USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, volume I > Part 28
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He has represented the Democratic party of the state in three na- tional conventions, those of 1864, 1872 and 1900, and was a member of the National Executive Committee for Maryland from 1872 to 18:6. In local and municipal elections, he has always claimed and exercised the right to vote according to the dictates of his judgment and con- science. In 1904 he supported Mr. Roosevelt, considering that the Democratie party was at that time, as the late Mr. William C. Whitney declared, without an issue and without a man. And moreover Mr. Knott esteemed it as mneh his right, without impeaching his Democ- racy, to vote for that illustrious citizen, as Mr. Cleveland-three times nominated for the Presidency and twice clected to that high office by the Democratic party-and his friends and followers had to vote for Mr. Mckinley in 1896 and 1900.
In 1823 he married Miss Regina M. Kenan, the daughter of An- thony and Mary ( Phelan ) Kenan. The ancestors of Mary Phelan
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Very Truly yours, A.s. Atell.
THE ABELL FAMILY
A RUNAH SHEPHERDSON ABELL, treasurer of the A. S. Abell Company, publishers of the Baltimore Sun, was born at Pikesville. Baltimore county, Maryland. He is the eldest son of the late Edwin F. Abell, who was the eldest son of Arunah S. Abell, the founder of the Sun. His mother was Margaret Curley. Arunah S. Abell is eighth in descent from Robert Abell, the immi- grant, who came from England to Massachusetts. A son was born to Robert Abell during the voyage, and on account of the stormy trip this son was named Preserved. Preserved had a son Joshua, whose son was another Robert, the Revolutionary soldier. Caleb, son of this second Robert, was an officer in the War of 1812 and was the father of A. S. Abell, founder of the Sun. Caleb Abell, the soldier of 1812, married a daughter of Colonel Arunah Shepherdson, from whom the honored and distinguished name of his descendant comes.
Arunah S. Abell was a strong and athletic boy, fond of outdoor sports and devoted to the country pursuits. His father gave him the advantage of a good education, sending I:im to Mount St. Mary's Col- lege at Emmitsburg, Maryland, and then to Georgetown University, in Washington, District of Columbia. After completing his college course, Mr. Abell, at an early age, entered the service of the Baltimore Sun in the business department, or counting room. After the pub- lishers of the Sun were incorporated as the A. S. Abell Company, Mr. Abell became its treasurer and a member of the directorate, positions which he still occupies with honor and ability. A good deal of his home life has been spent in the country near the city, where he has raised his children amidst the best possible surroundings and environment. He is domestie in his tastes and habits, and has never taken any active part in politics, although he has strong political connections, being an adherent of the Democratic party and a member of the Catholic church. On the ?? d of June, 1892. he married Miss Anna T. Schley. Mr. and Mrs. Abell are blessed with an interesting family of seven children.
Mr. Arunah S. Abell is of the third generation of Abells who have
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owned the Baltimore Sun. He is, in fact, the eldest son of his father, and his father was the eldest son of the founder of the great paper. The present treasurer of the Sun, Mr. A. S. Abell, has held that office a number of years, and has been engaged in the paper nearly all of his life since boyhood.
The history of the Abell family is so closely identified with that of the Baltimore Sun that they cannot be dissociated.
Between Arunah S. Abell and his younger brother, Walter W. Abell, there has always been the closest intimacy and the most tender affection. Walter W. Abell, the second son of Edwin F. Abell and a grandson of the founder of the Sun, was born at his father's country home near Pikesville, Baltimore county, in 1812. He received his elementary education in a private school and then went to Georgetown University. After leaving school he was employed for a time in the National Marine Bank, but soon went into the Sun office where he addressed himself to a study of the business in its various details. Upon the death of his uncle, George W. Abell, in 1894, the charge of the Sun and all the great property of the Abell estate devolved upon Edwin F. Abell, then the only surviving son of A. S. Abell, the elder. Having his hands full of business, Mr. E. F. Abell soon put his son, Walter W., forward to assume gradually the management of the Sun. Walter speedily developed a strong aptitude in the newspaper business and gave every evidence of the success which he afterwards attained. He was elected vice-president of the A. S. Abell Company, and had almost absolute direction of the policy and conduct of the Sun. The death of his father in 1904 deprived him of the guidance and advice of that distinguished man, and from that time to 1909 he was practically alone in the management of the paper, being president of the A. S. Abell Company. Several times he enjoyed in travel a temporary relief from the heavy responsibility which almost weighed him down. He made a trip to Europe and several extended tours in the United States, gaining in his travels a breadth of view which served him well in his newspaper business. It was while he was conducting the Sun that the great fire of 1904 occurred, and the old Sun iron building was de- stroyed. In that trying time he retained his good judgment, was free from excitement and made his arrangements for the publication of the paper with singular forethought, neglecting no details and avoiding the omission of a single issue.
One of the greatest achievements of Mr. Abell, in his newspaper
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career, was the purchase of the lots at the corner of Charles and Balti- more streets, and the erection of the present superb Sun building upon that conspicuous site at the geographical and business center of the city. This building was planned in every detail with relation to its newspaper use and is perhaps one of the finest newspaper offices in the world. By his courage and far-sighted wisdom in investing so large a sum for a home for the Sun, Mr. Abell exhibited his striking character- istics. He also manifested courage in no ordinary degree in the con- duct of the Sun. While the Sun was always recognized as a Demo- cratic paper dependent upon Democrats for a large portion of its circu- lation and business. Mr. Abell did not hesitate to oppose the party when he believed that it was in the wrong, although he knew that in doing so he would offend a large number of his supporters. But his independence was always justified in the end.
At the stockholders' meeting of the A. S. Abell Company in the spring of 1909, Mr. W. W. Abell announced that he would not be a candidate for reelection to the presidency of the company. He had determined to retire from the management of the paper and take a long rest, making a tour of the world and a visit to many lands. He severed various business connections and started ont in the summer of 1909. His travels carried him far away from the heaten tracks, into Russia, Turkey, the Balkan states, Egypt and the Far East. While he was in Japan, in April, 1910, Governor Crothers appointed him as one of the three members of the Public Service Commission, which had been created by the legislature at the session of 1910. The appoint- ment was made without conference with Mr. Abell and without know- ing whether he would accept the office. Mr. Abell has never married. He lives with his stepmother.
Arunah S. Abell, the founder of the Sun, was born in East Provi- dence, Rhode Island, August 10, 1806, of English ancestry. His grandfather had served in Washington's army. Mr. Abell's education was received in the common school of his native town. At an early age he was employed as a clerk in a store. In 1822, when only six- teen, he became an apprentice in the office of the Providence Patriot. At the end of his apprenticeship he was employed as manager in one of the largest printing offices in Boston. Shortly afterwards he went to Philadelphia, and there became acquainted with William M. Swain and Azariah H. Simmons, both of them printers. These three enterprising young men formed an alliance, and on the 29th of April, 1836, they
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published the first number of the Philadelphia Ledger. At the end of the first year the Ledger was paying so well that the proprietors began looking around for a place to start another paper, and settled upon Baltimore. On the 17th day of May, 1837, the first number of the Sun was issued from its office on Light street. A copy of this first issue was left at the door of nearly every house in Baltimore, which at that time was a city of about 90,000 population. The Sun, from the beginning, was a pioneer. It was the pioneer among " penny " papers, the price from the beginning for many years being one cent. It was also one of the pioneers in independent journalism. The fashion in the first half of the nineteenth century was for " party organs" instead of newspapers. The publication of the news was a secondary considera- tion. The main object for which a paper was published was to sup- port a political party or some particular individual or candidate of a party. The prospectus of the Sun contained the statement of the policy to which it has adhered through all the intervening years down to the present time. That statement was that " On political principles and questions involving the honor or interest of the whole country, we shall be firm and temperate. Our object will be the common good, without regard to sections, factions or parties, and for this object we shall labor without fear or partiality." That is a somewhat accurate statement of the policy of the Sun of the present day. While still a member of the firm that owned the Philadelphia Ledger, the entire management of the Sun devolved upon Mr. Abell, who thenceforward made his home in Baltimore. In six months the Sun had established itself with a circulation of 8500 and a good advertising patronage. It was enterprising from the beginning. It printed the first Presidential message ever printed in Baltimore. That was in December, 1838, the copy coming over by the steam cars and from the outer depot by swift ponies. Previously to that time the messages published in Baltimore were in the form of supplements, printed by the Washington news- papers, and the readers of the Baltimore papers did not get a message until it was two days old. In all these years the Sun, by its exceptional enterprise, was able to publish important events in advance of other papers. The famous pony express was established about 1840, and was employed in the collection of news until the magnetic telegraph got into general use. News of the events of the Mexican war was brought to the Sun by an overland express of sixty horses, established by Mr. Abell, between New Orleans and Baltimore. The trip between the
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two cities occupied about six days. By this route and through the Sun, the Government at Washington received the first news of the surren- der of Vera Cruz and of other important events of the Mexican war.
The Sun also ran a pony express between Baltimore and Boston,
. and by this enterprise was enabled to precede the other newspapers of the city in the publication of eastern and foreign news.
Another enterprise for gathering news started by the Abells for the Sun was the carrier-pigeon express. This news service employed about five hundred pigeons flying between Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia and New York. Mr. Abell was among the first to per- ceive the value and the possibilities of the electric telegraph, and he rendered Professor Morse most valuable aid and gave him every en- couragement in applying his great invention, urging the appropriation by Congress of $30,000 for stringing the wires between Washington and Baltimore. As soon as the line was constructed, the Sun became the constant patron of the new enterprise, and on May 11, 1846, re- ceived by wire a message to Congress from the President, and pub- lished it the next day. This was the first Presidential message that ever went over the wires. This message was printed in Paris by the Academy of Sciences, the Sun's telegraphic publication side by side with an authenticated copy of the original. It was found that the tele- graph had made an accurate transmission.
The publication of the Sun was begun on a single-cylinder press, turned by hand. Improvement followed improvement in the ma- chinery employed, until, in 1853, a new invention known as " Hoe's last fast type revolving cylinder presses," was introduced. These were the first presses in which the type was affixed to the cylinder instead of lying on a flat bed, that were ever used in the world. In this, as in other improvements and enterprises, the Sun was the pioneer. The type-revolving presses were used until 1867, when the stereotyping or electrotyping process was first used.
The first publication office of the Sun was at 21 Light street. In February, 1839, it was removed to Baltimore (or Market street, as it was then called) and Gay. In 1851 the Sun moved into its new iron building at the corner of Baltimore and South streets, where its publi- cation was continued until the building was destroyed by the great fire in 1904, when, after publication for a while in Washington and in the emergency building on Saratoga street, the present splendid building was completed, and the Sun moved into it. The old Sun iron building
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was distinguished as being the first building in the United States of iron construction. The building, along with the newspaper property, was owned by the firm which published the Sun and the Philadelphia Ledger, but in 1860 Mr. Abell bought the interest of his partners and became the sole owner of the building ai a valuation of $80,000. In 1864 Mr. Abell sold his interest in the Philadelphia Ledger, and in 1868 he became the sole proprietor of the Sun.
During the period of the Civil war, when Baltimore was practi- cally under martial law, or at any rate under military dominations, some of the papers were suppressed, and the Sun was regarded with determined hostility by the authorities. But Mr. Abell, who was al- ways distinguished for his moderation, was careful to give no excuse or pretext for the suppression of his paper. He published the war news as accurately as was safe to do and refrained from editorial comment. This policy triumphed and, when the war was over and ended, the Sun took the lead in the movement for the restoration of popular govern- ment and the removal of political disabilities.
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The management of the Sun did not engage the entire energy of its founder during the half century in which he owned it and directed its course. In all these years he was accumulating wealth, much of which he invested in real estate in and around Baltimore. His home for years was on Saratoga street adjoining the rectory of old St. Paul's church. This dwelling was demolished when Cathedral street was opened to Saratoga. He built the Abell block on Baltimore street at the corner of Eutaw, at the time of its erection one of the finest buildings in the city. He bought the Woodbourne and Guilford estates and other suburban property, which is still owned by his heirs.
In 1838, one year after he came to Baltimore to live, Mr. Abell married Mrs. Mary Campbell, daughter of John Fox. They had twelve children. Mr. Abell was not a church member, but his wife was a de- vout Catholic, and all their children were reared in that faith. In 1887 the three sons, who were living at the time, namely Edwin F., George W. and Walter R. Abell, were associated in the ownership and manage- ment of the Sun. Until his death, in 1894, George W. Abell had the almost exclusive management of the paper. Then Edwin F. Abell became president of the company, which had been incorporated, and continued in that position until his death, when he was succeeded by his second son, Walter W. Abell, who had already, for a period of years, been in charge, his father resigning the entire control into his hands.
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When the Sun iron building was destroyed in the fire of 1904, not a single issue of the paper was missed. Work on the Monday issue was continued in the Sun building until the fire had almost reached it. Then the whole force was transferred by a special train to Washington, where the work of setting type and preparing copy was continued in the office of the Evening Star, which paper generously offered the use of all of its facilities and equipment to the Sun. From the Star build- ing the Sun was issued for two months. On the 7th of April the paper was returned to Baltimore into the emergency building and job office on Saratoga street, from which place it was published until the com- pletion of the present splendid building on Baltimore and Charles streets in November, 1906. The present home of the Sun is regarded as one of the finest and best-equipped newspaper offices in the world.
Mr. Edwin Franklin Abell, father of Mr. Arunah S. Abell, treas- urer of the A. S. Abell Company, was born in Baltimore, May 15, 1840, and died in that city February 28, 1904. He was the eldest of the twelve children of the founder of the Sun. He had three brothers, Charles S. Abell, who died in 1875; Walter R. Abell, who died in 1891, and George W. Abell, who died in 1894. Edwin F. Abell received his education in the public schools of Baltimore and in Harford county and at the Reverend Mr. Dalrymple's University School in Baltimore. At the age of sixteen years Mr. Abell entered the counting room of the Sun. As an owner of one-third interest in the paper and in later years as trustee for another one-third interest, and in the latter years of his life as president of the A. S. Abell Company, he gave to the paper all that was demanded of hin. But for many years, in their division of labor, the Sun was conducted by Mr. George W. Abell, while Mr. E. F. Abell devoted his time more especially to the affairs of the other parts of the Abell estate, which included large holdings of real estate, both city and suburban. But his brother constantly appealed to him for ad- vice in the conduct of the Sun, which advice was distinguished for its wisdom. Mr. Abell was a man of retiring disposition, never putting himself forward in the Sun, but on the contrary keeping himself and his personality constantly in the background and in seclusion. It was his desire to conduct the Sun as a public institution for the public wel- fare without regard for the private interests of its proprietors. He had no social nor political ambitions, no personal enmities, and the Sun was never to be used for the benefit of his personal friends. His nature was gentle and his charities almost without limit and always without osten-
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tation. He never turned his face from any poor man and he was the benefactor of the widow and the fatherless. It was his joy to make Christmas a time of festivity and good cheer for all of his poor neigh- bors. He had a beautiful home in the suburbs of Baltimore, where he loved to receive his friends.
Mr. Abell was twice married, his first wife being the daughter of the late Henry R. Curley, and his widow a daughter of the late Francis B. Laurenson. He left by his former marriage two sons, Arunalı S. Abell and W. W. Abell, who had been associated with him in business for some years, and a daughter, Mrs. James Dudley Morgan, of Wash- ington.
Mr. Abell had been in bad health for some time when the great fire of February 2, 1904. came. The shock of that disaster and the destruction of the old Sun iron building, together with a vast amount of other property belonging to the Abell estate, perhaps hastened his death. He passed away peacefully on the 28th of February, 1904, while the smoke of the fire was still ascending from the ruins. At the time of his death he was occupying a rented house at the northeast corner of Charles and Preston streets. His funeral was held at the Cathedral, Cardinal Gibbons preaching a sermon to an enormous con- gregation. Upon his death, the policy of the Sun, which he had main- tained, was continued by his son, Walter W. Abell, who became presi- dent of the A. S. Abell Company, ably aided by his brother, Arunah S. Abell.
The death of Edwin F. Abell was announced in both branches of the City Council of Baltimore, and in both houses of the legislature of Maryland. In all these bodies resolutions of respect were adopted and the Senate of Maryland adjourned as a special mark of respect and honor.
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