USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, Volume III > Part 6
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Returning from the field, he first appears in connection with trans- portation work in 1868, when he took charge of the old York River Steamboat Company, which operated two side-wheeled steamers between Baltimore and West Point, Virginia, each with a capacity of seventy-five passengers and 150 tons of freight.
Though this was only forty-two years ago, the present day pala- tial steamers show what a tremendous advancement has been made
yours very truly · Rembran 2 osta
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REUBEN FOSTER
in this one generation. After a time, the old company was con- solidated with the Powhatan Steamboat Company, then operating between Baltimore and Richmond. Later these companies were absorbed by the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Richmond Steamboat Company, which was incorporated in 1874 under the laws of Mary- land with a capitalization of $250,000. Among the original incor- porators were Thomas Clyde of Philadelphia, Washington Booth, William Callow and Mr. Foster. In 1900 the present Chesapeake Steamship Company was incorporated under the laws of Maryland with a capital of $1,000,000, the incorporators being Henry Walters, B. F. Newcomer, Reuben Foster, Skipwith Wilmer and Reuben Carl Foster, all of Baltimore.
In the meantime, since he went as president in 1868 with the old York River Company, with its two little steamboats and its capital of $50,000, Mr. Foster has maintained his position as president of the original company and all the succeeding companies. The Chesapeake Company took over the property of these different companies; operated the old lines; and in 1896 opened up an addi- tional line to Old Point and Norfolk, popularly known as the "Chesa- peake Line."
The company owns extensive terminals at Light and Lee Streets, with six modern and splendidly equipped vessels built especially to handle the steadily increasing business between Baltimore and the South. Under the management of Mr. Foster, since 1874 the passenger traffic has increased eight hundred per eent; the freight traffic nine hundred per cent; and there has been a reduction of fifty per cent in rates.
Mr. Foster was for many years identified with the Richmond and Danville Railroad System, an important trunk line extending from Washington 3520 miles through the Southern States. In 1892 he was appointed one of the receivers of that system, and served as such until the property was, in 1896, reorganized as the Southern Railway.
This is a business record in which any man might take pride. But this is not all. No native born Baltimorean could have taken a keener interest in the welfare of the State than Mr. Foster has done. When Baltimore was visited in 1904 by a disastrous fire, which caused great loss and called for the prompt action of the city's public- spirited men in the rehabilitation of Baltimore, Mr. Foster was
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included among the loyal citizens appointed by Mayor McLane on the emergency committee, and was later one of the burnt district commissioners. He served as a member of the commission to repre- sent the State of Maryland at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo; the Charleston Exposition and the Jamestown Ter-Cen- tennial Exposition.
Mr. Foster, who is the first vice-president of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association; vice-president for Maryland in the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, and delegate from Balti- more to the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, has always regarded the South as Baltimore's natural trade market, and has heartily advocated and taken an active interest in anything that would contribute to the development of that market.
He is a director of the Citizens National Bank; a member of the Society of the Mayflower Descendants; of the Sons of the Revo- lution, and of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. He is a staunch Presbyterian, having for a number of years filled the position of chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Northminster Presbyterian Church. He is also director in the Boy's Home Society; the Balti- more Manual Labor School and various other charitable institutions. Although not a club man, yet he is a member of the Maryland Club; the Merchants Club and the Baltimore Country Club.
In social intercourse, Mr. Foster is a man of much cheerfulness- cordial and democratic in manner, sincere in his speech and is universally liked by those who have the pleasure of his acquaint- ance.
His success has been honestly won along strictly legitimate lines. He is of constructive temperament-a builder-up, with no element of the speculator in his composition, and is as far removed from the stock-jobber as the poles are apart. The condition of his company when he turned it over to his successor illustrates thoroughly his methods. No floating and no bonded debt tells the story. His high place in the public esteem has been won by merit, and he took with him into the well-earned rest of private life the best wishes of that public which he has served so faithfully.
In 1866 Mr. Foster married Sarah L. Hand, of Cape May, New Jersey, and they have had four sons: E. Edmunds Foster, of Balti- more; Arthur D. Foster, of Baltimore; Reuben Carll Foster, who died in 1908; and Frederick Foster, of Boston.
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Foster is an ancient English name, derived from an occupation. When men first began to take surnames, foresters who had the care of the public and royal forests and those owned by large land owners, constituted an important class in the community; and so the family name of Forester came into existence. In the Middle English period, many of these families shortened their name into Forster; and in the fourteenth century there occurred a further elision into Foster. All three names, however, are yet found in Great Britain and Amer- ica, though the modern name of Foster is most numerous. It will be seen that the name originated in a useful and honorable occupa- tion, and to the credit of Reuben Foster be it said, he bas by a long life of honorable service added prestige to an honorable name.
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WILLIAM SIMON
D OCTOR WILLIAM SIMON, Ph.D., of Baltimore, is what the late Thomas Carlyle would have called in his picturesque English, a "heaven-born teacher." Doctor Simon is a native of Germany, born at Eberstadt, near Giessen, in Hesse, Feb- ruary 20, 1844. His parents were the Reverend William and Agnes Simon. His father was a Lutheran minister, an impressive preacher, and a strong lecturer. For two hundred years, on both sides of the family, appear many Lutheran clergymen, some of whom were prominent as writers and as professors of theology.
Fond of study, at the early age of eight his health broke down through excessive work over the Latin language. He was partial to nature in all of its creations,-plants, animals, fossils and insects, -- and was encouraged in these by wise counsel. He attended the college of Giessen, and the first intention of the family was that he should follow his father's calling; but his interest in natural sciences was such that he was finally permitted to take up chemistry as a pro- fession. Before attending the university, he served for a time with an old family friend who was an accomplished druggist, in order to acquire practical knowledge. As pharmacist he then spent a year in Switzerland, devoting much time to the study of the flora of the Alps. In 1866 he returned to the university and took up the study of pharmacy graduating as pharmacist, in 1868. From 1868 to 1870 he pursued the study of chemistry, and graduated as Doctor of Philosophy in 1869. Doctor Simon says: "If I should name any book alongside of those of a professional nature, I would mention A. Von Humboldt's Cosmos, the pages of which were both my delight and my stimulant during many years."
After his graduation, Doctor Simon was appointed assistant demonstrator of chemistry in the University of Giessen. At that period of his life, he was particularly fortunate in the character of the instructors into whose hands he fell, and so feels a strong sense of gratitude to those able and faithful men, of whom he mentions Doctor Otto Buchner; Professor Henry Will, chemist; H. Buff, physicist; A. Strong, mineralogist; and A. Hofman, botanist.
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cours truly Molimon
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WILLIAM SIMON
His education was not obtained without difficulties. His father died when he was but seven years old, and his mother was left with three children to educate, and a small pension as her only income. This made it necessary that the youth should obtain his education in the least expensive way, and this was partly the reason for his services in the drug store, where, while obtaining knowledge he was furnished with his board as a compensation for service. During his years of study at the university, his expenses were covered in part by giving private lessons.
In 1870 the Baltimore Chrome Works offered him the position of leading chemist in the factory. This was a good opening, and was accepted; but before he could cross the water the Franco-Prussian war broke out. Unwilling at this time to turn his back on his native country he volunteered in a sanitary corps, and was at once appointed chief. He was active in the great struggle around Metz, and after the battle of Sedan, which decided the war, he asked for and received his discharge, and left for America, arriving in Baltimore in Novem- ber, 1870, and taking up his duties with the Baltimore Chrome Works. At the close of the war he was given a medal of honor by the German government for his valuable services during the campaign.
Notwithstanding the strong position which Baltimore has always occupied as a medical center, and therefore to some extent as a center for instruction in natural philosophy, there were many shortcomings in a practical way; and in 1871 Doctor Simon was the pioneer in establishing in Baltimore a laboratory for instruction in practical chemistry. This undertaking, at first a private venture, soon became a department of the Maryland College of Pharmacy, which institution was the third one south of Mason's and Dixon's line to give instruction in analytical and practical chemistry, and which he served as professor of chemistry for more than thirty years, being now professor emeritus.
In 1878 he was elected professor of chemistry in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and in 1889 in the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. His reputation as an analytical chemist steadily grew, but was completely overshadowed by his ability as a teacher. Doctor Simon says: "If I have any claim for having done some good in this world, it is as a teacher. More than ten thousand young men (physicians, pharmacists, dentists and chemists) have come under my personal instruction, and it is at this time of my life a great
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satisfaction to know that many of my former pupils fill to-day posi- tions of honor, not only in this country, but all over the civilized world. Many of them are famed as teachers and scholars in colleges and universities, as writers and investigators, in examination boards, and in scientific corps of the U. S. government."
He served as chairman of the section of chemistry and physics in the Maryland Academy of Science for a period of three years, and is a member of numerous scientific societies in this country and Europe, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society, the American Pharmaceu- tical Association, and the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft. He has served as president of the Maryland Pharmaceutical Association, and chairman of the Educational Section of the American Pharmaceu- tical Association.
In politics, Doctor Simon is an independent. He rather prides himself on the fact that he has voted for President eight times, and never lost a vote. In religion, he adheres to the faith of his fathers, and is a member of the Lutheran church. He has always been partial to outdoor exercises, the forest and the mountains being dear to him.
On May 13, 1873, Doctor Simon married Miss Paula, daughter of F. Driver, Superintendent of the Schools of Oldenburg, Germany. The only child of this marriage has passed away.
Doctor Simon is right in his own judgment of his work. A chemist of the first rank, his usefulness in the world has been as a teacher, and in that direction he has not been surpassed by any man of his time. He is the author of a Manual of Chemistry which has run through nine editions, has constantly increased in popularity, and now occupies a place at the head of the text books on chemistry offered the students of medicine and pharmacy. Its use is not con- fined to this country, but it is found as a textbook as far away as the Syrian Protestant College in Beyrout, Syria, and as an auxiliary textbook in Tokio, Japan. In addition to this great work he has made many contributions to the professional journals, and in 1886 took out a patent on an improved method for the manufacture of potassium bichromate. Not yet an old man, he has lived to see the most abundant fruits of his labors, and to win a large measure of respect and affection from the people of his adopted country, whom he has served so faithfully.
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Sincerely Yours, That Eledare.
JOHN FRANCIS BLEDSOE
T HIS is a very old world, counting its age by thousands of years, instead of centuries; and yet, notwithstanding its age, it was only one hundred and twenty-five years ago that Valentine Hauy founded the first school for the blind, in Paris, in 1785, and invented the first embossed books for the blind. Eng- land followed in 1791; Austria in 1804; Prussia in 1806. The Euro- pean schools were based on the idea of charity. The American schools are based on the idea that our blind children have as much right to an education at the hands of the state, as those who see. The first school for the blind in the United States was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1829. Since that date, noweighty-one years ago, they have spread into every State of the Union.
The subject of this sketch, John Francis Bledsoe, now the efficient superintendent of the Maryland School for the Blind in Baltimore, is at the head of the school which dates back to 1853. The early years were years of small growth and small accomplishment. Faith- ful men did their best, but it was in a comparatively early day, and the things that are now done were not more than dreamed of by those men. Between 1853 and 1864-eleven years-the school had three superintendents. In 1864 Frederick D. Morrison was in- induced to take charge, and the remaining forty years of his life were spent in that work. The splendid capacity and energy which he put into the work was productive of large results; and when his lamented death occurred, in 1904, the directors appointed his son, George C. Morrison, as his successor. In the meantime a young man, a native of Alabama, had been for several years in charge of the colored department; and Mr. George C. Morrison, although profoundly interested in the work, after a brief two years' term, resigned, both on account of his business interests, and also because, in his own words, he "wanted to make room for a better man." That man whom he characterized as a "better man" was John F. Bledsoe, the subject of this sketch.
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JOHN FRANCIS BLEDSOE
Mr. Bledsoe was born in Camp Hill, Tallapoosa County, Ala- bama; youngest son of John F. and Mary U. (Birdsong) Bledsoe. His father, the Reverend John F. Bledsoe, was a minister and a teacher. For many years, he was president of LaFayette Female College. Has was a modest, unassuming, studious, scholarly man, of deeply spiritual and conscientious character. He belonged to that Bledsoe family which was founded in Virginia by John Bledsoe who came from England in the colonial period. Without entering into detail of the family history, it is sufficient to say that the family was established in Virginia in the seventeenth century, and by the end of that century had acquired a large estate in Northumberland County, as proven by the will of George Bledsoe as recorded July 17, 1704. Abraham, son of George, whose will was probated May 29, 1753, was the father of a famous family of sons. Aaron, one of his sons, was a captain in Spottsylvania County, in 1766, when the old French War was raging. Anthony, another son, was commissioned a captain of the colonial troops about 1774, and served in that capacity in the continental army. Isaac was a private in Dunmore's war and subsequent Indian wars. Abraham was an ensign in Captain David Long's company. These Bledsoes bore a notable part in the opening up of Tennessee and Kentucky. Captain Anthony, above referred to, and his brother Isaac settled in what is now Sumner County, Tennessee, and were leaders in that section. They were the most intimate friends of James Robertson, the father of Middle Tennessee; and their untimely deaths at the hands of the savages were deeply deplored by the valiant pioneer. Both of them ranked with Robert- son among the early settlers, and in later years their burial places have been marked by the citizens of Sumner County with a stately monu- ment in commemoration of their splendid services. Abraham. another brother, was a noted hunter in the early days of Tennessee. Jesse Bledsoe, who became United States Senator from Kentucky, was a cousin of these. A long list of the Bledsoes and the Bledsoe descendants has been made by the historian of Sumner County, Tennessee, which gives some faint idea of the family.
The most noted man in all the generations of the Bledsoes was Albert Taylor Bledsoe; born in Kentucky in 1809; died in Baltimore in 1877. He was colonel in the Confederate army, and acting assis- tant secretary of war. He served as professor of mathematics in the universities of Mississippi and Virginia. Later he was editor of
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"The Southern Review." Some of his famous books, like "The Philosophy of Mathematics;" "Was Jeff. Davis a Traitor?" and "Liberty and Slavery," are among the greatest contributions ever made to the literature of any country. Doctor Bledsoe as a thinker was probably equal to any man our country ever produced. In his life he was as simple as a child and was for many years a local Methodist preacher.
It would be of exceeding interest if the story of Mr. John F. Bled- soe's early life could be written in detail, and would be most inspiring to any of our young men who want to get an education and find the way rough. We can only touch upon a few spots in his recollections. The youngest child, he used to sit at his mother's knee, after doing the little chores which fell to his lot, such as bringing in the wood, minding the calves, driving the cows to and from pasture; and sitting thus in the evening he would dream of the time when he would become "a storekeeper." But, in spite of this dream and this exalted ambition, he was an active healthy boy and took interest in the sports of boys. His father being a minister, and, as he says, "therefore in moderate circumstances," they had to make the most of their own toys; so they would manufacture a wagon out of logs and yoke up the calves to the wagon. They had the wholesome amusements of country children, with plenty of swimming and fishing. Coupled with these was a certain modicum of tasks which they had to perform and do well; and this Mr. Bledsoe looks back upon as one of his most val- uable experiences. He early learned to know and appreciate the self-sacrifice of his mother, and he repaid that self-sacrifice with the most unlimited devotion. He recalls in his intellectual inspiration that, while it perhaps came more from his father, yet he was much helped by the pride his mother took in it, and the encouragement she gave. His father died when he was but sixteen. The boy at that time had only a measure of education, but was not afraid of work. He went to live with an older brother; paid his board by such help as he could do around the place, and earned the twenty-five dollars-cost of tuition for a term in school-by cutting and hauling ten cords of wood to the railroad; and he recalls now the keen pleasure he experienced when he got that twenty-five dollars. At the end of the term, he stood an examination, got a third-grade teacher's certifi- cate, and took up a little school near where his father had preached and was buried. He admits that the school was secured because
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he was the son of his father. The following year, he secured a larger school; but just at this moment his sister, with a family of six children lost her husband; and so he cut out his aspirations for more education, and turned to the help of the sister who had been helpful to him. At the end of that year, he turned to the life long friend of his father, J. H. Johnson, who was at that time probate judge of the county, and laid his case before him. Judge Johnson wrote in return: "Go to college and draw on me for what you need." The lad insured his life for two thousand dollars and went to college, remaining three years, working during the summer vacations to help pay expenses. At the end of this three years' course, he was in debt over a thous- and dollars, for which he gave his notes bearing eight per cent.
He had decided to become a teacher, and had asked Professor George W. Macon, the boys' friend in the faculty, to give him aid in securing a position. The professor called him into his office one day and told him the superintendent of the State school for the deaf had asked him to recommend a graduate to become a Fellow at Gallaudet College at Washington, D. C., to learn to teach the deaf. The fellowship paid five hundred a year, which would cover expenses and required an obligation to teach the deaf at least three years after one year's training. After due consideration of this entirely new and, to him, novel proposition, he decided to accept it; but he had not the money even to get to Washington on; so again he had to fill in the summer vacation by teaching, before he could go to Washington. The story of that summer vacation trip is a most entertaining one, but space does not permit its use. Sufficient to say, after a very hard trip into the back country, and use of quite a little bit of diplo- macy, he secured the school, for which he received one hundred dol- lars and went to Washington. After his year's work in Washington, he accepted a position in the State school for the deaf of Alabama, located at Talladega, and taught there for five years. At the end of this time, in 1898, Mr. Bledsoe was chosen principal of the depart- ment for colored blind and deaf of the Maryland School for the Blind, and took up work in Baltimore in the fall of 1898.
On July 1, 1899, he married Miss Fannie I. Leonard, a native of Boston, who had been a teacher in Alabama School for the Blind, also located at Talladega. Their married life was short. She died in January, 1900.
For six years he worked alone, and while carrying on the work
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of his department in the school for the blind, Mr. Bledsoe took a course at Johns Hopkins University covering a period of four years, leading to the degree of Ph.D. He took for his thesis: "The Educa- tion of the Blind in America," which he has never published. One year previous to the completion of the full course of university studies pressure of the work in connection with his new duties, com- pelled him to discontinue. In the spring of 1906, when Mr. George C. Morrison resigned from the superintendency, Mr. Bledsoe was elected unanimously as superintendent of the Maryland School for the Blind, which position he has since filled, not only with fidelity, but with distinction, and is now a recognized authority in that de- partment of humanitarian work.
In the spring of 1906, he married the second time, Mrs. Harriet Edna Krebs (née Seal). They have two little ones: John Francis, Junior, and Virginia Leonard Bledsoe.
For much of the literature connected with the school since Doctor Bledsoe's connection with it, he has been responsible. He has taken a profound interest and an active part in organizing the Maryland Workshop for the Blind, an association of blind men and women in the State, and has been constant in energetic work for arousing an interest among all the people looking to improving the condition of the blind. He strives constantly for the broadening of the work, including the development of present institutions, and hopes later to see proper provision made for the aged and infirm blind. The present institution is a perfect marvel to those who have not seen the work done by blind people in modern schools; and even after seeing it, one cannot but wonder at the marvelous results which have been obtained through the fidelity and patience of those kindly-hearted men and women who have devoted themselves to this work.
Mr. Bledsoe has found his true vocation in life, and it may almost be regarded as providential, that little opening which changed the course of his life from the direction of a classical teacher to that of teacher of the blind.
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