USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, volume I > Part 8
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RICHARD MAREEN DUVALL
Assemblies. Colonel Thomas Williams, of the Revolutionary Militia, was one of the commanding officers at the battle of Germantown. Samuel Duvall, the Revolutionary soldier, the great-grandfather of Mr. Duvall, has already been mentioned. On the maternal side, his mother's grandfather, James Waring, and her great-grandfather, Lieutenant Henry Hillary, of Prince George's county, were also Revo- lutionary soldiers, and both his paternal and maternal grandfathers were in the War of 1812.
Richard M. Duvall was born and reared near Millersville, Anne Arundel county, Maryland, and while not a robust boy, was active and energetic. He loved all forms of outdoor life, particularly in the fields and woods, wading streams, horseback riding, fishing, following the hounds, and the open country appeals to him to this day. As a boy, his father gave him and his twin brother the task of going into the distant fields looking for the cattle, seeing that the men properly cared for the stock, and later on required them to take part in other planta- tion work. Although his mother died when he was a child of eight years, he remembers how she always impressed upon him the impor- tance of truthfulness, honesty, and respect for older people, and he recalls his father's enforcement of the same virtues and his strong aversion to horse racing, cards and drinking. Prior to 1861 the elder Duvall had been the owner of between fifteen hundred and two thou- sand acres of land, but through endorsing paper for friends, together with the failure of his health and the general break-up of conditions in the slave-holding States, resulting from the Civil war, when he died in 1870, he left a family of.nine children, six of them small, practically without resources. Mr. Richard Mareen Duvall, with his twin brother, was then less than fourteen years old, having been born on November 1, 1856. Prior to that he had attended a local private school, and that had to be given up for the time being. He went to live with his older half-brother, James, and worked on the latter's farm during the open season, from spring till fall, and attended school during the three winter months. This continued for two years. The third winter he was a student with his twin brother at Anne Arundell Academy under Professor Phil More Leakin. The next year he went to the Academy for about six months, which ended his attendance upon school, except for five months at the State Normal School in 1878. In 1874 his brother James moved to Hanover county, Virginia, and Mr. Duvall then, for a time, lived with his uncle and aunt, the late Mr. and Mrs.
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William Jones, of Millersville, Anne Arundel county. He worked on their farm, attended to the garden, looked after the farm hands, etc., and in 1876 taught school for one month as a substitute. In the fall of 1877 he secured a position as a public school teacher, and taught until the following December, when an attack of malarial fever com- pelled him to resign. Recovering his health later in the winter, he borrowed the necessary money to pay his expenses while attending the Normal School, having secured a scholarship from the Anne Arundel county School Commissioners. In the fall of 1878, he established a private school in the lower part of Anne Arundel county, and taught it for three years, when it was made a public school, which he there- after taught for two years. Beginning with eight scholars, his school steadily increased, and when he retired from it he had forty odd scholars, ranging in age from eight to twenty years. While teaching school for the first two years, especially during the vacations, he con- tinued his studies under Professor Leakin's direction, in Latin, mathe- matics, history and English literature. In January, 1880, Mr. Duvall began reading law with the late Judge William H. Tuck, of Annapolis, going on many of the recurring Saturdays to see him, to be coached. He generally went on horseback, a trip of 30 miles each way, some- times breaking it by stopping over on his way back at the home of his uncle, Doctor Joseph I. Duvall, of Davidsonville, Anne Arundel county.
He was admitted to the bar in January, 1883, at Annapolis, and came to Baltimore in September of that year to pursue his profession.
A glance back over this sketch will show that Mr. Duvall did not enter upon the practice of his profession until he was twenty-six years old, but from the time he was ten years old, he had never for a moment wavered in his determination to be a lawyer. Diverted temporarily from his main aim he ever worked steadily in that direction. He had often heard his father express regrets at not having studied law. The taste for law was also fostered in Mr. Duvall by his father permitting him to make occasional visits to the court room at Annapolis during sessions.
Among the influences which have most affected his life, Mr. Duvall thinks perhaps the companionship of men and women of cul- ture and of Christian character has been the chief, as from them he received his greatest incentive to private study. He regards the lack of a college education a drawback, and in this is supported by the
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general consensus of opinion among those who are making a study of the successful men of our generation.
He has practiced law continuously in Baltimore for twenty-six years, and has won an honorable position in the profession, and among the best citizens of Baltimore.
Since 1887, Mr. Duvall has been a member of the Bar Association of Baltimore City, and for a term he was Chairman of its Committee on Admissions, and in 1005 he became a member of the State Bar Association.
Since 1902 he has been a Trustee of Anne Arundel Academy, of which his father was a founder; since 1891 he has been Counsellor. and is now Counsellor and director, of the Maryland Savings Bank. In 1906 he was elected a member of the Society of the Colonial Wars, and its Registrar, and a member of its Council ; since 190? he has been a director of the Library Company of the Baltimore Bar; since 1908, a member of the Sons of the Revolution and a member of the Saint Andrew's Society. He became, in 1910, a member of the Society of the War of 1812. He is connected with the Protestant Episcopal church. He was one of the incorporators, and for a year the Treasurer of the Maryland Original Research Society.
Much of his relaxation is found in the reading of history and biography, and in historical research. In these lines his reading has covered a wide range. In his early boyhood, he delighted in reading Scott's novels ; and later the biographies of famous men and women, as well as history and poetry. Probably the most instructive historical reading for him was Stephens' "War between the States."
Mr. Duvall thinks that two important things to be impressed upon those starting in life is a willingness to begin at the bottom, laying chief stress upon the opportunity for promotion and improvement rather than upon salary, and the determination to live within one's income.
On October 31, 1895, Mr. Duvall married Miss Juliana W. Golds- borough, daughter of the late Doctor John Schley Goldsborough, of Frederick. Maryland. Doctor Goldsborough was a direct descendant of Honorable Robert Goldsborough, a member of the Assembly of Mary- land of 1775, and the Continental Congress of that year, and also of Colonels Nicholas Worthington and Henry Ridgely, and John Thomas Schley, one of the founders of Frederick, Maryland.
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The Duvall arms are:
Arms: Gules, a Chevron argent between two mullets, of the second, pierced, and a battleaxe of the last.
Crest : A lion sejant, per pale argent and gules, sustaining a shield as in the arms.
Motto : Pro Patria.
THORNTON ROLLINS
R OLLINS, as an American surname, has two distinct origins ; the first is English, and the family bearing that name was first established in this country by James Rawlins, who came to Massachusetts from England and settled in Ipswich in 1632. By an evolution, not uncommon in English and American names, the name became changed into Pollins, and under that form the old Puritan im- migrant has a long line of descendants scattered over the United States.
Another family, founded in Maryland, goes back to Jewell Rollins, a Huguenot refugee, who came from France and settled in Northwest Fork, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in the early colonial period.
Thornton Rollins, of Baltimore, president of the Maryland Na- tional Bank, and one of the leading financiers of the city, is probably in the sixth generation from the old Huguenot immigrant, for while we have not before us his line of descent, we have before us another line which would indicate that he is in the sixth generation. Thus we know Jewell Rollins had a son, Isaac; Isaac had a son, Luke; Luke, a son, John. Nancy Rollins, daughter of John, married William Marine in 1818 and would be about contemporary with William Rollins, father of Thornton Rollins. This would put Thornton Rollins in the sixth generation from Jewell.
William Rollins was a sea-captain and an able man in his profes- sion. He married Julia Silvester, and of this marriage the subject of this sketch was born in Baltimore, October 7, 1840. Wm. Rollins' father was born near Chestertown, some time prior to the Revolution- ary war. Thornton Rollins' maternal grandmother was a native of Bucks county, Pennsylvania. One of his grandfathers fought at the Battle of North Point, in the War of 1812, and his father, William Rollins, as a boy, assisted in building a fort at the foot of Eutaw street, during that same war, for the purpose of resisting the British invasion of Maryland.
Mr. Rollins, as a boy, attended the Union Academy, on Lombard street near Green, and was evidently well-grounded in the rudiments,
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for while he admits that he was a healthy boy and loved to idle away his time, like most healthy boys, his later career has proven that he had a good foundation. His business career began in 1859, when he went to work as an office boy or junior elerk on Smith's wharf. The fifty years which have since elapsed have been years of hard labor and steady growth. Starting in at the bottom, he mastered the duties of one position after another, until finally he was at the head of a large business as a coffee importer, running his own line of boats between Brazil and Baltimore. During all of these years, he had been accumu- lating capital and gaining financial experience, until in 1900 his repu- tation as a financier reached that point that he was elected president of the Maryland National Bank. In 1902, the presidency of the Con- tinental National Bank was ad led to this. He is now serving as the president of the Maryland National Bank, and is recognized as one of the strong financiers of the city. He has also served as a director of the Continental Trust Company, an immense concern, of the Guardian Trust Company, of the Firemen's Insurance Company, and of the South Baltimore Street Car & Foundry Company.
In civic affairs he has given public services as grand juryman, city councilman and member of the harbor board. He holds member- ship in the Maryland and Baltimore yacht clubs. His political affilia- tion is with the Democratic party, but he has on several occasions voted against the party nominees, on account of the financial question, being a strong adherent of the gold standard.
Mr Rollins finds his recreation in attendance upon the theaters.
On October 26, 1866, he married Miss Julia Porter, daughter of Robt. B. Porter, of Baltimore.
Mr. Rollins is a fine example of the conservative banker. If space permitted, a sketch of the growth of banking from the earliest day to the present would be of absorbing interest. This much, however, may be said : the business world, broadly speaking, may be divided into two classes, producers and distributors. On the side of the producers may be counted farmers, miners and manufacturers. On the side of the distributors may be counted bankers, transportation lines and mer- chants. No business man's function is of more vital importance to the general welfare than that of the banker. The very health of busi- . ness depends upon his fidelity and capacity. In this honorable station, it must be said to the credit of Mr. Rollins, that he is discharging his duty faithfully and well.
119- 113
CLEMENT ANDARIESE PENROSE
D OCTOR C. A. PENROSE, of Baltimore, is a young man of thirty-six, who has already won a commanding position in his profession. it would be hard to classify him as far as nativity goes. Strictly speaking, he belongs to Pennsylvania, where his family has been domiciled since they first came to America. The son of a United States army officer, he was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1824, and his carly life partook of the migratory character of the families of all army officers. His father, Colonel Chas. Bingham Pen- rose, was a native of Pennsylvania, who married Clara Andariese, who was descended from an old New York Dutch family. Colonel Penrose was appointed from Pennsylvania as a Captain in the Commissary de- partment of the Volunteer Army on August 3, 1861. For faithful and meritorious service during the war, he was promoted to Major of Volunteers in 1865, and to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1867. His marked ability in his work had attracted the notice of those above him, and in May, 1865, he was transferred to the regular army with the rank of Captain. The reduction of the army after the conclusion of the Civil war caused many good officers to be stationary in rank for long periods, and it was October 4, 1889, before he reached the rank of Major. After thirty-four years of faithful service he died at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on September 18, 1895, while on siek leave.
The Penrose family comes from Cornwall, England, the only English county in which the original British stock yet predominates. The original seat of the family appears to have been in Sithney, county Cornwall, where it was established in 1620, and is known to have been located for six generations prior to that time. In 1531 the Penroses of Sithney bore the following coat of arms: Erm. on a band az. 3 roses. or. For some reason this coat of arms later was changed to the present one, which is described as: Ar. 3 bands sa. each charged with as many roses of the field. Crest, a trout naiant, or. From Cornwall branches of the family settled in Ireland, and in Bristol, England, and from Bristol, in the year 1700, Bartholomew Penrose, ship-builder, emi- grated to Pennsylvania and settled in Philadelphia. In 1706 he built the ship " Diligence," William Penn, William Penn, Jr., James Logan
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yours Guly Iblement Ja Vamse
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CLEMENT A. PENROSE
and William Kent being partners in the enterprise. Benjamin Penrose married in 1703 Esther, daughter of Tobey Leech, Esquire, a native of Gloucestershire, England. Bartholomew Penrose was the progenitor of the American family, which has given an unusual number of notable men to our country.
Without entering into details as to the line of descent, or a con- nected history of the family, it is not amiss to mention a few of the more notable personages: Mary Penrose, daughter of Bartholomew Penrose, Jr., and granddaughter of the immigrant, married on March 25, 1776, Major-General Anthony Wayne, of Revolutionary fame. The Honorable Clement Biddle Penrose, great-grandfather of our subject, married, on August 1, 1796, Anne Howard. He was one of two youth- ful standard bearers to one of the first Revolutionary companies raised in Pliiladelphia, and, though a mere child, shared in the sufferings of the terrible winter of 1717 in Valley Forge. In 1805 he was appointed by President Jefferson one of the Land Commissioners for Louisiana Territory, and moved to St. Louis, then the capital of the Louisiana purchase. In 1831 Morris Longstreth Hallowell married Hannah Smith Penrose. Hallowell was one of the organizers of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad, a director of the Bank of North America, and a mem- ber of the Union League. The Honorable Chas. Bingham Penrose, eldest son of Clement Biddle Penrose, and grandfather of our subject, married Valeria Fullerton Biddle, the daughter of Wm. McFunn Biddle by his wife Lydia Spencer. The father of this Lydia Spencer was the Reverend Elihu Spencer, a trustee of Princeton, Chaplain in the Revolutionary armies, and a relative of the famous Marlborough family in England. Chas. Bingham Penrose served as a volunteer in the War of 1812 in a St. Louis company. He later moved to Phila- delphia, and in 1833 was a member of the Pennsylvania Senate. He remained there eight years, and was for four years Speaker of the body. In 1841 he was appointed Solicitor to the Treasury under President Harrison. In 1849 he was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. He assisted in the compilation of Penrose & Watts' Digest of the Supreme Court Decisions of Pennsylvania, published in three volumes in 1831- 1832. Major Jas. Wilkinson Penrose was the second son of Clement Biddle Penrose. He was breveted for meritorious service in the battle of Cerro Gordo in the Mexican war, and died from wounds received in that campaign. The famous General Tecumseh Sherman saw his first military service in June, 1846, under Major Penrose. Thos. Neal
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Penrose, M.D., graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1858, was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the United States Navy in 1861, served under Farragut's command in the Civil war and had a distin- guished record in the West and East Indies. Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose, M.D., LL.D., graduated at the University of Penn- sylvania in 1849, was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women in 1863, and married Sarah Hannah Boies. A brother of the above was the Honorable Clement Biddle Penrose, Judge of the Or- phans' Court of Philadelphia. General Win. Henry Penrose, son of Major Jas. Wilkinson Penrose, served with distinction throughout the Civil war. Honorable Boies Peurose, son of Doctor A. F. Penrose and a cousin of our subject, graduated from Harvard in 1888, studied law, served in the State Sonate, and has for the past twelve years repre- sented Pennsylvania in the Federal Senate. Chas. Bingham Penrose, M.D., a brother of Boies, was appointed Professor of Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1893. As above stated, the Penrose family, through the Spencers, is related to the Churchills, who hold the dukedom of Marlborough in England, and through the Biddle line goes back to Sir Nicholas Skull, who fought under William the Con- queror in 1066. Up to about 140 years ago the arms of the Penrose family in stained glass, and also on a wooden tablet, were preserved in the east window of the south aisle of the parish church of Sithney, Cornwall, and also there was a tablet inscribed to the memory of Ben- ard Penrose, Prior of St. John's Hospital, who died in 1532.
The record above given illustrates the strong character of this family.
Doctor Penrose, as a boy, was of good physique, healthy, fond of music, nature and outdoor sports. His life was spent in the army posts, largely in the West, Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, and other sec- tions, and he was much of the time in the saddle, hunting or fishing. He was fortunate in the possession of an intelligent father and a good mother, who exercised a strong influence over him. Naturally fond of reading, especially books of a scientific and adventurous character, at a comparatively early date he had a good knowledge of many stand- ard authors. He received some school training at the High School in Leavenworth, Kansas, and Deichman's School in Baltimore, and then entered the Johns Hopkins University, where he obtained the B.A. degree in 1893, when but nineteen years of age. In that same year he became a member of the charter class of the Johns Hopkins Medical
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School, the youngest member of this class. The next year he was ap- pointed a resident in the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He remained the full four years in the Medical department, graduating in 1897 with honors and the degree of M.D.
For one year after his graduation he remained in the Hospital con- nected with the University, and in 1899 established himself as a prac- ticing physician at 21 West Mt. Royal Avenne, Baltimore, where he has since resided, built up a large practice, and won the reputation of a most able and skillful physician. It seems that his father was rather opposed to his taking up the medical profession ; but even as a boy this predilection had been a strong one, and he relates that he took great pleasure in practicing on the soldiers in the various posts where they were stationed. The history of the Penrose family indicates that soldiering, physic and law are the main things that appeal to them. His present position in a professional way is due to hard work, com- bined with natural aptitude. He is now an alumnus of Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Medical School, is a member of the visiting staff of the Church Home and Infirmary, chief examiner in Baltimore to the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, and is affiliated with a majority of the medical societies. In 1903 he served as Vice-Director and Surgeon of the Bahama Expedition, which was largely instrumental in revealing the deplorable conditions existing in the Bahama Islands. He is a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and in 1907 served as president of the Baltimore chapter. Since Septem- ber 1, 1897, he has been a member of the Maryland branch of the society of the Sons of the American Revolution. In 1899 he invented an apparatus for holding patients in the knee-chest position. He also devised a method of treating bad burns and old unhealed wounds.
He holds membership in various social bodies, such as the Johns Hopkins Club, the Baltimore Athletic Club, Baltimore Whist Club, Baltimore Country Club, etc., and is a member of the American Medi- cal Association, the Johns Hopkins Historical Society, the American Society for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Medicine, etc., etc.
Like most healthy American boys, he was at one time devoted to baseball, and was captain of his team. His present physical recreations are found chiefly in tennis, calisthenics, and general physical culture. He is making a study of athletics from a medical standpoint, and has worked out a system which he has found of great value in his practice.
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CLEMENT A. PENROSE
Doctor Penrose was reared in the Presbyterian faith, and probably inclines in that direction.
On December 14, 1904, he married Miss Helen Stowe, of Balti- more, daughter of Thomas G. Stowe and Julia Stowe (Leaycraft). They have one son, Clement Andariese Penrose, Jr.
His political affiliations are with the Republican party, but he gives no special attention to that phase of life's activities.
Questioned as to the best methods of winning success in life, he lays down several very practical propositions. He puts first of all a sound body, with a well-nourished brain and nervous system. Next. he would train the youth to independence in action at an early age, and to thinking without strain. Academie training and all-round culture are of course helpful. He would inculcate, at an early age, pride of race, love of country, and love of humanity, and on top of that imbue the youth with that moral fearlessness that does not hesitate when self- sacrifice is demanded.
He has written some articles which, for conciseness of expression, clarity of thought and ease of understanding by the layman, cannot be surpassed in any medical literature. These articles have drawn edi- torial comment from some of the leading papers in the country, such as the Baltimore Sun, the New York Times, the Boston Transcript, and The Outlook, which has reproduced some of them in full. In these articles he deals clearly and strongly with many of the foolish heresies which today afflict the people. He thinks we have carried the various forms of "mental suggestion " and what is now known as "psycho-therapy " to extremes, and neglected the growing body, al- though he does not minimize the value of mental suggestion up to a certain point. He believes that the time has come for doctors to stand up strongly for preventive medicine and the creating of a hardy race able to cope with diseased conditions. His various essays have been widely read, "The Psychic Treatment of Nervous Diseases from a Practical Standpoint," first published in the New York Medical Jour- nal for January 18, 1908, and reprinted in The Outlook for February 8, 190S, being a notable contribution to recent medical literature. In another essay, " The Influence of Certain Exercises on Digestive Dis- orders," he sets forth a plain, simple and practical system of calis thenics. In the New York Medical Journal of August 21, 1909, was published an address on Leprosy, which was prepared for and read before the Johns Hopkins Medical Society on December 7, 1908. This
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