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 II > Part 16
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
549
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
by many as his individual idea, his executive ability and sound judgment being prominent factors in its success. As president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, to which office he was elected in 1846, he succeeded William G. Harrison, served for a part of two years, and was succeeded by John W. Garrett. During his term of office the road passed through the most troublous period of its existence, and the riots at Mount Clare occurred in 1857. The presence of mind and personal courage of Mr. Brooks wielded a great influence in quelling the disturbance, his coolness and calm statement of facts having the effect he intended them to produce. His ex- pressed idea of the future business life of the city was so closely connected with the existence of this railroad, that a destruction of the one would mean ruin to the other, and in association with Johns Hopkins, he did his utmost to prevent this alarming state of affairs from coming to pass.
During his earlier years he served several terms as a member of the City Council, but although frequently proffered public office in later years, he consistently refused these honors, deciding that he was more usefully employed in devoting his energies to fostering the financial and commercial welfare of the city. He was one of the earliest and most intimate friends of George Peabody, and was named by the latter as one of the twenty-five original trustees of the Peabody Institute. Mr. Brooks never permitted his private interests to stand in the way of measures which might benefit the community at large, and the opinion held of his business sagacity and sound judg- ment was so great, that in matters of dispute among his friends and neighbors he was considered a sort of oracle, who must of necessity be able to give the advice suitable to any case. With young men just beginning a mercantile career this was espe- cially the case, and the advice he gave them was always based on sound principles. He ascribed his success largely to the
550
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
fact that he would never take a hazardous risk, nor depend upon speculation to increase his gains. The numerous financial and commercial crises which occurred while he was actively engaged in business never seriously affected his business in- terests, for the reason that they all rested on a solid founda- tion, and while firms went to the wall all around him, none of the concerns with which his name was in the slightest degree affiliated, ever surrendered to any of these panics.
Mr. Brooks married (first) 1820, Marilla Phelps, born 1798, died 1861, daughter of Lynde and Lorena (Gaylord) Phelps, of Burlington, Connecticut, and granddaughter of Lieutenant Aaron Gaylord, who fell at the Massacre of Wyo- ming, 1778; his daughter, then about one and one-half years of age, fled with her mother and two other children through eight hundred miles of almost trackless forest, finally reaching her home in Connecticut in safety. The children of this mar- riage were: Walter Booth, Henry, Phelps, Thorndyke, John Chauncey, Franklin Lynde, Albert Jennings. Mr. Brooks married (second) Mrs. Mary (Phelps) Marks, whose first husband was Almeron Marks. She had no children by this marriage.
The ripe and varied experience of Mr. Brooks, and his careful observation, rendered his counsel of the highest value on all occasions, and he was ever ready to freely impart the knowledge he had gained in his long years of activity to those who solicited it. Charitably inclined by nature, when the means of conferring benefits on suffering humanity were placed at his disposition by the success of his enterprises, he made a free use of them in this direction, but his benefactions were always bestowed in an unassuming and unostentatious manner, and it was not until after his death that the full extent of them became apparent. His influence was felt by the city
551
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
for good while he was still living, and the impression is one which will continue to be felt for many years to come. His death occurred at his residence in Eutaw Place, Baltimore, Maryland, May 18, 1880, at the venerable age of eighty-six years.
JOHN THOMAS WILLIAMS
PRIOR to the year 1820, John and Mary (Thomas)
Williams came from near Penzance, a seaport of Corn- wall, in England, to Baltimore, Maryland, where both died a few years after their arrival. Fortune had not been kind to the young couple, and their infant son, John Thomas Williams, was left to the care of strangers with scanty funds, and so frail in health that physicians and friends agreed in predicting his early death. But they were false prophets, and, in spite of all difficulties which confronted him, won his way to honorable position in the business world, and was known as a man widely read and highly cultured. His early life, begun under such gloomy conditions, brightened with the years, and not only business success but the love of wife and children came to him, with the respect and confidence of many friends. Years of European travel added to the intellectual polish he acquired, and in peace, contentment, and ease, his life passed into lengthened shadows, and in his eighty-fifth year was called to his home of Eternal Rest.
John Thomas Williams, son of John and Mary (Thomas) Williams, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, August 20, 1820, and died in York, Pennsylvania, in January, 1905. His early educational advantages were limited, his health so frail that school attendance was long impossible, but he never lost an opportunity to improve his mind, and when his health im- proved sought every means to gain knowledge. When he grew older he became a member of Baltimore Lyceum, a club which met in the evening for educational purposes, de- bates being frequent, the subjects, scientific and current events. He was also an extensive reader, and became an exceedingly well-informed man, always interested in scien- tific subjects.
John Williams
553
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
In early life Mr. Williams was engaged in various pur- suits, and for a number of years was in the employ of the Methodist Book concern. When photography was being in- troduced it appealed to his artistic tendencies, and he became a student of art, finally becoming one of the first photog- raphers of the city. A few years after his marriage, in 1847, Mr. Williams spent a summer vacation at York, Pennsyl- vania, and, believing that town offered a good opportunity for a photographer, he opened a studio there, one of the very first to start in business outside of the large cities. He liked York, his studio became popular, and he made that city his per- manent home.
As the years brought him opportunity, Mr. Williams spent several years in European and American travel, dispos- ing of his business and traveling care free. He became well acquainted with the Continent of Europe, and with the scenic grandeur of his own country; although, then, travel was not a matter of fast trains and Pullman accommodations. After his period of travel was ended, Mr. Williams became ad- juster for a fire insurance company, and in that position spent about thirty years, continuing in active business until passing into the ranks of octogenarians, being past his eightieth birth- day when he retired. Mr. Williams, although not a resident of Baltimore during the last half century of his life, never surrendered his interest in the city of his birth, but was a frequent visitor, and continued both business and social rela- tions with many of its citizens as long as he lived.
In the year 1847, Mr. Williams married Cecelia Du- shane, who preceded him to the spirit land, as did their two sons. Mrs. Williams was a daughter of Valentine and Eliza- beth (Sendorf) Dushane, her father of Huguenot ancestry, the Dushanes coming to America in the seventeenth century with other French refugees, settling in Delaware. Valentine
554
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
Dushane, father of Mrs. Williams, was one of a family of brothers who came to Baltimore, was a builder by occupation, and, during the War of 1812, was a sergeant in Captain Deem's Company, Fifty-first Regiment, serving in defense of Balti- more. Mr. Williams and his wife attended old St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church, on Liberty street, a religious congregation, which, in its day, was an important factor in the religious and social life of Baltimore. Miss Nellie C. Williams, of Baltimore, survives her mother, father and brothers, the last of her line.
THOMAS J. SHRYOCK
TI 'HE great fraternity organized under the walls of the glori- ous temple which its founders had helped to rear and which, during the Middle Ages, roamed over Europe in bands, building the magnificent cathedrals which are to-day num- bered among the architectural wonders of the world, has ever included among its members the greatest of earth, kings and nobles having become candidates for initiation as the fraternity acquired proportions and influence which placed it in the front rank of the powers of Christendom. In our own land its importance dates from an early period, many of those most eminent in our history having been enrolled among its mem- bers, the names of Washington ever standing highest. In the present century none exercised greater influence in the coun- cils of the order than did General Thomas J. Shryock, former State Treasurer of Maryland and one of the foremost Masons of the United States.
The family of the Shryocks is of Prussian origin and was transplanted to this country by two brothers who immigrated before the Revolutionary War. One of these, Henry Shryock, great-grandfather of General Shryock, served in the Conti- nental Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the Second Battalion, Maryland Infantry. He was later one of the members from Maryland at the convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States. He appears to have subsequently removed to Virginia, his son Jacob having been a native of that State.
Henry S. Shryock, son of Jacob Shryock, and father of General Shryock, was born in Virginia, and about 1840 came to Baltimore, where he engaged in the manufacture of furni- ture until about 1875, from which time until his death he lived in retirement. He was prominently connected with the bank-
556
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
ing interests of the city, was president of the Third National Bank and helped to organize the Safe Deposit and Trust Com- pany as well as the First National Bank. Notwithstanding the fact that his family were slave-holders, he was one of the orig- inal Republicans and Lincoln men of this section and cast his first presidential vote for John C. Fremont. He was for many years a member of the Baptist church. He married Ann Ophelia, daughter of Thomas Shields, a successful merchant of Virginia. Mr. Shields was of Irish descent, and was a member of Brooke Lodge, No. 147, Free and Accepted Masons, of Alexandria, Virginia, being also a Knight Tem- plar. A fine portrait of Mr. Shields now hangs in the grand master's room in the Temple in Baltimore.
It is interesting to note that the Masonic affiliations of General Shryock were inherited. In addition to this record of his maternal grandfather a little incident of his mother's childhood constitutes a peculiar and touching link between himself and the ancient order of which he was so distinguished a member. When in 1824 Lafayette, then the guest of the Nation, visited Alexandria, Mrs. Shryock, at that time a little girl, was chosen to recite a childish welcome to the French hero, the occasion being a Masonic parade of the brethren of Alexandria, Washington Lodge, No. 22, of which Washing- ton had been master. Often in after life, when referring to the subject, Mrs. Shryock urged her sons to become Masons, a wish that she lived to see fulfilled. She was the mother of eleven children, seven of whom grew to maturity, among them two sons: William H., and Thomas Jacob, mentioned below. The former succeeded his father as president of the Third National Bank, resigning and retiring in 1894. Henry S. Shryock died in 1881, and the following year his wife also passed away. Mr. Shryock was a man of strict probity and great moral courage, as was proved by his adherence to the
557
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
cause of the Federal Government at a time when such fidelity was, in Maryland, a severe test of character. His name is enrolled in the list of those true patriots who at great cost to themselves saved Maryland to the Union.
Thomas Jacob Shryock, son of Henry S. and Ann Ophelia (Shields) Shryock, was born February 27, 1851, in Baltimore. He received his education in the public schools and at the Light Street Institute. At the age of sixteen he began his business career by engaging in the lumber trade, in which, shortly after, he formed a partnership with his older brother, William H. Shryock, under the firm name of W. H. Shryock & Company, their place of business being situated at the corner of Union dock and Eastern avenue. At the age of twenty-one Thomas Jacob Shryock became the sole pro- prietor and conducted the business alone until 1880, when he became a wholesale lumber dealer, taking as a partner George F. M. Houck, the firm being known as Thomas J. Shryock & Company. General Shryock proved himself to be, as a busi- ness man, what some one has called a "conservative progres- sive," constantly advancing, but always first making sure of his ground. In 1880 he built the Shryock wharf, and in 1885 started a branch wholesale lumber business in Washington, District of Columbia. In 1880 he became interested in the St. Lawrence Broom & Manufacturing Company, at Ronce- verte, West Virginia, and subsequently became its president. Over one hundred thousand acres of white pine lands are owned by this company and twenty-five million feet of white pine lumber is annually manufactured by them.
General Shryock was always a very active Republican, but never allowed his name to go before a convention until prevailed upon to become a candidate for the office of State Treasurer, and he had the honor of being the first Republican ever elected to that office in the State of Maryland. The duties
558
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
it involved were discharged by him with distinguished ability, his masterly grasp of important points showing him to be a man of large mentality. The financial and commercial con- cerns, the educational, political, charitable and religious in- terests which form the chief features of the life of every city, have all profited by his support and co-operation. He was a member of the board of public works of Maryland, and was vice-president of the State Insane Asylum and the Mary- land House of Correction to the time of his death. From 1896 he was connected with the Maryland Agricultural Col- lege. For four years he served as first lieutenant in the Mary- land National Guard, and during that time took part in the railroad riots of 1877. Governor Lloyd Lowndes appointed him chief of staff with the rank of brigadier-general, and this position he held for four years.
General Shryock married (first) in Baltimore, Maria Mann, and five children were born to them. While still almost infants they were deprived by death of their mother, and in 1887 General Shryock married (sceond) Catherine B. Miller, of Syracuse, New York, becoming by this union the father of three children.
While he was an alert and enterprising man, wielding a wide influence, he did not believe in concentration of effort on business affairs to the exclusion of other interests, but had just appreciation of the social amenities of life. His many admirable qualities of head and heart drew around him in private as well as in public life a large and influential circle of friends whose best wishes in his enterprises he always had and who counted his friendship one of their choicest privileges. He was a man of attractive personal presence, tall and robust, erect and dignified in bearing, with a strong and kindly face and manners invariably courteous and agreeable. Noted for his beneficence and public spirit, his generosity kept pace
559
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
with his wealth and often he proved himself to be a friend in need. He traveled somewhat extensively, having made many trips abroad, visiting places of importance and interest in all parts of Europe and the Far East.
General Shryock was made a Mason in Waverly Lodge, No. 152, in 1874, and two years later was elected master, serv- ing two terms and greatly advancing the prosperity of the lodge. After a service as grand inspector he was elected junior grand warden of the Grand Lodge in 1879, senior grand warden in 1880, deputy grand master in 1884, and grand mas- ter in 1885, being the youngest, with the exception of Brothers Webb and Howard, who ever occupied the Grand East in Maryland. He was active in other branches of Masonry, was past high priest of Druid Chapter, past eminent commander of Beauseant Commandery and past illustrious grand master of the Grand Council, Royal and Select Masters of the State, also past grand treasurer of the Grand Chapter. He received the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in Albert Pike Lodge of Perfection, Meredith Chapter, Rose Croix, and Maryland Preceptory, and at the session of the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction held at Wash- ington in 1888, the thirty-third degree as honorary sovereign inspector general. As grand master, General Shryock was the author of great reforms in the work throughout the State, insisting upon absolute uniformity and proficiency among the officers, enforcing rigid examinations and in various ways in- fusing new life into Masonry in the State of Maryland. On June 6, 1911, he laid the cornerstone of the new Temple at Cumberland, and on February 22, of the same year, was elected president of the George Washington Masonic Memorial Association.
In November, 1910, the beautiful Masonic Temple on North Charles street was the scene of the unveiling of a large
560
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
bronze tablet bearing the portrait of General Shryock, the occasion being memorable as marking the twenty-fifth anni- versary of General Shryock's tenure of office as grand master, a longer term, according to authorities on the subject, than any other in the annals of the fraternity except that of the late King Edward. The portrait, which was modeled by Hans Schuler, represents General Shryock in profile, seated at a table upon which are displayed various Masonic emblems. In his left hand is held the half-unrolled plan for the new Temple, the reconstruction of which, on its unusual scale of beauty and magnificence, after the old one was destroyed by fire several years ago, is largely attributed to the untiring and devoted efforts of the grand master. Mr. Schuler also de- signed a superb silver loving cup, the gift of the Masons of the State generally, and a portrait of General Shryock for a medal struck in his honor and executed in bronze. The tablet bears the following inscription :
A tribute of appreciation, respect and brotherly love from the fraternity to commemorate the close of the twenty-fifth successive year of devoted labor in behalf of the craft as its Grand Master.
-
These words touched a responsive chord, not only in the heart of every Mason, but also in that of every Marylander, the loyal sons of the Old Line State sending up from all her hills and valleys a greeting of "appreciation, respect and brotherly love" to Thomas Jacob Shryock, the man whom all delighted to honor. The death of General Shryock took place February 3, 1918, and to others is left the duty of guarding the interests of the ancient order of which he was a valuable member and to watch over the welfare and advancement of his beloved native city and State.
JOHN H. B. LATROBE
IN passing in review the record of the life of John H. B. Latrobe, it seems almost incredible that one man should have been gifted with excellence in so many and so widely- diversified directions, and have succeeded in accomplishing so much. It is one of the very rare exceptions to be met with in this world.
John H. B. Latrobe, son of Benjamin H. and Mary Elizabeth (Hazlehurst) Latrobe, was born in Philadelphia, May 4, 1803, and died at his home in Baltimore, Maryland, September 11, 1891. For a time the family resided in Wash- ington, where his school education was commenced, and he then attended Georgetown College and the school con- ducted by Mr. Carnahan, who subsequently became presi- dent of Princeton College. Later young Latrobe became a student at St. Mary's College, where he remained until his appointment to a cadetship at West Point, from which he resigned in 1821, after the death of his father. General Thayer, who was the superintendent at West Point while John H. B. Latrobe was there, wrote to him in 1864, as follows :
Forty-two years have not effaced from my memory the regret and dis- appointment I felt when, near the close of 1821, your resignation was handed me, for I had counted on you as a future officer of engineers. You were then at the head of your class and without a rival. Had you waited a few months before resigning, you would have been the recipient of the highest honor and prize the academy and government could bestow as a reward for distinguished scholarship and merit.
The death of his father, however, had made this resigna- tion a necessity, and upon the return of his mother with the younger children to Baltimore, young Latrobe entered the law office of his father's friend, General Robert Goodloe Harper. He was admitted to the bar in 1825; but as he was without MD .- 38
562
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
great personal influence, his acquisition of a practice was necessarily a matter of time, and in the meantime he set about other ways of increasing his income. Gifted as an artist and a writer, he called these arts into practical use. His yearly con- tribution to the "Atlantic Souvenir" was a novelette; for San- derson's "Biographies of the Signers of the Declaration of In- dependence" he wrote the life of Charles Carroll, of Carroll- ton ; "The Picture of Baltimore," another product of his facile pen, was illustrated with outline drawings of the public build- ings ; in "Lucas' Progressive Drawing Book" he furnished both plates and letterpress ; he illustrated "McKenny's Tour to the Lakes." Before he was admitted to the bar he had already commenced "Latrobe's Justices' Practices," which when fin- ished went through a number of editions, Mr. Latrobe revis- ing the eighth edition himself in 1889, when he was eighty-six years of age. As a poet his lines were graceful and not without considerable merit. His interest in military affairs was an active one for some years after his return to the city of Balti- more, and he served as an aide to General Harper, at that time in command of the Third Division, Maryland Militia. In this connection he had an important post to fill in the re- ception to General Lafayette in 1824, and at various times was in command of the Chasseurs of Lafayette and the First Balti- more Sharpshooters, and while on a visit to Philadelphia was captain of the First Baltimore Light Infantry.
Mr. Latrobe was the means of organizing what was ulti- mately known as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanical Arts, the first exhibition being held in the con- cert hall in South Charles street, which was used as a lecture room until more convenient quarters were secured in the Athenaeum building. It was organized originally, September 5, 1824, by John H. B. Latrobe and several others, and destroyed by fire, February 7, 1835. When it was reorganized,
563
GENEALOGICAL AND MEMORIAL
December 1, 1847, Mr. Latrobe was selected to deliver the opening address, and was connected with it for many years. While still engaged with his legal studies, he delivered a course of lectures on history and geography at the Apprentices' Library. In the meantime, the skill with which he had con- ducted such cases as were entrusted to him had not remained unobserved. In 1828 he was employed by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company to secure the right of way from Point of Rocks to Williamsport, and from that time onward was connected with the railroad company as its counsel. He was appointed counsel for the foreign creditors of Maryland in 1841, and it is due to the measures which he originated that the payment of interest on the debt of the State was resumed. President Taylor appointed him one of the "Visitors" to West Point in 1849, and his colleagues chose him as president of the board. He visited Europe several times, and while there in 1857, as counsel for the firm of Winans, Harrison & Winans, the Russian contractors, he conducted their affairs so success- fully that he was given what was at that time considered an enormous fee, $60,000, and was retained by this firm as their special counsel.
Mr. Latrobe was one of the founders of the American Colonization Society, prepared the first map of the colony in Africa from the descriptions of an agent of the society, and in association with General Harper bestowed upon the rivers and settlements the names by which they are known at the present time. He was instrumental in securing an appropria- tion of $200,000 from the State to be utilized in the transporta- tion of emigrants from Maryland, and the constitution and ordinance for the temporary government of the Maryland colony in Liberia, at Cape Palmas, were his work. It was due to his activity in this connection that in 1853, while president of the Maryland State Colonization Society, he was elected
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.