USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 60
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 60
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TRESWELL, HON. JOHN A. J., was born, November 18, 1828, at Port Deposit, Cecil County, Maryland, a thriving town on the east bank of the Susque- hanna River, about five miles from its mouth. Before its incorporation in 1824 it was known as Creswell's" Ferry. The larger part of the town is built on the estate formerly owned by his grandfather, Colonel John Creswell, and still in possession of the family. His father, John Creswell, the only child of Colonel John Creswell, after representing his native county of Cecil in the llouse of Delegates of Maryland, in the session of 1828-29, died May 12, 1831, at the early age of twenty-nine, leaving the subject of this sketch when but a little over two years of age, together with three infant sisters, to the sole care of his mother, Rebecca E. Creswell, formerly Rebecca E. Webb, the eldest daughter of Jonathan and Rachel Webb, of Pine Grove, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The Creswells are of English origin. Robert Creswell is en- rolled as one of the subscribers to the Company for Vir- ginia previous to 1620; and from him sprang the branch of the family that sailed up the Chesapeake and settled on the banks of the Susquehanna, where some of their descendants have ever since resided. Robert Creswell, brother of Colonel John Creswell, removed to Augusta, Georgia, in 1795. The children of this Robert were six in number : 1. John, who remained at Augusta. 2. Mar- tha, wife of John Phinizy, a planter, near Augusta. 3. Ann, wife of William Sims, of Montgomery, Alabama. 4. Jane M., wife of Gassaway B. Lamar, formerly of Augusta, but afterwards of New York city. Mrs. Lamar and six of her chiklren were lost on the ill fated steamer Pulaski, off the coast of North Carolina, June 14, 1838. Charles A. L. Lamar, who alone of her children escaped that deplorable disaster, was killed at Columbus, Georgia, in 1865, while serving with conspicuous gallantry as an officer in the Confederate Army. 5. Samuel, who died without issue ; and 6. Mary, wife of General George W. Summers, of Augusta. Rachel Webb, nee Rachel Ashe, the mother of Rebecca E. Webb, was.the granddaughter of Dr. Daniel Heinrich Esch, Anglice Ashe, or Ash, of Hachenburg, Germany. He was a member of the Re- formed Church, and emigrated to Philadelphia in 1741 ; but was lost at sea in 1747 while returning to his native
brax & Creswell
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land to recover an estate to which he had become entitled in his absence, Through Jonathan Webb, his maternal grandfather, Mr. Creswell is descended in the fifth degree from Richard and Elizabeth Webb, who were prominent und influential leaders in the Society of Friends. The Webbs emigrated from Gloucester, England, in 1699, after the return of Elizabeth from a previous visit to America, and settled at Birmingham, Chester County, Pennsylvania, near where the battle of Brandywine was fought seventy- eight years afterwards. Elizabeth Webb was a most in- trepid and zealous missionary of her religion. HIer en- thusiasm and courage were unbounded. In her diary, written in her own strongly-marked chirography, and still preserved, she recounts the details of a voyage she made to America with Mary Rogers as her companion in 1697, "upon truth's service only." Leaving husband and children, and all the comforts and delights of home, she embarked at Bristol, November 16, and braved the perils of a winter passage across the Atlantic. More courageous than the Apostles of old, she stood as a pillar of strength amid the storms, and even when the ship was covered with waves and appeared to be sinking, she in- spired by her exhortations and example a renewed forti- tude in many who " were in great distress because death seemed to approach near unto them." On February 5 they came to anchor within the Capes of Virginia, and a few days thereafter effected a landing. Regardless of the inclemency of the season, she forthwith started upon her appointed mission. Crossing the bay, she traversed the Eastern Shore from Accomac to Cecil, and proceeding through Delaware into Pennsylvania made her first halt at Philadelphia. Thence moving through West and East Jersey, she passed by water successively to New York, Long Island, and Newport, where she arrived June 13, 1698. She then visited Boston, Salem, Salisbury, Hamp- ton, Dover, Amesbury, Lynn, and Scituate. Returning to Boston, she held "a heavenly meeting there," which caused her to exclaim, " It is the day of Boston's visitation after her great cruelty to the servants of the Lord." Facing southward, she retraced her steps across Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island, the intervening Sound, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Vir- ginia, and travelled fifty miles into Carolina, " through the wilderness, the swamps, and deep waters." Having reached the limit of her long and appalling journey, she at last reverted to the place of her debarkation. Taking passage in the good ship Elizabeth and Mary, Frederick Johnson master, for herself and her friend and companion, Elizabeth Lloyd, a daughter of Thomas Lloyd, who was Deputy-Governor of Pennsylvania under William Penn, they set sail March 20, 1699, from the mouth of the Chesapeake, and May 22 following landed at Plymouth, "all in good health of body and peace of mind," in thank fulness for which she devoutly wrote, " our souls do bow before the Majesty of the Great God, whose power
and preserving hand we witnessed to be with us upon the mighty waters." In the performance of the arduous duties which her religious fervor imposed upon her, she accepted the Holy Spirit as her infallible guide. When- soever It called, she obeyed; whatsoever It counselled, she exceuted; wheresoever It led, she followed. Active, vigilant, laboring, exhorting, preaching, praying, never quailing before obstacles or dangers; submitting willingly to the severest privations and sufferings, and confronting death itself unflinchingly, she endeavored, to illustrate in herself the precepts of Him whom she acknowledged as the divine impersonation of her faith and the strong foun- dation of her hopes. Through cold and heat, wet and dry, beating tempest and burning sunshine, undeterred by the noxious malaria of an unaccustomed climate and the dreadful solitudes of the scarce broken wilderness; at one time sinking by the wayside from exhaustion, at another, struggling for life with consuming fever; in jeopardy to- day from the savage Indian, and to-morrow from the no less savage persecution with which bigotry and intolerance pursued the unoffending and unresisting Quaker, she pressed valorously forward, confident that she needed no more potent amulet than the name of Jesus, and that all along her pathway " the mighty power of God would be made manifest to the honor and exaltation of His great and glorious name." These eighteen months devoted to the most perilous and self-sacrificing service are but an illustration of her whole life. Until her death she was continuously engaged in just such mighty works, without a thought of earthly compensation or reward. Anthony William Boehm, chaplain to Prince George of Denmark, the consort of Queen Anne, counted her among his friends. In writing to her under date of January 2, 1712, he said : " Your letter hath been read with great satisfac- tion by myself and many of my friends, but I have not been able to recover it yet out of their hands. Some have even desired to transcribe it for their edification, and this is the reason I did not send you presently an answer; though it hath been all along upon my mind to express the satisfaction I had at the reading thereof. . . . True love is of an universal and overflowing nature, and not easily shut up by names, notions, peculiar modes, forms, and hedges of men, and if you will be pleased to correspond with me even after your return from America I shall always be ready to answer your kindness." Thomas Chalkley, the celebrated Quaker preacher, in his introduc- tion to her Treatise on the Revelation of Saint John, wrote of her : " It was my lot once to cross the sea from America to Europe in company withthis servant of Jesus, and her conversation and deportment had a tendency to draw people's minds towards God and heavenly things. It was her practice to speak, read, and write so that her conversation seemed to us to be in heaven while she was on earth. I have blest the Lord that I was acquainted with her, she being like a mother to me in my tender
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years ; and was not only so to me, but was indeed a mother in the house of Spiritual Israel." Other women no more richly endowed with the treasures of intellect and heart, and no more to be admired for the sanctity of their lives and the record of their benefactions, have been preserved in marble, and culogized in song and history as worthy exemplars for succeeding ages. Elizabeth Webb has not been thus canonized. Her simple faith forbids that her name should be emblazoned on tables of stone or monu- ments of brass, or that her virtues should be sounded in labored inscription or measured epitaph. And yet her fame survives. A grateful tradition has borne her sweet influence down the tide of time. The spirit of love which she invoked still pervades the abodes of thousands who cherish her precepts doing her office in stirring their hearts to soothing charities. Her memory, consecrated by her good deeds, has lost nothing of its fragrance, and her descendants, now multiplied through seven generations, may traverse the habitable globe, and visit every shrine and mausoleum erected in honor of the most famous of their race, but they will nowhere find a relic better entitled to their vencration than the sacred dust which for more than a century and a half has peacefully reposed within her un- marked grave. Mr. Creswell graduated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in June, 1848, sharing the first honor of his class with Professor James W. Marshall, and delivering the valedictory oration on the day of com- mencement. He was admitted to the bar of Maryland in 1850. In politics he was originally a Whig, and cast his first presidential vote for General Scott in 1852. The Know-Nothing movement having disbanded the Whig party, Mr. Creswell became a Democrat, and was a dele- gate to the Cincinnati Convention, which nominated Mr. Buchanan in 1856. At the beginning of the war of the Rebellion he joined the Union party, and afterwards became a Republican. In 1861 he was elected a member of the Maryland House of Delegates. In the summer of IS62 he was made Acting Adjutant-General for the State, and had charge of raising the quota of Maryland troops. He was elected in 1863 a Representative from the First District of Maryland to the Thirty-eighth Congress, during which he served on the committees on Commerce and Invalid Pensions. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention which renominated Mr. Lincoln in 1864. In March, 1865, he was chosen by the Legislature a United States Senator for the unexpired term of Hon. Thomas H. Hicks, deceased. He served on the commit- tees on Commerce, Agriculture, Mines and Mining, and as Chairman of the Committee on the Library. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalists' Convention in 1866, and to the Border State Convention held in Balti- more in 1867, also to the National Republican Convention of 1868. His position as an advanced Republican is clearly defined in his speech on the proposed Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, de-
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livered in the House of Representatives January 5, 1865; in his address on the life and character of his friend and colleague, Henry Winter Davis, delivered by request of the House of Representatives February 22, 1866; and in his speech in favor of manhood suffrage before the Border State Convention, hell in Baltimore September 12, 1867. Ile was appointed Postmaster-General at the beginning of the administration of General Grant in 1869. This important department of the Government was under his charge for five years and four months. During that period almost every branch of the service was extended to meet the wants and convenience of the people. From June 30, 1868, to June 30, 1874, the number of post-offices in operation was increased from 26,481 to 34,294; the number of money order offices, from 1468 to 3404; the number of postal clerks, from 232 to $50; the number of free delivery cities, from 48 to 87; the number of letter- carriers, from 1198 to 2049; the number of mail routes, from 8226 to 9761 ; the aggregate length of all routes, from 216,928 miles to 269,097 miles ; the aggregate annual transportation, from 84,224,325 miles to 128,627,476 miles ; the length of railroad routes, from 36,018 miles to 67,734 miles; the aggregate annual transportation on railroad routes, from 34,886, 178 miles to 72,460,545 miles; the number of letters exchanged with foreign countries, from . 13,600,000 to 28,579,045; the number of money orders issued, from 831,937 to 4,420,633; the aggregate value of moncy orders issued, from $16,197,858 to $74,424,854; the number of money orders paid, from 836,940 to 4,416,- 114; the aggregate value of money orders paid, from $15,976,501 to $74,210,156; the number of mail letters delivered by letter-carriers, from 64,349,486 to 177,021,179; the number of local letters delivered by letter-carriers, from 14,081,906 to 54,137,401 ; and the number of letters collected by letter-carriers, from 63, 164,625 to 194, 196,749. Notwithstanding the immense increase of business shown by these comparisons, and large concurrent reductions of postages and money order charges, the cost of ocean transportation, including all subsidies, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874, was $22,492 less than for the year ending June 30, 1868, and the total deficiency for the former year was $1, 178,058 less than for the latter. Mr. Creswell always kept within the aggregate of his appro- priations. He returned to the Treasury unexpended bal- ances for the years 1870, 1871, and 1872, amounting to $4,376,556, and when he retired from office, he left on hand, after charging up all liabilities, a balance of $1,834,- 067. During his administration of the Post-office Depart- ment many important reforms and improvements in the postal service were introduced and carried into successful operation, among which may be mentioned : 1. A reduc- tion of the cost of ocean mail transportation from eight cents to two cents per single letter rate ; and a great ac- celeration of speed by abandoning the contract system as to ocean transportation, and in lieu thereof awarding the
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mails, at the reduced rate, to the best and fastest steamers appointed to sail on four days of every week, and then advertising the selections monthly in advance. 2. The readjustment of the mail pay of raihoads on an equitable basis. 3. An extensive increase of tailfond post office lines and postal clerks. 4. A large increase of letter-car- riers in cities, and a free delivery for every city in the country having a population of twenty thousand inhabi- tants. 5. A thorough revision of our postal arrangements with foreign countries. 6. The general extension of the money order system within the United States and to foreign countries. 7. A complete codification of the laws relating to the Post-office Department, with a systematic classification of offences against the postal laws. 8. A reform in letting mail contracts, which eventually led to the passage of such legislation against fraudulent bidding as secured fair competition among responsible bidders. 9. The introduction of postal cards at a postage of one cent each, as a means of facilitating business correspondence, and a step toward a general reduction of domestic letter postage. 10. The absolute repeal of the franking priv- ilege. Mr. Creswell's first efforts to procure a change of the law so as to extirpate fraudulent bidding were com- menced in the early part of 1870, and resulted in the act of May 5 of that year. Unfortunately, the vital provisions of the bill, as proposed by him, were stricken out by the Senate, and the objectionable feature of confining the Postmaster-General in making mail contracts to the line of bidders inserted against his protest. That act proving in- effectual, Mr. Creswell called particular attention again in his report of 1871, pages 30, 31, and 32, to the pernicious practices to which bidders sometimes resorted, and recom- mended a series of remedies, which he afterward embodied and presented in the form of bills. The passage of these measures he urged at the ensuing and subsequent sessions of Congress, notably in 1872 and 1874, but with only par- tial success. His views were, however, finally adopted, and the essential power of making contracts outside the line of bidders as a last resort was given to the Postmaster- General by the act of August 11, 1876. The department was thus after a prolonged contest of six years relieved from the vicious contrivance known as straw bidding, and to Mr. Creswell more than to any other person is due the credit of devising and securing the adoption of an ade- quate remedy for that evil. He was also'a zcalous advo- cate for the adoption of postal savings depositories and the postal telegraph, and presented in his reports for the years 1871, 1872, and 1873 elaborate and exhaustive arguments in favor of both those measures. The sequel has shown that if his views in relation to postal savings depositories had been adopted many millions of dollars would have been saved to the mechanics and laborers of the country, and the financial condition of the Govern- ment would have been greatly strengthened. Although desirous of withdrawing from the Cabinet at the end of
General Grant's first term, he accepted a reappointment in obedience to the President's desire, and continued in office until June 24, 1874, when he tendered his resignation. The personal and official relations subsisting between him und President Grant are apparent from the ensuing cor- respondeuce :
MR. CRESWELL'S LETTER OF RESIGNATION.
WASHINGTON, D. C., June 24, 1874.
SIR : After more than five years of continuous service, I am constrained, by a proper regard for my private inter- ests, to resign the office of Postmaster-General, and to re- quest that I may be released from duty as soon as it may be convenient for you to designate my successor.
For the generous confidence and support which you have uniformly extended to me in my efforts to discharge my duty, I shall not attempt to express the full measure of my gratitude. It is sufficient to say that my relations, official and personal, with yourself, and with every one of my colleagues of the Cabinet, have always been of the most agreeable and satisfactory character to me.
Rest assured that I shall continue to give to your ad- ministration my most cordial support, and that I shall ever deem it an honor to be permitted to subscribe myself,
Sincerely and faithfully your friend,
JNO. A. J. CRESWELL.
THE PRESIDENT.
GENERAL GRANT'S REPLY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 24, 1874.
MY DEAR SIR: As I expressed to you verbally this morning when you tendered your resignation of the office of Postmaster-General, it is with the deepest regret to me that you should have felt such a course necessary. You are the last of the original members of the Cabinet named by me as I was entering upon my present duties, and it makes me feel as if old associations were being broken up that I had hoped might be continued through my official life.
In separating officially I have but two hopes to express : First, that I may get a successor who will be as faithful and efficient in the performance of the duties of the office you resign ; second, a personal friend that I can have the same attachment for.
Your record has been satisfactory to me, and I know it will so prove to the country at large.
Yours very truly, U. S. GRANT. HON. J. A. J. CRESWELL, P. M. Gen'l.
The formal transfer of the department to his successor did not take place until July 6, 1874. On the 22d of the same month he was, appointed Counsel for the United States before the Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims, and continued to act in that capacity until the court expired by limitation of law December 31, 1876.
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At the end of his labors, the judges unanimously, and of their own motion, exhibited their appreciation of his ser- vices by an order in these words: " The Court desire to place upon record an expression of their sense of the value of the services of the Hon. John A. J. Creswell in the discharge of his duties as counsel on behalf of the United States. He has exhibited unwearied industry in the in- vestigation of the facts of the several cases, great research in examination of the difficult questions of law often arising, and great ability in presenting to the court his views both of the facts and law. With an earnest zeal to protect the rights of the Government, he has yet been en- tirely fair and just to claimants. His uniform courtesy and kindness of manner have made his official intercourse with the members of the Court peculiarly agreeable to them. It is, therefore, alike proper and just that this ex- pression of our opinion of his ability, fidelity, and integ- rity should be placed upon the record." Mr. Creswell is one of the commissioners for closing up the affairs of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, and is also filling the positions of President of the Citizens' National Bank of Washington City and Vice-President of the National Bank of Elkton, his residence being at the latter place. He is actively engaged in the practice of his profession.
50 YLER, GRAFTON, M.D., Georgetown, District of Co- lumbia, wasborn, November 21, 1811, on the family plantation in Prince George's County, Maryland. His paternal ancestors came from England in 1660. He is the second son of Grafton Tyler, Sr., and Ann HI. (I'lummer) Tyler, the elder son being Samuel Tyler, I.L.D., late Senior Professor in the Law Department of Columbia College, Washington. Ilis uncle, John Tyler, was a fellow- student of the celebrated Abernethy in London, and at- tended the lectures of the distinguished men of that day in London and Edinburgh. Dr. Tyler received a thorough classical education under the Rev. James Carnahan, after- wards President of Princeton College, New Jersey, and the Rev. James Mc Vean, in Georgetown, District of Columbia. He began the study of medicine with Dr. Richard Duck- ett, who lived near his father's estate, continued it under Professor Samuel Baker, Sr., of Baltimore, and completed his course at the University of Maryland, from which he grad- uated with high honors in 1833. He commenced practice in his native place, and in a short time became eminently successful, owing to his special knowledge of surgery, which in those days had not attained a very high standard in rural districts. The first operation he performed was the amputation of the leg of one of his neighbor's slaves, an old farm hand, who was severely injured by a threshing machine. A number of old physicians were summoned to witness the operation. Young Tyler stood by awaiting the operation, which was to be performed by a physician long
in practice. The knife was offered to one after the other of the oldl doctors, but each seemed reluctant to undertake what was then considered a difficult task, that of taking off a man's leg. " Here, Grafton," said a physician of many years' practice, "you are just from college, and would perhaps like to undertake this operation ?" Within a few minutes the operation was successfully performed, and from that hour the young practitioner's success was insured. His engagements were constant. In April, 1843, he removed to Georgetown, District of Columbia, his health having been impaired under practice in Maryland, where his pa- tients were scattered over a large area of territory. Shortly after his removal to Georgetown, the office of Physician to Georgetown College was tendercd to him by the faculty of the institution. This position had hitherto been held by men of eminent ability, and the faculty of the college paid a tribute to Dr. Tyler's worth by offering it to him. lle accepted the office, and has held it with distinguished credit for a period of thirty-six years. In 1846 Dr. Tyler was elected Professor of Pathology and Practice of Medi- cine in the Medical Department of Columbia University, also Professor of Clinics, inaugurating in the Washington Infirmary the Medical Clinic in the District of Columbia. He resigned these positions in 1859 .. He was commissioned one of the Board of Visitors of the Government Hospital for the Insane at its foundation in 1855, and after serving six years resigned. In 1855 he was elected Vice- President of the American Medical Association. He is a member of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, having been elected President in 1872; also a member of the Medical Association of the District of Columbia, and of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Maryland. Ile is one of the consulting physicians to Provident Hospital, and has been President of the Medical Board since its organiza- tion in 1859. Ile was one of the corporators, also is one of the directors, and one of the consulting medical staff of the Children's Hospital of the District of Columbia, and of St. Ann's Infant Asylum. At one time Dr. Tyler was President of the Common Council of Georgetown ; also President of the Board of Health until the charter of the town was abrogated. He is Emeritus Professor of Colum- bia College. Ile never sought any public position. Dur- ing a life of unusual professional activity he has found time for contributions to medical literature. Among the most prominent of his writings are "Obstetric Reports, with Observations on Spontaneous Evolution," Baltimore Medi- cal and Surgical Journal, 1841; " Medicine as a Science and an Art-its Philosophy, Influences, Purposes, and Re- sults ; its Past and Present Condition and Future Pros- pects." This last is characterized by deep scientific re- search, and has met with the highest commendations from some of the most distinguished medical men of the coun- try, before whom it was delivered in 1852. His addresses on various public occasions are marked by a chasteness of language and an elegance of diction bespeaking a thorough
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