History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc, Part 69

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344

USA > Maryland > Baltimore County > Baltimore City > History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc > Part 69

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

various places of honor in the party, being a member of the Legislature, of the State Democratic Convention of 1864, and was a delegate to the National Democratic Con- ventions of 1864 and 1872. As an eloquent public speaker his services have been fre- quently in request at home and in other States. His appointment as Second As- sistant Postmaster General has, therefore, been well earned, and to Maryland it is es- pecially welcome, as it is intimately con- nected with that branch of the service which concerns the transmission of the mails. We have no doubt that Mr. Knott will bring to the work that is before him the same zeal and thoroughness for which he was dis- tinguished as State's Attorney, and which has been a marked feature of his political and professional career."

While holding this office Mr. Knott introduced several changes and improve- ments in the branch of the postal service under his charge-the transportation of the mails-the value of which was recognized by their retention by his successors in office. In 1886, Mr. Knott prepared with the aid of two of his subordinate officers, and submit- ted in his annual report to the Postmaster General and to Congress, a plan for adjust- ing the pay of railroad companies for rail- way mail transportation and postal car ser- vice, the cost of which had grown enor- mously under the existing system. This plan -the leading feature of which was the sub- stitution of car space used in the transporta- tion of the mails for weight of mails carried as the basis of remuneration-it was reliably estimated would save the Government at the rate of $1,200.00 annually; while the railroad companies would be spared the arbitrary and capricious reductions which Congress

made from time to time whenever an economical fit seized that body, and there were no other objects to exercise it on. In 1876 and 1878 Congress had made such reductions; the first of ten per cent. and the second of five per cent., on the whole cost of this service. These summary, indiscriminate and pro- crustean methods of dealing with an intri- cate and complex problem-the solution of which demands the consideration of the con- stantly changing requirements of the ser- vice and of the ever varying wants and con- ditions of the country, excited the resent- ment of the railroad companies and were detrimental to the service. But Congress and the Postmaster General took no action on the matter. In the meantime the cost of this branch of the postal service has con- tinued to grow until it now reaches the vast sum of thirty-four million dollars annually. In 1886, he was sent by the Postmaster Gen- eral to arrange with the Governor General of Cuba an agreement for the transmission of the Spanish mails between Cuba and Spain by way of Key West, Tampa and New York by the steamers Olivette and Mas- cotte, in connection with the Plant system of railway between New York and Tampa; which agreement was entered into. In De- cember, 1886, on the resignation of Judge William A. Fisher from the bench of Balti- more City, Governor Lloyd offered to Mr. Knott, through Hon. Robert A. Dobbin, the appointment to fill the vacancy thus cre- ated. He accepted it, but subsequently, in deference to the expressed wish and request of President Cleveland to remain in the Post Office Department until the close of his administration, Mr. Knott declined the ap- pointment. On his retirement from office,

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in April, 1889, Mr. Knott resumed the prac- tice of his profession, opening offices in Washington and Baltimore. In 1890, Mr. Knott became associated with the late Mr. Linden Kent, Mr. R. Byrd Lewis and Rob- ert J. Washington, in the conduct and man- agement of the interests of the heirs of Henry Harford, the last Lord Proprietary of Maryland, in the suit instituted by the United States Government under an act of Congress to adjudicate and settle the right and title of parties to the submerged lands under the Potomac river opposite Wash- ington. These lands the Government pro- posed to reclaim and improve for public purposes. The case was argued in 1895 be- fore the Supreme Bench of the city of Wash- ington, and is now pending in the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Knott took part in 1892 in the cam- paign in favor of Mr. Cleveland, and in that of 1896 in favor of Mr. Bryan, the nominee of the Democratic party, and in support of the Chicago platform.

Mr. Knott is the son of Edward Knott, a native of Montgomery county, and for many years a farmer and tobacco planter in that county, and an officer in the War of 1812, and of Elizabeth Sprigg Sweeney, a daughter of Allan Sweeney of Chaptico, St. Mary's county, and of Ellinor Neale, his wife. Ed- ward Knott was the son of Zachary Knott, who removed from St. Mary's county, and settled in what was then known as Frederick county, in 1771, and engaged extensively in tobacco planting. This Zachary was a de- scendant of John Knott, who came into the province of Maryland from Yorkshire, Eng- land, in 1642. (See Kilty's Landholder's Assistant ; pages 69, 76.)

Both on his father's and mother's side Mr.

Knott is connected with Neales, the Med- leys, the Darnells, the Digges, the Spald- ings and other Catholic families of the col- ony of Maryland. Through these families Mr. Knott is descended from the first colo- nists of Maryland, the Pilgrims of the Ark and of the Dove, of the men who, in the language of Bancroft the historian, "were the first in the annals of mankind to make religious freedom and basis of the State."

He is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, by birth, education and conviction. He has been called upon to deliver many ad- dresses on literary and historical subjects before collegiate and other bodies in Balti- more, New York, Washington, and other cities. In October, 1891, at the celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of the found- ation of his alma mater, St. Mary's College, he delivered the alumni oration. On Octo- ber 12th, 1892, he delivered the oration on the occasion of dedicating the monument erected to Christopher Columbus in Druid Hill Park by the Italian Societies of Balti- more. He has been a frequent contributor to the press on political and historical sub- jects.

In 1873, he married Regina M. Keenan, the daughter of Anthony Keenan, an old and respected citizen of Baltimore, and of Mary Phelan, his wife. The ancestors of Mary Phelan came from Waterford, Ire- land, in 1776. Two of her uncles, John Phelan and Philip Phelan, joined the Amer- ican army at Boston, in September of that year. John Phelan entered as ensign and was promoted January Ist, 1777, to the rank of lieutenant in Colonel Smith's regiment of the Continental Army. Philip Phelan was lieutenant of the Third Company of Col. Henry Jackson's Sixteenth Regiment of the

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

Massachusetts Line. He afterwards held the same rank in the Continental Army. Both these officers were with General Greene in his southern campaigns. Philip fell at the battle of Eutaw Springs. John Phelan went through the revolutionary struggle, remaining in the army until its dis- bandment at Newburgh, in October, 1783, in the meantime attaining to the rank of captain and also of major by brevet.

After the war John Phelan settled in New York and entered on a mercantile life. He made several voyages as a supercargo, in the last one of which he was shipwrecked with the loss of all he possessed. On his return to this country he removed to Baltimore and opened a classical and mathematical school on North Exeter street. He had among his pupils the late Christopher Hughes, an ac- complished diplomat in his day and for many years the American Minister at the Hague; Mr. George W. Andrews, in his time a well known chemist of Baltimore, and the late Hon. William H. Gatchell. He was a member of the Cincinnati Society. He died in Baltimore, September 13, 1827, and was buried with military honors.

Mr. Knott is a member of the Maryland, University, the Country, and Catholic Clubs of Baltimore, and of the Society of the War of 1812.

JOHN H. HEWITT, POET, by William M. Marine .- One of the well known poets in Baltimore's earlier days was the subject of this sketch. Rufus Dawes entertained a flattering opinion of the value of his friend- ship and acknowledged the merit of his verse. As is usual in instances of this char- acter, Mr. Hewitt believed Mr. Dawes one

of the truest of men and a poet equal to the best singers of his time.

Harmony and melody inspired Mr. Hew- itt's soul. He had an eye for the beautiful and saw nature only to comprehend more fully the mighty working power of God.

The creations of his mind were pure and simple as rain drops; he sought no eyrie out of sight, cloud capped and hidden from ob- servation. He sang to the comprehension of the people, of love and of patriotism. Of- ten he descended from his serious strain in the latter days of his life and, under the "nom de plume" of "Jenks," wrote for the rural press, verses on every day topics. Some of his sweetest songs were published under the name of Eugene Raymond.

He sold "his talents;" a great deal he wrote was published under other names than his. However despicable is the habit some people have of publishing other peo- ple's effusions as theirs, it is a frequent and censurable one. Hewitt sold the product of his talent to meet his necessities. There was nothing wrong in that; those who were the purchasers and published his effusions un- der their names, to obtain a prominence to which they were not entitled, defrauded the public by such conduct.

Mr. Hewitt had his moods; all poets have. At such times he was melancholy and disposed to believe fate had singled him out to pour her vials of wrath upon his head.

He wrote rapidly, and permitted his pro- ductions to go to print without exercising proper care in correcting them. He was the father of American ballad poetry, and being a skilled musician, he took rank as the only early American who composed and set his stanzas to music. "Our Native land," which he composed and set to music,

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was the first of our national songs of such origin. It was played by the band at the Centennial in Philadelphia in 1876.

When Thomas Moore visited America, Mr. Hewitt's father resided on the banks of the Schuylkill river. He entertained at his home the Irish poet, who, while at his house, penned several of his lyrics. Mr. Hewitt caught from his genius the flame of ballad style which he cultivated so successfully. He always retained a recollection of his father's distinguished visitor, including the mighty stock he wore round his neck.

No fashionable repertoire in the days of his ballad publications was complete with- out them. The "Minstrel's Return from War" was prodigiously popular in this country and Europe. Mr. Hewitt once said, "I suppose when I am dead, they will carve on my slab, author of "The Minstrel's Re- turn from the War." The music of "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother," and "All Quiet on the Potomac" were from the inspiration of his fertile mind.

"Flora's Festival," a pastorial oratoria, had successful seasons for the theatre boards. "The Rival Harps" was none the less popular.

Of Mr. Hewitt's patriotic poems, "The American Boy" took high rank. It is found in numerous elementary readers of fifty years ago. For beginners in elocution it is especially adapted. A negro thinking the author of it dead and forgotten reproduced it as his production. Mr. Hewitt, fixing the theft upon him, with a shot-gun of words, invited the thieving Son of Ham to stand and deliver!

Mr. Hewitt was a commemorative poet. When the bronze statue to Baron de Kalb was unveiled at Annapolis he furnished the

poem for that occasion. Other notable events were graced by the flow of his metrical pen.

A volume of Mr. Hewitt's poems was published by Nathaniel Hickman, Balto., 1838, having one hundred and thirty-five pages, containing one hundred and thirty- two poems. In his "Shadows on the Wall," published by Turnbull Bro., Balto., 1877, a book dealing with glimpses of the past fifty years of his life; is included his longest and (as he estimated) best poetry.

"De Soto, Or the Conquest of Florida," makes three lengthy cantoes. It is full of poetic thrill, and gems of rare beauty shine throughout it. The following lines are per- fect:

" Hail, queen of night ! whose silver beam Kisses the riplets of the stream ! Heaven's jewelled front, in starry blaze, Is spread before thy wandering gaze ; And, on the river's sparkling breast The placid star beams seem to rest "

In depicting the approach of a barque to- ward the shore, nothing can be more felici- tous :

" The helmsman cast his eye aloft, And marked the quivering topmost sail ; On viewless wings and whispering soft, Came creeping on the gentle gale.

A ripple, then a hurried flaw, When lo ! the sails began to fill ;

The barque leapt gaily toward the shore, Clearing the billows with a will."

"St. Cecilia and the Angel," a poem show- ing genius, will yet take rank as a work of art.

In the newspapers and magazines of his day will be found the majority of his poems, many of them worthy of enduring fame. In their present condition they are not obtaina- ble by the public ; an effort will be made to collect and publish them. His newspaper life

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was eventful; he was connected with the leading papers of Baltimore a half century ago, among them being the Minerva Tran- script, Jefferson Reformer, Enterprise and Despatch, all of which papers have long since passed away. He was the founder of the Baltimore Clipper, and for a long time its editor. Several Baltimore weeklies were furnished from his pen editorial food and contributed articles.

His misfortunes he called "Hewitt luck." When Mr. A. S. Able was about starting the Baltimore Sun, he invited Mr. Hewitt to join him in the venture. In years after- wards, speaking of his having declined to do so, he remarked, "That was the worst kind . of Hewitt luck."

He was a native of New York State, where he was born July 11, 1801. In 1818 he was appointed a cadet to West Point, where he rounded out the prescribed course of studies for graduation, and was notified he would, at commencement, secure his commission as a lieutenant in the army. On the strength of that statement he visited New York City, and attended a party, in a lieutenant's uniform. For that he was sum- moned before the commandant, and a dis- pute resulted, ending in Mr. Hewitt chal- lenging the commandant to fight a duel, who declined the proffer and had the chal- lenger deprived of his graduation honors. That trying circumstance he called the de- velopment of "Hewitt luck."

At West Point, Willis, a graduate of the celebrated Lagier, the leader of the band, taught him music ; he became proficient. In after life his perfect knowledge of it served him to earn a livelihood. He was known in consequence of giving lessons in music and teaching in colleges, as Professor Hewitt.

After adventures in early life north and south, he finally reached Baltimore, where he resided from 1825 until his death, ex- cepting a short period when he was employ- ed in Virginia colleges as instructor and during the interval when the South was at war with the Government.

When hostilities occurred, he was appoint- ed a drill master of southern troops in Rich- mond. Throughout the war he resided South. When Confederate fortunes waned, he wrote "Hearts of Steel," and "Never Despair," pronounced by literary critics, in England and America, among the best ly- rics produced during that trying season. Prior to the war, in the piping times of peace, he was captain of the Marion Rifles, a crack military company of Baltimore.

At the close of war, he returned to Balti- more dispirited and poor; he roused up his energies and vigorously battled anew for fame and bread. His Hewitt luck pursued him. There was no difficulty to find space in papers for his productions, but pay for them was another thing. He wrote consid- erable verse for the Baltimorean, and num- erous sketches for some of the dailies. One of his best poems he constructed late in life, "The Creation of Man," founded on the Biblical account in Genesis of his origin. It was published and favorably received, but did not yield him a penny.

An important event in Mr. Hewitt's life has been dwarfed so far as he was con- cerned. Indeed he has been shamefully treated by all of Edgar Allan Poe's biog- raphers, who have shrivelled him into an atom in the space of Poe's genius. When Mr. Hewitt was the editor of the Baltimore Visitor, the proprietor offered two pre-

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miums ; one, of $100, for the best story, and $50 for the best poem. The award commit- tee consisted of John H. B. Latrobe, John P. Kennedy and Dr. James H. Miller. These gentlemen were naturally enough impressed with Poe's manuscript, "Found in a Battle," and Hewitt's poem, "The Song of the Wind," and so awarded the first prize to Poe, and the second to Hewitt.

The committee was influenced in its de- cision, possibly, by the fact that Poe re- ceived the first award; he being a competitor also for the second. Mr. Hewitt embodied in striking verse the song of the wandering wind. The poem started with an inquiry, "Whence come ye with your odor laden wings?" and that question was answered, "Oh I have come fresh from the sun-beaten climes," "I have kissed the white crest of the moon-lit wave," "I have wandered along the seas pebbly shore," "I have wildly careered through the shivering shrouds." The wind is made to witness "the rent reef'd sail of the corsair in twain," "The wreck of a ship," a solitary survivor who cried out, "My com- rades, Oh! where are they now?" The an- swer being forthcoming to the query, then the survivor "smote on his breast;" "a strug- gle-a sigh-and his spirit had fled." The poem concludes :

Where the citron tree pouts with its golden hued fruits,

And the coffee-plant shakes to the fiery breath ; I have waken'd the song of the Spanish girl's lute,

While I placed on her lips the cold signet of death,

For the death plague had perched on my shadow- less wings,

And the form that I touched became lifeless and cold ;

To the dirge I had awaken'd the lute's steeping strings,

And it sung of the maiden whose days were all told.

I hurried me on-and the things of the earth

Fell stricken with death as I wander'd along ; I blasted the smile of the board and the hearth,

And I levelled alike both the feeble and strong, But shrink not-I've gathered the sweets of the flowers,

And, laden with perfumes, I come to thee now, To kiss the dew-lips of the rosy-wing'd hours,

And play with the dark locks that shadow your brow.

Hewitt did not accompany his poem with his name, but an assumed one. He pursued that course because of his editorship of the paper. He preserved the proof of the com- plete identification of his poem in the event of a dispute and on the $50 being awarded him, declined the money, preferring a silver goblet which was substituted, and is now the property of a member of his family.

Poe was not pleased with Hewitt, who had criticised stiffly his poems published by Hatch and Dunning in 1829. Poe, in ignor- ance probably, of how Hewitt had submitted his competing poem, met him, after the award and hot words followed. Poe told Hewitt, being editor of the paper, he had no right to do as he had done. Hewitt ex- plained his method of action. It ended in a refreshing encounter in which a few blows were struck, without injury resulting to either. Poe and Hewitt met once after- wards. Nothing was said of what transpired at their former meeting. Poe asked of Hewitt a favor, which was cheerfully grant- ed and they separated never to meet again.

Mr. Hewitt died in Baltimore, Tuesday, October 7th, 1890, and was laid to rest in Louden Park Cemetery.

The vines creep over his unmarked grave. Before he shall have lain in it as long as Poe slept in a similar one, possibly, kind-hearted people will give him a stone.

His body, after his funeral, was placed in

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the cemetery vault, to where it was followed by a large concourse of people. In a few weeks it was interred in the earth, his wife, children and the writer of this sketch were present. Mr. Hewitt was manly in all the relations of life; warm- hearted, impulsive and generous. There was no alloy in his metal; it is pleasant to record that he was of a lovable disposition, good and great, Chesterfieldian in man- ners with rare conversational powers.

In the following poem which he inscribed to Wm. M. Marine, which was written by him on the fly-leaf of a copy of "Shadows on the Wall," which he came across in the library of that gentleman vhen on a visit to him during the summer of 1884, he gives vent to his life's disappointments. The re- sult of the legacy of "Hewitt's Luck:"

My friend, while o'er this little book Your searching twinkler glances,

You need not for rare beauties look, Or ideals that entrances.

The carping critics of the tinies My claims have shorn and shaven ;

The truest grinder out of rhymes Was he who wrote the "Raven." Well be it so-instead of bread To keep poor Poe from starving,

They've placed a stone above his head Elaborate with carving.

Yes, mine will be a buried name, Ambition early blasted,

No place upon the roll of fame,

Much ink and paper wasted.

Acres of paper, seas of ink, Long years of study squandered,

Thinking of all a miau could think While with the Muse he wander'd,

Wandered around Mount Helicou, By the Castilian gutter,

But ne'er an inspiring sip he wou To save his bread and butter.

Three score of years, and more of work, Iu hopes of immortality,

Better he'd beeu a tinker's clerk And lived ou the reality.

You've read the book ? Well that's enough, Now cast it in the place that blazes, They'll call it worse than common stuff When I'm asleep beneath the daisies.

Mr. Hewitt was twice married; first, to Estelle Mangin, early in his life. She died in 1860 leaving him seven children; his sec- ond wife was Alethia Smith, whom he mar- ried when sixty years of age; she is living in Baltimore. By her he had children, two of whom survive.

Mr. Hewitt prior to his death sickness collected and edited his poems and wrote a full and detailed sketch of his life. These treasures are reserved for future publication.

WILLIAM MATTHEW MARINE .- The an- cestors of Mr. Marine, on the paternal side, on coming to America, settled in North Fork district, Dorchester county, Md. The records of that county, and of Sussex county, in Delaware, where branches of the family resided, reveal the spelling of the name Mareen, Merine, Ma- rine, Marene, Morean, Marain, Mareain, Morine, Marean and Marign. In the colo- nial days of the family, the persons whose names were thus written were each related to the other.

At what year the family reached America cannot be precisely stated. In the Land Of- fice at Annapolis exists a signed paper by Milleson Mareen, whose signature is in dis- tinct, well-formed letters, in which the date of his arrival in Maryland is fixed at 1655. A similar one states the arrival of Alexander Merine to have been 1669. After the fam- ily was transplanted from the old to the new world, its ramifications were subsequently found east, south and west.

The Maryland branch has representatives in North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa,

Engraved by d K. Campbell New York

Wimmarine.

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Nebraska and Tennessee. The late elo- quent and scholarly Rev. Dr. A. Marine, of the M. E. Church ; his brother, S. A. Marine, an editor of the Globe Gazette, Mason City, Iowa; their first cousin James Whitcomb Riley, and John C. Merine, their uncle, late- ly deceased, an artist of eminent standing, who during his life resided in Kansas City, are representatives of the Indian branch of the family.

The ancestors of the subject of this sketch had the method of spelling their names which is preserved in mentioning them, (2) William Merine, farmer; a resident of North Fork district, where Milleson settled, had nine children; the fourth (3) Zorababel Ma- rain, was born in 1736 and died eighty-five years of age. In manhood he married Frances Heyward, a connection of the fam- ily in South Carolina, which produced a signer of the Declaration of Independence. They had ten children. One of them, John Marain, was a private in the Second Mary- land Regiment, serving in the War of the Revolution. The muster roll with his name thereon is in the Land Office at Annapolis. Zorababel was a farmer; his grist mill at Federalsburgh was the first built in that sec- tion. During its construction a mud sill be- came wedged and defied the efforts of the workmen; he ordered them off, contemptu- ously saying. "Away, weaklings!" and put- ting his shoulder beneath the sill moved it into position; his shirt adhering to his flesh in consequence of the effort. (4) William Merine, farmer, Zorabable's son, was mar- ried to Mary Fletcher, who was descended from the New England family to which Grace Fletcher, wife of Daniel Webster, be- longed. Thomas C. Fletcher, a Union man and ex-war governor of Missouri, is a native of Dorchester county, Md., and a scion of

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Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1344

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344