USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland biographies of leading men in the state, Volume I > Part 20
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Mr. Tyler is a thoughtful speaker and a parliamentarian of high order. He has been connected with the Young Men's Christian Association for twenty years, serving respectively as director, mem- ber of the interstate committee, and chairman of the Central Branch in Baltimore City. He has been a member of the Board of mana- gers of - the Maryland Tract Society for eighteen years. For ten years he was treasurer of the executive board of the Maryland Bap- tist Union Association, and for more than ten years he has been presi- dent of the same organization. He was at one time president of the Baptist Social Union of Baltimore.
In May, 1907, at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is the representative body of all the Baptist churches of the South, he was appointed chairman of the executive committee of the Layman's Missionary Movement for the Baptists of the entire South. This appointment opens great opportunities for usefulness, and Mr. Tyler believes that it marks one of the most important events in his life.
Mr. Tyler was married September 2, 1SS5, to Miss Florence Rochelle Land, of King and Queen County, Virginia; they have had
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four children. His home life is not a matter of secondary importance to him, as it too often is the case with the philanthropic worker. Mr. Tyler spends a large part of each day with his wife and children. and the demands of outside interests are never permitted to inter- rupt his practice of taking all of his meals at the family board. He is a strong advocate of exercise as an adjunct to good health, and spends considerable time each day in the gymnasium. Mr. Tyler has always been fond of out-of-door sports, though in recent years his opportu- nity to indulge in such exercise has been much curtailed.
One who has been intimately associated with him in much of his religious work, on one occasion remarked: "In his office, he is on duty; in his home, he is at home; in the sanctuary, his cry is: 'Speak Lord, for Thy servant heareth.' His name should be written among the names of those who love the Lord, and, like Abou Ben Adhem. he should also be written down 'as one that loves his fellow men.' "
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Sincerely yours. gamassi Van Sielle
JAMES HIXON VAN SICKLE
AMES HIXON VAN SICKLE, since July 1, 1900, Superintend- ent of the Baltimore public schools, was born in South Livonia, Livingston county, New York, on October 24, 1852. His father, John Landis Van Sickle, was a prosperous farmer and grain merchant, who held several positions of honor and trust in his town and county. His mother was a descendant of a member of the Greene family of Revolutionary fame. Like many other well educated women of her day she had been a teacher before her marriage. The progenitor of the Van Sickle family in America was Ferdinandus van Sycklin, who was born in Holland about 1635 and emigrated to America when a lad of seventeen. The early life of James Van Sickle was spent in the country, where his father cultivated a farm just on the edge of a small village. This farm, however, was not far from Rochester, and to that progressive city the boy made occasional visits. The only son,- there were two daughters,- young Van Sickle was thrown to a large extent upon his own resources for amusement and entertainment: for the former, he cultivated a mechanical bent of mind; for the latter, he had access to a small but unusually well selected collection of books in his own home and an endowed library a few miles away. J
He attended the village school, until he was fourteen or fifteen; and regularity and punctuality in attendance were insisted on by his parents. The boy helped on the farm at all sorts of work suited to his strength; and as he grew older, he was relied on to keep the farm machinery in order and to mend most broken things. All this furnished a very real and valuable part of his education.
When seventeen years of age, he entered the Albany (New York) Normal school, from which he was graduated. He took this course as the most feasible way of attaining earning capacity to pursue further studies, and with no definite intention of making teaching his life Work. A liking for the profession, however, came with experience, and after teaching for a few years, he studied for a time at Williams college and then returned to teaching. Subsequently, he removed to the West and completed his college course at the University of Colorado, where he received the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts.
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Mr. Van Sickle began his career as an educator in a distra . school in western New York. Later he was principal of villa ... schools in New Jersey and New York. Then, he became instructor in a college preparatory school, Cook academy, Havana, New York, and next, principal of a city school in Denver, Colorado. From !!... position, he was promoted to the superintendency of the North Sul schools, one of the three districts into which the city of Denver was divided, where he continued until July 1, 1900, when he was invited to accept the superintendency of the Baltimore public schools. Siner 1902, he has been a special lecturer upon School Administration inti .. University of Chicago and at Yale University.
Mr. Van Sickle was married on August 1, 1SS2, to Carolina E. Valentine. They have had four children, two daughters and tw .. sons. Mr. Van Sickle is a Presbyterian in religious affiliation. 11 .. is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the University Club of Baltimore, the National Educational Association, the Society for the. Scientific Study of Education, and is one of the sixty members of the National Council of Education. In 1904, he was chosen pre-i- dent of the Department of Superintendence in the Southern Edu- cational Association, and president of the History Teachers' Associa- tion of the Middle States and Maryland. He has written articles for educational journals and for the proceedings of educational associations.
Under Mr. Van Sickle's superintendency, the public schools of Baltimore have been reorganized and a merit system of appointment and promotion of teachers has been adhered to. Supported by an exceptionally able school board, his administration has been a period of marked advance in the Baltimore public schools.
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Per Mt. Vernon
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GEORGE WASHINGTON FAYETTE VERNON
V ERNON, GEORGE WASHINGTON FAYETTE, real estate broker and attorney-at-law, born at Frederick city on June 14, 1843, was the son of Nathaniel and Charlotte A. Vernon. His father, a man methodic in his habits and temperate in all things, began life as a lawyer in Pennsylvania and later served for forty years as professor of mathematics in Frederick college. He was also a soldier in the War of 1812 and a school inspector in Frederick county. The emigrant ancestor was Thomas Vernon, who came to Philadel- phia in 1682 and soon settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Thomas Vernon, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
George W. F. Vernon spent his youth in Frederick attending Frederick college, an old country academy, reading works on history and geography and the lives of successful men, working at gardening and fruit culture in spare hours. An ambitious boy, he was fond of organizing his classmates into military and fire companies, theatrical and debating societies and football teams. He studied law in the office of one of the Frederick bar until the Civil War broke out. When he was but eighteen years of age he enlisted on August 10, 1861, as second lieutenant in Cole's cavalry, Maryland volunteers. He served throughout the whole war and was mustered out on June 2S, 1865, having been successively promoted to the positions of first lieutenant, captain, major and lieutenant-colonel and having acted as brigadier-general in active field service. He was a brave and dashing cavalry officer and lost an eye from a wound on January 10, 1864, at Loudon Heights, Virginia, in a midnight battle in the snow. In 1896, he was appointed on a commission to prepare the records of Maryland men in the Civil War and was largely responsible for the completeness of the two volumes, in which those records were pub- lished in 1S9S. He also wrote the section on the Military and Naval History of Maryland which appeared in Nelson's "History of Balti-
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more " in 1898. He is a member of the Loyal Legion, of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the G. A. R. club of Maryland, and of the Union Veteran Association of Maryland of which association he served as president in 1888-89. From 1878-83, he was post com- mander of Reynolds Post No. 2, G. A. R .; from 1884 to 1886, he was successively junior vice commander, senior vice commander and department commander G. A. R. Department of Maryland, and from 1900 to 1904, he was a member of the Board of Governors of Wilson Post No. 1. G. A. R. of the G. A. R. club ..
Colonel Vernon affiliates with the Protestant Episcopal church. He is regular in exercise and habits, temperate in all things and finds health and recreation in walking, horseback riding, bicy- cling and exercise with Indian clubs. He is a frequent attender of theaters, lectures and card parties. Especially does he enjoy travel- ing both at home and abroad, and his letters describing his trips, have been enjoyed by many who have read them in the columns of the Baltimore newspapers.
Colonel Vernon was married to Sarah A. Todd, in San Francisco, on August 18, 1873, and they have had five children, of whom three are now living. After the war, he settled in Frederick and engaged in farming and in the brokerage business. He was postmaster of Frederick from 1867 to 1869 and special agent of the United States treasury department from 1869-77, and, in that capacity traveled over the United States, spending three years on the Pacific Slope and in his official capacity was dispatched to South and Central America. From 1878-82, he was surveyor of customs of the Port of Baltimore, since which latter date, he has resided in Baltimore and has given his attention to legal cases, pending in the United States Court of Claims, and before special commissions, especially those adjudicating the Alabama Claims.
His influence in the departments at Washington and before the congressional committees is known and respected. He has also been interested in loan companies and in real estate operations. From 1885 to 1903 he was a special attorney for the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company of Baltimore and he is much "interested in the upbuilding of an American Steam Mercantile Marine." Colonel Vernon has always been an ardent Republican. He is a member of the Maryland Historical Society and of the Ameri- can Forestry Association. Life has taught him perseverance and
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pareav. that one should never despair, that where nothing is risked often nothing is gained, that patriotism, the performance of one's duty to find and country, the pursuit of physical and mental culture, & determination to succeed in the battle of life by all honorable means, and faith in one's self will inspire confidence in others, and insure a following and help when needed.
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JAMES RUSSELL WHEELER
HEELER, JAMES RUSSELL, banker and philanthropist, was born at Cheltenham, Oxfordshire, England, May 21, 1843, and came to America when three years old. His father, James Wheeler, was a merchant, whose chief characteristics were honesty and sobriety. His son developed under circumstances that were altogether favorable to the molding of a kindly disposition. He enjoyed good health, was fond of all kinds of sports, and had ample opportunities for the acquirement of a liberal education. His time was divided between the city and the country, and he studied both at the public schools of Baltimore and at private institutions.
When a boy of eighteen, James R. Wheeler enlisted in the Con- federate Army and served throughout the war. He began his busi- ness career as a contractor in Baltimore, in the year 1865. Later he became manager of the Maryland White Lead Company, con- tinuing in this position for twenty-one years, from 1870 to 1891. He severed his connection with this concern to become manager of the Maryland Veneer Company.
In 1894 Mr. Wheeler organized the Commonwealth Bank, of which institution he was elected president, an office which he still fills. The success that has attended Mr. Wheeler's management of this banking house attests his unusual ability both as organizer and financier. Venturing into a section of the city which had not before supported a bank, he created for it a large and useful field. After the su cess of the enterprise had become assured, Mr. Wheeler con- tinued unceasingly his labors for its improvement and expansion. The bank structure, originally more than ample for its requirements, soon was crowded with the increased business, and it was enlarged so that today it is one of the best appointed banking establishments in Baltimore. With this increase in business there has also been an increase in capital, and the original capital has recently been doubled.
From his earliest years Mr. Wheeler has been an active laborer in the charitable work of the Roman Catholic Church. His business success in late years has added to his means for carrying on the good
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JAMES RUSSELL WHEELER
work in which he was engaged, and for this reason his commercial career has been followed with unusual interest by those who are best acquainted with the charitable acts of the man. Mr. Wheeler is not of that class of philanthropists, who, though willing to contribute money for alleviating the ills of the poor, are unwilling to come in contact with those whom they aid. He has always personally dis- tributed his charities. He is known to the inmates of the Catholic orphan asylums as well as to the students of the Catholic seminaries; and both his purse and his presence are dedicated to the service of his church.
Next to his church, the field of charitable work which has most enlisted his enthusiasm, is the home at Pikesville, Maryland, where live poor and disabled survivors of the Maryland Line in the Confederate Army. Mr. Wheeler was a member of the Confederate Army (in which he reached the rank of general), from 1861 until Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox; and since that day his heart has been open to all who wore the gray, and he has labored as has perhaps no other man in Maryland, to supply the wants of the veterans who are gathered in the Maryland Line Confederate Home.
As a helping friend of his old fellow-soldiers in the Confederate Army, and especially as the patron of all Catholic movements, Mr. Wheeler will deservedly have a prominent place in the annals of Maryland.
He has been a valuable man to the Democratic party of his city and state; but in that service he has been only one of many laborers. In his philanthropic work, however, he has occupied a unique posi- tion. Unmarried and without family responsibilities, he has given freely of his time and money to others He has expressed the con- viction that the chief usefulness of his life has been in his willingness and his power to devote himself to the welfare of others. Standing closer to Cardinal Gibbons, perhaps, than any other layman, he has had ample opportunity to become acquainted with the needs of his denomination, and, through his labors in this connection, he has sometimes been called "the most favorably known Catholic layman in the country."
JERE HUNGERFORD WHEELWRIGHT
ERE HUNGERFORD WHEELWRIGHT, of Baltimore, vice- president and director of the Fairmont Coal Company, the Consolidation Coal Company, the Somerset Coal Company, the Southern Coal and Transportation Company and the Cumber- land and Pennsylvania Railroad; and president and director of the Canal Towage Company, and the Cassville and Monongahela River Railroad, and director of many other important corporations was born at Exeter, Westmoreland county, Virginia, on the 15th of May, 1867. His father, Frederic Dodge Wheelwright, was a physician who had served as surgeon in Company C of the 9th Virginia Cavalry, from 1861 to 1863, and after 1863, as surgeon in hospital work until the close of the Civil War. His mother was Mrs. Eleanor Ann (Hungerford) Wheelwright. The earliest known ancestor of his father in America was Reverend John Wheelwright, who was born in England in 1572, received his degree of Master of Arts at Cambridge University, England, in 1618, and emigrated to Boston. Massachu- setts, and afterward founded the towns of Exeter and Wells, Massa- chusetts. Lieutenant Thomas Hungerford who served in the Revolu- tionary Army during the Revolutionary War was a great great-grand- father.
Jere Hungerford Wheelwright passed his boyhood in the country. Like other healthy boys he was fond of out-of-door sports. Attending the elementary and preparatory schools he was fitted for a course in law, which he pursued at Columbian University (now George Washington University), at Washington, District of Columbia, receiving the degree of LL.B.
On the 19th of February, 1901, he married Miss Eleanor Polk Kalkmann, daughter of C. W. Kalkmann, of Baltimore. They have .I had two children, sons, both of whom are living in 1907.
While Mr. Wheelwright has but just reached the age of forty, he has been very prominently indentified with coal and transporta- tion interests, and through the offices he has held and the work he has done in connection with numerous corporations in this line of business,
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he has come to be identified with many of the other prominent bus- iness enterprises of Baltimore. He is now vice-president and direc- tor of the Fairmont Coal Company, of the Consolidation Coal Com- pany, of the Somerset Coal Company, of the Pittsburg and Fairmont Fuel Company, of the Clarksburg Fuel Company, of the Southern Coal and Transportation Company and of the Cumberland and Pennsyl- vania Railroad. He is also president and director of the following: The Canal Towage Company, the Cassville and Monongahela River Railroad, and the Maryland Construction and Contracting Company. He is a director of the Metropolitan Coal Company and of the North- western Fuel Company. He is a director of the Maryland National Bank, of the J. Spencer Turner Company and of the Bellview Improve- ment Company. He is a director and a member of the Executive Committee of the Continental Trust Company, and of the Consoli- dated Cotton Duck Company.
His address is 10 Madison Street, West Baltimore, Maryland.
CHARLES STONE WIGHT
W IGHT, CHARLES STONE. In few divisions of the commer- cial life of America today is there as keen competition as in the freight departments of the larger railways. Since the principal source of revenue of the transportation companies is their freight rather than their passenger business, they cultivate, and guard with exceeding zeal, the trade which they regard as theirs by right; and they are not above coveting the business of competing lines. When the competition is great, it is but natural that competing com- panies should be especially careful concerning the character of the men whom they employ to represent them in soliciting trade from the public, and in supervising the handling of business obtained. As a result of this competition for men of brains and good judgment. among the transportation lines, there has sprung up in our country a sort of commercial diplomacy which centers about the freight trans- portation of the United States.
The freight agent of a railway does not attain the prominence in the public eye which is given to certain other railway officials. He labors where the limelight seldom plays. But to the railroad presi- dent and the board of directors, the success of the freight agent. and of the manager of the freight traffic department, is a most important factor in the success of the road.
When Mr. Charles Stone Wight, the present manager of freight traffic of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, began his busi- ness career he started in a line of work for which he was especially fitted, and he started life with the belief that sober, industrious habits, with reasonable ambition, would win success. It was not long before the freight clerk began to show results; not only to his immediate employers, but to the heads of competing companies. He soon created a demand for his services, and successive promotions have followed, until he has come to be at the head of the freight depart- ment of one of the great railway systems of America.
Charles Stone Wight was born at Galena, Illinois, on August 9, 1849, the son of Calmes Lee Wight and Jeanne Stone Wight. His father, who practiced law, had been a captain in an Illinois regiment during the war with Mexico. The family is descended from the Mar-
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CHARLES STONE WIGHT
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quis de Calm, a French Huguenot who emigrated to America in the eighteenth century, and from Governor Mumford, of Rhode Island, who with his two brothers took part in the battle of Bunker Hill. The founder of the Baltimore branch of the Wight family came from . South Framingham, Massachusetts, to Philadelphia, where he married Miss Bartholomew, who was descended from a sister of Oliver Cromwell.
His early life was passed in the suburbs of Cincinnati, where he attended the public school at Avondale, near his home, until his eighteenth year. At the close of his school days, in 1866, he began that career in railway service which has continued without interrup- tion for more than forty years. His first position was with the Little Miami Railroad Company, In October he became a messenger; in the month immediately following he was advanced to a clerkship. In October, 1867. Mr. Wight entered the employ of the People's De- spatch as clerk, and on December 15, of the following year he was engaged by the Merchant's Despatch as chief clerk. In April, 1872, he was further advanced to the position of agent of the Merchants' Despatch, and in September, 1877, he became westbound agent of the Continental Line (Baltimore and Ohio Railroad).
In all these connections Mr. Wight was stationed in Cincinnati, where he made his home.
He married on March 28, 1876, Anna Mauthe. They have had six children.
On January 1, 1SSO, he was called to Baltimore, where he was entrusted with the office of assistant general freight agent of the Balti- nore and Ohio Railroad Company. In April, 1SS2, he moved his headquarters to Columbus, Ohio, though he retained the title of assistant general freight agent. On November 15, 1884, Mr. Wight was appointed general freight agent of the Columbus and Cincinnati Midland Railway, though continuing at the same time in his old posi- tion with the Baltimore and Ohio; and his duties were furtherincreased when, on May 1, 1SS4. he was appointed general freight agent of the Pittsburg and Western Railroad. Subsequently Mr." Wight moved to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where on March 15, 1SSS, he opened headquarters in that city as the general freight agent of the Baltimore and Ohio, the Columbus and Cincinnati Midland and the Pittsburg and Western railroad companies. He continued his residence in Pittsburg for eight years, coming back to Baltimore on March 15, 1896, to assume the duties of manager of freight traffic of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which position he still holds.
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FRANCIS ALBERTSON WHITE.
W HITE, FRANCIS ALBERTSON, of Baltimore, a member of the Society of Friends (Orthodox), whose membership has quietly contributed so much of upright business character and sound business principle to the development and progress of the City of Baltimore, was born in Baltimore county, on the fourth of December, 1860.
His father, Francis White, was a capitalist of unblemished reputa- tion and of excellent judgment in financial matters. His mother was Miss Jane E. Janney.
As a boy, Francis Albertson White lived in the country, had excellent health and early became an interested observer and an ardent lover of Nature. The gradually recurrent changes of the seasons; the "green things growing;" the appearance and habits of the plants and animals which his observant eyes noticed in the coun- try life about him-all these things appealed to him in his boyhood and have continued to give him great pleasure in later years. His mother was a woman of high ideals whose moral and spiritual influence has been strong in the life of her son. The circumstances of his early home were such as to give him the best school facilities; but while a boy, he suffered from the temporary loss (for some three years) of the use of his eyes. History and biography early had an especial charm for him; and during his manhood he has found great delight in historical and biographical reading. He attended the school of George G. Carey; and later he spent some time at Dr. Child's schout at Newport, Rhode Island. Here he was prepared for a higher liberal course of study; and entering Haverford College, near Philadelphia, he took the full four years' course and a special degree of Master of Letters.
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