USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, Volume IV > Part 6
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ALDAY CLEMENTS
T HE family name of Clements is derived, according to standard authorities on genealogy, from the old given name of Clement, which was popular a thousand years ago. The addition of the letter s meant the son of Clement, and in time became fixed as a family name. In Great Britain quite a number of the families of this name have adhered to the old form of Clement. The family has been known on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for two hundred and forty years. The records of Talbot County show the probating of the will of John Clements on August 3, 1676, in which he leaves one-half of his estate to his wife Mary, and the remaining half to his children. He speci- fies by name his eldest son, Thomas, and mentions other sons and daughters, but does not name them.
Alday Clements, farmer and banker, whose home is at Crumpton, in Kent County, was born near Galena, in Kent County, on Decem- ber 14, 1850, son of David and Susan (Fisher) Clements. His father, David Clements, was a farmer by occupation, passionately devoted to his pursuit, and served as a member of the levy court of his county. According to the traditions in this branch of the Clements family, it was founded on the Eastern Shore by Job Clements, who came from England at an early period.
Young Clements, reared in the fine and healthful climate of the Eastern Shore, living in the country, developed the same tastes that his father showed, very fond of farming and especially partial to stock · raising. This taste has remained with him through life, and he has never forsaken the land, though for many years past his principal occupation has been banking. As early as twelve years old, he was taking a hand in overseeing farming operations and looking after stock. His mother paid special attention to his guidance as a boy in moral and educational ways, and the lad had best of educational advantages, going to St. Timothy Hall, at Catonsville, and Steuart Hall, in Baltimore.
Mr. Clements began his active business operations as a farmer, near Crumpton, and followed that pursuit successfully for twenty years. He made standing and character in the community, and
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in 1890 was elected a director in the Chestertown National Bank. He became actively interested in banking, and his office of director was by no means a sinecure in his hands. The charter of the bank expired in 1904, and the bank allowing its charter to expire without renewal, was immediately succeeded by the Chestertown Bank of Maryland. Mr. Clements was unanimously elected president of the Chestertown bank at its organization, and has continued in that capacity up to the present. That his colleagues made no mistake in electing him is proven by the results; for the bank today on a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars has a surplus of thirty-five thousand.
Mr. Clements is an illustration of a new movement in banking circles in our smaller towns and cities. This movement has taken its rise within the last twenty years, and has become common all over the country. Substantial farmers are brought into the directory, and in a few years some one of them develops banking ability and is put at the head of the institution. In nearly every case it is notice- able that these farmer-bankers make prudent and strong bank officials, and the banks under their management prosper. Their early train- ing has been along the lines of economy and caution. They bring the same qualities into the management of banks; and it is one of the best movements of late years in the direction of sound finance.
Mr. Clements has never had any political aspirations in the way of wanting office; but the quality of his citizenship may be gathered by the fact that since the age of twenty-one he has never missed casting his ·vote at an election. His political affiliation is with the Democratic party. He finds his recreation chiefly in driving a trotting horse of his own raising, in which he takes great pride. This is a survival of his boyish taste. A lover of stock from his earliest years up to the present, and now able to gratify his tastes by the breeding of fine stock, he gets his recreation out of what formerly was his business, and which to some extent remains a business with him. His religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He knows of no better advice to give to the young man starting in life, than the maintenance of strict morality, rigid in- grity, industry and perseverance.
On May 25, 1875, Mr. Clements was married to Miss Frances Margaret Merrick, daughter of Ezekiel Merrick, of Queen Anne's County. Of the nine children born to them, six are now living: Merrick, David, Anne, Alday, Jr., Ruth, and George Clements.
WILLIAM PARET
T HE late Right Reverend William Paret, D.D., LL.D., Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Maryland, was born in New York City on September 23, 1826, and died in the city of Baltimore, January 18, 1911. He was the son of John and Hester Paret. John Paret was a merchant; the son of Stephen Paret, a Frenchman who came to the United States about 1760.
Reared a city boy, Bishop Paret found his chief interest, even as a boy, in books. At the age of fourteen, he took up work as a clerk in a wholesale dry goods store. At seventeen, he became a bookkeeper and followed that until he was twenty. Up to the age of fourteen, he had been in the grammar schools. At the age of twenty he abandoned commercial life and entered Hobart College at. Geneva, New York, from which he was graduated in 1849. In the meantime his choice of a life work had been made. He felt that his vocation was the ministry; and so upon his graduation from Hobart College in 1849, he began the study of theology under Bishop De Lancey, of the Diocese of Western New York.
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While pursuing his theological studies,' Bishop Paret followed teaching in Syracuse, New York, and in the Academy at Moravia, Cayuga County, New York. He was ordained as a deacon in 1852, and priest in 1853, and was called to be rector of St. John's Church at Clyde, New York. He remained there two years, and in 1855 accepted the rectorship of Zion Church, Pierrepont Manor, and 'remained there more than ten years. In 1864, he was called to be . the rector of St. Paul's Church at East Saginaw, Michigan. He served that parish for two years, and was then called to Trinity Church, Elmira, New York, where he remained another two years. In 1868, he became rector of Christ Church at Williamsport, Penn- sylvania, and held that position until 1876, when he was called to be the rector of Epiphany Church, Washington, D. C., where he remained until 1885. These thirty-three years of varied service, all in pastoral work, however, had qualified him for a great office. It will be observed in glancing over this record, starting in with what
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might be called "country churches," passing on to smaller towns and cities, he rounded out his service as a pastor in a prominent church in the capital of our country. He had thus had the advan- tage of personal experience in every variety of pastoral work which gave him unusual qualifications as an overseer of the church, because he had learned by more than thirty years' experience what were the needs of every sort of community.
In 1885, he was elected and consecrated as Bishop of Maryland. He took hold of the work in the same spirit of humility and fidelity that had characterized all his previous work. It is not necessary to enlarge upon the quality of his work or his ability, as the results speak for themselves. After fifteen years as the head of the diocese, it had grown under his hands to such dimensions that one man could no longer efficiently cope with it; and so it was divided, and the new Diocese of Washington created. This of itself testifies to his quality as a bishop.
On the division of the diocese, Bishop Paret elected to remain in Baltimore as the head of the old Diocese of Maryland, where most solid and substantial growth continued. He had unusual administrative power; much skill in the handling of men, and was of high rank in the matter of intellectual ability. His twenty-six years of successful labor in Baltimore had made of him one of the prominent and highly honored figures of the city.
In 1909, he had reached the age of eighty-three years. Not- withstar.ding his unusual preservation of physical and mental ability, he began to feel to some extent the infirmities of age; and so secured the consecration of a bishop coadjutor in the person of the Reverend John Gardner Murray, D.D. This enabled him to transfer much of the heaviest labor of the Diocese to his younger colleague, and also enabled him to indulge in a long and delightful trip through Europe which brought him back rejuvenated and ready for that part of the work which he had decided to retain in his own hands. For several years past he was the Senior Bishop, in age, of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.
Bishop Paret was twice married. A month after his graduation in 1849, to Maria G. Peck; and on April 21, 1900, to Mrs. Sarah H. Haskell. Of the first marriage there were born five children.
He loved fishing and through life found that his most pleasant recreation. it is of some interest to note how many clergymen are
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enthusiastic fishermen, and how few on the other hand seem to care for hunting.
Bishop Paret was essentially a worker. He did not indulge much in theorizing, nor go much outside of his work for other ventures. In 1904, he published a work entitled The Pastoral Use of the Prayer Book, which was strictly in line with his work as a teacher.
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NATHANIEL WILLIAMS
T HE Honorable Nathaniel Williams was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on March 14, 1782, and died in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 10, 1864. His parents were Joseph and Susanna (May) Williams. Hisfather wasa farmer. His mother, Susanna (May) Williams, was a daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Wil- liams) May. Therewere a number of intermarriages between the May and Williams families, and Mary Williams, the first wife of Benja- min May was his cousin. Nathaniel Williams was a descendant of Robert and Elizabeth (Statham) Williams, who came from England and settled inRoxbury, Massachusetts, in 1637. Robert Williams was born in 1608, and died in 1698, reaching the great age of ninety. He was a son of John and Elizabeth (Peynn) Williams, of St. Peters Mancroft, Norwich, England. A majority of the Williams families were originally of Welsh stock, and this family is not an exception. It goes back to the family known as "Williams of Ormsby," and this Williams of Ormsby was a lineal descendant of Marchudd ap Cynan, Lord of Abergelen, of Denbighshire, Wales.
The property acquired by the immigrant Robert Williams in Roxbury, remained in the family until 1823, and the principal fort at Roxbury. during the Revolution was situated upon this land, the first earthwork being erected on the lane running through the Williams property, now known as Williams Street, in Roxbury.
Stephen, third son of Robert, married Sarah Wise, and was the direct ancestor of the subject of this sketch. In 1708, just one hundred years after Robert Williams was born, his great-grandson, Colonel Joseph Williams, of Roxbury, son of Joseph and Abigail ¿Davis) Williams, was born. Like his ancestor, he also lived to the age of ninety, dying in 1798. He was one of the prominent men of Massachusetts in an era of great events. Joseph Williams married Martha Howell, daughter of Henry and Martha (Denning) Howell, of Boston. . He was Colonel in the Mohawk War of 1755, and in the campaigns against Canada in 1758. In the Revolutionary period he was one of the leading spirits of his section, and kept in close
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contact with Adams, Otis, Hancock and other prominent patriots. He was "Muster Man" of the "Minute Men" for Roxbury, and an officer of the main guard in the camp at Cambridge. He served in the Massachusetts Provincial Council in 1760, as representative of Roxbury, and urged the repeal of the Stamp Act; was appointed by the Town Chairman to demand from Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson the withdrawal of the British troops from Boston. He was one of the first members of the "Sons of Liberty." His son Joseph Williams, father of the subject of this sketch, also took an active part in the Revolution. He was sergeant of the second company from Roxbury, and participated in the battle of Lex- ington.
A curious instance of the way in which certain given names adhere in families even to remote generations, is found in this Williams family. An entirely distinct branch of this same family came from Wales in the person of John Williams, about 1700. He first settled in Hanover County, Virginia, but later moved to Guil- ford County, North Carolina. He was a planter, as was his son Nathaniel. His grandson, a second Nathaniel, born in 1741, was one of the foremost patriots in North Carolina, a planter, a lawyer, a judge, and a leader during the Revolutionary struggle. We thus find in two far-separated branches of the same family the unusual given name of Nathaniel.
Joseph Williams, father of Nathaniel Williams, was twice married, and Nathaniel Williams was the youngest of eleven children .by his first wife. Mr. Williams was educated in a local academy in Roxbury, Massachusetts, followed by a course in Harvard Uni- versity, from which he was graduated in 1801. He then entered upon the study of law in the office of a Boston law firm, but in 1802 came to Baltimore and completed his studies in Annapolis.
He was admitted to the bar, and from that time until his death, in 1864, a period of sixty years, was an active practitioner at the Bal- timore bar. In 1812 he was elected as a State Senator, and served his term in the General Assembly at Annapolis, and in 1814 vol- unteered as a private in the brigade of General Stricker, who was an uncle of his first wife, and participated in the battle of North Point in September of that year, where he was severely wounded; and the British, believing him to be mortally wounded left him on the ield. A silver pencil case in his vest pocket deflected the bullet
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and saved his life, so that he made a speedy recovery. His second daughter, Victoria, was given her name at the suggestion of his friend, Judge Storey, in honor of the victory of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, news of which reached Baltimore on February 15, 1815, the day of her birth.
In 1826 Mr. Williams was appointed trustee of the University of Maryland, and in that same year was appointed United States district attorney, in which office he served for sixteen years. In 1853, forty years after his first service in that same body, he was sent to the State Senate. In the General Assembly he was very much interested in passing a law granting to women individual rights in their own property, which shows that even in that early day Mr. Williams was a progressive man, with a strong sense of justice. He served as a commissioner for improving and laying out the city streets, and was president of a committee for planning out Patapsco City, since known as Brooklyn, a suburb of Baltimore.
Mr. Williams was twice married. On October 16, 1809, he married at Havre de Grace, Caroline Barney, a daughter of Commo- dore Joshua and Annie (Bedford) Barney. Commodore Barney was one of the most famous officers of the old navy, who came of fighting Irish stock. Of his first marriage the only present survivor is a granddaughter, Caroline Pyne Remington. Subsequent to the death of his first wife, Mr. Williams married in Baltimore on January 6, 1829, Maria Pickett Dalrymple, daughter of John and Mary Pickett (Waters) Dalrymple (née Pickett). Her first hus- band Mr. Waters, only survived a few months after his marriage. The Picketts were of English stock, and the Dalrymples of Scotch, the latter family, having settled in Calvert. County, Maryland, about 1640. Of this marriage there were three children, two daughters and one son. The direct descendants surviving are one daughter, Maria Dalrymple Williams, and one daughter, Emma J. Dalrymple Williams.
In political matters, Mr. Williams gave his allegiance during his entire life to the Democratic party; and though born and reared in New England, his sympathies during the Civil War were with the South. He was one of the founders of the Unitarian church in Baltimore, in which he held membership for the greater part of his life. He was never interested in sports. His recreations were reading and the drama. He was quite partial to good theatrical
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performances, being a promoter of the first theater in Baltimore, and a stockholder in the Holiday Street Theater. He was a man of kindly disposition, most genial temperament, and was thoroughly beloved by all who knew him.
After a long and useful life, he passed away at the age of eighty- two, leaving the reputation of an able lawyer, a public-spirited and patriotic citizen, and a man of spotless integrity.
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HUGHLETT HARDCASTLE
D OCTOR HUGHLETT HARDCASTLE, of Easton, is a man of many accomplishments, a variety of occupations, and competent in all of them. He was born in Easton on November 21, 1865, son of General Edmund L. F. and Sarah D. (Hughlett) Hardcastle. In the paternal line, he is descended from Robert Hardcastle a native of England, who located about 1740, in Caroline County. Robert Hardcastle was the father of Thomas of Castle Hall in Caroline County, who acquired a great landed estate; held the rank of major in the Maryland militia, and furnished supplies and recruits to the Revolutionary armies in the Brandywine campaign. A younger brother of Thomas, Peter, was a lieutenant in the Maryland line and served in the southern campaign, where the Maryland line gained immortal reputation. The oldest son of Thomas Hardcastle was Aaron. Aaron was the father of Edward B. Edward B. was the father of General Edmund L. F., who was the father of our subject. Doctor Hughlett Hardcastle is therefore the sixth generation from the American founder of the family.
On the maternal side, his people are of Welsh stock, and the family was first settled in Northumberland County, Virginia, about 1700.
Doctor Hardcastle's father was a distinguished soldier in early life, and the largest.land owner in Talbot County in later life. Two of Dr. Hardcastle's uncles served in the Confederate army,- William R. as a private, and Aaron B. rose to the rank of brigadier- general. His father was a graduate of West Point in the class of 1846. Among his classmates were such noted men as General George . B. McClellan; Jesse Reno; Darius N. Couch; Sturges and Stoneman of the Federal army; while in the same class were "Stonewall" Jackson; George G. Pickett and General Cadmus Wilcox of the Confederate army. General Hardcastle entered the army at the outbreak of the Mexican War as a second lieutenant in the topo- graphical engineers. He participated in the siege of Vera Cruz, and the can. paign from Vera Cruz to Mexico City. For gallantry
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at Churubusco, he was promoted first lieutenant; and for con- spicuous gallantry a few days later at Molino Del Rey, he was pro- moted captain. From the close of the Mexican War up to 1856 he served in the varied work of the engineer corps, such as the light- house board, running boundary lines, and work of that character. He resigned from the army in 1856, and settled down to the care of his real estate and banking business in Easton.
Doctor Hardcastle started in life with the advantage of genera- tions of strong and cultivated men and women behind him. He had very pronounced mechanical tastes and loved to work in the machine shop. He attended the high school near Alexandria, Virginia; the St. James College near Hagerstown; the Washington College at Chestertown, and was graduated from Lehigh University in 1888, with the degree of mechanical engineer. In 1892, he turned his attention to medicine; took a course in the medical department of the University of Maryland in Baltimore, and was graduated in 1895. He spent two years in the University Hospital; then went abroad to the renowned schools of Vienna and other places on the Continent, where he spent two years more. Finally in 1899, he began practice in Baltimore as a nose and throat specialist. After five years of practice of his profession in Baltimore, he moved back to Easton in 1904, where he has since made his home.
Going back a little, it may be noted that after graduating from Lehigh il 188S, he spent six months in the machine shops in Hazle- ton, Pennsylvania. Finding his health somewhat impaired, he went to Colorado and remained there six months, when he returned to Easton and lived with his father until 1892, when he took up the study of medicine.
. It is perhaps within bounds to say that no man upon the . Eastern Shore has greater attainments than Doctor Hardcastle. He is an able physician and a competent mechanical engineer. This engineering faculty appears to some extent to be inherited, because his father upon his graduation from West Point was attached to the corps of topographical engineers, which means that he had decided talent in that direction, and had graduated high up in his class. Aside from this, Doctor Hardcastle has other pronounced talents -- he loves painting, drawing, and pyrographie work, and indulges his
. tastes in these directions for his own pleasure. He is a capitalist,
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and abundantly able to take care of his business interests. He loves fishing, hunting, boating and automobiling.
He is a Democrat in his politics, but does not appear to have turned his attention in that direction. If he should, however, do so, he would probably be a source of uneasiness to some of the gentlemen who are now conducting, to their own satisfaction, the party's affairs. He holds membership in the Sigma Phi college fraternity; the Maryland, Chesapeake Bay and Yacht Clubs of Baltimore. Crowning all else, Doctor Hardcastle is a strong and orthodox churchman, and renders valuable service to the cause of religion as a vestryman of Christ Church in Easton.
GEORGE W. KNAPP
O NE of the leading inventors and manufacturers of Baltimore is George W. Knapp, director-general of the National Enameling and Stamping Company. He comes, genera- tions ago, of German stock which first settled in New England, nearly three hundred years since, and combines in himself the stead- fast qualities of the German with the inventiveness of the New Englander.
The surname of Knapp appears to be both English and German. We find them to have been on the Eastern Shore of Maryland as early as 1671, and one of them whose will was probated in 1680, appears to have been a man of standing and considerable property. Evidently these were English. According to the family tradition of that branch of the family to which George W. Knapp belongs, his people came from Germany to New England in the earlier settle- ment of the eastern colonies. It is known also that William or Nicholas Knapp came from England to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1630. From these New England Knapps have descended a half dozen prominent men, one a representative from Massachusetts; another a governor of Alaska; another a famous agriculturist; yet another a famous librarian, and still another, one of the greatest journalists and authors of his generation.
George W. Knapp is himself a Marylander, born in Baltimore County; son of John and Harriet Anne Knapp. His father was a · chemist, deriving his descent from the New England German Knapps afore mentioned, and several of his forbears were soldiers in the two wars with Great Britain. As a youth, George W. Knapp was a sturdy youngster, with a strong mechanical turn. After prelimi- nary academic training, he took courses of scientific study in the technical and scientific schools of Baltimore, and began active life in a manufacturing concern. His entire life has been spent in this field. He has worked up through every branch of a factory, under- stands it in every detail, and has the inventive faculty in as large a measure as any man of our day-the different patents which he
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has taken out on numerous articles numbering more than two hundred. It is probable that in the number and in the value of his inventions, he is today second only to Thomas A. Edison, and the position which he now occupies in the manufacturing world illus- trates the quality, both of his inventive faculty and of his manu- facturing ability.
Mr. Knapp was married on February 28, 1878, to Katherine E. Boone, and they have four children; George W., Jr., Alfred M., William G., and Katherine E. Knapp.
Mr. Knapp is a member of numerous clubs, such as the Mary- land, the Baltimore Yacht, the Elkridge Fox-Hunting, the Balti- more County, the Maryland Country, the Maryland Jockey, the Merchants' Club, and the Fulton Club of New York. His political affiliation is with the Democratic party, but like all men of his turn of mind, is not an active politician. In his youth always extremely fond of outdoor exercises, this taste has remained with him and he finds his recreation in golfing, yachting, fishing, gunning and motor- ing. His reading has been chiefly of technical books and books bearing on mechanics, these being helpful to him in his business and also a source of pleasure.
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