USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 76
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 76
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D ENISON, GENERAL ANDREW W, was born in the city of Baltimore December 15, 1831. 1Ie was a son of the late Marcus Denison, a prominent merchant of Baltimore. At an early age he mani- fested a fondness for military life, and for many years was identified with the old Baltimore City Guards. When
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that organization disbanded in 1861 he held the position of Lieutenant. In July, 1862, he entered the Union Army as Colonel of the Eighth Maryland Regiment, recruited in Baltimore, and subsequently became Commander by seni- ority of the Maryland Brigade in the Army of the Potomac. The Eighth Regiment was in the following engagements ; Maryland Heights, Funkstown, Wilderness, Laurel Ilill, Spottsylvania, Harris's Farm, North Anna, Shady Grove, Bethesda Church, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Weldon Rail- road, Poplar Grove Church Chapel House, Peeble's Farm, Hatcher's Run, Hicksford, Dabney's Mill, White Oak Road, Five Forks, and Appomattox Court-house. On May 8, 1864, at Laurel Hill, near Spottsylvania Court-house, Virginia, Colonel Denison while leading his brigade re- ceived a musket-ball in the right arm, resulting in the loss of that member. For gallant conduct in that action he was brevetted Brigadier-General. March 31, 1865, in command of his brigade, he was a second time severely wounded, being struck in the leg at the battle of White Oak Road, Virginia, and was promoted to Major-General of Volun- teers by brevet for gallantry. At the close of the war the surviving officersof the Maryland Federal regiments formed a social club, with General Denison President, which posi- tion he held continuously for twelve years. He was a Re- publican in politics, and after the war was spoken of in con- nection with the nomination for Mayor, but Hon. John Lee Chapman was the successful aspirant. Mayor Chap- man appointed General Denison one of the Judges of the Appeal Tax Court, which place he held for several years. In April, 1869, General Denison was made Postmaster at Baltimore by President Grant, which office he held until his death, which occurred February 24, 1877. Ilis adminis- tration of the post-office was successful and popular with all classes in Baltimore, and he enjoyed the confidence of the President throughout. He was the first Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in Maryland, Chair- man of the Executive Committee and Treasurer of the So- cial Club of Baltimore City Guard Survivors, an honorary member of the Fifth Regiment Maryland National Guards, and a member of the Masonic fraternity. Ilis funeral was largely attended and the ceremonies most imposing.
cant.m.2 FORD, JOHN THOMPSON, was born in Baltimore April 16, 1829. His father, Elias Ford, was a farmer of Baltimore County. He was an active and prominent member of the fraternity of Odd Fellows for over fifty years. The principal educa- tion of the subject of this sketch was received in the public schools of Baltimore. Before the twentieth year of his age he entered into the employment of his uncle, William Greanor, a well-known tobacco manufacturer of Richmond, Virginia, who afforded his nephew every opportunity for
obtaining a thorough knowledge of the business, which, however, proved distasteful to him, and he concluded to enter into the book and periodical business, which he pur- sued for about a year. When twenty-two years of age he became business manager for George Kunkel's Nightingale Minstrels, nud conducted the troupe throughout the South and West in one of the most profitable tours which had been made by any similar band. Whilst on his travels with that troupe Mr. Ford contributed several interesting articles to the press, for which he has always displayed a strong partiality. He next formed a copartnership with George Kunkel and Thomas Moxley in the leasing of the Richmond, Virginia, and the Holliday Street, Baltimore, theatres. Those gentlemen took charge of the first and Mr. Ford of the last-mentioned theatre. Under his man- agement it speedily became one of the most popular and respectable places of amusement in Baltimore. Communi- cation between Baltimore and Richmond being interrupted by the civil war, the above partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Ford became the sole lessee and manager of the Hol- liday Street Theatre. He subsequently leased the Front Street Theatre, and erected in Washington the structure known as " Ford's Theatre." In the spring of 1870 he conceived the project of constructing an opera house in a portion of the city nearer the centre of fashion than IIol- liday Street, and October 1, 1871, the handsome and com- modious building near the corner of Fayette and Eutaw streets, known as " Ford's Grand Opera House," was thrown open to the public. Mr. Ford is the sole lessee and manager of the National Theatre at Washington, Dis- trict of Columbia, and what is now known as " Ford's Opera House." Besides these theatrical enterprises Mr. Ford has effected engagements with "star " performers, including such eminent actors as Edwin Booth and John T. Raymond to perform in several of the leading cities of the South and West. Though so permanently connected with the drama Mr. Ford has devoted himself largely to the inter- ests and prosperity of his native city, and has held several positions of honor and trust, in which he has proved himself eminently competent and useful. In 1858 he was elected to the First Branch of the City Council of Baltimore, of which body he was chosen President, by virtue of which position he, in the absence of the Mayor of the city, fre- quently acted as Mayor ex officio. That post he sometimes filled for several consecutive months with marked ability and general acceptability. In 1871 he was elected to the Second Branch of the City Council, and in 1874 again elected to the First Branch. He has been a City Director in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, a Commis- sioner of the McDonough Fund on the part of the city of Baltimore, and has served as President of the Union Rail- road. He has been largely identified with enterprises of public charity, and was the President of the Association for Giving Free Excursions to the Poor for several summers. Ile has been a Director in the Boys' Ilome, and frequently .
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acted as foreman of the Grand Jury. Mr. Ford's wife was . Miss Edith B. Andrew, of Ilanover, Pennsylvania. Ile has had eleven children. Two of his sons, Charles E. and George T. Ford, are actively aiding hin in his dramatic enterprises,
AMBLETON, HON. SAMUEL, Member of the Forty- third and Forty-fourth congresses, and now resid- ing at Easton, Talbot County, Maryland, was born in that place in the year 1812. His father, Edward N. Hambleton, received few opportunities of educa- tion in his early years, but by careful self-culture fitted himself for the position of prominence and influence which he occupied through life. He was a man of great popu- larity in his district, and was for many years a member of the House of Delegates from Talbot County. He was also at one time Sheriff, and at another filled the office of State Senator. His father, William Hambleton, was a Captain in the Revolutionary Army. The family have for more than a century been honorably known in Talbot County, and the old homestead meeting-house is still in the posses- sion of Colonel Hambleton. Hon. Samuel Hambleton received his early education at the Easton Academy, and after passing through its curriculum commenced the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1833. The fol- lowing year he was elected by the Whig party a member of the House of Delegates, in which he served two terms. In 1844 he was elected State Senator, and served in that office till 1850. He had been reared in the principles of the Whig party, to which he adhered as long as it main- tained a separate existence, since which time he has at- tached himself to the Democracy. Mr. Hambleton was also in 1844 chosen as one of the Presidential electors. In 1845 he was appointed a Colonel of Cavalry by his Excellency, Governor Pratt, and organized five companies of the regiment in his district, assuming the command for four years. During the years 1853-4 he was President of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In 1870 he was elected to Congress on the Democratic ticket by a large majority. Ilis opponent was llon. Henry Torbert, of Cecil County. After serving in the Forty-third Congress he was re-elected and served again in the Forty-fourth. Colonel Hambleton was married in 1838 to Elizabeth, daughter of James Par- rott, who was Clerk of Talbot County for many years. They have two children, one son and one daughter. The son served throughout the war in the ranks of the Con- federate Army.
EWMAN, WILLIAM G. H., M.D., was born near Princess Anne, Somerset County, Maryland, April 17, 1827. Ilis paternal ancestors, who were .of Irish origin, settled in Maryland as early as 1650. His mother's ancestors came from England to Mary- land about 1765. The subject of this sketch received his
early education at Washington Academy in his native county. Ile was then sent to Jefferson College, Cannons- burg, Pennsylvania, where he remained one year, leaving in the Junior Class. In 1847, when twenty years of age, young Newman began the study of medicine under the distinguished Professor Nathan R. Smith, of Baltimore, and completed his course at the University of Maryland, from which he graduated in 1849 with high honors. The same year he entered upon the practice of medicine in George- town, District of Columbia, but removed to Washington soon after. ITis talents, energy, and high character soon brought him a large and lucrative practice, which has been increasing with advancing years. Apart from. his profes- sional eminence he has a commanding influence as a citi- zen. At one time he was a member of the City Council of Washington, but his widespread practice required on his part a declination of official position, and he has de- voted himself entirely to his profession. Dr. Newman is a member of the Medical Society, as also of the " Medical Association " of the District, and is Chief of the Medical Staff in charge of St. Ann's Infant Asylum. In politics he was a Whig. In 1863 he was converted to the Catholic religion, and since that time he has been a devout and exemplary member of that Church. In 1850 Dr. Newman was married to Miss Mary A. Rider, of Somerset County, Maryland. This lady, like her husband, is a convert to Catholicism.
ANDERFORD, HENRY, Editor and Journalist, was born, December 23, 1811, at Hillsborough, Caro- line County, Maryland. His father was William Vanderford, of Queen Anne's County, who inter- married with Elizabeth Frampton, of Talbot County, Maryland. His maternal ancestors were from Wales; his paternal from the Netherlands. Both branches of the family came to America in early colonial days. Among the earliest land records of Queen Anne's County is that of a tract of land of one thousand acres, subsequently di- vided into three farms of an equal number of acres each, in the neighborhood of Ilall's Cross-roads in that county, which property remained in the family through several generations. The father of William Vanderford, and grandfather of Henry Vanderford, was Charles Wrench Vanderford, who was farming his ancestral acres at the outbreak of the Revolution of 1776, and previously. He joined the American Army during the Revolution and was one of the Maryland Line. The subject of this sketch re- ceived an academic education at the llillsborough Academy. Subsequently his father purchased land in Talbot County and removed thither, and he continued to attend the school in the neighborhood, his scholastic term continuing through a period of about ten years. In 1825 he entered the office of Thomas Perin Smith, at . Easton, Maryland, where he
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acquired a knowledge of the printing business. Mr. Smith was the proprietor and publisher of the Easton Star, and continued to publish it until his death in 1832, when Mr. Vanderford went to Baltimore, and afterward to Philadel- phia. He was subsequently employed in printing the Easton, Maryland, Whig. In 1835 he bought the material of the Caroline Advocate, Denton, Maryland, and published that paper until the close of 1837, when he transferred the press and type to Centreville, Queen Anne's County, Mary- land, and founded the Sentinel, the first number of which appeared January 1, 1838. The Advocate had received a fair patronage, but the removal of the office to Centreville was at the suggestion of William A. Spencer, Esq., and Hon. Richard B. Carmichael, who thought Queen Anne's County a better field for enterprise, as the county was more popu- lous and more wealthy. The Caroline Advocate being the only paper in the county was independent in politics, but took a very decided part in the reform movement of 1836 and '37. The Centreville Sentinel was a Democratic paper, as its editor had always been of that political faith, and participated actively in the election of Governor Grason in 1838, the first of the Governors elected by the people. He was married, June 6, 1839, to Angelina Vanderford, daughter of Henry Vanderford, Sr., of Centreville, a dis- tant relative of his father. In 1842 he sold out the Sentinel to Mr. Mantleville, and removed to Baltimore. In Balti- more he started The Ray, a weekly literary and educational journal, and also the Daily News and the weekly States- man, the latter journals in association with Messrs. Adams and Brown. The Ray was not sustained over a year, and after a few months his connection with The News was closed in consequence of the severe night labor required. Messrs. Adams and Brown did not continue the enterprise long after Mr. Vanderford's withdrawal from the firm. He then en- gaged in job printing at the corner of North and Baltimore streets, Baltimore, and continued in that business until February, 1848, when he bought the Cecil Democrat, pub- lished at Elkton, Maryland, by Thomas M. Coleman, now City Editor of the Philadelphia Ledger. He enlarged the Democrat, quadrupled its circulation, and after a time fur- nished it with an entire new outfit. That paper was an ac- tive party journal, as its name implied, and was conducted by him very successfully for a period of seventeen years, until the close of the war in 1865. It was opposed to seces- sion, but opposed to the administration also, and hence was classed as a secession journal by the Union men, Thrice it was threatened with destruction by the returned soldiers at the instigation of ill-disposed citizens, but the editor had taken the precaution to engage some of the most determined men around him to defend his property, and the fact becoming known he attributed his escape from attack to that cause. While many of the Democratic papers in Maryland were suspended and their editors sent South, he managed to continue the uninterrupted publication of the Cecil Democrat, and did not lose a large amount of its
circulation. At the close of the volume, in 1865, he sold the paper to Messrs. Frederick Stump and Albert Consta- ble, two members of the Cecil bar. In about six months from the time of purchase they disposed of it to its present proprietor, Mr. George W. Cruikshank. After selling his journal and other property in Elkton he bought a farm in St. Mary's County, on the Patuxent River, and success- fully engaged for three years in agricultural pursuits, but owing to the ill health of'himself and family he relue- tantly relinquished his farming operations, sold out, and re- moved to Middletown, Delaware, where, in January, 1868, he founded the Middletown Transcript, the first and only journal published in that place. The Transcript was a success from the beginning, and grew in popularity with all parties, though moderately Democratic. In 1870 he was succeeded in the publication of the Transcript by his youngest son, Charles H. Vanderford. In March, 1868, his eldest son, William H. Vanderford, bought the Demo- cratic Advocate, published at Westminster, Maryland. The business of the office increasing very rapidly on his hands he induced his father to remove to Westminster and aid him in the cditorial conduct of the paper, which he did in November, 1870, and has occupied the position of joint editor with his son ever since. Under their management the Democratic Advocate has become one of the largest and most widely circulated journals in Maryland, outside of the city of Baltimore. It is printed by steam power in a brick building, forty by eighty feet in size, erected especially for the purpose. The Democratic Advocate is the successor of the Western Maryland Democrat, which journal was de- stroyed by a mob in April, 1865, and its editor, Mr. Joseph Shaw, murdered. In' 1873 Mr. Vanderford was elected to the House of Delegates from Carroll County, and was a member of that body during the session of 1874, in which he took an active part. His wife, still living, is the mother of twelve children, eight sons and four daughters. Only three of the sons are living, the eldest and the youngest of whom are journalists, the youngest being located at Har- risonburg, Virginia, and is publisher of the Old Common- wealth of that place. His second son, Dr. Julien J. Van- derford, is a dentist, and at present (1878) pursuing the practice of his profession in Frankford-on-the-Main, Ger- many. Mr. Vanderford has led an active business life. Ile has held no public station except that of a member of the Legislature, previously referred to. He and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is a Mason, and was formerly a member of the Order of Odd Fellows.
[PIE, THOMAS, M.D., was born in Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia, February 15, 1841. He is the son of Hierome L. Opie, of Jefferson County, Virginia, whose early ancestors came from England. Thomas received his early education at Pike Powers School, preparatory academy, at
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Staunton, Virginia. At the age of eighteen he went to the University of Virginia, where he pursued the academic course the first session ; the following session he took the medical course, after which he completed his studies and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadel- phia. In 1861 he returned to his native place, and as the war had just begun he enlisted as a private in the Con- federate Army under General Garnet in West Virginia. At the close of the first campaign he was elected Surgeon of the Twenty-fifth Virginia Regiment. He continued in that position until after the battle of Antietam, when he was placed upon duty in the hospital at Staunton, Virginia, where he remained until the close of the war. He then went immediately to Baltimore and commenced the prac- tice of his profession in that city, which he has since con- tinued to do. In 1872 he was one of six gentlemen who organized the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Bal- timore, and has been Dean of the Faculty from the or- ganization up to this time (1879). Dr. Opie married, November 13, 1867, Miss Sallie Harnan, daughter of M. G. Harnan, Esq., of Staunton, Virginia. They have seven children. The doctor is a member of St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church of Baltimore. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity.
SONKUR, JOHN CAVENDISH SMITH, M.D., late Professor of the Principles and Practice of 6 65 Medicine and Clinical Medicine in the Wash- ington University of Baltimore, was born in that city December 31, 1800. His parents were of Scotch and English descent. Their circumstances were easy, and until his seventeenth year they were able to give their son . every advantage of education. At an early age his progress in the science of navigation and lunar ob- servation was so remarkable that he was made assistant teacher in the school he attended. He showed great apt- ness in instructing others, and continued in the position two years. He pursued his studies even out of school with the greatest industry, devoting whatever leisure he could find to the study of natural history. He was es- pecially fond of comparative anatomy and of making dissec- tions, which had much to do with his future course of life. This induced his father to direct his attention to the study of medicine, and preparatory to this he placed him in a drug store, where he remained twelve months. In August, 1816, he became a pupil in the office of Dr. Cosmo G. Stevenson. Soon after his father becoming involved as surety for others, lost all his property, and from that time his son was left entirely to his own resources. For three years his only support was obtained from a small class of night scholars, an occasional gift from his pre- ceptor, and the receipts for fugitive pieces of writing. In consequence of this inability to clothe himself well he
spent the Sabbaths of these years closely in his room, and suffered many privations, but pursued his studies with the closest application. He privately prepared himself in anatomical knowledge, and was admitted prosector to the late Dr. John D. Godman, then Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University of Maryland. This position gave him his medical lectures free, and enabled him to graduate in March, 1822. But before this, in 1819, the yellow fever fell upon Baltimore. At the worst period of the epidemic young Monkur, then only nineteen years of age, left his . preceptor's office and repaired to Fell's Point, the seat of the disease, where he devoted his whole time and energies to the relief of the afflicted. In many houses every inmate was ill, and he performed for them the double duty of nurse and physician, and assisted in carrying out the dead. The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore passed resolutions thanking him for his zeal and devotion, and compensated him for his services. At the close of the epidemic his friendly associations in so many families and his reputa- tion for success in the treatment of fever made many de- mands upon him, and on receiving his diploma he found himself in a lucrative practice, which steadily increased. He was appointed in 1823 Physician to the Baltimore Eastern Dispensary, of which he had the care two years. In 1828 Dr. Monkur planned and formed a society entitled " The Maryland Society for the Cultivation of the Vine," and at a meeting called for the purpose delivered an address before the Mayor and a number of the most in- fluential citizens. In 1835 Dr. Monkur erected at the cost of $5000 the " Fell's Point Institute," with museum, lec- ture, and hall-rooms, and delivered the first course of lec- tures to a class of four hundred citizens. Ile received at its close a public resolution of thanks and encouragement. In 1836 he received the appointment of Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine in the Washington University of Baltimore, and until he resigned his chair in 1857 delivered there a yearly course of lectures. In 1837, in connection with the Medical Fac- ulty of the school, the present University College and Hos- pital on Broadway was founded. Here in association with his daily course of lectures he attended the Hospital De- partment as Professor of Clinical Medicine. As a clinical teacher he was unequalled, and as a lecturer he was re- markably full, clear, and profound. Acute perception and unwearied industry characterized him. He had admirable tact in detecting slight, obscure, or latent symptoms of dis- ease, often at first sight determining its character by his physiognomical skill alone, and was much sought as a con- sulting physician. At the age of twenty-five Dr. Monkur married Ilannah, the widow of Nicholas Leeke. She died in 1846, and two years later he married Mary Catha- rine, daughter of John Busk, by whom he had two sons and three daughters. He continued his large and wear- ing practice till within a week of his death, departing this life January 1, 1867, aged sixty-seven years. His younger
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and only surviving son, Cosmo G. S. Monkur, named for his father's early preceptor, was born July 23, 1852. HIe was educated at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmettsburg, and, September 15, 1870, entered the office of Dr. Frank Donaldson as a medical student. Failure of health com- pelled him after some time to relinquish study, and he is now engaged in business. Harriet, the eldest daughter of Dr. Monkur, died in infancy. Marie Blanche was received into the convent of Mount St. Agnes, Mount Washington, April 4, 1878, and Ellen Genevieve is at home with her mother and brother.
CORRIS, REV. RHESA SCOTT, Pastor of the Wash- ington Street Methodist Protestant Church, Balti- more, was born in Harford County, Maryland, August 7, 1820. Ilis father, Rev. Rhesa Norris, was from the time of its earliest organization a local minister of the above denomination, and was a mem- ber of its first convention. His mother was a woman of saintly character. Ile enjoyed but few advantages of edu- cation in early life, his later attainments being largely due to his own unaided efforts. In 1842, soon after attaining his majority, he connected himself with the Maryland Annual Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, his first appointment being to Hough' Creek Circuit. Since that period he has been in active service in the itin- erant ministry, exercising the pastorate for longer or shorter terms on New Market Circuit, Hough Creek Cir- cuit, a second time, Anne Arundel Circuit, Newtown Circuit, Brickmakers' Church in Philadelphia, New Market Circuit again, Baltimore Circuit, Howard Cir- cuit, Talbot Circuit, Bel Air Circuit, Pipe Creek Cir- cuit, Frederick Circuit, Starr Church, Baltimore, Kent
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