USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 12
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 12
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AN BOKKELEN, REV. LIBERTUS, D. D., I.L.D., was born in the city of New York. Ilis paternal grandfather, a physician, came from Holland in 1796, being exiled by the French Government be- cause of his adherence to the Prince of Orange. He brought with him two sons, the younger of whom, the father of the subject of our sketch, was educated in New York as a merchant. The maternal grandfather of Rev. L. Van Bokkelen was a native of Wales. When the latter reached the age of fifteen his parents removed to Newbern, North Carolina, where his father died in 1846. From the age of nine he was educated at boarding-schools on Long Island, and up to the year 1864, when he was commissioned Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Maryland, he had never lived outside of a school or college, having been previous to that time either a pupil, tutor, professor, or principal. When twenty-two years of age he established St. Paul's School at College
l'oint, Long Island, which afterwards became the Pre- paratory School of St. Paul's College. In 1842 he took holy orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and has 'ever since combined the duties of the ministry with edu- cational work. In 1815 he founded at Catonsville, Mary- land, the institution which, as St. Timothy's Hall, became well known through all the Southern States. Beginning with nothing it achieved great success. The buildings were extensive, accommodating a family of one hundred and fifty, and generally were filled with students. The curriculum of this school included physical education, for which a gymnasium under skilled teachers was provided. The students were organized as an infantry battalion and artillery corps, for which muskets and cannon, with equip- ments, were furnished by the State. While conducting St. Timothy's Hall, Dr. Van Bokkelen was elected Presi- dent of St. John's College, Annapolis, and of the Agri- cultural School near Bladensburg. Ile was, also invited to the charge of colleges in Tennessee and Missouri, and to establish a school in California, but declined them all. In addition to his ministerial work in St. Timothy's Church, he had charge of Grace Church, at Elk Ridge Landing, and St. Peter's Church, in Ellicott City, until they became self-supporting. In these duties he was assisted by the clerical professors at St. Timothy's llall. This institution was at the height of its prosperity in 1861, and plans were made for extending the buildings, but the war frustrated the effort, and Dr. Van Bokkelen suffered very heavy pecuniary loss. When the Public School System of Balti- more County was reorganized, he acted as Visitor of the Catonsville School. From 1859 to 1865 he served as School Commissioner for the First District of the county. During these years he made the School System a subject of close study, and suggested many valuable reforms. In 1864 the number of pupils at St. Timothy's Ilall being much reduced, he decided to rent the buildings to Professor E. Parsons, who continued the school under the old name, and secured a very large patronage. In September of that year, Dr. Van Bokkelen accepted a call to the Rector- ship of St. Stephen's Church, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and had completed his arrangements for removal, when he received from Governor Bradford, of Maryland, the Commission of State Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion, and decided to remain. In this highly responsible position he had a difficult and important duty to discharge, but he brought to the work large experience and very su- perior qualifications. The estimation in which he was held by his colleagues and co-laborers, as well as by the thinking portion of the community, is expressed in the following "resolution " of the Association of Public School Commissioners, offered by Mr. William Henry Farquhar, of Montgomery County (December 5, 1867), and adopted unanimously by a rising vote :
" Resolved, That in closing the present and perhaps the final session of the Association of School Commissioners
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of the State of Maryland we feel it our duty to express in the most unqualified terms our high estimate of the ser- vices of the State Superintendent in the great work com- mitted to our charge. We regard the successful opera- tion and the beneficial results of the present admirable School System as owing in a great measure to his genius in organizing it, and to his zeal and devotion in carrying it on at great personal sacrifices, known to the members of this Association. Although in consequence of the in- herent difficulties that beset the inception of every great enterprise, heightened by the peculiar political excitement of the times, the true character and value of his services may not yet be duly appreciated, it is our firm belief when these sources of misunderstanding shall have passed away, the name of the Rev. L. Van Bokkelen will be placed high as the highest on the list of the men identified in America with its greatest glory,-free popular educa- tion."
The school system which he established is still, in effect, the law of Maryland. Some changes were made in con- sequence of the reactionary Constitution of 1867, but since that time the system has been drifting closer to its old moorings. Nor were the labors of Dr. Van Bokkelen in the cause of education confined to Maryland. He was elected a Director of the National Teachers' Association at Indianapolis in 1866, was Secretary of the meeting at Nashville in 1868, and was President when the Association met at Trenton in 1869. This was the largest convention of teachers ever held in the United States up to that time, over two thousand being in attendance. When his office as State Superintendent ended in 1868, he resumed his work at St. Timothy's Hall, and continued it with promises of success until July, 1871, when in consequence of a controversy in the church at Catonsville, he left his home. This church he founded, contributing largely towards its erection, and for many years he labored in it without salary. St. Timothy's Hall was destroyed by fire in August, 1862, and with it a valuable library and museum. Dr. Van Bokkelen is now Rector of Trinity Church, Buf- falo, New York, and takes an active interest in the work of the public schools of that city. He was married in 1850 to Amelia, the youngest daughter of John Netter- ville D' Arcy, formerly a leading merchant in the city of Baltimore, and has five children.
REAMER, DAVID, son of Joshua and Margaret (Smith) Creamer, was born in Baltimore, Novem- ber 20, 1812, being one of a family of twelve children, eight of whom lived to have families of their own. His father was a prosperous lumber mer- chant, and a prominent citizen of Baltimore. He died in his sixty-fourth year, February 16, 1853. His grandfather,
Henry Creamer, came from Germany and settled in West- minster, Maryland. His father, Valentine Creamer, re- moved, in 1803, from Baltimore to Ohio, where he died in 1831. The Smith ancestors came from England and settled in Baltimore County. Part of the stone house in which the great-grandfather of David Creamer lived, still remains. In it his grandfather, John Merryman Smith, was born, March 18, 1764. He was a Methodist, and died much respected in the seventieth year of his age. Both the parents of David Creamer were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Ile attended the best private schools of his native city, and at the age of seven- teen entered his father's counting-room. On November 27, 1834, he was married by the Rev. G. G. Cookman, to Elizabeth Ann, daughter of Judge Isaac Taylor, of the Orphans' Court, also a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The family descended from Richard Taylor, an English Quaker, who in 1717 purchased several tracts of land north of the city of Baltimore, which is still largely owned by his descendants. He donated to the Friends their burial-ground on the Harford road, near the northern boundary of the city, and there his remains were interred. Five years after his marriage David Creamer was taken into partnership with his father, the name of the new firm being Joshua Creamer & Son. For eleven years they conducted together their extensive and profitable business, Joshua Creamer withdrawing in 1850 to engage in a commission branch of the trade. Ilis son carried on the business prosperously until, in the financial crisis of 1857, his profits were swept away, and in July, 1858, with only the inherited property of himself and wife remain- ing, he withdrew from active commercial life. For years before the commencement of the civil war the stanch patriotism of Mr. Creamer was well known to the State and national authorities. Ilis bold position as a Union man, indorsed by his patriotic letters published in religious and secular papers, gave him the confidence of loyal pub- lic men in Baltimore and Washington. When the Massa- chusetts regiment was assaulted in the streets of the former city, April 19, 1861, he was the Foreman of the Jury of Inquest. To his pen the citizens of Massachusetts were indebted for widely published letters relative to the inter- est taken by the authorities of Baltimore in the care of the wounded and the tender interment of the dead. In Au- gust, 1862, he was appointed one of the enrolling officers of Maryland. The following month Governor Bradford commissioned him to visit the reginients about Washing- ton for the purpose of securing information of service to the authorities in connection with the call for volunteers. In July, 1863, he was appointed an Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue. In May, 1870, Postmaster-General J. A. J. Creswell invited him to accept a clerkship in the Post-office Department at the National Capital, where he is still em- ployed, being now in the sixty-sixth year of his age. When fifteen years of age, Mr. Creamer, the subject of this sketch,
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united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He has held various positions among its official members, and is at present leader of the North Baltimore " Sunrise Class," with which he became connected half a century ago. It then met in the old City Station Methodist Episcopal Church. For a period of twenty one years he was one of the trustees of Dickinson College, which important trust he was compelled to resign, because of the inconvenience of attending the meetings of the Board, held in a distant city. In 1848 the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church appointed five ministers and two laymen to revise the Denominational Ilymn-book. Mr. Creamer was on this com- mittee and was one of the first two laymen ever appointed by the General Conference to official positions. During a part of the same year, he acted as cicerone to the eminent English Wesleyan minister, the Rev, James Dixon, D.D., in his tour through the United States. In Washington they were introduced to President Polk and Vice-President Dallas, and to Senators Benton, Calhoun, and Jefferson Davis, who was still suffering from the wound he received in the Mexican war. In his work entitled Methodism in America, Dr. Dixon refers to Mr. Creamer, and his standard work on Hymnology in terms of gratitude and compliment. Mr. Creamer has become widely known as a correspondent, essayist, and critic of Ilymnology. As early as 1836 he established a literary journal in Baltimore, and was assisted in the editorial department by the Rev. J. N. McJilton, afterwards an eminent divine in the Protes- tant Episcopal Church. This periodical, entitled The Baltimore Monument, had an able corps of contributors, among whom were Dr. Deems (now of New York), A. A. Lipscomb, LL.D., Thomas E. Bond, M.D., E. Yeates Reese, D.D., T. S. Arthur, N. C. Brooks, LL.D., Rev. G. G. Cookman, C. C. Cox, A.M., M.D., and others who have since become conspicuous in literary and professional life. In 1848 Mr. Creamer published his book on Metho- dist Hymnology. It was the first work of the kind issued in the United States. Years of patient research and com- pilation had been devoted to its preparation. It is yet quoted as an authority by Hymnal critics in this country und England. He has written many articles for such mag- azines and papers as the Christian Advocate, The Balti- more Christian Advocate, The Ladies' Repository, and The Methodist, which latter paper he served several years as Baltimore correspondent. Ilis private collection of books of sacred poetry is so extensive that he has furnished the Drew Theological Institute with about seven hundred volumes on that one subject. Ilis neatly kept scrap-books are replete with printed letters and essays from his own gifted pen, and his Official Album contains original letters complimenting him as a patriotic and Christian citizen from such men as President Hayes, Hon. E. M. Stanton, J. A. J. Creswell, D. M. Key, J. N. Tyner, and Generals Meigs, Foster, and Butler. Alis Clergyman's album is filled with tributes from ministers known for their culture and piety,
who have been his personal friends. For many years Mr .. Creamer has devoted much of his time and labor to the educational and moral improvement of the colored race. As one of the Board of Managers of the " Baltiniore As- sociation for the Educational and Moral Improvement of the Colored People," he has travelled, spoken, written, and contributed in behalf of the various interests of these children of misfortune. To the efforts of this organization the excellent colored school system of Maryland is attrib- utable. It did the pioneer work, building schoolhouses throughout the State, and arousing public interest in the welfare of these " wards of the nation." No man in Baltimore is more widely known as " The colored man's Friend," than David Creamer. He believes that under the guidance of Divine Providence this race is destined to exert its legitimate influence on the moral character and civil polity of this country. In the year 1855 he was one. of the School Commissioners of Baltimore. With pleasant recollections of a life that has been marked by integrity, usefulness, and piety, Mr. Creamer is gently approaching a serene and beautiful old age.
BHIELPS, HONORABLE FRANCIS P., M.D., was born in Sussex County, Delaware, January 31, 1799. His father, Asahel Phelps, was a native of Con- necticut, and traced his lineage far back to the early colonial period. He was a Revolutionary soldier and 9 was severely wounded in the battle of Brandywine. The maiden name of his wife was Agnes Houston. Francis P. Phelps attended school in his native county, and at fifteen ycars of age was sent to a classical school at Milford, and afterwards to the academy at Lewiston, Delaware. On completing his course at the academy he commenced his medical studies in the office of Dr. William Handy, of Baltimore, and attended lectures at the University of Mary- land, from which he graduated in 1819. Ile settled at Federalsburg, Dorchester County, Maryland, where he prac- ticed till 1833, when he removed to his present residence in Cambridge, in the same county. In 1846 he relinquished practice in consequence of loss of health, and having pur- chased the estate of " Eldon," five miles from Cambridge, formerly owned by Ilon. James A. Bayard, of Delaware, he made it his home until 1864, when losing all his slaves by the war he returned to Cambridge, and engaged in mercantile pursuits, which still occupy a share of his atten- tion. During all this time Dr. Phelps had been largely engaged in public life. In 1828 he was elected on the Adams ticket to a seat in the General Assembly. Finding that his home duties would not permit his continuing in political life, he declined re-election until 1839, when he way again elected to the Lower House, and served for five con- secutive years. In 1844 he was elected by the Whigs to the State Senate, and served for six years. In 1850 he was
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elected a member of the Convention which convened in Annapolis, Jaunary 15, 1851, to amend the State Constitu. tion. in this body, which was composed of the most able men of the State, he bore an active and influential part. In 1852 he was elected to and made Vice-President of the National Convention of the Whig party, which nominated General Scott for President. In 1856 he was a member of the National Convention which nominated Millard Fill- more for President. In 1860 he was a member of the National Convention which nominated Bell and Everett. He was elected in 1862 as a Union Delegate to the Gen- eral Assembly of Maryland, and in 1866 was a member of the Lower House, and of the Committee to Re-enfranchise the Citizens who had been Disfranchised by the Conven- tion of 1864. In 1873 he was unanimously nominated by the Democratic Convention as Senator from his county, and served for four years. For nearly fifty years he has been in the public service, and during that time has never been defeated at the ballot-box. Dr. Phelps united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1829. Ile was married in 1824 to Hannah, daughter of Dr. John P. White, of Lewiston, Delaware, and granddaughter of Colonel David Ilall, Ex-Governor of that State, who was at the time of his death a Judge of the Circuit Court. Dr. and Mrs. Phelps have now one son and one daughter : Dr. Frank P. Phelps, who was a surgeon in the Union Army, and - wife of Colonel James Wallace, who raised and com- manded the Maryland Regiment in the late war, and is now a prominent member of the Cambridge bar.
ORN, GENERAL. JOHN WATT, was born in Dum- fries, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, March 30, 1834. llis father was Alexander Horn, a millwright and carpenter. His mother was Miss Isabella Watt, a lineal descendant of the celebrated discoverer of steam power. She is still living in the city of Baltimore. Ilis father died in. 1877. The parents of the subject of this sketch came to America when he was a child, and settled in Baltimore, where his father had a relative named Yates, who had made money in agricultural pursuits. Young Horn was placed at the public schools of Baltimore at a very early age, and only left them when his assistance became necessary for aiding in the support of his family, which was quite numerous. Ile was of an industrious dis- { position, and engaged in the distribution of the Baltimore Sun, whereby he earned several dollars each week, which went into the family fund. Finding that the above occu- pation debarred him from all mental improvement, the at- tainment of which was one of his earliest desires, he entered the bookbindery of Lopis Bonsall, where he was employed in the general work of the establishment, and where his literary tastes were gratified by access to numerous books.
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Ile next became engaged in the printing office of James Young, Sr., and continued therein for one year. He was taken from the printing employment very much to his re. gret by his father, and apprenticed to the trade of chair- making with James Lee, of Baltimore. He completed the years of his apprenticeship, though his occupation was dis- tasteful to him throughout, and on attaining his majority left Baltimore and made a general tour through the South. In the vicinity of the Dismal Swamp, Virginia, he was employed for awhile in putting up and running a steam saw-mill. He returned to Baltimore in 1857, and after a brief period beeame attached to the Manchester Academy, Carroll County, Maryland, as the Military Driller of the cadets, for which position he had become qualified by reason of his early attachment to the militia companies of Baltimore, and his study of military tactics whilst an ap- prentice. Dr. Ferdinand Diffenbach was the Principal of the above institution of learning. He was an eminent scholar, and to him and IIenry Stockbridge General Horn is mainly indebted for the direction of his subsequent career. Soon after his entrance into the academy it as- sumed the name of the Irving College, and Mr. Horn, though really one of its professors, was entered on the roll of its classes, and applied himself to studying when not engaged in the drill of the pupils. He acquired a con- siderable knowledge of the classics and mathematics. On leaving the college Professor Horn was highly compli- mented by President Diffenbach for the manner in which he performed his services for three years, the President pub- lishing a testimony to his character, zeal, and faithfulness. About a week after the unfortunate events that occurred in Baltimore on the occasion of the passage through that city of the Massachusetts' troops, April 19, 1861, Mr. Ilorn opened on Pratt Street the first recruiting office in Baltimore for the enlistment of volunteers for the defence of the Union. This business he continued with ardor, in spite of the threats of those in sympathy with the South, and the remonstrances of friends, until a company was formed, and he was duly commissioned as Captain by Gov- ernor Bradford. He was assigned to Company F, Fifth Maryland Regiment, under command of Colonel Schley. After serving at Newport News, under General Mansfield, he became Licutenant-Colonel of the Sixth Maryland Regiment, which he was principally instrumental in the formation of. He was made 'Colonel of this regiment upon the resignation of Colonel Howard, his commission dating March, 1863. Ile had been attached to this regi- ment but a short time when he was sent to serve under Milroy, at Winchester. He continued in the Army of the Potomac, and was in service uninterruptedly, participating with great credit to himself and his regiment in all the battles, from Gettysburg to Petersburg, until, at Ope- quan Creek, he was terribly wounded by a minie ball, which passed through his body and rendered him entirely helpless. He was left on the field for dead, and when
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found regarded as mortally wounded. In April of the following year he was breveted Brigadier-General, his commission to date from the period of his injury, for gal- lant and meritorious service in front of l'etersburg and Shenandoah. November 2, 1866, he was made one of the l'olice Commissioners of Baltimore city. The active part he took in the troubles of that period in the city and State, brought him continuously before the people, and he was constantly acting on the Governor's staff as Quartermaster- General. May, 1867, he was appointed by Governor Swann, Warden of the State Penitentiary. During his management of that institution he succeeded, by his en- ergy and economical policy, in clearing it of a debt of seventy-five thousand dollars, with which it was bur- dened when he took charge of it. After the expiration of his term of office at the Penitentiary he returned to his estate in Prince George's County (" The Forest "), for- merly the home of Colonel W. W. W. Bowie, Here he hoped to spend the residue of his life, but having become convinced of the pernicious policy of placing colored children in the Penitentiary, and having protested re- peatedly against such a wrong in his official reports, he carried into private life the determination to seek the amelioration -of the condition of that class. The Courts and Grand Jury protested again and again against the practice referred to, until finally the corporation known as the House of Refuge and Instruction and Reforma- tion of Colored Children, was established at Cheltenham, forty-six miles south of Baltimore. To this institution he was called as Superintendent in September, 1872, and opened it January, 1873. Hle has been twice married, first in 1860, to Mrs. Elizabeth Wilkins; secondly to Miss Martha E., second daughter of John F. Quinlin, of Balti- more city, in May, 1873. He has one child, now in his fifth year. General Horn's early struggles against adverse circumstances, his industry and determination to acquire that knowledge most serviceable in life, his energy and perseverance as well as his honorable ambition, his patri- otism and bravery, as illustrated by his prompt response to the call of his country in her hour of peril, and his deeds upon the battle-fields, and the ability and efficiency with which he has discharged the duties of the responsible posi- tions that have been conferred upon him, complete a record which entitles him to be regarded as one of Mary- land's most honorable and useful citizens.
r VOX, COLONEL. SAMUEL, was born November 22, 1819, on his estate of " Rich Hill," which lies one Gruuc mile east of Cox's Station, on the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, and which has been for several generations in the family. llis father was Hugh W. C'ox, a planter, who died in 18.49. Ilis mother was Miss Margaret, daughter of Samuel Cox, of Charles County,
Maryland. Colonel Cox was one of five children by his father's first marriage, of whom he is the only survivor. By his father's second marriage there were three chil- dren, of whom only William Cox is now living. The subject of this sketch attended the country pay schools of his neighborhood until he was fifteen years old, when he was sent to Charlotte llall Academy, in St. Mary's County, where he remained for three years. Soon after leaving school he entered into agricultural pur- suits, and continued therein for the long period of thirty- seven years. Corn, oats, wheat and tobacco were the staples he raised, the last-mentioned claiming his particular attention during all these years. In 1845 Colonel Cox was appointed by Governor Pratt a member of the Magis- trate's Court for Charles County, and continued to serve as such for four years. In 1853 he was nominated on the Whig ticket as a candidate for the State Assembly, was elected and served with distinction on the Committee of Ways and Means. He was also Chairman of the Com- mittee on Agriculture. This was in the sessions of 1853 and 1854. In 1859 he, with a number of leading citizens, began the agitation of the question of a railroad to run from Baltimore to a point on the Potomac, through Charles County. The civil war intervening nothing definite was done in the above matter until 1864, when Colonel Cox again took it up, and with others secured a charter for a railroad from Baltimore to the Potomac. The State Leg- islature appropriated one hundred and seventy-five thou- sand dollars for " internal improvement " to the county of Charles, and after various efforts to divert the proposed road from where it now is, and to divide the appropriation and give part to another railroad, it was finally determined to make its terminus at Pope's Creek, on the Potomae, and six miles south of Cox's Station. Colonel Cox was contractor for the six miles of the railroad nearest Pope's Creek, the most difficult part of the road to construct in the county, the grade sometimes requiring as many as forty feet of filling and excavations. The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad extends from Baltimore to Pope's Creek, with a branch to Washington, D. C. At Cox's Station the Col- onel has built a hotel, store, and several private dwellings. He has laid out a plat of fifty acres of land at this point, and offers to any mechanic or laborer one acre of land if he will build thereon, or if he desires to settle there. Several persons have availed themselves of these offers. Cox's Station lies midway between the head-waters of the Wicomico and the Potomae River, on each of which the lands are fertile and valuable. The Colonel has served for four years as President of the Board of School Com- missioners for Charles County. In 1842 he married Miss Walter Ann, daughter of Walter Cox, Esq., an only child and his cousin. No children of this marriage are living. Honorable Samuel Cox, late a member of the State Leg. islature, by its authority, carries that name, and is at once his nephew and adopted son.
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