USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 8
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 2 > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80
ESTCOTT, GEORGE BERGEN, was born, February 10, 1801, in Fairfield Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey. He is the son of Captain Samuel and Mary (Buck) Westcott. His father served against the Whiskey Insurrection. His inother was a daughter of Judge John Buck, of Pelt's Grove, New Jersey. The subject of this sketch received a limited education in Fairfield Township, and at the age of nineteen years started out in the world to make his fortune. He walked to Cincinnati, Ohio, in twelve days, where he re- mained two years, teaching school and otherwise supporting himself, and then returned home. After a year he con- cluded to go West again, and on his way visited Millington, Kent County, Maryland. Being much pleased with the place and the people, he accepted a clerkship in the store of Dr. George O. Trenchard at that place in 1823, and taught school for awhile at New Market, now called Chesterville, in Kent County, Maryland. Afterward he served as Constable in the Upper District, Deputy Sheriff, and Collectorof Taxes, and as Assessor of Kent County, Maryland. At one time
he was a merchant at Millington ; from which place lie re- moved to Chesapeake City', Cecil County, Maryland, where he continued in the mercantile business, and married, June 14, 1831, his first wife, Mary Ann Hynson, daughter of Richard and Araminta ( Bowers) Hynson, who died in 1841, leaving two children, Mary, who married Charles Hammond, now deceased, and Harriet Louisa, who mar- ried Thomas Hill, of Baltimore. He removed to Chester- town, Maryland, in 1832, and continued merchandising, and also devoted much attention to farming. Ilaving amassed an independent fortune, he retired from mercan- tile pursuits in 1852, and sold his store to his nephew, Nicholas Godfrey Westcott. He served as President of the Commissioners of Kent County several years, with much satisfaction to the public. Upon the organization, January 7, 1847, of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Kent County, he was elected its first President, but subse- quently resigned and accepted the position of Secretary and Treasurer, which he held for a number of years. Ile is now one of the Directors of the company. On March 1, 1850, he was elected the first President of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank at Chestertown, now, and since Sep- tember 27, 1865, the Kent National Bank, and has been continued its presiding officer to the present time. He was President for several years of a'steamboat company, and also of the Paint Creek and Ritchie County Oil and Min- ing Company of West Virginia. In the sessions of 1861- 62 and 1864 he represented Kent County in the House of Delegates of Maryland. In politics, he was a Whig; voted in 1860 for Bell and Everett, and is now identified with the Republicans. He was raised a Presbyterian. but He married, October 17, 1843, his second wife, Auna Maria Tilden, daughter of Dr. Charles and Anna Maria (Buchanan) Tilden, and has a son, Charles Tylden West- cott, attorney-at-law, who married, September 17, 1873, Mary J. Guion, daughter of Dr. John and Susan S. (Roberts) Guion, of New Berne, North Carolina, and has two children, viz., Charles Tylden Westcott, and John Guion Westcott.
AYSON, GEORGE WASHINGTON, M.D., was born in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, November 18, 1819. His parents were Levi and Mary Ann Wayson, and were zealous and consistent in their religious belief. His father was a native of Anne Arundel County, a well-to-do farmer, and a promi -. nent member of the Methodist Church in that vicinity. He was born September 9, 1778. His mother was a daughter of John Smith, of England, and was born December 20, 1782. They had seven children, five of whom reached maturity, and four of whom are still living. John, the
391
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.
eldest son, is now (1878) in his sixty-ninth year, a farmer by occupation, and a local preacher in the Methodist Epis- copal Church. James, the next oldest, is deceased. The next is the subject of this sketch. Mary W. and Sarah J. are the names of the daughters, who are now living in the same county. Dr. Wayson's grandfather, Jolm Wayson, was from Scotland, and his religious persuasion Protestant Episcopal. Ile was a practical farmer. Ilis grandfather on his mother's side, John Smith, came from England dur- ing the Revolution, joined the American Army, and re- mained in the service until the close of the war. He was also a farmer. The subject of this sketch was a member of the First Branch of the City Council of Baltimore in the years 1863-4-5. Dr. Wayson received his early education partly in a public school in his native county, and in J. F. Wilson's Private Academy, where the higher branches were taught. In his nineteenth year he left school, on account of the death of his father, learned the trade of house carpenter, and afterward that of millwrighting. In 1843 he reviewed his literary studies under a private tutor from Ireland, and in March, 1844, began the study of medicine, graduating from the Washington University of Medicine, in Baltimore, March 6, 1846. In July, 1846, owing to failing health from undue application to study, he returned to his native county, and remained at home until the spring of 1847, where he reorganized a public school, was elected teacher, and taught for about four years, during which time he read and practiced medicine. He then came to Baltimore and established himself in the practice of medicine, where he has continued ever since. In the fall of 1861 he was author- ized by the War Department of Washington to raise a regi- ment in Baltimore for the suppression of the Rebellion, with his headquarters at the Lazaretto, of which regiment he acted as Colonel, having charge of the powder-houses and keeping guard over property opposite Fort Mellenry. In 1862 an order was given to re-examine all soldiers in the volunteer regiments of the United States Army. Ilis regiment, the Third Maryland Infantry, was re-examined according to that order, and the men assigned to other regiments, there being two " Third Maryland " regiments. Ile therefore did not enter the army, but afterward rendered efficient service as Volunteer Surgeon on several battle- fields. Ile was married in November, 1844, while a student of medicine, to Miss Barbara Ellen Abey; of Baltimore, who lived but two years after their marriage. On February 10, 1848, he married Sarah Ann Smith, daughter of Au- gnstus Smith, of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and by his second marriage has had four children, all of whom are now living, and at the age of maturity. William A. N., the eldest, is a practitioner of medicine ; the youngest, George W., is an attorney, having read law with Archibald Ster- ling, Jr., United States District Attorney. The names of the other children are John E. D. and Sarah Ella. Dr. Wayson joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1843, and has been a member of the same ever since. Ilis po-
litical sentiments are those of a Republican, and have been 'ever since the civil war. His career as a medical practi- tioner has been one of uninterrupted success, and his life one of great activity and usefulness.
EIGHTMAN, GENERAL, ROGER CHEW, Ex. May- or of Washington, District of Columbia, was born, January 18, 1787, in Alexandria, Virginia. He was the son of Richard and Elizabeth (Chew) Weightman. He served as an officer of cavalry in the war of 1812-15, and was for many years a General of militia. During the civil war he commanded the troops quartered in the Patent Office at Washington. From 1824 to 1827, he was Mayor of the city of Washing- ton, and resigned that position to become Cashier of the Bank of Washington. At one time he was acting Com- missioner of Patents, and was for many years Librarian of the Patent Office. Ile discharged his public duties with great fidelity and always acquitted himself with much credit. Ile died in Washington, February 2, 1876.
ATHIELL, COLONEL LEVI, was born in Worcester County, Maryland, August 16, 1789. His father, Major Levi Cathell, a wealthy native of the same county, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He was taken prisoner and, with others, carried to Eng- land and confined until independence was gained. His mother, Rebecca (Porter) Cathell, was a near relative of the famous Commodore David Porter, who commanded the Essex. From early youth, Colonel Levi Cathell was deeply interested in the military and political affairs of Worcester. IIe commanded the county regiment for more than twenty years, and represented the county in the State Legislature for about sixteen years. He was also for a long period a most consistent and devoted Freemason. He was a classical scholar, a fine logician, ready debater, and a successful polemical writer. IIe had one of the finest private libraries in Maryland, and his house was the resort of the most prominent and intelligent citizens of the county. He had travelled extensively in foreign countries in early manhood, and possessed a great fund of interest- ing knowledge, which he took pleasure in communicating to his friends. ITis love of wisdom, his zeal in public affairs, and his lofty conception of the duties of a citizen, are still the subject of many an anecdote in Worcester County. Among the representative men of that county, there are but few, if any, who will be remembered longer by the people than Colonel Levi Cathell. He was married in 1818, and died February 14, 1850, leaving five sons and five daughters.
لسكد متر
١
392
BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.
UDLER, JOUN WELLS EMORY, Merchant and Farmer, of Sudlersville, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, was born in that place, January 11, 1817. The estate of the first American ancestor of the family comprised about one thousand acres of land, a large proportion of which still remains in the possession of the family. The village of Sudlersville, on the Queen Anne's and Kent Railroad, is on this land ; three farms on the west of it, and parts of several on the cast, occupy the remainder. Richard Sudler, the grand- father of John W. E. Sudler, married Margaret, daughter of Colonel Arthur and Ann ( Wells) Emory. He died at Sledmore in 1797, and his widow in 1806. Their son, Arthur Emory Sudler, born June 22, 1792, married Mary W., daughter of Rev. William and Sarah ( Farrell) Jack- son, of Queen Anne's County. He died September, 1863, in the seventy-second year of his age, having been for more than half a century an honored and official member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His wife, a devoted Christian lady, was born in 1796, and died in September, 1846. Three of the children, two sons and a daughter, survived them. The daughter, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Comegys, died in 1865. The younger son, Dr. William Jackson Sudler, born in July, 1825, was for a number of years a practicing physician in Sudlersville, but his health not permitting him to continue his profession, he is now a farmer on a part of Sledmore, and a local preacher in the Church of his parents. Ile is a man of intelligence and influence in the community. The elder son, the subject of this sketch, attended school from his seventh to his fourteenth year, when he was placed in a store in Sudlers- ville. When sixteen years of age he went to Philadelphia, where he was a clerk for three years. Returning home in 1838, he went into mercantile business with his father, the firm bearing the name of J. E. Sudler & Co. In this business, under various connections, he continued until 1850, after which he devoted himself to agriculture, in which, during these years, he had been engaged to a limited extent. Ile removed in the beginning of this year to the estate on which he now resides, known as " Rose Villa," a part of the original tract held for generations in the family. It consists of three hundred and fifty acres, and was purchased by him of various parties in 1848. In 1857 Mr. Sudler was nominated and elected on the Demo- cratic ticket to the House of Delegates, and served in the session of 1858. In 1859 he became one of the Judges of the Orphans' Court of his county, and served four years. In 1867 he was again elected to the Legislature, and served in the session of 1868. Mr. Sudler united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1838, in which he has been a recording steward since 1843. He has been a trustee, Sunday-school superintendent, and class- leader, filling each office worthily and efficiently. He was married first, April 26, 1838, to Mary R., only daughter of John Morgan, of Wye Landing, in Talbot County.
Her amiable qualities and Christian character endeared her to the Church and the community. She died in March, 1867, leaving four children. Dr. Arthur Emory Sudler, the eldest, farmer and physician, resides on the old home- stead, und is a well-known citizen of the county. Ile graduated at Jefferson College in the spring of 1858. Ile is master of the Grange of Queen Anne's County, and is greatly interested in agriculture. He is also an official member of the Church of his parents, and superintendent of its Sunday-school in Sudlersville. The second son, John Morling Sudler, is also a member of that Church, and is master of the Sudlersville Grange. The third son, William Jackson Sudler, is in the jewelry business in Phila- delphia. Mrs. S. S. Goodhand, who resides on a farm contiguous to that of her father, is the fourth child. On June 11, 1868, Mr. Sudler was married to Martha Virginia, daughter of Thomas Ilopkins, of Caroline County. IIe has by this marriage two sons and a daughter.
GALZL,, RICHARD EDMUND, was born, October 14, 1843, in Stein, Austria, Ilis father, John Walzl, was a highly respectable citizen of that place, and a manufacturer of gold and silver ware. He possessed an original and ingenious mind, and was widely known for his integrity and purity of character. At the conclusion of the revolution in Austria in 1848 he was selected as a delegate from Stein for signing the dec- laration of peace between the Emperor and the people. HIe held the rank of military commander, and was for some time a burgomaster of his native town. In 1852 he came with his family to America, and settled in Baltimore. Ile placed Richard at Professor Knapp's Institute, where he remained two years, and then began the study of the art of photography. At the expiration of four years he com- menced the photographic business on his own account in Harford County, Maryland, where he saved in a year or so sufficient to enable him to open a photographic establish- ment in Baltimore, at 77 West Baltimore Street, in 1862. Ile pursued his business successfully in that locality for five years, when he moved into the fine marble building, No. 103 West Baltimore Street, constructed especially for his business. In 1872 he removed to 46 North Charles Street, where he is now located. It has been the aim of Mr. Walz to place his art at the highest point of perfection, and with this view he has adopted every new and ingenious process that his own inventive mind or that of otherfmasters of his profession have suggested. Prior to opening his studio, Mr. Walzl made an extensive tour through the United States and the Canadas, visiting the leading photographic art establishments in the principal cities. Ile was thus enabled to introduce many new features into his own. llc is the editor and publisher of the l'hotographie Rays of
393
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.
Light, a popular photographic magazine, He also issues The Photographer's Friend, which is devoted to the finan- cial and commercial interests of photography. In 1878 le issued a publication containing full instructions and advice to sitters as to their dress, position, time for sitting, expres sion, etc., and a complete description of the photographie art. The book also embraces a history of the origin and progress of photography. In this publication he endeavors to cultivate a high appreciation of the beantiful and a sym- pathy with art, an aesthetic taste and elevated sentiments in regard to the pictures of cherished friends or relatives. He competed with some of the best artists of the country at a fair of the Maryland Institute, and carried off the premium for plain photographs. The porcelain miniatures executed at' Mr. Walzl's establishment have secured a special medal of merit on account of their exquisite delicacy in finish and permanency. Commencing with scarcely a dollar, Mr. Walzl has, by his own exertions and talents, achieved great success. He is highly esteemed for his superior intelli- gence, his sensitive appreciation of all that is good and beautiful, and for his strict integrity. In June, 1874, Mr. Walzl married Miss Henrietta E. Scheib, third daughter of Rev. Henry Scheib, of Baltimore. He has two children, Aimee and Richard.
B BROWN, HON. GEORGE WILLIAM, Chief Judge of the Supreme Bench of the City of Baltimore, was born in Baltimore, October 13, 1812. His father, George John Brown, a native of the same city, and a prominent merchant there, was the son of Dr. George Brown, physician, who came from Ireland and settled in Baltimore in 1783. He died in 1822. His son married Esther Allison, daughter of Rev. Patrick Allison, a native of Baltimore. At the age of eight years George William Brown was sent to a celebrated Quaker school, after which he attended the Baltimore City College, then a classical school, where he became well grounded in the rudiments of Latin and Greek. After attending other schools he entered, at the age of sixteen years, the Sopho- more class at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. After remaining there for a year he entered Rutgers College, New Jersey, graduating therefrom in 1831, at the head of his class. The same year he began the study of law in the office of the late Judge Purviance, and at the end of the year, was admitted to the bar. In 1839 he entered into co- partnership with Mr. Frederick William Brune, a former schoolmate and intimate friend. The firm was subse- quently enlarged by the admission of Mr. Stewart Brown and Mr. George W. Brown's eldest son, Arthur George Brown, and remained without change until October, 1873, when the senior partner was elected judge. It still re- tains the old name of Brown & Brune, and is the oklest law firm in the city. The first instance in which Mr.
Brown took any prominent part in public affairs was on the occasion of the Bank of Maryland riot of 1835, when he was one of the volunteers under the brave General Sammel Smith, of Revolutionary fame, for its suppression. In the winter of 1812 n " Slaveholder's Convention " was held at Annapolis, and adopted a series of resolutions of a harsh and oppressive character, concerning the negro population, discouraging manumissions, and laying such burdens upon the free blacks as would have compelled them to leave the State. Mr. Brown, through the public press, entered an earnest protest against such a course, on grounds both of expediency and of justice. He showed that the true policy of the State had ever been to encourage manumissions, and that the vigorous measures urged against the frec colored people were as impolitic as they were oppressive. His ar- ticles attracted much attention. Public meetings were held, and the Legislature, perceiving the sentiment of the community, refused to pass the obnoxious measures. In the earlier years of Mr. Brown's legal career there was no public law library. He, with Mr. William A. Talbott, in- augurated a movement which resulted in the foundation of the present excellent Bar Library, an institution of which Mr. Brown has long been President. In March, 1853, he delivered a lecture before the Maryland Institute, selecting as his theme, " Lawlessness, the Evil of the Day." This was the first occasion on which he became conspicuously forward as the advocate of certain much- needed reforms in the municipal government, and it was, perhaps, the first step towards the reform movement, which, some years later, assumed a definite shape, and finally ob- tained a complete triumph in 1860. Among the remedial measures recommended by Mr. Brown were the replace- ment of the constables and watchmen by a uniformed me- tropolitan police ; that the turbulent volunteer fire com- panies should give way to a paid fire department ; that juvenile offenders should be sent to the House of Refuge ; that ruffians and thieves, when caught, should not be re- leased on " straw bail," but should receive sentences bear- ing some proportion to the magnitude of their offences, and that, when finally sentenced, the annulling of the sentence by a pardon should be the exception rather than the rule. He has lived to see most of these reforms adopted. In 1858 Mr. Brown united with other prominent citizens to form a " Reform Association," the object of which was, by regular meetings and appeals through the press, to or- ganize the friends of law and order into a body, influential and strong enough to insure quiet and fairness at the polls, which, at that time, were the scenes of disgraceful fraud, violence, and disorder. The violence practiced at the Oc- tober election of 1859 was the proximate cause of the great . reformation which soon took place. The reformers pre- pared and urged the adoption of a law, taking the appoint- ment and control of the police from the mayor, and giving the power over that body to a board of commissioners, also providing safeguards for the purity and freedom of elee-
394
BIOGRAPIIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.
tions. This law met with violent opposition, but was passed by the Legislature and sustained by the Court of Appeals, Its salutary action at once removed the evils from which the city had so long suffered. At the next election, October, 1860, Mr. Brown was brought for- ward by the Reform party as their candidate for the of- fice of mayor. In a fair and orderly election he was chosen by a majority of about eight thousand. He en- tered upon office November 12, 1860, at a peculiarly critical period, when the whole country was agitated by the election of Mr. Lincoln. When it was known that Federal troops would be sent through the city on their way to the South, the Board of Police requested that their arrival might be notified in advance, by telegraph, so that a sufficient police escort might be provided, as it was feared the excited temper of the citizens might lead to some outbreak. The precaution was neglected or omitted by the Federal authorities in the case of the Massachusetts troops, who reached the city on Friday, April 19, 1861. About half an hour before their arrival at the Philadelphia depot instructions werc received to have a police force in readiness at the Washington (Cam- den Street ) Station, as the troops were not to march through the city, but to pass through in the cars, along Pratt Street. A strong police force was at once hurried to the place in- dicated, but no sufficient time had been given to guard, in the same way, the whole line of route. The first cars passed through in safety, but some of those which followed were checked by obstructions placed on the track, and the soldiers, alighting, undertook to march through the city to the Camden depot. The street was lined with an angry though unarmed crowd, which began to assail the troops with stones. The latter, after forbearing for a time, returned the assault with volleys of musketry. The Mayor had just left the Camden Street depot, supposing that all the troops had passed in safety, when information was brought to him of the dangerous position of those who had been stopped on l'ratt Street, and he at once hastened to the spot, ordering the Marshal, George P. Kane, to follow with a body of police. Ile met the troops march- ing rapidly, followed by the crowd, still assailing them with stones and pistol shots, and placing himself at their head marched with them for some distance towards their desti- nation, the Camden Street depot. His presence, however, did not avail either to protect them from attack, or the citizens from their indiscriminate fire. Soon the Marshal of Police, at the head of about fifty men, came rapidly up from the direction in which they were retreating, passed to the rear of the troops, and forming a line across the street, with pistols presented, checked the advance of the crowd, and the troops without further molestation reached the station, where a train, with the rest of the regiment, was awaiting them. By the prompt and effective handling of the police much bloodshed was prevented. As a temporary precaution against the enactment of similar scenes the
Mayor and Police Commissioners, with the approval of Gov- ernor Hicks, who was then a guest of Mr. Brown, caused certain bridges on the Northern Central and Philadelphia Railroads to be partially destroyed, and this was done just in time to prevent a body of unarmed Pennsylvania troops from advancing on the city. In view of the highly excited state of the community this measure was deemed necessary to save the lives of the advancing soldiers, and ultimately preserve the city from the horrors of war. On Sunday, April 21, the Mayor received a telegram from President Lincoln requesting an interview, and he pro- ceeded at once to Washington, accompanied by G. W. Dobbin, at present Judge of the Supreme Bench, S. Teackle Wallis, and John C. Brune. The President recognized the good faith in which the authorities had acted, and gave an assurance that no more troops should be sent through Bal- timore while other lines of transportation were open, and at his request General Scott, the Commander-in-Chief, ordered some Pennsylvania troops, who had approached the city, to be sent around it. Finally Federal military rule was established in the city. The Marshal of Police was arrested and imprisoned and the police disbanded. The Police Commissioners were soon afterwards arrested and placed in confinement. The Mayor continued to dis- charge his duties, except those appertaining to the police, unmolested, until the night of September 12 (1861), when he was arrested at his house and' taken as a prisoner to Fort McHenry, whence he was removed successively to Fortress Monroe, Fort Lafayette, and Fort Warren. While in confinement various offers were made to Mr. Brown, on the part of the government, to release him, but all coupled with conditions which he did not choose to accept. Finally, when his term of office had expired, he was, November 27, 1862, unconditionally released. Mr. Brown was a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1867. October 22, 1872, he was elected to the position of Chicf Judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City. He was nominated by the Democratic Conservative party, and as the opposing political party made no nomination he received the entire vote cast. Mr. Brown has been devoted to the studies and labors of his profession, and has found time to take an active part in the management of various literary and benevolent institutions. He was one of the founders of the Maryland Historical Society ; has been a Trustee in the Peabody Institute ; is a Regent in the Mary- land University ; is a Visitor of St. John's College, An- napolis, and one of the Trustees of the Johns Ilopkins University. For two years, 1871-1873, he lectured on constitutional law before the Law School of the Maryland University. In 1849 he, with Messrs. William II. Norris and F. W. Brune, compiled the first Digest of the Deci- sions of the Court of Appeals. In 1850 he delivered a dis- course before the Maryland Historical Society on the "Origin and Growth of Civil Liberty in Maryland." In 1851 he delivered an address before the literary societies
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.