USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland biographies of leading men in the state, Volume I > Part 10
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In the same year that Mr. Harris began his professional career he was-married to Miss Alice Patterson, daughter of Henry Patterson, a son of William Patterson of Baltimore. The Harris family con- sists of four children in addition to the parents: three sons and one daughter. The family attends the First Presbyterian Church, of which Mr. Harris is a trustee.
Mr. Harris belongs to a number of clubs and societies, among others to the Society of the Cincinnati, the Sons of the Revolution, the Maryland Historical Society, the University Club, and to the Bar Associations of Baltimore and of the State of Maryland. He is assist- ant general secretary of the Sons of the Revolution and a vice-president of the Maryland Historical Society. In politics he has always been a Republican, though his labors in his party's behalf have usually been performed in a quiet and unostentatious way. On December 26, 1904, President Roosevelt appointed him postmaster of Baltimore City. His minute care in administrative matters, his unfailing courtesy, his remarkable tact and address, and his excellent ability and culture admirably fit him for this position.
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Yours faithfully
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JOHN COHNHEIM HEMMETER
H EMMETER, JOHN COHNHEIM. In a city renowned for its physicians and surgeons, Dr. John C. Hemmeter of Baltimore has attained a position of peculiar distinction in the medical profession. In the practice of his calling he has built up for himself an international reputation that wins for him, from all sections of the country, patients who desire the treatment in which he has specialized.
His practice is limited to diseases of the digestive organs- stomach, liver, intestines and diseases of metabolism, obesity, dia- betes, gout, etc. As an instructor he has won distinction in the lec- ture-room and physiologic laboratory, and in the administration of educational institutions. Dr. Hemmeter's lectures at the Univer- sity of Maryland have been attended by a large portion of the younger physicians and surgeons of the city of Baltimore, and by hosts of men who are engaged in the medical profession elsewhere. While engaged in teaching the truths which have already become estab- lished in physiology and medicine, he has also devoted considerable time to research work; and in the recording of his discoveries his pen has found constant and valuable employment.
John C. Hemmeter was born in Baltimore on April 25, 1S63. His father, John Hemmeter, was for many years general emigrant agent of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He was born in Germany, from which country he emigrated to America in 1850; and he was a descendant of George Michael Hemmeter, an architect of renown, who was a Royal Landrath, Horath and Magistratsrath, in Munich, Bavaria. The ancestry of the Hemmeter family of Munich is traced back to the history of Greece; the name is undoubtedly of Greek origin. The father of Dr. Hemmeter was one of the founders and directors of the German Orphan Asylum and of the German Aged People's Home of Baltimore.
Dr. Hemmeter spent his youth in Baltimore, giving much atten- tion during his early years to music and to nature study. At the public schools of Baltimore, including the Baltimore City College,
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he received his early training. He also studied for six years at the Königliches Gymnasium at Wiesbaden. After completing his aca- demic studies, he entered the University of Maryland, from which he was graduated with the degree of M.D. in 1884. In his young man- hood, he had come under the influence of such works as Tyndall's "Fragments of Science," and the "Reign of Law" by the Duke of Argyle. After completing his course for the degree of doctor of medicine, he pursued certain philosophical studies, and in 1890 the degree of doctor of philosophy was conferred upon him by the Johns Hopkins University. He also did considerable post-graduate work in physiology at the University of Berlin under Du Bois Reymond, and in chemistry at the Fresenius Laboratory at Wiesbaden.
Dr. Hemmeter began his professional career in 1884, when he was appointed physician in charge of the Bayview Asylum, Balti- more. Since that time he has filled a number of important positions, having been at various times consulting physician, clinician, and physiologist at the University of Maryland. He is consultant to several hospitals, including that attached to his alma mater, and since 1903 he has been professor of physiology and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland. It was through Dr. Hemmeter's efforts that sufficient funds were raised to construct and equip the clinical and physiological laboratory at the hospital of the University; and Dr. Hemmeter also serves as one of the regents of this institution.
Dr. Hemmeter's clinical and experimental researches in dis- eases of the digestive organs have made his name familiar throughout the medical world; and numerous papers by him on this subject have _ been published in American, French, and German medical and scien- tific journals. Among his important contributions to medicine are those relating to the pathologic histology of gastric hyperacidity, and the causation of cancer of the stomach and the intestines.
In May, 1907, he announced his discovery of a hitherto unknown internal secretion of the salivary glands. The only secretion of the salivary glands theretofore known, was the saliva. But Hemmeter's new "Salivary Secretin" does not pass through the salivary ducts but into the blood circulation; and its function is to stimulate the secretion of gastric juice. Excision of the salivary glands in dogs causes loss of secretion of gastric juice eventually; and extract made from salivary glands when injected into the circulation brings about
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a temporary restoration of secretion of gastric juice. (Publ. i. Proc. Soc. F. Ex. Biol. and Med., 1907, N. Y.) Also in "Science," October 11, 1907, p. 473.
He has published many valuable works, among others: "The Organic Diseases of the Stomach," "Diseases of the Intestines" (2 volumes), "The Physiological Effects of Ergot and its Clinical Applications," "A History of the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood" (Johns Hopkins University Bulletin for May, 1905), besides numerous contributions to medical journals in Europe and America; "The Scientific, Poetic and Literary Activity of Albrecht Von Haller" (Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, 1907), "The Physi- ologic Effects of Ethylic Alcohol." In 1902-1903, Wilbur F. Skillman, M.D., and Charles C. Coaser, M.D., compiled all of Dr. Hemmeter's special publications, apart from the above larger works, in one vol- ume, entitled "Experimental and Clinical Contributions to the Science of Medicine, by J. C. Hemmeter."
Dr. Hemmeter has been president of the American Gastro-entero- logical Association, of the Medical Journalist Club of Baltimore, of the University of Maryland Medical Association, and other scientific organizations. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Honorary Fellow of several State Medical Societies; associate editor of "Archiv für Verdaungskrankheiten," and of the "Archiv für Klinische Medizin of Berlin; and correspond- ing member of Königl: Kaiserl: Gesellsch. Oestreichischer Aerzte, member of the König Kais. Gesellschaft f. innere Medizin u. Kinder- heilkunde, Vienna, and of the Congress für Innere Medizin, Germany.
On January 18, 1893, Dr. Hemmeter was married to Helene Emelia Hilgenberg of Baltimore. He is a communicant of Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church. He is a member of the University Club, the Johns Hopkins, and the Germania Clubs of Baltimore, and also belongs to the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland Uni- versity, the Johns Hopkins Medical Society, and the Baltimore Med- ical Journal Club. The Board of Governors of St. John's College, Annapolis, in 1895, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doc- tor of Laws. A life-size portrait painted by the Baltimore artist, Louis Dietrich, was recently presented to Dr. Hemmeter by his asso- ciates and former post-graduate pupils. There were 100 subscribers to the portrait fund.
The diversion of Dr. Hemmeter's busy life is music. He has
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devoted much time to the study of theory and harmony, and has written compositions for the piano and voice, as well as for full orchestra and mixed chorus. His cantata, " Hygeia," for full orches- tra and male chorus, was first produced in Baltimore at a convention of the American Medical Association in 1896, and since then has been rendered in many cities of this country. He has also composed a musical setting for the Twenty-third Psalm for full orchestra and chorus. He studied the theory of music under Professor Jahn, Director of the Imperial Opera at Wiesbaden, and later of Vienna, and he has appeared in the role of contributor to the literature of music with a biography of Theodore Billroth, and a translation into English of this author's work on the "Psychology of Music," and in a number of articles in German musical journals and in the "Musical Courier" of New York.
In 1904 Dr. Erdman Brandt, and Dr. Carl N. Brandt, of New York, dedicated their work on "Topographic and Physiologic Anatomy" which contains many valuable illustrations, to Prof. J. C. Hemmeter. He was also appointed president of the Centennial Cele- bration of the University of Maryland, which was held from May 30 to June 2, 1907. His works on diseases of the stomach and on diseases of the intestines have been translated into German.
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JAMES BARNES HENDERSON
H ENDERSON, JAMES BARNES, Associate Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Maryland, was born in the village of Neelsville, Montgomery county, Maryland, March 23, 1845. His parents were James S. H. and Rosanna J. (Neel) Hender- His father was a Presbyterian clergyman, a man of impulsive nature but of fine mind, with firm convictions and pronounced opinions. The mother, who was a daughter of one of the founders of the village in which both she and the subject of this sketch were born, was a woman of excellent endowments of mind and heart. The earliest known ancestors of the family in America were of Scotch- Irish blood. They emigrated from the north of Ireland and settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, before the War of the Revolu- tion. On the maternal side his great-grandfather served in the Continental Army, in which he attained the rank of major.
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The early years of the life of James Barnes Henderson were passed in the small village in which he was born. His health was good, and, with the exception of a strong desire to read the lives of great men, especially the biography of Napoleon Bonaparte his favorite book, his tastes and interests were those of the average village boy of his time and locality.
When they were in session he was a constant attendant at the public schools, but, in order that he might be led to form habits of industry and economy, he was kept regularly employed during his vacations. From the public schools he went to an academy in Pennsylvania, where he remained for about five years, after which, he completed his education as far as public institutions are concerned, at a normal school in the same State.
He commenced the active work of life when only seventeen years of age, as teacher of a public school in Pennsylvania. Later he removed to Maryland, where he taught school for three years, and, while engaged in teaching, also studied law.
In 1868 he was admitted to the bar and at once commenced active practice. Hard work and careful attention to the interests
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of his clients made him widely and favorably known to the public and gave him an honorable rank in his profession. In 1879, on the occurrence of a vacancy in that office, he was appointed State's Attorney for Maryland. Later in the year he was elected to this office; and he was reelected in 1883. In January, 1895, he was appointed Associate Judge of the sixth judicial circuit of Maryland, and in the following November he was elected to this high position for the full constitutional term of fifteen years. Among other posi- tions of honor and influence which have been held by Judge Hender- son, may be named those of director of the Montgomery County National Bank; trustee and treasurer of the Rockville Academy; and trustee of the Rockville Presbyterian Church.
Judge Henderson was married, August 11, 1870, to Clara S. Anderson, of Rockville, Maryland. They have had eight children, of whom seven were living in 1905.
Believing that a judicial position should be a bar to political activity, either as regards parties or factions, Judge Henderson has not, in recent years, been active in politics, though from his earliest political life he has been identified with the Democratic party. His religious affiliations are with the Presbyterian Church. He has never given special attention to athletics, or adopted any system of phys- ical culture; but he finds both pleasant relaxation and healthful exercise in walking.
In the choice of a profession, Judge Henderson followed his own inclination, with which, however, his parents were in full sympathy. His esteem for his father and his deep and lasting affection for his mother, have exerted a strong influence upon his life and have helped him greatly in his efforts to win success.
He is a man of courteous manners, genial disposition, and kindly heart. In the large circle of his acquaintances he is universally respected as a citizen, while as a jurist he is highly honored by the bar and the general public. By virtue of both character and accom- plishment he takes a high rank among the "Men of Mark in Mary- land." To young men, and especially to those whose educational advantages are limited, his life should be an encouragement and an inspiration.
Judge Henderson resides at Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland.
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RICHARD CURZON HOFFMAN
H OFFMAN, RICHARD CURZON. Prominent among the names of those who helped to regain for Baltimore her commercial prominence after the Civil War, is that of Rich- ard Curzon Hoffman, whose career is typically that of a business leader fighting the city's battles against Northern capitalists and promoters. Mr. Hoffman had sympathized with the South in her contention upon the question of State Rights, and cast his lot with the Confederate States, serving as a soldier during the entire war. When the Southern Cause became a lost cause, with characteristic courage he returned home and immediately entered the thick of the commercial battle which was then waging against his native city. Mr. Hoffman never for a moment relented in his campaign for the advancement of Baltimore's commercial interests; and from the time of his return after the surrender at Appomattox, to the present day, he has been on the alert to defeat any scheme that would take from the city aught of her importance as a business center.
Richard Curzon Hoffman was born in Baltimore, in the old mansion which stood at No. 1 West Franklin street, on July 13, 1839. His father, Samuel Hoffman, was one of the most prominent mer- chants of his day, distinguished alike for his integrity and good busi- ness judgment, and for his generosity. During the business crisis of 1837, he performed yeoman's service in helping his fellow-merchants, and for his kindness at this time he was afterwards presented with a silver epergne as a testimonial of their gratitude and regard.
The founder of the Hoffman family in America was Jan Peter Hoffman, who emigrated from Germany in 1745, and settled at Rose Gardens, near Frederick City, Maryland; his son, Peter Hoffman, came to Baltimore, where his descendants have lived ever since. Elizabeth Rebecca Becker Curzon Hoffman, the mother of Richard Curzon Hoffman, was the daughter of Richard Curzon, Jr., of the distinguished family of Curzon of Kedleston, England, among whose colonial ancestors were Major General John Hammond, Colonel Nicholas Greenberry, and John Moale.
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Mr. Hoffman's early youth was spent in Baltimore, where he attended the Chestnut Hill and McNally schools, two of the best known educational institutions of the day. In 1856 he decided to follow a mercantile career, and leaving school entered the office of Gilmor Hoffman, a stock broker, where he filled the humble position of office boy. Mr. Hoffman continued in this business until the outbreak of hostilities in 1861. He had always been a sympathizer with the South, and in April, 1861, he went to Richmond, where he was mus- tered into the Confederate service on May 24, as lieutenant of Com- pany B, 21st Virginia Volunteer Infantry, "Stonewall" Jackson's Second Brigade. Afterwards he was promoted to a captaincy, and he was with General Robert E. Lee when the latter surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House, on April 9, 1865.
Mr. Hoffman returned to Baltimore in 1866 and reentered busi- ness life. He founded the firm of Hoffman, Thompson and Company, iron merchants, with D. Bowley Thompson as his partner. Upon the death of Mr. Thompson, he continued the business of which he is still the head, as R. C. Hoffman and Company. This firm is the representative of the Pennsylvania Steel Company, the Maryland Steel Company, the Central Iron and Steel Company, the Pulaski Iron Company, the Reed Island Iron Company, and the Union Mining Company.
In 1883 Mr. Hoffman began his career as a railroad official, becoming vice-president of the constituent companies of the Seaboard Air Line Railway and the Baltimore Steam Packet Company; and on the death of Mr. Robinson, in February 1893, he was made presi- dent. In 1894 the Southern Railroad, J. P. Morgan, and Ryan inter- ests desired to acquire a holding in the Seaboard and Roanoke Rail- road-which was the parent company-and made a bitter attack upon the combination in order to gain control. This move was fol- lowed by one of the hardest fought railroad wars of the century, which was continued until 1896. Mr. Hoffman met the attack at every turn, and each time came out victorious. A truce of two years was finally declared, Mr. Hoffman being permitted to name his own terms; but before the truce had expired the railroad property had so greatly appreciated in value that a sale was made of all the stock of the parent company at a large profit to the holders. In recogni- tion of the valued services of Mr. Hoffman in his efforts to conserve the interests of the stockholders, they presented him with an elab- orate dinner service of silver.
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Thereafter Mr. Hoffman retired from railroad management and resumed his labors in the business to which he had previously given his time and energies. In addition to his supervision of the affairs of the iron merchant business, Mr. Hoffman is connected with many other enterprises. He was a director of the National Farmers and Planters Bank; the Baltimore Trust and Guarantee Company; the Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company; the Old Dominion Steam- ship Company of New York; the Roanoke, Norfolk and Baltimore Steamboat Company; the Reed Island Iron Company; the Foster's Falls Iron Company; the Maryland Steel Company; the Security Fire Insurance Company; the Savings Bank of Baltimore; and a number of other financial and industrial companies but retains a director- ship in only the Savings Bank of Baltimore, and in the Maryland Steel Company in which company he is largely interested.
Mr. Hoffman is a member of the Society of Colonial Wars; the United Confederate Veterans; the Society of the Army of Northern Virginia in Virginia; and the Society of the Maryland Army and Navy of the Confederate States in Maryland. He is president of the Maryland Club, and a member of the Bachelor's Cotillon, the Country Club, the Junior Cotillon, the Maryland Jockey Club, and other clubs.
He married, October 28, 1880, Miss Eliza Lawrence Dallam, the daughter of Edward Boothby Dallam and Henrietta Mactier Dallam. They have six children: Richard Curzon Hoffman, Jr .; Henrietta Mactier Hoffman, Elizabeth Curzon Hoffman, Mary Dorothea Hoffman, Wilmer Hoffman, and Eliza Lawrence Hoffman.
JOHN MIFFLIN HOOD
H OOD, JOHN MIFFLIN. When the active career of John Mifflin Hood, railroad president, was brought to a close in December, 1906, one of the most conservative newspapers of the South said, in an editorial: "Probably no citizen of Baltimore within the memory of men of this generation contributed more largely to the material welfare and prosperity of this city and of the State of Maryland than did John Mifflin Hood."
He was born at Bowling Green, near Sykesville, Maryland, on April 5, 1843. His father, Dr. Benjamin Hood, was a practicing physician who had married Miss Hanna Mifflin Coulter of Baltimore. Their son studied in the elementary schools of Howard and Harford counties, and later entered Rugby's Institute at Mt. Washington, from which he was graduated in 1859. Previous to this, however, he had developed a passion for higher mathematics and engineering, and he sought at once an opportunity to gratify his desire to become an engineer.
At the age of sixteen, he began his career as a railroad man. His first service was with an engineering corps, then constructing a new line for the Delaware Railroad. This corps of builders was sub- sequently engaged to construct portions of the Eastern Shore Rail- road of Maryland, and young Hood continued with it. During the first two years of his work as an engineer, he gave his superiors such evidences of his ability as prompted them to advance him to the posi- tion of assistant engineer.
In August of 1861, determined to try a field with which he was unacquainted, but of which he hoped greater things than he had been able to attain in the somewhat restricted home territory, where he had worked from 1859 to 1861, he went to Brazil. The conditions in South America did not, however, prove as promising as he had anticipated. At about the time when the enthusiastic young engi- neer had become discouraged with the outlook in Brazil, he received news of the struggle between the North and South; and he deter- mined to cast his lot with the Confederate States. Hastening home
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to Baltimore, he soon ran the blockade and placed himself at the service of the Confederacy.
He was at first assigned as topographical engineer and draughts- man to the engineering corps engaged in constructing the road from Danville, Virginia, to Greensboro, North Carolina, now known as the Piedmont Division of the Southern Railway. When the work upon which he had been engaged was completed, preferring to per- form active military duty, he declined a commission in the engineer- ing corps and enlisted as a private in Company C of the 2d Maryland Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia. He served with this company until the spring of 1864. But men of his training were both valuable and scarce in the South, and he consented to return to his original work, receiving a commission as second lieutenant in Company B, 1st regiment of engineering troops. He held this position until the sur- render at Appomattox. He was wounded seven times in various engagements; and at Stanard's Mill, during the Spottsylvania cam- paign, he had his left arm shattered above the elbow. Although at first the surgeons despaired of saving the arm, in course of time the injury was entirely cured.
Returning from the battlefield to his native State, in September of 1865 he was engaged by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Balti- more Railroad to make surveys for the extension of the line of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central between the Susquehanna river and Baltimore. He was next placed in charge of the work of the same company upon the Port Deposit branch; and at the same time, as chief engineer of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad, he constructed the line through Cecil county to the Susquehanna. Sub- sequently he was appointed superintendent as well as chief engineer of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central, and in 1870 he assumed the duties of superintendent of the Florida Railroad, later known as the Atlantic, Gulf, and West India Transit Company. His ser- vices were engaged by the Oxford and York Railroad, a narrow gauge line in Pennsylvania, in November, 1871; while performing the duties of this office, he also served as chief engineer of a projected line which was known as the Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York Railroad, the construction of which was discontinued by the panic of 1873.
Throughout these years Mr. Hood was gaining the experience and the valuable technical knowledge which were to serve him so well in the greatest undertaking of his life, the rehabilitation of the
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Western Maryland Railroad. On the surface of things there appeared little to attract a man of his ability to such a position as the Western Maryland could offer him in 1874; and yet he was drawn to it, because of his affection for his native State and his belief that he could make the road of great value to Maryland. The company of which he soon became president was at that time in a very precarious condition. The road had been fostered by the city of Baltimore; but it seemed destined to exist only as a parasitic enterprise, draining the city's finances and offering no return. Baltimore had become involved in the project from the desire to recover the trade of the Cumberland Valley which centered at Hagerstown and was being diverted to Philadelphia.
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