USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, volume I > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
His own preferential lines of reading embrace the Bible, history of all countries and all religions, English literature, philosophical and ethical treatises.
ROBERT LEE RANDOLPH
D OCTOR ROBERT LEE RANDOLPH, of Baltimore, com- bines within his name the surname of two of the greatest historic families of the South-the Randolphs and the Lees. Both of these have also an equally historie distinction in the old coun- tries. As far back as 940 in England we find the name of Randolph under the Anglo-Saxon forms of Randulf, Randolf and Ranulf. The name became very popular with the Normans, and Fitz Randolfs were numerous. It is believed to have originated in Germany, under the form of Randwulf, meaning " the boss of a shield," from which it can readily be inferred that the first Randolphs were fighting men and ready to take a front place in the ranks. In England Randle is a favorite variation, and Randle, the earl of Chester seven hundred years ago, added greatly to the popularity of the name. From England it drifted into Scotland, and Thomas Randolph, nephew of the heroic king, Robert Bruce, led the right wing of his army at the famous battle of Bannoekburn.
In America the Randolphs go back to the early settlement of Vir- ginia, and they have made a record in our country in no wise second to that made by their famous ancestors in Great Britain. Edmund J. Randolph, of Virginia, first Attorney-General of the United States, was one of the great lawyers of his day. John Randolph, of Roanoke, stands out as one of the most conspicuous figures in our national his- tory. Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, was president of the Continental Congress of 1774. Thomas Mann Randolph, Congressman from Vir- ginia, was a son-in-law of Thomas Jefferson. These are but a few of the notable men which the family has furnished.
Doctor Randolph was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Decem- ber 1, 1800, son of Reverend Alfred Magill and Sallie (Hoxton) Ran- dolph. His father is one of the most distinguished ministers of the Protestant Episcopal church, which he serves as bishop of southern Virginia. This immediate branch of the family traces its American ancestry baek to Wm. Randolph, of Chatsworth, who came from Seot- land and settled on the James river in 1640. Wm. Randolph was a large landowner, owning 10,000 aeres or more, was a member of the
185
ROBERT LEE RANDOLPH
House of Burgesses and of the King's Council, and one of the promi- nent men of his generation in the new colony. His son, Sir John Ran- dolph, of Williamsburg, was even more prominent than the father; and from that early day down to the present the family has been giving illustrious men to the country. Colonel Robert Randolph, great- grandfather of Doctor Randolph, served on Washington's staff during the Revolution. His maternal great-grandfather was the Reverend Doctor Griffith, one of the earliest Episcopal bishops in the United States. If Doctor Randolph cared to trace back his family connections, he would find himself akin to nearly every prominent family in the state of Virginia, through the marriages made in the last seven generations.
Reared in the country, young Randolph had the healthy tastes of a country boy. He had good educational advantages, attending the Episcopal high school near Alexandria, from which he graduated in 1880; and even to this hour he feels grateful for the excellent influ- ences there thrown around him, and which, next to home influence, has done most to color his life.
Having chosen the medical profession as a calling, he entered the Medical Department of the University of Maryland, and was gradu- ated in 1884, with the degree of MI.D. From that school he went to the University of Vienna, where he spent two years, the last nine months of his stay there serving as an assistant in ophthalmology in the Royal Polyclinic of that city. Returning to this country, he became assistant surgeon of the Presbyterian Eye and Ear Hospital, in Baltimore, in 1887. Doctor Randolph's success, based on natural aptitude and thor- ough equipment for his profession, was immediate, and after fifteen years of residence in Baltimore his professional standing and attain- ments had obtained such general recognition, that Johns Hopkins Uni- versity conferred upon him the degree of A.M. As an oculist and aurist, he is recognized as one of the skillful practitioners of the coun- try, and has built up a large local practice. At an early period of his career, he spent a part of each week in Cumberland, Maryland; but the increasing demands of the local clientage rendered it necessary for him to abandon that. Outside of his practice, he was called to be associate professor of ophthalmology and otology at Johns Hopkins University, associate ophthalmic and aural surgeon to the Johns Hop- kins Hospital and Dispensary, and chief ophthalmic and aural surgeon to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
·
186
ROBERT LEE RANDOLPH
On April 15, 1891, Doctor Randolph married Miss Phoebe W. Elliott, daughter of M. W. and Anne Stuart Elliott, of Beaufort, South Carolina.
His literary work, all bearing upon his profession, is of high char- acter, and has won very general recognition in the profession. He was one of the contributors to " A System of Diseases of the Eye," by Nor- ris and Oliver; one of the contributors to " An American System of the Diseases of the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat," by Deschweinitz and Randall ; for a time a member of the editorial staff of the " Annals of Ophthalmology," a quarterly journal published in St. Louis; one of the editorial staff of " The Ophthalmic Record," a monthly journal published in Chicago: one of the editorial staff of " Progressive Medi- cine," a quarterly publication in Philadelphia. On July 4, 1899, he was awarded the Alvarenga prize of the College of Physicians of Phila- delphia, for an essay entitled "The Regeneration of the Crystalline Lens." In May, 1902, he was awarded the Boylston prize of Harvard University for an essay entitled " The Role of the Toxins in Inflamma- tions of the Eye."
IIe is a member of the Chi Phi college fraternity, the Johns Hop- kins Club, the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, the American Ophthalmological Society, the American Otological So- ciety, and the American Medical Association. He has held the office of chairman of the section on ophthalmology of the American Medi- cal Association, and the same position in the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland.
Religiously, Doctor Randolph adheres to the faith of his fathers, and is a communicant of the Episcopal church. His chief relaxation is found in hunting, of which he is an enthusiastic devotee. In giving advice to the young man starting out in life, he does not think that we can improve upon the Scriptural declaration of " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." To this he would merely add that this is only a way of saying, " Do it well," and that doing it well should be always the first consideration, and the wages the second. Doctor Randolph lives up to his creed. In his day and generation he is doing a man's work as well and faithfully as old Thomas Randolph did when he smote the British array at Bannockburn, or as John Randolph of Roanoke did when, in the Congress of the United States, he maintained his patriotic convictions against all comers.
181 ,88
Very truly yours Han Bigelow
189
WILLIAM P. BIGELOW
F OR a young man of forty-three to win his way from the lowest round of the ladder to the head of a great manufacturing enterprise, and to achieve such personal prominence in a city of half a million people as to be strongly solicited to run for the chief magistracy of the city, argues the possession of unusual force, as well as superior business abilities. Such a man is Win. P. Bigelow, presi- dent and general manager of Rennous, Kleinle & Company, brush manufacturers, who have a business of such magnitude that it covers not only our own country, but deals largely with South America, Cuba and Porto Rico, Australia, the Philippines and the East Indies.
Mr. Bigelow is a native of Maryland, born in Annapolis on April 15, 1866, son of Waldo O. and Mary L. (Phillips) Bigelow. His father served four years as an officer in the Civil war, and twelve years as postmaster at Annapolis. Mr. Bigelow is of English and Scotch descent. On the paternal side his ancestry goes back to John B. Bigelow, who settled in Massachusetts about 1636, and married in 1642 Mary Warren. On the maternal side it goes back to Solomon Phillips. George Phillips was the first minister of Watertown, Massa- chusetts, where the first Bigelow settled, and the probabilities appear to be that these two families had in America the same starting-point.
Possessed of a good physique and a good parentage, from whom he inherited strong qualities, young Bigelow attended the local schools of Annapolis until he was seventeen years old, when he began work on his own account as clerk in an office. He started with a determination to win, and is yet connected with the concern with which he began busi- ness as a junior clerk, having risen in these twenty-five years to be the head of the concern. His first important promotion came in 1889, when he was made travelling salesman, and gave ten years to that department of the work. In 1901 the firm was changed into a corpo- ration, and Mr. Bigelow was elected secretary and treasurer, from which position he was promoted in 1903 to be president and general manager.
He lays down briefly a code for the government of young men
190
WILLIAM P. BIGELOW
starting out in life, which is put so tersely and clearly that it is worth quoting verbatim. He says: "Obey orders promptly. Do not watch the clock for closing time. Finish your work, even if it takes you several hours to do so. Leave intoxicating liquors alone. Be prepared to fill the next position, and have nerve and determination to accept and fill it, always remembering that it is harder for your employer to get the right man than it is for the employee to get a position."
The Baltimore papers on several occasions referred to Mr. Bige- low on account of the large measure of success won by him and his company in the business world, but more especially have they paid compliments to him in connection with the mayoralty, for which he was the favorite candidate of the Columbian Club, a strong Republican organization of that city. He has, however, persistently refused to allow his name to be used for any political office, feeling that the demands of his business upon his time were such as not to justify his slighting his work for any public position, however honorable. A man of many likeable personal qualities, he is a member of numerous orders, including the various Masonic bodies and Heptasophs. He holds mem- bership in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion; Maryland Motor- boat Club, of which he is president; the Corinthian Yacht Club; the Crescent Club; and the Oasis Club, of which he is vice-president. In a religious way he is a member of the Methodist church. His favorite amusements, or methods of recreation, are yachting and automobiling. His preferred reading is along the lines of business and mercantile methods, these being most helpful to him, though of course he keeps in touch with current affairs through the daily press.
On September 18, 1889, he married Miss Georgia Seymour, and they have been blessed with three children, all of whom are living.
Mr. Bigelow comes of that old New England stock, which has written so many pages of our history, and which has scattered in the present generation, not only over our own country, but into other corners of the world ; and wherever found, like the enterprising Scotch- men, they are making their mark in business, in politics and in pro- fessional life. A young man yet in the prime of life, he has won his way to the front rank of the business men of his adopted city; and, what is better than even business success, he has won the confidence of the men with whom he is associated, as a man of lovable personality and the highest order of integrity.
CHARLES F. BEVAN
D OCTOR CHARLES F. BEVAN, a prominent physician of Baltimore, was born in that city on June 14, 1850, son of Charles Frederick and Sarah I. (Carback) Bevan. The elder Charles F. Bevan was a manufacturer of and dealer in marble. The strongest features of his character were a marked persistency in what he undertook and constructiveness in his work.
The Bevans are of Welsh ancestry, and the favorite home of the family in America has always been Maryland. There are a dozen or more corruptions of the name in the way of spelling, but the original Welsh forms seem to have been Bevan and Beavan, though more than a dozen different spellings can be found today in America. As an illustration of their preference for Maryland, it may be noted that in 1790, of the seventy-two families then scattered over the United States thirty-two were resident in Maryland.
This immediate branch of the family goes back to Charles, who came from the old country to Charles county, Maryland, in 1666, about thirty years after the colony was founded. Still another ancestor, Charles F. Bevan, whose home was in Harford county, was an officer in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war. The family has long been prominent in various walks in Maryland.
The boyhood days of Doctor Bevan were spent in the city, and he was an active, wiry youngster, very fond of sports. He had no special manual labor to do, so he picked up some little experience in a me- chanical way. His mother was especially ambitious for the boy, and it cannot be doubted that this influenced him in his future conduct.
He had good school advantages, attending the public grammar schools and a private school conducted by John H. Dashiell. After this preliminary training he entered the Academic Department of the Uni- versity of Virginia, and was a student there in 1867, 1868 and 1869. He then entered the Medical Department of the University of Mary- land, and was graduated in 1871 with the degree of M.D. The young doctor was still not content and took postgraduate courses in London, Paris, Vienna and Berlin, entering upon the practice of his profession
192
CHARLES F. BEVAN
in 1873 with all the equipment that was possible for any man to obtain. The value of this training was shown at once, for he was immediately appointed demonstrator of anatomy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, serving until 1877, when he was made professor of anatomy. During 1875 and 1876 he also lectured on osteology. In 1878-9 he was professor of anatomy in the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. In 1887 he became professor of surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and in 1904 became dean of said institution. In 1877 he was appointed assistant surgeon of the Seventh Regiment, Maryland National Guards. He served on the State Lunacy Commis- sion from 1904 to 1908, being president of the board for the last two years of his service.
Outside of his teaching work he has built up a large practice and the reputation of a most skillful physician and surgeon. His politieal allegiance is given to the Democratic party, but he is in no sense an active politician.
He regards as the most powerful influences coloring his life those emanating from home and school training. His religious preference leans to the Episcopal church. He finds his recreations in music, cards and baseball.
Doctor Bevan has been twice married. On January 28, 1881, to Miss Tillie H. Heald. She died, leaving him with two children, and on April 15, 1896, he married Miss Margaret H. Wrenn, of Virginia, and by this marriage there are three children.
There are two things that are surprising in connection with the Welsh blood in America. The first is, the extent of it. Few people realize how large a number of our people are of Welsh stock. And the second is, the quality of it. The people of this stock seem to have the steadiness of the Scotchman, combined with the persistency of the Englishman, and in many cases the brilliancy of the Irishman. It is seldom that the biographer or genealogist finds one of these Welsh-de- scended Americans occupying inferior or subordinate positions. In Wales the Bevan family occupy an honorable station, as is proven by several coats of arms granted to them in the past, one of which, it is noted, was granted to William Bevan, of Pen-y-coed, county Carmar- then, for his services as high sheriff of that county.
192-194
Sincerely yours faisais
·
190
JESSE ANDREW DAVIS
T HE family name of Davis bas, like many other of our present- day surnames, a Biblical origin. It goes back to the shepherd king of Israel. The little country of Wales, partial to the name of David, took it as a surname, using it in its original form, then softening it into Davies, or Daves, and then sending it over the border to England, where the English, in some cases, changed it into Davis. Under the various forms of the name the family ranks in the British Empire as third in point of numbers. We now have English, Scotch, Welsh, Irish and American Davises (but it may not be forgotten that all of them go back for their origin to the mountainous little princi- pality of Wales, which has contributed so many family names to the English-speaking people.
Jesse Andrew Davis, of Baltimore, a member of this great Davis family, and the subject of this sketch, was born in South Amboy, New Jersey, on December 6, 1870. His parents were Andrew Jackson and Amanda Woodhull (Houston) Davis. His father was assistant sup- erintendent of steamboat service of the Erie Railroad at the terminal point at Weehawken, New Jersey. He was a man of strong character and much decision. It is rather curious to note that Jesse Davis, de- riving his surname from the shepherd king, has in his given name of Jesse the name of the shepherd king's father.
Young Davis, as a boy, was inclined to be frail. He was reared in a village, fond of mechanical pursuits and reading. He attended the public schools of his native village, had private instruction and went to the Hoboken High School. At the age of fourteen he entered the office of the American Lead Pencil Company at Hoboken as an office boy, and, by attending an evening high school in New York and having ad- ditional private instruction, he was able, at the age of sixteen, to pass the entrance examinations of the Stevens Institute. He passed this examination on an equal basis with boys whose standing at school had been the same as his own and whose education had been continuous. This in itself is an evidence of the determined character of the lad,
.
196
JESSE ANDREW DAVIS
possibly inherited from that positive father. He took up his studies in the Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, New Jersey, one of the famous schools of our country, and was graduated as a mechanical engineer in 1891. The record of Mr. Davis' life since his graduation has been one of hard work and steady devotion to duty.
Upon his graduation he entered the service of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad under the superintendent of motive power ; for two years he was engaged in the draughting room reporting to the mechanical engineer of the road, for two years on inspection duty reporting to the engineer of tests, and for the next three years he was assigned to ex- perimental work and inspection of cars being built by the Michigan Peninsula Car Company, and of locomotives being built by the Bald- win Locomotive Works.
Leaving the Baltimore and Ohio in 1897, he spent the next three years as expert steel inspector for the United States Navy Department. Part of that time he was detailed to the Midvale Steel Company, which was manufacturing the machinery forgings for the battleships " Kear- sarge," " Kentucky " and " Alabama," thence to the Shelby Tube Com- pany, to inspect seamless steel tubes for torpedo-boats and torpedo-boat destroyers, completing his government work at the plants of the Penn- sylvania Steel Company and Central Iron and Steel Company, where was being gathered the material for a floating steel dry dock for Algiers, Louisiana.
In 1900 Mr. Davis became connected with the sales department of the Pennsylvania Steel, Maryland Steel and Central Iron and Steel companies, which has resulted in liis becoming second vice-president of R. C. Hoffman and Company, Incorporated, who are the southern agents of those great corporations.
Mr. Davis has fought his way up from the ranks by industry com- bined with natural capacity and the faculty of close observation. In looking back over his career he rates as the most important influences in his life, first, school, and secondly, contact with active men of af- fairs. He regards his training obtained at the Stevens Institute as of the greatest value. He learned there how to apply himself to the solu- tion of problems as they come up, and the training there obtained has been invaluable to him in his active life.
His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, but only to the extent of a voting interest. He finds his chief relaxation or recreation in playing golf, horseback-riding and yachting. He is a
197
JESSE ANDREW DAVIS
member of the Harrisburg Club, the Baltimore Country Club, the Baltimore Yacht Club, the Baltimore Athletic Club and the Merchants' Club. He is at present secretary and treasurer of the Baltimore Yacht Club.
Even in his reading he is loyal to his salt, for he has found most pleasure and most advantage in mechanical editions and scientific papers. He is an illustration of many successful business men of our country, who had, at least in part, to work their own way through col- lege, and learned in the early struggles lessons of self-reliance. Now in his prime, mentally and physically, the success already won is but a forecast of the larger measure of usefulness which the future holds in store.
On November 4, 1907, he married Miss Lucy Chilton Kloman, of Warrenton, Virginia. They have one little daughter. The ancestral lines of Mrs. Davis show several historical names and are of sufficient interest to justify a brief mention. She is a daughter of E. F. Kloman, who married Agnes Pickett Helm, whose father, Erasmus Helm, mar- ried Virginia Aisquith. Erasmus Helm was son of Captain William Helm, who married Agnes Pickett, daughter of Captain William Pickett. Virginia Aisquith was daughter of Captain E. A. Aisquith, who was son of William E. Aisquith. Of this Pickett family came General George Pickett, whose division made the historic charge at Gettysburg. The Aisquith family is today represented in Great Britain by the prime minister of that country. The Helm family has con- tributed a number of strong men to the Southern states, notably Ben Hardin Helm, of Kentucky.
The Chiltons also appear in Mrs. Davis' ancestral lines. This family has furnished congressmen in Virginia and Kentucky and a United States Senator in Texas.
HARRY FRIEDENWALD
H ARRY FRIEDENWALD, M.D., professor of ophthalmology and otology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Bal- timore, Maryland, and ophthalmic and aural surgeon to the Baltimore Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital, to the Mercy Hos- pital, the Hebrew Hospital, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Balti- more Nursery and Child's Hospital, was born at Baltimore, on the 21st of September, 1864.
He follows the profession of his father, Aaron Friedenwald, M.D., who was professor of ophthalmology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Baltimore, and was prominent in communal work-a conscientious and excellent physician, noted for his sound judgment, and a lover of his fellowmen. Jonas Friedenwald, grandfather of Doctor Harry Friedenwald, came to Baltimore (in January, 1832) from Hessen, Germany, and became distinguished as a merchant and a philanthropist.
In his boyhood, a hearty and happy boy, fond of reading and inter- ested in his father's practice and business, he had the strong, helpful influence of a most excellent mother, Mrs. Bertha (Bamberger) Fried- enwald; and he was constantly encouraged in the interests and the habits of reading and methods of thought of his profession, by his father, who gave him access to the best popular scientific literature. As a boy, he attended Doctor Scheib's Zion Church school. From that institution he entered the Baltimore City College, where he studied for three years. Entering the Johns Hopkins University as a student in the preparatory medical course, he was graduated with the degree of B.A. in 1884. A two years' course of study in medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, led to his graduation (M.D.) with the first gold medal, in 1886. For the next year he was resident physician in the City Hospital, at Baltimore. Proceeding to Berlin for further special studies, he was an assistant at Professor Hirschberg's Ophthalmic Hospital, at Berlin, from 1887 to 1889.
Returning to Baltimore, in 1890, he began to practice as a phy- sician and specialist, limiting himself to diseases of the eye and ear.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.