USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 61
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 61
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acquaintance with the English classics, and when it is stated that many of these addresses were not the result of careful preparation, but were made extemporaneously be- fore assemblies, they serve as stronger evidence of his ability. He has been through life a member of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church. In January, 1836, he married Miss Mary M., daughter of Walter Bowie, Esq., of Prince George's County, Maryland. Dr. Tyler is a man of great kindliness of heart, and his charity and true Christian character have been proven on many an occasion. Ile is not only respected, but beloved by those who have the honor of knowing him, both as a professional man and a member of society. The late Professor Joseph Henry en- tertained for him the highest regard, which is the best tes- timony to his worth.
HOE, EDGAR ALLAN, was descended from a highly respectable Irish family. In 1743 his grandfather, David Poe, came with his parents to this country from Londonderry while he was yet but two years old. During the Revolution he espoused the Ameri- can cause, and became an officer in the Maryland Line and the intimate friend of Lafayette. In his patriotism he gave not only his services, but his ample means to the public good. llis son, David Poe, Jr., the eldest of six children, while yet a law student in the office of William Gwynn, Esq., became enamoured of Mrs. Elizabeth Hop- kins, an English actress of some repute, and on the death of her husband eloped with and married her, whereupon his father disowned him. Thrown thus upon his own re- sources the young husband adopted his wife's profession, and made his debut in the Vauxhall Garden Theatre, New York, July 8, 1806, as Frank, in " Fortune's Frolic." Mrs. Poe died of pneumonia, December 8, 1811, during an en- gagement at the Richmond Theatre. David Poe, Jr., her husband, was one of the seventy victims that perished in the burning theatre on the 26th of the same month. Their three orphan children, William Henry, the eldest, Edgar, and Rosalie, were thus thrown upon the charity of the world. Henry was taken and educated by his godfather, Henry Didier, of Baltimore ; Edgar was adopted by John Allan, a wealthy Scotch gentleman of Richmond; and Ro- salie by Mrs. McKenzie. Edgar Poe was born in Boston January 19, 1809, while his parents were filling a theatrical engagement in that city, and his early days were spent in the green-room. His foster-father in adopting him incor- porated his own name with Edgar's, and he was afterwards known as Edgar Allan Poe. Finding him a boy of marked ability, Mr. Allan determined to give him the best advan- tages of education, and . designed him. as his heir. In the summer of 1816 Mr. and Mrs. Allan revisited their home in Scotland and took Edgar with them, where he learned the rudiments of English and Latin. On their return from
Europe in 1818, Edgar was placed in the school of Professor Joseph II. Clarke, where he made remarkable progress in his studies, and displayed the germs of that rich and splen- did imagination which distinguished him in after-life. In 1823 he was placed under Professor Clarke's successor, Mr. William Burke. Ile was of slight and graceful form, lithe and sinewy, and was foremost both in scholarship and in all athletic exercises, especially running, swimming, and boxing. February 1, 1826, he was placed at the University of Virginia. Ile entered the schools of ancient and modern languages, and attended the lectures in connection with them. Ile was a regular and successful student, and at the final examination won distinction in Latin and French. Gaming was at this time a common practice at the University, and young Poe, who had been too lavishly supplied with money to understand its proper use, lost large sums at cards, which brought upon him the severe animad-" versions of his foster-father. He left the University De- cember 15, 1826, and returned to Richmond, where his distinguished talents, brilliant conversation, polished man- ners, and expectations of wealth as the presumptive heir of Mr. Allan, secured him access to the best society of the city. But young Poe was not wholly engrossed with the pleasures of fashionable life; he devoted much time to reading and study, and to composition. In 1829 he gave to the world a thin octavo volume of seventy-two pages, entitled Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems, by Edgar A. Poe. It was published by Hatch & Dunning, of Baltimore, and was received with but little favor at the time. While in the city in connection with its publica- tion, Edgar was kindly received at the house of Mrs. Clemm, his aunt, and saw for the first time his little cousin, Virginia, then in her seventh year, to whom he became greatly attached. Summoned home by the alarming ill- ness of Mrs. Allan, his foster-mother, he hastily returned, but to find her, whom he had tenderly loved, dead and buried-an irreparable loss to him. Mr. Allan thought it was time for Edgar to adopt a profession, and as he dis. liked the drudgery of legal study and the laborious life of a medical practitioner, Mr. Allan procured for him a cadetship at West Point, and he entered the Military Academy in 1830. While at West Point a second edition of his poems appeared with seven additional articles. His reading studies here showed his preference for literature over military life. The young cadet soon wearied of the dry studies and severe discipline of the Academy, and at the end of six months he asked permission of Mr. Allan to resign. This being refused he determined to get away by deliberate neglect of duty and disobedience of rules, Ile was tried by court-martial for " neglect of, duty and disobedience of orders," pleaded " Guilty," and was sen- tenced " to be dismissed the service of the United States," On his return to Richmond he was coldly received by Mr. Allan and the new wife he had lately married, and his proud spirit chafing at the change, he left the house of his
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foster-father never to return. Going to Baltimore he was received at the house of his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, with whom he found a home, and in her affection and that of his little cousin, Virginia, whom he afterwards married, found a soothing balm for his wounded spirit. Resolved not to be a burden to his aunt he sought employment, but finding none, devoted himself to writing the Tales of the Folio Club, and instructing his cousin Virginia. The tales com- prised " The Descent into the Maelstrom," " Adventure of Ilans Pfaal," " A Manuscript Found in a Bottle," " A Tale of the Ragged Mountain," " Berenice," and " Lionizing." In 1833 the Baltimore Saturday Visitor offered a prize of $ too for the best tale, and $50 for the best poem. In com- petition for the prize, Mr. Poe submitted his Tales of the Folio Club and his poem, The Coliseum. The committee, of which Hon. John P. Kennedy was chairman, awarded the $100 prize to the " Manuscript Found in a Bottle," and to escape the charge of favoritism, the $50 prize to an obscure author, while admitting the superiority of The Coliseum. This, to Poe, was the dawn of literary success. Mr. Kennedy introduced him to Mr. White, proprietor of the Southern Literary Messenger at Richmond. He be- came a contributor to the magazine. His articles attracted much attention, and he was engaged first as assistant editor and then editor-in-chief, in which position his reviews, critiques and tales made the Messenger of national repu- tation. When he first went to Richmond he missed the society of his aunt and cousin, brooded over his changed prospects, and fell into a settled melancholy and gloom until they came to reside with him. In 1837 Mr. Poe was invited to accept the position of associate editor of the New York Quarterly Review. The field here was wider and more remunerative. Hle accepted it and removed to New York, but occasionally wrote for the Messenger as long as he lived. His critiques and reviews in the Quar- terly were scholarly, but unsparing in exposing literary pretension and mediocrity, and made him many enemies. In the fall of 1838 Poe removed to Philadelphia. During the year he contributed " Ligcia," and others of his best tales, and the airy little poem, " The Haunted Palace," to the American Museum, edited by Professor N. C. Brooks, and also wrote many articles for the Gentleman's Maga- zine, published by Burton. In less than six months he be- came editor of that monthly, and when Mr. George R. Graham, proprietor of The Casket, in 1840 purchased the Gentleman's Magazine, and incorporated the two under the title of Graham's Magazine, he was continued editor of the new monthly. The various articles he wrote greatly added to the list of its subscribers, and increased his own reputation. His articles on " Autography and Cryptog- raphy " discovered great ingenuity and power of analysis. That he possessed this power to a remarkable degree is shown by his prophetic analysis of Dickens's Barnaby Rudge. From a few initial chapters that were published he detailed in advance the entire plot and denouement of
the story. In 1839 Lea & Blanchard published in two vol- umes the principal tales he had written, under the title of Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, which met a very favorable reception from the public In 1812 the declining health of his child-wife seriously afflicted him, and wom out with watching by her bedside, and the constant tax upon his weary brain to produce some article for the press whereby he could procure the merest necessaries of life for his little family, he wrote to a friend in Washington to get him a clerkship, " even a five hundred dollar one, so that I have something independent of letters for a subsist- ence. To coin one's brain into silver at the word of a master is, I am thinking, the hardest task in the world." In the spring of 1843 Poe achieved another conquest, the winning of the $100 prize offered by The Dollar Maga- zine of Philadelphia, for the best story. " The Gold Bug " was the title of the tale. It was founded upon the story of Captain Kyd's adventures. During this year Poe and T. C. Clarke projected The Stylus, a monthly magazine, which Poe was to edit. Presuming from his intimacy with the sons of President Tyler that he could interest the Presi- dent and his Cabinet and prominent members of Con- gress, Mr. Poe went to Washington, and, unfortunately, meeting with friends who induced him to drink, became intoxicated, and blasted at the outset all hopes of estab- lishing the magazine, and abandoned the idea. Near the close of the year he delivered a lecture in Baltimore on American Poetry, which he repeated in Philadelphia. In 1844 Poe became associate editor of The Mirror, an even- ing paper published by Willis & Morris. A daily journal he found wearing upon his strength, and at the end of six months left The Mirror to join Mr. C. H. Briggs in the publication of The Broadway Fournal. During his connec- tion with The Mirror he published in the American Review " The Raven," that wild, weird poem, without a parallel in English poetry. About this time he wrote for Godey's Lady's Book a series of papers entitled " The Literati of New York," which produced such a sensation that extra editions of the magazine were necessary to supply the de- mand. Thomas Dunn English being severely criticized, published a libellous retort, which was copied in The Mir- ror. Poe brought a suit for damages, and the paper was mulcted several hundred dollars. In the spring of 1846 Poe removed to Fordham, in Westchester County, that the pure air of the country might be beneficial to his wife, now in a rapid decline, and to his own failing strength, exhausted by mental effort, pecuniary anxieties, and by watching at the sick-bed of his cherished wife. As the winter came on they were reduced to Extremity and wanted even the barest necessaries of life, and though pecuniary relief came at length, disease and poverty had done their work, and on January 30, 1847, the beautiful and gentle sufferer entered into rest. Her husband's sorrow was in- consolable. He seemed utterly incapable of mental exer- tion, and he often wandered at midnight in the snow and
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rain and threw himself upon her grave, calling upon her with words of the most devoted affection. Under the pressure of his sorrows he took to drink, not for the pleas- ure it afforded him, but, as he expressed it, " to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneli- ness, and a dread of some strange, impending doom." The only article published by him in 1847 was " Ulalume," a wild, weird threnody of overwhelming melancholy. He was engaged, however, in the preparation of a lecture, " The Universe," which he delivered February 3, 1848, at the So- ciety Library, New York. He printed it afterwards under the name " Eureka." He had hoped to obtain means from its sale to take the first steps towards bringing out his pro- jected magazine, The Stylus, but it brought him neither fame nor money. In September, 1848, he published in the Southern Literary Messenger an elaborate review of Mrs. Lewis's poems, and in October his discriminating article on " The Rationale of Verse." Poe spent the summer of 1849 in Richmond, and seemed to have recovered his strength and conquered the temptation to drink. At this time he paid his addresses to Mrs. Elmira Shelton, to whom he had been attached in early life, before her marriage, and they were to be joined in wedlock on the 17th of October. On his way North to bring Mrs. Clemm to the wedding he stopped in Baltimore, and had the misfortune to meet a friend who invited him to drink. Such was his delicate mental organi - zation that a single glass was sufficient to madden him, and he became intoxicated. Ile was found by his cousin, Mr. Neilson Poe, at the close of a municipal election, in a state of stupefaction, in a back room of the Fourth Ward polls, and the presumption is that he had been " cooped " by one of the political clubs, drugged, and made to vote in the different wards of the city. He was taken to the Wash- ington College Hospital, where every attention was paid Inm. Ile chied on the following Sunday, October 7, and was buried with his ancestors in the cemetery of Westminster Church, corner of Fayette and Greene streets. Ilis grave, though the Mecca of poetic pilgrims for years, was with- out a stone to mark the spot, till by the efforts of the teachers of Baltimore and the munificence of George W. Childs a beautiful monument of the pedestal form, with sculptured harps and a bas-relief bust of the poet, was erected over his remains, that had been removed to the northwest corner of the cemetery. Appropriate ceremo- nies preceded the unveiling of the monument, at which more than a thousand persons were present, many of them from other cities.
FORGAS, FERDINAND J. S., A.M., M.D., D.D.S., was born, July 27, 1835, in Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia. Ile graduated at Dickinson College in 18544; at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1855; and at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1857. He was appointed Demon-
strator in the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1858, and on the death of the President, Professor Chapin A. Ilarris, M.D., D.D.S., in 1860, he was elected to the vacant chair of Dental Surgery. In 1867 he was elected Dean of that college, which position, and also his Profes- sorship, he yet holds. In 1866, in connection with Profes- sor A. Snowden Piggot, M.D., he became one of the editors of the American Journal of Dental Science, the oldest dental journal in the world. Since the death of Professor Piggot he has continued to edit this journal. In 1867 he was elected Vice-President of the Association of Dental Colleges, which is composed of the professors of the several dental colleges in this country. During his connection with the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, Professor Gorgas, in addition to his own special chair, has for brief periods occupied the chairs of Anatomy, Materia Medica and Therapeutics, and Clinical Dentistry. In 1864 he revised the third edition of Harris's Medical and Dental Dictionary, adding thereto about three thousand new words, a labor extending over three years, In 1878 he again revised the fourth edition of the same work, which has received highly favorable notice from the medical and dental press of this country and parts of Europe. In 1872 he edited that portion of Harris's Principles and Practice of Dentistry relating to dental surgery. This work is the prominent textbook in all dental colleges. Besides numerous articles for journals, Professor Gorgas is the author of Lectures on Dental Surgery, Special Path- ology, Materia Medica, and Therapeutics, for the Use of Dental Students. Since 1858 he has been practicing den- tistry and surgery of the head and face in Baltimore. IIe has been connected with the Masonic Order for nearly twenty years, and has been honored with the highest offices in lodge, chapter, and commandery of both the York and Scottish rites, and up to this time has had con- ferred upon him forty-two degrees, from the first to the thirty-third in the Scottish Rite, and from the first to the eleventh in the York Rite. He has been twice a repre- sentative at the triennial meetings of the Grand Encamp- ment of Knights Templar, at the sessions held in New Orleans, 1874, and Cleveland, 1877. The Baltimore Col- lege of Dental Surgery, of which Professor Gorgas is Dean, is one of the foremost of American institutions for professional education, and its record for usefulness prob- ably surpasses that of any professional college in the country. It was organized under a special charter from the Maryland Legislature in 1839, being the first institu- tion ever founded in the world for the purpose of giving regular collegiate instruction in this important branch of medical science. It was an experiment, but it had a sub- stantial basis in the necessities of the human race, and came in answer to the demand of civilization for progress in useful and beneficent sciences. Its originators were men of great public spirit and foresight, yet they could scarcely have anticipated the wonderful results which have
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followed their enterprise. The modest institution which they founded has become an influence throughout civiliza- tion, and the profession they labored to advance has moved forward to the highest standard, with a membership cu- bracing many of the most cultivated and progressive minds of the age, with an exclusive literature of its own, in the enjoyment of high honor and esteem, and with strong claims upon the appreciation of the people on the ground of extreme usefulness to humanity. The greater part of this work has been accomplished within the past forty years, the period of the existence of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, and among the influences that have contributed to bring about this remarkable develop- ment we believe this institution is entitled to the first place. Upon its first organization the college was placed upon a high plane. The course of study was made thorough and comprehensive ; the system of instruction was planned with the utmost care, with a view to practical efficiency ; and the examinations were made exacting. The faculty was selected with great judgment, and embraced a fine representation of the best talent, skill, and experience in both the medical and dental professions. It was the pur- pose to give the institution a high character at the start, and this fact accounts largely for its great success and use- fulness. The stamp of character it then received has en- dured. The purposes of its originators have been per- petuated in the management ever since. The standard has never been lowered, while the facilities and means of in- struction have been steadily enlarged, to keep pace with the discoveries and improvements. This institution has now graduated eight hundred students. It has drawn its patronage from all parts of the United States and the West Indies, and from many countries in Europe. Its graduates are scattered all over the civilized world. They are located in nearly every city of Europe. They lead the profession in all the great centres of civilization, and have won emi- nence and renown in England, France, Russia, Prussia, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy. They have carried the honors of the institution into Asia, Australia, and the land of the Pyramids, while in every State in the United States they have established their own worth and the reputation of their Alma Mater. In this community, where the in- stitution is best known, it enjoys the highest repute, and its diplomas command the most substantial recognition. Upwards of sixty graduates are in practice in Baltimore alone. The College may well point with pride to the standing of its graduates. Many of them have reached high stations in the profession ; many have become re- nowned for their attainments, original discoveries, and writings. They have met with signal honor abroad, nearly every Court dentist in Europe being a graduate of this in- stitution. Very many of them are men of broad culture, who had been previously trained in other high educational institutions ; and collectively they have developed a degree of worth and usefulness which reflects the highest credit
upon the College. The course of study at this institution embraces the principles and practice of dental science and surgery, anatomy, physiology and pathology, therapeutics and materia medica, chemistry, dental mechanism and metallurgy, together with other studies. The thorough. ness and comprehensive character of this course is shown by the fact that the medical colleges of Baltimore require graduates of this institution to attend but one session before receiving the degree of M.D. Clinics and demon- strations are held daily throughout the session. Nothing is left undemonstrated. Students are required to make all kinds of partial pieces and perform all varieties of opera- tions for themselves daily. The infirmary of the College is open during the entire year, and is free to all matricu- lants. The collections for the museum of this college were commenced in 1839, and have continued without in- terruption until now. This is the largest and most valu- able dental museum in the world. The College building- located at the intersection of two great thoroughfares, Eutaw and Lexington streets-is a large and handsome building, four stories high, and was built by the College expressly for its purposes. The lecture-rooms, laboratory, and other departments are ample in every respect, and ad- mirably arranged. The entire establishment is thorough and complete in all its appointments, and is the finest and best equipped college building in the world devoted ex- clusively to dental instruction. The faculty of the Col- lege is at present constituted as follows : Ferdinand J. S. Gorgas, A.M., M.D., D.D.S., Dean, Professor of Dental Surgery and Therapeutics ; E. Lloyd Howard, M.D., Pro- fessor of Chemistry and Materia Medica ; James H. Har- ris, M.D., D.D.S., Professor of Clinical Dentistry ; James B. Hodgkin, D.D.S., Professor of Dental Mechanism and Metallurgy ; Thomas S. Latimer, M.D., Professor of Phys- iology and Pathology ; Charles F. Bevan, M. D., Profes- sor of Anatomy; Basil M. Wilkerson, D.D.S., M.D., Demonstrator of Operative Dentistry ; John C. Uhler, D.D.S., M.D., Demonstrator of Mechanical Dentistry ; Augustus W. Sweeny, Jr., D. D.S., and Luke J. Pearce, D. D.S., Assistant Demonstrators ; Charles F. Bevan, M.D., Demonstrator of Anatomy.
BRICE, ROBERT JOHN, M.D., was born in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, October 13, 1838. HIe is the son of John C. and Elizabeth Price, of that county. He was placed at a district school at a very early age, and when ten yeary old entered the High School in Baltimore, where he remained for some time, and then returned to his native county and became a pupil in the Centreville Academy, attending the same at irregular intervals until he attained the age of twenty-one years. The death of his father, when Robert was sixteen years of age, was the cause of these intervals in school attendance,
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during which he acquired a knowledge of the wheel- wrighting business, the aggregate time devoted to the same being four years. After spending another year at the Academy he engaged in teaching, and simultaneously in the study of medicine, his preceptor being Dr. Joseph A. Holton, of Queen Anne's County. He matriculated at the University of Maryland in the autumn of 1864, and graduated therefrom in the spring of 1866. 1Ie estab- lished himself in the practice of his profession in Dor- chester County, Maryland, where he still continues to re- side, in the enjoyment of an extensive professional patron- age. Ile has occupied the position of Physician to the Almshouse of Dorchester County, and is at present a member of the Board of School Commissioners of the above county. Dr. Price married, June 5, 1866, Miss Laura, danghter of Abraham Jump, of Caroline County, Maryland. Dr. Price enjoys an enviable reputation as a physician, and is highly esteemed in the community in which he resides.
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