USA > Maryland > Genealogical and memorial encyclopedia of the state of Maryland, a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume I > Part 21
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Child Kirk, became a partner, and the firm name was Samuel Kirk & Son. In 1861 two other sons were admitted, but with- drew about the close of the Civil War. After the death of Samuel Kirk, his son, Henry C. Kirk, continued business under the same name, until 1890, when his only son, Henry Child Kirk, Jr., became a partner, without change of the name. In 1896 the business was incorporated under the title of Samuel Kirk & Son Company. Samuel Kirk married. March 18, 1817, Albina Powell, born October 28, 1796, died December 23, 1865, daughter of Joshua and Margaret (Car- penter) Powell. Children: 1. Eliza Grace, born January 13, 1818, married, January 5, 1845, Seth Hance, who died May 2, 1884; children: Franklin, Emma and four others, all de- ceased. 2. James Howell, born May 24, 1821, died August 22, 1822. 3. Hannah Jane, born May 24, 1821, died July 22, 1822. 4. Henry Edgar, born September 24, 1822, died July II, 1823. 5. Margaret Jane, born December 26, 1823, died July 11, 1882; married Jesse Hunt. 6. Henry Child, men- tioned below. 7. Amanda Victoria, born December 28, 1828, died February 4, 1850. 8. Benjamin Powell, born April 28. 1830, died June 26, 1834. 9. Helen Albina, born February 28, 1835, unmarried. 10. Charles Douglas, born February 27, 1840, died January 5, 1880; married, April 2, 1861, Cassandra Ashton Anderson. 11. Edwin Clarence, born April 28, 1842, died July 11, 1876, unmarried.
(VII) Henry Child Kirk, third son of Samuel and Albina (Powell) Kirk, was born February 9, 1826, in Balti- more, and became a practical silversmith under his father's instructions. In due course of time he was made head of the corporation of Samuel Kirk & Son Company, and though eighty-nine years of age at the time of his death was actively interested in the business. In his time the volume of business transacted was very greatly increased, and he was brought into
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prominence in the silver world, having many friends through- out the country. For more than fifty years Mr. Kirk was treasurer of the Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, of Baltimore. During his presidency the company suffered two fires, the first on June 30, 1903, and the second in the great Baltimore conflagration of February 7, 1904. In the latter fire the building was totally destroyed, but all the original draw- ings, designs and patterns were preserved. He married (first) Virginia E. Hardesty, born in 1831, died August 21, 1855. He married (second) Lucy Strother Buckner, daughter of Bailey and Mildred (Strother) Buckner. He married (third) Eliza Hollins, daughter of George and Lydia (Campbell) Hollins, died April 22, 1900. Children by first wife: 1. Olivia Hardesty, married William Higgins Conkling; children : William, deceased; Elizabeth Baldwin; William Higgins; Olivia H. 2. Alice Virginia, married Martin L. Millspaugh, and had children: Alice Virginia, Laurence, and Henry Child Kirk Millspaugh, deceased. Children by second wife : 3. Mildred Buckner, married William Thomas Walter Mc- Cay, deceased, and had one child, Mildred Buckner. 4. Henry Child, born December 16, 1868, succeeded his father as presi- dent of Samuel Kirk & Son Company; he married, October 22, 1891, Edith Huntemuller, born March 26, 1872; chil- dren : Edith Buckner, born December 20, 1892; Mary Hunte- muller, March 21, 1896; Ann Strother, August 29, 1901. Child by third wife: 5. Lydia Hensworth, married Roderick D. Donaldson; two children.
JAMES H. SMITH
SEVENTY-SIX were the years allotted James H. Smith, of Baltimore, and many of those years were spent in the pub- lic service of his city, the most important office held being that of comptroller of the city. His life until 1870 was a continual endeavor to "find" himself, and as a machinist, merchant and justice of the peace, those years wers spent. Finally he became a law student, was admitted to the Balti- more bar, and in law study, practice and public service the last half century of his life was passed. He was a man of ability and high character, having important relations with many of the interests of his city. In the annexation fight of 1 886, he made common cause with the annexationists, and was a powerful advocate of that cause. He was fearless in public action, and in the office he held stood only for that which was right, good and true. He descended from that strictest of sects, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, and those North of Ire- land ancestors were not more loyal in their faith than he.
James H. Smith was a son of Henry Smith, and a grand- son of Rev. Alexander Smith, Scotch-Irish by parentage, and by profession a Presbyterian minister, of County Donegal, Ireland. There, Henry Smith was born, and resided at the Manse until eighteen years of age, then coming to the United States and locating in Howard county, Maryland. There he learned the machinist's trade, later came to Woodberry, Balti- more county, becoming clerk, later general bookkeeper for the McVernon Manufacturing Company, continuing with that corporation until his death at the age of sixty-eight. He was an elder of the Presbyterian church, and a man highly respected. He married Sarah Ayler, born on the eastern shore of Maryland, who died in Baltimore, aged forty-five, daughter of Henry Ayler. They were the parents of three
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sons and a daughter : James H., of further mention; William O., who succeeded his father as general bookkeeper of the Mc- Vernon Manufacturing Company; Joseph M., a merchant of Baltimore, and Sarah E. Smith, deceased.
James H. Smith, son of Henry and Sarah (Ayler) Smith, was born in Baltimore, March 17, 1841, died in his native city, August 20, 1917. He was educated in the city public schools and Newell's Commercial Institute, completing the regular course at the last named institution at the age of sixteen. He then determined to learn the machinist's trade, and for five years he was apprentice and journeyman with Poole & Hunt, of Baltimore. He did not longer pursue that calling, but became a merchant in Woodberry, at the same time holding office of Justice of the Peace, which office he held for ten years. His experiences as justice turned his thoughts to the law as a profession, and finally he began a regular course of legal study under L. P. D. Newman. He continued a student until 1870, then was admitted to the Maryland bar, and began practice, opening an office at No. II East Lexington street. He developed strong qualities as a lawyer, and continued in practice until his death. For many years Mr. Smith was the legal adviser of Dr. David H. Carroll, of Woodberry, and associated with the doctor in much of his real estate dealings. He took an active part in securing the annexation to Baltimore of that portion of the city lying north of North avenue in 1886, and when the sub- ject was brought before the people for decision his voice was a potent one in favor thereof. He was a director of the Pro- vident Savings Bank, and had other important business in- terests.
A Democrat in politics, Mr. Smith first entered the public service in 1889, being in that year elected to represent the twenty-second ward in the first branch of the City Council.
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Three times he was re-elected, his entire service covering a continuous term of seven years. Three of those years he was chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and at all times an influential member. In 1893 he was elected in the second branch of the City Council, serving for two years in that body, and during the entire period was its president. In 1896 he was again elected from the twenty-second ward to the first branch of the City Council, again serving on the Committee of Ways and Means. He was also at one time County Commissioner ; President of the Baltimore Association for improving the condition of the poor; president of the commission for opening streets under Mayor Timanus, and comptroller of the city under Mayor Hayes. He was an elder of the Maryland Avenue Presbyterian Church, and a long time member of that congregation.
Mr. Smith married in Baltimore county, May 27, 1873, Frances R. Gibson, born in Harford county, Maryland, who survives him, daughter of James F. Gibson, a former mer- chant of Baltimore county. Two children: Emma B. and Franklin Howard Smith, also residents of Baltimore, survive their father.
DAVID HUTZLER
M ERCHANT, citizen, friend, showing in each capacity an exalted conception of duty, David Hutzler was a notable example of the right-thinking, far-seeing men who contribute largely to communal and municipal progress. It was characteristic of the solid quality of the business with which he was connected, Hutzler Brothers, that it should have been conducted for over half a century on the same spot where in 1858 it began. The business expanded of course, modern methods and inventions were adopted as they showed their value, but the foundations were laid broad and deep at the beginning and were adequate to carry the imposing structure erected thereon.
Early in his career, David Hutzler displayed his interest in public affairs and there were few movements for civic betterment, for the advancement of education, art, and music with which he was not intimately connected. Indeed, when a non-professional man was required for public service, his name perhaps rose oftenest in the mind of the citizens of Baltimore as the person best fitted for the place, both by rea- son of his ability and through his well-known, strong desire to be of service to his city and fellowmen; yet he resolutely refused political office, but was always willing to serve city or State on commission or committee for a stated purpose, and was connected with some of the most important movements instituted for the public good.
He was a notable figure in social life, and his friends and acquaintances were drawn from an unusually large field. In appearance he presented a striking and dignified figure, re- vealing to the observer at a glance a man devoted to the higher interests of men and affairs. He was affable and most
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considerate, though tenaciously maintaining the opinions for- med after mature deliberation. He held to high ideals, vigor and alertness, mental and physical, distinguished him, and although he exceeded the Psalmist's "three score years and ten" he never created the impression of an elderly man. On the contrary he maintained to the last a zest and enthusiasm for public problems, travel and literature. He was keenly alive to the trend of events, absorbed their meaning, and vig- orously championed the cause he approved.
The business of which David Hutzler was the executive head at the time of his death was founded in 1848 in a two- story building at the corner of Howard and Clay streets, Bal- timore, the site of the present magnificent building occupied by Hutzler Brothers, dry goods merchants. The firm name was originally M. Hutzler & Son, the father, Moses Hutzler, allowing his son Abram G. to use his name as he was a minor and could not obtain credit on account of his youth. With him was associated his brother, David Hutzler, then a lad of fifteen, who acted as clerk. The business prospered and until 1861 the brothers were together. Then Abram G. and an- other brother, Charles G. Hutzler, who had been in the job- bing business, joined forces and opened a wholesale notion business on Baltimore street. This left the youngest brother David in sole charge of the original store on Howard street, and so well did he manage and develop it that in 1884 the two elder brothers gave up their wholesale business in order that the three might devote their combined energies to the Howard street store which in 1874 had been enlarged to five times the original size. Adjoining property was bought and enlargement followed enlargement until in 1886 the present main building was erected, while the last annex was con- structed immediately after the great fire of 1904.
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In the course of half a century there were few changes in the firm and none save those caused by death. In 1907 Charles G. Hutzler died, after devoting his life to the up- building of the business. This left David and Abram G. sole owners of the business. Later Edwin B. and Louis S., sons of Charles G. Hutzler, Albert D., son of David Hutzler, and Henry Oppenheimer, his son-in-law, were admitted. With the death of David Hutzler in 1916, Abram G., the founder, was left as head of the business, which strictly speak- ing is not a department store, but has been maintained ac- cording to the intent of the founder as a high class dry goods store. Founded on a conservative basis it has ever been con- ducted in sympathy with the high ideals and principles taught by the father, Moses Hutzler, to his three sons. At the top of the capstone on the Howard Clay corner of the store build- ing, the face of his father is carved in stone by the express order of the son who thus testified his appreciation of his father's help and guidance. When, in 1908, the house cele- brated its fiftieth anniversary, so thoroughly had they won the good will and confidence of the city that the anniversary partook of the nature of a public occasion.
David Hutzler, youngest son of Moses and Caroline Hutzler, was born in Baltimore, June 13, 1843, and died in the city of his birth, January 21, 1915. From the age of fif- teen years he was connected with the business of which he was president at his death, Hutzler Brothers, and while there was the warmest feelings existing between the brothers that between the elder, Abram G., and the younger, David, was most remarkable. The boy David was first the elder brother's clerk, then his partner, then his ranking partner, and finally, after fifty-seven years closest intimacy, passed on leaving the elder of the brothers the last survivor. In addition to his
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presidency of Hutzler Brothers Company, David Hutzler was a director of the Merchants-Mechanics National Bank, the Eutaw Savings Bank and the Fidelity and Deposit Com- pany.
While as president of Hutzler Brothers his name was a household word in Baltimore, and he was a life-long and potent factor in the business world, his public spirit and thorough familiarity with all the stages and phases of Balti- more's development made him a most valuable counselor and helper in civic affairs, and several city administrations called upon him to aid in smoothing out intricate problems or in dealing with special emergencies. On the numerous occa- sions upon which he served the city and the State officially, as a member of various commisions and committees, he brought to his task a soundness of judgment and a resourse- fulness which materially aided in the solution of the problems under consideration. He was a constructive force in the true meaning of the term, and his value was nowhere more ap- parent than, after the great fire, on that splendid body of men who formed the Emergency Committee.
Mr. Hutzler was vice-president of the Baltimore Board of Trade and chairman of its committee on Municipal Affairs; committee chairman of the National Board of Trade; director of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association. After a defalcation was discovered which discredited city methods of accounting, the four principal trade boards of the city, the Board of Trade, the Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants & Manufacturers Association, and the Clearing House, formed a committee of municipal research for protection and elected David Hutzler chairman of that committee. After six months' work the committee gave to the city a fine system of accounting which was afterward accepted by the New Char- MD .- 19
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ter Commission of which Mr. Hutzler was a member, he being the only active merchant serving on that commission which was composed mostly of professional men. For four- teen years he represented the Baltimore Board of Trade on the National Board of Trade. In that body he took a deep interest in postal affairs, and in his effort to secure one cent postage framed a resolution which brought to light the fact that maga- zines paid but one cent per pound for the delivery that cost the government eight cents per pound. Mr. Hutzler showed that the profit of first class mail matter was 275%, but that profit disappeared by the loss on second class matter. He es- timated that loss at $50,000,000 annually. President Taft, in his special message to Congress, showed the loss to be $63,- 000,000, while the Postmaster General's report places it at $70,000,000. He was also chairman of the Parcels Post Com- mittee of the National board and labored to secure the passage of the Parcels Post law. Mr. Hutzler was also a member of the committee, active in recommending the establishment of the Department of Commerce and Labor as a part of the Na- tional Government, a department whose usefulness to the coun- try has been abundantly proven.
When the great fire of 1904 left Baltimore the gigantic task of rehabilitation, Mayor McLane sought for the best men to aid him in solving the difficult problems which followed each other in quick succession. One of the first to whom he turned was David Hutzler, whom he named a member of the State Special Relief Committee. Out of $158,000 placed to the credit of that committee but $23,000 was used, the remainder being returned to the state treasury. It is also notable that no monetary assistance was accepted from out-of-town, although the Trade League of Philadelphia invited Mr. Hutzler to draw upon them for $50,000. A similar public spirit prompt- ed him to become at the request of Sir William Osler the
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first treasurer of the Maryland Society for the Relief and Prevention of Tuberculosis. For twenty-seven years he was a director of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, also its president; a member of the National Conference of Charities and Cor- rection; the United Association for the Study and Preven- tion of Tuberculosis (a special committee of the International Tuberculosis Congress) ; life member of the National Red Cross Association ; the State Aids and Charities of Maryland ; and the Federal Charities of Baltimore. He was also a mem- ber of the executive committee of the Red Cross Association of Maryland, and at the time of the San Francisco fire served on the special committee appointed to render assistance.
At the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, he rep- resented Maryland, and in 1901 acted as a delegate to the Peace Conference between Great Britain and the United States held in Washington. In April, 1907, he represented Baltimore at the Peace Conference held in New York City. He was an ardent lover of music and one of the supporters of grand opera in the city. As a boy he aided in organizing the Harmony Circle, was the master of ceremonies when but a youth, and afterward served as its president, as he also served Mendelssohn Literary Association of which he was a charter member. He earnestly worked for and generously contributed to the support of Johns Hopkins University en- dowment fund, and for a similar fund for Goucher College ; interested himself in the Municipal Art Society, and the many organizations the object of which was to make Baltimore a better, more beautiful residential city. He was a member and an ex-president of the Phoenix Club, member of the Suburban and of the City Clubs, all of Baltimore, and of the City Club of New York City. In the Masonic order he was a past master of Arcana Lodge, No. 110, Free and Accepted Masons, having been master of that lodge several terms; and
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was past high priest of Adoniram Chapter, No. 21, Royal Arch Masons. For many years he was one of the active mem- bers of Hao Sinai Congregation, and in the closing passage of his address at the funeral of his parishioner, Dr. Ruhen- stein, of Hao Sinai Temple, said :
No man needs a eulogy whose life was so well spent as that of our lamented friend. Besides our sacred dead are beyond both our praise and our blame. They dwell where the Eternal abides and our human judgment avails not. If I speak of the good works of this truly exemplary man now gone to his reward it is an incentive for us, the living, who mourn him, to see in life a constant opportunity for service, a means of realizing the higher ideals. Like our lamented friend, let us endeavor to make our life a benediction.
So his useful life was passed, the foregoing being little more than an outline of his life and work and of the influence he exerted. His genial, generous disposition won him many personal friends, but as a loyal son of Baltimore the city claimed him. In his home the natural dignity of the man relaxed and there he was at his best. His life was well spent and it may be truly said of him that "the world is better for his having lived in it."
Mr. Hutzler married, February 25, 1874, Ella J. Gutman, daughter of Joel Gutman, of Baltimore. They were the par- ents of two sons and three daughters: Albert D., married Gretchen, daughter of Max Hochechild, of Baltimore; Joel Gutman David; Cora, married Henry Oppenheimer ; Theresa, since deceased, married Professor Jacob H. Hollander ; and Mabel.
WILLIAM SHEPARD BRYAN, Jr.
TO HAVE achieved eminence at the Baltimore bar argues
in itself a man of highest attainment, and no higher eu- logy of William S. Bryan, Jr. is possible than to state that he was one of the brightest legal lights of that bar and at one time attorney general of the State of Maryland. Brilliant, learned, he was a formidable, aggressive adversary, but honor- able in his legal controversies, holding sacred the highest ideals of the profession he honored. Keen and caustic in his wit, but lovable and warm-hearted, his nature a true gentle- man under every condition.
He was extremely independent in thought and action, conservative rather than radical, but despised vascillation or indecision. His mind was a storehouse of facts, legal prin- ciples, adjudicated cases, historical and classical allusions, upon which he drew freely. He also possessed a fund of illustrations which were neither historical nor classical, but always conveyed the idea he was seeking to illuminate. He was so positive in his own nature that he had no patience with lawyer or judge who, to use one of his own favorite illustra- tions, concluded that "two and two made about four." Few men in the State were more successful than he in the practice of their professions, and no man in the State had so wide an acquaintance. He knew men in every walk of life and his interest in the public welfare was keen and unremitting. He was adviser to the Democratic party of Maryland, and himself, a Democrat of the highest type, he fought for political hon- esty and integrity, hating the shams of pretense, judging men of his own party as well as the opposition, not by their own claims for preferment, but by their true merit to serve the people well in the office to which they aspired. He loved the excitement of a close political contest and was at his best when
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pleading with an audience of voters to support the principles and the candidates of his party. His wit and readiness at repartee charmed his friends and made him ever a most wel- come guest, and he was the most loyal of friends.
William Shepard Bryan, Jr., son of Judge William S. Bryan, of the Court of Appeals, was born in Baltimore in 1859, died in the city of his birth, April 3, 1914. His father, a native son of North Carolina, and a warm southern sympa- thizer, married Elizabeth Edmonson Hayward, of Talbot county, Maryland, and located in Baltimore, where he be- came an eminent member of the bar, and judge of the Court of Appeals. After leaving St. Michael's School, Reisterstown, the son attended Bethel Military Academy, at Farquier county, Virginia ; later entered the law school of the University of Virginia, having previously read law in his father's office, whence he was graduated. He returned to Baltimore, office, whence he was graduated. He returned to Baltimore, was admitted to the bar and began practice, and but a few years passed ere he had assumed an important position among the rising young lawyers of the city. During those first years he was at one time a partner with George R. Gaither. In 1891 he formed a partnership with Edward N. Rich, an old school chum, and for about eleven years he practiced in part- nership with A. deR. Sappington. He became one of the foremost lawyers of his day and could have become a judge, but he never desired to be, saying that he was not suited temperamentally for the bench.
Mr. Bryan was eminently fair in his conduct of law cases, this endearing him to his opponents in the face of the fact that he often lost his temper, saying or doing things that would ordinarily offend. At times he incurred criticism for seeming to be in contempt of court. One judge remarked upon one 'occasion that Mr. Bryan "was not in contempt of court be-
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