USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, volume I > Part 3
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Work showing notable material results has not been confined to the news columns of the Manufacturers' Record. On its editorial pages have been discussed calmly, courageously and with the purpose of
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advancing the welfare of the South, all questions which concern the material interest of that section of the country. Protection to Ameri- can industries as an established national poliey, arguments for the building of the Isthmian Canal, and for the improvement of the coun- try's waterways, internal as well as the harbors and bays of the sea- coast ; suggestions for increasing the commerce of the South with the islands off our coast and with Central and South America; and bene- fits which would follow the establishment of schools of technology within the States; the vital necessity for all the Southern States of increased educational advantages for all their children and youth- these and kindred subjects have been clearly and strongly presented. Its editorials have ever voiced its right to speak according to its con- victions in the South and it has contended for the right of others to disregard local sentiment or temporary advantage in laboring toward a common end, the permanent, substantial progress of the Southern people. Business has always been placed by it before polities, and it has viewed as the best polities the politics that works for the material good of the South by whatever party name it may be called.
This independence has been largely responsible for the fact that practically every man in the United States or abroad whose observa- tions or suggestions about the South have been worth publishing has been numbered among the contributors to the Manufacturers' Record. Included among them have been Cabinet officers, members of both houses of Congress, Governors and other State officials, men active in all lines of Southern advancement and leaders of the best thought and opinion of all seetions in this country and intelligent, far-seeing ob- servers in foreign parts. Their words of appreciation, encouragement and experience have appeared side by side with the results of investiga- tion by specialists of authority and repute in mineralogy, geology, forestry, railroad construction and operation, highway improvement and many lines of manufacturing, agriculture, commerce and education.
As a part of its advertisement of the South, the Manufacturers' Record persuaded the New England Cotton Manufacturers' Associa- tion to hold at Atlanta in 1895 the first meeting ever held by that asso- ciation beyond New England borders. The direct impetus thus given to a transfer of some of the great textile capital from the North to the South had its complement ten or twelve years later in the tour through
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the South of representatives of European cotton manufacturing interests.
Another striking achievement on similar lines dates back to 1894. On December 24, of that year, came the news of great distress of Nebraska and Dakota farmers because of the failure of their crops. There was in preparation for publication in the Manufacturer's Rec- ord a statistical story of the immense corn crop which the South had raised that year. The two facts gave the keynote to an editorial appeal to the South to send corn and provisions to the sufferers in the North- west. In advance of publication a brief of this editorial was wired by the press associations to all parts of the country. The response was immediate. Arrangements were made with leading railroad lines for the gathering of all contributions at central points and for their free transportation to the Northwest. Soon trains were speeding westward carrying more than $50,000 worth of corn, rice, sugar and other food- stuffs. A solid trainload of coal went from West Virginia alone, twenty-two carloads of corn and flour from Georgia and fifteen car- loads of rice, sugar and molasses from Louisiana. An unexpected result of this movement was the purchase of a tract of more than a hundred thousand acres of land in Georgia and the settlement upon it of a great number of Northern families, the majority of them the families of Union veterans. The organizer of this enterprise, Mr. P. H. Fitzgerald, of Indianapolis, wrote a year later, " Quite at a loss to know where to locate this colony, I happened to read your article headed ' The South and the West.' I became interested, yet like other men I was . sceptical. To our great surprise, when the carloads of grain, flour and provisions most needed in our section actually arrived, we found con- vincing evidence of the fact that the Southi could produce, and the South had among our colony many hardy Nebraskan farmers, as the result of that shipment." From men in official positions, from promi- nent financiers, agriculturalists, manufacturers and miners throughout the South, the most remarkable series of letters of recognition of the work done for the South by the Record have been received through a series of years in increasing numbers.
Other evidences of its usefulness appear in the frequent quota- tions from its columns. Very early in its career newspapers in all sections discovered that the Manufacturers' Record was giving weekly facts about the South that could not be obtained elsewhere, and they began and have continued to use its pages as a source of accurate
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information and a basis for comment conducive to Southern advance- ment. Not content with publishing as quickly as they have become accessible the magnificent facts of Southern achievement, through its own columns and the columns of its daily issues that have become necessary, the Manufacturers' Record has, in addition, issued from time to time more or less elaborate summaries which have carried to the four quarters of civilization the knowledge about the South which has been so effective in hastening the material development of that section. Coincidently, it has furnished in printed matter or in per- sonal correspondence to thousands of statesmen, educators, business men, newspapers and magazines similar material for orations, essays, editorials and other articles in the desire to neglect no opportunity or means for furthering the work of keeping the South and the rest of the world informed of the vast possibilities within the area stretching from Maryland to Texas.
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Faithfully Menos Peter Leary fr. Pmq Geul Ml) a.
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1744286
PETER LEARY, JR.
G ENERAL PETER LEARY, JR., soldier and publicist, who is now a resident of Baltimore, is a native of that eity, born on September 15, 1840. His father was Cornelius Lawrence Lundlow Leary, and his mother's maiden name was Jane Maria Phil- Hips. The elder Leary was a lawyer by profession, with a great fond- tue -s for historical study. He was born in Baltimore on October 2?, 1>13, attended St. Mary's College, moved to Louisville, Kentucky, re- wrning to Baltimore.in 1837, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1847, served in the General Assembly in the year he was admitted to the bar, was presidential eleetor on the American tieket in 1856, and served a term in the thirty-seventh Congress as a Unionist, represent- ing the Third Congressional District of Maryland. He also served for a time as city counsellor.
On the paternal side the family goes back to Cornelius Leary, who migrated from Kilkenny, Ireland, about 1750, and on the maternal side to Richard Phillips, who came from Birmingham, England, about 1800.
General Leary was reared in the city of Baltimore, was a healthy Iny and received his academic training at Milton Academy. When, in 1862, President Lineoln called for five hundred thousand men, young Icary entered the military service in July, 1862, as Second Lieutenant in the Baltimore Battery of Light Artillery, commanded by Captain Frederick W. Alexander. He was mustered into the United States service on August 11, 1862, served during the remainder of the war, was promoted to First Lieutenant April 5, 1865, and honorably mus- tered out at Baltimore on June 17, 1865, making three years of ser- vice. During the ... ar he saw hard service in out-post duty on the upper Potomac, at Williamsport, Maryland, and in the Shenandoah valley until the beginning of the Gettysburg campaign. He took part in the battles at Berryville, Opequon ereek, Winchester and Stevenson's Sta- tion, Virginia. He went through the Maryland campaign of 1864 and was engaged in the combats of Middletown, Catoctin Mountain, Fred- erick and Monoeacy, Maryland, from July 6 to 9, and during August,
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1864, took part in the operations of Sheridan's army composed of the sixth, eighth and nineteenth corps. On January 1, 1866, he was ap- pointed private secretary to Thomas Swann, then Governor of Mary- land. During his incumbency of that office many great public ques- tions were agitated, which resulted in the Constitutional Convention of 1867, for the purpose of framing a new Constitution for Maryland in conformity with the changes in the organic law of the nation. His record as a soldier had not been forgotten, and in July, 1867, he was appointed Second Lieutenant Fourth Regiment of Artillery in the United States Regular Army, by President Johnson, and assigned to Light Battery " B." One of the former captains of this company was that distinguished soldier, Brigadier and Brevet Major-General Gib- bon. Resulting from this appointment, Lieutenant Leary found him- self stationed at Fort Harker, Kansas, then in the heart of the Indian country. In 1869 the Kioways, Arapahoes and Cheyennes went on the war-path, and among the troops sent into the field against them were Light Batteries " K " of the First Artillery and " C" of the Third Ar- tillery. They were equipped as cavalry and armed with Spencer ear- bines. The expedition was commanded by Captain William M. Gra- ham, Brevet Brigadier-General, United States Army, and did good service scouting the valleys of the Republican and Solomon rivers and preventing depredations. Lieutenant Leary did all the staff duties of that command. In the autumn of 1869 he was transferred to Battery " C," Fourth Artillery, and from there went with his regiment to the Pacific coast on November 1, 1872. Just before this, on October 23, 1872, he married Ellen, daughter of Judge LeRoy Morgan, of the Su- preme Court of New York state. Of this marriage there were two children.
In January, 1873, he was promoted to First Lieutenant and as- signed to Battery " E," Fourth Artillery, then engaged in the cam- paign against the Medoc Indians under the noted chiefs, "Captain Jack " and " Sconchin," and took part in the campaign from April 1 to its conclusion in May, 1873, being engaged on April 14, 15, 16 and 20. When the troops were returned to their stations he proceeded to Fort Stevens at the mouth of the Columbia river, Oregon, where he was stationed until June 7, 1877, when he went again into the field with his Battery in the campaign against the Nez Perces under their noted chief " Joseph." In this campaign he served by appointment of Brigadier-General O. O. Howard, Department Commander, as Chief
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Commissary and Chief Quartermaster of the forees, and was present in the engagements on the Clear Water river, Idaho, on July 11 and 12, and at Kamiah on July 13, 18:7. On July 12 he was relieved of his duties as Chief Quartermaster by the arrival of Colonel Weeks, Chief Quartermaster of the Department, but continued on duty as Chief Commissary until the end of the campaign. On the ending of the campaign he returned to his post at Fort Stevens, having traveled in this campaign in pursuit of the Indians from the mouth of the Co- lumbia in Oregon to the neighborhood of Bear's Paw Mountain in Montana. where Joseph surrendered to Lieutenant-General Nelson A. 'Til s. then Colonel of the Fifth Infantry.
For his conduct as Chief Commissary of the forces, Lieutenant Ivary was honorably mentioned by General Howard in the report of . campaign. He was brevetted Captain for " gallant and meritorious rvices in actions against Indians in the Lava Beds, California, April 15 and 16, 18:3." In 1880 he graduated from the United States Artil- lery School with a diploma.
Perhaps no better illustration ean be given of the long and ardu- ous service rendered by our soldiers in time of peace, rewarded by very slow promotion, than the case of General Leary. He entered the regu- lar army as a Second Lieutenant in the Fourth Artillery, on July 2, 1867. It was nearly six years, or, to be exact, the 24th of January, 1873, before he reached the grade of First Lieutenant in the same regiment. He remained in that grade for more than eighteen years, was finally promoted to Captain on August 28, 1891. Nearly another ten years passed before he reached the grade of Major on February 2, 1901. February 21, 1903, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and on the 7th of July, 1904, to Brigadier-General of the Regular Army. This was after thirty-seven years of continuous service, and if we count the three years of the war, a full forty years of service in the military establishment.
Immediately upon his promotion to the rank of Brigadier-General, having attained the age of sixty-four years, and served his country as a soldier for forty years, he was retired at his own request, by President Roosevelt, on July 8, 1904, and has sinee resided in his native city.
General Leary comes of that brilliant nation whose history has been one long tragedy for six hundred years. The national misfor- tunes of the Irish people resulted in the enriching of the life of the United States by four millions of immigrants who have contributed a
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brilliant galaxy of public men to our national life and of splendid sol- diers to our military history. In two or three distinct lines all history does not show a more brilliant record than that shown by the people of Ireland. As soldiers, as poets, and as orators, they never have been sur- passed. From the gallant Irish chieftains, vainly dying for the free- dom of their country, in front of Pembroke's spears, to Patrick Sars- field, the chivalrous defender of an unchivalrous monarch, from Sars- field to the Irish brigade at Fontenoy and Marshal O'Donnell in Spain, from O'Donnell to Wellington at Waterloo, from Wellington to Bern- ard O'Higgins in Chili, and from O'Higgins to our own gallant Phil Kearney, all history does not show a line of more accomplished sol- diers, and it is to this line of soldiers that General Leary belongs. He can take pride in being of such a stock, and that stock can take pride in him as a splendid illustration of the same qualities that made these other soldiers great.
General Leary has indulged in the authorship of certain profes- sional papers in the United States Military Service Institutional Journal :
"Law Concerning the Use of Troops in Civil Disorders," Vol. XX, p. 83. "The Multiplication of Calibers in Field Artillery," Vol. XX, p. 1157. "Comment on Best's 'Wanted, a Fitting Artillery Or- ganization,' " Vol. XVIII, p. 218.
In the autumn of 1904 General Leary became the first commander of the Maryland Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He is president of the Maryland Society of the War of 1812, a member of the University Club of Baltimore and president of the Union Veterans' Association of Maryland. His favor- ite recreation is found in fishing.
To young men beginning life his advice is, "Observe striet per- sonal integrity; preserve your self-respect; pursue liberal studies; avoid the lax mercantile immoralities of American business life; such conduct should develop classes of high-minded American men."
It would appear that after forty years of hard service the old soldier would have been content to rest on his laurels, but it was not so, and for the past six years he has taken a keen and active interest in the public affairs of his native city, moved by his sense of civic duty, which is quite as strong as ever was his sense of military duty. He is not only one of the best-known, but one of the most useful citizens of the city, and now, having reached nearly to the Biblical standard of three score
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and ten, he enjoys the well-incrited respect of a large constituency who "wognize in him a fine example of the citizen soldier ready to serve his country with the sword in war and with the franchise in peace.
When the Sewer Commission of Baltimore was organized in June. 1905, General Leary was made its chairman, and has since discharged the duties incumbent upon him with the same ability and fidelity that have characterized his work through life.
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JOHN EDWIN GREINER
I N THIS day of great industrial achievement, with wonderful rail- road enterprises, mining ventures and gigantic bridges under way in all parts of the world, the profession of civil engineering has come to take rank as one of the most important in our modern civilization. One of the ablest and most widely known men in that great profession in our country is John Edwin Greiner, consulting engineer of Baltimore.
Mr. Greiner was born in Wilmington, Delaware, February 24, 1859, son of John and Annie (Steck) Greiner. He comes of that strong German stoek which has contributed so much to the citizenship of our country. His family came from Wurtemburg in south Ger- many, in the early part of the last century, and first settled in Ohio. His father was a manufacturer and merchant. Young Greiner was a sturdy boy, fond of athletics, music and mechanical construction, a rather unusual combination, by the way. He was reared partly in the country and partly in the city, and rejoiced in having a good mother whose influence was strong in giving him moral stamina, which has been of greatest value to him in manhood.
He graduated from the Wilmington High School in 1877, entered Delaware College in that year, and graduated in 1880, with the degree of B.S. He also studied civil engineering and won the degree of C.E. He began active work at the bottom of his profession as a draughtsman in Edgemoor Bridge Works, in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1880. 1884 found him assistant engineer for the Keystone Bridge Works. In 1885 we find him in charge of the ercetion of the Seventh street bridge across the Allegheny river in Pittsburg. In 1886 he made a connection will: the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, first as draughtsman, in 1887 as inspector, in 1889 as chief draughtsman, in 1891 as assistant engineer. In 1892 and 1893 we see him as designing engineer of the Philadelphia Bridge Works; in 1894 he appears as engineer of bridges for the Balti- more & Ohio Railroad; in 1900, engineer of bridges and buildings for the same road; in 1905, assistant chief engineer ; and in 1908 he retires from that position to become consulting engineer for the public in general.
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Yours Truly
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JOHN EDWIN GREINER
This brief outline tells but little of the mar's work. From 1886 to 1908 his work was almost entirely confined to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and some of his achievements in engineering for that road have made for him a reputation as one of the expert engineers of our generation. "The Railway Age " is responsible for the statement that he personally designed or had charge of the designing and erection of every bridge constructed on that great system between 1885 and 1908. Among the interesting constructions upon which he was engaged or which were under his supervision, mention must be made of the Arthur Kill bridge, which, at the time of construction, with its span of 520 feet, was the largest drawbridge in the world. The Ohio river bridge at Benwood had the unusual feature of a 345-foot span erected without false work. This was another example of his ingenuity. He also de- signed the Ohio river bridge at Parkersburg and the big double-track bridge at Havre de Grace, Maryland, which cost two million dollars. From 1899 to 1908. he had the supervision of the designing of all the stations and buildings on the system. A great engineer, he has some- thing that is even better than his engineering ability-that quality as a man which won the esteem of the department with which he was so long associated and led his co-laborers to present him with a handsome testimonial when he separated himself from them.
A very busy and hard-working man, Mr. Greiner has not stopped in his work to write books, though abundantly capable. He has, how- ever, written some strong scientific and engineering papers and re- ceived from the American Society of Civil Engineers a gold medal for a scientific paper. He has also lectured at Delaware College and Cor- nell University on engineering subjects. In 1895 he designed and patented a new type of bridge. He holds membership in many so- cieties and clubs, such as the Masonie fraternity, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Railway Engineering and Mainte- nance of Way Association, the University Club, Engineers' Club, Bal- timore Country Club of Baltimore, and Engineers' Club of New York, is chairman of the Committee on Iron and Steel Structures of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, and member of the Committee on Concrete and Reinforced Concrete of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Mr. Greiner's recreations consist chiefly of horseback riding and musie. A broad-minded man, thoughtful and observing, he does not underrate any influence that goes to the make-up of a man. In his own
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life he has found school, private study, contact with men in active life, home influences, early companionship, ail to have been of pronounced value. He considers education, ingenuity and personality the essen- tials which contribute most to success in life, and lays down ten brief, concise and plain rules which his experience and observation have led him to believe will enable any young man to win that measure of true success that is commensurate with his ability. These rules are so pithily and strongly put that they cannot be improved upon, and are given just as they came from Mr. Greiner's pen :
1. Keep whatever is honest, true, just and pure in your mind, and be governed by it. If you do not, you do not deserve to succeed, and you will not.
2. Be loyal to yourself, to your superior officers and to those who pay for your service.
3. Support and encourage those subject to your orders. If you do not support your men in their just contentions, you cannot expect them to support you in yours.
4. Work energetically, think quickly, aet promptly, and always do the best you can. There is no place for the sluggard or the trifling indifferent foister.
5. Avoid idiosyncrasies, whether in your appearance, actions or plans. There are plenty of cranks in the world without you.
6. Remember you cannot prove the superiority of your knowledge by ridiculing the knowledge and opinions of others.
7. Acquire decision and directness in speech and action. Vacilla- tion or a display of ambiguity will not benefit you.
8. Be natural and at ease, whether with the President or a laborer. The President expects manliness-so does the laborer.
9. Treat a man as you would be treated by him should your posi- tions be reversed.
10. Be a gentleman always.
On December 16, 1886, Mr. Greiner married Miss Lily F. Burche.l. and of this marriage there are two daughters, Lillian Bur- chell and Gladys Houston Greiner.
Mrs. Greiner's father was John Foster Burchell, who married Martha Ann Sowers. The Burchells go back in Maryland to 1684. In the early part of the eighteenth century they moved to Virginia, and have always been planters and farmers, owning their own estates from the time of the first settler. The Burchells are of old English stock,
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and there is a very ancient coat of arms in the family granted at a time when they spelled the name Birchell. Through her father, Mrs. Greiner is descended from the following distinguished Marylanders: Judge William Allnutt ; Richard Talbot, a settler in Maryland in 1651, who was descended from the great Norman Talbot family, which, since 1066, has been one of the most famous families of England. This Richard Talbot was a member of the House of Burgesses. Others of her ancestors in Maryland were Major Richard Ewen, one of the com- mission appointed by Cromwell to govern Maryland from 1654 to 1657; Thomas Meeres, justice of Anne Arundel county in 1657, and also a member of the Cromwell commission; and another member of this Cromwell commission, Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Thomas. Her great-grandmother was Catherine Houston, a member of that family to which the celebrated Sam Houston belonged.
Since entering private practice as consulting engineer, Mr. Greiner has been retained in the capacity of consulting engineer by the Balti- more & Ohio Railroad, the Erie Railroad, the Norfolk & Southern Railroad in connection with a bridge five miles long across the Albe- marle sound, the Peoria & Pekin Union Railroad in connection with a large double-track bridge across the Illinois river, the Carolina, Clinch- field & Ohio Railroad for a large number of bridges. He was ap- pointed member of a commission of four expert engineers to report upon the strength of Blackwell's Island bridge across the East river in New York. Immediately after the great fire in Baltimore, he was appointed by Mayor McLane as member of a commission to examine into the safety of the large structures which had been damaged by the fire but which had not been totally destroyed; this commission worked with great expedition, and made their report in one month. He was also appointed by Mayor MeLane as a member of the commission to revise the building laws.
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