USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, volume I > Part 24
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JOHN WHITRIDGE WILLIAMS
been connected with the Johns Hopkins Hospital since its opening, and organized the Obstetrical Department of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity in 1893. He is an honorary member of various European learned and medical societies. He has written many monographs upon medical subjects, and in 1903 published a comprehensive and exhaus- tive text-book of obstetrics. He is a member of the Delta Phi frater- nity, the Maryland Club, the Baltimore Country Club, the Bachelors' Cotillon Club, as well as various national and local medical societies. In the years 1903 and 1904 he was vice-president of the American Gynecological Society. In politics Doctor Williams is an independent Democrat. In religious affiliations he is an Episcopalian. On January 14, 1892, he married Margaretta S. Brown, daughter of General Stewart Brown. They have three children.
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Sincerely
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De COURCY WRIGHT THOM
HERE are many standards by which success in life is measured. While there may be something of truth in all of these stand- ards, it yet remains true that there can be but one absolutely correct standard. Napoleon, the greatest of military men, finally failed as a commander ; but Napoleon the codifier of the law, and Na- poleon the road-builder, was an eminent success. Hannibal failed in his purpose and Scipio succeeded. Yet Hannibal's life, measured by the correct standard, was just as successful as Scipio's. Washington succeeded and Lee failed, according to the ordinary human judgment; but Washington was no greater a success than Lee, measured by the cor- rect standard. It is important, therefore, that we know what this cor- rect yardstick, by which we measure human success, is. No better definition can be found than that laid down by the Savior of man when he told his disciples that he who would be first among them must be servant of all. Service, or usefulness to one's generation, is, therefore, the absolutely correct standard. Napoleon was a failure on the destruc- tive side of his nature and a success on the constructive side. Hannibal and Lee were eminent successes because they served their country faithfully and well. Many of our modern standards are very faulty. Men are accustomed to rate success sometimes by notoriety, sometimes by money, sometimes by professional skill, and yet all these may be but conspicuous evidences of failure. For the money may be unrighteously obtained and illy used; the notoriety may be of a malodorous kind; the professional skill may be prostituted to wrongful causes, and we come, therefore, back to the absolutely certain conclusion that the only cer- tain standard is usefulness, service. Measured by this standard, W. H. De Courcy W. Thom, of " Blakeford," Queenstown, Maryland, has won success.
He comes from a long line of distinguished ancestors. In our country it is not uncommon to hear ignorant men decry the value of a good ancestry, but no student of history will ever do so, for from that long-gone day four thousand years ago, when the Jewish tribes began to keep the record of their families, down to the present, history teems
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with the records and achievements of men who, spurred on by acquire.i and inherited tendencies, have accomplished things that seemed well- nigh impossible.
The surname Thom comes from Scotland. The Scotch family does not appear to have been numerous. The American family was founded by Alexander Thom, who adhered to the Jacobite cause in Scotland in 1745, and after the disastrous battle of Culloden in 1746. in which he was an officer, fled to America to save his life, and settled in Westmoreland county, but subsequently located in Culpeper county, Virginia.
Many of the qualities of the old Seoteh Jacobite who founded the family in America have descended to his grandchildren and great- grandchildren, broadened and liberalized by a larger field and greater opportunities. His eldest son, Colonel John Watson Triplett Thor :. who inherited the family estate, " Berry Hill," Culpeper county, Vir- ginia, was a State Senator, an officer in the War of 1812, repeatedly high sheriff of his county, a vestryman of the Protestant Episcopal church; a large planter, the owner of about 200 slaves, many of whom he sought to colonize in free Pennsylvania, but the slaves chose to return to Berry Hill (see Beverly Mumford's " Virginia's Attitude towards Slavery "). In the last generation we find Major Joseph Pem- broke Thom, youngest son of Colonel J. W. T. Thom, soldier in two wars, surgeon in the United States Navy, farmer, philanthropist, ser- vant of the people, and legislator. Major Thom was a man of great versatility, who did well everything that he undertook. He entered the army at the age of nineteen and served as Second Lieutenant of the Eleventh United States Infantry in the Mexican war. He then served for three years as an assistant surgeon in the United States Navy. He was a member of the staff of General William B. Talliaferro at Har- per's Ferry when John Brown was captured. At the outbreak of the Civil war he went with the Confederacy and was a major in the Irish Battalion attached to the Confederate army. These were the only troops raised in Virginia before she joined the Confederaey. He de- clined two colonelcies desiring college-trained soldiers to fill them.
Later he served as a member of both branches of the City Council of Baltimore and as president. He was speaker of the House of Dele- gates of Maryland; was the originator, first president and chief or- ganizer of the Hospital for Feeble-minded Children of Maryland ; was president of the Spring Grove Insane Asylum, first president of the
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Hospital for the Relief of Women of Maryland, and a vestryman in the Protestant Episcopal church. He was noted for the strength of his moral convictions, his unwavering courage, his generosity, his friend- ship and his helpfulness to his fellowmen. That he was a brave man hardly needs to be said; and, measured by the correct standard, his life was an eminent success.
Major Thom married Ella L. Wright, and of this marriage W. H. De C. W. Thom was born, at 409 North Charles street, Baltimore, on October 14, 1858. Mr. Thom's mother was descended from Nathaniel Wright, who came from England in 16:3, and settled in what is now Queen Anne's county, Maryland. No family in America can show a longer line of public-spirited, capable and patriotic connections than the Wright and Thom families.
Let us consider these by-gone worthies, who were ancestors of our subject, for a brief space. We find nearly three hundred years ago Captain Thomas Purefoy, a member of the House of Burgesses in Vir- ginia, in 1629 and 1630, and member of the Council of Virginia from 1631 to 1637. Then there was Captain Henry Isham, captain of militia and high sheriff of Henrico county, Virginia, in 1668 and 1669; Humphrey Tabb, member of Virginia House of Burgesses, 1652; Gov- ernor Richard Bennett, member of Virginia House of Burgesses, 1629 to 1631; member of Virginia Council, 1642 to 1649 and 1658 to 1675; and Governor of Virginia, 1652 to 1655; Major-General of Virginia forces, 1666; head of the Parliamentary " Commission for Reducing Virginia and Maryland," 1651 and 1652. It will be observed that this far-away old Governor gave forty-six years of continuous service to the colony of Virginia.
Coming along down the line, we find Colonel Wm. Randolph, member of the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1685 to 1699 and again from 1703 to 1705. He was speaker of the House in 1698, Attorney-General in 1696, Captain of Henrico Militia in 1680, Lieu- tenant-Colonel in 1699; twenty years is the total credit to the old Colonel.
Dropping back a little, we find Theoderick Bland, first of a family most famous in Virginia annals. He was speaker of the House of Bur. gesses in 1659 and 1660, and member of the Virginia Council in 1664. Then comes Richard Bland, County Commissioner in 1699, Burgess in 1702, visitor to William and Mary College in 1716. Then comes Colo- nel Richard Bland, sometimes called the "Cato of the Revolution,"
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contemporary with the great George Mason, and who would have been a signer of the Declaration of Independence but for his refusal because of ill health to become again a member of the Continental Congress. This Richard Bland first comes into sight in Virginia as a Commis- sioner of the military forces in 1738. From 1742 to 1775, thirty-three years, he was a member of the House of Burgesses. In 1774, 1775 and 1776 he was a member of the Virginia Convention. In 175 he was a member of the Committee of Safety and was elected a delegate to the first Continental Congress which laid the foundations for the Declara- tion of Independence, but his health was then declining so that he could not accept service in its successor, and he died on October 26, 1776. Thomas Jefferson said of Colonel Bland that "He was the wisest man on Bland's side of the James river." His political pam- phlets are mentioned in any authoritative summary of sources .! American history; especially noteworthy was that one on the Stamp Act. His writings on the political questions of the day were noted as far back as 1765 and had prime influence in Virginia in causing that colony to take such a positive stand.
His patriotism was as stern as that of George Mason, who changed the motto on his coat of arms from "Pro patria semper " to " Pro republica semper."
Coming along the line of these ancient worthies, all of whom were ancestors of our subject, we find Colonel William Mayo, who surveyed Barbadoes in 1717 to 1721, an account and map of which is now in the King's College Library at the University of Dublin, Ireland. This same William Mayo ran the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728; in 1730 he was a Major in the Virginia forces; in 1737 he laid out the city of Richmond; in 1740 he was a Colonel in the Virginia forces. John Mayo appears as a Burgess from 1768 to 1771. He was a member of the Virginia Convention from 1775 to 1776 and a member of the Cumberland County Committee in 1775.
Colonel Peter Poythress appears as a Burgess in Virginia from 1769 to 1774 and a member of the Virginia Convention from 1774 to 1776.
Leaving Virginia and crossing over Mason and Dixon's line, which then did not exist, we find, in 1700, Joshua Hoopes, a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and this old Assemblyman appears to have served continuously up to 1711, with the exception of the year 1707.
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Still further back, in the days of William Penn, we find William Warner, a member of the Governor's Council, a justice and member of the Assembly in 1681 and later.
In 1708 and 1709 we find Daniel Hoopes in the Pennsylvania Assembly. Crossing into Maryland, we come upon Colonel Henry Coursey (De Courcy). This old descendant of Norman crusaders was a member of the Council of Maryland from 1660 to 1670 and from 1676 to 1684. He was secretary of the colony in 1660 and 1661; was Colorel, commanding parts of Cecil and Kent counties in 1676, 1678 and 1681; in 1677, and again in 1682, he succeeded as Commis- sioner in negotiating a treaty with the " northern Indians," i. e., with the Iroquois Confederacy at Albany : in 1684 and 1685 he was Chief Justice of the Provincial Court ; in 1694 and 1695 he was a Burgess. A moment's calculation will show thirty-five years of service to Colonel Coursey's credit.
Continuing in Maryland, we find Solomon Clayton, Burgess in 1715, 1732, 1:34 and 1739; County Commissioner in 1723 and 1735; Ensign in the Militia of Queen Anne's county in 1732.
Back of all this appears the Wright immigrant progenitor, Cap- tain Nathaniel Wright, Commissioner to help lay out the boundaries of Queen Anne's county; Commissioner to help found the parishes of the Protestant Episcopal church on the Eastern Shore; County Judge, Captain of Militia and vestryman of what now is partly old Wye parish.
The De Courcys come in sight again in the person of Henry Coursey, Justice and County Commissioner in 1685 and 1689, and Bur- gess in 1704 to 1707. Again the Wright line becomes prominent in the person of Judge Solomon Wright, born 1717, died 1792, Burgess in Maryland from 1771 to 1774; member of Maryland Conventions of 1774 and 1775; Chairman of Committee of Queen Anne's county in 1775 and 1776; signer of the Association of Freemen of Maryland July 26, 1775; "The Maryland Declaration of Independence "; Judge of the first Maryland Court of Appeals in 1778, and served until his death in 1792; and "Special Judge to try treasons on the Eastern Shore during the Revolutionary war."
Then comes Robert Wright, born in 1755, soldier against Lord Dunmore before the Revolution, and a Captain in the Continental Army; member of the State Senate; three times Governor of Mary- land; United States Senator from 1801 to 1806, when he resigned to
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become Governor of the state; Representative in the 11th, 12th, 13th. 14th and 17th Congresses; District Judge, and the author of the Con- stitution of the American Colonization Society (see Spear's American Slave Trade).
A summing-up will show more than thirty years of public service to the credit of Robert Wright, who was a little past seventy-one when he died.
Worthy of mention in a yet later day is William Henry De Courcy Wright, Consul at Rio Janeiro and chargé d'affaires ad interim to Brazil on two occasions. He was the founder of the Brazilian coffee trade with the North Atlantic coast of the United States and in con- nection with Mr. Maxwell founded the great coffee and Brazilian Trading House of Maxwell, Wright & Co.
Among these men mentioned, four in Maryland and four in Vir- ginia were either governors or served in the Executive body, having full charge of their colony or state. These were Richard Bennett, Henry Coursey, Solomon Wright, Robert Wright, Richard Bland, Peter Poythress, John Mayo and Thomas Purefoy. Of these Richard Ben- nett served both in Virginia and Maryland.
This record is here given to show the character of these ancestors. It will be noted that in most cases the service was long, arduous, and, as every historical student knows, but poorly paid. It was a sense of patriotic duty which made these men serve. Another feature of this service worthy of note: They went from one place to another as the public service demanded; from a great position to a less one if the public service demanded. Evidently the idea of personal glory did not enter largely into their minds. The struggling colonies needed strong men in little places as well as big, and these strong men stood ready to give that service whether the place appeared little or big.
With such an ancestry it is not surprising to find that Mr. Thom has a strong sense of civic duty. He had the misfortune to lose his mother when he was a very small child, though she left him as an in- heritance her goodly qualities. He had the good fortune to have a devoted aunt, Mrs. Clintonia G. May, who was afterwards Mrs. Clin- tonia G. Thomas, who gave him a mother's care until after the Civil war when his noble father was again able to be with him. Young Thom, a strong boy with varied tastes, loved reading, athletics, gard- ening, writing and organizing. Outside the school terms his life was spent in the country, and though no set tasks were given him he
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always worked in a garden of his own, and has a just pride now in Claiming that he was a successful gardener as a boy.
The very best of educational advantages were his. He attended the schools of Miss Dunnington and Doctor Robert Atkinson in Balti- more, the Episcopal High School at Alexandria, Virginia, and the University of Virginia. He graduated in a number of schools at that I'niversity, which practices the Single school system, but, following the usual custom of that University, did not seek the degree of A.M., which there requires graduation in ten different schools, so there are 5.w A.M.'s of the University of Virginia, and they mostly men whose Ives are devoted to teaching. While at the University in 1879, as a rt of his studies he graduated in international and constitutional .w. He also was an editor of the University of Virginia magazine. He took a course in rhetoric, English literature, psychology, logic and .. ctaphysics at the University of Edinburgh, though he did not offer For graduation in them.
In 1882, then a young man of twenty-four, Mr. Thom entered business life as a stockbroker in Baltimore, Maryland. He was con- trolled in the selection of a business by his own preference for work that would bring full opportunities while enabling him to remain near his father and aunt who had assisted in his rearing. Their home was in Baltimore, and hence selection of that place as the field of operation. His father's judgment was in accord with his own, and taking as his own the motto practised by that father, " Time brings roses; do faith- fully what thy hand findeth to do," he gave ten years to the banking and stock brokerage business in Baltimore.
On October 29, 1885, he married Mary Pleasants Gordon, and After a short married life was left a widower with two children. In 1692 he abandoned active business in Baltimore and established him- 4.If at " Blakeford," his country residence in Queen Anne's county, that he might best care for his aunt, Mrs. Thomas, and for his mother- 's children. Since then his life has been neither inactive nor un- fruitful. His business life has been very successful. Mr. Thom is one { the best-known citizens of Maryland, and his work and traces of his work are to be found in every direction. It would be a very long story o enter into detail as to every enterprise with which he has been con- *ected, or as to every duty assigned and well discharged. Space will tot permit more than the briefest mention of some of these things.
He was a member and secretary of the Commission which restored
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the old Senate Chamber in Annapolis to the condition existing when Washington resigned therein his commission as Commander-in-chief of the American Army. He originated the idea and was very active in securing the heroic bronze statue of Cecilius Calvert, first Lord Pro- prietary of Maryland, which now stands in front of the west façade of the beautiful Baltimore City courthouse. He is a member of the Mary- land Historical Society and a life member of the Municipal Art So- ciety. He is a member of the Maryland State Library Commission ; was a delegate to the general conventions of the Protestant Episcopal church in June, 1907, and June, 1909 ; is a vestryman ; is a director in the Queenstown Savings Bank of Queen Anne's county, of which he was the originator; is a director in the Continental Life Insurance .. Company which he assisted in starting; is a director in the Security Cement and Lime Company of West Virginia, the cement end of which he first established; is a director in the International Trust Company of Baltimore and in other business ventures. He holds membership in the D. K. E. college fraternity and in numerous clubs, such as the Maryland Club, Baltimore University Club, Baltimore Country Club, L'Hirondelle Club, The Aztec Association, The Arcade Club of Uni- versity of Virginia. The Saturday Night Class of Baltimore City, The Anti-Wilson Ballot-Law Association of Queen Anne's county, of which he is the originator and president, and of the Just Representa- tion League of Maryland, of which also he is the originator and presi- dent. He originated the Maryland Historical Society Magazine, and also the Board of Alumni Trustees of the University of Virginia. . \s stated, he is the originator and president of the Just Representation League of Maryland, Governor of the Society of Colonial Wars of the State of Maryland, president of the Prisoners' Aid Association of Mary- land, vice-president of the Henry Watson Aid Society, trustce of the Hospital for Cripples and Deformed Children of the State of Mary- land, and ex-president of the General Alumni Association of the Uni- versity of Virginia, of the Maryland Society, a governor of the Balti- more Country Club, and a member of the Board of Trustees of The Agricultural Society of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He served for a short time as a private in the Fifth Regiment of Maryland Nation! Guards. He is the author of " A Brief History of Panics in the Unit ..! States," and of -arious essays, addresses, verses, articles and stori. s.
He suggested to the postoffice authorities the idea of allowing t ... use of ten cents' worth of stamps instead of the technical ten-cent sta" !
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previously demanded on immediate-delivery letters. At the University of Virginia he was the organizer of track athletics, assisted in starting the Boat Club and was captain of the first 'Varsity crew. He was presi- dent of the Boat Club, served four years on the Gymnasium Com- mittee, and was an editor on the University magazine.
Mr. Thom classes himself as a Democrat in a political way, but probably a more correct classification would be Independent, for he never sacrifices the principles of his party for mere political wire- pulling. He stands always for good government and for political righteousness. Based upon these foundations he wants a properly qualified majority to rule under a system of adequate representation.
Mr. Thom has refused many offers of public place. His idea has been to do his duty faithfully, and that duty often involves the refusal of promotion : but, looking back over his life now, he realizes the full truth of General Lee's dictum, " Do your duty and never refuse promo- tion," which saying implies of course that duty often compels refusal of promotion. He thinks the young man who wants to win real success should work and think and compare notes with experienced people of sound judgment, doing the day's work faithfully and accepting promo- tion only when it comes in the line of duty. He regards it as the duty of every good citizen, man or woman, to make an earnest effort to understand what good government means, and to constantly work to that end, because otherwise there is danger of being influenced and of exercising influence in a reactionary and evil way.
The record given here is one of accomplishment in many direc- tions. Like many active and useful men, Mr. Thom is a modest man and has no exalted idea of his own performances. Going back to the proposition laid down in the beginning of this sketch, that success is to be measured by usefulness and service, it must be confessed that among the successful men of Maryland of our generation De Courcy W. Thom occupies a most honorable position.
GEORGE WHITELOCK
G EORGE WHITELOCK, one of the leading lawyers of Balti- more, was born in that city on December 25, 1854. His father was the late William Whitelock. His mother is Mrs. Janc Stockton Whitelock. On both sides of thefamily Mr. Whitelock is of English ancestry. The Whitelocks came from Yorkshire, England. The family possessed coat armor ; the four coats of arms in the various branches having precisely the same shield, differentiated only by the crests. The Stocktons are also of old English stock. In our country they first became prominent in New Jersey, and Richard Stockton of that state was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. From New Jersey the family spread into Maryland, Virginia and Florida, and has been prominent in all of these states. Mr. Whitelock's father, William Whitelock, was well known in Baltimore financial circles and represented Baltimore county in the legislature of 1876. He was allied with various corporations as director and otherwise, and was one of the founders and the first president of the Third National Bank of that city. Soon after George Whitelock was born, his parents removed to the neighborhood of Mount Washington, Baltimore county, where most of Mr. Whitelock's youth was spent at the family home- stead, which is still the residence of his mother. He attended private schools in Baltimore City and county, and was later graduated from the Pennsylvania Military College at Chester, Pennsylvania. He studied law at the University of Maryland, and is an alumnus of that institution of the class of 1875. Mr. Whitelock has always taken in- terest in linguistic study and was for some time a student at the Johns Hopkins University in romance philology, and at Leipzig, Germany. He is a member of the Modern Language Association of America, and speaks French, German and Italian.
In 1876, Mr. Whitelock formed a professional co-partnership with Mr. Samuel D. Schmucker, under the name of Schmucker & White- lock. This firm was recognized as a leading law firm and continued until November 15, 1898, when Mr. Schmucker was appointed to the
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bench of the court of appeals of Maryland, and the firm was dissolved. Mr. Whitelock then practised alone for some years, when he formed a new partnership, and is now the senior member of the law firm of Whitelock, Deming & Kemp. In his practice, while thoroughly up to date in modern methods, Mir. Whitelock has adhered rather to the old- fashioned plan of being a general practitioner ; in other words, he has not specialized, as many professional men of the present day do. The official reports of the last thirty years in the various courts show that he has appeared in a large number of cases, covering practically the entire range of the law outside of criminal practice. In addition to court practice, he has also an extensive office or consulting practice. After serving as treasurer of the Maryland State Bar Association, he was, on July 9, 1903, elected president of that association. He also holds membership in the International Law Association, the Maritime Law Association and the Bar Association of Baltimore City, and is at present secretary of the American Bar Association.
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