USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, Volume III > Part 5
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
48
JOHN RANDOLPH BLAND
it is right and just that the truth of history should be preserved. Yet another thing is true; a noble ancestry may be a handicap or an inspiration; and it is to the credit of the majority of these well- descended Americans of to-day that it has been an inspiration. John R. Bland is an illustration of this class of good citizens who, depending not upon a great name to carry them forward in the world, take hold vigorously, do good work, render good service, and on their own merits build up character and reputation, thus reflect- ing credit on a long line of splendid forbears.
The boyhood of John R. Bland was in no respect an exception. He was reared in the city of St. Louis, under normal conditions, and after preliminary training in the schools entered Washington Uni- versity of St. Louis. He thus started in life with a good educational equipment. His mother died when he was but five years of age, and he thus lost the very best influence which can enter into any man's life.
His business career began in railroad circles, and from 1872 to 1880 he was general agent of the Seaboard Air Line Railway in Balti- more. In 1880 he became secretary of the Merchants & Manufac- turers Association and served in that capacity until 1896. It will thus be seen that he had spent twenty-four years in two positions, neither one affording any great scope for brilliancy, but in each of which he served with such fidelity and efficiency that he made char- acter; and so when he became, in 1896, one of the chief organizers and promoters of the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, it was entirely logical that he should be elected to the presidency of that company, and that position he has held up to the present. By his great executive ability, he has brought an institution begin- ning with limited capital to a condition of great financial strength, and the enjoyment of much the largest surety business of any com- pany in America.
On January 13, 1876, he married Miss Maria Harden, daughter of John Summerfield Harden of Baltimore. From his marriage there are two children. Mr. Bland is a member of the Episcopal Church, the Masonic fraternity, and the Maryland and Baltimore clubs. In political matters he is independent, which is entirely becoming in a descendant of that stern old patriot, "Dick Bland," as he was known by his contemporaries of Virginia. By hard study and long continued labor, combined with native ability, Mr. Bland has wrought
49
JOHN RANDOLPH BLAND .
himself forward to a position of honor and usefulness in the com- munity. The opinion therefore of such a man in the shape of advice to the young, is worth something, and he gives it very briefly. Mr. Bland regards "courage and judgment" as the most essential ele- Inents to success in life, and here, again, heredity crops out, for cour- age has always been a most notable feature of his line-and none will question the judgment of those members of the Bland family who have been in the public eye. There is sound reason for the position taken by Mr. Bland in this matter. Many men have good judgment, but are faint-hearted. Other men have courage, but are rash. The combination of the two qualities, as typified in men like Washington and Lee,-who are, of course, shining examples,-proves that success always attends such combination.
-
DAVID LEWIS BARTLETT
T HE late David L. Bartlett, of Baltimore, was born in Had- ley, Massachusetts, on December 6, 1816, and died in Baltimore on May 11, 1899. His father, Daniel Bartlett, married Louisa Stockbridge, and he was, therefore, on both sides of the family, descended from old Massachusetts stock. The Bartlett ancestry goes back in America to the earlier settlers of the Colony of Massachusetts, and in the three centuries which have since elapsed the family has given to our country at least fifteen men of wide reputation and large usefulness, among them Josiah Bartlett, of New Hampshire, who was a signer of the Declaration of Indepen- dence and a Chief Justice of his State. The family is an ancient one in England, where it occupied many honorable positions through many centuries.
David L. Bartlett was educated in the public schools of Hart- ford, Connecticut, with a short academic course, and after leaving school, was apprenticed to an iron firm in Hartford to learn the first details of that business. His ability received quick recognition, and he accepted a call to New York, where he developed immense business capacity and sound judgment. In 1844 he decided to locate in Baltimore, and became a member of the firm of Hayward, Bartlett & Co., manufacturers of architectural iron, etc. The business increased with great rapidity. The success of their system of heat- ing and ventilation is best shown in the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Some of their finest work is in many of the large public buildings in Washington, in the New York Post Office, in the Custom House in New Orleans, and in the Mint in San Francisco. Fine specimens of their construction of large gas holders are in Havana and in nearly all the large cities of the Union. Their iron lighthouses are on many points of our coasts. The firm has always stood for the highest integrity, and for singularly cordial relations with other firms representing the best in the land.
In 1863 the Winans Locomotive Works passed into their hands, and continued in connection with their other iron work. This busi- ness, more than seventy years established, is now a corporation con-
..
Jamie S. Bartlett
Baltimore, 1886.
ph 53
DAVID LEWIS BARTLETT
ducted under the style of Bartlett-Hayward Company, and is one of the large concerns of the East, giving employment to several thousand men.
Mr. Bartlett's success in business was notable; but he was much more than a successful business man. Possessed of a large measure of public spirit, he took a keen and active interest in everything bearing upon the public welfare of the city, frequently serving on committees concerned in public matters. He was a trustee and President of the McDonough Institute for Boys, President of the Druid Hill Park Board, President of the Farmers and Planters Bank, Treasurer of the Oratorio Society, and senior vestryman of Grace Episcopal Church. A man of fine appearance and genial manners, his personal popularity was great, and this enabled him to be much more useful in all those activities which aroused his interest. For politics he had but little taste. During the existence of the Whig party he affiliated with that organization. Upon its dissolution he became a member of the Republican party.
He was twice married. His first wife was Miss Sarah Abbey, to whom he was married in January, 1845; and of this marriage there were three children, of whom one, Mrs. C. P. Robinson, of Brooklyn, New York, is now living. After the death of his first wife, he married on the 15th of April, 1868, Miss Julia E. Pettibone, daughter of Giles and Mary Gleason (Parsons) Pettibone, of Simsbury, Con- necticut. Of this marriage two children were born, neither of which survived the years of infancy.
Mrs. Bartlett, who survives her husband, traces her American ancestry back to Samuel Pettibone, French Huguenot, who migrated from Massachusetts to Connecticut, in 1630, being one of the first settlers of Connecticut, and settled in Weatogue, the Indian name of that section of Simsbury owned by the Pettibone family. Two descendants of Samuel served with distinction in the Revolutionary War,-Colonel Jonathan Pettibone, who led a regiment and died in the service, and Elijah Pettibone who also led a Connecticut regi- ment and survived the war. A grandson of Colonel Elijah Pettibone, Augustus H. Pettibone, served in the Civil War, and has since held many prominent positions in Tennessee, among them that of repre- sentative in Congress for six years.
The Pettibone family, once very numerous in Connecticut, has become almost extinct there; but descendants of the family are now
54
DAVID LEWIS BARTLETT
found scattered over the Union. Through the female line, Mrs. Bart- lett is descended direct from Governor Dudley, first colonial governor of Massachusetts, and from Governor Leet, of Connecticut.
During his life, David L. Bartlett held membership in a number of clubs, such as the Union League of New York, the Maryland, the Merchants and Manufacturers, and the Kennels and Country Club . of Baltimore. He was one of the officers of a club known as the Wednesday Club, not now in existence.
He found his recreation in yachting, fishing, driving and golf. He became quite an extensive traveler, and wrote some very interest ing letters from Europe, which were privately printed in 1886. An extensive reader in nearly every direction, he became a man of great information, especially well-informed upon art subjects, and to this added not only sound taste in music, but was himself an excellent musician.
He retained his physical and mental strength throughout life, and when he passed away, in his eighty-third year, he left behind the reputation of an able business man of sterling integrity and culti- vated judgment, of fine social qualities, and a citizen who had been of great value to the community.
.
Very Sung Jun.
CHARLES HERMAN DICKEY
C' HARLES H. DICKEY, of Baltimore, president of the Maryland Meter Company, and one of the strong and aggressive business men of Baltimore, is a native of that city, born on January 9, 1860, son of Charles Z. and Elizabeth J. Dickey.
Mr. Dickey's father was a merchant, devoted to his business, characterized by a high sense of honor in his business career, and devoted to his home, taking great pleasure in beautifying his sur- roundings and making his home pleasant.
Mr. Dickey illustrates in himself the composite character of our American citizenship. In his veins flow English, Irish and German blood. The Dickeys are English, and this branch of the family was first settled in Pennsylvania in the colonial period, from which State his grandfather, George S. Dickey, came to Baltimore in the early part of the last century, and married Henrietta Smith, daughter of Hon. Samuel R. Smith, a prominent man of that period. This par- ticular branch of the Smith family was of Irish extraction. Samuel R. Smith was connected with James Smith, of Pennsylvania, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and with Doctor Rittenhouse, a noted Pennsylvania patriot of that day. General Samuel Smith, a distinguished soldier of the Revolution, who for forty years represented Maryland in the Congress, divided between the Lower House and the Senate, was also a Pennsylvanian born, and believed to have been of the same family as James Smith, as he was credited to the Irish branch of Smiths of Pennsylvania. On the maternal side Mr. Dickey's American ancestry goes back to his grandfather, Captain Philip B. Sadtler. Captain Sadtler came from Germany to Baltimore in 1801. He married a Miss Sauerwein, also of German descent, and related to the de Capitos. In 1812 Captain Sadtler held command of a company in the Fifth Maryland Regi- ment, and participated in the battle of North Point, so creditable to the defenders of Baltimore, and which resulted in saving that city from capture. Still another strain of German blood appears in this
Ah 58
CHARLES HERMAN DICKEY
family through the marriage of Mr. Dickey's great-grandfather, Samuel R. Smith, to Ann Sitler, a daughter of Abraham Sitler. A distinct branch of the Dickey family has in the last and present generation won business prominence and success in Baltimore in manufacturing lines. The Pennsylvania Dickeys have given to the country one or two most prominent educators, and one Congressman.
Charles H. Dickey had the best of home surroundings as a boy; had the advantage of country life, being reared in Baltimore county, and lacked nothing in the way of education. After passing through the public schools and Loyola College, he entered Muhlenburg Col- lege, at Allentown, Pa. He did not remain to graduate, as business reverses on the part of his father compelled him to take up work on his own account at the age of nineteen.
He began his business career as a clerk, and after three years entered the service of the Maryland Meter Company in 1882, with which company he has been connected from that time to the present, and of which he has been president since 1896. A moment's calcu- lation will show that he was a young man of twenty-two when he entered the service of this company. In fourteen years he had risen from a clerkship to be president of the company, which position he reached at the age of thirty-six. The mere statement of this fact shows the business qualities of the man; but Mr. Dickey is something more than merely a successful business man.
A reading man, he has always been partial to works on nature and philosophy. To this he has added a fondness for travel. These things have kept him not only in touch with nature, but in sympathy with his fellowmen, and he himself admits that such failures as have come to him in life have been the result of his confidence in his fellowmen; but he adds emphatically that he would not change that disposition for all it has cost. He believes that an essential ingredient in obtaining success in business is consideration for those with whom you are dealing, fairness and a certain measure of humility. Mr. Dickey rather stresses this point of humility. He thinks that man is mistaken who tries to take advantage by deceiving himself into the belief that his methods are better than those of any one else, and that we should recognize the fact that others are equally as alert- minded as ourselves, and have equally as good intentions. Politically he is an adherent of the Democratic party, but does not take an active part in political life. In a social way he holds membership
.
59
CHARLES HERMAN DICKEY
in the Phi Gamma Delta college fraternity, and in the Maryland, the Merchants and the Baltimore Country clubs, of Baltimore; the Algonquin Club, of Boston; the Lotos, of New York and the Lambs.
On November 8, 1882, Mr. Dickey married Miss Araminta Fendall Duvall. Of his marriage there are six children.
At the second annual meeting of the American Gas Institute, held in Washington, D. C., in October, 1907, Mr. Dickey delivered an address on the "Obligations Imposed by the Possession of a Fran- chise," which address so clearly shows the workings of his mind, and was such a strong analysis of the question under discussion, that it is proper to refer to it, even though it must be done briefly. To begin with, Mr. Dickey recognized very clearly, that rights granted by franchise come only by the operation of law, and exist solely by sover- eign grant from the people, in whom the power rests. They are privileges, and carry with them an obligation to the common- wealth which grants them, as well as an obligation from the com- monwealth. Mr. Dickey showed that the possession of a franchise did not grant the corporation any power outside of that specifically designated, and that each corporation should live rigidly within its rights as defined by the franchise. He recognized the duty which the holders of the franchise owed to the public, and that this duty was to be performed by a proper use, and a proper use only of the powers granted. He quoted a distinguished authority to the effect that the powers whose burdens in every time past have produced a policy of discontent and led to revolution, have been social, and not political. Mr. Dickey laid down the cardinal principle, for public service corporations, that the people must be treated justly. After enlarging upon that point, he used a paragraph which is worth quoting bodily, to this effect: "The rights of the corporation clearly do not come before the rights of the people. No announcement should be made of curtailment of service, in order that dividends must first be paid before the public has been served; because the pur- chase of any property carries with it the obligations as imposed by the franchise; and by taking the people into its confidence, with the understanding that every effort will be made to build up for their benefit, there will be cooperation and support which can be gained in no other manner." Further on he used these words: "We must not live too close to the letter of the law. We must not draw the lines too tight nor too fast, without giving due consideration to the
1
Laura July M. B. Barler,
WILLIAM BENJAMIN BAKER
N EARING the three-score-ten mark, the Honorable William Benjamin Baker, of Aberdeen, can look back upon a long life of large usefulness to his generation. He comes of a family settled for generations past in that section of Maryland. The Bakers came from England in the colonial period, and branches of the family settled all over the country from Maine to Georgia. No branch of the family has contributed better citizens to the country than this Maryland branch which settled in Harford County. It would take a large volume to recite the work of the various distin- guished representatives of the Baker family in the last four or five generations; but one of the most picturesque characters in our history may not be overlooked. Remember Baker, born in Connecticut about 1740, became a soldier in the old French and English wars before he was eighteen years old. At the conclusion of the old French war he settled in Vermont and built the first grist mill in what was then known as the New Hampshire grants. After defending the rights of the citizens against what he regarded as the aggressions of New York, he was outlawed by the Governor of New York and suffered much ill treatment. He was second in command to Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga in 1775; became captain of scouts later on in that campaign, and was killed by the Indians near St. Johns later in the year, when he was about thirty-five years old. In those brief years he had acquired a reputation which extended over all the northern colonies as a man of great resource in danger, of unlimited daring,-a devoted patriot, and one who, had his life been spared, would have risen to high station. As it is, he is one of the most picturesque figures in our history.
William B. Baker's family have been settled in Harford County, Maryland, for generations. His grandfather, Nicholas Baker, was born in that county. His father was George W. Baker, who married Elizabeth Greenland, of a Pennsylvania family. George W. Baker was one of the earlier representatives of that industry which has reached its greatest development in Maryland-the canning of fruits
th 64
WILLIAM BENJAMIN BAKER
and vegetables and oysters, and this industry seems to have been a favorite one in the family. John H. Baker, an uncle of the subject of this sketch, was more than fifty years ago prominent in the public life of Maryland and served in the House of Delegates in 1858. Mr. Baker was born near Aberdeen on July 22, 1840. He says that even as a boy, his tastes ran along political lines. Evidently his father was a wise man, for the boy was required to do a certain amount of work around his father's cannery. After passing through the private and public schools of Harford County, and arriving at manhood, he took up the work of a farmer and remained engaged in that occupation near Aberdeen until he was thirty-two years old. He then entered the canning business, drawn into it because of the fact that it was his father's business; and this has remained his chicf business interest from that time to the present. In his business he has had a large measure of success, and now conducts one of the largest canneries in that section, the chief product being corn. Inci- dental to this, it may be stated that at one time there were five Baker brothers engaged in the canning business in Cecil and Harford coun- ties, each on his own account.
Republican in his political affiliations, Mr. Baker has always taken a very keen interest in public affairs. A man of much personal popularity, he first entered public life in 1881, when he was elected to the house of delegates, defeating Murray Vandiver, one of the Demo- cratic leaders of Maryland. This was in itself enough to give him strong position in political life. Eighteen hundred and ninety-three found him again in the general assembly as a member of the State Senate. His reputation by this time had grown to such an extent, that his party nominated and elected him a member of the Federal Congress in 1894. He was reelected in 1896, and again in 1898, serving the full three terms, and declined nomination for the fourth term. He was then for a brief space out of office; but in 1905, he was again elected to the State Senate. He served two terms, and in both terms he was the choice of his party for Presi- dent of the Senate; but his party being in the minority, the only result of this was to make him the leader of the minority. The political career of Mr. Baker recalls the career of many of our earlier public men. It was no uncommon thing in the first fifty years of the life of the republic to find men who had filled the most exalted positions later serving their constituents in what appeared
65
WILLIAM BENJAMIN BAKER
to be small positions. President Madison, after his retirement from office, cheerfully served as a road overseer. President John Quincy Adams, after his retirement from the Presidency, served as a member of the Federal Congress. In the earlier years in the Southern States, it was no uncommon thing to find ex-United States Senators in the general assembly or serving as county commissioners. This is as it should be in a democracy. No man should be too big to serve in any useful capacity,-and the bigger the man, the more useful his services in these positions, which not of the highest as men judge, yet have in them the elements of the highest usefulness. It is very much, therefore, to Mr. Baker's credit that he has at all times stood ready to serve his constituents in any capacity where they needed him.
He has been somewhat of a financier outside of his own immediate business. In 1891 he helped to organize the First National Bank of Aberdeen, and was also one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Havre de Grace.
Mr. Baker attends the Methodist Church; is very partial to out- door exercises, in which he indulges freely, especially walking; and is a vigorous man, his years considered. In fraternal circles, he is a Mason and Odd Fellow. In the great order of Odd Fellows, he has a remarkable record, having served the Aberdeen Lodge as its secretary for thirty-seven years. He has been honored by his breth- ren in that fraternity, and is now a Past Grand Master of Mary- land.
In looking back over his public career, Mr. Baker takes special pleasure in the fact that while in Congress he was able to give strong support to the extension of the rural free delivery system, and secured very substantial help for the improvement of the waterways of his State. He can well congratulate himself on this work, because he could have rendered no more useful service.
As stated in the beginning of this sketch, it may be repeated in the conclusion: Mr. Baker has had an active, a successful, a useful and patriotic life. It is pleasant to be able to say that he has also won not only the confidence, but the personal esteem of the people whom he has tried so faithfully to serve.
REUBEN FOSTER
I T sometimes happens in this busy commercial age in which we live, when everybody is in a hurry, when the daily papers, the telegraphs, the telephone, automobiles and airships keep people on the qui vive,-that some unassuming and quiet man is brought into the public light and his neighbors wake up to the realization of the fact that he has for many years been contributing valuable services to the community, without in any way blowing his own trumpet.
Such a man is Reuben Foster, of Baltimore, for forty-one years president of the Chesapeake Steamship Company, who retired from that position on October 1, 1909. The editorial comment made in the Baltimore American of September 14, 1909, was an entirely just tribute to a man who has never held political position; has never desired notoriety; and whose whole life has been a record of faithful devotion to the duties of the responsible positions which he has filled.
Reuben Foster was born October 28, 1839, at Cape May, New Jersey. His parents were Downs E. and Ann Lawrence Foster. He came from a long line of colonial and Revolutionary ancestry, his first paternal American ancestor having come to New England in 1635. Mr. Foster was educated at the common schools in his own county, and later at a business college in Philadelphia. At an early age he went West, but remained only a short time, returning at the outbreak of the Civil War to enlist as a volunteer in the Union army. He entered the 25th Regiment of New Jersey Volunteers as a private, and as the result of successive promotions, in nine months became first lieutenant.
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.