USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 40
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 40
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thus making them the owners of the majority in value of the whole stock of the company, yet they were, in fact, rep- resented only by a minority in the Board of Directiou, the State and city having together, in the year 1857, eighteen directors, while the individual stockholders, owning a ma- jority of the stock, could be represented only by twelve directors. The evil effects of this condition of affairs were manifested when the State of Maryland and the city of Baltimore were agreed in political opinion. A majority of the Board of Directors became, of course, a part of a compact political organization, which could at its pleasure control the management of the company. When the State of Maryland and the city of Baltimore disagreed in politi- cal opinion, the plurality of votes in the board remained with the representatives of individual stockholders; but, nevertheless, they were unable to adopt or maintain any policy without the concurrence of the political directors, appointed by the State or city, or without the aid of so many individual members from one or the other of these delegations as would give a majority of votes to the direc- tors representing the stockholders. Those who are fa- miliar with the history of internal improvement corpora-
1 tions in this country can be at no loss to conjecture the difficulties arising from this circumstance, if no others had existed, when Mr. Garrett became a member of the Board of Directors in 1857. The corporation was in hourly danger of becoming one of the prizes of the politi- eal arena. Its resources, though undeveloped, were large ; it, revenues, though meagre in comparison with their present amount, were far greater than those of any other corpora- tion in the State; the patronage of the company was very great, and a large number of men in the city of Baltimore and in the western counties were in its employment. It
was, as has been shown, practically subject to political . control. It cannot be pretended that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company escaped the ruin which political man-
" agement would have brought upon it, because of the self. denial practiced by any one of the political parties which elected the majorities of its directors. Each party, as it arose and fell in the State of Maryland, endeavored to ob- tain control of the company, bui each was foiled by the independent action of some of the political members of the board who deemed it to be their duty to prevent the subordination of the company to political rule. Mr. Gar- rett, however, plainly perceived that the company could not always reckon upon escaping from this danger, and therefore from an early day, after his election as a Director, he considered the necessity of taking such measures as would rescue the company from the impending peril, and save the property of the State, city, and individuals alike fronr great depreciation and loss. In the autumn of 1858 the measures shadowed forth in the address and resolutions offered by Mr. Garrett became the subject of earnest and excited discussion in the Board of Directors. Four of the directors, representing the State and city, having declared
their adherence to the new policy, Mr. Johns Hopkins nominated Mr. Garrett for the Presidency of the company, and the controversy ended by his election to that office. The practical wisdom of the policy inaugurated by Mr. Garrett was shown at the close of the first year of his office. Although, owing to a depression in commercial transactions, the gross receipts of the company were in 1859, the first fiscal year of his administration, less by $272,903.50 than in 1858, the increase in the aggregate comparative net gains of the company, the result of his wise economy and careful supervision, was $725,325.16. These greatly increased earnings so improved the financial condition of the company that a semi-annual dividend was declared in the spring of 1859, which was the first of that series of regular dividends which has been maintained since that period. In 1860, the second year of his administration, the results were still more remarkable. The gross carn- ings were $3,922,202.94, an increase of $303,584.49 over the preceding year, and of $65,715.15 over the fiscal year of 1858. Notwithstanding this limited improvement in the general traffie, the increase of net profits on the main stem amounted to $980, 300, 83. The board announced in its annual report of that year that all purchases had been made for cash, and that the company was entirely free from floating debt. The general economical management of the business and finances of the company resulted in an aggregate of profits for the fiscal year of $1,834,569.25, which showed a net gain of more than eighteen per cent. on the capital stock. During this year the extra dividend of a portion of the surplus fund, which had been declared December 17, 1856, was finally decided to be legal and valid, and the interest which had accumulated upon this dividend whilst it was in litigation, viz., from June 1, 1857, to June 1, 1860, $545,950.80, was paid from the earnings of the company. On November 17, 1858, the period at which Mr. Garrett became President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, the market price of its stock, was $57, and of the extra dividend, amounting to $3,033,obo, and then in litigation, $10 for each $100 thereof, making the actual average market rate at that date $46 per share for the capital stock on the aggregate basis subsequently es- tablished. The extra dividend was declared in certificates of indebtedness which bore interest at six per cent., until converted into the stock of the company on June 1, 1862. No other proofs were needed to confirm the views of the new President. The path of success being now clearly marked out, he addressed himself to the task of providing against those partisan attempts which, in the existing or- ganization of the road, always threatened to endanger its profitable usefulness. When we consider that all men are to-day agreed that it is wise to separate works of internal improvement from political control, and that it is an es- pecial cause of public thank fulness that this corporation has been withdrawn to a large extent from such influences, it is painful to reflect upon the opposition made from 1858
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to 1864 to the proposition that the several classes of stock- holders in the company should be allowed to exercise an influence in its management proportioned to the extent of their respective interests in the property. The motives to that opposition were, however, not wholly political, but arose partly from different impulses. From whatever cause it sprang, it was strong enough to resist year after year the calm and dispassionate request of the company that some mode might be devised by which the impending evil of political control could certainly be avoided. No remedy was devised for the evil until 1864, when the State, by au- thorizing its financial officers to exchange the stock owned by it in the company in a certain order and with particular exceptions, necessarily provided for the relinquishment of a portion of its control. This provision, again ingrafted upon the Constitution of 1867, finally secured the stability of the company as a purely industrial enterprise. These changes in the organic law of the State, and in the rela- tions of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company to the State, have been the marked incidents in the history of the corporation. The work of bringing them about forms a signal labor and success in the official life of President Garrett. The individual stockholders of the company do - not even yet exercise a power and influence in any wise proportioned to the amount of interest owned by them in the company, but they hold, nevertheless, owing to the energy and success with which Mr. Garrett has upheld their rightful claims, authority enough to protect the company against the dangers which had previously beset its path. On the other hand, Mr. Garrett has never failed to acknowl- edge the cordial and efficient support which he has re- ceived from the stockholder directors, or to recognize the confidence in him by the great majority of those represent- ing the State and city, in his long official career. While engaged in this great struggle to maintain the stability of the company as a purely industrial enterprise, Mr. Garrett was not neglectful of other questions which deeply con- cerned its interests. Ile never forgot the maxims which he had inculcated upon the stockholders when he first took part in their deliberations. He maintained always the opinion that the success of every railroad company was as- sured if its business concerns were managed with strict care, skill, and integrity. Hle therefore held every officer and every employe of the company to a strict accounta- bility, and exacted from each a rigid economy in the dis- bursement of the funds of the corporation. He insisted upon an ample equipment of the road, upon complete- ness in the workshops of the company, upon the construc- tion of extensive buildings to meet the varied wants of the corporation, and upon the adoption of every ini- provement which would facilitate the transportation of freight and assure the comfort of the passenger. This system of management was in full force and activity when the great civil war commenced, in April, 1861. The location of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was ap-
parently as unfortunate as could well be imagined. From Baltimore to the Potomac River, near Harper's Ferry, it was located within the State of Maryland. From Har- per's Ferry to a point not far from Cumberland, in Mary- land, it traversed the State of Virginia. From thence it crossed the mountain region of Maryland, and again en- tering the State of Virginia, crossed that State to Wheel- ing, while its branch road, diverging at Grafton, ran thence one hundred and four miles to Parkersburg, on the Ohio River. The line of road, therefore, skirted the territory which was destined to be the chief route of armies throughout the war. Owing to this circumstance, the line was broken many times, as armies advanced and retreated, or as forays were made or repulsed. The effect of each breaking of the line was to convert the road, apparently, into isolated and separate fragments. But such was the wonderful energy shown by President Garrett, and infused into the skilful and disciplined men under his control, that the practical utility of the road was never lost. When such disasters occurred, they had been so far fore- seen and provided for that each severed section of the road seemed to be possessed of its own organization and equipment, and able to do the enormous military business intrusted to it as perfectly as if the whole road had re- mained entire. No incident of the war, no personal, public, or local excitement, interfered with the operations of the road when there was any possibility of conducting them as usual. The President, cheerfully sustained by the majority of his board, remembered that he was responsible, primarily, for the safety of the great property which had been committed to his charge, and he administered it in strict subordination to those principles which he had pre- scribed as proper for the government of the company at the stockholders' meeting held in 1857, to which allusion has already been made. At the conclusion of the war, the company, under the lead of its President, entered upon a yet more active career of usefulness. The Parkers- burg Branch Railroad was put in thorough order, and its twenty-three tunnels solidly walled and arched at a cost of one and a half million of dollars. The Washington County Branch Railroad, from Knoxville to Ilagerstown, was built; the Central Ohio Division, from the Ohio River to Columbus, was reorganized, and a branch road provided from Newark on the Central Ohio Road, a dis- tance of one hundred and sixteen miles, to Sandusky, on Lake Erie. The line of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, worked in connection with the Baltimore and Ohio Road, was improved; the Metropolitan Branch Road, from the Point of Rocks on the main line to the city of Washington, was placed under construction; the building of one great iron bridge over the Ohio River at Parkersburg, and of another over the same river at Bel Air was commenced; and a provision of means was made to complete fully, within a brief period, the railroad extending from Pittsburg, through Connellsville, to Cum-
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berland, in Maryland, to connect with the Baltimore and Ohio Raihond Company. In addition to these undertak- ings, arrangements were also organized to open more direct communications through the Valley of Virginia, between the city of Baltimore and the Southwestern States. In addition to the development of the railway enterprises, to which allusion has been here made, Mr. Garrett has of late years steadily directed the attention of the company to the propriety of organizing steam lines of communication between the chief ports of Europe and the harbor of Bal- timore. The board over which he presides has already, by an arrangement with the North German Lloyd Steam- ship Company, secured lines of first-class steamers between Bremen, Southampton, and Baltimore, and also between Liverpool and Baltimore. There can be no question that such lines of steam communication do much to increase the trade, and to add to the general prosperity of Baltimore. Its neighborhood to the cotton and tobacco growing sections of the United States; the shorter lines of railway connecting it with the South, Cincinnati, "St. Louis, and the Southwest, and with Chicago and the Northwest, and its cheaper fuel, give it advantages with which no other city on the Atlantic coast can profitably compete. It is very fortunate for that community that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company has been willing and able to undertake the partial support of such lines of ocean travel and traffic. It is no less fortunate that the people of the State of Maryland, keenly alive to the im- portance of exerting every power to promote the welfare of their chief commercial city, agree thoroughly with the Committee of the House of Commons, of which Lord Stanley, now the Earl of Derby, was Chairman in 1864. That committee, when the subject of the steamboat powers of railway companies was under consideration, did not hesitate to affirm the expediency of permitting railway companies to carry by sca as well as by land ; and English railway companies are now largely engaged in subordinating ocean traffic and travel to the uses and de- velopment of their home companies and home ports. These great results innring, year by year, most advantage- ously to the interest and prosperity of the State of Mary- land and the city of Baltimore, have contented both, and fully satisfied with the practical working of the policy which Mr. Garrett inaugurated under so many difficulties, the great majority of the representatives of both constitu- encies have united, year after year, in soliciting him to remain in the occupancy of the Presidency. In conclud- ing this notice, it is impossible to forbear mention of the fact that Mr. Garrett has not hesitated to apply his rules of economical administration to himself in his official re- lations to the company. He believed that example taught a better lesson than precept. After he became President, ; and gave his time so largely to the duties of his office, the Board of Direction, by a unanimous vote, increased his, salary from four thousand dollars a year, which was the
rate when he took the office, to ten thousand dollars a year. This increase of salary he declined. It was not to be wondered at, therefore, that he should refuse to accept the offer of the presidencies of other railway companies, though accompanied -- one by the proposition of a salary of thirty thousand dollars per year, and one by a proposal of a salary of fifty thousand per year. Ile has been con- tent, apparently, to abide with those among whom his life began. He certainly could propose to himself no aim or purpose more useful than the complete and successful de- velopment of that entire system of Maryland railways with which his name has been and must remain insepara- bly associated. Mr. Garrett continues to occupy the office of President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com- pany, and is also the head of the firm of Robert Garrett & Sons, doing business in the city of Baltimore. Robert Garrett, his father, died, greatly respected, in 1857, and Henry S. Garrett, his elder brother, died equally esteemed and lamented, in the prime of life, in 1867. The two sons of Mr. John W. Garrett, Robert Garrett and Thomas Harrison Garrett, are now, with their father, the only members of the firm. The house, in its commercial rela- tions, maintains the unspotted reputation which has always distinguished it, and continues, as it has always, to promote every railway, steamship, or other enterprise which could add to the commercial prosperity of the city, as well as to promote those other objects of public charity, recreation, or instruction, which excite the interest of the people of Baltimore .- Baltimore, l'ast and Present.
LARK, CAPTAIN MATTHEW, was born in County C'avan, Ireland, November 4, 18.11. When he was two years old his parents came to America and settled at Philadelphia, where they still reside, and where the subject of this sketch lived until his thir- teenth year. In his earliest boyhood Matthew manifested an industrious and energetie disposition, and his first essays at self-support were the vending of books and periodicals on the railroad trains between Philadelphia and Baltimore. The above vocation placed him nightly in Baltimore, which he finally decided to make his permanent residence. In the capacity which he occupied on the ears, he was brought into close personal relation with many distinguished publie men travelling to and from the National Capital. On ac- count of young Clark's pleasantness ancy urbanity of man- ners he was very largely patronized by such characters, and therefore did an active and thriving business. Among those whose attention was particularly attracted to Clark was General James Shields, of the United States Army, who manifested such a liking for him that he made him his Private Secretary at Washington, on his taking his seat
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as United States Senator from Minnesota. Young Clark, feeling the necessity of educational advantages, resumed his former business in order to save money for a collegiate course. By industry and economy he accumulated the de- sired amount, and entered St. John's College at Annapolis, then under the Presidency of Rev. C. K. Nelson, the present Vice-President. On account of his advanced attain- ments he was admitted at once into the Sophomore class. This was in 1860. Among the studies were military tac- tics, with which he became thoroughly conversant. The civil war breaking out the ensuing year, Mr. Clark became one of a company of students who volunteered and ten- dered their services to Governor Gist, of South Carolina, on the seceding of that State. The offer was acknowledged but gracefully declined. Mr. Clark, then in the twentieth year of his age, offered his individual services to Jefferson Davis at Montgomery, Alabama, and received from him a letter of thanks and acceptance of the offer. Before Mr. Clark could complete his arrangements to repair to the South, the memorable and stirring events of April 19 oc- curred in Baltimore, and he at once enrolled as a private in the Baltimore City Guards, remaining a member of that corps until the arrival of General Benjamin Butler at Bal- timore. Perceiving that Maryland did not intend to se- cede, he then determined to proceed immediately South. He took with him twenty Baltimoreans, who formed the nucleus of a company which he subsequently organized at Harper's Ferry, which company entered and completed the Thirteenth Virginia Infantry, commanded by Colonel, afterwards Lieutenant-General A. P. Hill. Clark was first made Lieutenant of that company, afterwards its Captain, and was captured by the Federals in St. Mary's County, Maryland, whilst recruiting for the Confederate Army. Hle was placed in the Okl Capitol Prison at Washington. After remaining in that prison three months Captain Clark was exchanged, and reported for duty at Richmond, and was immediately assigned for duty in the Department of IIenrico, then under the command of General John Il. Winder. He continued to perform military duty there for two years, or until 1864. lie raised a company for the defence of Richmond, during the Battle of Gettysburg. He was subsequently attached to General Bradley T. Johnson's command as Commissary, General Johnson then being at Salisbury, North Carolina. Ile there participated in a skirmish with Stoneman's Cavalry. The Confederates were compelled to retreat to Greensboro, and the Captain made a narrow escape from being captured. At Salisbury he witnessed the spectacle of the entire Confederate Gov- ernment passing through that place, all in ambulances with the exception of Jefferson Davis, who was on horseback. On the cessation of hostilities Captain Clark returned to Baltimore with his wife and child (he having been mar- ried in 1861, six days before leaving for the South). In 1865 he became engaged in the publication of the Win- chester Times, in partnership with Major W. W. Golds-
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borough, Captain Clark having control of the leading in- terest. Under the above management that paper was emi- nently prosperous. Major Goldsborough bought out the entire interest, which he subsequently sold to Major Hun- ter, of Stonewall Jackson's Staff. After a residence of about a year in Washington, where he acted as the Agent of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and l'otomac Railroad, he returned to Baltimore and embarked in mercantile pur- suits, and, in 1867, was appointed by the late Judge T. Parkin Scott, Chief Judge of the Supreme Bench of Bal- timore, as one of the principal officers of his court, which position he still holds. From his earliest manhood he has taken an earnest interest in politics and has always been a stanch Democrat of the old Jeffersonian and Jacksonian school. lIe is a prominent member of his party, and his name has been frequently associated with various honora- ble public positions. He is a fluent and forcible public speaker, and has frequently spoken in various parts of the State in advocacy of the principles of his party. The Captain's father was a native of County Cavan. His mother was an O'Hara, of an old and highly respected family of that county. Captain Clark's wife was Miss Kate McWilliams, daughter of John McWilliams, of Bal- timore, and sister of John McWilliams, Jr., a prominent and influential politician of the Fifth Ward of Baltimore, the ward in which Captain Clark resides. The Captain has two sons, James .Matthew and Robert Lee Clark. The former is now a student at Loyola College, and the latter attending the public schools.
ATHIEWS, R. Srockkrr, Lawyer, was born in Baltimore, July 4, 1827. Ilis father, John Ster- rett Mathews, was the son of Dr. William Mathews, an Irish gentleman of distinguished connections, who came to this country at the close of the last century, and married Ann Penrose, of Phila- delphia. After her death he removed to Baltimore and married Eliza Sterrett, daughter of John Sterrett, a lead- ing merchant of Baltimore, and granddaughter of James Sterrett, the first of the name who settled in Maryland. The wife of John Sterrett was Deborah, daughter of John Ridgely, eldest son of the first owner of the place known as " Ilampton," in Baltimore County. Dr. William Mathews was a man of high character and great reputation as a phy- sician. His son John S. married Sophia, daughter of Dr. Joseph Hall, of South River, and granddaughter of Wil- liam Sellman, of Anne Arundel County. It is thus seen that R. S. Mathews is connected with some of the oldest and best-known families of Maryland. He received a classical education at Rock Hill College, and in 1845 com- menced the study of law in the office of S. Teackle Wallis, who was even then regarded as one of the brilliant orna- ments of the Baltimore bar. Shortly after, Mr. Mathews
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visited South America and the Pacific Islands, and was absent four years. Returning in 1851, he resumed his studies, and was admitted to the bar in 1854 ; entering upon a professional career, distinguished from the first by his sharp legal acumen, untiring industry, and strong practical sense. To these qualities he added the aggressiveness and enthusiasm of a popular leader, and without neglecting the exacting duties of a counsellor and advocate in full practice, continued his literary culture, often contributing to the discussion and solution of important social and po- litical questions, and softening the asperities and antago- nisms of forensic debate with the grace of elegant diction and polished rhetoric. An anti-slavery man by conviction, Mr. Mathews was a firm supporter of the Government, both before and after the long-pending controversy between the North and South had culminated in secession and civil war. He was elected to the House of Delegates in 1861, and was a recognized leader in a body that was exceptional for the number of able men it contained. The mighty is- sues that were involved, and the perils that beset the State on every side, compelled the opponents of secession to send their strongest men to the Legislature, and among Mr. Mathews's colleagues in the House were such distin- guished lawyers as Reverdy Johnson, Thomas S. Alexan- der, Thomas Donaldson, Judge Hammond, General Cole, and Mr. Creswell. Mr. Mathews was a member of the Judiciary Committee, and the Committee on Federal Re- lations, and was Chairman of the Library Committee. In 1864 he was a Presidential Elector, and by his effective can- vass of the State, contributed largely to the adoption of the Constitution framed in that year, by which slavery was abol- ished. In 1867 he was appointed Register in Bankruptcy for the Third, now the Fourth, Congressional District of Maryland, an office which he still holds. He has adjudicated the great bulk of the petitions for the benefit of the bank- rupt laws that have been filed in the United States District Court of Maryland, and distributed the estates of the Fourth District, in which a large number of the business men of Baltimore reside. In the unravelling of compli- cated commercial transactions, the adjusting of conflicting claims, the discovery of contemplated frauds, and the dis- tribution of large sums of money to creditors, he has won the highest commendation from the court which he repre- sents, and from the great army of litigants and claimants whose rights he has ascertained and enforced. His whole professional, as well as his official career, has been charac- terized by the most serupulous integrity. Mr. Mathews is now in the full maturity of his powers, one of the most ae- tive, energetic, and successful lawyers of Baltimore. Ilis culture and talents have given him social influence and professional eminence ; and in enumerating the men whose views and actions impress large bodies of their fellow-citi- zens, and who give direction to the prevailing currents of thought and assist in moulding public opinion, his name would occur among the first. Ilis cogent reasoning and
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