USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, Volume IV > Part 19
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Mr. Hargett has never married.
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Very truly yours So I Still
JOHN THOMAS HILL
I N THE north end of Ireland there dwells a people whom we know as "Scotch-Irish." This little people has never been a nation- has never been powerful-has never been numerous. And, yet it has written its deeds upon the pages of history in such fashion that men now study them with a sense of awe, that so small a people could accomplish so great things. The dominant strain was Scotch. What the Scotch blood lacked was supplied by an infusion of the Irish; and what these two lacked was supplied by yet smaller in- fusion of the English. We have thus a composite people; a people with strenuous religious convictions, and as a result of their religious convictions, the stronger and better qualities of the races from which these people sprung were preserved, and the weaker qualities elimi- nated. No man can read of the deeds of the Scotch-Irish Presbyteri- ans in defense of their religious liberties, without being thrilled. In the making of America this little people has contributed a part en- tirely out of proportion to numbers. In Pennsylvania, in Virginia, in the Carolinas, in Kentucky, in Tennessee, where the blood is mostly found,. it has been ever in the front rank of progress. The best of our pioneers came from this stock-the sternest champions of civil liberty came from this stock. The statement is credited to General Washington that in a dark hour of the Revolutionary struggle, he said: "If defeated everywhere else, I will make my last stand for liberty among the Scotch-Irish of my native Virginia." It was a Scotch-Irishman who was the ranking colonel at the famous battle of King's Mountain, the turning point of the Revolutionary War in the South. One of the most colossal figures in our War between the States, Stonewall Jackson, was a Scotch-Irishman. The strongest figure in the War of 1812, and later one of the most notable Presi- dents our country ever had, was the Scotch-Irishman, Andrew Jackson. Sam Houston, the hero of Texan independence, and one of the greatest figures in our history, was also Scotch-Irish. Instances could be multiplied without number, but these are enough.
Of this stock comes John Thomas Hill, vice-president of R. C. Hoffman and Company, Incorporated, of Baltimore, whose residence is
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at Roland Park. Mr. Hill was born in Baltimore on September.19, 1856; son of Samuel and Mary J. Hill. His father was an industrious man of retiring disposition, born in Coleraine, County Antrim, Ireland, and came to Baltimore in 1848. Mr. Hill's mother was born near Magherafelt, County Derry, Ireland, coming to Baltimore in 1854.
Mr. Hill obtained his education in the public schools of the city, and in 1870, a boy of fourteen, entered the service of Hoffman, Thompson and Company, dealers in iron and steel, as an office boy. He did not discontinue his studies, but remained as a student in the Baltimore City College for over two years, attending college in the morning, spending his afternoons in the office, and pursuing his studies at night. His natural tastes inclined to historical, biographi- cal and religious literature. He gave close attention to business and mastered its details, being promoted from time to time; and after more than eighteen years of service, was admitted to an interest in the firm, which had in the meantime changed to the style of R. C. Hoffman and Company. He remained a partner in this firm for sixteen years; and when on May 1, 1905, the firm became a corpora- tion under the style of R. C. Hoffman and Company, Incorporated, Mr. Hill was made vice-president, which position he yet retains.
He is a quiet business man who achieves results ky persistent .industry. He has been governed in the conduct of "his business affairs by the belief that what others have done he can do, and has always adhered to a strictly ethical standard in all of his undertak- ings. Aside from his immediate business, he is a director in the Maryland Trust Company, Baltimore Trust Company, and presi- dent of the Elizabeth City (North Carolina) Electric Light and Water Company.
He is a communicant of the Presbyterian Church, and active in the work of that great religious organization, of which he has been a.deacon and trustee, and a Sunday school superintendent. At the present time he holds the office of elder of the Central Presbyterian Church, and president of its board of trustees. He holds membership in the Presbyterian Historical Society of Philadelphia; the Presby- terian Union of Baltimore; the Presbyterian Association, of which he has for years been one of the board of managers; was one of the organizers of the Presbyterian Union, and several years a member of its executive committee; one of the board of governors of the Pres-
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bytenan Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital, and has given much of his spare time to religious and charitable work. In social Ife he is affiliated with the Merchants Club, the Baltimore Country Club. and the Mount Washington Club. His political affiliation is nominally with the Republican party, but he has that measure of independence which has caused him at times in State and local elec- tions to vote for the candidates of other parties on questions of charac- ter and qualification.
The North-of-Ireland Hills have in the old country a long and brilliant record. Coming to Ireland from either England or Scotland, the family became prominent as far back as the period of the common- wealth in England and was conspicuous in the later Irish troubles in the time of James II. There have been a half dozen titles in the family, the most conspicuous being that of Marquess of Downshire. One of these Hills served as a general in the Protestant army during the famous siege of Derry, and died, sword in hand. Mr. Hill's grandparents were James and Sarah (Stirling) Hill, of Coleraine. So through his grandmother he inherits a strain of Scotch blood. This strain of Scotch blood was strengthened through his mother, who was Mary J. Mckenzie, a daughter of Moses and Elizabeth (Holt) Mac- Kenzie. The Mackenzies, of Scotch-Irish origin, was one of the four greatest of the Highland clans of Scotland, being able at one time to muster twenty-five hundred fighting men, and ranking only after the Campbells, the Camerons and the MacDonalds. The original name was MacKenneth-later softened into Mackenzie, and ap- pearing now most frequently as Mckenzie, and sometimes as MeKinzie.
Mr. Hill has found his chief recreation in travel. He knows his own country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Canada to the Gulf, from actual observation. He has made two trips to Europe, visiting England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland, and has also twice visited Panama. Modest and un- · assuming, his reading, his observation and his travel have made of him a thoroughly well rounded man.
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WALTER COTTRELL QUINCY
W ALTER COTTRELL QUINCY, who had a long and distinguished railroad career extending over a period of more than forty-five years, was born in Baltimore, Mary- land, January 16, 1831, and died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on February 3, 1895. His parents were Captain John Douglass and Elizabeth Stanley (Keating) Quincy. John Douglass Quincy was a son of William Adair Quincy, who was the son of Edmund Quincy, of Boston, Massachusetts. William Adair Quincy's sister married John Hancock, the famous Revolutionary patriot, and was one of the most brilliant women of her generation. William Adair Quincy was captain of the brig Mohawk, engaged in the trade between Boston, the West India Islands, and South American ports. In the Island of St. Bartholomew, then a Swedish possession, he became acquaint- ed with Mrs. Steinmetz, of Philadelphia, whose brother was a shipping merchant in the island, doing a very large business; and this brother introduced Captain Quincy to his sister and niece. This introduc- tion resulted in Captain Quincy's marriage with the niece, Miss Steinmetz. It thus happened that John Douglass Quincy was born in the Island of St. Bartholomew.
The first of the Quincy name in America was Edmund, who came from Wigsthorp, Northumberland, to Boston in 1633. It has been one of the most distinguished families of New England. The old Quincy mansion was one of the most splendid homes in the town of Quincy, named in honor of Edmund Quincy; and generation after generation the family has furnished strong men to the country. The title to the old mansion is now in the Colonial Dames of America, and it is used as a place of deposit for valuable historical records. There were three or four Edmunds in different generations, and three or four Josiahs. There seems to have been not a single man of inferior quality in the family, though of course they were not all of equal talent. In England the family dates back to the Norman Conquest, when one Robert de Quincy followed William the Con- queror from France to England. A descendent of this Robert
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yours Very truly
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became Earl of Winchester, and was one of the noblemen who at Runnymede, on June 15, 1215, wrested from King John what is known in history as "Magna Charta," the foundation of English liberties, and the progenitor remotely of the Declaration of Independence. From that time down to the coming of Edmund Quincy to America, the Quincy family had occupied honorable position in England, and the position won in the old country has been well substained by the American family.
Walter C. Quincy was educated in the schools of Baltimore and Washington, and at the age of eighteen obtained a position under the famous engineer, Benjamin H. Latrobe, who was then building the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. During his later years, speaking of this first employment-which was obtained for him by Mr. Benjamin Deford, an old friend of the family-Mr. Quincy stated that at that time (1849) boys of his age received a weekly wage of two or two and a half dollars, and that when Mr. Latrobe informed him that his pay would be one dollar per day, he saw in reach of him an independent fortune. He learned civil engineering in the hard school of practical work in the '50's of the last century, and in a very brief space had so established his reputation as a reliable, careful and resourceful engineer that he was trusted with important work. In 1852, the road was opened to Wheeling, Virginia, and Mr. Quincy was then sent to West Union, Dodalridge County, Virginia, as resident engineer in charge of five miles of heavy construction work, including the West Union Tunnel, which had two shafts, and which is the longest on the line of the Parkersburg branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, this branch having twenty-three tunnels, and after its successful com- pletion, was sent to Baltimore asengineer of maintenance of way at the eastern end of the line. He remained in this position until the John Brown Raid and the outbreak of the Civil War necessitated the plac- ing in charge of active road operations, of a strong man. Looking around for the right man in this critical emergency, Mr. Quincy, then barely thirty years of age, was made acting road master, in which capacity he served until 1868. His service during the Civil War was of enormous value to the Federal government. The road was in a sense a frontier line. It had all the usual difficulties incident to the storms and floods of a mountain country, added to which were the incessant interruptions and breakages of the line caused by Confederate raiders. Mr. Quincy met every difficulty in the most masterful manner. His
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fertility of resources was simply marvelous. In one case, when terrific rains had swept out the bridge over the Potomac, at Harper's Ferry and instant transportation of troops across the river was necessary, he wired Baltimore for cables and rigged up a temporary crossing of suspended wires, in which he carried across the soldiers and the supplies in twenty-four hours, thus averting a dangerous situation. In that connection he received from W. P. Smith, the master of trans- portation on March 31, 1862, the following telegram: "Consider yourself saluted by three thousand cheers and five thousand guns for your successful efforts in restoring the road. I congratulate you. You have achieved much and shall receive the credit due you. (Signed) W. P. SMITH."
On May 2, 1864, he received from the President, John W. Garrett, a personal letter of the most complimentary character, advising him of resolutions passed by the board of directors "as a special mark of approval and appreciation for extraordinary and valuable services rendered to the Company since the commencement of the War" and authorizing him to draw on the treasurer for a bonus of five hundred dollars. Mr. Quincy's war record was not only hon- orable, but most serviceable. A young man, he was on one occasion drafted to make up the Maryland contingent of the Union army. When advised of that fact, Secretary of War Stanton said that he would rather have Mr. Quincy where he was than a regiment of fight- ing soldiers. In 1868, Mr. Quincy was promoted to be general man- ager of the Trans-Ohio Baltimore and Ohio leased lines, with headquarters at Zanesville, the headquarters being changed in 1871 to Columbus, and in 1875 to Newark-the last move being occasioned by the building of the Chicago Division of the Baltimore and Ohio, of which road he was president. He remained in this capacity until July, 1878, when he left the Baltimore and Ohio, after nearly thirty years of. unbroken service, to become general manager of the Pitts- burgh and Lake Erie Railroad, which was opened for business in January, 1879. In 1887, he left the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, to take charge of the railroad business of Jones and Laughlin, of the American Iron Works of Pittsburgh, which position he filled up to his decease on February 3, 1895. While living at Newark, Ohio, in July, 1877, occurred the greatest and most dangerous railroad strike of our generation. In a letter now in the possession of Mrs. Quincy,
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written by Governor Thomas I .. Young, of Ohio, to John King, Jr., then vice-president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, among other things Governor Young said the following: "My congratulations on the happy result of the strike so far as it affected your interests in Ohio; and I desire to say that your good fortune at Newark and along your lines branching from that point, is mainly due to the cool- headed judgment and managerial ability of W. C. Quincy, Esq., your general manager, whose courage and energy under very exciting circumstances commanded my admiration, and merit your good opinion and my thanks." It was acknowledged on all sides that it was due to Mr. Quincy that the strike at that point was so handled that not a life was lost or a dollar's worth of property destroyed.
On April 15, 1890, at a meeting of the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania, Mr. Quincy by request delivered an address, the nominal subject of which was "Early Reminiscences of Rail- road Building on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Forty Years Ago." As a matter of fact, the address really covered the first fifteen years of his service on that road, including the war period, and is one of the most interesting stories ever told, as it recited in simple fashion many incidents connected with his war experience, and illustrated in a most graphic manner how the unassuming men who wore no uniforms made it possible for the fighting men to get to the front, to be fed while there, and thus able to do the fighting. Mr. Quincy evidently had the happy art of telling a story to an audience in ex- actly the same fashion that he would have set down and told it over to two or three companions. It is a very unusual art and gives an interest to any story which it lacks if told in any other manner. The address was of such absorbing interest that the Society listened to it with the most intense attention, and at its conclusion unanimously voted him their thanks. It is a contribution to the history of that troubled period of our country's life well worthy of preservation.
His last years were spent in the quiet discharge of his duties. .He was not an old man when he passed away, but he had been forty- five years in the thick of affairs during the most epochal period of our history.
Mr. Quincy was a man of engaging personality. Possessed of fine natural courtesy, of a kindly temperament, and of a helpful disposition, he never lost an opportunity during life to give the help- ing hand to any young man who came in his way. Resulting from
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this, he enjoyed a wide personal popularity, and this, combined with his strong qualities which gave him the esteem of men of large affairs, made his life not only a useful, but a happy one.
He was married on October 4, 1853, to Martha Ridgley Smith, daughter of Joshua Pusey and Anne Grace Smith, of Har- ford County, Maryland, a lineal descendant of the noted English family of Howards. Mrs. Quincy is the youngest of seven children, and the only one surviving. Of this marriage, the only child, a son and a most promising young man, Benjamin Latrobe Quincy, died in his thirtieth year.
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FRANK MARTIN
D R. FRANK MARTIN, clinical professor of surgery and operative surgery in the University of Maryland, was born at Brookville, Montgomery County, Maryland, on October 21, 1863, son of Dr. James S. and Lucretia Griffith (Warfield) Martin.
His father, a practicing physician, was a surgeon on the Pacific Coast Line steamers during the early days of California, was a lead- ing spirit among the people, who-in those pioneer days-so rapidly built up California, and are known as "Forty-niners." During the cholera epidemic in San Francisco, Dr. Martin rendered valuable and active service in the work of his profession. Outside of his professional work, his principal characteristic was a strong love of nature.
This branch of the Martin family was founded by four brothers, who came from the north of Ireland and settled in Pennsylvania. Dr. Martin's great-grandfather settled in Baltimore, and his grand- father, born in Baltimore, was a graduate in medicine of the famous Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and served as Surgeon in the Volunteer service during the War of 1812. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Bladensburg, and received his honorable discharge at the end of the war, in 1815. He was married to Ruth Dorsey Hawkins, a descendant of Sir Charles Hawkins, who distinguished himself at the siege of Gibraltar.
. As a child, Dr. Frank Martin lived the healthy life of a boy in a small village, going to school during the regular term, and following athletic and other out-door sports of boyhood in his leisure hours. He had no regular tasks invoking hard manual labor, though he assisted in the care of his father's horses and had special charge of the garden; and to these out-door activities, he attributes largely his sound bodily condition through life. He developed a taste for books of science, and particularly books upon chemistry, anatomy and surgery-which is not strange in view of his antecedents, his father and grandfather having both been practicing physicians. He was
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fortunate in both of his parents, his mother being exceedingly help- ful in the shaping of his character along right lines.
Dr. Martin went through the Brookville Academy, and from that school went to the Maryland Agricultural College, from which he was graduated in 1884, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. In the same year (1884) he entered the medical department of the University of Maryland, and was graduated as a physician in 1886. Outside of his parental antecedents, he was fortunate during his attendance upon the medical school in having. been thrown in close contact, and intimate association with Dr. L. McLane Tiffany, who was then his chief, and was professor of surgery in University of Maryland, a most accomplished instructor, a brilliant operator, and a master in the science of surgery.
From 1887 to 1891, Dr. Martin was house surgeon in the Uni- versity of Maryland Hospital, and then became lecturer on surgery in the University of Maryland. In later years, his efficient work led to his promotion, and he is now serving in the capacity mentioned in the opening sentence.
He is author of several pamphlets and articles on various surgical subjects, which have been published in the leading medical journals. His affiliation with medical societies and social clubs is extensive- holding membership in the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Mary- land, the University of Maryland Medical Association, the West Virginia Medical Association, the Southern Surgical Association, the Tri-State Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the Maryland Club, the Baltimore Country Club, the Bachelor Club and the Junior Cotillion Club.
He was married on June 2, 1897 to Miss R. Anna Coates, daugh- ter of Dr. Charles E. and Anna Hunter Coates, of Baltimore.
Dr. Martin's religious affiliation is with the Protestant Episcopal Church, and holds his membership in the old Emmanuel Parish of Baltimore. He is not an active political partisan, but has usually voted for the Democratic party, though on the monetary issue he twice voted for McKinley. He inherits his father's love of nature, and 'spends his vacations in the woods, with an occasional game of golf, but finds little time to indulge in regular relaxation.
A man of fine capacity in his chosen profession, who has made a success of his own life-work, his advice to the young man starting in life is of practical value, and that advice is couched in these words:
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"Success most surely follows one who is willing to work incessantly, to keep ever before his mind what his object in life is, and to carry out his plans in the most earnest and thorough manner, for the great- est achievement of success follows in the life of the man who has a clear knowledge of what he wants to do and just how to do it."
DOUGLASS H. HARGETT
T HE late Douglass H. Hargett, of the firm of P. L. Hargett and Company, seed and implement dealers, of Frederick, Mary- land, was born on a farm in Frederick County, on the 16th of July, 1846; and died at Frederick on September 29, 1908.
His father, Samuel Hargett, was a farmer, justice of the peace and county commissioner, a man of sound and strong character and religious principle, deeply interested in all that concerned the public welfare of the county. He married Miss Eleanora Burns, daughter of Edward Burns, who was of Scotch-Irish descent.
Of the ancestors of Mr. Hargett, Peter Hargett, the first of the family to come from Germany to America, settled in Mafyland in 1750, coming over in the Two Brothers, which sailed from Rotterdam.
Edward Burns, father of Mrs. Hargett, served on the American side in the War of 1812.
The childhood of Douglass H. Hargett was passed upon a farm. He had vigorous health, and he was required even in his early boy- . hood to hold himself responsible for certain daily duties about the home and the farm. Early taking up the routine of farm work, this contact with the practical things of every day life, together with the strong moral and spiritual influence of his mother, fitted him to meet the hard work of later life. He attended schools near his home; and in such time as he could properly reserve to himself from tasks of farm work, he found companionship in the books in his father's library-the standard poets and historians, with an early fondness for reading with his mother Pilgrim's Progress, Bible Stories and the lives of famous men and women.
· For a time he attended Frederick College and later he took special courses in bookkeeping, political economy and banking, at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1867. In 1868, he taught in the schools of his county, continuing to work on his father's farm when not engaged in teaching. In subsequent years he took an intelli- gent interest in scientific agriculture, and was successful as a farmer, a stock man, and a gardener and fruit culturist. In 1877, he estab-
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lished a mercantile business; and after that time he was interested, as a general industrial promoter, in various organizations. He was a director of the Frederick and Middletown Electric Railroad; he was from 1886 forward a director of the Citizens National Bank; he was treasurer of the Hygeia Ice Company, from its organization until his death, and of the Berlin and Lovettsville Bridge Company; he was president of the Economy Silo Tank Company a number of years; and president of the Frederick and Jefferson Turnpike Company.
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