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 90

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 90

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He was educated and graduated at the Episcopal High School, Alexandria, Va. Soon after quitting school he went into the railroad service, then turned his attention to architecture and civil engineering, and was engaged in this business when, in March, 1898, he was appointed by Mayor Malster, City Commissioner, one of the most im- portant and responsible positions under our municipal government. Those who are competent to speak say he has shown marked ability in the discharge of his duties and is making a first-class Commissioner. He was married June 9, 1891, in this city, to Miss Jane Hollins Nicholas, daughter of Sidney Nicholas and Jane (Hollins) Nich- olas; her father and mother are descendants of some of the oldest and most distinguished families of Maryland; Mrs. Lewis is a niece of Commodore Rollins, who distinguished himself both in the United States and Con- federate navies. They have one child,

Janet Hollins Lewis. He and his family are members of the P. E. Church; in poli- tics he is a Republican.

Mr. Lewis is a gentleman of fine man- ners and is very popular as an officer of the city government ; as a man of character and honor he stands high and has hosts of strong friends. He and his family reside at 1225 N. Calvert street.

DR. WM. TRAVIS HOWARD, 804 Madison avenue .- Few, if any, of the many brilliant men who have added to the lustre of the medical profession of Baltimore have exer- cised a wider influence for the good of the institutions of medical learning than Dr. William Travis Howard. A self-made man in every respect, he has won his way to affluence from adverse circumstances that would have discouraged a less resolute and talented man, and have made him give up the struggle for more than a mere existence.

Doctor Howard was born in Cumberland county, Va., on January 12, 1821. His father was William A. Howard, a native of Virginia and a noted architect of his day. He died in Warren county, N. C., in April, 1859. His wife, who was Miss Rebecca Elizabeth Travis Anderson, was a wo- man of many Christian virtues, and of especially fine mental vigor. She sur- vived her husband some seven years. Doctor Howard after primary education in classical schools became a student in Hampden Sidney College, in Prince Ed- ward county, Va., and also at Randolph- Macon College, then located in Meck- lenburg county, Va. After leaving col- lege Doctor Howard began the study of medicine under Dr. John Peter Met- tauer, an eminent surgeon in Prince Ed-

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

ward county, Va., whose father came over with Lafayette as a surgeon, and re- mained in America after the close of the Revolutionary War. Doctor Howard en- tered the Jefferson Medical College in the autumn of 1842, and graduated in March, 1844. Between the sessions he was one of the resident students of medicine in Balti- more City and County Alms-House, now the Bay View Asylum, to which Drs. Wil- liam Power and Thos. H. Buckler were at- tending physicians. graduating, Doctor Howard settled in Warren county, N. C., May 1, 1844, where his predecessor had practiced twenty-seven years, never drank or gambled and died insolvent. Doc- tor Howard was then in poor health, inci- dent to an attack of the Grippe, which im- paired his constitution during all subse- quent years, leaving a persistent cough, from which he has never been entirely ex- empt. While in North Carolina, Doctor Howard became involved in a discussion on malarial pneumonia in the North Carolina Medical Journal, with Dr. O. F. Manson, subsequently a professor in the Medical College of Virginia, at Richmond. This discussion was reviewed in the American Journal of Medical Sciences for October, 1860, by the able and learned Dr. Alfred Stille, afterwards Professor of the Practice of Medicine in the University of Pennsyl- vania. Doctor Stille speaks of Doctor How- ard's essays as being "in the highest de- gree interesting and instructive; interest- ing from the admirable critical spirit which pervades them, and from which none of the errors of his opponent's thesis escape, and instructive from the complete analysis which tney present of the descriptions by

a large number of physicians of this modi- fied form of pneumonia."

After the close of the Civil War, owing to the unsettled condition of the country in the South, and having suffered a severe do- mestic bereavement in the death of his first wife, Doctor Howard removed to Balti- more. The following citation from the Maryland Medical Journal, September 4, 1897, gives an account of his career since.

"The history of every great institution is very closely linked with the names of the men who have made that institution and who by their work and attention have con- tributed their share towards the perfec- tion of the whole plan.

For this reason the connection of Dr. William T. Howard with the University of Maryland is a matter of interest and a part of the history of that old foundation of learning. His resignation, which was pre- sented last July and accepted with great reluctance and after repeated refusals by the faculty of physic, has caused a change in the chair of diseases of women and children, which has continued for the past thirty years without a break.

When Doctor Howard first came to Bal- timore from North Carolina, he was made adjunct to the chair of physiology then held by the late Dr. Frank Donaldson, Sr. There was at that time but one graduate of the University of Maryland from this large Southern State, but his influence was such that he brought eighteen from North Carolina and also eighteen from lower Vir- ginia, and this influence has been so strong and lasting that at a recent commencement there were forty-three graduates from North Carolina. There are, perhaps, few of the professors who showed not only such

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

great power and influence in his teaching and his personality, but who so materially added to the strength of the university by gathering students from all points in the South, as did Doctor Howard.

After he had acted as assistant to Doctor Donaldson for some time he notified the faculty of his intention to resign, when Dr. George W. Miltenberger, then Pro- fessor of Obstetrics and also Dean, urged the division of the chair of obstetrics and the appointment of Doctor Howard to a chair which he proposed to call gynecology and diseases of children. Two prominent Baltimore physicians were candidates for this place, but Doctor Howard received every vote and was on January 26, 1867, more than thirty years ago, elected to the chair which he has so lately vacated. It is also an interesting fact that this was the first distinct chair of its kind in any medical school in this country.

That Doctor Howard has always filled his position with untiring energy, ever giv- ing the full number of lectures each ses- sion and teaching the students with that strong personality and wonderful memory, all his many students all over the State of Maryland and elsewhere will attest. His lectures were not vain repetitions from the text-books, but were made up almost ex- clusively of his own large experience and many facts and points given have never ap- peared in any book. His lectures were con- sidered important enough by the students to be reported and printed in book form, but this book served only as a skeleton, for each year he revised his work and brought it up to date, so that the lectures delivered in the last sessions were more powerful and more valuable than those of any previous year.

The faculty, also, perhaps, uninten- tionally, bestowed an additional honor upon him when it chose three clever men to fill his vacant place, and three who had all heard his lectures in times past.

Doctor Howard is the author of various lectures, reports, and articles in medical journals, and has invented many gyneco- logical instruments of a highly useful and practical character. Along with the late Dr. H. P. C. Wilson, he founded the Hos- pital for the Women of Maryland; he was one of the founders of the Baltimore Gyne- cological and Obstetrical Society, of which he was its second president; and he was also one of the founders of the American Gynecological Society; vice-president 1880; member of the Council, 1883, and president 1885: Consulting Gynecologist to the Un- ion Protestant Infirmary; Consulting Phy- sician to the Hebrew Hospital and Asylum Association of Baltimore City; Consulting Physician and Surgeon to the Johns Hop- kins Hospital; honorary member of the Ob- stetrical and Gynecological Society of Washington, D. C .; corresponding member of the Gynecological Society of Boston; honorary member of the State Medical So- ciety of North Carolina, etc.

Doctor Howard has been married three times; first, to Mrs. Lucy M. Fitts, nee Davis, a brilliant beauty and wit. of Vir- ginia; second, to Miss Annis L. Waddill, of North Carolina, a lady of varied attain- ments in belle lettres, and especially profi- cient in languages, being able to read lier Bible fluently in four tongues. Doctor Howard was last married in July, 1893, to Miss Rebecca N. Williams, a Baltimore belle and beauty, and belonging to one of the best Maryland families.

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

Doctor Howard still retains unusual men- tal and physical vigor, with clear vision and a steady hand, performs the most diffi- cult operations as well as ever, and his mem- ory is phenomenal in its accuracy. He has endeared himself to all who have enjoyed his tutelage as students, or as colleagues in professional life.

WOODWARD ABRAHAMS was born in the · city of Baltimore, October 2, 1814, and comes of good old English parentage. His father, Captain W. Abrahams, after whom he was named, was the son of another Woodward Abrahams, of Marblehead, Mass., an Episcopal minister. He preached the first sermon in his church at the close of the Revolutionary War. He was also postmaster of Marblehead. Captain Abra- hams, the father of the Woodward, the sub- pect of this sketch, came to this county in the year

He was an experienced and educated 'sea captain who owned his own vessel and sailed to various ports of Europe. On one of these voyages he was wrecked, losing everything but his clothes and watch. He then purchased a farm in Cecil county, Md., near Port Deposit, which he named "The Lucky Mistake." He subsequently moved to Port Deposit where he died at the age of sixty years.

His son Woodward began life as a printer. At the close of his apprenticeship he went to Petersburg, Va., but returned to Baltimore, where he and James Young published The Baltimore Express, which afterwards became The Kaleidoscope. He abandoned the paper and embarked in the lumber business on West Falls avenue. In 1850 he engaged in the ice business in

conjunction with Thomas J. Cochran, the only ice dealer in the city at that time. In this business he remained until his death, at which time he was president of the com- pany. Mr. Abrahams was a Mason of high standing, and of great influence in the craft. He was at one time president of the Ben- jamin Howard Benevolent Society of the Masonic Order.

In politics he was an old time Whig. In religion, a Methodist.

April 30, 1844, he was married to Miss Margaret Littig, daughter of Frederick Lit- tig Schaffer, who was born in 1797. Fred- erick was the son of George and Rachel Bosley Littig, natives of Germany, who em- igrated to this country in 1752. They lo- cated in Baltimore and engaged in the manufacture of brushes.

Mr. Woodward Abrahams died August 2, 1892, at the age of 77 years.

W. W. Abrahams has succeeded his father in the ice business. The company is now (1897) known under the firm name of Coch- ran-Oler & Co., of which he is secretary.

JAMES STEVENS GIRWOOD. Secretary of the Y. M. C. A., Baltimore, Md., resides at 2021 W. North avenue, Baltimore. He was born in Barbadoes, West Indies, No- vember 14, 1861. He is a son of James and Elizabeth Augusta (King) Girwood. The former was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1830; the latter in Barbadoes, W. I., 1827. Subject's father was a retail dry goods mer- chant, which occupation was the business of his life. He came to the United States in 1876; he subsequently came to Balti- more. His mother died in 1868. Their family consisted of eight children now liv- ing, viz .: first, John, who is a physician;

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

second, Allan C., who is a teacher; third, Henry D., a salesman of this city; fourth, William L., a New York salesman; fifth Florence A., resides in Hartford, Conn .; sixth, Mary L .; seventh, Christiana, both of whom live in Baltimore.

James Stevens Girwood was educated at Egremont Academy, Liverpool, England, where he was graduated in 1878. He has engaged successfully as a salesman in gen- tlemen's furnishing business, also a book- keeper, and from 1892 to 1897 he was em- ployed as secretary of the West Branch Young Men's Christian Association of Bal- timore, Md.

In politics he is a non-partisan. In religion he is a member of the P. E. Church.

SAMUEL WINTER, Capitalist, now de- ceased, was born in Hopewell township, York county, Pa., October 30, 1800. He was a son of John and Catharine (Meckley) Winter, both of German descent, whose an- cestors were natives of Hanover, Germany. They had nine children, all of whom are now deceased; one daughter, Elizabeth Miller, who lived in Morrow county, O., died July 25, 1897, in her ninety-second year. His father was a farmer, blacksmith and dis- tiller; was also a captain of a militia com- pany. It was intended that Samuel should be educated for the profession of a lawyer, his father taking him to the city of York to school at the age of ten years to remain until he was twenty, but being homesick, he persuaded his mother to take him home, and after several unsuccessful attempts to induce him to return, he was allowed to have his own way, an act he often regretted. Until he was seventeen years old, Samuel

worked on the farm in summer, attending school in the winter. At this age he was apprenticed to John Dorkus, a carpenter, and served him for three years, after which he worked as a journeyman for about five years. During that period he enrolled himself with the Washington Blues, a militia company, which went to York to receive General Lafayette. In 1825 he went to Rochester, N. Y., where he re- mained and worked at his trade until 1827, and was there when the waters of Lake Erie were first let into the Erie Canal. There being at that time no telegraph, infor- mation as to the flow of the waters was con- veyed by the firing of cannon, stationed along the whole line within hearing distance of each other.

In 1827 he went to Baltimore and ex- ecuted his first work on the steamboat Kentucky for Messrs. Ericsson & Page. He afterwards held the position of foreman in the shops where he was thus employed for many years. From 1835 to 1862 he carried on the business of a carpenter on his own account, dealing in lumber a part of the time, purchasing from twenty to fifty thousand feet in rafts, which were generally sent down the Susquehanna river. With carpentering he connected the building business, erecting about two hundred fine dwellings, among which was a factory which he rented to Charles M. Stieff, Sr., for the manufacturing of his first pianos; also a contract to build for William Knabe & Co. a factory in South Baltimore for the manufacture of their instruments. He was also interested in buying town lots, either leasing out, selling or building thereon. By integrity, energy, persever- ance and frugality he accumulated an in-

Engraved by :

Samuel Winter

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

dependence. He was brought up in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, his parents having been members thereof. He was a member of the First English Lutheran Church where the family still attend.

Previous to the war he was a Democrat, but a strong Unionist, and afterwards be- came an Independent. Mr. Winter repre- sented the Seventeenth ward of Baltimore City in the First Branch of the City Council in 1848. In 1867 he traveled in Europe, at- tending the Paris Exposition and visited London, France, Germany, Switzerland and other countries. Mr. Winter was twice married; first to Miss Sarah Price, daughter of Capt. John Price, by whom he had four children, Amelia, Jerome and Samuel, de- ceased, and William who is still living. His second wife was Miss Sarah Armstrong, a daughter of Margaret and William Arm- strong, Sr., of Wheeling, W. Va. Her father was the owner of a valuable coal mine and an extensive shipper of coal to New Orleans and other Southern cities. By his second wife he had two children, John A., deceased, and Sara A., who is a student at the Women's College. Mr. Winter's widow resides at Washington Heights, corner of Gilmor and Preston streets. From the top of her house is a magnificent view of the city and bay; viewed at night it is a scene of surpassing beauty. Mr. Winter was present at the laying of the corner- stone of the Baltimore & Ohio R. R. He died May 5th, 1892, from the effects of a cold lie contracted two years before, which affected his throat, never entirely recover- ing from it, yet was able to attend to busi- ness until six weeks before his death. He was of a genial disposition and much be- loved and respected by his many friends

and acquaintances. The qualities which Mr. Winter possessed in an eminent degree seldom fail to command success in any enterprise. The main object of his life was to do that which was right. Mr. Winter is interred in Greenmount cemetery.

HENRY J. REINHARDT, Plumber, Gas- fitter, Builder and Contractor, was born in Baltimore October 9th, 1850. He is a son of Charles C. and Margaret (Erney) Reinhardt, of German descent. His mother died when he was two years old. He is the youngest of six children: William H., Charles, Edward Lewis, Augustus and a sister who died in infancy. Edward is also deceased. His father was born in Ger- many, his mother in York, Pa. His father came to this country (Baltimore) in the thirties and engaged in business as an in- strument maker; he had a contract with the Government during the war; he died in 1864. Henry's early education was ob- tained in the public schools; at the age of fifteen he entered the employ of Richard Walzl as junior clerk for five years. Then he was married and went with his father-in- law on his truck farm in Baltimore county in the eastern suburbs; he bought a half interest in this truck farm, one of 105 acres. Hewasvery successful for fourteen years. In 1884 he returned to Baltimore and entered the firm of the Farmers' Fertilizing Com- pany, and at the same time bought half interest in the firm of Gardner & Co., Plumbers, etc. He withdrew from the Far- mers' Fertilizing Co. in 1887 and purchased the remaining interest in Gardner & Co. In connection with plumbing he engaged in building operations quite extensively

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

and has been very successful. He is a Master Mason.

In July. 1871, he married in Philadelphia Miss Lidy L. Rienck, daughter of Thomas F. and Mary Rienck, of German descent, who had come from Philadelphia to Balti- more in 1860. They have three children: Thomas, who is engaged successfully in the real estate business; Misses Ada M. and Bessie L .. who are students at St. Luke's Academy.

Mr. Reinhardt's wife and family are members of the Episcopal Church. He has been a life long Democrat.

GEORGE R. CINNAMOND, deceased, At- torney-at-Law and Conveyancer, was born in Belfast, Ireland, July 29, 1814. He was the son of James and Catharine (Mines) Cinnamond, both of Fountainville, Ireland. His father was Scotch-Irish, and died in Belfast. His mother, a native of the North of Ireland, was lost at sea with four grown sons, James, John, Thomas and Joseph. The subject of this sketch was shipwrecked four times before he reached the age of 25 years.

George Ruthven received his early education at the Royal Academy in Bel- fast, and was graduated from Trinity Col- lege in Dublin. After completing his studies he came to America, where he taught Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He subsequently practiced law and convey- ancing in Baltimore. Mr. Cinnamond married on May 3rd, 1840, Lydia Amanda Burdick, sixth daughter of Henry Burdick, of Vermont. and Lydia Ann Hoadley, of New Haven, Conn. By this union eleven children were born to him, seven dying in infancy. The four who grew to maturity

were: Caroline, who married Warfield T. Browning of Washington, D. C. He died June 18, 1894, aged 54 years. Has one child, Clarence A. C. Browning. George R., Jr., who married Christiana Howard of New York, has two children, Ethel and Helen. He died May 2nd, 1888, aged 41 years. Robert Morrison. aged 24 years, unmarried, died April 4th, 1878: and Isa- belle Scott, who married T. Ceresca Rose- berry of Springfield, Ill., has three children, Howard, Stewart Cinnamond and Blanche.

Mr. Cinnamond was president of the Monumental Chess Club and founder of Patapsco City (now known as Brooklyn, Maryland). He belongs to the I. O. O. F., and was a member of Concordia Lodge, Free Masons. He was an Episcopalian in his religious views and a Democrat in poli- tics.

Mr. Cinnamond conducted a large and very important business for many years, honored with the confidence not less of the bar than of his numerous clients, among whom were to be found many of our wealth- iest citizens. In that especial branch of his profession to which he devoted himself he had no superiors; he was faithful, reliable and careful, bringing at all times to the dis- charge of his professional duties a well trained intellect. He was a man of mind, a man of indomitable energy, a man of marked force of character. He was distin- guished for the accuracy of his learning and scholarly attainments, no less than for the great executive talent and admirable tact with which he dispatched the laborious and complicated business of his office. Cour- tesy distinguished his intercourse and honor his dealings. He did not present to

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

the world a character assumed for the occa- sion, nay he went in and out among us as a Christian man whose words and doings were the necessary and natural outpouring of a true heart. With him to seem and to be were one. In action he had all the noble qualities of manhood. In endurance he possessed all the finer qualities of woman. As a speaker he was gifted above the aver- age of his profession. Possessing great fer- tility of illustration and facility of utterance, he never failed to improve and enliven with humor and especially with a fit quotation, any subject upon which he essayed to speak. In addition to a general acquaintance with English literature he had made Shakes- peare a particular study, and there seemed to be scarcely a limit to his facility of quota- tion from that great poet. His tempera- ment was cheerful, his manner cordial, his taste artistic, mind quick and apprecia- tive and his memory extraordinary. The wit, sentiment and pathos of his native land commingled in him, and he would alter- nately amuse you by the one or melt your heart by sympathy with the other. He loved all beautiful things in art, nature and language; was a good elocutionist, read admirably, and made intellectual culture a feature of his domestic and social life.

Judge James L. Bartol, of the Court of Appeals, wrote of him: "It was my privi- lege to know him at home, at his fireside and my own, and to form one of that little circle where his genial disposition, charm- ing humor and his goodness endeared him so much to every one."

He was called to New York (with Robert J. Brent, Esq.) on business, but was taken ill in Philadelphia, where he died February 9, 1866, in the 52d year of his age. In the

prime of life and in the complete fullness of intellectual vigor he received the summons. At his death the Baltimore City Courts ad- journed, and there was a meeting of the members of the bar, many of whom spoke in feeling terms of the deceased and offered resolutions which were sent to his family.

DAVID GENESE, D. D. S., and Inventor. This gentleman was born in London, Eng- land, in 1848. He is the son of the late Sampson Genese, whose father was the first of the name to come to England from Spain, and who purchased an estate in the city of London, redeeming at the time the land tax, a custom in vogue 150 years ago. David Genese was one of nine children, four sons and five daughters; two of the latter, together with their parents, are dead. The remainder of the family with the ex- ception of the Doctor still reside in London.

DAVID GENESE, D. D. S. and Inventor. public school in London, after which he was articled to the dental profession, under Wal- ter Blundell, D. D. S. (the first inventor of painless dentistry by congealation), to the Metropolitan Hospital, London, remaining with him during the full term of articleship of three years, and afterwards four years as assistant. He then went into business for himself, practising in London for eight years; at Bournemouth, England, for three years, and at Bordeaux (south of France) one year.

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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