USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland Johnson's makers of America series biographies of leading men of the state, volume I > Part 9
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CLEMENT A. PENROSE
also was a notable contribution to current medical literature. Between 1898 and 1905 he published four other essays covering various phases of medical science, which did not attract the same attention at the time, because he was then a young and comparatively unknown man. His present standing in the profession is such that anything he writes at once receives careful consideration.
The keynote of Doctor Penrose's career as a medical man has been usefulness. He is striving constantly to contribute something to the improvement of medical science, and therefore to the betterment of his fellowmen. Judged, therefore, by the most rigid standard, that of service, he has won at a comparatively carly age a measure of success which should be to his friends a source of justifiable pride.
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WILLIAM A. CRAWFORD-FROST
T HE REVEREND DOCTOR WILLIAM A. CRAWFORD- FROST, of Windsor Hills, Baltimore county, is a native of Canada, born in Owen Sound, Ontario, on October 29, 1863. His parents were William and Louisa (Crawford) Frost. About 1820 John Frost, of Sheldon, Devonshire, England, great-grandfather of our subject, emigrated to Canada and settled in Bytown (now Ottawa). John Frost, the second, son of the emigrant, was a successful Cana- dian pioneer and business man, one of the founders of the town of Owen Sound and one of the fathers of its early enterprises. William Frost, son of John, the second, and father of our subject, was a mer- chant by occupation, a prominent citizen of his section, serving as reeve in the county of Grey, Ontario. William Frost was noted for his generosity and the love of fishing, that country being very rich in game, and mountain trout offering delightful sport to lovers of the outdoors.
On the maternal side Doctor Crawford-Frost is descended from one of the most ancient and notable families of Scotland, a family which, if it had never done anything else, would have been glorified by the fact that the mother of William Wallace was a Crawford. But the Crawfords go far back of that. We know from historical records that Sir Reginald de Crawford was prominent in the early part of the twelfth century, eight hundred years ago. The earldom of Crawford held by the Lindsays dates back to 1398, and the title of Baron Craw- ford dates back to 1143, and the family was prominent in Scottish annals long anterior to even that ancient time.
Our subject was a healthy boy, living in a healthful climate, reared in a village up to seven years of age and living in town from the age of seven to fifteen. Even in that early day he had literary ambitions and was fond of musical composition and painting. Speaking of man- ual labor in his boyhood, he touches upon a humorous note when he tells that all he had to do was to split and carry into the house an armful of kindling-wood every night. He admits that this was always put off until the last thing, and it seemed to him a tremendous task, and
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frankly acknowledges that if he had had ten times as much to do he would probably have done it more promptly and with better spirit.
His educational advantages were of the best. He attended the Owen Sound public school and Collegiate Institute. From there he entered Toronto University and graduated with the degree of B.A. in 1884. In 1886 he received the degree of M.A. During the later part of his college career he worked as a reporter for the Toronto World and Globe at night and studied during the day, but, insatiate for knowledge, he allowed nothing to hinder its acquisition.
Interested by his own personal preference and sense of duty, by his parents' wishes and external circumstances, he elected to enter the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal church and thus became a student of theology at Wycliffe College, Toronto. He was graduated in ISS?, with the degree of Licentiate in Theology. As an illustration of the Doctor's thirst for knowledge it may be mentioned here that ten years later, in 1897, he took a special course in the Baltimore Medical Col- lege. He took up his church work in 1888 as curate of St. I'aul's, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. From 1889 to 1892 he was · rector of St. George's, New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. From 1892 to 1896 he was rector of the Church of the Redeemer, Merrick, Long Island, and from 1896 to 1903 he was rector of the Memorial Church of the Holy Comforter in Baltimore.
Doctor Crawford-Frost is a man of enormous industry and great activity in many directions. In 1886 he explored the Rainy river country in Canada, of which he wrote a most interesting description in the shape of letters to the Toronto Globe. In that same year he founded the Young Men's Liberal Club of Toronto. In 1890 he founded the Christian Unity League in London, England. In 1896 he was the author of the work entitled " Old Dogma in a New Light." This was followed by the " Philosophy of Integration " in 1906. He has been honored with membership in many distinguished societies. In 1904 he was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts of Eng- land. In 1909 he was elected a fellow of the North British Academy. In addition to these he holds membership in the Trans-Atlantic So- ciety, the National Civic League, the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, the Geographic Society and other similar bodies.
The work of the ministry and his work as an author did not give his restless spirit sufficient vent for all its activities, and he turned to the field of invention. In 1904 he invented the automatic thought re-
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corder ; in 1907, an improved passenger car ; in 1909, a trolley device : in 1908, a safety aeroplane; and in 1909, a roof-cooling device; also a shoe-polishing machine and other inventions either completed or under way. A majority of these have been patented.
Doctor Crawford-Frost gives credit to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason for the first strong impulse to struggle for the prizes in life. The reading of this great work was an inspiration to him, and in his reading, which has taken an immense range, he has always been par- tial to the philosophy of Kant and Hegel. Following these, scientific study, especially astronomy and chemistry, with history and biography. have made up his preferred lines of reading. 1
In speaking of the various forees which have contributed to the . shaping of his life, while he does not minimize any of the influence: which ordinarily control men, he thinks that he was moved partly by his own internal ambition and partly by the encouragement received from his grandfather Crawford, by whom he was educated.
Doctor Crawford-Frost, in political matters, classes himself as a Democrat, but neither his environment nor tastes have ever carried him into active political warfare.
Trained in a gymnasium as a boy, he has always been partial to every form of active sport, such as golf, cricket, lacrosse, boxing, fenc- ing, fishing, swimming and shooting.
Concerning how best to train the youth of the country to equip them for the winning of true success and the maintaining of sound ideals, he lays down the proposition that beauty, goodness and truth are equal ; that it is as much one's duty to try to be beautiful as to be good ; but it should be remembered that even beauty and goodness are not perfect without intelligence. We should teach the young to live use- fully, intelligently and beautifully, and not to be satisfied with any- thing less than living up to all three of these ideals.
On August 28, 1889, Doctor Crawford-Frost married Miss Dama- ris Constance, daughter of John Ings, of Charlottetown, Prince Ed- ward Island, Canada. Of this marriage three children have been born, of whom two are living.
JOHN PERRY AMMIDON
T HE late John P. Ammiden, of Baltimore, who, during his life, was one of the prominent men in the business circles of that city, though a native of Massachusetts, where his family had been settled for generations, was a descendant of Huguenot and Irish stock. Mr. Ammidon was born in the town of Southbridge, Massachu- setts, on July 24, 1829, son of Jonathan Perry and Sarah Rosebrook ( Moore) Ammidon. His father was by occupation a farmer, sober, industrious, and much esteemed in his community as a man of fine personal character. Young Ammidon had the advantages of New Eng- land village education, which, in the past generations, has produced in our country some of its most valuable citizens. Upon the sterile soil of New England few farmers grew rich, but their thrift and industry enabled them to give to their children a certain measure of educational advantages, which was with them always a first consideration. After the ordinary attendance upon village schools, John P. Ammidon entered the Lowell High School and graduated therefrom in 1847, at the age of eighteen. Confronted with the problems of life, he decided to enter upon mercantile pursuits, and became a clerk in a mercantile concern in the city of Lowell.
In June, 1851, Mr. Ammidon married Miss Sarah E. Crombie, who was of Scotch descent. Of this marriage four children were born, of whom Daniel C. Ammidon, of Baltimore, is now the only survivor.
In 1860 Mr. Ammidon moved to Baltimore and first engaged in selling kerosene oil and lamps. Later on, he engaged in tin-manufac- turing, in which he established a successful business. This business, now conducted as a corporation under the style of Ammidon & Com- pany, Inc., has now behind it a successful record of forty years and is under the management of his son, Daniel C. Ammidon.
John P. Ammidon was a man of very strong character and all his traits were strongly marked. During his life he was identified with practically every philanthropic enterprise in Baltimore, and his strict integrity was known of all men. His devotion to his family was never- failing; a devout Presbyterian, his loyalty to his religious convictions
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JOHN PERRY AMMIDON
were such and his unstinted service was so freely given that in time he became recognized as the foremost layman in the Presbyterian circles of the city. IIe was president of the Presbyterian Association, pres !- dent of the Maryland Tract Society, vice-president of the Maryland Bible Society, vice-president of the Presbyterian Eye and Ear Hospital, and in every move made by the church in Baltimore his counsel and his co-operation were sought. He served efficiently as a director in the People's Bank. A life-long adherent of the Republican party as a matter of conviction, he took only that part in political affairs which every good citizen should, and was in no sense an extreme partisan.
On the paternal side he was descended from Roger Ammidoun (as the name was then spelled), who came from Europe and settled in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1637. This Roger Ammidoun was of French Huguenot stock and is believed to have come from Holland, many of the Huguenots having refugeed from France to Holland about 1600. On the maternal side, Mr. Ammidon was descended from the Irish Moores, a most brilliant family which has given to the world a great poet in Thomas Moore, and which has long stood in the front rank of Irish families, the head of the family at the present time being the Marquess of Drogheda.
Mr. Ammidon, after a long life of usefulness and good citizenship, died on September 4, 1906, leaving a reputation for stainless integrity and practical philanthrophy that should be a source of pride to his descendants.
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DANIEL CLARK AMMIDON
1 HE American people are composite. England, Ireland, Scot- land, France, Germany, Scandinavia and the south of Europe have all contributed their share to the making of this wonder- ful people that we call American. Of the many strains of blood that have entered into our national make-up the most forceful, numbers considered, was the French Huguenot. These Huguenots, for the sake of their religion, gave up everything which men hold dear, and it is a wonderful testimony to the virility of their character that their de- scendants, down to the eighth and ninth generations, show the same characteristics which made of their courageous ancestors such a notable people.
To get a clear understanding of these Huguenots, one wants to read French history, where it will be found that they never spoke of their religion as the reformed or the protestant, but as "The re- ligion." From this one gets a clear idea of what it meant to them. Of this stock, combined with sturdy Scotch blood, comes Daniel Clark Ammidon, a prominent merchant of Baltimore.
Mr. Ammidon was born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, on January 28, 1857, son of John Perry and Sarah E. (Crombie) Ammidon. His mother was of Scotch ancestry, and his father was a lineal descendant of Roger Ammidoun (as the name was then spelled), who settled in Salem, Massachusetts, some time prior to 1637. This Roger Ammi- doun was married twice, and his first wife's given name was Sarah. As the name is not found in England, the probabilities are that he eame direet from Holland to Massachusetts.
Roger Ammidoun's descendants did not increase in numbers to the extent that some other of the Puritan families did, but in 1790 they had grown to twenty-nine families, all of which were settled in New England, twenty in Massachusetts, five in Connecticut, two in Ver- mont and two in New Hampshire. As an evidence of the indifference of our ancestors to the spelling, even of their own names, it is worth while to know the various spellings found in these twenty-nine families,
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DANIEL CLARK AMMIDON
which are: Ammidown, Amadown, Amedown, Amesdown, Amidon, Ammedoun, Ammedown, Ammidon and Ammidoun, which last was the original spelling.
In the present generation we find Edward Holmes Ammidown, born in Southbridge, Massachusetts, in 1830, who was a few years ago one of the business leaders of Seattle, while Charles Fremont Amidon is United States Judge of North Dakota, and Holmes Amidon, a merchant of New York City, has written a history of the town of Southbridge. John Perry Ammidon, the father of Daniel C., was born at South- bridge, Massachusetts, the old home of the family, on July 24, 1829, son of Jonathan Perry and Sarah Rosebrook ( Moore) Ammidon. Jonathan Perry's wife was of Irish descent. Jonathan P. Ammidon was a farmer, who died before his son was sixteen, and the youth was compelled to struggle for an education, but he finally succeeded in going through the Lowell High School, from which he graduated in 1847, then a youth of eighteen. His biography, which appears else- where in this work, shows that he became a most useful and successful man.
Coming from such an ancestry, one is not surprised to find Daniel C. Ammidon the man he is. His father's success in business gave to young Ammidon better educational advantages than had been enjoyed by the father. He was prepared at Doctor Pingry's Preparatory School at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and entered Princeton College in the class of 1879, but did not complete the course. He made an experi- mental venture into business for one year in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and then entered his father's office in 1879. From that time to the present his principal business interest has been as a partner in Ammi- don & Co., and later as Ammidon & Co., Incorporated.
Mr. Ammidon has shown the same business qualifications that made his father a successful business man, and is now recognized as one of the substantial business men of Baltimore, enjoying the full confidence and esteem of all who know him. He is a director in the Maryland National Bank and United States Fidelity and Deposit Com- pany, vice-president of the Hopkins Place Savings Bank, trustee of the McDonogh School for Boys, director of the Board of Trade, and direc- tor of the Merchants and Manufacturers' Association.
He is a member of Brown Memorial Presbyterian church. Mr. Ammidon has been twice married : On November, 1885, to Miss Julia A. Bevan of Baltimore. She died, leaving him one daughter; and in
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DANIEL CLARK AMMIDON
October, 1902, he married Miss Estelle J. Hoyt, of Stamford, Connec- ticut, of which marriage there are two children, one girl and one boy.
Mr. Ammidon is, in himself, an illustration of the various strains of blood which have entered into our life. His father was of French origin, his mother of Scotch, his paternal grandmother of Irish. Loyal to the traditions of his ancestors, useful in business, in philanthropic and in religious circles, he is a type of the good citizens in whom America is rich, despite the cry of the pessimist, and who will in future years, by reason of their strength of character, place this republic upon the sure foundations of justice and equity.
Mr. Ammidon is a director of the Presbyterian Association and of the Presbyterian Eye and Ear Hospital. He is treasurer of the Nursery and Child's Hospital, and a member of the Maryland Club.
JAMES HOUSTON ECCLESTON
T HE thoughtful patriots of the present generation are beginning to realize that our ancestors, great and good men as they were, in their anxiety to divorce church and state, left the American people under the impression that religion ought not to enter into the public life of the people. This we now know to be a tremendous error, and, indeed, a fundamental one. Under no other form of government is a sound religion so absolutely essential as in a democracy. If history teaches anything, it teaches conclusively that an irreligious democracy eannot stand. If this republic is to endure, it must endure as a Chris- tian democracy. It is not meant by this that church and state need be joined officially, but it is meant that Christian ethics must be applied to the conduct of all public affairs, and that Christian ethies must be recognized openly as the basis upon which all our public acts are founded. We have catered far too much to the non-Christian element in our country.
Thoughtful men, again, are recognizing what had been lost sight , of for a time, that ministers of the Gospel, by preserving and propa- gating a sound faith, by enduring hardships in order to do that, have been amongst our most useful public servants.
Ranking high in this most valuable class of our citizenship is the Reverend Doctor James Houston Eccleston, rector of Emmanuel Prot- estant Episcopal church, of Baltimore. Doctor Eceleston is a native of Maryland, born in Chestertown, Kent county, May 10, 1837. His father, John Bowers Eceleston, was a eireuit judge, and later on a judge of the court of appeals. His mother's maiden name was Augusta Chambers Houston. On the paternal side, Doctor Eceleston comes from two ancient English families-Eccleston and Bowers. Both the Eccleston and Bowers families, from which Doetor Eceleston comes. were located in Kent county, England, before the migration to America, and both were possessors of ancient coats of arms, which indi- cates that they have for generations been people of standing in the old country. His mother's family, the Houstons, are purely Scotch, and have given name to a parish in that country. They were eminent in
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Scotland and have been more so in America. In the Revolutionary struggle, John Houston, of Georgia, was one of the sternest and strong- est patriots of that period, and in a later day the celebrated Sam Hous- ton, of Texas, made a world-wide reputation as a strong soldier, a wise legislator and a devoted patriot. All of these belong to the original Scotch family.
Doctor Eccleston's boyhood was passed in a village, where he attended the local schools and, best of all, received careful instruction in his home, especially from his mother, whose influence was so strong in shaping his life that it has abided with him even to this day, when he himself has passed the Biblical limit of three score and ten. From the grammar schools he became a student at Washington College, Ches- tertown, and later went to Princeton University and was graduated with the degree of A.B. in the class of 1856. After graduation he read law and was admitted to the bar. He began practice near Baltimore in 1861, but within a year he decided that the call of duty pointed to the Christian ministry. He entered upon a course of theological study in 1862, was ordained a deacon in the church in 1865, and priest in 1866.
The best evidence of the character and quality of his work may be gathered from the fact that he has served but few churches. He was rector of St. Matthews, Philadelphia, from 1866 to 1870; of the Church of the Savior, Philadelphia, from 1871 to 1876; of Trinity church, Newark,' New Jersey, from 1877 to 1884; and since the last-named date has been rector of Emmanuel church, Baltimore.
On January 11, 1887, Doctor Eccleston married Miss Helen McLeod Whittridge.
His favorite form of exercise is horseback riding. During his summer vacations he is fond of camping in the woods or mountains.
To young people starting out on the journey of life, he gives in a sentence a code which will make strong and true men and good women. His own words cannot be improved on when he says : "Be honest, first with yourself, then with others; and most of all be honest and sincere with your Maker and Savior."
He has reached a ripe age. For more than forty years he has preached the Gospel and lived by its precepts. He is both a wise and a strong man. Surely the experience of such a man should be worth something; and when now in his later years, with this vast experience behind him, he is stronger than ever in the faith, and is more than
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ever impressed with its sufficiency for all the emergencies of life, it is worth while for those who are just taking up the serious work of living as men and women to profit by the observation, the experience and the judgment of this long-tried soldier of the Cross.
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JAMES ALBERT GARY
T HE HONORABLE JAMES ALBERT GARY, of Baltimore, has long been a prominent figare in Maryland. Mr. Gary was born in Uncasville, Connecticut, October 22, 1833, son of James Sullivan and Pamelia (Forrest) Gary, grandson of John Gary and great-grandson of John Gary, the emigrant who came from Lan- cashire, England, in 1:12, and settled in New Hampshire. James S. Gary, the father of the subject of this sketch was a notable man of his generation. He was born in Massachusetts in 1808, and learned the business of cotton manufacturer in the mills of his native town of Medway, and in 1831 married Pamelia, daughter of Deacon Ebenezer Forrest, Foxbury, Massachusetts, and, having by rigid economy saved a small capital, moved to Mansfield, Connecticut, where he became partner in a cotton factory. The venture was a disastrous one; the failure of the agent of the factory cost him his entire investment. He then engaged with the Lonsdale Manufacturing Company in Rhode Island, and in 1838 removed to Maryland, taking charge of a depart- ment of the Patuxent Manufacturing Company, at Laurel. In 1844, with three others, he established the Ashland Manufacturing Company, of which he had the entire charge, and operated it successfully for ten years. At the same time he had the supervision of the Patuxent Com- pany's mill. About 1853, with a partner, he established the Alberton Manufacturing Company, at Elysville. This company got into difficul- ties during the panic in 1857, and a new organization was effected under the name of Sagonan Manufacturing Company. In 1859 Mr. Gary discovered that his associate, who looked after the finances, had allowed the company to become involved. Mr. Gary at once took over the sole ownership and assumed all the indebtedness, though the credit- ors, sympathizing with him, offered a liberal compromise which he declined to accept. He paid the indebtedness in full in one-half the time that he had asked. In the meantime James A. Gary had arrived at manhood, and in 1861 the well-known firm of James S. Gary & Son was organized, consisting of James Sullivan and James Albert Gary.
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From that time forward the name of Gary has towered up in the cotton manufacturing world as a synonym for probity, ability and successful management. In 1863 a branch house was established in St. Louis under the name of James S. Gary & Company. In 1866 the plant at Alberton was damaged by flood, and in 1868 yet more heavily damaged, the loss by that flood amounting to $150,000.
In 1870 James S. Gary passed away, leaving an able successor in the son, who continued the business without change of firm name and maintained in every respect the high prestige which for so many years had made the firm leaders in the cotton business.
James S. Gary was an old-line Whig, and the son, James A. Gary. growing up under that sort of influence, and himself an earnest student of political conditions, gravitated, as did so many men of Whig pro- clivities, into the Republican party. The Republican party was not popular in Maryland in that early period, and it took considerable courage for a man of any prominence to advocate its cause. In 1858 he was nominated for the State Senate and defeated. In January, 1861, he was a delegate to the Union convention held at the Maryland Institute. In 18:2 he was a delegate to the Republican National Con- vention, which nominated Grant. In the face of certain defeat he accepted the nomination for Congress as a Republican. In 1876 he was again a delegate to the national convention, and in 1879 was nomi- nated by his party for the governorship. By that time he had become . a leader of his party in Maryland, and his continual attendance at national conventions had given him more than a state-wide reputation. He was prominent in every national convention up to 1896, and did very effective work in the campaigns when President Harrison was nominated. When President Mckinley was elected in 1896, he nomi- nated Mr. Gary to be his Postmaster-General, which nomination was confirmed by the Senate on March 5, 1897. He served but little more than one year, and on April 21, 1898, resigned on account of illness. His year of service as Postmaster-General was chracterized by the same fidelity and ability which have controlled him through life, and he left office much to the regret of his Chief and his associates in the Cabinet, who had found him a most congenial and capable official.
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