USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, Volume III > Part 19
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Never a public speaker, he was noted for the lucidity of his state- ments, and his State papers were models of plain, clear, direct, strong statement. He forced the large interests, which had been escaping their just share of taxation, to come into line and pay somewhat in proportion to the rest of the people. He hunted up revenues that had not before been thought of. He put the State tobacco warehouses, which had been the cause of an annual deficit, upon a paying basis, and put the credit of the State upon the very highest plane. He out- lined plans which, if persisted in, would in a few years have freed the State from debt and enabled it to operate in all of its functions with- out any direct taxation whatever. He reformed the insurance laws by which the State's revenue from that source was trebled. He brought the public utility corporations into line and added many thousands of dollars to the State's revenues from that source. He settled the vexed boundary question between Maryland and Vir- ginia, which had been productive of bloodshed, and established Maryland's rights on the Potomac River. He reformed the laws of the oyster police navy and secured a more rigid enforcement of the law. He looked into the State's interests in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and favored a lease to the Cumberland and Washington Railroad Company for ninety thousand dollars per year. The legis- lature would not, however, grant the lease. Mark the result: The property which he could have leased for ninety thousand dollars a year was afterwards sold outright for one hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars. He refused to sign the Reassessment Bill, though
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strongly urged by prominent men of the party, because he regarded it as unjust, impracticable and expensive in its application, and as usual his judgment was later on justified.
"His advice was always sought in the councils of his party, and there are many who believe that had his advice been followed in the great struggle of 1895, the Democrats would not have lost control of the State at that time. After that great defeat, Governor Jack- son was one of the leading men in the State in getting together the scattered fragments of the party, and he toiled for four years to cement these fragments and get ready for the wonderful victory of 1899."
He was a member of the Masonic Fraternity and the University Club of Baltimore; but his chief outside interest was in the Southern Methodist Church. He was as devoted to that church as his father had been. He became strongly attached to Bishop Wilson; and at one time gave him a home worth eleven thousand dollars. He prac- tically spent sixty thousand dollars in the building of the handsome stone church in Salisbury. He offered to give fifty thousand dollars towards the erection of the Alpheus Wilson Memorial Church, when- ever one hundred thousand dollars was raised by the church. He was for a time trustee of Randolph-Macon University, and gave thou- sands of dollars to the educational work of the church. He was always liberal in his contributions to church purposes and to other charities. "To be generous was to him one of the greatest privileges of wealth." (From editorial in "Baltimore News.") He was particularly kind to promising young men and assisted many of them in getting a good start in life.
He retained through life a keen interest in all sorts of games, indoor and out; and when the young people were visiting at his home he took part in their games with the zest of a boy. In early life fond of base ball and a participant in the game, up to his last days he enjoyed a good game of base ball as much as he had ever done. "Ex-Governor Jackson several years ago joined the University Club, and until his last attack he spent a good deal of time at that club when he was in Baltimore. His amiability and love of pleasant inter- course with friends made him a favorite there. Next to a chat, he enjoyed a rubber of bridge."
His favorite reading through life were historical and biographical works.
He was married on November 25, 1869, to Annie Frances Rider,
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daughter of Doctor William Hearn and Margaret Anne Rider of Salisbury. Mrs. Jackson is descended from the old English families of Rider, Walker, Fletcher, Boston, Maddox, Relfe, Byrd and More. Many of her ancestors served during the notable times of our early history. Six children were born of this marriage. Of these, five are living, as follows: Margaret Jackson Vanderbogart; Nellie Jackson Leonard; Hugh William Jackson; Everett Elihu Jackson, and Rich- ard Newton Jackson.
Governor Jackson was a clean, strong, courageous man, not boastful, not vain; inherently a Democrat, with remarkable business acumen and abundant nerve to back that acumen, and a sound judg- ment in political matters which was never at fault. Had he elected to follow politics as a vocation, rather than business, he would have been one of the great leaders of the nation. As it was, politics was with him but a part of the duty of a good citizen. One of the papers speaking of him said: "Business was the substance of the former Governor's career, and politics was his diversion. It was lumber and financial undertakings that occupied his working days, and poli- tics his holidays, so to speak. Some men fancy race horses, or auto- mobiles, or steam yachts; but he liked politics. He was one of the most liberal campaign contributors in the State, and whether or not he was himself a candidate, he gave freely in the interest of his party at every election. He was a loyal soldier in the Democratic ranks, and he always followed the flag. As a business man his judgment was sound and his conception clear. He could look far ahead and foretell results. He mastered the lumber industry and had the details of it at his fingers' ends. In fact his success was phenomenal, and up to the time of his final illness his mind was keen in the discussion of the affairs of the big concern of which he was president."
Honorable William Pinkney Whyte, for fifty years a leader in the public life of Maryland, and himself a man of remarkable shrewd- ness, said of Governor Jackson, that he was the keenest judge of, or best reader of human nature that he had ever known.
One of the latter acts of his life was to decline in 1904, a unani- mous nomination tendered him to represent the First Congressional District in the Federal Congress.
FRANKLIN BUCHANAN SMITH
O NE of the leading professional and business men of the city of Frederick is Doctor Franklin Buchanan Smith, who was born in that town on April 10, 1856; son of George and Mary (Nixdorff) Smith. His father was a farmer and a real estate dealer. He was a man of fine education, sound judgment and a most ca- pable man in many directions. He served as Judge of the Orphans' Court, and was prominent in the political life of the county. When the old Frederick County Bank was organized, now more than eighty years ago, he was one of the founders and charter members.
This particular family is of German origin, descended from one of that splendid lot of German emigrants who came to Frederick County in 1730 from the old country and founded Fredericktown. John Schmid, the founder of the family, lived until 1785. His plan- tation was called New Germany, the patent being signed by Thos. Bladen, August 9, 1744. He left a son, George (June 12, 1776-Octo- ber 26, 1832), who was the grandfather of Doctor Smith, his father being the second George. This makes Doctor Smith in the fourth generation from the American progenitor of the family.
On his maternal side, his descent is equally good-the family going back to John George Nixdorff (born Schiefer, Silesia, Germany, Febru- ary 22, 1700, and died September 22, 1785) who in 1730 came to Penn- sylvania, married Miss Karns and settled with the Moravian colony at Bethlehem. America has never possessed better citizens than these Moravians. Samuel Nixdorff, son of John George, April 18, 1745-March 1, 1824, served throughout the Revolution in a Pennsyl- vania command. He enlisted in Captain John Nelson's Company of Independent Riflemen, March 7, 1776, and served until the close of the war. He married Barbara Medtard and after that war his son Henry (born December 25, 1780-died May 4, 1859) became a pioneer merchant and land owner of Frederick County, in which his father had settled. In the war of 1812, Henry Nixdorff served as a soldier; thus we see that the peace-loving old Moravian furnished a son and a grandson to the armies of his adopted country. Mary, daughter of
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Henry Nixdorff married George Smith, the father of Doctor F. B. Smith.
Doctor Smith had the advantages of an excellent education. His rudimentary education was received under Miss Hallie Hanshew, niece of Barbara Fritchie. He attended Frederick College, and then went to Princeton University, where he was graduated in 1876. After deciding to enter the medical profession, he took up his studies in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania and was graduated in 1878, being one of the three prizemen of that year, i.e., that in Anatomy ; and began the practice of his profession at Frederick in that year, after being substitute resident physician for six months at Blockley and Presbyterian Hospitals, Philadelphia. Since that time, he has taken several post-graduate courses. Doctor Smith promptly won recognition in his profession, and in a few years was a leading physician. In 1886 he was very active and successful in fighting the diphtheria epidemic. In that same year he was appointed the first health officer of Frederick County-the epidemic of diph- theria having taught the people the necessity-and he held that posi- tion until 1895. From 1890 until 1898, he was attending physician of Montevue Hospital, and through his efforts that institution was changed from the almshouse to a hospital. For ten years he was a member of the United States Pension Board for Frederick County. From 1880 to 1883 he was local surgeon of the Pennsylvania Rail- road. From 1890 up to date, he has been local surgeon of the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad; and in 1909 was honored by election to the position of president of the Association of Surgeons of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Since 1890, he has been a member of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland; was vice-president of that great professional body in 1903 and 1904, and is now serving as its president. In 1898, he organized the Frederick County Medical Society, and was its president from 1900 to 1903. It will be seen from this record that Doctor Smith has won all the honors possible in the medical profession. It may be added in this connection that since 1892 he has been one of the State Board of Medical Examiners.
His business record, outside of his profession, has been marked with a success equal to that won by him as a doctor. He developed business capacity early in life, and has been active in everything cal- culated to promote the interests of his native county and city. He has been a promoter of an ice plant, a knitting mill, a bank, a packing
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house, brick works, and indeed every practical business enterprise formulated in Frederick of later years. He served as manager of the local telephone company which maintained an independent exist- ence for years, but is now a part of the Bell system. He was one of the organizers of the Washington, Frederick and Gettysburg Railway, of which at the inception he was made treasurer, and later became its president. For a number of years he served as vice-president of the Farmers' and Mechanics' National Bank. He is now vice-president of the Frederick Railroad, which is a union of all the Frederick County electric railways, and the Washington, Frederick and Gettysburg Railway (a steam railway). Amid all this diversity of interests, indicating immense activity, he found time to write a history of the medical profession in Frederick County.
He is affiliated with the Masonic Fraternity, Odd Fellows, and Elks. He is partial to automobiling as a recreation; and politically affiliates with the Democratic party. Religiously, he attends the Episcopal Church.
Doctor Smith is easily one of the leading men of his section of Maryland, whether considered from a professional or business stand- point. The most admirable feature of his character is his public spirit which causes him to take hold of everything that will help out, whether it is his own idea or somebody else's. A Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts of Princeton University, a Doctor of Medi- cine of the University of Pennsylvania, a constant student and reader through life, he is a man of wide and varied attainments.
He has been twice married; first, to Miss Charlotte P. Dennis, daughter of Colonel George R. Dennis of Frederick, whom he mar- ried in 1879. Subsequent to her death, in 1892, he married Miss Anne Graham Dennis, sister of his first wife. He has two children living, having lost his son, Franklin Buchanan, Jr., in the twenty-third year of his age on November 15, 1903, until then a medical student.
JOHN BAPTIST ADT
P ROMINENT in the business life of Baltimore at the present time is John B. Adt, who owns and conducts a large ma- chinery and supply business.
Mr. Adt belongs to that sturdy Teutonic stock which has written itself so large upon the pages of history for a thousand years past. It is that blood which through the Angles and Saxons made of Eng- land what it is, and through England has made America what it is. This is not all, in the past seventy-five years the mother country of Germany has given to our country eight or ten millions of sturdy immigrants who have been absorbed in our citizenship, and who have contributed a value which cannot be computed to the material, the spiritual, the artistic, and the governmental sides of our life.
Mr. Adt was born in Ensheim (Rhein-Bavaria) February 17, 1835; son of Johann and Elizabeth (Bauer) Adt. His father was a manufacturer of papier-mâché articles; had an excellent education, as well as a technical one, showing much mechanical talent, and in his native town served as councilman. A brother of his father was also a very prominent manufacturer of papier-mâché articles of world- wide repute. Young Adt therefore game by his mechanical tastes in the most legitimate way-by inheritance. He was a healthy boy whose life was spent in a small town until he was fifteen years old, attending school and performing the regular tasks which were allotted to him by wise parents.
In 1860, young Adt came to Baltimore, and his life from that time to 1873, was spent in getting the necessary business equipment and accumulating some capital with which to make a venture on his own account. In 1873, he established in his own name a machinery business on a modest scale. In the machine shop, he manufactured machinery for the manufacture of tobacco elevators, and other lines of machinery, and possessed of considerable inventive talent, he has taken out several patents on machinery of this character, which have proven very profitable, resulting in installations in every country of the world. A hard worker in his business, with a thorough knowledge
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of the same, it grew steadily, and he added to his machine shop a builder's supply business, and in thirty-seven years of active busi- ness, he has seen the small establishment of 1873 grow into the huge concern which now occupies three large buildings in the city of Balti- more. This of course means that he has made money; but this is not all-while making money, he has been making character, and now ranks as one of the substantial men in the business world, and a thor- oughly good citizen in all matters that pertain to the public welfare.
Politically, he belongs to that splendid class in whose hands lie the destiny of our country. Independent in thought, and indepen- dent in action, he wears no party collar; he votes his convictions, seeking always to do that thing which will be best for the whole pub- lic, regardless of its effect upon any mere temporary political organi- zation.
Religiously, he was born in the Catholic communion; but he is not at present affiliated with any church. He has been largely a man of one work. He did not acquire his early education without difficulty, he had to work for it, and that education has been a con- tinuous one, for throughout life he has been a constant student of the best technical works, and by reason of his vocation he has been able to apply the theories found in books and work them out to results. Mr. Adt holds membership in the German and Technological Clubs and the German Society, all of Baltimore; and is a director in the German Bank of Baltimore, and also in the German Fire Insurance Company of Baltimore.
On October 12, 1862, Mr. Adt was married to Miss Sarah Raine, daughter of William Raine; and of this marriage there are four chil- dren: Albert William and Edwin B. (both connected with the father's business); Eleanor (the wife of Professor Herbert W. Smyth of Har- vard University); and Clara (married to Jean De Mot, of Brussels, Belgium, Government archæologist).
Mr. Adt belongs fairly to the most valuable class of our citizen- ship, the producers. Broadly speaking, our entire population may be divided into the producers and the distributors; for every consumer, except the tramps and the useless sons of the rich, belongs to one of these classes. The class of producers, the men who create wealth, who directly out of the soil bring the products on which the people are fed, or bring the raw material from which finished articles are made, and the men who from the raw material make these finished
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articles, constitute the great original creators of wealth. In this line of human effort, the man who does his work well is something more than merely a good citizen, he is a nation builder and a nation maker; and John B. Adt by thirty-seven years of faithful and successful effort in this direction, during which he has added to the productiv- ity of the country, fairly belongs to the class of "makers of America."
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J. M. Taylor
JONATHAN KIRKBRIDE TAYLOR
J ONATHAN K. TAYLOR of Baltimore, though now in his sev- enty-third year, is still active in business as the General Agent of the Provident Life and Trust Company of Philadelphia, which position he has held since 1879, and in these thirty-one years the Baltimore Agency has secured over thirty millions of insurance for the Company.
Mr. Taylor's long life has been one of great usefulness, both as an educator and in the insurance field. He is a Virginian, born in Loudon County, September 3, 1838. His parents were Jonathan and Lydia (Brown) Taylor, both of English descent, coming from families originally settled in Pennsylvania, from which state they moved to Virginia.
His father, born in 1797, was in his earlier years a teacher and in later life a prominent farmer in Virginia up to the time of his death in 1846. His mother, born in 1803, survived her husband until 1878. They were the parents of eight children-four sons and four daugh- ters, namely William H. Taylor, T. Clarkson Taylor, Susanna C. Taylor, B. Fenelon Taylor and Caroline Taylor, all deceased; Han- nah B. Stabler of Montgomery County, Maryland, L. Alice Pancoast of Loudon County, Virginia, and the subject of this sketch. T. Clarkson Taylor was a prominent educator in Wilmington, Delaware, and an eminent minister in the Society of Friends.
In 1856, Mr. Taylor taught a public school near Port Penn, Delaware, and two years later at Smyrna, Delaware. He also assisted his brother's academy in Wilmington, Delaware. His school educa- tion was completed at Allen's Normal School in West Chester, Penn- - sylvania, in 1861.
That year he established the Chester Valley Academy at Coates- ville, Pennsylvania, of which he was both principal and proprietor. That he had a remarkable capacity as a teacher is demonstrated by the history of this school. He started with eleven scholars. At the end of six years, there developed such a serious weakness in his sight that he was compelled to give up his school and at that time there
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were enrolled one hundred and twenty-five students, representing seven states. The school had in these brief years become a most popular institution.
The next two years were spent in mercantile pursuits in Ham- ilton, Loudon County, Virginia. This rest having improved his eyes somewhat and being very much wedded to teaching, he estab- lished the Loudon County Academy, a co-educational institution. A flourishing school was soon built up and in the latter years of his connection, he added the normal idea for the training of teachers and the name was changed to the Virginia Normal Institute.
In 1873, there came a call to a larger field which could not be set aside. His brother, T. Clarkson Taylor, had established a flour- ishing school in Wilmington, Delaware, known as the "Taylor and Jackson Academy," located on the corner of Eighth and Wollaston Streets. On the death of his brother, Mr. Taylor purchased the schoot buildings and established a high-grade school for both sexes and called it the Taylor Academy. He opened his first session Sep- tember 7, 1874, and his reputation as a teacher was then so well established that immediate success followed his connection with the school. But again the old trouble overtook him and within a few years his eyesight was so impaired that he sold the property to the city of Wilmington and retired permanently from teaching.
Possessed of strong will, great energy and fine business quali- fications, Mr. Taylor made a business connection with the Provi- dent Life and Trust Company of Philadelphia and on January 1, 1878, became a special agent of that company in Wilmington. He was successful from the start and in less than two years, to be exact, on November 6, 1879, in partnership with Mr. Elisha H. Walker, they opened an office in Baltimore as General Agents of the Company for Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia. On the com- pletion of the Fidelity Building at the corner of Charles and Lexing- ton Streets, May 1, 1894, they occupied a suite of rooms which have since been Mr. Taylor's business quarters, Mr. Walker having retired from the firm several years ago on account of impaired health.
On July 15, 1863, Mr. Taylor was married to Emma L. Pyle, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Cloud) Pyle of Chester County, Penn- sylvania. Both he and his wife are active members of the Society of Friends, Park Avenue, Baltimore. Mr. Taylor has been chairman of the Board of Trustees for eighteen years and chairman of the School Committee for twenty-one years.
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While a resident of the town of Hamilton, Virginia, he served as postmaster during two administrations and this covers the extent of his public office holding. During the war he was a Union man, and in 1869, in the first election after the war, Mr. Taylor and Spencer E. Coe were nominated by the Republican party for the State Senate, their opponents being Edgar A. Snowden and Thomas E. Taylor. The candidates canvassed the district in joint discussion and Mr. Taylor was defeated by a small majority, though he ran far ahead of his ticket.
He has traveled extensively in Europe and was a member of the New York editorial party, sent out to the Pacific slope by the railroads, July 4, 1875, to describe the country traversed by the var- ious lines. He has been a popular lecturer on his travels, natural science and temperance.
He is now a member of the Headquarters Committee and Vice- President of the Anti-Saloon League of Maryland and President of the Maryland State Temperance Alliance of Baltimore City.
At the convention held in Baltimore on May 26-27, 1896, in the annual report of President Henry Branch, D.D., he makes the fol- lowing reference to Mr. Taylor:
"The purchase of permanent headquarters, itself the dream of a vivid imagination, became the settled purpose of one of the most untiring, as he is one of the most intelligent of our consecrated work- ers and the story will be told to you by the man whose clear head and generous heart, have, heretofore so largely shaped the destiny of this body and whose loyalty with unswerving devotion has been a tower of defense to this cause. For wisdom in counsel, skill in manage- ment and patient continuance in well-doing, Professor J. K. Taylor excites our highest admiration and should receive our most grateful recognition."
The keynote of the life of Jonathan K. Taylor has been fidelity, industry and usefulness to his fellow-man. Measured by the yard- stick of usefulness, his life has been an immense success.
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DANIEL BOONE LLOYD
D ANIEL BOONE LLOYD, who makes his home on Buena Vista Farm, near Glenndale, in Prince George's County, and who for many years has been an official reporter of the United States Senate, is a native of Maryland, born on "Snow- den's Addition Farm," in Anne Arundel County, July 4, 1860. His parents were Augustus and Sarah A. (Middleton) Lloyd, whose only other child was Mary Almira Lloyd. His father was a farmer-an industrious and useful man. According to the family tradition this branch of the Lloyd family was founded in Maryland by Mention Lloyd, who originally came from London, England, to Virginia and thence to Charles County, Maryland, and married a widow, Mrs. Boone. Their children were Thomas, Mention, William, Frank, Joseph Manning and Zachariah. Joseph Manning Lloyd married Calista Stewart, youngest daughter of Francis Stewart, son of Reuben Stewart. Joseph Manning Lloyd moved from Charles County to Anne Arundel County about 1855, and Augustus Lloyd, the father of Daniel Boone Lloyd, was one of his sons. Mention Lloyd, though dying when but forty, had acquired two large estates picturesquely located on the Potomac in Charles County-"Banks of the Dee" and "Milton Hill," on portions of which some of his descendants still reside. Zachariah Lloyd was also a large land and slave- owner, and Joseph Manning Lloyd was at one time the owner of a large number of slaves, whom he worked in his occupation of tobacco planter. The Lloyd family originally came from Wales, where it is still prominent and numerous.
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