USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, Volume IV > Part 12
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disasters of the war the white people were submerged by the ignorant negro vote, and that is why the Southerner is in such an emphatic sense a Democrat.
In the early prime of life, possessed of splendid physique and tremendous vitality, Mr. Thomas has already made his mark in the city of his adoption, and has before him the promise of a most brilliant career and one which bids fair to be most useful to the community.
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.Las. D.Cugle,
CHARLES DAVIS CUGLE
I N NO section of our country have the descendants of the origi- nal Colonialstock more sturdily held their own than in Mary- land. Puritan New England is, as to half of it, largely a country of foreign-born people. The same thing is true of the middle West and the far West. The Southern States-that is, south of Maryland- while controlled by descendants of the original settlers, presents the spectacle in many of the older States of the entire disappearance of many famous families, due to emigration to the western section of the Southern States. In Maryland, almost alone of the States, one finds the same names that were prominent one hundred and fifty years ago.
Of this old Maryland stock comes Charles Davis Cugle, pro- prietor of the Washington Rubber Company, whose place of business is in Washington, D. C., and whose residence is in the fashionable suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland, where he is the owner one of the most splendid homes in that beautiful settlement. Mr. Cugle's family has been prominent in the life of Baltimore and large real estate owners in that city for four generations. His grandfather was John Cugle, who was an extensive property owner in what is now the heart of the business section of Baltimore, as his father before him had been. His great-grandfather, whose name was John also, was probably the original immigrant and a successful man of affairs. Charles D. Cugle is a son of the third John Cugle, known as John Cugle, Junior, who married Susie P. Davis, daughter of Dr. Charles S. Davis, and of this marriage Charles D. Cugle was born in Baltimore, April 8, 1863. His father was a member of the wholesale dry goods firm of Cugle, Sickle'and Company, one of the notable mercantile concerns of Baltimore in the last generation. Mr. Cugle's paternal grandmother was Ann S. Hurst, a member of a family prominent in the annals of Maryland.
Charles D. Cugle was educated in the local schools of Baltimore, completing his school training in the Baltimore City College. Leav- ing school as a youth, he entered mercantile life as a clerk in the rubber
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goods house of Janney and Congdon in Baltimore. He has never varied from his first choice. Leaving this firm, he went to Boston and for nine years was connected with the Conant Rubber Company. Returning to Baltimore as department manager for the Maryland Rubber Company, he while serving in that capacity, saw an opportun- ity in Washington, and in 1908 established the Washington Rubber Company, at F, corner of 10th Streets, which is already a substantial and successful enterprise.
Mr. Cugle has adhered closely to business pursuits and has not participated to any great extent in public life-the only public posi- tion he has ever filled being that of a Justice of the Peace while a resident of Roland Park, near Baltimore, where he lived for some fif- teen years, and in 1900 against his inclination he was called upon to serve his fellow citizens in that capacity, holding the office until 1904. He is a Mason, and a member of the Baltimore Country Club, and the Columbia Country Club of Washington. Politically, he is a lifetime Democrat. His religious connection is with the Episcopal Church. He belongs to that element in the church known as High Churchmen. -
He is an active, capable man; of independent spirit; strongly . attached to his domestic life, and giving much attention to the beauti- fying of his home.
His family connections are of the best. Through one line he comes of the Davis and Hurst families of Maryland, both of which have ranked high in the commonwealth; and he is a nephew by marriage of Summerfield Baldwin, than whom, no man has ever taken a higher stand in Maryland.
Mr. Cugle was married November 20, 1890, to Miss Jessie Lewis Owen, daughter of Colonel Samuel W. Owen, captain of the President's Mounted Guards, Colonel Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, and on staff of Governor Cook, and of his wife Catherine Cruit, of Washington. D. C. They have one son, Kenneth Wilson Cugle, and twin daugh- ters, Edith Heath and Olive Eloise Cugle.
Mr. Cugle's ancestral lire is a fine illustration of the composite racial strains which make up the American citizen of today. His father, John Cugle (III), (born in Baltimore, June 25, 1839, died in that city, April 13, 1909) was a son of John Cugle (II), (born in Balti- more, August 17, 1813, died in that city, January 16, 1889), who married Ann Switzer Hurst (born in Annapolis, June 15, 1811, died
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in Baltimore, December 18, 1900). John Cugle (II) was son of John Cugle (I), born in Germany in 1771, died in Baltimore, November 5, 1828. His wife, Ann Cugle, born in 1775, died in Baltimore, September 5, 1834. Going back to this first John Cugle, we find that the original name was Koogle. Apparently John Cugle (I), (or Koogle) was the American progenitor of this branch of the family, though this is not absolutely certain, because the Koogles have been identified with Frederick County for a long time. A large majority of the German-descended people of Frederick County came over between 1735 and 1745, which was prior to the date of John Cugle's (I) birth. It is barely possible that John Cugle (I) may not have been the original immigrant, but the son of one of these original immigrants who settled in Frederick County.
Going back to Mr. Cugle's maternal line, we find that his mother, Susie Presbury Davis (born in Baltimore, April 15, 1838, died in that city September 18,, 1903), was a daughter of Dr. Charles Stansbury Davis and Priscilla Uhler (Galloway) Davis. Doctor Charles S. Davis (born August 10, 1795, died in Baltimore, February 27, 1856) was a son of Elihu Davis, who was one of the defenders of North Point, and his wife, Hannah Stansbury. Doctor Davis' wife, Priscilla Uhler, was a daughter of William Galloway, a native of Middle River, Maryland, and his wife, Ann Taylor, a native of North Carolina. William Galloway was a son of Robert Galloway, a native of Scotland.
Now, summing this up, we find the Cugle (or Koogle) blood is German; the Hurst and Stansbury blood is English; the Davis blood is Welsh; the Galloway blood is Scotch. We have therefore in this one American family, Scotch, English, Welsh, and German blood. And this is but an illustration of millions of other American citizens. It accounts for our ruling characteristics-and is the only way in which we can account for it.
JOHN MAYS LITTLE
A MONG the young men of Baltimore County, John Mays Little of Towson, lawyer, has won an honorable position by his industry and capacity. He is a native of Baltimore County, born near Parkton; son of William H. and Emma Little. His father was a farmer by occupation.
Mr. Little's great-great-grandfather, Captain James Calder, the founder of the family in Maryland, was a notable figure. He belonged - to that Calder Clan settled in Lanarkshire, Scotland, since time im- memorial, and they adhering to the Jacobite cause young Calder led the members of his father's clan in the disastrous battle of Culloden. The young Scotch captain who was then only twenty years old, after the defeat of his cause in 1746, had to leave Scotland in an extreme hurry in order that he might preserve his life. He made his way to Maryland, where he became acquainted with Charles Carroll of_Carrollton, the famous old signer of the Declaration of Independence, and possibly through his influence patented a large tract of land lying in the vicinity of Parkton. His only son entered the American navy in the Revolutionary struggle, while his brother was an officer in the British Navy. The land records show that Cap- tain James Calder took up a number of tracts of land throughout Baltimore County, but evidently disposed of all of them except the home place. That he was a man of considerable note in his day is proven by his intimacy with Charles Carroll and other prominent men of that time, with whom he carried on an active correspondence, and some of these old letters are now very interesting.
John Mays Little, reared in the country under healthful con- ditions, indulging in hunting, fishing and other outdoor sports of the country, grew up a healthy man, and through the influence of his mother was encouraged to persevere in the securing of a good educa- tion. He went through the Shrewsbury Academy and the Western Maryland College, winning the degree A. B. in 1897; taught school for some years; had the degree A.M. conferred upon him in 1904, and in the meantime had studied law in the law department of the
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Sincerely yours John Mays Quite
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University of Maryland and obtained his law degree in 1903. He had also taken a post-graduate course in History in the University of Chicago and won a certificate of proficiency from the late President Harper.
In 1903, after graduating in the law, he forsook the school room and entered upon the practice at Towson. His capacity quickly attracted to him a clientage, and in four years he had gained such a degree of recognition that he became a candidate for membership in the General Assembly and was successful, serving the term of 1908 with credit. He then organized the First National Bank of Parkton, . of which he was elected president, which position he now holds.
He is a Past Master of the Masonic Order; a Knight of Pythias, and for several years an active member of Troop A of the Maryland National Guard. Mr. Little is a Democrat, both by inheritance and conviction. In the maternal line, his grandfather, John P. Mays, was one of the stalwart Democrats of his section of Baltimore County, and every member of the family has adhered to that political faith.
While in college, Mr. Little indulged in football, and at the present time he finds recreation in the sports to which he became attached in boyhood, hunting, fishing, and horseback riding. He is a man of scholarly attainments and a high order of intellect. He takes pride in the fact that he can do a day's work on the farm in any department of farm labor efficiently, and he is a strong and determined advocate of the necessities of the producing classes, with which he has been associated all his life. He is partial to history, political economy and works on sociology.
From his observation, his own experience and his studies, Mr. Little has formed certain conclusions. He believes that we should encourage education in its broader and most practical sense. Along with this he couples the encouragement of clean athletics, and believes that the strength of the community should be thrown against idleness, ignorance and licentiousness. For the young man, he regards in dustry as a most valuable quality; and he thinks it well for one to find a congenial occupation or profession, in which there can be full occupation for mind and body, coupled with a love of the work, so that the work itself will be a pleasure and will incite one to put forth his best efforts.
GEORGE POOLE
T HE late George Poole, of Woodberry, who at the time of his death was at the head of the great manufacturing plant conducted under the style of the Poole Engineering and Machine Company, was born in Baltimore on November 12, 1853, and died at the home of his niece, Mrs. Robert R. Smith, in New Hartford, Connecticut, on September 24, 1910.
Mr. Poole came of old Puritan stock, his family having migrated from Wales to the North of Ireland in 1687, and thence his grand- father, George Poole, emigrated to America in 1822. George Poole the immigrant married Mary Shields, and of this marriage was born Robert Poole, the founder of the great Woodberry plant. Robert Poole learned the trade of machinist in early life, and arriving at manhood, in 1843 established a little foundry under the name of Poole and Ferguson. He prospered in a moderate way, married Ann Simpson, daughter of George and Ann (Williams) Simpson, and it was of this marriage that the late George Poole was born. Shortly after the first establishment of the business, German H. Hunt, a lad " of sixteen, of excellent family, entered the machine shop as an ap- prentice. He rapidly mastered the business, and proved himself such a capable man that in 1851 he was taken into partnership, and · the firm name became Poole and Hunt. The business grew under the capable hands of these two men with such rapidity, that not- withstanding a fire which had destroyed the plant they found it necessary to expand, and decided to move to the village of Woodberry, then several miles outside of the city. The business of Poole and Hunt grew from a small foundry and machine shop into one of the most extensive manufacturing plants of the country, and the village of Woodberry grew from a hamlet into a town of eight or ten thousand people, the entire population of which worked in the Poole and Hunt plant and the cotton mills established at that point. Their operations were constantly extended until they became manufacturers of almost every kind of machine, their business including steam engines, boilers, pumps, heating plants, oil mills-indeed every character of
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Yours July
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machinery that could be used in any line of business was made in their shops, which had become among the most extensive in the country. They made a specialty of Leffel's double turbine water- wheel, which they introduced not only all over our own country, but in many foreign countries, and as early as 1873 they had placed eight thousand of these wheels in mills and factories. They also made a specialty of machine moulded gears. There was no change in the firm between 1851 and 1889. Mr. Poole looked after the plant, and Mr. Hunt spent his time at the city office looking after the financial end of the business. Both were thoroughly practi- cal men and familiar with every detail of the business.
In 1889 the business was incorporated as Robert Poole and Son Company. This brings us to George Poole's connection with the business in an official capacity. He had been reared at the village of Woodberry, where his father lived and had a splendid home, attended a private school conducted by Doctor Dalrymple, and another at Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Growing up in the atmosphere of the great business which had been built up and inheriting a large measure of his father's mechanical tastes, at the age of seventeen he entered the 'shops and mastered every detail of the business. In a few years he was made superintendent, and a little later general manager of the plant. Upon the retirement of Mr. Hunt in 1889, and the incorporation of the Robert Poole and Son Company, Mr. George Poole became vice-president of the company. Upon the death of his father, the corporate name was changed to the present style of the Poole Engineering and Machine Company, and Mr. George Poole became president and treasurer. The business under his management prospered, as it had done previously under that of his father and Mr. Hunt, continually extended its borders until today it is one of the largest and most perfect plants in the United States, doing an immense business all over the United States and in a number of foreign countries.
George Poole in addition to being a manufacturer was closely identified with numerous other lines. He served upon the directory of the National Bank of Baltimore and the Savings Bank of Balti- more. He was vice-president of the York Haven Paper Company, of York Haven, Pennsylvania. In conjunction with Henry L. Carter (deceased), of Philadelphia, he established the hydro-electric plant of the York Haven Power Company. The magnitude of the plant
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may be judged from the fact that the cost was between three and four million dollars, and it developed twenty thousand horse power.
Mr. Poole was first of all a business man. It may be said that his life was literally given to the management and development of the great business which had come under his hands. In social life, he was a member of the Engineers' Club of New York, but did not take much part in club life. Politically a Republican, he took no interest in political affairs beyond voting his convictions on election day. In church matters he was an Episcopalian.
On November 1, 1882, he was married to Mary Norris, a daughter of H. L. and Anna (Howard) Norris, of Westminster, Maryland. To them were born three children-two daughters and one son. One of the daughters, Mrs. Anna Howard Swett, is the wife of Doctor Paul P. Swett, of Hartford, Connecticut. The other daughter is Mrs. H. Patterson Harris, of Baltimore, and the son is Mr. Robert Poole.
Mr. Poole was not quite fifty-seven years old at the time of his death. It is probably true that his comparatively early death was occasioned by his devotion to business. It is an easy matter for one who has seen a great business grow up under his hand, to forget that he cannot give to the business the same service in every little detail that he did in its earlier days when it was a smaller business and he a younger man. Resulting from this, it is. not an uncommon thing in our country to see capable man break down and pass away at a time when they ought to be in the very prime of life. Mr. Poole found himself on the verge of a breakdown, and found it out too late. He planned a furlough of a few months from his business, in order to regain his health; but the furlough came too late and proved a final release.
He was a man of fine personal character, of most rigid integrity, who took the utmost pride in his work and was jealous of the reputa- tion of his concern. He was satisfied with nothing but the best workmanship, and left as the result of his life's work the great plant which had descended to him with an enhanced reputation over two continents.
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VICTOR CUSHWA
V ICTOR CUSHWA, of Williamsport, Washington County, though now practically retired from active business except in an advisory capacity, has as his latest work, which will - stand as an enduring monument to his labors, succeeded in putting across the Potomac River what is known as the Washington-Berkeley Bridge-an enterprise which has been hanging fire for fifty-eight years.
Mr. Cushwa is of mixed Alsatian and English ancestry. On both sides of his family his people were among the early settlers of Pennsylvania, located near Stouchsburg and Womelsdorf, in what is now_ Berks County, Pennsylvania. They obtained patents for landed properties from'William Penn, the head of the Colony, and one of the sons of the first settler, John Cushwa by name, moved to Western Maryland, settled on what is now Dry Run, near Clearspring, Wash- ington County, in 1760. John Cushwa and his sons took an active part in the organization of Washington County, in 1776, and his sons were prominent Revolutionary people. The grandfather of Victor Cushwa, Captain David Cushwa, was a successful man who acquired a large landed property, giving to his place the name of "Cushwa's Establishment," and in the old family mansion on that estate Victor Cushwa was born February 2, 1833. In those days the schools in Western Maryland were few and far apart, so at the early age of twelve, with very limited schooling, Mr. Cushwa was in 1845 made an apprentice to his uncle, George Cushwa, a bachelor, who carried on the trade of tanner. Mr. Cushwa served with his uncle until 1854, and then, having arrived at his majority, he worked as a journeyman until 1858 when he married and went into the tanning business in Williamsport on his own account. In 1870 he sold the tannery and became general manager for the Washington County Leather Manu- facturing Company, of Hagerstown. He retained this position until March, 1872, when the plant was destroyed by fire. He then entered Ithe coal, cement and plaster business, acquiring a half-interest in the business of Charles Embrey and Son, at Williamsport,-the firm name
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being changed to Embrey and Cushwa, under which name they operated until July 1880, when he bought out his partner. He con- ducted the business then for some years alone. In 1886, he acquired property in Hagerstown, which he improved by the erection of warehouses necessary for the increasing volume of his business. In - 1888, he admitted to a partnership his son, Victor Monroe Cushwa, and his son-in-law, M. Emmett Cullen, changing the firm name to Victor Cushwa and Sons; and in 1901, he admitted his two younger sons, David K. and C. Frank Cushwa, as members of the firm. The business of the firm had during these years grown to immense pro- portions. In addition to the warehouses which he owned and con- trolled in Williamsport and Hagerstown, there is also a warehouse at Powell's Bend, two iniles below Williamsport, maintained for the convenience of the shipping over the Cumberland Valley and the Pennsylvania Railroads. They do a wholesale business in lime, cement, coal and plaster. In addition to this, they carry on exten- sive brick works at Williamsport under the title of the Conococheague Brick and Earthenware Company, where they make plain, ornamental and pressed brick. This enterprise dates from 1896. The volume ·· of business has grown to a quarter of a million dollars annually.
Mr. Cushwa's business interests have been so varied and so insistent, that they have kept him pretty actively engaged all the time; but he is a man with a large measure of public spirit, and despite these demands has found time to give useful service. Thus, in 1900, he served as receiver of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal for the District of Columbia, by the appointment of Judge Cox. He was a director of the Potomac Valley Railroad and of the old Washington County Fire Insurance Company of Hagerstown. In November, 1907, he was elected a county commissioner for a term of four years. During this term a reassessment of all the property in the county became necessary, and this arduous duty he has discharged with fidelity, though he looks forward to his retirement from office in November next with great satisfaction.
In January 1909, he conveyed to his sons and son-in-law who were his partners, all of his business and business interests, retaining no more interest in the business than that of general adviser, as he felt that he had earned his rest. In January, 1911, his son-in-law, M. Emmett Cullen, a very superior business man, died suddenly; and the two surviving sons of Mr. Cushwa who were in the firm are now actively carrying forward the business without change of firm name.
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This sketch would be incomplete without detailed reference to the great work of Mr. Cushwa in the building of the Washington- Berkeley Bridge. The first steps looking toward this connecting link between Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia were taken in 1853; and various futile efforts have been made since that time to complete the bridge. Finally, in 1907, after fifty-four years of fruit- less effort, on June 5 the matter took concrete shape by the election of a directory and officers. Mr. Cushwa became first president of the company. The work was pushed vigorously. They met with one delay by a sad and disastrous accident, which caused four deaths and delayed the work six months. But despite everything, the bridge was opened on August S, 1909, giving a through connection from Hagerstown to Staunton, Virginia, over one hundred miles of one of the most beautiful, picturesque and fertile valleys of the United States. That the bridge was needed is proven by the fact that in the first year of operation it paid a dividend of four per cent, with „small excess for a sinking fund. In the second year of operation it earned five per cent. A trolley line is projected over the bridge, and it is expected that at no distant time trolley cars will run by this route from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Staunton, Virginia. The com- pletion of this work is largely due to the efforts of Mr. Cushwa, whose business career had inspired confidence in the minds of the people, and when he took hold of it as its president, they rallied to his support, investing nearly ninety thousand dollars largely because of their confidence in his judgment.
The Cushwa family has multiplied and prospered in America, and is now found through Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Originally members of the German Reformed Church, some of the descendants of John Cushwa have within the last forty years become members of the Catholic Church, among them the subject of this sketch, who has been active in the work of Catholic Missions.
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