USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland biographies of leading men in the state, Volume I > Part 4
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In 1868 Dr. Baldwin was married to Miss Annie C. Hopkins, daughter of Lambert N. and Mary J. Hopkins of Baltimore. Mrs. Baldwin died in 1872. He was again married to Miss Annie M. Thomas, of Baltimore, daughter of Samuel and Maria Thomas, in 1876. He has one daughter, Miss Maria Baldwin, who is a graduate of Wellesley College.
Dr. Baldwin's work in the ministry has not prevented him from taking part in other efforts for the promotion of education and good citizenship. He became one of the incorporators of the Woman's College of Baltimore in 1885, and has been a trustee of the institu- tion since that date. He is secretary to the board of trustees of the American University, Washington, D.C., which office he has held since 1890, and he has since 1899 been a trustee of the university. He has been president of the board of trustees of the Anne Arundel Academy since 1900. He has been a director of the Mountain Lake Park · Association since 1882, and for nineteen years president of the organi- zation.
In 1901 Dr. Baldwin was a delegate to the third Ecumenical Metho- dist Conference which met in City Road Chapel, London, England. In 1907 the Methodist Episcopal Churches of Baltimore united in an invitation to their General Conference, the governing body of that denomination composed of nearly eight hundred delegates from the United States and Foreign Missions, to hold in Baltimore its twenty- fifth Delegated Quadrennial Session in May, 190S. Dr. Baldwin was appointed chairman of the committee to convey the invitation which was accepted. Later he was chosen chairman of the committee of thirty-five ministers and laymen to arrange for the entertainment of the General Conference.
In politics Dr. Baldwin is a Prohibitionist. He voted the Republican ticket prior to 1884; but believing the traffic in alcoholic liquors to be the most important question before the citizens of the country, he has transferred his allegiance to the party which is pledged to abolish this evil.
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Very Truly yours Sannafrita Balosom ...
SUMMERFIELD BALDWIN
B ALTIMORE'S supremacy as the market of the South was not attained in a day, nor has that supremacy been retained without difficulty during the years since the Monumental City first began to supply much of the material consumed by southern industries, and to dispose of the output of southern manufactories. Away back in the early days of America's prosperity the merchants of Baltimore started to build the commercial fame of the city in the
southern states. The pioneer wholesalers of Baltimore were in a large measure men who had sufficient faith in the South, even when her future seemed most doubtful, to invest every available surplus in southern industries. That these investments eventually brought large returns to the investors did not fully discharge the obligation which the benefited section felt she owed for their earlier faith. By the liberal use of capital they had given her an opportunity to develop along industrial lines. The section crushed and poverty-stricken after the war took courage and began to labor for its own prosperity. The cotton industry, the coal fields, the iron mines opened up countless avenues for advancement, and, with the increased wealth that accompanied such advancement came a strengthening of the ties wnich bound Baltimore and Dixie land.
The names of scores of Baltimore business houses and capital- ists might be mentioned among those who rendered assistance to the South until she could bring herself into a position to be inde- pendent. Hardly any name is more favorably known in this con- nection than that of Summerfield Baldwin, who did great things for the development of the cotton industry, who contributed largely to Baltimore's southern fame as a business metropolis, and who in addition found time to lend a helping hand toward bettering the city of his adoption.
Summerfield Baldwin was born September 16, 1832 at "Bunker Hill," the paternal homestead at Severn Cross Roads, Anne Arundel county, Maryland. His father, the late Judge William Henry Bald- win, had entered the navy as a midshipman at the age of 17, and
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served through the war of 1812-1814, under Commodore Warring- ton on the frigate Peacock. At the close of the second conflict with England, he resigned from the navy and retired to the homeplace, "Bunker Hill," where he lived as a farmer the rest of his life. He was made judge of the Orphans Court and served as county school commissioner. A man of marked candor, rigorous honesty, gentle- ness and piety, he had the courage of his convictions and was always foremost in every effort to promote the material and moral welfare of the neighborhood in which he lived. He was especially active in the work of the church, the school, and the cause of temperance reform.
Judge Baldwin was married to Jane Maria Woodward, daughter of William Garrett Woodward and Jane Garrett; the latter a sister of Amos Garrett, first mayor of Annapolis. Summerfield Baldwin was the seventh child of this marriage. His boyhood was passed in a simple country home, near the Severn river, where the chief influences of his early life were the sterling worth and intelligence of his father, the strong character and common sense of his mother, and the Christian piety of both. The Bible, Pilgrim's Prog- ress, Milton's Paradise Lost, and the works of Shakespeare and Wordsworth, he read. It is perhaps largely to his familiarity with these wells of pure English and his long experience as a member and leader of Methodist meetings, that Mr. Baldwin owes his readiness and excellence as an extempore speaker.
Mr. Baldwin was married, May, 1860, to Fanny Cugle, daughter of John Cugle of Baltimore. To them were born Helen, who died in infancy, William Woodward, Louise (now the wife of Mr. Edward Norris Rich), and Summerfield Baldwin, Jr. In June, 1867, Mrs. Baldwin died. Mr. Baldwin's second wife was Juliet Gambrill Sewell, (to whom he was married in 1870) daughter of John A. Sewell, of Anne Arundel county. They have had seven children of whom Charles Gambrill, Juliet Catherine, Willard Augustine and Dorothy Sewell are now living.
Mr. Baldwin's home is a center of hospitality. He is to his family and friends an example of gentleness. He leads, and strives to inspire others to lead, the intellectual and spiritual life. His suc- cess in life, he ascribes to his deep purpose to improve all his oppor- tunities and fulfill all his duties; and to the habits of industry and to the spirit of helpfulness which were fostered by his early training.
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In the church he has been an active official member, and he has served it in many positions of trust. He was the first layman from the Baltimore Conference sent to the General Conference of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, and has served three terms in that body. He is a member of the General Missionary Society of the church; presi- dent of the Methodist Preachers' Aid Society; and was one of the organizers of the Methodist Book Depository, of which he was, until lately, the treasurer.
In the public interest Mr. Baldwin has been continually identi- fied with reform movements. He was the first candidate of the Prohibition party for Governor of Maryland. He served on a com- mission with John P. Poe and Doctor Richard T. Ely, sometime pro- fessor of Political Economy of Johns Hopkins University, to revise the revenue and tax laws of the state of Maryland. He has been an active member of the Reform League, the Civil Service Reform Association, and president of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. For several years he was president of the Merchants and Manufact- urers Association of Baltimore City and chairman of the commit- tee of that organization which presented a memorial to President McKinley at the White House, urging upon him if possible to avert the war with Spain.
Mr. Baldwin, together with his brother, the late William Henry Baldwin, Jr., partially endowed the Anne Arundel academy. For many years he served as vice president on the Board of Trustees of the Woman's College of Baltimore City and as treasurer of the Baltimore Orphan Asylum He is a member of the Maryland -His- torical Society, the American Economic Association, the Municipal Art Society, and other institutions of like character.
In September, 1849, Mr. Baldwin entered business life as a clerk in a wholesale drygoods house in Baltimore, his choice having been determined by the fact that his uncle, William Woodward, and two older brothers, William Henry Baldwin, Jr., and C. C. Baldwin of New York, were engaged in that business. Subsequently Mr. Baldwin, with Mr. Edward T. Norris, founded the firm of Norris & Baldwin, of Baltimore and New York. The history of the Woodward, Baldwin Company is parallel with the history of the cotton industry in this country as it was the pioneer in the development of the southern cotton manufacturing industry. Mr. Baldwin's labors in the interest of the cotton industry have been the strongest factors toward
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establishing a financial relation between the manufacturing South and the firm with which he was so intimately connected. He is a stock holder and director in many of the southern mills.
Mr. Baldwin organized the first electric lighting company in Baltimore, and was its president up to the time of its consolidation with the United Electric Light and Power Company. He was also president of the National Exchange Bank, and is now vice-presi- dent of the International Trust Company and the Maryland Savings Bank of Baltimore, and president of the Warren Manufacturing Company of Maryland.
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som-Femme wo Publishers
yours Truly
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BENJAMINE FRANKLIN BENNETT
B ENNETT, BENJAMINE FRANKLIN, builder, was born in Oakland, formerly in Baltimore county but now included in the territory of Carroll, on September 22, 1824. His father, Benjamine Bennett, was a farmer and a descendant of Thomas Bennett and his wife Peggy (Tevis) Bennett, who emigrated from England and settled at Annapolis about 1775. The elder Benjamine Bennett, during the second war with England-1812-14-forsook his farm long enough to take up arms in the nation's defence and served as a captain during the conflict. The early days of young Bennett were passed amid such surroundings as are common to sons of farmers. He was a robust lad, fully able to share in the labor of a farm, and was required to perform his part of the farm work. He was assigned a small portion of the farm which was regarded as his own land. On Saturdays he would work this strip of land and by the sale of the prod- ucts which he there cultivated, he obtained his spending money and bought his clothes.
Young Bennett continued on the farm until his seventeenth year. About this time the question arose whether he or his brother should follow in the father's footsteps. The brother, being the elder, was permitted to choose; and he determined to be a farmer. Ben- jamine therefore concluded to take up a trade, and took up his residence in Baltimore. He became an apprentice in carpentry and building, on March 15, 1840, and finished his apprenticeship on September 22, 1844. After he reached the city he began to feel the great need of fitting himself more thoroughly for his life work, and he became a close student of books. With his pocket Testament, such works of history as he could obtain, and books upon architecture which he thought would be useful to him in his chosen trade, he began the task of self-education.
Mr. Bennett's mother, who had been Miss Margaret Gorsuch before her marriage, had inculcated in her son the earnest desire to advance in life and to be a credit to his family; while his early com- panionships taught him to help others as well as himself. These
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BENJAMINE FRANKLIN BENNETT
lessons learned in boyhood have borne their fruit in after years. He has constantly striven to advance in his profession, by study as well as by thorough work. As a member of the Methodist Episcopa! Church, he has contributed liberally of his time to almost every enterprise of the local congregations of his denomination; and he has given lavishly to the work of his own and of other churches.
Mr. Bennett was married on August 27, 184S, to Eleanor A. Ward, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. After Mrs. Bennett's death her husband erected as a memorial to her. Bennett Hall, one of the group of buildings of the Woman's College. His second wife, to whom he was married on the 27th of September. 1894, was Miss Elizabeth Harwood. Bennett Memorial Church, in whose interest Mr. Bennett is an active worker, is a memorial to Allan Bennett, one of his sons by his first wife.
Among the religious and philanthropic activities of Mr. Bennett are his services as trustee of the First Methodist Episcopal Church. trustee of Bennett Memorial Church, trustee of the Woman's College of Baltimore, treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the Woman's College, president of the Board of Trustees of the Home for the Aged, vice-president of the Maryland State Temperance Alliance. and. for twenty-three years superintendent of the Bennett Memorial Sunday School. He is an Odd Fellow and a Mason. He is treasurer of the Builders' Exchange, and of the Builders' Exchange Building Company. The Methodist Episcopal Church has given evidence of its apprecia- tion of his sterling character by honoring him with a seat in the General Conference, the highest law-making body of the denomination.
Among the buildings of Baltimore which have been erected from the plans and under the direction of Mr. Bennett, and will stand as enduring monuments to their builder, are the First Methodist Church at the corner of St. Paul and Twenty-Second Streets. and the noble group of stone buildings near it devoted to the work of the Woman's College of Baltimore; the St. Paul Street residence of President Goucher recently given by him to the Woman's College, one of the most perfectly finished mansions in the city; the large and substan- tial red brick building on North Howard Street, which as the Acad- emy of Music, has furnished entertainments for more than one gene- ration of Baltimoreans; and the beautiful house of worship of the Mt. Vernon Methodist Church.
CHARLES JOSEPH BONAPARTE.
B ONAPARTE, CHARLES JOSEPH, who assumed the port- folio of secretary of the navy in the cabinet of President Roosevelt, July 1, 1905, and since December 12, 1906, attor- ney general, was born at Baltimore, Maryland, June 9, 1851. His father was Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, son of Jerome, the brother of Napoleon I. of France, and Elizabeth (Patterson) Bonaparte. His mother was Miss Susan May Williams of Baltimore, who married Jerome Napoleon, at Baltimore in 1829.
Charles Joseph Bonaparte, the younger of the two sons of his parents, was graduated from Harvard college in 1871, and from the Harvard law school in 1874. Returning to Baltimore, he began at once the practice of law in his native city, where he has continued to reside. His chosen profession, and a deep and constant interest in civil service reform and in practical efforts to further good govern- ment and to secure needed political reforms in his own state and city and in the country-at-large, have occupied him for the more than thirty years since he began the practice of law.
He was for many years chairman of the Council of the National Civil Service Reform League, resigning that position July 22, 1905; he was appointed a member of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners in 1902, resigning in 1904 in order to act as one of the presidential electors for the state of Maryland, on the Roosevelt ticket. He is a member of the executive committee of the Civic Federation. He was named by Secretary Hitchcock, with the approval of Presi- dent Roosevelt, in 1904, special inspector to investigate affairs in the Indian Territory. He received, in 1903, the Laetare medal given by the University of Notre Dame.
Mr. Bonaparte married Miss Ellen Channing Day, of Newport, Rhode Island, September 1, 1875.
Always a member of the Republican party, Mr. Bonaparte has maintained his personal independence in party matters; and his leading influence in the party affairs of his city and of his state is due to his acknowledged character, and to his fearless independence.
TAARABIC
MARION VERNON BREWINGTON
B REWINGTON, MARION VERNON, was born at Salisbury, Wicomico county, Maryland, December 26, 1866. He is the son of Henry J. Brewington and Orenthia A. Long. His father was a man of the sturdy Southern kind, and kept the leading hat store in Salisbury for forty-five years. His earliest known ancestor in America was William Brereton, who settled in Wicomico county, on three hundred acres of land granted him by Lord Balti- more, in 1687. From a small boy Marion was given certain tasks to do about the house and yard, and thus made himself helpful in the daily routine work. His mother dying when he was an infant, he was deprived of her tender care and keenly felt the loss of a mother's love during youth. He left school at the age of fourteen, and entered a printing office to learn a trade, pursuing at the same time special lines of reading, such as history and French and English, through the Chautauqua Society of New York. His favorite authors were . Balzac, Irving, Scott, Hugo and Dumas. His school days were spent mainly at the Salisbury high school and his early education having been greatly interrupted, he decided to learn the trade of printing on account of the many educational advantages which it affords. His profession brought him into polities when but twenty years of age, and he managed several of the hottest campaigns in Wicomico. He declares that his success in the business world was due to the influence and teachings of his father, and that what he achieved in politics was the result of a natural fondness for public affairs. He is editor of the " Wicomico News," the Democratic organ of the county; director of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank, and director of the Peninsula General Hospital and Home for the Aged at Salisbury. In 1899 he was elected state senator, and after serving four years was reelected in November, 1903. He was author of the bill creating the office of Superintendent of Public Education, helped to lead the fight against the Haman Oyster Bills, and accomplished some important reforms in the tax systems of Wicomico county.
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Mr. Brewington is a member of the Wicomico Lodge, No. 91, A. F. and A. M., the Chesapeake Royal Arch Chapter, Giblem Coun- cil, T. J. Shryock Commandery, No. 11; the Lulu Temple, Mystic Shrine; the Salisbury Lodge of Elks; the Knights of Pythias; the Royal Arcanum, and is a Red Man. In politics, he is identified with the Democratic party; and in religious matters he affiliates with the Episcopal church. His chief relaxation from business is in travel.
Mr. Brewington suggests to young men, starting out in life, this. thought: "Every young man ought to have a set purpose in life and then work honestly for its accomplishment. I believe every young man should have either a trade or a profession, and I doubt not that a trade in connection with a profession is the best equipment he could have."
In 1892, on the thirteenth of April, Mr. Brewington married Margaret M. Fulton. They have one child, a son.
ARTHUR GEORGE BROWN
B ROWN, ARTHUR GEORGE, lawyer, was born in Baltimore, September 26, 1842, the son of George William and Claria Maria (Brune) Brown. His father was one of the City's foremost citizens, serving as Mayor in 1861 and later as Judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City. His noteworthy characteristics were courage, fairness and conscientious devotion to duty. Doctor George Brown, Judge Brown's grandfather, came from the North of Ireland and settled with his family in Baltimore, in 1783. Another ancestor, William Buchanan, was chairman of the Baltimore Com- mittee of Safety, during the Revolutionary war, and was, for a time, Commissary General of the Continental army.
Arthur George Brown, as a youth, with sound but not robust health, spent his time in Baltimore, except during occasional summer vacations. He received his early education at the Baltimore college school, and Rippard and Newell's school in the city; after which he spent three years at St. Paul's school, Concord, New Hampshire. Having completed the course there he entered St. James college, in Washington county, Maryland, whence he was graduated with the degree of B.A. in July, 1862. Choosing the legal profession for his vocation, he read law in the office of Brown & Brune, in Baltimore, and was admitted to the bar in March, 1$65. A diligent worker in his profession, he has attained a high position among the leading attorneys of his state. He was at one time professor of Admiralty Law in the University of Maryland, and. for one term. he served as president of the Bar Association of Baltimore city. He is provost of the Baltimore University school of law, and was president of the State Board of Law Examiners for several years. He is now judge of the Court of Arbitration of the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce. In 1889, he served as chairman of the Association of Citizens to restrict and regulate the liquor traffic, whose efforts resulted in the passage of a high license law, and. in 1903, he was appointed by the governor one of the Board which submitted to the General Assembly a draft of a revised corporation law.
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Mr. Brown was a trustee of the Johns Hopkins university for several years prior to 1902, and is now a trustee of the Peabody institute and of the College of St. James. He is a member and was, for nine years, president of the Maryland club, and is also a member of the St. George's Society, and the French Benevolent Society. In politics he is a Democrat, and in his religious belief a Protestant Episcopalian. On June 18, 1874, he was married to Mary Elizabeth Alricks. They have had two children, both of whom are living.
WILLIAM CABELL BRUCE
B RUCE, WILLIAM CABELL, lawyer, was born in the mansion house of Staunton Hill Plantation, Charlotte county, Vir- ginia, March 12, 1860, the son of Charles and Sally (Seddon) Bruce. His father was a member of the Virginia state senate, a man characterized by "integrity, publie spirit, executive capacity, conversational vivacity, a, kindly, philosophical way of looking at men and things, and a gift of clear, correct expression; a Southern planter and gentleman of the old régime." His mother was a "religious woman, endowed with uncommon force of character and very firm in all her principles of conduct. She was, besides, extremely fond of reading. Her influence in all respects was for good." His mother's brother, Honorable James A. Seddon, was secretary of war of the Confederate States. The Bruce family traces its descent from an ancestor who came to Virginia from Scotland in the eighteenth century. James Bruce, of Halifax county, Virginia, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, died in 1837, the wealthiest man in the state. His wife was a Miss Cabell, through whom the family became connected by ties of relationship with the many prominent persons who have sprung from the Cabell family, and exercised a lasting influence on the political and social life of Virginia.
William Cabell Bruce passed an active and vigorous youth in the country, spending his time in reading, especially ancient and English classics, riding, walking and shooting. He was educated at Pampatike academy and Norwood high school and academy in Virginia, and then studied law at the University of Virginia, in 1879 and 18SO. Coming to Baltimore in 18SO, he entered the law school of the University of Maryland and was graduated with the degree of LL.B. in 1SS2. He then settled in Baltimore, engaging in the practice of his profession, in which he has attained success. In choos- ing the profession of law he followed the wishes of his parents as well as his personal preference; and he acquired his first strong impulse to struggle for success from his father, and the importance that is attached in Virginia to every form of honorable personal distinction.
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On October 15, 1887, Mr. Bruce married Louise E. Fisher, daughter of Judge William A. Fisher, of Baltimore, by whom he has had four children, three of whom are living. During the year of his marriage he became a member of the law firm of Fisher, Bruce and Fisher, of which his father-in-law and brother-in-law were members, and he continued in that relation until 1904. In public speeches, in the press, and by personal experience he has steadfastly advocated honest elections and the merit system of appointment to office. He affiliates with the Democratic party, and was a member from Baltimore city of the state senate in the assembly sessions of 1S94 and 1896, and was chosen president of that body by unanimous vote, the latter year. Since July 1, 1903, he has been, by appointment and reappointment, city solicitor and head of the law department of Bal- timore city.
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