USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 23
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 23
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great vigor till 1876, when he bought out his father, and has since been at the head of the institution. His constant ain has been to increase the efficacy and popularity of this method of treating diseases, which within the last few year- has grown so rapidly in public favor. He is a con- stant studeut, and is thoroughly acquainted with the science and philosophy of his medical system, which is shown by his success and the popularity of his Institute. He was married, in 1869, to Miss Emma White. She and their infant daughter died in 1873. He was again married, March 20, 1878, 10 Miss Margaret J. Kild, of Baltimore.
AIR, REV. CAMPBELL, D.D., Rector of the Church of the Ascension, Lafayette Square, Baltimore. was born in Hollymount, County Mayo, Ireland, April 28, 1842. His father, John Fair, was a country gentleman of property, living principally on his estate near the town of Ballina. lle died in 1546, and the property is now inherited by the eldest son, Thomas Willson Fair. The mother, Maria ( Willson Fair, was the daughter of Thomas Willson, an eminent lawyer of Dub- lin, and a " Freeman " of that metropolis. He was noted for his strict and impartial honesty, especially in the con- duct of all matters connected with his profession. On the conclusion of an important case the parties to whom he was opposed were so impressed with his impartial jus- tice that they presented him with a tea set of solid silver, an heirloom still preserved in the family. Mrs. Fair is still living. A devoted Christian woman. she trained care- fully and religiously the eight children so early left to her sole charge. To assist her she had always a resident gov- erness in the house, and at a suitable age her son Campbell was provided with a tutor, who prepared him for the Dub- lin University. He was especially fond of mathematics, and, before he was twelve years of age, had mastered the first six books of Euclid. He was intended by his mother for the profession of a civil engineer, at which he served about fourteen months, but at fifteen years of age the desire which had long possessed him to enter the mini-try of the Church of England and Ireland, gained the pre- dominance, and, after concluding his studies at the Univer- sity, he entered St. Adam's Theological College, Birken- head, England. He graduated in 1865, with the highest honors, and was ready for ordination several months before he had reached the required canonical age. This time he spent in travelling, and in applying? himself to more general studies. On June 9, 1865, Trinity Sunday, he was ordained by the Right Rev., the Lord Bishop of Asaph, in St. Asaph's Cathedral, North Wales, his appoint- ment being to the curacy of Holy Trinity Church, Birken- head. The following year he received the order of priest at the hands of the present Bishop of Chester, Dr. Jacob.
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son, and removed to Dublin as Missionary under the Irish Church Missions to Roman Catholics. In 1867 he became Secretary of the same Society in London, and was also Curate of St. Jude's Church, Chelsea. In 1868 the So- ciety sent him as their Secretary to the midland counties of England, and to North and South Wales, his residence being at Birmingham. In September of that year, while travelling from Birmingham to Llandudro, Wales, he was terribly injured by a collision of the trains, and for five years was a great sufferer. He was paralyzed at the base of the brain, and lost his sight, hearing, taste and smell. When he was able to walk on crutches, after three years' confinement to his bed, a sea-voyage was ordered by his medical adviser, and he came to New York, accompanied by his mother. Proceeding to New Orleans to spend the winter, he was there treated with electricity so successfully, that, together with the happy effects of travel and change and the delightful climate, he was entirely restored to health. IIe found there also many friends and formed many warm attachments. Ile accepted, in 1871, the assis- tant rectorship of Christ Church in that city, which he re- signed February 1, 1875, to accept the rectorship of St. Ambrose Church in New York city, and was married on the same day to Alice, youngest daughter of William J. McLean, a retired merchant of New Orleans. Ile remained in New York but a few months, resigning in June of the same year, when he was elected to the Rector- ship of the Church of the Ascension, Lafayette Square, Baltimore, his present charge. He is very popular ; his congregations are large and his schools crowded. Several societies have also been established, among which are the " Brotherhood," for the gentlemen of the congregation, and the " Aid Association " for the ladies. Through the " Mother's Mission," the homes of the poor are reached, and their necessities supplied. Dr. Fair is Secretary of the Convocation of Baltimore, has been the editor of the Conservative Churchman, and has published several tracts in defence of the principles of his Church. He is also a frequent contributor to the periodical literature of the day. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by the University of Nebraska.
ILKINS, COLONEL EDWARD, was born, October 6, 1813, at York, a family estate in Kent County, Maryland. Ilis great-grandfather, Thomas Wil- kins, with two brothers, came to this country from Fawsley, near Daventry, Northamptonshire, England, about the year 1720, and settled upon the north side of Chester River, at the mouth of what is now known as Shipping Creek, where in 1724 he established a store and shipyard. Ile soon after married Mary, the daughter of William Comegys, the first proprietor of " Relief," now
known as Comegys Point, and during a long and un- eventful life, continued where he first settled, in the same pursuits, rearing his sons to follow the same employments. Ile was accidentally drowned when ninety two years of age. His grandfather, Baltus Wilkins, eldest son of Thomas, after marriage with Rebecca Johnson, of Cecil County, Maryland, established himself in the same business as his father, on the waters of Langford's Bay, within two miles of his early home. Here he continued his father's voca- tion, cultivating his farm and building vessels for foreign and coast wise trade, rearing his sons to the same pursuits, and dying in his ninetieth year, honored and respected by all who knew him. Edward Wilkins, the third son of Bartus Wilkins, and father of Colonel Wilkins, married Julianna Kemp, daughter of Captain Thomas Kemp, of Talbot County, Maryland, and engaged in agricultural pursuits at York, on Langford's Bay, a short distance" from his father's home. He died in 1814, leaving the subject of this sketch the only surviving child, an infant six months old. Colonel Wilkins received his earlier education at the private schools in Chestertown, Mary- land. After his fourteenth year he attended the then celebrated school of John Gummere, at Burlington, New Jersey, and then, after two years, the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts, then under the charge of Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D.D. After leaving Wilbraham he entered the store of William Rowan & Co., Wilmington, Delaware, for the purpose of learning the mercantile busi- ness. Ile continued there for about three years, when in consequence of the death of Robert Constable, Esq., with whom his mother had contracted a second marriage, he returned home and engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1838 Colonel Wilkins was married to Deborah, daughter of David Jones and Anna Maria Thomas, his wife. Mrs. Deborah Wilkins's ancestors, Philip Thomas, of Mary- land, and Samuel Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, were among the earliest settlers of those two colonies. Mrs. Wilkins became the mother of three children : Julianna, who mar- ried R. S. Emory, and died in the year 1874, leaving chil- dren ; Edward Mifflin, who married Mary Anna Merritt, has children, and is now living on the 'farm adjoining his father; the other, Maria D., married James Rus- sell, and died in 1876, leaving children. Mrs. Deborah Wilkins died in the year 1845, and in 1848 Colonel Wilkins married Frances Olivia Merritt, daughter of Samuel Merritt and Annie Maria Thomas, his wife. Mrs. F. O. Wilkins died in January, 1877, leaving four chil- dren : Samuel Merritt, not married, living with his father ; Fannie Louisa, married to Edward B. Jones, a descendant of William Comegys, and now living at " Relief," where Comegys first settled; Ben. N. $., married to Rebecca Gray, and is living on a farm adjoining his father; and Frank, living with his father. After his marriage with Miss Merritt, Colonel Wilkins purchased Riverside, a part of Godlington Manor, an estate on which his second wife's
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ancestors, the Hawkins, Millers, and Merritts, first settled in 1650. Colonel Wilkins's mother was a woman of re- markable energy, of great amiability of character, and a devoted Christian. She died in 1868, in the eighty-fourth year of her age. It is as a capable and successful agricut. tirist that Colonel Wilkins was most widely known. From his first entrance upon the practice of his profession as a farmer, he pursued it in its varied and interesting opera- tions, not only with discriminating judgment, but from his fondness for the pursuit, with vivid delight in its processes ; bringing at once to the work of the farm a clearsighted sagacity, and a degree of business-like method, not fre- quent in that branch of industry. He has applied himself ever since with intelligence and assiduity to the improve- ment and enhancement of his estates, not hesitating to iden- tify himself at the same time with every local and general movement to raise the standard of his calling, and to ad- vance the interests of those engaged with him in its ranks. Conspicuous in his individual enterprises by the thorough- ness of his preparations and the keenness of his percep- tive powers, when addressing himself to the investigation of the numerous, and often intricate problems, presenting themselves to every cultivator of the soil, he was not a mere routine follower of ancient traditions. In his efforts to promote the public welfare his career was marked by liberal views, devotion to progress, and from conviction of the respectability and honorableness of the vocation of a farmer. Colonel Wilkins was active in the formation of the Agri- eultural Society of Kent County, one of the earliest and most influential associations of its kind in Maryland, hav- ing been originated in 1836, and continuing a profitable existence for twenty-five years, including in its membership a number of the professional farmers of the county, and long exercising a salutary influence on its agriculture. He was one of the originators of the State Agricultural Society, which was formed in 1847, and active in promoting the success of its shows in Baltimore, which annually attracted thither most of the representative men of the several coun- ties of Maryland, besides many visitors of distinction in rural pursuits from adjacent States. He served for several years as one of its Vice Presidents, a position he also oc- cupied in the later society organized in 1867. During his term of service in the Senate of Maryland, Colonel Wil- kins was Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, exert- ing himself in that capacity on behalf of every measure promising to be of advantage to the agricultural cause. Ile was conspicuous for the zeal with which, in the face of op- position, especially from the western portion of the State, he championed and secured the charter granting pecuniary aid from the State for the Maryland Agricultural College, an institution which it was then hoped would prove sig- nally useful in elevating and developing the agriculture of the State. Kent County is indebted to him for several, and generally successful, essays to improve the character of its farm stock. He was the first to introduce the Du -
ham, or Short Horn cattle within her borders, and also, at a subsequent period, the Jerseys or Alderneys. Numer- ous animals of both breeds were distributed by him, many as presents to his brother farmers, their direct impress be- ing widely seen, and their manifest superior qualities above the common breeds inducing others to acquire similar im- proved stock. Like favorable results attended his efforts to improve the horses, sheep, etc., of his vicinage. In 1856 Colonel Wilkins began the cultivation of fruit for market on a considerable scale, extending in this line from year to year, especially in growing peaches, until the mag- nitude of his operations exceeded, it is believed, that of any other grower in the country. Pursuing with great en- thusiasm, and with all the resources of an enlightened mind, this engaging and profitable branch of agriculture, he soon came to be regarded as an authority on all subjects connected with the production of fruits. In addition to the cultivation of his orchards, he for some years raised under glass, apricots, peaches, and nectarines, forwarding them by artificial heat, so that his extensive houses were annually a mass of beautiful blooms in January, with fruit maturing in May. Obvious advantages in the way of test- ing new varieties as to quality were thus afforded him, in addition to the facility of supplying the markets with the luxury of early forced fruits. Although not a voluminous writer he contributed occasionally to the agricultural and horticultural periodicals, mainly to The American Farmer, papers of much point and practical value on various spe- cialties to which his attention had been directed. Some of these papers were called forth by the inquiries of those less conversant with the topics treated, whilst others presented the results of his own endeavors at individual research, some of the latter being widely copied by the rural press. Ilis reputation as a skilful fruit-grower, his orchards eom- prising extensive plantings of pears as well as peaches, gained for him a national prominence as a pomologist, and his place on the Chester was the frequent resort of those concerned in fruit culture from all sections of the country, desirons to see for themselves his well-managed orchards, to learn of his methods, and to profit by his prolonged ex. perience. When the Maryland Horticultural SSociety was organized in 1874, Colonel Wilkins was made Vice- Presi- dent for the State at large, as the representative of her great fruit interest ; and from its inception he has worked unremittingly and effectively for its success. On the occa- sion of the reception by that association in Baltimore, in September, 1877, of the American Pomological Society, which comprised delegates from all the States and Terri- tories, and the British l'ossessions, he extended to the visit- ing body, through the State society, an invitation to visit him and inspect the peach farms, the fame of which is known over the whole country. It was accepted, and the members and delegates of the National Society, in charge of a committee of the Maryland Society, and numbering over two hundred persons, passed a day with him as his
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guests. They were entertained in a manner consonant with the reputation of Riverside, taken through its peach and pear orchards, and those in the neighborhood, and re- turned by steamer the same evening to Baltimore, all ex- pressing themselves as delighted with their reception, and most of them astonished at the magnitude of the fruit- growing capacity of one State, and the skill and enterprise displayed in the production and marketing of the crops. It was said by the public prints that this excursion had done more than all things else to spread throughout every quarter of the Union an adequate notion of the fruit-producing re- sources of Maryland, which could not fail to prove con- tinuously beneficial to those of her citizens developing them, as well as to the community at large. Colonel Wil- kins, though an earnest and zealous Whig and Republican, was never, at any period of his life, an active working poli- tician, and yet was called at various times to fill responsible public positions. In comparatively early life he was one of the Judges of the Orphans' Court of Kent County. In 1856 he was elected to the Senate of Maryland, and dis- charged the duties of that position with great credit to him- self and advantage to the State. At the breaking out of the civil war, he promptly raised a regiment for the General Government, which did good service on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, between Baltimore and Harper's Ferry. In con- sequence of a severe attack of typhoid fever, which seri- ously affected his general health, he was compelled, before the close of the first year of the war, to resign his con- mand. He continued, however, in private life to do all in his power to sustain the Government he was not permitted to serve further in the field. Colonel Wilkins was the Republican candidate for Comptroller of the State, on the Reform ticket, in the campaign of 1875, receiving largely more than the full vote of his party. During the last year of the administration of President Grant, on the resigna- tion of Washington Booth, Esq., caused by ill health, he was, without his knowledge or solicitation, appointed Col- lector of Customs for the port of Baltimore. June 22, 1877, he was removed from that position by President Hayes. From thence to his death he devoted himself to the private pursuits of his elegant life at Riverside. Colonel Wilkins died suddenly at his home at Riverside, December 28, 1878, of neuralgia of the heart, his unexpected death causing the deepest regret and sorrow throughout Maryland, and cast- ing an especial gloom over his friends and those who knew him best, his neighbors, who for years past had shared his hospitality and enjoyed his refined and cultured society at his elegant home in Kent County. Colonel Wilkins en- joyed the respect and confidence of all classes of the peo- ple. Whilst decided and positive in the declaration of his opinions, he always displayed a degree of courteous re- spect to others, which secured him the admiration of those most hostile to him. The public spirit which he at all times manifested, his devotion to all that concerned the welfare
and progress of the State, and the energy with which he sought to advance all its material interests, constituted him one of the most useful citizens of Maryland ; while the amiability of his character, his manners, open-hearted hos- pitality and generous treatment of friends, rendered him one of the most popular men in the State, and one to be admired and held up as a pattern of honest ambition and of genuine success in life.
ENKLE, IION. ELI JAMES, M.D., Representative in Congress of the Fifth District of the State of Maryland, composed of Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Howard, Prince George's, and St. Mary's Counties, and the First and Thirteenth Districts of Baltimore County, and Seventeenth Ward of Baltimore city, was born in Baltimore, November 24, 1828. Ilaving received an academic education, he taught school for three years; after which he studied medicine, and graduated at the University of Maryland in 1850. Dr. IIenkle has de- voted his attention chiefly to the practice of his profession and to fruit culture. The doctor was a Trustee, and also Professor of Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene in the Maryland Agricultural College; President of the Board of Visitors of Washington University of Baltimore, and Director in the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad. He, was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1863; was a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1864; elected to the State Senate in 1866, and again in 1867- . serving in 1867, 1868, and 1870. IIe was again elected to the House of Delegates in 1871 and 1873, and was a Delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1872. He was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth Con- gress, as the- representative of the Fifth Congressional District of the State of Maryland, and served on the Com- mittee on the District of Columbia ; and was re-elected to the Forty-fifth Congress from the same district, receiving a majority of two thousand seven hundred and thirty-one votes over J. II. Seilman, the Republican candidate. In that Congress he served on the Committee on the District of Columbia, and the Committee on the Militia.
ENRY, HON. DANIEL MAGNADIER, Representative in Congress of the First District of the State of Maryland, embraeing the counties of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne's, Somerset, Talbot,
,9 Wicomico, and Worcester, was born near Cam- bridge, Dorchester County, February 19, 1823. He was educated at Cambridge Academy, and at St John's Col- lege, Annapolis. Having studied law, he was admitted to
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the bar in 18.14, and has since been engaged in the prac- tice of his profession. He was a member of the House of Delegates of Maryland in 18446, and again in 18.49; was a member of the State Senate in 1870 and 1872; and was elected as a Democrat to the Forty titth Congress, l'e cciving fifteen thousand two hundred and eighty-seven votes against eleven thousand nine hundred and four for Thomas A. Spence, Republican. He served in that Con- gress on the Committee on Claims, and on the Committee on Reform in the Civil Service.
PIMMEL, HION. WILLIAM, Representative in Con- gress of the Third District of the State of Mary- land, composed of the First to Ninth wards inclu- sive, of the city of Baltimore, was born in that city. Ile comes of an old German stock, one of his ancestors having emigrated from Manheim on the Rhine, about two hundred years ago, and settled in Penn- sylvania, from whence, about one hundred years ago, a branch of the family removed to Baltimore, where they have since been extensively engaged in trade, forming an almost unbroken succession of a line of merchants, wealthy and respected ; always honored for their upright- ness, beloved for their kind deeds, and esteemed for their patriotism and publie spirit. Mr. Kimmel's early educa- tional advantages were good, having studied in the best schools of his native city, and at St. Mary's and Baltimore Colleges. After Icaving college, he studied law, and is a . member of the Baltimore bar. He has devoted much time to agricultural pursuits, and to the study of the com- mercial and manufacturing interests of the country. Ile has tilled, and now holds, many positions of trust and high responsibility. He was a State Director of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company ; a Director and stockholder in the Canton Company of Baltimore, and is a Director in the Union Railroad Company, and in the Western Mary- land extension. He was a member of the State Demo- cratic Committee from 1862 to IS66, and a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1864, that nominated General George B. McClellan for President. Mr. Kimmel was a candidate for Congress in 1864. He served with marked ability in the Maryland State Senate from 1866 to 1871, and has since been elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fifth Congress, receiving five thousand five hundred and ninety-two votes more than his opponent, W. E. Goldsborongh, the Republican nominee. In that Con- gress, he served on the Committees on Naval Affairs and on Revolutionary Pensions. Mr. Kimmel is an active and consistent Democrat, an ardent believer in the people and in the justice of their cause, as against the privileges of - caste. . He has devoted his life to the advocacy of their claims, and to all measures tending to ameliorate the con-
dition of the working classes, and advance their interests as well as those of the community at large. The extensive improvements at Canton, so largely due to him as agent of the t'anton Company, bear witness to the energy and sue. cess with which he bas labored for whatever conduces to the welfare of the masses and the interests of the public.
AMB, ELI MATTHEWS, Principal of Friends' Ele- mentary and Iligh School for pupils of both sexes, Baltimore, was born, November 14, 1835, at Gun- powder, Baltimore County, a settlement originated by
2 Friends about two hundred years ago. Mr. Lamb's ancestors are of very early date in the Colonial times of North America, and their descendants are numerous and widespread. According to traditionary accounts, the first of the family of the name of Lamb in America was an English Friend, named Pearce Lamb, who settled in Mary- land. He had two sons, Francis and Pearce, and several danghters. Pearce first settled in Frederick County, Mary- land, but subsequently went to Kentucky. He had several sons and daughters, who occasionally corresponded with their Maryland relatives and acquaintances, dwelling especially on the beauty and fertility of their Western . home ; but all trace of that branch of the family has long since been lost to their Eastern friends. Francis Lamb set- tled in Kent County, Maryland, " taking up" a large tract of land under the English law. He was married twice. By the first wife he had five sons, namely, Joshua, Pearce, George, John, and Thomas, and by his second wife, Fran- cis, Thomas, and William. Of the last three no record seems to have been preserved. From the children of the first wife, the descent of the subject of this sketch is traced. John Emerson Lamb, Senior, father of Eli M., is now an aged and highly respected citizen of Baltimore. He was born in Kent County, Maryland, whence at the age of eleven years he removed to Wilmington, Delaware, where he was educated. In 1819 he removed to Baltimore, where for many years he was associated with his father, Isaac Lamb, in the business of tanning leather, in Baltimore and Western Maryland, and afterward on his own account. Be- ing a gentleman of fine scholarship, he established in 1848 the Milton Boarding School for Boys, near Gunpowder. It was located on the York Road, about seventeen miles from Baltimore, and was patronized by large numbers of pupils from the city and other parts of the State. From 1856 until 1861, Eli acted as Assistant and Associate Principal. In 1862 John Emerson Lamb was appointed to a position in the Internal Revenue Service. He was among the first appointees; opened the books for that service, and has been connected with it until the present time (1879). Esther Matthews, Eli's mother, was a daughter of Eli Matthews, member of a long-resident family of Baltimore
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