The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2, Part 27

Author: National Biographical Publishing Co. 4n
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Baltimore : National Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802

USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 27
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 27

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URNER, JAMES, Physician and Legislator, is a na- tive of Chester, Pennsylvania. He removed to Maryland in 1848 ; was educated at New London Academy, in Pennsylvania, and is a graduate of the Medical Department of Jefferson College, Philadel- phia; served for several years as State Director of the Bal- timore and Central Railroad; in 1873 was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, and was returned in 1877.

OLDSBOROUGHI, IIENRY HOLLYDAY, Lawyer, was born in Easton, Talbot County, Maryland, June 22, 1817. His father, John Goldsborough, was a native of Cambridge, Dorchester County, Maryland, where his grandfather, John Golds- borough, many years Deputy Commissary of Wills, and after the Revolution, Register of Wills, was also born. The latter's father was John Goldsborough, of Talbot County, planter. Ile was for twenty-nine years a member of the House of Burgesses under the Proprietary Govern- ment. He was also one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace. Ile lived until 1788, and was a participant in all the stirring scenes which led to a separation of the Colonies from the mother country, and of their trials dur- ing the Revolution. His father, Robert Goldsborough, was born at Blandford, in the County of Dorchester, Eng- land, in 1660, and came to America in 1678, settling on a tract of land in " Goldsborough's Neck," near Easton, known as " Ashby.". The mother of the subject of our sketch was Miss Anna Maria Chamberlaine, daughter of Samuel Chamberlaine, of " Bonfiekl," near Oxford, Talbot County. Ilis father was a lawyer by profession, but, at the time of his death in 1840, occupied the position of

Cashier of the Branch Bank of the Farmers' Bank of Maryland, at Easton. Young Goldsborough's principal education was received at the Easton Academy. After remaining a pupil therein for about seven years, he was sent to the " Parsonage," a private school in Talbot County, kept by the Rev. Joseph Spencer. After staying there for about a year, he returned to the classical depart- ment of the Easton Academy. A year afterwards he en- tered, as a student, St. John's College, Annapolis (in 1836). In two years he completed his collegiate course, and grad- uated with the first honors of the senior class. In the latter part of 1839, he commenced the study of law in his father's office, remaining therein until the latter's death, August 12, 1840, when he became a student in the office of Theodore R. Loockerman, and there completed his law reading. He was admitted as Attorney-at-law at the Caroline County Court, in March, 1841, and in the follow- ing May was admitted to practice in the Talbot County Court. He diligently pursued his profession, and in the course of ten years, his practice became quite large and re- munerative .. Shortly after entering upon the practice of law, Mr. Goldsborough was nominated by the Whigs for a seat in the House of Delegates, and again in 1845, but was defeated each time with the other nominces of the Whig party. In 1846 he ran as an independent Whig candidate for the House of Delegates, and succeeded in accomplish- ing the defeat of certain members of his party who had misrepresented him in the previous contests. In 1849 he received from the Attorney-General of Maryland the ap- pointment of Deputy Attorney-General for Talbot County, and continued in the active discharge of the duties of that office until its abolishment, by the adoption of the Consti- tution of 1850. In 1851 he was nominated by the Whigs, and ran as their candidate for State's Attorney, but was de- feated by a few votes. In 1852 he was nominated by the Whig State Convention as one of the electors for his Con- gressional District, for General Winfield Scott for Presi- dent, and William A. Graham for Vice-President. When the Whig party ceased to exist, and a new party under the sobriquet of the " Know. Nothing or American Party" sprang into existence, Mr. Goldsborough determined to act with the Democratic party. In 1855 he was nominated by the Democratic Convention assembled in Cambridge, as candidate for Commissioner of Public Works for the Fourth District, embracing all the counties on the Eastern Shore, and was defeated by his opponent, Benjamin Lan- ford, by a small majority. In 1856 he was nominated as one of the Democratic Electors for the First Congressional District, for James Buchanan as President, and John C. Breckinridge as Vice-President. He, with the other Democratic Electors, made an active canvass, but the vote of the State was cast for the Electors who favored Millard Fillmore and Andrew J. Donelson for President and Vice- President. In 1857 he was nominated by the Democrats of Talbot for a seat in the House of Delegates. The

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contest was a close and animated one, and Mr. Golds- borough was, for the first time, successful in an election by the people. In the State Assembly he served on several of the most important committees, and took a leading part in the legislation of the famous session of 1858. In the fall of 1859 he was nominated and elected by the Demo- cratic party of Talbot for the State Senate, which he thus became a member of at its January session in 1860. He was appointed Chairman of the Finance Committee, and member of several other important committees. Upon the attempted sccession of the Southern States, Mr. Goldsbor- ough at once openly avowed himself a Union man, and unhesitatingly asserted his determination to support the Government. By his efforts in the Legislature, especially in the Senate, he contributed largely to sccuring the State on the side of the Federal Government. He was Presi- dent of the Senate at the extra session which commenced in January, 1862. This body was composed of able and patriotic men, and passed resolutions sustaining the Gen- eral Goverument in all its measures and efforts to suppress the rebellion. January 7, 1862, Mr. Goldsborough was commissioned by Governor Hicks as a commissioner on the part of the State of Maryland, to select articles for exhibition at the Industrial Exhibition at London, which the cvents transpiring in the country prevented him from accepting. June 20, 1862, he was commissioned by Gov- ernor Bradford aide-de-camp on the Governor's staff, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and in the following Sep- tember, was commissioned by the Governor Commandant, with the rank of Brigadier-General of the drafted militia. In 1863 he was elected by the Union party Comptroller of the State Treasury, by a majority of thirty thousand, and in 1864 served as President of the Convention called to frame a new Constitution and Form of Government for the State. In the spring of the above year, he was selected as a delegate from the Republican State Convention held in Baltimore, to the National Convention of that party, which nominated Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson for President and Vice-President, and was one of the Electors for the State at large on the Republican ticket. Iu November of the same year he was elected by the Republican party Circuit Judge of the Eleventh District of the State for fifteen years. Ile occupied the judgeship for three years, when he was superseded by the present judges under the provisions of the Constitution adopted Septem- ber 18, 1867. In the latter month and year he was nomi- nated by the Republican party for the Attorney-General- ship of Maryland, but was defcated by Ilon. Isaac D. Jones. In 1868 he served as Elector at large for General U. S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax for President and Vice- President. From the above year until 1872, Judge Golds- borough devoted himself to agricultural pursuits, and in the latter year actively resumed the practice of the legal profession. In the Presidential contest of that year, he supported Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown for P'resi-

dent and Vice-President. In September, 1874, he was nominated by the Republican Congressional Convention for Congress from his district, and was defeated by Hlou. P. F. Thomas. On January 19, 1875, he was tendered and accepted the position of Local Appraiser of the Port of Baltimore, which he now fills. Judge Goldsborough was married twice : first, in 1852, to Miss Anna Maria Kennard, daughter of Samuel L. Kennard, a farmer of Talbot County, by whom he had ten children, five of whom are living; secondly, in 1871, to Miss Kate II. Caldwell,-of Lynn, Massachusetts, by whom he has had four children, three of whom are living.

SEAZEY, HON. THOMAS WARD, was born January 8 31, 1774, in Cecil County, Maryland. Ile was the son of Edward and Elizabeth ( De Coursey) Veazey, and the grandson of Colonel John Veazey, Jr., a memoir of whom is contained in this volume. lle was one of the Presidential Electors in 1809 and 1813, and voted for James Madison. In the war of 1812-1815, he was a Colonel of the militia of Maryland, subsequently was several times a member of the Legislature and one of the Council of Maryland, and was Governor of Maryland from 1835 to 1838. Ile died June 30, 1848.

1 LUMENBERG, GENERAL LEOPOLD, an officer in the Union Army, was born in the Province of Brandenberg, Prussia, September 28, 1827. Ile was the twenty-first child in a family of seventeen sons and five daughters, whose parents, Abraham and Sophia Blumenberg were of the Hebrew faith. Soon after his birth they removed to the chief city of the Prov- ince, Frankfort-on-the-Oder, where he was educated, and at an early age graduated at the Gymnasium of that city. At the breaking out of the Prussian and Danish war, he enlisted as a private soldier in the army of his country, and bore an honorable part in all its campaigns, returning to his home with the rank of First Lieutenant. In 1854 he resigned his commission, and came with his wife to Baltimore. Ilere he became interested in manu- facturing, in which he engaged with great success, till his services in arms were again required. Ile learned to love ardently the land of his adoption, and when President "Lincoln issued his call for troops to save it from dismem- berment, he instantly abandoned his prosperous business, and was untiring in his efforts to secure eulistments, assist- ing materially in raising the Fifth Maryland Regiment of

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volunteers. These efforts excited the animosity of the Secessionists of the city, who attempted to hang him, and for three nights it was necessary to guard his house. His success in obtaining reummit, and his former military cx- perience, procured for him the commission of Major of the Fifth Maryland Regiment, with which he soon joined Mcclellan's command. They were at Fortress Monroe during the Peninsula campaign, and Major Blumenberg, as acting Colonel, was appointed to the command of Hampton. On the invasion of Maryland by Lee, the Fifth Regiment was transferred to General Mansfield's corps, which formed part of the army used to check Lee's advance, and in the battle of Antietam, Colonel Blumenberg led his regiment in a charge on the rebel riffe-pits, when he was struck in the thigh by an English explosive bullet from a Confederate sharpshooter, and conveyed home to his family in Baltimore; he was confined to his bed for more than a year. Ilis wound was too near the vital parts to render amputation a safe measure, and he suffered greatly. After he was able to leave his room, his friends purchased and presented to him an elegant equipage, and as soon as he was able to perform any service, President Lincoln ap- pointed him Provost-Marshal of the Third Maryland Dis- trict, comprising the lower ten wards of Baltimore city, which he held till the close of the drafts. The Baltimore Schutzen honored him frequently by making him Presi- dent of the Association, a position he held almost con- tinuously till his death ; at which time he was both Presi- dent and King, the latter name being given to the best shot among them. The society, under his able and effi- cient administration, prospered greatly, and became pos- sessed of their present magnificent property, which is now the pride and chief resort of the best classes of the Ger- man people of Baltimore. He was appointed to an office in the Revenue Department by President Johnson, whose policy he supported, and prior to the expiration of his - term was breveted Brigadier-General for conspicuous gal- lautry on the field. He never fully recovered from the wound received at Antietam, and was a constant sufferer, enduring thirteen surgical operations, before the ball could be extracted. This mangling of his limb produced a series of disorders from which he died, August 12, 1876. Prior to his death he had been elected President of the National Schutzen of the United States, at which he pre- sided, at the great gathering in Philadelphia, during the Centennial Exhibition, only a month before his decease. lle was married in 1853 to Emilie Knorre, of Berlin, and had nine children, seven of whom survived him, Catha- rine, Alfred, Fredrika, Minnie, Ella, William, and Melvin. . Charles Francis, his second son and third child, a most promising young man, died at the age of seventeen, only two months before the death of his father, an affliction . which doubtless contributed to hasten that event. Gen- eral Blumenberg was a kind and indulgent husband and father, and was very charitable to the needy and afflicted.

HOMPSON, G. H., Machinist, Miller, and Legisla- tor, was born in the city of Baltimore in 1828. In 1850, after a four years' absence in New York, he settled in Kent County, Maryland, where he fol

27 lowed his trade as blacksmith and machinist for sev. eral years, and then engaged in the saw-mill business. He served two years as Magistrate in Kent County, and in 1877 was elected to the House of Delegates, 1

HOWDLE, ALEXANDER, Farmer and Capitalist, was born in 1821, in Bailcy Neck, Talbot County, Maryland. He was the youngest in a family of eleven, of whom six were sons, the children of Lof- tus and Elizabeth (Stevens) Bowdle. Only one son besides himself now survives. When the subject of this sketch was only seven years of age his father died. By the generosity of his father, in becoming security for others, he had lost so heavily that when the estate was settled nothing was left for the children. Alexander was therefore permitted to attend school only in the winter sea- son, being obliged to work on the farm in the summer. When seventeen years of age he hired himself to his elder brother as a farm hand, for sixty dollars a year, but dis- charged his duties so well as foreman that his brother gave him eighty dollars for the year's work. He went to farm- ing for himself at the age of eighteen, and after the death of his brother Samuel, he had four hundred dollars with which to begin on his own account. He rented a farm for three years, giving grain for rent, but not being success- ful lic at once sold off and paid all his debts, except one to a brother, who was administrator of the deceased brother's estate. In his twenty-first year he had three hundred dollars' worth of property and owed five hundred dollars. Ile then purchased of William W. Powell, for twelve hun- dred dollars, a farm of eighty acres, which contained large marl beds, from which he sold nine hundred dollars' worth of the marl, and afterwards the land for a good percentage, retaining part of the marl bed. He then went on buying and selling farms, always making something by each ven- ture, and rapidly accumulated a handsome property. Sometimes he resided upon and cultivated the farms for a year or two. In 1866 he purchased of J. 11. Harris, for fifteen thousand dollars, the Ferry Farm, on which he has since resided. Mr. Bowdle married, in 1846, Sarah, daughter of Edward Kenly, of Talbot County. She owned a farm of one hundred and eighty acrest in Ferry Neck, which he has cultivated from that time. His wife died in 1847, leaving him an infant daughter, who, however, did `not long survive. Mr. Bowdle remained a widower till 1851, when he married Emily, the younger sister of his wife, by whom he had one son, Charles E., and one daughter, Mary Ama. Mr. Cloules E. Bowdle lives on

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what is known as the Jenkins farm, in Ferry Neck, of two hundred and forty acres. His father also owns the Boyle farm, near Trappe, of one hundred and forty-six acres. Mr. Bowdle is a thoroughly self made man, a worthy and highly respected citizen.

COOSE, JOSEPH B., of Ilagerstown, Maryland, was born in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, August 18, 1810. Ile was the third son of Conrad and Chris- tiana ( Brendle) Loose. His great-grandfather came to this country from Germany before the Revolution, and settled in Pennsylvania. In the infancy of Mr. Loose his father removed to Franklin County, near Green Castle, where Mr. Loose spent his early life. His educational advantages were very limited. Ilis father died just before he was of age, and after spending a year as clerk in Chambersburg and Philadelphia, he took his earnings, and the few hundred dollars patrimony he had received, and went to Michigan, where he located Government lands. Being compelled to leave on account of chills and fever, he went over into Canada and purchased a pony, on which, after bringing it to Detroit, he rode all the way back to his old home. In 1836 he went to Illinois, where he remained twelve years, making a number of visits to his home dur- ing this time, in one of which, in 1844, he married Miss Henrietta B. Beachtel, of Washington County, Maryland, who accompanied him to the West. He had at this time accumulated fifteen thousand dollars. On first reaching Illinois he entered Government lands in Sangamon, Chris- tian, and Logan counties. Hc then became a clerk in a store in Springfield, and remained two years, saving most of his earnings ; this was followed by two years in the liv- ery business, at the end of which time he had five thou- sand dollars, which he invested in lands; some of which, near Chicago, he has since sold to great advantage. In 1840, when business was greatly depressed, all the banks in the State having failed, and public officials were obliged to take payment in State auditor's warrants, county orders and city script, he commenced dealing in depreciated paper, silver, and gold, and became the first private banker in Springfield ; this he continued for about four years. In 1848 he came to Maryland with his wife, intending only a brief stay, but remained to settle up her father's estate. This occupied him two years, when he purchased the Beachtel property, consisting of five hundred acres ; to this, in time, he added three other farms, making a total of cleven hundred acres, besides large tracts of mountain land. Hle still owns ten acres near Douglas Park, within the Chicago limits, and twenty acres on Halstead Street, just outside that corporation. He also owns eight thou- sand acres of valuable coal land in Rockingham and Au. gusta counties in Virginia, and lands in Illinois, lowa, Kansas, and Nebraska. He has done much, both by his

means and by personal effort, to advance the interests of Hagerstown and Washington County, and was the princi- pal contributor towards the building of the fine new Pres- byterian church, of which he is a member and ruling elder. Ile is a strict observer of the Sabbath, not allowing on that day any letter writing, visiting, or business, conversation, and attributes his success in large measure to his life-long carefulness in this respect. He has not been selfish with the wealth so frecly given him, but has found much happi- ness in assisting others.' Two young men have been en- abled by his generosity to fit themselves for the Christian ministry. In politics he is a Democrat, was formerly a Whig ; has held no office except that of Aklerman for Hagerstown. Ilis only two children living are sons, both married ; Henry Clay Loose, the elder, is a farmer, and Samuel Beachtel Loose, the younger, is a promising young lawyer of Hagerstown.

JERNON, NATHANIEL, late Professor of Mathe- matics in Frederick College, Frederick, Mary- land, was born in Goshen Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, August 10, 1790. The Vernon family is of Norman-French descent, who accompanied William the Conqueror to England in 1066. They were recognized among the nobility in the partition of the Saxons' lands when they were distributed to his followers and retainers, and were always ready to render military service when called upon. At the time of the Quaker excitement in England, they left the Established Church and embraced the new faith. For this they were disinherited, and soon after left for America with William Penn, and on their arrival settled near Philadelphia. Thomas Vernon, father of the subject of this sketch, was a gentleman farmer, indulging in many of the old English sports, especially fox-hunting. He was known as one of the Chester County fighting Quakers, of which the cele- brated Wayne Brigade of the Revolutionary Army was largely composed. Ile entered that army at nineteen years of age, his brother Frederick being a Major of Wayne's Brigade. Nathaniel Vernon's childhood was spent on his father's farm. His educational advantages were confined to the private schools of the neighborhood. At the age of twenty-one, he removed with his father to Mercer County, Pennsylvania, and from thence to Pitts- burg, in the same State. In 1812 he enlisted in the Pitts. burg Blues, Captain James R. Butler, and served in the campaigns in Northwestern Ohio against the combined forces of British and Indians, participating in the fight at Mississineway and the siege of Fort Meigs. After the ex- piration of his term of service in the army, he returned to Pennsylvania, and commenced teaching school in Dela- ware County and studying law. After his admission to the bar, he removed to Baltimore, and from thence re-

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turned to Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and married Charlotte A. Donne in 1827. Soon after his marriage he removed to Frederick City, Maryland, and in 1829 accepted the Professorship of Mathematics in Frederick College, which he held for forty years, retiring from his chair because of advanced age. Mr. Vernon was originally a Federalist in politics, subsequently a Jackson Democrat ; but at the breaking out of the rebellion, he espoused the Union cause, and acted with the Republican party. Of late years he has manifested but little interest in politics, always, however, taking great interest in voting for his old scholars without regard to party. He is about five feet ten inches in height, of ruddy complexion, portly and pleasant appearance. He has been ever noted for his amiability and social qualities, fondness for a joke, and his frequent participations in the enjoyments of his children. lle enjoys the general confidence and respect of the people of Frederick. His regular habits and rugged constitution have preserved his faculties, physical and mental, in a marked degree.

G. TULLEGOOD, JAMES EDWARD, Attorney-at-law, and State's Attorney for Wicomico County, Maryland, was born in that county, then forming a part of Worcester County, January 1, 1842. The name given him in baptism was James Edward Ilenry, after three uncles, two of whom, James A. and John Henry Massey, were highly esteemed members of the Philadelphia Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the third, Edward Massey, was a well-known official member of the same Church in Salisbury. The name Henry was, however, discontinued from childhood. The parents of Mr. Ellegood were Robert Houston and Maria Parker Elle- good, both of whom were natives of the Peninsula ; the former of Sussex County, Delaware, and the latter of Salis- bury, then Worcester County, Maryland. His father was a man of great physical and moral courage, and indepen- dence of character. Ile was brought up in another de- nomination, but became in carly life a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he filled conspicu- ous positions as an office-bearer until the close of his life. The mother of Mr. Ellegood was from early childhood until her death an active and exemplary Christian, and her sweet and saintly character is still a theme of conversa- tion in the society in which she moved. The progenitors of the Ellegood family were of Welsh origin, and settled in Somerset County in the early part of the eighteenth cen- tury. Mr. Ellegood was in early life instructed by his mother in the principles of total abstinence, and inspired with that active interest in the Temperance Reform which has distinguished him through life. Ile first attended the public schools, but afterwards enjoyed superior advantages, and en- tered Washington College in his eighteenth year, from which

he graduated in 1863, after four years' study. On returning from college he was employed in the office of his father, then Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue, and began also the study of law. But finding his means too limited, and desitons of maintaining himself, and also of canning the funds necessary to complete his legal studies, he en- gaged in teaching. In 1867 he was appointed to a clerk- ship in the United States Treasury Department, Washing- ton, D. C., attending the evening lectures of the Columbia Law College after the duties of the day were over. This intense application and too close confinement resulted in the loss of health, to recover which he resigned his office and engaged as Purser on the steamship Worcester, one of the Pioneer Line, plying between Baltimore and Liver- pool. He made four trips between the months of March and November, 1868, after which, with health greatly im- proved, he entered the law office of Messrs. Dennis & Brattan, as a student. lle completed his preparatory studies, and was admitted to the bar of Wicomico County, July 5, 1869. He then commenced the practice of his pro- fession. In 1871 he was appointed Counsel and Clerk to the Board of County Commissioners, which position he held four years. In 1875 he was nominated for State's Attorney for his county by the Democratic party, and was elected by a very large majority. This position he still continues to hold, winning by his integrity and ability the confidence and good wishes of his fellow-citizens of all parties. Mr. Ellegood was one of the founders, and is now a Director, of the Circulating Library of Salisbury, an institution which has proved of much value to the town. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and has held in the Order the post of Chancellor. In the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he was trained, and to which he is warmly attached, he has been honored as a Lay Delegate to the Quadrennial Conference of Laymen. He is an enthusiastic friend of Sabbath-schools, and is an admirable Superintendent. lIe was married in December, 1872, to Rosa B., daughter of William T. and Julia A. Wood, of Salisbury. They have two daughters.

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2, Part 27

Author: National Biographical Publishing Co. 4n Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Baltimore : National Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 802

Author: National Biographical Publishing Co. 4n
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Baltimore : National Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802