USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, volume I > Part 18
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JAMES RICHARD EDMUNDS
It will be noted that Mr. Edmunds comes of pioneer Puritan stock-a stock never surpassed in the country for virile qualities.
As a boy, Mr. Edmunds was healthy. The most notable special taste of his boyhood was a fondness for drawing, and at that time he took up shorthand, learning it from books without a teacher, and has used it more or less all during life. As before stated, his father died when he was ten years of age, and his mother's influence, naturally strong, had therefore an unusual impression upon him, and was of great value to him both in an intellectual and moral way. As a young man he became interested in articles on banking and leading articles of a similar character in the New York "Journal of Commerce," which he read for many years, and which was exceedingly helpful to him in every way. His school life was completed in the Newton Academy at Baltimore, and at the age of fourteen he finally left school, in the year 1860, to take up a clerkship in an insurance office. He says frankly that the direction of his life work was brought about through circumstances which he could not control. On March 24, 1863, he became runner in the Western Bank, and a little later was made discount clerk. From 1864 to 1871 he was a clerk of the Farmers & Merchants' Bank. From 1871 to 1880, he was cashier of the Old Town Bank. In 1880 he was made cashier of the Bank of Commerce, and on December 12, 1902, had the duties of vice-president added to those of cashier. His working life, it may therefore be said, has been spent in the banking business ; and he rates as the strongest influence controlling him during that working life, his private study and contact with other men in active pursuits.
In politics he belongs to that class-all too small-the Independ- ent Citizen. He is partial to music. Mr. Edmunds is something more than a mere business man. He is a good citizen, who recognizes that the nation can live and prosper only as its life is based upon sound religious principles, and early in life he became attached to the Baptist church. He has given forty-five years of active work to the various interests of that great religious organization. In 1873 he was presi- dent of the City Mission Society of the Eutaw Place Baptist church. From 1874 to 1886, he was superintendent of the Sunday School of the Fuller Memorial, and afterwards of the North Avenue Baptist Sunday School, both of these Sunday schools having been started under the auspices of the Eutaw Place congregation. Since 1885 he has been a deacon in the Eutaw Place church. He is serving his fifth
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term as president of the Men's League of his church, has served as secretary of the Baltimore Baptist Church Extension Society, as presi- dent of the Baptist Social Union of Maryland. From 1894 to 1902, he was a director of the Female House of Refuge. In 1903 and 1904, he was vice-president (and is now a member of the Executive Council) for Maryland of the American Bankers' Association. He is a member of the University and Twilight clubs.
Mr. Edmunds comes of a stock of nation builders. That he has lived up to the traditions of his ancestors is an undisputed fact, and that he has discharged every duty in his generation as well as the best of them did in theirs, is a fact which proves that the virtues of the stock from which he comes have in no wise diminished in his hands.
On October 29, 1873, he married Miss Anna S. Keyser. Of this marriage there are six children, all of whom are living, and one son is a missionary to China.
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yours faithfully, Arthur B. hunsolving
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ARTHUR BARKSDALE KINSOLVING
T HE REVEREND ARTHUR BARKSDALE KINSOLVING, D.D., rector of St. Paul's Episcopal church, Baltimore, comes of a family ,which has been well known in Virginia for one : undred years past. He was born in Middleburg, Loudoun county, Virginia. on February 20, 1861. His father was the Reverend Ovid A. Ninsolving, D.D., who was thrice married, and Doctor Kinsolving is """ son of the second marriage, his mother's maiden name having been I. Ivy Lee Rogers, a daughter of General Asa Rogers, of Loudoun county, who was for sixty years in public life in Virginia, for twenty f which he was second auditor of the state. Doctor Kinsolving's father was .a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal church, long prominent in his section, who served as president of the Virginia Diocesan Convention, who was a man of excellent attainments, a fine reader, an eloquent preacher, a faithful pastor and a good man of affairs. Through his mother, Doctor Kinsolving can claim among his ancestors and relatives Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, " Light Horse Harry Lee" and General Robert E. Lee. On the pa- ternal side he comes from a family that came from the Isle of Man to Virginia two hundred years ago, and, according to the family tradition, first settled in King William county. Doctor Kinsolving's mother was a cultivated woman ot deep religious feeling, whose spiritual influence, though she died young, had undoubtedly much to do with the shaping of the son's life.
Doctor Kinsolving was a robust, athletic boy, very active about the home, did considerable work on a fruit farm, was partial to his books, fond of writing, speaking and literature-in fine, a healthy boy. both in body and mind. His school advantages were of the best. He attended the Halifax Male Academy four years, the Episcopal High School of Virginia three years, the Virginia University one year, and rounded off his education in the Theological Seminary at Alexandria, where he was graduated in 1886. While at the Episcopal High School !» won three medals and a scholarship prize every year. In the theo- logical school he stood at the head of his class. Before taking up the
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work of the ministry he taught in the Yeates Institute at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for one year, in the Episcopal High School of Virginia one year, and for two years was instructor in Greek in the Preparatory Department of the Theological Seminary, Virginia.
In 1886 he was ordained deacon, and entered upon the duties of his vocation as rector of St. John's church, Warsaw, Virginia. He served that church until 1889, when he accepted a call to Christ church, Brooklyn, New York, where he remained until 1906, when he became rector of St. Paul's, Baltimore, which he has since been serving with distinguished ability and fidelity.
In recognition of his attainments, he was honored by Washington and Lee University with the degree of D.D. Doctor Kinsolving has been a hard worker and a hard student. As a result of this he stands high up in the ranks of the clergy as an able and successful minister. He has been a deputy to the general convention of the Protestant Epis- copal church, and for four years was archdeacon of Brooklyn, New York, in addition to his rectorate.
During his ministry of twenty-four years Doctor Kinsolving has a record of notable success. Commencing at Emmerton, Virginia, he built Emmanuel church at a cost of twenty-five hundred dollars and left it fully paid for.
In Brooklyn, Christ chapel and parish house adjoining were built and paid for at a cost of seventy-six thousand dollars; then a parish house and chantry were erected at Christ church at a cost of twenty- one thousand dollars ; then the rectory was enlarged and fitted up at a cost of ten thousand dollars, a new organ built at a cost of nine thou- sand dollars, and in addition to all this building he started an endow- ment fund and left it with twenty thousand dollars invested. Thus, in his seventeen years in Brooklyn, he not only saw to it that his parish paid its way, but actually added to its plant and investment one hun- dred and thirty-six thousand dollars in cash. Since coming to Balti- more he has succeeded in bringing to pass a consolidation of Henshaw Memorial church with St. Paul's Guild House, Columbia avenue, thus adding to St. Paul's parish property to the value of thirty thousand dollars.
Seven years ago Doctor Kinsolving received a large vote for the bishopric of Long Island. He has three times been selected to read papers or speak at the Church Congress of the United States.
He received calls to succeed Reverend Doctor Joshua Peterkin,
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rector of St. James church, Richmond, Virginia, and Reverend Doctor Charles Minnegerode, rector ot St. Paul's, Richnioud, Virginia. That he was judged a worthy successor to these eminent men attests his church standing in the strongest possible way.
In looking back and taking cognizance of the influences which have been the greatest factors in shaping his life, he puts as paramount a saintly mother, a strong and godly father, and then the environment of a church boarding school. He has never essayed authorship in a large way, but has given a number of articles to prominent magazines. He holds membership in the Delta Kappa Epsilon Society and the University Club, and for fifteen years has been a member of the Club of New York City, an organization of leading Episcopal ministers. In politics he would be classed as an independent Democrat, for while he calls himself a Democrat he did not hesitate to break loose from the party when Bryan was nominated, as he did not agree with the views then enunciated as the party doctrine. Always fond of outdoor life he finds his chief recreation at present in an occasional game of golf.
On February 5, 1895, he married Miss Sallie Archer Bruce, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Seddon Bruce, of Richmond, Vir- ginia. Of this marriage there are five children, two boys and three girls.
Doctor Kinsolving's family has been strongly identified with the Episcopal church for three or four generations past. His father has been mentioned. In the present generation is an elder half-brother, George Herbert Kinsolving, born in 1849, who has been bishop of Texas for the past eighteen years. Another younger full brother, Lucien Lee Kinsolving, born in 1862, has been missionary bishop of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, since January, 1899.
WILLIAM HENRY DUNBAR
W ILLIAM HENRY DUNBAR, clergyman, of Baltimore, was born at Stone Church, Northampton county, Pennsyl- vania, on January 25, 1852, the son of Robert and Susan ' (Correil) Dunbar. ITis father was a farmer of Scotch descent charac- terized by integrity and strict faithfulness to duty. Mrs. Dunbar's an- cestors were Germans. Her influence was strong for good on her son's moral life. William H. Dunbar was brought up in the country enjoy- ing good health and fond of books and of play. He worked on the farm until fifteen years of age, when he entered Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, for which he was prepared by the pastor of his home church. His college vacations were always spent in farm work and narrow circumstances forced him to earn his way through the last three years of the college course, which he completed with the degree of A.B. in 1871. He then entered the Theological Seminary of the General Synod of the Lutheran church at Gettysburg, and graduated in 1874. In 1892, Pennsylvania College gave him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Doctor Dunbar feels that the strongest influence upon him has been the contact with men in active life. He has always striven " to do everything with all his might," and writes that he "was led into the ministry by the Spirit of God."
He has written a number of magazine articles and pamphlets, and is the author of a book, the first of the Teachers' Training Series of the Lutheran church, called "The Book and the Message," widely used in the training of Sunday-school teachers. In politics, he is a Re- publican. On October 2, 1880, he married Jennie Chamberlain, daugh- ter of David and Catharine Chamberlain, of Easton, Pennsylvania, by whom he has had two children, both of whom are living.
The work of his life was begun by a pastorate of St. Peter's Luth- eran church at Easton, Pennsylvania, which lasted from August, 18:1. to 1880. He then became pastor of Zion Lutheran church, Lebanon. Pennsylvania, and remained there until 1894, when he accepted a call to St. Mark's Lutheran church, Baltimore, and began a successful pas-
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torate, which has continued to the present time. Doctor Dunbar was secretary of the East Pennsylvania Lutheran Synod, from 1877 to 1880, and president of that body from 1888 to 1891. He has been a member of the Lutheran board of publication since 1880 and of the board of trustees of Pennsylvania College since 1885. From 1884 to 1894 he was president of the board of trustees of Trunsler Orphans' Home of the General Synod of the Lutheran church, and is now presi- dent of that Synod's deaconess board and of the board of directors of its Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He was one of the organizers of the Pennsylvania Chautauqua and a member of the Advisory Coun- cil on Religious Congresses of the World's Congress Auxiliary to the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Doctor Dunbar was for a number of years chairman of the committee of arrangements of the Baltimore Ministerial Union, and was elected the first president of that body. He has been president of the Lutheran Ministers' Association of Balti- more since 1897, and for two years was president of the Lutheran Synod of Maryland.
Doctor Dunbar's words of advice toward the attainment of suc- cess are "Do not allow yourself to be drawn into many interests of various kinds. Concentrate energy. Do not fritter away energy on what is not worth doing. Do what you undertake with all your might."
ROBERT POLLOK KERR
R OBERT POLLOK KERR, clergyman, was born at Greensboro, Greene county, Alabama, on July 19, 1850. He is the son of John Poole and Sarah Howard (Webb) Kerr. His mother was a native of Granville county, North Carolina. His father, a man of dignity, industry, courtesy and piety, was a merchant and a promi- nent elder of the Presbyterian church. Doctor Kerr's father and grandfather are descendants of Sir Robert Kerr, of Scotland, a leader of the Covenanters. They came to the United States from Sanquhar, Scotland. His maternal great-grandfather, James Webb, removed to North Carolina from Essex county, Virginia. Doctor Kerr, when but six years of age, moved with his parents to Dubuque, Iowa. He was a sturdy boy, and, though his father was a man of wealth, he had taught his children to work and not be ashamed of it, the work. His mother, he says, " was one of the most remarkable women I ever knew," and he further affirms that " my father and mother, under God, made me what I am." He was always fond of books, and his favorite study has been history, especially the history of the church of God. After the death of his father in 1865, his family went to Arkansas, then to Missouri, and finally returned South. "When my father was dying," he says, " he told me he had always prayed that I might be a minister, and I told him I had always intended to be one." His college education was received at the William Jewell College, at Liberty, Missouri, where he graduated with first honors in 1870. He then entered the Union Theo- logical Seminary at Hampden-Sidney, Virginia, receiving his certifi- cate of graduation in 1873. In 1887 Doctor Kerr was honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Virginia. Doctor Kerr has traveled extensively abroad and in the East, and is a fine linguist. He began active life as the pastor of a Presbyterian church at Lexington, Missouri, and has been pastor sue- cessively of churches in Thomasville, Georgia; Savannah, Georgia ; Petersburg, Virginia; and of the First Presbyterian church at Rich- mond, Virginia, where he had remarkable success for nearly twenty years. Under Doctor Kerr's influence and ministration in the latter
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church, the congregation grew to be one of the most powerful of the denomination in the Southern field. It increased in membership and prosperity in excess of any previous period in its history. Doctor Kerr's ability has been conspicuous in the councils of the church. He was the author of the famous " concurrent resolution " adopted at At- lanta in 1882, which was later passed by the General Assembly of the Northern Presbyterian church, and which served to bring closer to- gether the two assemblies in this country. Doctor Kerr was the organ- izer of the Richmond Ministerial Union, and was president of the board of trustees of the Westminster School at Richmond, also presi- dent of the board of trustees of the Union Theological Seminary, Rich- mond, and president of the Presbyterian Orphanage of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church located at Fredericksburg, Vir- ginia. He was president of the Pan-Presbyterian Alliance of the Western Hemisphere, and is associated with the May Festival of Chris- tian Unity, which meets annually in Richmond, and whose object is to show the purpose of all denominations to work for the uplifting of the world. ' In 1903, Doctor Kerr accepted a call to the pastorate of the Northminster Presbyterian church at Baltimore, which position he now holds, greatly beloved by the congregation. In spite of his many pastoral duties, Doctor Kerr has found time to add materially to the literature of the Presbyterian church. Among the books written by him are: " The History of Presbyterianism in All Ages," " Presby- terianism for the People," " The Voice of God in History," "Land of Holy Light," " Will the World Outgrow Christianity ?" " History of the Covenanters," "Hymns of the Ages," "The Presbyterian Com- munion Class Catechism," and other minor works. For recreation and exercise, Doctor Kerr follows hunting and fishing during his vacations, which he usually spends in Canada. On September 17, 1873, Doctor Kerr married Miss Ellen T. Webb, of Nashville, Tennessee. They have had no children. His counsel to the American youth is given in a few words, " Fear God, and keep his commandments. Love God and your fellow man."
GEORGE MARTIN GILLET
G EORGE MARTIN GILLET, of the Montague & Gillet Com- pany, straw hat manufacturers, of Baltimore and New York, was born in Baltimore City, on July 9, 1865, son of George ' M. and Antoinette (Jacobson) Gillet.
The Gillet family has two widely different origins. One branch is of Puritan English stock, and the other of French Huguenot. As a rule, the French Huguenot branch spell the name Gillette. In 1790, however, of the one hundred and fifty-six families of Gillets then set- tled in our country, there were eight different spellings, which merely illustrates the indifference of our ancestors to the spelling of their own names. Mr. Gillet comes from the Puritan English branch, which was founded by Jonathan Gillet, who came from England in the ship " Mary and John," landing at Nantasket May 30, 1630, and settled in Dor- chester, Massachusetts. That the Gillet family in England occupied an honorable station is proven by the possession of three coats of arms. The old Puritan, Jonathan Gillet, must be accorded great success as an ancestor. He moved in 1635 from Dorchester to Windsor, Connecticut, with his wife and three children, Cornelius, Jonathan and Mary. In Windsor there were born to him Anna, Joseph, Samuel, Abigail, Jere- miah and Josias. It is of interest to note the Bible names. This makes a family of nine children of the first immigrant, and to some extent accounts for the large number of families who, one hundred and sixty years later, could trace their origin back to Jonathan Gillet. Among his descendants were General Jonathan Gillet, born in Lynn, Massa- chusetts, in 1720, who was a distinguished soldier in the colonial wars with the French and Indians. These Gillets have sent five members to the Federal Congress.
George M. Gillet was a healthy and active boy, fond of outdoor life, whose early years were spent in the city in winter and in the coun- try in summer. His mother was careful of his training, and exercised a powerful influence in giving the boy good moral stamina. His edu- cational training was obtained in The Friends' Academy, No. 19 Gram- mar School, and the Baltimore City College.
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GEORGE MARTIN GILLET
In 1882, a youth of seventeen, he entered mercantile life as an employee in the grain business, in which he spent the next eighteen years. In 1900 he engaged in his present line of manufacture of straw hats with Duke & Thompson, which in 1901 became the Duke, Mon- tague & Gillet Company, which so continued until 1906. In 1907 the Montague & Gillet Company was organized, which is his present busi- ness interest.
Mr. Gillet frankly admits that the most powerful influence in his early years that influenced him towards striving for a prize in life was his desire to get married. The impulse evidently resulted in a success- ful movement, for on the 3d day of November, 1891, he married Miss Mary Frances Koons, and of this marriage there are four children.
He rates as powerful influences in his life the home training and contact with his fellow men.
He served for a short time in Company A of the Fifth Maryland Regiment, which famous old regiment appears to have taken a bit of time out of the life of nearly every prominent man in Baltimore.
He has mechanical talent, and has received patents from the gov- ernment on machines.
Politically, he elasses himself as an independent Democrat. That is to say, while his politieal convictions lie with the Demoeratie party, he tries in each campaign to cast his vote for the best man, in so far as he can obtain knowledge.
His recreations are found in hunting, fishing and walking.
Mr. Gillet attributes any failures which may have occurred in his life to too much haste; and this is worthy of consideration by other men. More of us fail from too much haste than from too little.
He is a communicant of the Presbyterian church, and strongly devoted to its work, being now a deaeon of the Brown Memorial church and a member of the Presbyterian Union of Maryland. He also holds membership in the Merchants and Manufacturers' Association and the Yacht Club.
In his reading, Mr. Gillet rates as most helpful in his own life the Bible, and next to that, histories and books of travel. He thinks the young man starting in life would find it a most excellent policy to consider well each movement, look before he leaps, and adopt the fa- mous motto of Davy Crockett, " Be sure you are right, and then go ahead." He is a good example of the strong, sturdy, patient, growing
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GEORGE MARTIN GILLET
business man, who does the day's work, as it comes to hand, with fidel- ity, and who is content with the reasonable reward of his labor, striving always to maintain high ideals and to discharge well the duties of citizenship.
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JAMES HALL MASON KNOX, JR.
D OCTOR JAMES HALL MASON KNOX, JR., of Baltimore, one of the prominent physicians of that city, was born on May 20, 1872, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, son of James HI. Mason and Helen R. (Thompson) Knox, daughter of the late Judge Oswald Thompson, of Philadelphia. His father was a Presbyterian clergyman. Doctor Knox was the son of the Reverend Doctor John Knox, pastor of the Collegiate Dutch Reformed church of New York City. His longest pastorate was in First church of Germantown, Penn- sylvania, and at Bristol. For some years he was president of the La- fayette College at Easton, Pennsylvania. Among Doctor Knox's an- cestors was the Reverend John M. Mason, D.D., an eminent clergyman of New York City. The Knox family is of Scotch origin, and from the days of John Knox, the father of the Reformation in Scotland, down to General Henry Knox, Washington's chief of artillery and first Secretary of War, and from that period down to the present, in every generation, the Knox family has furnished useful men.
Doctor Knox's boyhood was chiefly spent in Bristol, Pennsylvania, and Easton, Pennsylvania. At the high school of the latter place he prepared for college and entered the Academic Department of Lafay- ette College, where he remained for two years. At the end of his sopho- more year he left that institution and went to Yale University, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1892 and the de- gree of Ph.D. in 1894. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by Lafayette College in 1896. For four years from the fall of 1894 Doctor Knox followed a professional course at the Johns Hop- kins Medical School, where he was graduated with the degree of M.D. in 1898. He then spent one year at the Johns Hopkins Hospital as interne, and since that time has been actively engaged in practice in Baltimore. In 1901 several months were spent in the study of pedi- atrics in Berlin and Vienna. Since 1902 Doctor Knox has been con- nected with the Johns Hopkins University, first as assistant in pedi- atrics, then from 1904 to 1909 as instructor, and in 1909 he was made
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JAMES HALL MASON KNOX, JR.
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