USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland biographies of leading men in the state, Volume I > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21
Mr. Bruce is an attendant upon the services of the Protestant Episcopal church. His favorite amusements are gardening, shooting and swimming. He is a member of the Maryland club, the Mer- chants' club, the Civil Service Reform Association, and the Balti- more Reform League. He has written a few pamphlets and brief essays. As a result of his experience, Mr. Bruce feels that a man should not "be too timid about subordinating the practical rewards of life to the higher forms of human aspiration." He urges "fidelity to the impulses of conscience and the ideals of character exemplified in the careers of George Washington and Robert E. Lee."
WILLIAM SHEPARD BRYAN, SR.
B RYAN, WILLIAM SHEPARD, SR., jurist, was born in New- bern, North Carolina, November 20, 1827, the son of John Henitage and Mary Williams (Shepard) Bryan. The family is descended from William and Alice (Needham) Bryan, who were married in England, in 1689, and afterward emigrated and settled in Nansemond county, Virginia. Two of William Bryan's sons settled in Bertie county, North Carolina, and a later descendant, General William Bryan, removed to Craven county in that state in 1747. John H. Bryan was an eminent lawyer and enjoyed a large and lucrative practice, until ill health compelled him gradually to retire, between 1850 and 1860. He was a very kind and benevolent man and had many devoted friends. Before reaching his twenty-sixth year he was elected to the state senate and to the United States house of representatives on the same day. He was absent from home at the time, on a summer pleasure trip, and the first notice he received of his friends' purpose to vote for him for either place came in a letter announcing his election to both positions. He served four years in congress, from 1825 to 1829, and then retired from public life, devo- ting himself thereafter to the practice of his profession. His wife, whom he married on December 20, 1821, was the daughter of William and Mary (Blount) Shepard, both members of families of high stand- ing in the state and of large wealth and influence. John H. Bryan's mother was Rachel, granddaughter of William Henitage, who came from England prior to 1757, and settled on a plantation called Spring- field, three miles from Newbern. He was a man of great influence and large wealth and was the legal adviser of the Colonial Govern- ment.
William Shepard was the fourth of a family of fourteen children. and was always of a feeble physical frame, suffering a good deal from ill health throughout his whole life. In 1838 the family removed to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he prepared for college. In June, 1842, when he was fourteen years and six months old, he entered the freshman class of the University of North Carolina, and, with the
1
yours truly you Shepard Bryan
73
WILLIAM SHEPARD BRYAN, SR.
exception of absence during the first session of 1843, was present throughout the whole four years' course and took the highest honors of the class for scholarship, receiving the rank of "first honor sepa- rate," which was rarely conferred. .
After graduating, in 1846, he studied law in his father's office and was admitted to the Superior Court Bar in January, 1850. In December of that year he removed to Baltimore and entered upon the practice of law in that city. He was at first without acquaintance or influential association, and his progress for a time was very slow. But he devoted himself to his studies diligently, made few acquaintances and spent very little time in social pleasures. He gradually won a position for himself, and during the December term, 1853, made his first appearance before the Supreme Court of the United States as associate counsel in the case of Eyre v. Potter, reported in 15th Howard. In the courts of Maryland, he argued many cases, among them the noted one of Jones r. Jones, reported in 36 Maryland. In this case the Court of Appeals decided unanimously that slave marriages were valid and that the issue thereof, born in slavery, could inherit, after becoming free, just as other free persons. This decision reversed a settled practice founded on an opinion given by Daniel Dulany, in 1767, and reported in 1 Harris & McHenry's Reports.
On October 1, 1857, Mr. Bryan married Elizabeth Edmondson Hayward, daughter of William H. and Elizabeth Hayward, of Talbot county. Mrs. Bryan died in March, 1898. They had three sons and a daughter, all of whom are living. The eldest son is attorney- general of Maryland.
Mr. Bryan has always been a Democrat, and was presidential elector in 1876. In 1SS3 he was elected, as his party's candidate, to the position of associate judge of the Court of Appeals, for a term of fifteen years. Throughout his term on the bench he was constant in his attendance on his duties, and delivered the opinion of the court in many cases. Judge Bryan, however, being a man of independent thought, some of his most important opinions have been those in which he dissented from the majority of the court. When his term of office ended, in November, 1898, he had passed the age limit fixed by the State Constitution for further judicial service, and retired to private life. He lived for a time with a married daughter, in Annapolis, but later returned to Baltimore.
WILLIAM SHEPARD BRYAN, JR.
B RYAN, WILLIAM SHEPARD, JR., Attorney-General of the State of Maryland, is the son of Judge William Shepard Bryan, who was one of the most evenly balanced and richly stored legal minds of the Maryland bar. Judge Bryan's father, John H. Bryan, was a member of congress from North Carolina during the administration of President John Quincy Adams. Elizabeth Edmondson Hayward Bryan, wife of Judge W. S. Bryan, was a great-granddaughter of William Hayward, member of the Court of Delegates in 1772. His first known ancestor in America was William Bryan, from England, who settled in Virginia about 1689, and after- wards removed to North Carolina.
Mr. W. S. Bryan, Jr., was born at Baltimore on December 23, 1859. The greater part of his early youth was spent in his native city, the summer months in the country. He became a student at the Bethel Military Academy in Virginia, where he received his preparatory training: and he entered the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. After his college course had been completed he determined to study for the bar; and entering his father's office, he began to read law. His father was at that time a practicing attorney; and it was not until his son had begun his professional career that the father went on the bench, where he served as judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland from 1883 to 1898.
In the office of the elder Bryan, there was afforded, perhaps, to the student of law a better opportunity for acquiring a thorough knowledge of the law and practice than he could have had at a pro- fessional school. He was early impressed with the fact that to attain success in life hard work was essential, and the endeavor to understand fully whatever one tries to do. The determination thoroughly to comprehend the thing attempted has been the index of Mr. Bryan's professional as well as of his public career. In 1SS2 Mr. Bryan was admitted to the bar of Baltimore, and since that time he has been practicing with success, having achieved an excellent reputation in his profession by his unceasing labors and his faithful devotion to the interests of his clients.
76
WILLIAM SHEPARD BRYAN, JR.
It is rather as the attorney of a municipality and of a State than as the counsellor of private individuals, however, that Mr. Bryan is best known to the people at large. He has been entrusted with important public offices, and his service in each of these has invari- ably led to the conviction that he was capable of discharging the duties of more exacting positions. As a consequence, during the period in which Mr. Bryan has been in the public eye his advance has been marked and steady. After having been a practicing lawyer for eight years, he was selected in 1890, as the counsel to the Election Supervisors of Baltimore, -- an office in which he made an excellent impression on the people of Baltimore. Mr. Bryan acted as counsel of the Supervisors until 1892, in which year he served successively as city attorney, city counsellor, and city solicitor. He continued in the last named capacity for three years. In 1903 Mr. Bryan was nomi- nated by the Democratic party of Maryland for the office of Attorney General of the State, and was elected at the fall election of that year, his term running for four years concurrently with that of Governor Warfield.
In his present office as Attorney-General, Mr. Bryan has found the widest field for the exercise of his unquestioned talent. As the head of the legal department of the State, his advice has been promptly and concisely given whenever sought. His judgment on questions of law has always been sound; and the legal mind that has been called upon to render decisions upon questions of vital importance to the State has been supported by a character that is both fearless and independent. As a lawyer Mr. Bryan is sufficiently professional to lose sight of politics entirely. At the same time he has been active in proper ways for his own party. He has worked for the success of the Democratic party whenever in his opinion such success meant general advancement of the people's good.
I'D. Garth
DANIEL DAWSON CAROTHERS
C AROTHERS, DANIEL DAWSON, chief engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, was born at Cutler, Washington county, Ohio, on August 21, 1860, the son of Rezin Dawson and Elizabeth Bain (Dawson) Carothers. His father in early life had been a millwright, but later became a railroad contractor. He had a fine mechanical turn of mind, which his son inherited; and he was noted for his determination and energy. His ancestors had come to America from Scotland, in colonial days, and settled in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Rezin Carothers was of English extraction, her ancestors having emigrated from Eng- land to Maryland, subsequently moving to Beaver county, Pennsyl- vania.
The early life of Daniel Dawson Carothers was passed on a farm where he was required to do the " chores" and odd bits of work which fall to the lot of a country boy. This early experience tended to develop both body and mind, and the boy soon showed a strong liking for work with tools and for everything which pertains to machinery. His mother exerted a strong influence over his early intellectual devel- opment, giving him his primary schooling, as the neighboring coun- try schools in those days were poor and the terms of study short. The last year or two of M". Carothers' school life were spent at Bartlett Academy; later he went to the National Normal University of Lebanon, Ohio, where he took a special course in engineering, although he did not enter for a degree.
During the last three years of Mr. Carothers' college life, he taught a country school during the winter months. Finally, in 1882, he began his labors in the field which he had chosen for his life-work. His father was at this time connected with the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad Company, and the young civil engineer was given employment as rodman under his father who early impressed upon him, as the primary necessity for success in business, the spirit which would "always obey orders." As rodman and assistant engineer, Mr. Carothers was with the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad in 1882.
80
DANIEL DAWSON CAROTHERS
The next year he entered the employ of the Columbus and Cincinnati Midland Railroad Company, serving it as assistant engineer, chief engineer and train master. He remained with this company for seven years until 1890, when he transferred the field of his activity to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, with which company, or its subsidiary lines, he has since remained.
When Mr. Carothers entered the service of the Baltimore and Ohio in 1890, it was as engineer of maintenance of way of the Balti- more and Ohio Southwestern, which position he held until 1901. He then became superintendent of the Baltimore and Ohio at Chicago; and two years later, in 1903, he was made general superintendent of the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad at Cincinnati. In 1904 he was chosen chief engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Baltimore, which position he still fills.
Mr. Carothers was married on September 20, 18SS, to Miss Carrie Leland. They make their home in Baltimore. He is a member of a number of clubs, both social and professional, and has always taken an active interest in the American Society of Civil Engineers. Enter- ing the service of the Baltimore and Ohio on the eve of a new era in railroading in America, while the many companies were preparing to begin such marvelous strides in the way of development, Mr. Caro- thers has played an important part in the upbuilding of one of the greatest railroad systems of America. During the years in which he filled the many important positions to which he was chosen prior to 1904, he was instrumental in directing much of the energy that was then being devoted to railroad improvement; but it is in his present position of chief engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio, while the com- pany has been contemplating even more extensive improvements than have been undertaken heretofore, that the greatest work of Mr. Carothers' public career will undoubtedly be performed.
-
yours truly D.A. Carroll
DAVID HENRY CARROLL
C ARROLL, DAVID HENRY, D.D., for years a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and since impaired health com- pelled him to give up the work of the active ministry, in 1872, successively the head of the Methodist Book Depository in Baltimore (from 1872 to 1SSS), and president of the Baltimore City Missionary and Church Extension Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1SS5 to 1895, has been since 1SS2 most actively identified with the manufacturing and mercantile interests of Baltimore. He was general manager of the Mount Vernon Cotton Duck Company from 1882 to 1887, and president of the Laurel Com- pany from 1SS6 to 1899, when these mills with others were consolidated under the name of the Mount Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Com- pany. He is serving his second term as president of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association of Baltimore; the largest and most active business men's association of the city. He is vice-president and treasurer of the Consolidated Cotton Duck Company; and director and secretary of the Mount Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Company.
His father, David Carroll, was a manufacturer of cotton duck and a pioneer in that form of manufacturing. He is remembered for his industry, energy and business success. Mrs. Ann Elizabeth Carroll was the mother of the subject of this sketch.
David Henry Carroll was born in the suburbs of Baltimore on the 11th of July, 1840. A slender boy, and rather delicate in health, he was fond of reading, study and travel. While he was not trained to any form of manual labor in his boyhood and youth, his father's methodical and energetic life had a marked effect upon the son in forming his own standards and appreciation of work; and throughout his life he has been actively industrious. The influence of his mother he feels has been especially strong upon his intellectual and moral life. He was fond of reading biographies, histories and general liter- ature. His early education he received in private and public schools, at the Medfield Academy in Baltimore county, and in the Light Street Institute in Baltimore. Entering Dickinson College at Carlisle,
1
C
1
84
DAVID HENRY CARROLL
Pennsylvania, he was graduated A.B., in 1868. Three years later he received the degree of A.M., and Dickinson College conferred upon him in 1885 the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
In March, 1861, he was received into the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as a minister of the Gospel. The choice of this life-work was the result of a deep personal conviction of duty; but his health did not prove equal to the strain of the severe work of a pastor and preacher. In 1872, giving up the active ministry he took a leading part in the formation of the Methodist Book Deposi- tory at Baltimore of which he became the head, and continued to occupy this position until 1SSS, when, because of the pressure of multi- plied duties, he resigned.
In 1882 he became officially identified with the Mount Vernon Cotton Duck Company acting as general manager until 1887. His knowledge of this business led to his election in 1886 as president of the Laurel Company. In 1899, upon the consolidation of these com- panies with others under the name of Mount Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Co., Mr. Carroll became director, member of Executive Committee and secretary. In 1901 he became vice-president and secretary of the United States Cotton Duck Corporation.
On July 6, 1865, Mr. Carroll married Miss Mary E. Boyd, daughter of Andrew Boyd, of Frederick, Maryland.
Early and always identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church. in addition to the positions named above, Mr. Carroll is president of the trustees of the American University at Washington, District of Columbia; vice-president of Morgan College, Baltimore; president of the Educational Fund of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church; treasurer and trustee of the Baltimore Conference: treasurer of the Education Society of Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and also of the American Methodist Historical Society. He is also a trustee of Dickinson College. He- was a delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1888, and in 1904; and he has been "reserve" (or alter- nate) to several other general conferences. He was a delegate to the Centennial Conference in 1884; and to the Ecumenical Methodist Conference, in London, England, in 1901.
Actively interested in the manufactures and trade of Baltimore. in addition to his position as president of the Merchants and Manu- facturers Association, he is a director in the Continental Trust of
85
DAVID HENRY CARROLL
Baltimore, the Columbian National Life Insurance Company of Boston, Massachusetts, and in various other business corporations. He is a director and treasurer of the Hospital for Consumptives of Maryland; and he is an officer, director or trustee in various other charitable institutions.
He is a member of the Alpha Beta Kappa Fraternity. He is a Mason. He is a member of the Merchants Club.
His favorite forms of exercise and relaxation have been riding, driving and travel. He has traveled extensively throughout the entire United States; and he has visited Europe for extended tours at various times. To young citizens who wish to succeed he commends: "Temperance, morality, industry." "There are no substitutes for these; and there is no success worthy of the name without these."
Doctor Carroll's address is SOS Continental Trust Building, Balti- more, Maryland.
1
WILLIAM COLLINS
C OLLINS, WILLIAM, is by profession a lawyer and received in 1903 the honorary degree of LL.D. from the Nashville College of Law; but by choice and occupation he is a Mary- land farmer. He has been six times elected a member of the Mary- land House of Delegates, and has served on many important com- mittees.
He was born at his father's place, "Frankfort," near Trappe, in Talbot county, Maryland, on the 19th of December, 1854. His father, William Collins, was a planter, tax collector and trustee of the poor for his town and county-a man of marked energy and per- severance, and of sound character. His mother was Mrs. Leah S. (Griffin) Collins. The first known ancestor of his family and name in America was a William Collins who came from England in early colonial days and settled in Philadelphia. His descendants removed to Talbot county, of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. His mother's family, the Griffins, were of Scotch and Welsh descent, and had settled in Dorchester county. His mother's grandfather was a member of the Maryland Line in the Revolutionary War, took part in the battles of Long Island, Trenton and Brandywine, and served in the South with General Gates, and at Yorktown.
In his boyhood he was slight and delicate in health, but he was fond of out-of-door life, and was early taught to do light tasks in farm labor, especially in his vacations from school, and on Saturdays. He was exceedingly fond of riding; and he strengthened his muscle and his self-control by assisting, while still a boy, in the breaking and training of horses upon his father's farm. His father's loss of his slaves by emancipation, and the demoralized condition of labor, which attended and followed the Civil War, compelled his with- drawal from regular attendance at school while he was still a young boy. He was kept at home during the busy seasons of the year, to help in work upon the farm; and after he was graduated from the Trappe high school, his father's financial loss prevented any attempt to secure a liberal education at college.
89
WILLIAM COLLINS
He taught school for two years in Dorchester and Talbot coun- ties. He was strongly drawn to the career of a soldier; and he received an appointment to West Point; but he could not meet the require- ments of the physical examination. At twenty he began the study of law with United States Senator Charles H. Gibson, then State's Attorney. Associating himself with the late I. C. W. Powell, of Easton, he practiced law actively for four or five years; but it became evident to his friends and medical advisers that his health required a more active out-of-door life, and he deliberately chose the occupa- tion of farming, going into agriculture as a profession, and studying scientific agriculture for immediate application to his own work in farming. He soon began to be recognized as one of the most pro- gressive and successful farmers of his county and state.
He has retained his place as a member of the Maryland bar; and since carly manhood he has taken a deep interest in the politics of his state. He was elected to the Maryland Legislature as a Demo- crat in 1890, and was reƫlected in 1892, 1894, 1900, 1901 and in 1904. While a member of the Maryland House of Delegates he served on a number of important committees, among them the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on Agriculture, on the Chesapeake Bay, on Rules, on Claims, the Committee on Federal Relations, on Engrossed Bills, etc., and he acted as chairman of several of these committees. During his legislative career he was the leader and fearless champion of the oystermen in their contest against the syndicate who endeav- ored to get control of the oyster beds of the state. He was a vigorous supporter of the Hayes Assessment bill in 1894. In 1890 he opposed the leasing of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to a syndicate.
Mr. Collins was one of the organizers of the Talbot County Fair Association; he was a member and has been president of the Talbot County Farmers Alliance; he is a director in the Farmers and Mer- chants National Bank of Easton; and of the Savings Bank of Trappe; and he has been prominent in the social functions of his county.
In politics he has always been allied with the Democratic party. He is a Mason. He is a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He has written and published some pam- phlets on agricultural subjects, and upon the question of taxation.
By religious faith and conviction he is identified with the Protes- tant Episcopal Church; and he is vestryman, and registrar of his parish, and frequently a delegate to the Diocesan Convention; and
r
90
WILLIAM COLLINS
he was a lay deputy to the General Conventions at Washington, D. C., and at San Francisco.
On the 14th of November, 1899, Mr. Collins married Miss Ellen Eccleston Martin, daughter of the late Wm. B. Martin and Rebecca Eccleston Martin of Talbot county, Maryland. They have had two children, both of whom are living in 1907.
His favorite forms of amusement and relaxation have been horseback riding and fishing. The life work of Mr. Collins is an example of the far reaching influence of a man who has chosen to devote his attention to agriculture, and has studied the best methods of farming, while he has had the training, the outlook upon business life, and the interest in public affairs which are given a man by the study and the practice of the law.
-
--
T .
Sincerely yours My Daily RCulbreth Me).
1
DAVID MARVEL REYNOLDS CULBRETH
I T has only been in comparatively recent years that doctors and surgeons have come to appreciate fully the importance of a thoroughly trained pharmaceutical profession. Not so very long ago it was a common failing to regard the compounding and dispensing of drugs simply as a trade, on a par with any other commercial busi- ness; instead as of a profession closely allied with that of the physi- cian. It is a matter of no little wonder that the public should for so long have lost sight of the fact that the doctor can perform in but a very unsatisfactory way his task of healing, without intelligent cooperation on the part of those who prepare the medicines. But when the campaign for revolutionizing the standard of qualifications and requirements of druggists began, the matter was pushed ener- getically and great results were accomplished with dispatch.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.