USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, volume I > Part 25
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
The late James McSherry, chief justice of the Maryland court of appeals, himself an able jurist, was, during his lifetime, asked by the publishers of this work for an expression of opinion in regard to Mr. Whitelock, and under date of March 17, 1906, he wrote as follows :
" George Whitelock is a lawyer of unusual ability and of a high order of attainments. He is an indefatigable worker. His energy is untiring. He is thoroughly familiar with the fundamental principles of the law, with their origin, their history, their development and their adaptability to new and changing conditions ; and his strong reasoning faculties, coupled with his great powers of analysis, his mental alert- ness, his quick perception and his vigorous physique, enable him to present with force and clearness, to court and jury, the legal proposi- tions and the conclusions of fact which he may be called on, in his varied engagements, to maintain. His arguments are graceful, lucid, cogent and always to the point, and give convincing evidence that he has an intellect, not only well stored with both a technical and a gen- eral knowledge acquired by assiduous study and research, but most admirably trained and cultivated in the line of his professional life- work. He is not a case lawyer who seeks parallels and precedents to rely on. He goes to the root of a question and grasps its underlying legal principles, driving them home with skill, discrimination and effect. He takes high rank at the Maryland bar."
In addition to the law associations above referred to, Mr. White-
-
372
GEORGE WHITELOCK
lock holds membership in many social and business organizations, such as the Baltimore Country Club, the Maryland Club, the Germania and Merchants' Clubs, the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce, the Union League Club of New York, and the Metropolitan Club of Washington.
Politically, Mr. Whitelock has always been identified with the Republican party. He has never, however, been a bitter partisan and has never held political office. He has frequently refused nominations for office, but did in 1905 become the Republican candidate for attor- ney-general in Maryland, but that being a Democratic year he was de- feated by his opponent. In 1SS8 he served under Mayor Latrobe as a member of the Municipal Committee on the Extension of the City Limits.
In religious faith he adheres to the Unitarians. Mr. Whitelock is married and has two children.
573 374
1
1
youre very truly Clear I. Ulusal
375
OSCAR G. MURRAY;
O SCAR G. MURRAY, lately president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, and now chairman of the board of di- rectors, was born in a quiet Connecticut village on the 20th of May, 1847. As his name indicates, he is of Scottish blood and illustrates the sturdy characteristics of his race. The name of Murray has been a great name in Scottish history almost as far back as its authentic history goes. Thomas Randolph, Earl of Murray, was the son of the sister of the great King Robert the Bruce. Murray and the good Lord James of Douglas were the two chief captains of the Bruce, and their exploits in recapturing castles and driving the English from Scotland fill the most romantic pages of history. Like all the other ancient Scottish clans there is a certain amount of tradition as to the early beginnings of this clan, which cannot be depended upon. The sober Scottish historians agree that the clan is descended from one Freskin who was a landed proprietor in Morayshire in the twelfth century. His descendant, Sir John de Moravia, was a man of impor- tance in the reign of William the Lion and Alexander II. He located in Perthshire, and died about 1225, leaving a son, Sir Malcolm. His brother, Sir Gilbert, was bishop of Caithness from 1222 to 1245. The family had become very prominent in the days of Wallace, and from that time on the Murrays appeared continually in everything of importance that occurred in Scotland. They multiplied in numbers and in influence from century to century, notwithstanding the usual ups and downs of noble families in the turbulent centuries between Robert Bruce and George II. At the present time the Murrays hold the dukedom of Athole, the earldom of Mansfield, the earldom of Dunmore and two or three baronies, and there are about a round dozen of knights and baronets in the family. There are two clan plaids in the family. One, in which dark blue and green are the predominating colors, is the hunting plaid, which is commonly known as the plaid of Murray of Athole. The plaid of Murray of Tullibardine is scarlet, blue and green. The present head of this branch of the family is the Earl of Dunmore.
376
OSCAR G. MURRAY
The matter of pedigree and family has given Oscar G. Murray but little concern. It is his boast that he conquered fortune by his energy, ability and earnest endeavor. His battle with the world has never been an easy one. He did not march to success along the primrose path of dalliance, nor has he spent any great part of his life upon the flowery beds of ease. Even after he had attained success, he gained no respite from toil. Indeed, as he rose his duties became harder and his responsibility more burdensome.
Mr. Murray has been engaged in the railroad business nearly forty years, and he knows every detail and branch of it. He began his ser- vice in transportation in January, 1873, at Galveston, Texas, as ticket agent for the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad. He re- mained in the employment of that company more than eight years, rising through the several offices of assistant general passenger agent and assistant general freight agent to the position of general freight and passenger agent. From August, 1880, to November, 1885, he was general passenger and freight agent of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fé Railroad. From December 1, 1885, to September 15, 1886, he was traffic manager of the Missouri Pacific lines in Texas, and also during most of that period traffic manager of the Texas and Pacific Railway. From September 16, 1886, to October 30, 1888, he was freight traffic manager of all the Missouri Pacific lines at St. Louis. From Novem- ber 1, 1888, to November 1, 1892, he was freight traffic manager of the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago Railway, and its successor, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. From November 1, 1892, to February 15, 1896, he was second vice-president of the same system ; on February 15, 1896, he went to the Baltimore & Ohio as first vice- president. The company was placed in the hands of receivers on Feb- ruary 29, 1896, and Mr. Murray was appointed receiver jointly with John K. Cowen. They rehabilitated the property and returned it to the company in April, 1899, and were finally discharged by the court from the receivership on May 25, 1900, when Mr. Murray again be- came first vice-president in charge of traffic, John K. Cowen being president. He held that position until he was elected president on December 27, 1903, the election becoming effective January 1, 1904. For six years he was president of the road, his administration being distinguished for its wisdom, enterprise and progress. On the 15th of January, 1910, he retired from the presidency to become chairman of the board of directors.
377
OSCAR G. MURRAY
1
This is the brief record of a most remarkable career. The con- stant promotion of Mr. Murray from one position to a higher one was a tribute to his genius, and today he is regarded as one of the greatest traffic men in this country. His achievements have been large and his connections for many years have been with large affairs. The conduct of great affairs has in fact been the work of his life. But the most remarkable and interesting work, perhaps, with which he was ever con- nected was the receivership of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com- pany and the restoration and rehabilitation of that great and historic property. When he was called in February, 1896, to become first vice- president of the Baltimore & Ohio Company, he was called with a pur- pose. The company was at the time insolvent. It could not meet the interest on its funded debt, and there was not available cash to pay the cost of operation. Two weeks after Mr. Murray came to the road, to wit, on the 29th of February, 1896, the Mercantile Trust Company, of New York, having recovered a payment of $929,470.83 against the railroad, filed in the United States Circuit Court for the District of Maryland a creditor's bill setting forth the insolvency of the company and asking for the appointment of receivers to manage the property. Mr. Cowen, the general counsel of the company, who had recently been elected president, had foreseen this movement and had brought Mr. Murray to Baltimore to be his co-receiver. The part of the work as- signed to Mr. Murray during the receivership was to conduct the road, rehabilitate it and restore the traffic which had been lost through in- ability to handle it. How well he accomplished this stupendous work was illustrated by the event. The condition that confronted the re- ceivers when they undertook the work was appalling. In addition to the large sums due for interest upon which default had been made, there was due at the time the receivers were appointed the sum of $4,325,447 for traffic balances for materials and supplies and for op- erating indebtedness generally, and the wreck of the property of the road was almost complete. Five thousand cars were lying idle and useless for want of repairs, and there were two hundred and twenty- five locomotives that had not turned a wheel for months. Freight had to be rejected because there were no means of transporting it and the track had gone down until the danger point had been reached. The receivers, Cowen and Murray, had the property in their hands for the space of three years and four months. What had they accomplished ?
The vast sum of $200,000,000 had been raised and applied to the
378
OSCAR G. MURRAY
purposes of restoration and refunding for the Baltimore and Ohio 1
proper and an additional $100,000,000 for dependent corporations.
The sum of $92,899,546.89 had been earned from traffic, including some miscellaneous income amounting to $3,127,827.64.
The following new equipment was acquired: two hundred and twenty-seven engines, thirty-five passenger cars, thirty thousand seven hundred and three freight and service cars. The total cost of this equipment was $19,790,456.46, and in addition marine equipment cost- ing $685,504.08 was purchased. The obligations incurred during the receivership amounted to #25,936,346. Most of the equipment was purchased upon terms which did not require cash payment, as cash was exceedingly scarce.
One of the transactions by the receivers was the purchase of fifty thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven tons of steel rails to be used in the repair of the track. These rails were purchased at the extra- ordinary price of $17 a ton, the lowest rate, perhaps, at which steel rails had been sold. The price of steel advanced so rapidly after this pur- chase that the receivers sold the old rails that were replaced by the new at a higher price than the new ones cost.
The property emerged from the receivership rehabilitated, re- paired, in first-class condition and with new equipment. Its business had also gained a prodigious increase, almost exclusively by the fine management of Mr. Murray. But how did the owners and creditors of the company fare in this general reorganization ?
Every bond-holder received new securities which paid his debt in full. The floating-debt creditors received every cent that was due then. The holders of the old stock, after payment of an assessment of two dollars per share in the case of the " first preferred " and twenty dollars per share in the case of the " second preferred " and " com- mon," received new preferred and common stock in exchange, which, in the light of present values, amply recouped them. The common stockholders, instead of being wiped out, as is the usual process, re- ceived their common stock in the receivership, which is today worth more than $110 per share and has been receiving 6 per cent dividends and earning much more. In addition to this the ancient and liberal charter of the company, which granted exemption from taxation upon the shares and property, was retained intact. This was the result of the administration of the Baltimore and Ohio property by a great lawyer and a great railroad man.
379
OSCAR G. MURRAY
After the final discharge of the receivers on the 25th of May, 1900, Mr. Murray resumed his place as first vice-president of the company in charge of traffic. Under his management the business of the road continued to make immense gains. In the meantime Mr. Cowen had been president of the company for a short time, to be somewhat sum- marily ousted by the holders of the new stock that had been created. He was succeeded by Mr. Loree, who retained the office a short time only, Mr. Murray being elected president December 27, 1903. His administration was a time of great prosperity for the road. Dividends were earned, the holders of the common stock receiving 6 per cent, while all the time betterments were added and extensions made. In the first year of the receivership the revenues of the road were about $25,000,000. In 190: they had grown to $88,500,000. Few railroads have ever made such great strides.
Shortly after Mr. Murray was elected to the presidency, the great fire in Baltimore occurred and the main offices of the company at the corner of Calvert and Baltimore streets were destroyed. For some time the office force had needed more space, and when the old building was burned, it was determined to build a much larger one. Every effort was made to purchase an adjoining lot, but it could not be accom- plished. Then Mr. Murray decided to buy the lots at the northwest corner of Baltimore and Charles streets, and upon this central location he erected one of the finest and most perfectly designed office buildings in the land, which is now the home of the Baltimore and Ohio system.
Among other important achievements of the Murray administra- tion was the acquisition of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Rail- road. This added a great mileage to the Baltimore and Ohio system and gave it an entrance to Indianapolis and Toledo and another en- trance to Cincinnati. Another bold and successful transaction was the acquisition of the Chicago Terminal Transfer Company. This was an expensive deal costing some $25,000,000, but it was a wise move- ment necessary for the retention of the entrance into Chicago. It was Mr. Murray who, as president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, purchased for the company the five thousand five hundred shares of the state of Maryland in the Washington branch. For a number of years a dividend of 10 per cent per annum on this stock was declared. About the time of the receivership the dividends ceased, and after the reorganization they were not resumed, all the earnings of the road being retained to pay for the apportionment of the Washing-
380
OSCAR G. MURRAY
,
ton branch in the Union station in Washington. This suspension of dividends caused much discontent in the legislature, and at the session of 1898 a joint resolution was passed requiring the attorney-general to institute proceedings in court to compel payment of dividends. Noth- ing substantial came of this resolution, so at the session of 1906 an investigation by the legislature was ordered. While the investigation was in progress Mr. Murray offered the state $2,500,000 for the stock, which was accepted by the Board of Public Works, and a great part of the public debt of Maryland was extinguished. At the same time the railroad company was relieved of the two state directors who had been always appointed by the governor.
After a brilliant administration of six years, Mr. Murray retired from the presidency of the road and became chairman of the board of directors. This place was created for him so that the company could retain his service and the benefit of his great talents in railroad man- agement and especially in the traffic department.
The leading characteristics of Oscar G. Murray are his strength, his boldness and originality. He is a man of generous impulses and gives lavishly. He is loyal to his friends and has the faculty of attach- ing men to him and enlisting their support in his work. With the men employed under him by the railroad company, he was always popular because they had a firm reliance upon his sympathy and his sense of justice. Mr. Murray is unmarried and is fond of society and com- panionship.
181- 3 5 5
,
yours many truly
383
ROBERT LANCASTER WILLIAMS
R OBERT LANCASTER WILLIAMS, the subject of this sketch, is a member of the well-known banking firm of Middendorf, Williams & Company, of Baltimore, Maryland, and John L. Williams & Sons, of Richmond, Va. He is well known throughout the East and South through his active participation in the affairs of bank- ing institutions, which have taken a leading part in the development of the South, and he holds an enviable reputation as a skilled financier, developer and organizer.
He was born in Richmond, Virginia, June 29, 1869, and his parents were John Langbourne Williams and Maria Ward Skelton Williams. Of Scotch-Irish ancestry on his father's side, his grand- mother, Sianna Dandridge, was a daughter of William Dandridge, of New Kent, Virginia, who was son of Judge Bartholomew Dandridge, the brother of Martha Washington, the wife of the first President of the United States. Through his mother, Mr. Williams is descended from the well-known Virginia families, the Skeltons and Randolphs, and Edmund Randolph, first Attorney-General of the United States and Secretary of State under General Washington, was his mother's great-grandfather.
Another notable ancestor of Mr. Williams, and well worthy of mention here, is Augustine Herman, born in Prague, Bohemia, 1620; he came to Maryland in 1660, where he settled, his estate being known as Bohemia Manor. He was a man of considerable attainments, skilled as a surveyor, and of an adventurous spirit. He was awarded a grant of 20,000 acres of land in what is now known as Cecil county, Mary- land, and Newcastle county, Delaware, in recognition of his services for making a map of the colony. In the sketch of the ancient families of Bohemia Manor by the Reverend Charles Payson Mallery, there is much of interest about Augustine Herman and his descendants, one of these descendants being the subject of this sketch.
Robert Lancaster Williams attended private schools in Richmond as a boy, amongst them that excellent school long conducted by the late
384
ROBERT LANCASTER WILLIAMS
John P. McGuire. His father's banking business and outside interests were growing rapidly, and young Williams, waiving a collegiate course, was laboring at a desk in the banking nouse of John L. Williams & Sons at an age when most young men are completing their education at college. With a natural aptitude for the banking business and rein- . forced by this practical training, he was, on his twenty-first birthday, admitted as partner of the firm. To more thoroughly equip himself, he entered the University of Pennsylvania for a course in economics.
His father, John L. Williams, long a leading citizen of Virginia, was the founder of the banking house of John L. Williams & Sons, of Richmond, Virginia, with which institution Middendorf, Williams & Company, of Baltimore, Maryland, has been closely allied for many years.
Mr. Williams became a member of his father's firm in 1890, and sixteen years later, a partner in the Baltimore firm.
For nearly three decades the banking house of John L. Williams & Sons has been intimately identified with the upbuilding and develop- ment of the South, in which work they have been powerfully reinforced by Middendorf, Williams & Company. The activities of these two firms have covered the range of the Southern states, and they stand in very high repute throughout the length and breadth of the territory embraced in their operations.
These firms have been very active in street railway enterprises, and Robert Lancaster Williams has been president, director, or con- trolling factor, of many street railway companies throughout the coun- try. His firm organized and built the Richmond Traction Company, of Richmond, Virginia, one of the best-known traction properties in the country, and now successfully operating in Richmond, which city has the distinction of being the first in the Union to have electrically- operated street cars.
Their energies were next devoted to the development of the water power of the James river, the successful consummation of which gave a tremendous impetus to the commercial life of Richmond and added greatly to its prestige as a manufacturing center.
They also built a street railway system in Petersburg, Virginia; reorganized and built the street railway systems in Norfolk, Virginia, and Portsmouth, Virginia ; also reorganized and extended street rail- way systems in Lexington, Kentucky, Knoxville and Nashville, Ten- nessce, and Macon and Augusta, Georgia.
385
.
ROBERT LANCASTER WILLIAMS
In 1893 the firms undertook the reorganization of the Savannah, Americus & Montgomery Railway, a line extending from Montgomery, Alabama, to Lyons, Georgia, and subsequently carried to successful conclusion a scheme involving the merger of existing lines and the con- struction of additional mileage, resulting in the formation of the Sea- board Air Line Railway System, of about three thousand miles. For a period immediately following the panic of 1903, conditions existed in the affairs of this railway, which, while not reflecting in any way upon the value of the property, or the foresight of its promoters, culminated in a receivership, on January 1, 1908, on which date S. Davies War- field, R. Lancaster Williams and Edward C. Duncan, were appointed receivers to operate it under the direction of the courts. The receiver- ship continued until November 4, 1909. The remarkable success at- tending the efforts of the receivers is a matter of court record, and has been the subject of favorable comment in the leading financial journals of the country. The receivers applied themselves to the problem of increasing revenues, improving facilities and equipment and the reduc- tion of operating expenses. To obtain these results necessitated a re- versal of policies which had obtained for a few years prior to the re- ceivership, and over which the banking houses, who had founded the system, had no control. After a receivership of twenty-two months, the receivers were able to restore the property to the stockholders in a thoroughly rehabilitated condition, with net earnings increased from $2,906,278 to $5,584,326 per annum. The wisdom of the large ex- penditures judiciously made by the receivers upon the property was justified by the large yield upon the investment, and when the property was turned back to the stockholders, the increased earnings enabled not only the payment of interest upon the first mortgage bonds, which had been in default, but full 5% interest upon $25,000,000 of adjustment bonds, issued under the plan of reorganization, to take care of floating debt and receivers' certificates, with a surplus of $1,046,641, equal to over 4% upon the outstanding preferred stock. The able work of the receivers permitted the reorganization of the property without the foreclosure of a single mortgage and without sacrificing any class of securities. The floating debt was paid in full and there was no assess- ment on stockholders or bondholders. The ratio of expenses to earn- ings was reduced from 83% to 70%. The common stock of the railway advanced 700g; the preferred stock advanced about 440%, while the first mortgage 4% bonds doubled in value.
386
ROBERT LANCASTER WILLIAMS
The editors and publishers of this book have known Mr. Williams personally for many years, and regard him as a banker of great ability and of the highest integrity, whose only fault, if indeed it may be said to be a fault, is an ever expanding love for his fellowmen-he is an optimist of the broadest type and believes and trusts in his fellowmen in a way that wins and will hold him always in the affections and regard of those with whom he comes in touch.
Mr. Williams holds membership in the Delta Psi Fraternity, the Maryland Club, Merchants Club and Germania Club of Baltimore, the Elkridge Kennel Club of Baltimore county, the Green Spring Val- ley Hunt Club, the Bachelors' Cotillon of Baltimore, and the old Westmoreland Club of Richmond.
His religious affiliation is with the Episcopal church, and he is a communicant of St. Paul's church, of Baltimore, Maryland.
On December 14. 1899, Mr. Williams married Miss Rebecca Gus- tavia Watkins, daughter of Mr. Chas. Watkins, formerly of Milton, North Carolina, and a granddaughter of Gustavus Ober, one of the pioneer manufacturers of Maryland, and well known throughout the state.
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.