858, to Miss Laura Virginia Blades, of Talbot County, Maryland. He has had seven children, five of whom are now living : Jennie, Annie, Laura, William, and Edith. Mrs. Greenfield died April 28, 1876. Mr. Green- field was married a second time, October 31, 1877, to Miss Lydia, daughter of Daniel Harvey, who was for several years a member of the City Council, and President of the
Second Branch, and was also a candidate for the mayoralty of Baltimore in 1868. In politics Mr. Greenfield has been identified with the Democratic party from his youth. Ile is widely and favorably known as a man of probity and honor, and exerts a large influence in the community.
UTZLER BROTHERS, ABRAM G., born in 1836, CHARLES G., in 1841, and DAVID, in 1843, whole- sale and retail lace and embroidery Merchants, are the sons of M. Hutzler, and are all natives of Baltimorc. They were educated in the public schools of that city, and finished their studies in the High School. In 1858 the eldest brother, A. G. IIutzler, in company with his father, commenced the lace and embroidery business at the corner of lToward and Clay streets, under the firm name of M. IIntzler & Son. Nine years later, in 1867, M. Hutzler retired from the business, and the two younger brothers were taken in, forming the present firm of Hutzler Brothers, Charles G. Hutzler having been previously a member of the firm of Julius Oberndorf & Co. The brothers also started at this time a wholesale house at 271 West Baltimore Street, of which the two eldest took charge, and David, the younger, assumed the care of the retail busi- ness. In 1870, in accordance with the demands of their rapidly increasing trade, the wholesale business was re- moved to a larger honse, at the corner of Baltimore and Sharp streets, and in 1872 their accommodations being still too limited, the firm removed to their present five story warehouse, at No. 12 Hanover Street. Mr. David Ilutzler still conducting the retail business at the original stand, its success was not inferior to that of the wholesale depart- ment, and augmented yearly until 1875, when the brothers purchased the warehouse, No. 67 North Howard Street, from James Gelty, Esq., and rebuilt it to suit their heavy trade .. Since that date its prosperity has continued steadily to increase, notwithstanding the great stringency of the times. From the first commencement of the business by his father and elder brother, Mr. David Hutzler, then only fifteen years of age, was engaged with them as clerk, and his success, like that of his brothers, is based upon a thor- ough knowledge of business, and the practice, never devi- atcd from in any instance, of conducting it on the best and highest principles. Intzler Brothers were the pioneers in establishing the One Price System in the lace and embroid- ery business, to which they have, under all circumstances, rigidly adhered. Their rules have always been to repre- sent goods precisely as they are, to treat all who do not buy from them with the same politeness that is shown to the largest purchasers, not to importune customers, and especially to satisfy a patron or to refund the money. The firm has always considered it an unsafe policy to keep old articles on hand, and just previons to taking an inventory
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of stock they close out all of their goods at cost. They import many of their goods, and have resident correspond- ents and buyers in England and in Paris .. These gentle- men are of the Jewish faith. They are active members of all the Hebrew Charitable Associations, and also of the , Masonic fraternity. One of them is at present High Priest of Adoniram Royal Arch Chapter, Treasurer of the Coun- cil of Iligh Priesthood of the State of Maryland, and Past Master of the Arcana Lodge, No. 110, A. F. and A. M. He has also been President of the Mendelssohn Literary Association, and of the Ilarmony Circle. Charles G. Ilutzler married the daughter of Henry Sonneborn, of Baltimore. David Hutzler married the daughter of Joel Gutman, of the same city. Messrs. Hutzler have attained merited success.
OWNS, REV. WILFORD, of the Baltimore Confer- ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born near Lexington, Rockbridge County, Vir- ginia, March 12, 1827, and is the son of Wilford and Sarah Downs. His father was a blacksmith by trade and is still living ; four of his younger sons have the same occupation. Ilis son Wilford received a fair English education in the schools of Lexington, and com- menced the study of Latin. At twelve years of age his father removed to a distant part of the country, where he went into the shop and for nine months supplied the place of a hand at the bellows and anvil. Preferring the print- ing business, however, he entered as an apprentice in the office of The Gasette, a Whig paper of his native town, and served for three years and eight months, during which time he made a profession of religion and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. A vacancy of State cadet- ship occurring at the Virginia Military Institute, at Lex- ington, in July, 1843, at the instance of friends, and with the consent of his employer, O. P. Baldwin, Esq., the editor of the Gazette, and subsequently prominently con- nected with the press at Richmond, Virginia, and for the last eleven years of his life connected with the editorial staff of the Baltimore Sun, Wilford applied for and re- ceived the appointment to fill the vacancy. Ile entered the Institute, and graduated July 4, 1847, in the same class with General William Mahone, of the Confederate States Army. Among his schoolmates at that institution were also Captain J. G. Marr, killed at Fairfax Court-house, at the commencement of hostilities between the North and the South, in 1861, and Generals Rodes, Colston, Jones, and others prominent in the Southern canse. " Stonewall " Jackson was one of the professors at the Institute. After his graduation young Downs secured the post of Princi- pal of the " Botetourt Seminary," at Fincastle, Virginia,
and fulfilled his obligation to his native State as an in- structor. During the three years he spent in teaching he cancelled all indebtedness to the friends who had assisted him in obtaining his education, and equipped himself for entering upon what he believed to be his "life work," the Methodist itineraney. He was licensed to preach Au- gust 19, 1850. Ile travelled six months under the Presid- ing Elder, and regularly entered the Conference at Win- chester, Virginia, in March, 1851. After travelling cir- enits in his native State acceptably for three years, he was stationed in Baltimore, in the spring of 1854, since which time he has had various large and important charges, not only in that city but also in Central Pennsylvania and Western Maryland. Ilis last appointment was Presiding Elder to one of the " Baltimore Districts," embracing the western part of the city, and portions of Baltimore, Ilow- ard, Carroll, Frederick, and Washington counties, which he served for a full term of four years. He was chosen as one of the reserve delegates to the last General Conference of his Church in 1876. Though thus honored he has never been an aspirant for place, nor ambitious in the common acceptation of that term. As a pastor he has few if any superiors ; as a disciplinarian he is mild but firm ; and as a manager is always successful, looking closely to the minutest details, and faithfully attending to the whole work of a minister. Ile is an earnest and effective speaker. Though of Southern birth and education Mr. Downs was in politics an old-line Whig, and opposed alike the right and expediency of secession in the late struggle. Ile has, however, never been more than a quiet voter, Many years ago he purchased a house for his parents near the Natural Bridge, Virginia, and made their declining days comfortable. Ile was married February 5, 1857, to Miss Martha Cornelius, daughter of Nicholas Cornelius, Esq., of Baltimore, by whom he has five sons and one daughter living. Ile is at this time ( 1878) stationed at the William Street Methodist Episcopal Church, a large and important charge in Baltimore city.
GOODALL, WILLIAM EASLEY, Ship-builder and Proprietor of the Marine Floating or Dry Dock, Locust Point, Baltimore, was born at Liverpool, England, July 18, 1837. llis father, John Woodall, was a native of Yorkshire, and had been for many years engaged in the shipping and commis- sion business in . Liverpool. His mother, Ester Easley, was a daughter of Robert Easley, of Highfield House, near Stokesley, Yorkshire. They had ten children, of whom three are residents of Baltimore, Henry E., con- ducting the rigging branch of the business, William E., and James, his partner, John, Frederick, Aunie, and
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Sarah Sophia, reside in Europe. His deceased sister, Ester, was the accomplished wife of George F. Sangston, the Dublin Manager of the Atlantic Cable. The subject of this sketch was educated at home by a governess until the age of fifteen years. His admiration for the beautiful and fast-sailing Baltimore clipper ships, in contrast with other vessels visiting Liverpool, led him, even in boyhood, to select the business in which, since then, he has by per- sistent energy and enterprise been so eminently successful. Ilaving secured the consent of his parents, he came to this country alone in his fifteenth year, and entered as an apprentice at Washington, District of Columbia, in the shipyard of Captain William Easley, a cousin of his mother, who had been a soldier in the war of 1812, and who, long afterward, received the appointment of Commis- sioner of Public Buildings from President Millard Fill- more. Captain Easley resigned the ship-building business into the hands of his two sons, John and Horatio, who conducted it with success. John is now Chief of Con- struction in the United States Navy, and Horatio continues the ship-building and lumber business. It was with these sons that young Woodall learned the first principles of boat-building. The first work he was engaged in was the placing a bow on the steamboat " Columbia," now on the waters of the Chesapeake. In order to learn the art of
1853, and made an engagement with John T. Fardy and building . clipper ships, he went to Baltimore, February 6,
Philip Auld, on the south side of the Basin, foot of Hughes Street, and with them learned the trade. Such was his proficiency, that at the age of nineteen he became foreman. In 1856 Mr. Auld retired, and Matthew J. Fardy became associated in the business, under the name of Fardy & Brother. Mr. Woodall remained with them as foreman until January 1, 1866, when he became a partner under the style of John T. Fardy, Brother & Company. That firm was dissolved in November, 1867, by the death of the senior member. Mr. Matthew J. Fardy retired, and the business was continued by Mr. Woodall, under the title of
Fardy & Woodall, Mr. Woodall representing the widow Fardy's interest. That arrangement terminated Jannary I,
1873. During this last partnership, Mr. Woodall built the first two composite vessels constructed in Maryland. They were iron frames, with wooden deck and bottom,
They were for the service of the United States Coast Sur- and were named respectively " Speedwell " and " Urgent."
vey. While foreman for Mr. Fardy he built the steamer
" Wenonah," the revenue cutters " Wayanda," " Lincoln," and "Ilugh McCulloch." During his copartnership
brigs " Charles Purvis," and " Johanna," and the United with the firms he built the barque " Mary A. Way," the
"States Revenue cutters " Vigilance," and " Reliance."
" Wyoming," costing seventy nine thousand dollars. This tended the rebuilding of the United States sloop of war at that ship-yard. During the war, Mr. Woodall superin- These are the more prominent of about fifty vessels built
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vessel, under command of Captain Bankard, subsequently destroyed a Chinese town for plundering an American ship. Mr. Woodall, January, 1873, associated with him his brother James, a skilled ship-builder, and Charles A. Miller, who had been his foreman for eight years, and served his apprenticeship at Thomas Hooper's ship-yard, under the present firm name of William E. Woodall & Co., having a yard one thousand feet deep and three hundred feet front, at foot of Allen Street, Locust Point, for the purpose of ship-building, joining, carpentering, and all the different branches of the trade. In the early part of the same year, Mr. Woodall and Mr. George W. Atkin- son undertook to raise one hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars, in shares of one thousand dollars each, for the pur- pose of building a basin dry-dock on the "Simpson plan." The amount was finally subscribed, the firm of William E. Woodall & Co. taking seventeen shares. The enter- prise, however, fell through, the majority of the subscribers being unwilling to pay the necessary price for a suitable location. The firm then built on their own account the present marine or floating dry-dock, which cost nearly eighty thousand dollars. There were more than a million feet of lumber used in its construction. The first large ship they coppered was the " Bonanza," of fifteen hundred tons. Besides other sailing craft, the present firm have built five composite vessels, the " Palinurus," " Earnest," " Ready," and " Research," and the " Drift," for the United States Coast Survey, each about one hundred and fifty tons. The firm has given employment to five hundred men at a time ; the average number is about one hundred and fifty. It was Mr. Woodall's intention when in his boyhood he left
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