USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, volume I > Part 5
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Mrs. Anne Eliza Gordon was a daughter of John Hampden Pleas- ants, founder of the " Richmond Whig," and granddaughter of Gover- nor James Pleasants, of Virginia.
The first of the family to emigrate to America were Samuel and Bazil Gordon, sons of Samuel Gordon, of Lochdougan, and a nephew, Samuel Gordon, Jr., son of John Gordon, Laird of Lochdougan. All three of these immigrants married daughters of William Knox, of Cul- peper county, whose wife was Susannah Fitzhugh.
Bazil Gordon, the immigrant, was born in 1768 at Lochdougan, in Scotland, and settled at Falmouth, Virginia, in 1783. He married Anne Campbell Knox. He made a considerable fortune by buying and exporting tobacco during the war between England and Spain. With the money he made in this business he purchased Wakefield Manor, a beautiful estate in Rappahannock county, Virginia, now owned by his grandson, Douglas Huntly Gordon, and the family of his deceased brother, Basil Brown Gordon. Bazil Gordon, the immigrant, died in 1847, leaving two sons and one daughter. The second son was Douglas Hamilton Gordon. He was born at Falmouth and was educated at the University of Virginia. In the Civil war he raised and equipped a company of soldiers at his own expense, and entered the service of the Confederacy as quartermaster, being so near-sighted that he could not serve actively in the field. His great ability was recognized and Presi- dent Davis urged him to take the office of Secretary of the Treasury in his Cabinet, but he declined. He first married Mary Ellen, daughter of Colin Clarks, of Gloucester county, Virginia. The second wife of Douglas Hamilton Gordon was Anne Eliza Pleasants, who was the mother of Douglas Hu. tly Gordon and of the late Basil Brown Gor- don ; of Mary Pleasants Gordon, now deceased, who married De Courcy W. Thom; of Nannie Campbell Gordon, who married John Quitman
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Lovell; and of Rose Stanley Gordon, who married J. Triplett Haxall. One of the daughters of Bazil Gordon, of Falmouth, married Doctor John Hanson Thomas, of Maryland, for many years president of the Farmers and Merchants' Bank of Baltimore. Mr. Douglas Hamilton Thomas, president of the Merchants' National Bank of Baltimore, is their son.
Douglas Huntly Gordon graduated from Johns Hopkins Uni- versity in 1887, and immediately thereafter undertook the study of law. He entered the law school of the University of Maryland, and graduated in 1889. He did not engage in the active practice of his profession, however, but was kept busy with his large private interests for the next three years.
In 1892 he embarked in an enterprise of far-reaching importance, not only to himself, but to the city of Baltimore. In association with General Lawrason Riggs, Julian Leroy White, T. K. Worthington, and others, he purchased the " Baltimore Evening News." This was at the time the only afternoon paper in Baltimore, and Mr. Gordon, as the principal editorial writer, made it a power. When he relin- quished editorial work in order to devote himself to two large financial institutions with which he became connected, he still retained his stoek in the News Company and increased it, and gave his advice in the editorial management of the paper. In 1908 the proprietors of the News sold the paper and its building to Mr. Munsey, the present owner.
Following his editorial work in the News office, Mr. Gordon be- came vice-president of the Citizens' Trust and Deposit Company.
In 1899 the International Trust Company of Maryland was or- ganized, and Mr. Gordon was elected president. He held that position until 1910, when the International Trust Company and Baltimore Trust and Guarantee Company were consolidated as the Baltimore Trust Company, with Mr. Gordon as vice-president,
Mr. Gordon, in 1897, married Miss Elizabeth Southall Clarke, daughter of John Eldridge and Anna Dupre (Southall) Clarke, of Virginia. Their children are Elizabeth Stith, Anne Huntly, Douglas Huntly, Virginia Southall and Sarah Stanley Gordon.
JAMES MERCER GARNETT
J AMES MERCER GARNETT, A.M., LL.D., comes of an old Virginia, family, which has long been honorably and well known in that state. He was born at Aldie, Loudoun county, Virginia, on April 24, 1840, son of Theodore Stanford and Florentina Isidora (Moreno) Garnett. His father was a civil engineer, notable for his rigid integrity and benevolent disposition. The family dates back in Virginia to John Garnett, who came from England to Virginia about 1690. His descendants resided in Essex county, where they were vestrymen of the church, justices of the peace and burgesses in the Provincial House of Burgesses. Among his maternal ancestors was John Mercer, who came from Dublin to Virginia in 1720. This John Mercer was a lawyer, and author of the Abridgment of the Laws of Virginia in 1737. In the next generation, James Mercer was a mem- ber of the House of Burgesses, of the Virginia conventions of 1774, 1775 and 1776, of the Committee of Safety, of the Continental Con- gress, and judge of the general court and of the court of appeals of Virginia.
Doctor Garnett's grandfather, whose name he bears, was a mem- ber of the United States Congress, of the Virginia Constitutional Con- vention of 1829, and was noted as a writer on agriculture and educa- tion. Among his collateral ancestors may be noted John Francis Mer- cer, a member of the Continental Congress, from Virginia ; of the Con- stitutional Convention of 1787, from Maryland; of the United States Congress, and governor of Maryland in 1801-1803.
His mother's ancestors, Fernando Moreno and Antonio Lopez, were in the Spanish army, and came from Malaga in Spain to Pen- sacola, Florida, in the eighteenth century.
From early youth Doctor Garnett has been partial to reading and study. Historical works, poetry, biography and the Greek and Latin classics have all possessed for him a certain measure of charm. When actively engaged in teaching, he found Stanley's Life of Doctor Thomas Arnold very helpful. Doctor Garnett's secondary education was ob- tained at the Episcopal High School of Virginia, near Alexandria,
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where he received, at the end of four years, the highest honor of the school. He then entered the University of Virginia and graduated in 1859 with the degree of Master of Arts. After a year of teaching, he returned to the university for postgraduate work.
The Civil war was already in the air and, as a result of the agita- tion, two military companies were formed among the students, and as a member of one of these Doctor Garnett went to Harper's Ferry in April, 1861. In July of that year he entered the Confederate army as a private in the Rockbridge artillery. He participated in the first battle of Manassas, and in the fall of that year was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. Soon after his promotion, he was assigned to duty by Major-General T. J. Jackson on his staff as chief of ord- nance of the Valley District in Virginia. He served as ordnance officer of the Stonewall brigade in the Valley campaign, the second battle of Manassas, and the battle of Antietam. He was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant and later to be captain of artillery. In this capacity he served through the campaigns of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. In February, 1864, he was transferred and assigned to duty as ord- nance officer of the division commanded by Major-General R. E. Rodes, and served with that division until the close of the war at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Since the war he has served as adju- tant, lieutenant-commander and commander of camps of United Con- federate Veterans in Virginia and in Baltimore.
It is worthy of mention here in connection with the Civil war that the Garnett family of Virginia furnished to the Confederate army two general officers, both of whom fell in battle, one at Rich Mountain, West Virginia, and the other at Gettysburg.
Doctor Garnett had taught at Brookland School, Albemarle county, Virginia, for one year before the war. After the war, he re- sumed teaching at Charlottesville, Virginia. He spent a part of 1869 and 1870 in postgraduate studies at the Universities of Berlin and Leipzig.
In 1874, the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland. In 1867 he was professor of Greek in the Louisiana State University, near Alexandria, Louisi- ana. From there he became teacher of classics and mathematics in the Episcopal High School, Virginia. 1870 found him principal and pro- fessor of history and English at St. John's College, Annapolis, and he served there for ten years, or until 1880. From 1880 to 1882, he con-
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ducted a private school at Ellicott City, Maryland. From 1882 to 1896, he was professor of English in the University of Virginia. From 1896 to 1897, he was acting professor of English literature in the Woman's College of Baltimore. Altogether he has given about forty years' faithful service in his chosen vocation.
On April 19, 1871, Doctor Garnett married Kate Huntington No- land, and of this marriage there is one son, J. Mercer Garnett, Jr.
Doctor Garnett has been active in the work of the Protestant Epis- copal church, which he has served as warden or vestryman in several places where he has lived, and has been delegate to diocesan and general conventions of that church. He has been president of the State Teach- ers' Association of Maryland, vice-president of the Modern Language Association of America, president of the American Dialect Society, vice-president of the Spelling Reform Association of America, and president of the American Philological Association. He is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, of the Historical Society of Maryland, and an ex-member of the His- torical Society of Virginia, of the American Historical Association, of the Churchman's Club of Maryland, and of the University Club of Baltimore.
Doctor Garnett has written many articles in literary journals, has reviewed many books for the American Journal of Philology and other periodicals, has edited a number of works for use in schools, has translated Beowulf, Elene and other Anglo-Saxon poems, and has writ- ten a history of the University of Virginia (1904). (See "Who's Who in America.")
In politics Doctor Garnett is a Democrat.
In his last year at the University of Virginia as a student, he was president of the Young Men's Christian Association.
While residing in Virginia, he was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Doctor Garnett gives the following advice to young Americans starting out in life: " Micah VI, 8, and Ecclesiastes XII, 13, rein- forced by Hebrews X, 23, comprise all the philosophy of life I know and are worth a ton of so-called moral advice for the guidance of young people."
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J. WYNNE JONES
T HE REVEREND DOCTOR J. WYNNE JONES, who for thirty-three years has been conspicuous in the religious life of Baltimore, comes of that sturdy Welsh stock which has so greatly contributed to the life of our country. He was born in Mon- mouthshire, South Wales, on January 13, 1845, the son of Jenkin and Elizabeth Jones.
His father was by occupation a farmer-a man of strong religious sentiment, familiar with the Seriptures and a practical " doer of the word." His mother also was strongly imbued with religious feeling and gave to the growing lad most faithful teaching along correct lines. As a boy, thrown in contact with ministers of the Gospel who were naturally attracted by a family of this character, he early became filled with the desire to become himself a preacher. He was a strong and healthy boy, spending his earlier years in the ordinary amusements of boys and schooling, until his ninth year, when his parents migrated to the United States in April, 1854. They settled in Union, Wisconsin, and for the next seven years his time was mainly spent in labor on the farm with a little schooling sandwiched in as opportunity offered. Par- tial to reading, especially the Bible, he spent much of his time at night and in early mornings in reading and study, and in this way became well informed. He had special delight in works of historical and theological character. The outbreak of the Civil war stirred his patri- otic sympathies and on August 14, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, Twenty-third Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. His regiment was attached to the First Brigade, First Division, Thirteenth Army Corps, General Grant's old corps, and he followed its fortunes faith- fully from the day he joined until the elose of that tremendous struggle. " During three years of hard service," in which he rose from private to Sergeant, he writes, "my delight was to find a good book to read and study, and seldom was I without one beside my Bible in my knapsack." On July 4, 1865, he was discharged from service at Mobile, Alabama. Returning home, he went to work to earn money to pay for his tuition in the Columbus, Wisconsin, High School, and he studied during the
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following winter. His army savings were spent towards purchasing a farm for his parents. In looking back at this period of his life, he recalls that he had to study late at night and rise before dawn in order to keep up with his classes.
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Just before Thanksgiving Day in 1866, with barely enough money to pay his fare, he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, led, as he himself says, by some irresistible impulse. He found work laying paving stones at a sufficient wage to pay his actual expenses. By a strange Providence, a rich Presbyterian lady, of the Central Presbyterian church, died and provided in her will ample means to educate the young man in the ministry. It thus happened that within six weeks after his arrival in Cincinnati, the way had opened up for the carrying out of his long- cherished plans, and June, 1867, found him a student in Princeton, New Jersey, where he remained until 1876, graduating from Edge Hill Academy, College and Seminary. His degree of Bachelor of Arts was earned in 1873 and he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Cincinnati on September 5, 18:5. In April, 1876, he was called to the Tuckertown (New Jersey) Presbyterian church, and on May 10 was ordained and installed over that church.
In July of that year he married Miss Annie Helen Harvey, daugh- ter of Patrick and Rachel A. Harvey, of Princeton. His wife's father, Patrick Harvey, was a staunch Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, who came from the north of Ireland and married in this country. Four children have been born, all of whom are living.
In 1876, Princeton College conferred upon him the degree of A.M., and in 1900 Gale College, Wisconsin, conferred the degree of D.D.
He spent less than two years with the New Jersey church, when he was called to the Tome Street Welsh Presbyterian church in Canton, Maryland, in March, 1878. He entered actively upon his pastoral work on April 7, 1878. He became at once an active force in the com- munity, and in a little while had organized the Working Men's Insti- tute at Canton, which, on May 19, 1880, was incorporated. On Janu- ary 5, 1880, he organized a Sabbath school at Highlandtown, out of which has grown his present great work. In 1882, the Abbott chapel was built. On November 30, 1882, Thanksgiving Day, a church was organized with twenty-six members drawn from the Tome Street church. There is a note of historical interest in connection with this church. It was built through the gift of Mr. Horace Abbott, proprie-
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tor of the Abbott Iron Mille in Baltimore, the concern which furnished the iron sheathing used on the Monitor that fought the Merrimac dur- ing the Civil war. After the death of Mr. Abbott, Mr. John S. Gilman, president of the Second National Bank, his wife, Mrs. Eliza Gilman, and their daughters, Mrs. D'Arcy Paul and Mrs. Todd, wife of Pro- fessor Henry A. Todd, of Columbia University, New York, continued a most generous support and largely assisted Doctor Jones in pressing his work to such successful conclusion. The church, organized in 1882 with twenty-six members, has in the intervening years done an immense work in that section of the city, Doctor Jones having received in those years over 1000 members, the church having a present member- ship of over 600 with a congregation some 900 strong, besides the many hundreds more who have passed away or moved into other districts.
The People's Institute, which he organized, has also had a remark- able history and a library of over 5000 volumes has been acquired and over 100 current periodicals are regularly received. In one way or another it has rendered assistance to thousands of people, and the number attending the library runs from 22,000 to 33,000 per year. Prominent lecturers are brought from Johns Hopkins University and other seats of learning, and these lectures are well attended. Five young men have been educated for the ministry. The special feature of Doctor Jones's work is the practical side. He is not merely content with preaching the Gospel, though he is very successful in that direc- tion, but he makes the practical application. He hunts up those who need a helping hand, and many men who are now active in good work and successful in business owe their reformation and a new start to his helping hand at a critical moment. Some years ago he decided that in giving help to the families of drunkards he had been working along the wrong line, and he went after the drunkards themselves ; as a result of this effort nearly a score of the best members of his church are men who were formerly addicted to the liquor habit, seven of them now being elders.
His ministerial brethren have recognized his work and usefulness and twice has he been elected moderator of the Baltimore Presbytery. He was sent as a delegate to the First General Assembly ever held west of the Rocky mountains, which met in Portland, Oregon, which was known as the " Assembly of Roses," because of the great abun- dance of roses there.
Doctor Jones has been fortunate in the character of the support
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which has been tendered him from outside sources. In addition to the Abbotts, Gilmans, Pauls and Todds above mentioned, the Brown family have been generous supporters, the mother and father of George S. Brown, grandparents of the present Alex. Brown, the banker, contributed a large part of the money for the lot on which the church and parsonage are located, besides a liberal contribution to the building fund.
Doctor Jones thoroughly loves his work, as all useful men do. His influence in that section of the city where he has now worked for more than thirty years is powerful for good, and he feels that he could not elsewhere achieve such results as he obtains among his own people, to whom he is tied by long years of devoted service. Life's lesson which he would pass on to others is that one should have " faith in God, faith in oneself. Study earnestly the successes and failures of Bible charac- ters. Read and study the Book of Proverbs, the Master's works and dealings with men. Be kind and sympathetic in life, generous in gifts for good purposes. Be prompt, earnest and faithful in all work. Be yourself and dare to be right-even alone. Fear God and keep his commandments and love your neighbor as yourself. With the above get the best education possible, and life will not be a failure."
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HOWARD A. KELLY
1 HE city of Baltimore has always maintained a high reputation as a center of medical education. Possibly resulting from this, the medical and surgical faculty of that city has for a long period maintained a lugh standing among American practitioners, and furnished many eminent men both in medicine and surgery. Prominent among present-day leaders of that city is Doctor Howard A. Kelly, who ranks as one of the most able surgeons, not only of Balti- more, but of the country.
Doctor Kelly is a native of New Jersey, born February 20, 1858, in the city of Camden. His parents were Henry Kuhl and Louisa Warner (Hard) Kelly. His father's business occupation was that of a broker, and he saw service during the Civil war as captain in the United States army. His strongest characteristic was a persistent energy.
Among Doctor Kelly's ancestry may be noted James Hard, who received a grant of land in Fairfield county, Connecticut, from Charles II for services rendered Charles I. Still another was Wm. Warner, of Philadelphia, born in 1710, and one of the prominent men of his day. Yet another was Michael Hillegas, who had the distinction of being the first Treasurer of the United States.
The Kelly family has long been prominent in Ireland, having its principal seat at Castle Kelly, in county Galway. Because of the prominence and the number of the Kelly family in Ireland, an erro- neous impression has obtained that the family is Irish only; but curi- ously enough, there is a Kelly family in Devonshire, England, which has been established there certainly for eight hundred years, and which was represented as far back as the time of Richard I by a knight of that name, and which has maintained an unbroken line of male de- scent up to the present.
Doctor Kelly was a healthy boy, reared in a city, with frequent excursions to the country, and very fond of natural history, which was the favorite reading of his youth, and which he can now look back and
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sce had its useful side. His mother was a constant helper in all his studies, furnished him with true inspiration, encouraged his thirst for knowledge, and had more to do with the formation of his spiritual character than all other influences combined. He had the good fortune as a boy to study under under J. W. Faries, an old Scotch schoolmaster, who had a private school on Dean street, Philadelphia. It is hardly necessary to add that the old Scotchman thoroughly grounded the boy in the rudiments, for that is a Scotch characteristic. He entered the University of Pennsylvania in the Academic Department in 1873, and graduated in that department in 1877 with the degree of A.B. He then turned to the Medical Department of the same school, and re- ceived his degree of M.D. in 1882.
His first work in the line of his profession was as physician in Kensington, the mill district of Philadelphia. Natural aptitude and thorough preparation secured rapid advancement for the young phy- sician, and in 1SSS he was made associate professor of obstetrics in the University of Pennsylvania. In 1889 he left that school to take the position of professor of gynecology and obstetrics in Johns Hopkins University. This chair he filled for ten years, and since that time- another period of ten years-has filled the chair of gynecology, making over twenty years' connection with that great institution. In addition to that he also holds the position of gynecologist-in-chief to the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He conducts a private sanitarium of his own on Eutaw Place, and is recognized as one of the leading surgeons of the country. A man of large public spirit, he is active in everything that is promotive of the welfare of the city, and, though not an office-seeker or office-holder, may fairly be called a public man.
Possessed of enormous industry, Doctor Kelly has written some three hundred original articles which have been published in various medical journals. In addition to this, in 1901 he published " Opera- tive Gynecology " in two volumes. In 1895, in the " Twentieth Cen- tury Practice of Medicine," appeared his "Diseases of the Female Bladder and Urethra." In 1904 he published "The Vermiform Ap- pendix and Its Diseases "; and in Volumes II and III of Johns Hop- kins Hospital Reports appear his gynecological reports. He has in- vented numerous instruments.
His reputation has steadily grown until now it is nation-wide, and he has been honored in every way possible by numerous medical and surgical bodies. The official positions held by him have been already
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named. He is an associate foreign member of the Society of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Pediatrics, and of the Chirurgical Society of Paris; corresponding member of the Obstetrical Society of Leipzig; fellow of the British Gynecological Society; honorary fellow of the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society, Glasgow Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, and Royal Academy of Medicine (Ireland) ; honorary member of the Italian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rome; fellow of the American Gynecological Society ; honorary member of the Obstetrical and Gynecological Society of Berlin, and of the Obstetrical Society of Leipzig ; and corresponding member of the Royal Society of Physicians in Vienna.
Speaking of politics, Doctor Kelly says that his political affiliation is with the party which nominates able and honest candidates, and he has at times changed from one side to the other upon the issue of honesty. This is but another way of saying that he is an Independent in politics, which is only another way of saying that he puts civic duty before partisanship.
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