USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, Volume IV > Part 8
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JOSEPH CLEMENT CLARK
H ERE and there one finds in some very difficult position a man so thoroughly adapted to the work as to lead to the conclusion that he must have been born specially for that work. And yet, upon close investigation, it is found that this special fitness is usually the result of long and hard labor. In the case of Doctor Joseph Clement Clark, Superintendent of the Springfield State Hospital for the Insane, located near Sykesville, Maryland, we have one of these cases of special fitness.
Doctor Clark is a native of Maryland, born in Kingston, Talbot County, August 3, 1858; son of Clement S. and Anne E. (Mobray) Clark. His family has long been known on the Eastern Shore. The probabilities are that he is descended from that Daniel Clark who was one of the most prominent citizens of that section between 1669 and 1690, serving in the General Assembly a number of terms, and one of the commissioners who laid out the town of Cambridge and other towns now forgotten. Clement S. Clark, in addition to his farming and merchandising, operated a line of schooners on the bay. He was a man of personal popularity and served as sheriff of Talbot County. He died in the year in which our subject was born, leaving a young widow and two small children. The elder brother, J. Bascom Clark (now deceased) was prominent in his lifetime on the Eastern Shore, and was editor of The Georgetown (Delaware) Journal. Mr. Clark's mother was a daughter of Captain Joseph Mobray of Caroline County, owner and master of different schooners, and a county commissioner. After the death of her first husband, she married later Colonel James E. Douglas of Caroline County, and of that marriage Doctor Clark has a half-brother living, S. Elbert Douglas.
After the death of his father, Doctor Clark spent some years under the care of his grandfather, Captain Mobray. He attended the local schools, and at the age of thirteen won under a competi- tive examination a scholarship in St. John's College at Annapolis. His hes' chi failing in the third year at that institution, he left school and spent the next two years as clerk in a drug store. By that time
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his mind was fixed on becoming a doctor, and in 1878 he entered the medical department of the University of Maryland, from which he was graduated in 1880. He settled in Caroline County, in the village of Federalsburg, and soon established a successful practice.
In 1882, Doctor Clark was married to Mary Tyson Greer, daughter of Robert A. and Mary (Tyson) Greer of Baltimore, mem- bers of an old Maryland family.
While resident in Federalsburg, Doctor Clark served in the town council and as county health officer for four years. He became one of the well known and popular citizens of the county, and was elected to the General Assembly for the term 1895-96 as a Democrat. Those were off years of the Democratic party in Maryland, and Doctor Clark had the distinguished compliment of going to the General Assembly with the largest majority behind him received by any Democrat in that year.
In the meantime he had been attracted to the study of psychi- atry, and he had become profoundly interested in the care of the feeble- minded and insane. Resulting from this, in 1896 he applied for the position of first assistant to superintendent both in the Spring Grove Hospital at Catonsville and the Hospital for the Feeble-Minded at Owings .Mills. Both positions were tendered him. He accepted the one at Spring Grove and served until 1899.
Prior to this, in 1894, Senator Hubner had secured the passage of a bill through the General Assembly creating a State Hospital for the Insane. It was rather a belated action; but it must be con- ceded that since 1894 the State has made up for lost time. Doctor George H. Rohe became the first superintendent, and after a diligent search an ideal location was found upon the estate of former Governor Frank Brown at Sykesville, Carroll County. This was a beautiful place of seven hundred acres of hill and dale, and left nothing to be desired in the way of health and aesthetic conditions. Doctor Rohe had but fairly got established in the work, when in 1899 he passed away prematurely. The position of superintendent was then ten- dered Doctor Clark, which he accepted and has since filled with such distinguished ability that the hospital is considered a model, not only in this country, but in Europe. When he took hold it had accommodations for one hundred and seventy-five patients. By continuous enlargements and additions, it now cares for one thousand and sixteen, and in all respects is one of the best equipped in the
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United States. Early in the battle Doctor Clark became convinced that Doctor Rohe's theory of the open-door system was correct, and so the hospital has been conducted along that line: Unbarred windows and doors, detached cottages, close watchfulness on the part of the attendants-but the least possible of locked doors and barred windows. The results of this system have been nothing less than marvelous. The beautiful farm lands attached to the hospital have furnished occupation of the most healthful character to the patients, and as much as ninety-four per cent of the patients have at times been employed in this healthful outdoor work. Strangely enough, using tools of all kinds with which they could hurt themselves or others, there has never been an accident; and since the foundation of the institution and the treatment of nearly two thousand cases, there has only been one homicide and four suicides. If such an expression is permissible, it may be said that the patients are "put on honor." At any rate their darkened minds understand that they have a large degree of liberty, and this seems to cultivate in them a sense of self- restraint. As an illustration of the benefit of this treatment, com- bined with the outdoor occupation, the death rate from tuberculosis (which at one time ran to a total of twenty-five to thirty per cent of all the deaths) has been reduced to less than eight per cent, which is below the general average of the country-and in view of the fact that insane persons are peculiarly liable to this disease, is of itself a remarkable record. There are very few escapes, and even a majority of these are recaptured before they get off the estate. They have an established system of paying two dollars to any of the neighbors who will bring in an escaped patient, and this has resulted well. No accident has ever resulted from an escaping patient. Under this system, one attendant can watch about twenty of the ordinary chronic patients; while sometimes it takes two to care for a violent maniac. The hospital has been turned into something more than a mere asylum for the insane, and has become a training school for the purpose, first of study of the insane, and secondly for the turning out of qualified persons for caring for them; for Doctor Clark long since recognized that the nursing and care of the insane calls for a special degree of skill, tact and training.
Another thing worthy of note in Doctor Clark's career in this hospital-he has found that alcohol is the direct cause of insanity in from fifteen to twenty per cent of all the cases; that alcoholic parents
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produce more than half the idiotic children in the State; that about one-third of the living children of such parents suffer from epilepsy; and he thinks therefore that it is but right that the State should take that deep interest in the regulation of this drug that it does in the regulation of opium and cocaine. He strongly advocated what has since been done-the establishment of psychopathic hospitals and wards where patients could have preliminary treatment before being legally certified as insane, and this has worked well. He strongly advocates the entire taking over by the State of all the insane of every kind and incorporating in one strong, harmonious system all the insti- tutions now operating under State control or private charity, and putting Maryland up in the forefront in its methods of treatment of this class of unfortunates. That his work has been successful and has met with appreciation, not only in his own country, but abroad, is proven by the report of a committee appointed by the London County council, the purpose of which was "to consider and report upon the advisability of erecting an asylum to accommodate two thousand patients on the lines of the Maryland Asylum, Springfield."
The brief record here given illustrates the opening sentence of this sketch, that Doctor Clark is one of those men who has found the work in life for which he is peculiarly fitted. But he was born for it only in one sense-he has that kindly disposition and desire to be of service which makes him peculiarly successful in the treatment of the feeble-minded, All the rest has come to him as the result of "hard study, close watchfulness, and natural ability. In a personal way he is much esteemed. Prominent in the Masonic fraternity, being a thirty-second degree Mason; member of the County and American Medical Associations, and of the American Medico-Psycho- logical Association, naturally he holds membership in the Medical and Chirurgical Association. He is an active member of the Metho- dist Church, of which he has been a trustee; approves of outdoor sports, and this liking for the outdoor life has been one of the val- uable factors in his treatment for the insane. Politically a Democrat, he has not since his incumbency of his present position taken any ac- tive part in political life, but has devoted himself in single-minded fashion to a work in which his whole soul is enlisted. He has behind him now twelve years of remarkable successful administration; is a recognized authority in the treatment of the insane, and un- doubtedly has a life tenure of the office which he has filled with such fidelity and in which he has obtained such excellent results.
very Mely your Hyland PStenak
HYLAND PRICE STEWART
T HE family name of Stewart is one of the historic names of the world. For more than three hundred years, the great Scottish family of Stewart gave kings to Scotland and Eng- land. It has come about in the passage of the centuries that there are three different spellings of this name recognized: Stewart; Stuart; Steuart. The first is the correct Scottish spelling. The others appear to be the Anglicized and French forms, but wherever a Stewart is found, under whatever spelling, they all trace their descent from the old Scottish family. In Maryland, there are several branches of the family; and one using the form of Steuart has been specially prominent in the history of that State. A member of another branch of the family which came into Maryland by way of Delaware, is the subject of this sketch: Hyland P. Stewart, a prominent lawyer of Baltimore.
Mr. Stewart was born near Chestertown, Kent County, Mary- land, August 15, 1863; son of William Henry and Sarah Eleanor (Murphey) Stewart. Through his father's Scotch and his mother's Irish blood, he combines in himself what we know as the "Scotch- Irish" strain, and which in the United States has made great history. His father was a farmer and stock raiser-a man of strong and up- right character. On the paternal side, his people came to Delaware probably in the first half of the eighteenth century; for his great- grandfather, William Stewart, who was born August 24, 1771, and died at Port Penn, Delaware, February 26, 1844, was a descendant of Sir John Stewart, originally of Sterling, Scotland, who settled at Port Penn, Delaware about 1703.
William Stewart was twice married. His first wife was Sallie Perry, whom he married in 1798. There were six children of this marriage-three boys and three girls. The boys died in childhood. Of the daughters, Mary Jane married one Mr. Aspral, father of the Reverend Joseph Aspral of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Eliza- beth J. married Alexander Biddle, a name famous in the annals of Pennsylvania. Sally Anne married James Hessey, and was the
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mother of David Stewart Hessey, who was a member of General Lee's staff at the time of the surrender at Appomattox. William Stewart's second wife was Eliza Burchard. Of this marriage there were two children: William Stewart, Junior, and David Burchard Stewart. William Stewart, Jr., died from an accident in boyhood. David Burchard Stewart, grandfather of our subject, was born February 11, 1815, near Port Penn, Delaware. He married Mary Perry of Sussex County, Delaware, December 22, 1836. Of this marriage there were six children, the oldest of whom was William Henry Stewart, father of our subject. David Burchard Stewart died November 18, 1863, and is buried in the Forest Presbyterian Churchyard near Middletown, Delaware. William Henry Stewart married Sarah Eleanor Murphey May 16, 1860; and shortly after his marriage moved from Delaware to his farm near Chestertown, Maryland, where the remainder of his life was spent. He left five children, three boys and two girls, all of whom are now living, H. P. Stewart being the second child.
In the maternal line, Mr. Stewart comes from North-of-Ireland Protestants. Archibald Murphey, a lieutenant in the Protestant army at the famous siege of Londonderry (1690), married a Scotch woman. About 1707, he migrated to America and settled in New- castle County, Delaware, being ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church at St. George's, as he had been in the Presbyterian Church at Londonderry. He was exceedingly active in assisting the ministers of his faith in founding churches. : He had a son, William Murphey, who lies by the side of his father at Pigcon Run, Newcastle County, Delaware. William Murphey had four sons and two daughters. All four of the sons inherited the fighting blood of the old Presbyterian elder, their grandfather, and served in the Revolutionary Armies, Archibald as lieutenant-this Archibald after the Revolution emi- grating to Kentucky. Another of William Murphey's sons, John Murphey, born 1733, on a visit to Ireland with his father married Elizabeth Andrews. He came back to this country and lived until 1825, dying in Christiana in that year, aged ninety-two. His father owned fulling mills on the Christiana, and scoured and fulled the cloth woven by the women in their homes for the soldiers of the Revolu- tionary armies, and was known, as were all his sons, as an ardent patriot. One of John Murphey's sons was Thomas, born in Christiana in 1776. His first wife was Elizabeth Crisfield; and his second wife
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was Anne Rothwell. By his first wife, he had a son, John Crisfield Murphey, born March 27, 1798, John Crisfield Murphey married Anne Rothwell Price, March 4, 1824. Of this marriage there were eight children, one of whom, Sarah Eleanor, born November 23, 1834, is the mother of our subject, and is still living. Mr. Stewart's mater- nal grandmother, Anne Rothwell Price, was a daughter of Hyland Price, for whom he was named, and of Martha Rothwell, sister of Major William Rothwell of "The Levels," Delaware. Thomas Murphey, great-grandfather of Mr. Stewart, was in 1812 residing on his farm near Chestertown, Maryland, and was a member of the militia of his county. The British in their incursions into Mary- land, under General Ross, effected a landing about eight miles from Chestertown. They were met by the militia; the British were repelled, and their commanding officer, Sir Peter Parker, was killed. Upon being advised of the landing of the British, Colonel Chambers Wickes took a detachment of the militia from Chestertown and took part in the engagement with the British. Among the militia left to guard the town was Mr. Stewart's grandfather, John Crisfield Murphey, who was then a boy of sixteen and was acting as a sub- stitute for his father, who had gone home on leave to attend to some business. All of these generations of Murpheys, like the Stewarts, have been staunch members and elders of the Presbyterian Church, and several of the Murpheys have been ministers of that church.
The family record above briefly outlined gives a clue to the character of H. P. Stewart. He inherits the steadfast qualities of his ancestry.
Mr. Stewart was reared on his father's farm, and did such share of the work as falls to a boy .on a large farm devoted to stock raising and fruit culture. It was a useful discipline. He attended the public schools of his native county; graduated from Washington College at Chestertown with the degree of A.B. (which he entered in 1879 at the age of sixteen), and took gold medal in his junior year. When he graduated in July 1883, he stood at the head of his class. He then entered the law department of the University of Maryland, and was graduated from that institution in 1885, with the degree of LL.B. He was indebted to his own labor to some extent for the education which he obtained, because in the later years of the course he paid his own way. In that period of his life, he formed a taste for history, biography and high-grade essays, which was
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influential in shaping his own career. In the year of his graduation, he entered upon the practice of law in Baltimore, and two years later, on February 9, 1887, was married to Miss Mamie B. Adams. Of this marriage, there are two sons.
Mr. Stewart is a man of one work. He has adhered tena- ciously to his profession, confining himself rigidly to the practice of the law; seeking no outside or public employment, and has given to his profession hard work and the very considerable measure of the ability which he possesses. Resulting from this, he is recognized now as one of the strong lawyers of the city. His practice has taken a fairly wide range, and he has been especially successful in corpora- tion practice. But in connection with the corporations, he has never held any other position than that of attorney.
His political relations through life have been with the Demo- cratic party. He belongs to that element of the party which does not hesitate to cast an independent vote when in his judgment such course is necessary. He has represented through life that class of good citizenship which in this year of 1910 is so much in evidence, and seems bent upon working some political revolutions in our country, which has suffered so sorely from the operations of the machine.
He adheres to the faith of his fathers. He is a Presbyterian and a trustee of the Northminster Presbyterian Church of Baltimore. He finds recreation in the present in walking and driving; but in his earlier years he found much pleasure in the volunteer military serv- ice, having been one of the organizers of the Fourth Regiment of the Maryland National Guard, and having served with that regiment for seven years.
Mr. Stewart lays down as the one sure foundation for a young man to build upon who wants to make a success of his life: Absolute integrity and uprightness in all dealings, and a clear recognition of one's responsibility to God and duty to fellow men.
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STEVENSON A. WILLIAMS
S TEVENSON A. WILLIAMS, of Belair, lawyer, one of the best known men in Maryland, was born in the Naval Hospital, New York, on May 6, 1851; son of Doctor Lewis J. and Har- riet Hays (Archer) Williams. His father, Doctor Lewis J. Williams, was a medical director in the United States Navy. He was a son of William Williams, of Havre de Grace, Maryland, who married Mary Jeffery. William Williams was a son of John Williams and a lady named Lawder, who came from Wales and Scotland respectively shortly before the American Revolution, and settled near Havre de Grace. Stevenson A. Williams is therefore in the fourth generation on the paternal side of his family in America. In the maternal line he comes of a distinguished family. His grandfather was Stevenson Archer, who at the time of his death in 1848, was Chief-Justice of the Maryland Court of Appeals. This family has a remarkable history in connection with Princeton University. Doctor John Archer, great-grandfather of our subject, was graduated from Nassau Hall (now Princeton), in 1760. He was a representative in the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Congresses. His son, Stevenson (I) .; Doctor Lewis J. Williams, the father of our subject; his great-, grandson, Stevenson A. Williams, and Lewis J. Williams (II), have all been either graduates or students of Princeton-an unbroken line for five generations. This branch of the Archer family is de- scended from Thomas and Elizabeth (Stevenson) Archer, who came from Rathmelton, County Donegal, Ireland, about twelve miles west of Londonderry, in the latter half of the seventeenth century and settled, first in Cecil, and later in Harford County, Maryland. Mr. Williams' grandfather, Stevenson Archer, prior to being appointed to the Court of Appeals of Maryland, had been four terms a member of Congress, from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth, and a United States Judge in Mississippi Territory.
After going through private schools, Mr. Williams entered Prince- ton and was graduated with the degree A.B. in the Class of 1870. The degree of A.M. was conferred in cursu, in 1873, and the degree of LL.D. by St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, in 1899.
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Leaving Princeton, Mr. Williams entered the law department of the University of Maryland, and obtained his law degree in 1873. He entered upon the practice of law at Bel Air, in Harford County, which was his home county by reason of both paternal and mater- nal lines of descent, and has since been identified with that town and county.
On March 31, 1875, Mr. Williams was married to Ariel Elizabeth Streett, a daughter of the late John Rush Streett, of Harford County, and to them four children have been born: Elise, now wife of Philip H. Close; Harriet A., now wife of R. Harry Webster; Elizabeth R. Williams, and Lewis J. Williams.
Mr. Williams was successful in the practice of the law; and since 1893 has been president of the Harford National Bank, as successor of the late Colonel E. H. Webster, and he has filled that position since that date with ability. From 1880 to 1882, he served as school commissioner of Harford County by appointment of the Circuit Court. In 1897, he was elected State Senator from Harford County. Active in the work of the Republican party, he had through his public service become a well-known figure; and in 1903, he was nomi- nated by his party as their candidate for governor of Maryland. Republicans do not often win in Maryland; and so Mr. Williams was defeated by ex-Governor Edwin Warfield. He is now actively engaged in the practice of law at Bel Air.
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Yours truly Zum. G. Gadd
WILLIAM COWPLAND CODD
W ILLIAM C. CODD, of Baltimore, formerly president of the E. J. Codd Company, machinists and boiler makers, and formerly president of the Marine Railway Machine and Boiler Works from its organization, was born in Baltimore, August13, 1858; son of Edward James and Avarilla (Hooper) Codd. Mr. Codd is a grandson of Captain James Hooper. His mother was a daughter of the celebrated sea-captain, James Hooper, who served in the War of 1812 at the age of ten as a powder boy, or "powder monkey" as they called them, on board The Comet, attached to Commodore Barney's fleet. When the Mexican War broke out, Captain Hooper was an extensive ship owner, and his vessels were constantly used by the government during that struggle. Again when the Civil War came on, his vessels were put at the service of the government, and though one or more of them were destroyed by Confederate privateers, and our own country collected the value of these losses from England, to our shame be it said, the patriotic old survivor of three wars, though he lived to the great age of ninety- three, never received all the money from the government, though it had been collected from England and is lying in the treasury.
Mr. Codd's father, Edward J. Codd, was born in Baltimore, August 6, 1830, and died in that city, April 17, 1909.
William C. Codd was a hardy boy, full of mechanical ideas, and fond of mathematics. His father being then well established in business, he had no difficulty in obtaining a good education in the public schools of the city, and Rock Hill College. The taste for mechanical engineering and mathematics which was a feature of his boyhood, has abided with him through life and furnished him his favorite studies. At the age of eighteen he entered his father's machine works as an apprentice; and afterwards became interested in the business. He was made vice-president of the company and held that position up to the death of his father, when he succeeded to the presidency.
Mr. Codd was one of the executors of his father's estate. His father had married twice, and resulting from this there was a conten-
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tion between his heirs for the control of the stock of the E. J. Codd Company. Alegal fight occurred, which resulted in the removal of the former officers, and the other party then attempted to run the busi- ness, but afterwards decided for each side to appoint a receiver to dispose of and wind up the business. This was done, and in Decem- ber 1910, Mr. Codd organized the Codd Tank and Specialty Com- pany, at 406 West Camden Street, Baltimore, of which he is the head.
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