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 8
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1805; Samuel Evan, March 12, 1807; Julia, August 16, 1808; Harriet, March 20, 1811; Maria Russell, August 29, 1812; Charles, August 18, 1816.
Dr. John Chew Thomas, son of John Chew and Mary (Snowden) Thomas, was born September 22, 1803, at Fair- land, and entered the University of Pennsylvania in his fif- teenth year, graduating in 1821, before he was eighteen years old. He subsequently pursued the medical course of the same university, from which he received the degree of M.D. in April, 1824. While a student he was a member of the Philo- mathian Society, For some years after graduation he was in the service of the United States, as clerk, during the con- struction of the New Castle breakwater. Subsequently he settled in Baltimore, Maryland, and there practiced his pro- fession, with great success. He was a man of many social gifts, of considerable inventive genius and some artistic talents, painting quite well in oils. He died August 29, 1862. He married, March 2, 1848, Jane Lawrence, daughter of Thomas and Anna (Lawrence) Buckley, a member of the Society of Friends, afterward baptized and confirmed in the Protestant Episcopal church. Children : I. Lawrence Buckley, men- tioned below. 2. Julia, born March 9, 1850; married, October 14, 1879, James Valentine Wagner, former cashier of the National Marine Bank, of Baltimore, and United States Con- sul to Nicaragua; children : Effingham Buckley, Edgar and Julia T. 3. Walter Wood, born June 11, 1852; married Mary Ellicott, who died June 9, 1889.
Rev. Lawrence Buckley Thomas, eldest child of Dr. John Chew and Jane L. (Buckley) Thomas, was born Decem- ber 6, 1848, on Lombard street, Baltimore, Maryland, was baptized June 8, 1851, by Rev. H. V. D. Johns, D.D., pastor of an Episcopal church of that city. He was a student at the public schools of Baltimore and at Topping and Carey's
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academies, and became an active lay worker in Emmanuel Protestant Episcopal Church, of Baltimore. He was a clerk, assistant librarian at the Mercantile Library, and an an- tiquarian bookseller. On January 15, 1876, he was elected secretary and treasurer of the Baltimore Book Trade Asso- ciation, and in 1878-79 was librarian of Bishop Whitting- ham's Library. He entered the General Theological Semin- ary at New York, in September, 1879, and was graduated May 31, 1882, and ordained deacon by Bishop Horatio Potter, of New York, at St. John's Church in that city, June 4 fol- lowing. He was ordained to the priesthood, May 18, 1883, by Bishop John M. Clark, of Rhode Island, at Grace Church, Providence. On the following day he received from the General Theological Seminary of New York the degree of B.D. St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, conferred upon him the degree of D.D., June 20, 1894. In 1882, im- mediately after his ordination, he became minister at Pontiac, Rhode Island. There he established a public library in 1884, and began a building fund for a church. Subsequently he became assistant minister of the Church of the Redeemer at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Soon after, on April 10, 1885, he organized the parish of St. Mary, at Ardmore, Pennsyl- vania, gathered the congregation and built a church, becoming its first rector, May 1, 1887. During the summer of 1888 he was in temporary charge of Christ Church at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and under his auspices a fund was started which resulted in the erection of a town hospital there. On Sep- tember 1, 1888, he accepted a call to become rector of St. Stephen's Church, Beverly, New Jersey. Under his charge the church debt was paid off and an endownment for a parish building fund was begun. In the summer of 1892 he was in charge of St. Andrew's Parish, West Philadelphia, and on December I of that year became rector of Trinity Church,
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Antrim, Pennsylvania. He became senior curate of St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, October 1, 1893, and in November of the following year returned to Antrim, assuming also charge of St. Andrew's Church, Tioga. During the last fifteen years of his life he was in charge of a church in Nevis, West Indies, looking after both the temporal and spiritual welfare of the people, and was largely instrumental in the establishment of water works by the British government. He died, December 28, 1914, at the age of sixty-six years.
In speaking of Dr. Thomas, the Baltimore "Sun" said : "Born in Baltimore, Mr. Thomas spent much of his life else- where. He was a member of the old Thomas family of West River, Maryland, and was among the first eminent re- searchers in a genealogical line. Among his prominent works is the history of the Thomas and Allied families of Colonial times. The branches take in Snowdens, the Chews, Ellicotts, Careys and other names well known in Maryland." He was a member of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York, of the New York Shakespeare Society, of the Con- servative Club, Philadelphia, the Elmira Theological and Literary Society, a corresponding member of the Wisconsin Historical Society, elected in 1879 in recognition of his genealogical labors, and member of the Maryland Historical Society.
Dr. Thomas was married, October 11, 1882, at the Church of the Reformation, Brooklyn, New York, by Rev. D. V. M. Johnson, D.D., Mary Berry, youngest daughter of Thomas Farrell and Marion L. (Berry) McCobb, originally of Balti- more, Maryland, who died November 16, 1884, and is buried in St. John's Churchyard, Waverly, Maryland.
SNOWDEN FAMILY
F `ROM the coming of Richard Snowden to the province of Maryland, the Snowdens of Maryland, like those of Pennsylvania, have occupied high place in public life and have been extensive land owners. There seems to be no con- nection between the Pennsylvania and Maryland families, the former tracing to William Snowden, of Yorkshire, Eng- land, whose son, John Snowden, the American ancestor, owned land in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, as early as 1677, prior to the coming of William Penn.
Captain Richard Snowden, the first of the name in Mary- land, was commissioned officer of the province at the period when King William and Mary of England were represented here by Royal Governors, Lord Baltimore's power having been overthrown. In 1688 he was captain of a company of militia whose activities were against the Indians when up- risings amongst the unfriendly tribes endangered the lives of the inhabitants of the province. Captain Richard Snowden was of high social standing and influence in the colony, and family tradition claims that he was born in Wales and served as major in Oliver Cromwell's army.
Snowden arms-Argent on a fesse azure, between three escallops, gules ; three mullets azure, pierced of the first.
Crest-A peacock in his pride.
Motto-Dum spiro, spero.
The earliest records found relative to the first of the Snowdens in Maryland is in Anne Arundel County Court House, Annapolis, where it is recorded that: "January II, 1669, George Yates of Anne Arundel county, 'gent,' sold to Richard Snowden and Thomas Linthicombe of the same county, for 11,000 lbs. of tobacco a parcel of land called 'Iron
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Mine' in Anne Arundel county at the head of South River in said county on the west side of the south branch of the said river;" the records also show on June 8, 1675, Thomas Linthicombe sold his part of the "Iron Mine" to Richard Snowden, the extent of the tract being 500 acres. This was the beginning of the iron industry in the province of Mary- land, which grew to great proportions during the life of his grandson. Nothing further is found of him until 1681, when on August 13, he is mentioned in a report to Lord Baltimore's Council regarding the Indians, who then menaced the houses and plantations owned by him and Mr. Duvall. On February 26, 1685, a tract of land was granted by Lord Baltimore to Richard Snowden containing 1976 acres of land, which was named "Robin Hood Forest." It was situated on the forks of the Patuxent river, Anne Arundel county. Another tract of land called "Godwell," containing 805 acres, was purchased by Richard Snowden from William Parker on August 14, 1688, situated at the head of South river.
The first mention of Captain Snowden in the records by his military title was on October 9, 1695, when he was named as one of the commissioners "to adjust the accounts of John Duvall, late administrator of Henry Ridgely." A year later we find him mentioned in the Maryland archives as one of the military officers in Anne Arundel county, who signed an address to King William and Queen Mary of England. Al- though originally a member of the Society of Friends, Captain Snowden forsook for a time the teachings of his faith in accepting a military commission. Later his conscience so troubled him that he appeared before the West River Month- ly Meeting asking forgiveness, acknowledging his fault and requesting reinstatement in the Meeting 21st day, Ist month, 1704.
Captain Richard Snowden married Elizabeth Grosse,
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daughter of Roger Grosse, and sister of John Grosse, of Anne Arundel county, who, in his will, dated December 4, 1675, bequeathed to his sister, Elizabeth, wife of Richard Snowden, 400 acres of land on the Wye river, Talbot county, Maryland. Roger Grosse, an early official under Lord Baltimore, ap- peared in the province as early as 1652. He was one of the gentlemen justices and commissioners of peace for Anne Arundel county, being first named by Lord Baltimore's Coun- cil on July 12, 1658, and again in 1661-65.
Captain Richard Snowden died May 20, 1711. The record of his death on All Hallows Church Record, page 86, reads literally as follows: "May 20, 1711, was buried Rich- ard Snowden, the elder of the three of the name and family." Other entries regarding the Snowdens are in All Hallows Register, proving that some of the family must have been identified with this church. Captain Richard and Elizabeth (Grosse) Snowden had two sons, Captain Richard, Jr., and Samuel Snowden. His eldest son, Richard (2), by the law of primogeniture, inherited his large estates and personal property, the latter, according to the inventory, amounting to £2,020.
Captain Richard (2) Snowden, son of Captain Richard (1) and Elizabeth (Grosse) Snowden, is first mentioned in public records in connection with military affairs, July 22, 1695, as having signed a receipt for a barrel of gunpowder from one Michael Greenberry by the order of the governor. He also signed as a military officer the address to their Majes- ties, King William and Mary of England, as recorded in the Maryland archives under date of 1696. He built about the year 1690 the famous Birmingham Manor House, in which mansion for two centuries generations of the Snowden family entertained their friends, true Southern hospitality.
A description of this colonial mansion preserved in the
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family reads as follows: "Situated on the beautiful Patuxent River, in Anne Arundel county, Birmingham Manor House stood on a site overlooking the river on one side and a lordly estate of rolling fields and wooded park on the other side. Modelled after the old English half-shingled brick man- sions, it was quaintly interesting with its deep recessed win- dows reaching to the second floor." This ancestral seat was destroyed by fire, August 20, 1891. To his already large holdings, Captain Richard (2) Snowden added another estate of one thousand acres called "Snowden's Manor," receiving a grant from Lord Baltimore, May 24, 1715, his property in all aggregating nearly thirty thousand acres. There is no record of the death of Captain Richard Snowden, Jr., and he seems to have left no will.
He married, about 1709, Mary Linthicum, daughter of Thomas Linthicum. They are known to have had two sons, Thomas and Richard Snowden (3), the former died young, the latter survived and became sole possessor of his father's and grandfather's vast estates.
Richard (3) Snowden, son of Captain Richard (2) and Mary (Linthicum) Snowden, besides inheriting the large estates of his father, received additional grants from Lord Baltimore, which increased his holdings to such an extent that he became one of the greatest landed proprietors in Maryland, exceeded only by the Carrolls of Carrollton. The colonial records shows him to have owned twenty-six thousand acres of the finest land on the Western Shore, including Snowden's Manor, Snowden's Manor Enlarged, New Birmingham, Montpelier, Snowden's Hall, Fairland, Oakland, Avondale, Woodland Hill, Alnwick, Elmwood, Brightwood, Maple Grove, and other tracts. The iron industry inaugurated by his grandfather on the land granted him as "Iron Mine" prior to the year 1700, Richard Snowden continued. He formed a
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company in 1726 called the Patuxent Iron Works Company (among the first ever operated in Maryland), Edmund Jen- nings, Judge and Register of the Land Office, Annapolis, be- coming one of the chief stockholders, Richard Snowden be- ing the largest, and at the time of his death he was sole owner of the works.
Richard (3) Snowden married (first) May 19, 1709, Elizabeth Coale, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Spar- row) Coale, who died about 1716. Children: 1. Deborah, married, June 21, 1725, James, son of Roger and Eliza (Hutchins) Brooke. 2. Eliza, married, April, 1727, John, son of Samuel and Mary (Hutchins) Thomas. 3. Mary, born in 1712, married, August 11, 1730, Samuel, son of Samuel and Mary (Hutchins) Thomas. Richard (3) Snowden married (second) December 19, 1717, Elizabeth, who died 1775, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Hutchins) Thomas. Samuel Thomas was a minister of the Society of Friends and son of Judge and High Commissioner Philip Thomas, settled in the province of Maryland in 1651. Children: 4. Richard, of Prince George's county, Maryland, born in 1719-20, died without issue, March 18, 1753; he married, before October 30, 1748, Elizabeth, daughter of John and Miriam Crowley, of Prince George's county. 5. Thomas, of Prince George's county, born in 1722, died in 1750-51 ; he married, before 1744, Mary, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Sprigg) Wright, of Prince George's county. 6. Ann, married Henry Wright Crabb. 7. Margaret, married John Contee. 8. Sam- uel, see forward. 9. Elizabeth, married Joseph Cowman. 10. John, married Rachel, daughter of Richard Hopkins.
Samuel Snowden, third son and fifth child of Richard (3) and Elizabeth (Thomas) Snowden, was born November 2, 1727. He inherited a large estate from his father, including six thousand acres in Anne Arundel county and Prince
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George's county, as well as a third of Richard Snowden's great iron works, making him one of the richest men of his day. He attained considerable influence in the State, and in the stirring times that preceded the Revolution he served on the Committee of Safety (in 1774). He married his cousin, Elizabeth, who died January 30, 1790, daughter of Philip and Ann (Chew) Thomas, of "Lebanon," West River. He died June 27, 1801, leaving his vast acreage to be divided among his children: 1. Richard, married, August 2, 1782, Hannah Moore, daughter of William and Rachel (Orrick) Hopkins. 2. Ann, married, December 23, 1774, Richard, son of Gerard and Mary (Hall) Hopkins. 3. Elizabeth, born 1758, died August 25, 1793. 4. Philip, see forward. 5. Mary, died August 15, 1834; married, February 3, 1786, Joseph, son of John and Sarah (Hopkins) Cowman. 6. Samuel, born in 1766, died May 26, 1823; married, Decem- ber 1, 1796, Elizabeth, daughter of John Cowman. 7. Hen- rietta, married, October 14, 1804, Gerard, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Howell) Hopkins. 8. Sarah, married, Novem- ber 24, 1769, Elisha Hopkins, M.D., son of Gerard and Margaret (Johns) Hopkins. 9. John, born in 1774, died January 26, 1790.
Philip Snowden, son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Thomas) Snowden, was born in Prince George's county, Maryland, about 1760. He inherited from his father an estate in Anne Arundel county called "Duvall's Delight," and like his ances- tors he was a member of the Society of Friends. He mar- ried, December 1, 1791, Patience, born November 5, 1771, died October 16, 1822, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Howell) Hopkins. She was also a member of the Society of Friends. Children: I. Elizabeth, born October 8, 1792, died November 7, 1795. 2. Samuel, see forward. 3. Mary Ann, born May 28, 1796, died August 10, 1824. 4. Joseph
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Hopkins, born April 26, 1798, died October 14, 1801. 5. Richard, born March 19, 1800, married, June 17, 1829, Mary, daughter of Isaac and Letitia West. 6. Elizabeth, born May 13, 1802, died April 24, 1804. 7. Philip Thomas, born June 26, 1803. 8. Caroline, born January 4, 1807. 9. John P., born February 25, 1809, died August 20, 1819. 10. James, born October 6, 1811. II. Isaac, born September 9, 1813. 12. William, born May 20, 1815.
Samuel Philip Snowden, son of Philip and Patience (Hopkins) Snowden, was born January 13, 1794, at Indian Spring, Maryland. He married in Anne Arundel county, January 18, 1822, Mary Richardson, daughter of John T. and Jemima (Sheckells) Richardson. Children: 1. John Thomas, for a number of years clerk in Supreme Court. 2. Marcellus P., born June 16, 1824. 3. Richard Hopkins, see forward. 4. Philip M., born June 14, 1831, sheriff of Balti- more City in 1876; married, November 18, 1851, Sallie E. Knighton; children: i. Florence May, born October 22, 1856, married, April 14, 1880, Frank Ehlen. ii. Ella, born in October, 1859; married Henry Norment. 5. Samuel, born October 13, 1833, died November 9, 1894; married, May 14, 1863, S. Emma Hoff; children: 1. Corinne Adelaide, born in March, 1864. ii. Mary Ida, born in June, 1865. iii. Samuel Guy, born in September, 1868. iv. Margaret Eliza- beth, born in August, 1875.
Richard Hopkins Snowden, third son of Samuel Philip and Mary (Richardson) Snowden, was born November 19, 1827. He was a prominent and successful member of the legal profession. True to the faith of his forefathers he re- mained a member of the Baltimore Friends Meeting. He married, January 18, 1853, Martha A. Sells, of Columbus, Ohio. He spent all his active life in the city of Baltimore, where he became a highly respected and influential citizen.
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He died December 15, 1877. Martha A. (Sells) Snowden was a daughter of Ephraim Sells, born near Columbus, Ohio, son of William Henry and Elizabeth ( Ebbey) Sells, grandson of Ludwick and Catherine (Deardorff) Sells, and great- grandson of John Sells, who came from Holland to Pennsyl- vania in 1723. Ludwick Sells served in the Revolutionary army and William Henry Sells in the War of 1812. Chil- dren of Richard Hopkins and Martha A. (Sells) Snowden : I. Wilbur Lee, born December 7, 1854, married in 1875, Mary Reilly ; children : i. Francis R., born October 4, 1876. ii. Mattie Sells, born June 26, 1877, died August 19, 1878. 2. Annie Richardson, see forward. 3. Kate, born December 27, 1857. 4. Harris, born September 16, 1860. 5. Louis, twin of Harris. 6. Richard Hopkins, born May 8, 1864. 7. Ray Cooper, born July 16, 1870.
Annie Richardson Snowden, daughter of Richard Hop- kins and Martha A. (Sells) Snowden, was born May 25, 1856. She married, April 4, 1877, Charles M. Lanahan, a promi- nent merchant and banker of Baltimore and son of William and Mary (Jackson) Lanahan. Charles M. Lanahan re- ceived his education in the schools of Baltimore and at Ches- ter Military Academy, Chester, Pennsylvania. Shortly after graduation from the latter institution he became associated with his brothers, William Lanahan, Jr., and Samuel J., in the business founded many years before by their father. In- heriting the progressive ideas that brought wealth and fame to his father, he largely increased the scope of the firm's business. As a business man he was noted for his aptitude in grappling with details and for his accurate and keen per- ception, but his strongest points, perhaps, were his executive ability, his power to analyze any business proposition and his fertility of resources. He was a tireless worker, a man of strong and steady purposes, rare judgment, and those admir-
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able qualities which have given high character to the com- mercial life of Baltimore. Quick and decisive in his methods he was keenly alive to any proposition and its possibilities, and found that pleasure in the solution of a difficult business problem without which there can be no real success. His death, which occurred February 7, 1901, was keenly felt by all who knew him, and was an irreparable loss to the business world of Baltimore. Children: 1. Mary Sells, born June 4, 1878; married, January 6, 1904, Charles Warren Leland, son of Warren and Mary (Cobb) Leland; children : Helen May, born May 29, 1905, died January 18, 1907. 2. Helen Snow- den, born February 9, 1880; married, October 21, 1903, Wil- son Miles Cary, son of John Brune and Frances (Daniels) Cary ; children : Anne Snowden, born July 26, 1904, and Wil- son Miles, born January 22, 1906. 3. Josephine Reeder, born August 20, 1882; married, June 10, 1903, James Clarke Dulany, son of James Clarke and Caroline (Dickey) Dulany; one child: Josephine Clarke, born January 23, 1906. 4. Adelaide Daniels, born May 30, 1885; married, November 15, 1905, Henry Duranquet Brennan, son of Thomas and Catherine Brennan; children: Catherine, born October 15, 1906; Josephine, born November 6, 1907; Margaret, born December 19, 1908; Anne Snowden, born September 12, 1915. 5. Charles M., born January 18, 1894.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
OR, LENOX AND "N FOUNDATIONS
1
Michael Jenkins.
MICHAEL JENKINS
C° ONSPICUOUS in his civic virtues, deeply interested in any enterprise affecting the moral, material or civic improvements of Baltimore, generous in his contributions and benefactions, yet most unostentatious, Michael Jenkins did not need the prestige of his high position in the business world to endear him to his fellow-men.
Although a leader financially, and possessed of a large fortune, accumulated through wise investment, and far- sighted business judgment, he was never a lover of money for the sake of possession, but valued his wealth for the op- portunity it gave him to help his fellow-men, and to aid the cause of christianity, education, philanthropy and charity. Although he was ranked among the great "Captains of Indus- try" he was a constructive captain, not a wrecker; a builder, not a destroyer. He dealt in a big broad way, was scrupul- ously just, and never took a business advantage of anyone. Nothing was so repugnant to his nature as the thought of wrecking a property to secure control of it, or for driving a man to the wall for profit to himself. His theory of busi- ness was that any transaction could be carried through on terms absolutely fair to all concerned, and would not lend his aid to any transaction requiring a departure from that theory, but subordinated business to equity, his personal rela- tions and his friendships.
Mr. Jenkins walked in the footsteps of his honored father, his public and official life marked by a high sense of justice, commercial honor and integrity. His public services were many. His great activity in the reconstruction of Baltimore after the fire of 1904 was one of them, and to him, primarily, belongs the credit of the city's acquisition of a large part of its present water front property under favorable conditions,
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for when litigation threatened to delay indefinitely the pur- chase of the property, he avoided the clashes between rival property interests by purchasing the front needed for piers, and deeded it to the city at the price paid. Difficult indeed would it be to enumerate all the material benefits which have accrued to Baltimore through the life and service of Mr. Jenkins; difficult to put into words the power of his example, and the force of his inspiration in leading others to emulate that example. For half a century, Michael Jenkins and his father, Thomas C. Jenkins, were closely associated in the management of the Baltimore Safe Deposit and Trust Com- pany, and with the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company, both institutions potent in the upbuilding of Balti- more.
The charities of Mr. Jenkins were unbounded, but he dispensed without ostentation, trying not to let his left hand know what his right hand was doing. They could not, how- ever, be concealed, his reputation for generosity becoming widespread. Appeals were made to him from all quarters without distinction of race or religion. His desk, in the office of the Safe Deposit and Trust Company was often stacked with petitions for relief, which, with great patience and good humor, he would investigate, assistance being granted to those found deserving.
Mr. Jenkins was a devoted member of the Catholic church, and a warm personal friend of Cardinal Gibbons, who relied implicitly upon the judgment of his friend, the financier, when any sum of appreciable size was to be in- vested for church institutions. No one will ever know the great number of gifts that Mr. Jenkins made through the Cardinal, and other clergy of the arch-diocese, to charity. Practically every charitable institution, orphanage, and hos- pital, under the patronage of the church, enjoyed his bene-
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