USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 79
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 79
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marked ease aud decorum. Ile resides upon a farm which is considered one of the most productive in the county. It is near Port Tobacco, the county seat ; and the view from his large and convenient dwelling of the Potomac River and the adjacent lands is very extensive, and one of unsurpassed beauty.
GORD, HON. BUDD S., State Senator and President of the Chester River Steamboat Company, was born, March 2, 1840, in Salem, New Jersey. Ile was the third child and second son of Rev. Charles T. and Catharine (Wright) Ford. His father was a native of Cecil County, Maryland. He was a clergyman in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and at the time of the birth of this son was a Presiding Elder in the New Jersey Conference. He died in 1848 in North East, Cecil County. The ancestors of the Ford family were Scotch. They came to this country and settled in Maryland before the Revo- lution ; some of them fought in that war for the land of their adoption. Budd S. Ford enjoyed for some time the advantages of the Pennington Academy in New Jersey. After the death of his father the family necessities com- pelled him to leave school at the age of fourteen, when he went to Philadelphia and was employed for about a year as a clerk in a wholesale drug store. He then resolved to seek his fortunes in the West, and went as far as Ohio, where he remained several months with promise of excel- lent success, but to satisfy his widowed mother, who in her affection and anxiety for him could not have him at that ' early age so far separated from her, he sacrificed what ap- peared to be his brightest prospects in life and returned to Maryland. But that this dutiful act has not failed of its reward, the success that has ever since attended him has proven. He soon after secured the position as clerk on one of the Chester River steamers, which he held until 1860, when he was promoted to the captaincy of the steamer. This responsible post he filled for two years with great credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the com- pany. In 1862 he was married to Miss Emily Hendricks, of Queen Anne's County, and resigning his position as Captain he took up his residence in that county, intending to devote himself to agricultural life. But this he found on trial was not suited to his disposition nor his tastes. Hle therefore turned his attention to other matters, and soon afterwards organized the Chester River Steamboat Stock Company, of which he was made President and General Business Manager. In these offices he continues to the present time. The Company built the large and elegant steamer B. S. Ford to ply between Baltimore and Chester- town. It was so named in honor of their President. The Company also own one or two other steamers on the same route. In April, 1868, Mr. Ford's wife died, leaving him two daughters, Emma H. and Catharine Ford. He lias
always been connected with the Democratic party, and for several years has taken an active and leading part in publie affairs. He is a man of decided ability and influence, both in business and in politics. He was elected to the House of Delegates from Queen Anne's County in 1872 for the term of two years, and in 1875 was elected State Senator for four years from January, 1876. The course of Sena- tor Ford has been marked with unvarying success. IIe travels a great deal in connection with his business, and is full of life and activity. His mother, whom he tenderly cares for, is still living in Baltimore.
ARTER, JOHN M., Lawyer and President of the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Me- chanic Arts, was born in Baltimore February 5, 1843. His parents, Asbury and Mary Christina ( Ear- eckson) Carter, removed to Baltimore from Kent Island, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, in 1840. They had a family of nine children. Their son John was edu- cated at the old Light Street Institute for Boys, receiving in the English branches and in the elementary classics the ordinary training of a good private school. He left school at fifteen years of age. Ile passed two years in a stock- broker's office, and two years as clerk in the law office of John Carson, Esq., where he commenced the study of law. In January, 1862, he was appointed Private Secretary to Governor Augustus W. Bradford, of Maryland. He still continued his legal studies, and was admitted to the bar February 5, 1864, but remained at Annapolis with Gov- ernor Bradford during his term of four years. In January, 1866, he was appointed Secretary of State by Governor Thomas Swann, in which office he served during his term of three years, and meanwhile commenced the practice of law in Baltimore, which he still continues. He represented the Third Congressional District of Maryland as a Greeley Elector in the campaign of 1872. Mr. Carter was for ten years a manager of the Maryland Institute for the Promo- tion of the Mechanic Arts, and is now its President. Ile has been a Freemason since January, 1866, and for two years past has been Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Maryland. Ile was a member of the National Union party ; after its disbandment he joined the Denio- cratic Conservative party. He was married, April 25, 1867, to Florence Sweetzer, daughter of the late David E. Thomas, of Baltimore.
TONE, THOMAS, Member of the American Congress from Maryland, and one of the Signers of the Dec- laration of Independence, was a lineal descendant of William Stone, Governor of Maryland during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He was born in 3 1743 at Pointon Manor, the seat of his father, David Stone,
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in Charles County, and was carefully educated by a learned Scotch teacher of the neighborhood. He studied law in Annapolis, and engaged in the practice of his profession with high repute. He was a member of the American Congress in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was signed, and stood forth among the champions of his country at that trying period. He was again a member of Congress when General Washington resigned his office as Commander-in-Chief of the American armies. Ile was ap- pointed one of the delegates from Maryland to attend the convention which met in Philadelphia in 1787 and formed the Constitution of the United States, but domestic circum- stances led him to decline the appointment, and he died the same autumn, aged forty-four years. Mr. Stone was re. peatedly a member of the Senate of his native State, and was in every way devoted to the interests of his country. Ilis death was deeply lamented.
200 AYER, CHARLES F., Lawyer, was a son of Chris- tian Mayer, a well-known merchant, and one of. the first Germans who settled in Baltimore shortly after the Revolutionary war. He was one of the founders in 1817 of the German Society of Maryland, and its first President. Charles F. Mayer was born in Baltimoretown October 15, 1795, and died in Baltimore city January 4, 1864. He graduated with the first honors at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1812. After taking his degree, and before settling down to the business of life, young Mayer travelled extensively for several years. He visited various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and acquired from his observations of other men and manners experience of life and much useful and curious knowledge, and perfected himself in the Ger- man and French languages, which he spoke with great fluency. Ile assiduously pursued his legal studies while at sea and during his travels, and completed them under the tuition of William Pinkney. In 1819 he was admitted to the bar of the old Baltimore County Court, and a few months after tried his first case, the gaining of which was a peculiar satisfaction to him, as the opposing counsel was the celebrated William Wirt. Mr. Mayer's career at the bar was successful from the first. His father's position as a merchant soon procured for him a lucrative practice, which he increased by untiring industry, and soon rose to the front rank of his profession. In 1814 he took part in the defence of his native city, and with his brother Lewis served in the ranks at Fort McHenry. He took a deep interest in public affairs, and in 1831 wrote the address of the "Central Committee of the National Republicans of the city of Baltimore to the people of Maryland." In 1838 he prepared the address to the voters of Baltimore from the Whig Convention (of which he was President), selected to nominate delegates to the General Assembly of
Maryland. IIe also advocated the election of William Heury Harrison and John Tyler, and General Taylor. In 1860 he held that a compromise was the only hope of the Union, and to this end supported Stephen A. Douglas for the Presidency. He was Chairman of the committee that welcomed him to Baltimore in September of that year, and also Chairman of the State Central Committee of Maryland. In 1861 he prepared an address for a Democratic Conven- tion for the nomination of State officers in the interests of peace and the Union. But when Mr. Lincoln called out the troops to defend the Constitution and the Union, Mr. Mayer adhered to the cause of the South. IIe was in the Senate of Maryland from Baltimore from 1830 to 1835. While in that position and afterwards he prepared many of the most important laws still in force in this State. lle was mainly instrumental in harmonizing in 1832 the antag-, onistic interests of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, when Chairman of the joint committee of the two houses formed for the consideration of the matter. Mr. Mayer was distinguished for his philanthropy. He was one of the original incorporators of the Ilouse of Refuge, and one of its managers until the day of his death. IIe was also one of the earliest friends of the Ilome of the Friend- less of the City of Baltimore, and an earnest promoter of the Maryland Hospital and various other charitable institu- tions. In 1844 he assisted in organizing the Maryland Historical Society, before which he delivered the first ad- dress.
RYDEN, MAJOR JOSHUA, was born in 1792 in Wor- cester County, Maryland, and received in his early youth such education as the country schools of that day afforded. He went to Baltimore when eleven years of age, and was apprenticed to his uncle, Milly Dryden, to learn the trade of a tailor. At nineteen years of age he engaged in the business on his own account, suc- ceeding his uncle, who died at that time. He continued in that business from 1812 until 1836, when he engaged in brickmaking, and prosecuted that business for twenty years. In 1860, having acquired a competency, he retired from business pursuits. In 1813 he married Ann Maria Roberts, of Kent County, Maryland. They had eight children, only four of whom are now living (1878). Ma- jor Dryden was a soldier of the Fifth Regiment Maryland Militia, and was a defender of Baltimore at Bladensburg and North Point, and at the time of his death, which oc- curred in 1869, he was President of the Old Defenders Association. Hle served Baltimore in the City Councils for seven years, and at one time was President of the First Branch. He was a director in banks and in the Fireman's Insurance Company. Ile joined the Light Street Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1811, afterwards transferred his membership to the Charles Street Church
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when that house of worship was erected, and on the open- ing of the Mount Vernon Methodist Episcopal Church united with that congregation.
GUEST, J. WESLEY, Cashier of the Citizens' National Bank of Baltimore, was born near lungoteague, Accomac County, Virginia, September 6, 1831. His father, Richard W. Guest, was of Scotch-English descent, and his mother, Mahala C. (Milby) Guest, was of English ancestry. In consequence of the im- paired health of his father the family removed to Balti- more in 1838, where Mr. Guest died in 1840, leaving a widow and four young children in humble circumstances. The education of the son Wesley was necessarily a limited one. Ile attended the public schools of Baltimore for about three years, and spent one year at the private acad- emy of Rev. John H. Dashiells. This was followed by several years' experience as an errand boy. In 1845 he resolved to try a seafaring life and joined the crew of the schooner Emily Ann Thompson, making two voyages to the West Indies, after which at the earnest solicitation of his mother he left the sea and was a clerk in several stores till the year 1850, when on a capital of twenty-five dollars he commenced the West India fruit business on Exchange Place. This he continued for a year, when he became bookkeeper for llinson II. Cole, a wholesale and retail clothing merchant, with whom he remained until 1854, when he accepted the position of bookkeeper in the Bank of Commerce, where he remained for seven years. In September, 1861, he was elected to his present position as Cashier of the Citizens' National Bank, one of the oldest and most substantial banks in Baltimore, having a capital of $500,000, and a surplus of $300,000. In the succeeding four- teen years, the bank paid back in dividends more than the capital invested, and six per cent. interest additional. A new fine white marble building was erected in 1869, which together with the safes and other property is estimated to be worth about $100,000. The venerable John Clark, who died in 1867, a sketch of whom is contained in this volume, was President of this bank for several years. He left a beneficent fund of about $500,000. Mr. Guest is Presi- dent of the Maryland Department of the Life Association of America, one of the most successful life associations of this country. He was also the originator of the Baltimore Warehouse Company, with a capital stock of $500,000, designed for receiving merchandise on storage and ad- vancing upon the same, an institution that was greatly needed and is now appreciated by the commercial world. The success of Mr. Guest is a natural consequence of his great energy, his integrity of character, and fidelity to busi- ness. To whatever position he has been called he has mastered it in all its departments. For twenty-four years he has been identified with the Odd Fellows, and is now a
. Past Grand in that Order. He was Treasurer of the Build- ing Committee of St. John's Independent Methodist Chapel, a beautiful stone edifice on Madison Avenue, cost- ing for the lot and building $37,500, an enterprise due largely to his interest and energy, and to which he is a liberal contributor. During the civil war he was Lieu- tenant of Company Third of the Battalion of Baltimore City Guards, and was Treasurer of and assisted in raising the Tenth and Eleventh Maryland Federal regiments, and was prompt to aid the Government in other financial ways. At one time he was School Commissioner of the old Thir- teenth, now the Tenth Ward. His mother, who was a very liberal contributor to charitable purposes in this city, died in 1868. He was married to Miss Emily R. Mulley, of Baltimore, and has five children.
CURTZ, REV. JOHN NICOLAS, was born in the King- dom of Nassau, Germany. Ile was descended from a German Protestant family, whose lineage is traceable to the year 1599, embracing many hon- ored names connected with the ministry and with institutions of learning. His academic and classical edu- cation and theological studies were conducted at the Uni- versity of Halle; and when application was made by the Lutherans of Pennsylvania for the services of a pastor the request was presented to him and accepted. He came to America in 1745 and located at Philadelphia, preaching in that city and also at Germantown. At that period it was frequently necessary in the latter place to appoint a guard for the protection of the worshippers from the Indians. The subject of this sketch was the father of Rev. John Daniel Kurtz, D.D., and grandfather of Edward Kurtz.
PURTZ, REV. JOHN DANIEL, D.D., was born in Ger- mantown, Pennsylvania, in the year 1763. In 1771 his father took charge of the Lutheran in- terests in York, Pennsylvania ; and John preserved a vivid recollection of the thrilling scenes connected with the struggle for independence. At the conclusion of the war in 1783, in his twentieth year, John was sent to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he studied divinity with the Rev. Dr. H. E. Muhlenberg. Sharing his preceptor's taste for the natural sciences, he gave considerable atten- tion to botany and entomology, and in later life correspond- ed extensively with distinguished naturalistst of Europe. In 1784 he was licensed to preach, and in 1786 was per- manently invested with the sacred office. During a mis- sionary tour through Maryland and Virginia he preached before a Baltimore congregation, and was so well received that he was soon after called to succeed to the charge of
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Pastor Gærock of that city, where he preached for nearly fifty years. In 1832 he resigned in consequence of in- creasing infirmities, and died in 1856, in the ninety-third year of his age. Mr. Kurtz was the son of Rev. John N. Kurtz, and father of Edward Kmtz.
CURTZ, EnWARD, was born in Baltimore, Septem- weet ber 24, 1796. Having completed his education in New Jersey, at the age of eighteen he entered the counting-house of P. A. Karthaus in 1815. In 1817 the firm was changed to Charles W. Karthaus & Co. He remained in that house as clerk until 1828, when he was admitted a member of the firm under the style of C. W. Karthaus, Kurtz & Co. In 1837 he retired from that connection and conducted business in his own name. Politically he was of the Whig party ; in religion he is a Lutheran. Mr. Kurtz is the son of Rev. John Daniel Kurtz, D.D., who filled a pastorate in a Lutheran Church in Baltimore for a period of fifty years; and grandson of Rev. John N. Kurtz, who came to Philadelphia from Ger -. many in the year 1745 to establish the Lutheran interests in Philadelphia and Germantown.
OLMES, JOHN M., Wholesale Tobacco Dealer, Baltimore, was born, January 21,. 1822, in Fred- erick County, Virginia, and is the oldest son of Christian and Nancy Holmes, who were of German and Irish extraction. Mr. Holmes was educated in the private schools of his native county, and at the age of sixteen was apprenticed to Joseph D. Seemour, of Win- chester, Virginia, where he remained in the coachmaking business for the term of four years. In 1841 he 'removed to Zanesville, Ohio, where by industry and economy he accumulated several hundred dollars, which through the + failure of his employers was lost, when he determined to return to his home in Virginia and abandon his original business. In the early part of 1$.13 he engaged in farming in Berkeley County, Virginia, and in December, 1843, mar- ried Lavinia J. Anderson, daughter of James and Leah Anderson, of Frederick County, Virginia. In 1846 he re- moved to Cumberland, Maryland, and engaged as agent for William Frost, an extensive lumber dealer, who sup- plied a great portion of the lumber used by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and builders in Cumberland. Upon the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad west of Cumberland he was appointed Mail Agent under the administration of President Fillmore, which position he occupied until after the election of President Pierce. Being a Whig his place was desired for a Democrat. Ile then entered the employ of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road Company at Wheeling, West Virginia, where he re-
mained until December, 1853, when finding his health failing from exposure and want of rest he tendered his resignation. lle was then offered a position as salesman in the house of Young & Carson, subsequently Young, Carson & Bryant, wholesale grocers, Baltimore, where he remained until January, 1859, when he engaged in busi- ness on his own account, forming a copartnership under the firm name of Bryant, Tinsley & Holmes, and continued to do a successful business until October, 1862, when, owing to the unsettled state of the country, they deemed it best to quit business, not intending to resume during the war. In April, 1863, the commercial outlook becoming brighter, Mr. Holmes again engaged in business under the firm name of G. S. Watts & Co., wholesale dealers in tobacco, in which he remained until 1869, and in July, 1869, formed a co- partnership with T. L. Tinsley, one of his former partners in the grocery business, the style of the firm being Holmes & Tinsley. This partnership continned until January, 1876, when Mr. Holmes and Mr. Tinsley, both having sons whom they desired to establish in business, dissolved the partner- ship by mutual consent, and Mr. Holmes associated with him his two sons under the firm name of J. M. Holmes & Sons, now located at 85 Exchange Place, Baltimore, where they continue to do a large and successful business. Mr. Holmes has had five children, four sons and one daughter. Armenius R., deceased, was born October 18, 1844; Robert B., deceased, was born November 21, 1845; Mil- ton W. was born March 12, 1847; Edward A. was born October 1, 1848; and Annie B. was born April 3, 1859. Ilis sons Milton W. and Edward A. are both married and associated with their father in business. In 1867 Mr. Ilolmes united with the Methodist Church, of which he has been an earnest and active member ever since, filling many important and responsible offices, and contributing liberally of his means to the support of the same. Com- mencing his business career without a dollar he has suc- ceeded entirely through his own exertions, and his success is attributable to his indomitable energy, perseverance, prudence, and strict integrity.
FRIEDMANN, MENKA, was born, December 21, 1823, in Bavaria, Germany. After leaving school he for three years became clerk in the wholesale drygoods house of 1 .. Sonnaman, in Wurtzburg, the capital of Under Franken. Re- turning home he entered the store of his father, and con- tinued with him until his death in 1853. The following year he emigrated to the United States, settling in Balti- more, where, shortly after his arrival, he began on his own account, on Pratt Street, a rotail clothing store, which he carried on for five years. Ile then removed to his present location, 241 and 243 West Pratt Street, and began the wholesale clothing business, in which he has ever since
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continued. He is a member of the Ilanover Street Hebrew congregation, of which he was for four years the Treasurer, and for five years one of the directors. He has been one of the directors of the Jewish Hospital ever since it was established in 1867. In February, 1856, he married Caroline, daughter of Mr. Benjamin Prager, of Bavaria, Germany. He has five children, four sons and one daughter. Two of his sons, Henry and Benjamin, assist him in his business. Mr. Friedmann has had an un- usually successful business career, and his integrity, liberal- ity, and benevolence have won for him the confidence and esteem of his people and the community generally.
OLLINS, WILLIAM HANDY, Lawyer, was born in the State of Delaware September 2, 1801. Ilis father and maternal grandfather were Presbyterian clergymen, and graduates of Princeton College, New Jersey. John Collins, his father, was a native of Somerset County, Maryland. Ile died while William II. was yet very young. His ancestry on the paternal side were English, and on the maternal from the North of Ireland and Scotland. The subject of this sketch is the sole survivor of that branch of the Collins family, and therefore the oldest in that line now living. Mr. Collins settled in Baltimore in the fall of 1826 He became a member of the Baltimore bar soon afterward, and has always maintained his relation to it. He has never held any political office whatever, nor has he ever received any money for any service on any account from the United States, the State of Maryland, or the city of Baltimore ; nor has he ever taken or paid more than six per cent. for any money either loaned or borrowed. During the war of the rebellion he was an unflinching Unionist. Politically he has been an old-line Whig, and a great admirer of IIenry Clay and Daniel Webster. At the present time he claims allegiance to no party. He married in July, 1834, in Orange County, Virginia, Frances Cornelia, daughter of Ex-Governor James Barbour, formerly Secretary of War under President Adams, and has occupied his present residence for thirty-seven years.
UVALL, HENRY, Merchant, of Baltimore, was born in Annapolis August 24, 1820. His father, Henry. Duvall, an extensive and highly respected farmer of Anne Arundel County, was of French de- seent. He married Mary Winchester, a native of Queen Anne's County, whose ancestors were among the early settlers of the State. Their son IIenry was educated at St. John's College, and in 1838 entered as a clerk an extensive drygoods establishment in Baltimore, where he continued five years. In 1844 he commenced an inde- `pendent business career as a commission merchant, and has been actively engaged in mercantile pursuits to the
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