USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland biographies of leading men in the state, Volume I > Part 6
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In the battle for the elevation of the profession of pharmacists Dr. Culbreth, of Baltimore, was especially active. Entering the drug business at a time when the training required was by no means extensive, he promptly began on his own account a systematic course of study, that had as its aim the most thorough preparation of him- self for his business. Holding his diploma as a graduate pharamacist- which was generally regarded as sufficient evidence of learning for the druggist-he still sought to study all such subjects kindred to that of pharmacy as would perfect him for his calling.
David Marvel Reynolds Culbreth was born at the Reynolds homestead, Golden Ridge, near Willow Grove, Delaware, December 4, 1856, the only child of Robert Baynard Culbreth and Sarah Gilder Reynolds. His father, for many years a prominent farmer and fruit grower of Caroline county, still lives there in retirement. He has attained an unusual age, having been born February 20, 1819. Although always an active Democrat, he shrank from holding any public office, but he has under pressure, served his native county in several positions of trust. Twice he represented Caroline county in the house of delegates-1876 and 1SS4.
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Tradition has it that three Culbreth brothers, of Scotch-Irish descent, came to America in 1763, as assistants to the English sur- veyors, Mason and Dixon, who surveyed the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Private records, however, in pos- session of the family indicate that the coming of the Culbreths was about 1700 and that they took up an original grant of land called Robinson's Plantation at the headwaters of the Choptank river, nearly equal portions of which lay in Caroline county; Maryland, and Kent county, Delaware. Among the prominent members of the family in America may be mentioned Thomas Culbreth (1786- 1843), who was delegate in the General Assembly of Maryland, 1813- 1814; representative in the XV and XVI congresses, 1817-1820, and clerk to the executive Council of Maryland, 1825-1838; and George S. Culbreth, M. D., who entered the medical corps of the United States Navy, and was lost on the U. S. S. Huron, off North Carolina, October, 1877. Dr. Culbreth, on his mother's side also enjoys relations of some distinction-Luther M. Reynolds, for many years a prominent lawyer of Baltimore, and Ex-Governor Robert J. Reynolds of Delaware, were uncles, while William H. Gilder, the explorer, and Richard Watson Gilder, the poet and editor of the "Century Magazine," are his cousins.
As a child, Dr. Culbreth had a strong inclination for books. His early life was passed on the home farm "Robinson's Plantation." He attended a public school three miles distant from his home and no matter how inclement the weather, was most faithful in walking this distance, not missing a session during several years. In his earlier years, history was his favorite study, but later he developed a preference for science. When out of school he performed the many small duties usually falling to the lot of a boy in a country home. He studied at Felton Seminary, Delaware, two years, and then entered the University of Virginia (1872), from which he was grad- uated in 1877.
He then secured a position in a retail drug and manufacturing establishment in Baltimore, and in the autumn of the same year matriculated at the Maryland College of Pharmacy, from which he was graduated in 1879. During this course, Dr. Culbreth received the junior class prize for proficiency in all branches, and in the senior year he was the president of the class and the recipient of two prizes. After graduation he took charge of the college laboratory
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course for three months during the absence of the professor of chem- istry. In the spring of 1SS0, he established a retail drug business in Baltimore, and continued it until 1893, since which time he has devoted himself alone to his professional teaching. He was married April 26, 1894, to Miss. Lizzie Gardner.
Dr. Culbreth was always very fond of the chemical side of phar- macy, and, although he gave a careful supervision to his drug business in every detail, he busied himself chiefly, during his career as a pharmacist, in the laboratory, experimenting on and manufacturing various preparations.
Early in his business life he was afforded an opportunity for a special study of vegetable drugs and the plants yielding them. For this investigation he considered a knowledge of medicine essential. In 1881 he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Balti- more, and was graduated in 1883. He pursued the study of vege- table histology and botany for some years under the guidance of Professors H. Newell Martin, of Johns Hopkins University, and George L. Smith, of the State Normal School. The Maryland Col- lege of Pharmacy appointed Dr. Culbreth professor of microscopy and practical botany, in 1885, and two years later (February, 1887) he was made "professor of botany, materia medica. and pharma- cognosy," which chair he still retains-the institution since 1904 being a department of the University of Maryland. In 1897, he became professor of materia medica and pharmacognosy in the med- ical and dental departments of the University of Maryland-a posi- tion he held for nine years. He published "Pharmaceutic Botany" in 1893 and 1905; and "Materia Medica and Pharmacology" in 1896- 1900 -- 1903-1906 and is also author of "Materia Medica Compend" (1905) and of numerous papers and essays in technical journals. He served several terms as commissioner of pharmacy and practical chem- istry, having been consecutively appointed by Governors Jackson, Brown and Lowndes. As he later came to consider the law under which he performed his duties ineffective, he resigned the position in 1900. He is a member of the American Academy of Medicine, the Academy of Science, the State Pharmaceutical Association, and a, trustee of the Margaret J. Bennett Home.
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RICHARD COULTER DRUM
D RUM, RICHARD COULTER. It is safe to assume that a man who, despite the fact that he may not have pursued the prescribed courses at the United States Military Acad- emy, nor received at any other recognized military school a technical training in the art of war, has succeeded in making rapid and steady advancement in the United States Army, finally reaching the rank of adjutant-general, must have possessed in a very large measure those qualities which make for success in the career of a soldier. General Drum has accomplished this. Lacking the stamp of West Point and having never attended a military school, by sheer force of ability, he has forged ahead to one of the highest positions attainable in the military service of the United States.
Richard Coulter Drum was born at Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, on May 28, 1825, the son of Simon Drum, Jr., and Agnes (Lang) Drum. The family was originally of Scotch extrac- tion; but members of it came to Pennsylvania from the Palatinate in Germany about 1732. Simon Drum, the General's father, kept a general merchandise store at Greensburg and also served as post- master of that town. The boy received his primary education at the public schools of his native village, and afterward studied at the Greensburg Academy and at Jefferson College at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. He was graduated from the latter institution, and beginning a business career he learned the trade of printer. In those days the printing office was an excellent practical school for a young man, no matter what his ultimate aim as to a business or professional career might be; and many of the leaders who have won prominence in various walks of life were graduates from the printer's office. Here Mr. Drum acquired his love for books, with a decided preference for historical and biographical works.
In early youth he had manifested a strong liking for everything pertaining to military affairs. When the War between the United States and Mexico began, General Druin needed no special invitation, to forsake his business and join the army. He had even then an
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ambition to make for himself a place in the military history of his country; but he was content to begin at the very bottom and work up. He enlisted as a private in Company K of the 1st Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, on December 8, 1846; and he was soon en route for the Mexican frontier. On February 18, 1847, he was commissioned a second lieutenant, and took part in the siege of Vera Cruz. He also engaged in the battle of Chapultepec, and in the campaign which resulted in the capture of the City of Mexico; and for his bravery he was brevetted first lieutenant. During the Mexican War, Lieuten- ant Drum was transferred to the artillery branch of the regular ser- vice; and upon the conclusion of peace he returned with our army to the United States.
While stationed in Louisiana, Lieutenant Drum was married, September 25, 1850, to Lavinia Morgan, daughter of Thomas Gibbs Morgan, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by whom he is the father of two daughters: Mrs. Erwin W. Tarr, of Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Hughes Oliphant, of New Jersey, later of Washington, D. C.
In 1855, when General Harney led an expedition against the Sioux Indians, Lieutenant Drum was in the party, and took part in the engagement at Bluewater, Nebraska. Subsequently General Harney appointed him his aide-de-camp, in which capacity he served during the remainder of the campaign. From 1856 to 1858, Lieu- tenant Drum was in command of an improvised light battery dur- ing Colonel Summer's operations against Topeka, Kansas. He also served as aide-de-camp to General Persifor F. Smith and as acting assistant adjutant-general at headquarters, Department of the North- west. Later he served as adjutant in the artillery school.
Before the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Lieutenant Drum was appointed assistant adjutant-general of the United States Army with the rank of brevet-captain. His service during the conflict between North and South called for repeated recognition from Wash- ington. On May 14, 1861, he was made captain; on August 3 of the same year he was advanced to major; and on the 17th of July, 1862, he was again promoted lieutenant-colonel. Toward the close of the war Colonel Drum was brevetted, March 13, 1865, brigadier-general, for gallantry and 'distinguished service during the four years of conflict.
He was stationed at Philadelphia from 1866 to 1867. In the following year, he was again called into active service, in reconstruc-
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tion duties; and he went to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1868, to serve under General Meade. On the 22d of February, 1869, Brigadier-General Drum was promoted colonel, and on June 15, 1880, he succeeded General Townsend, upon the retirement of the latter, as adjutant- general of the army. During the railway riots in Chicago in 1877 General Drum was in command of the military forces there.
General Drum completed forty-three years of active military service in 1889, when he was placed upon the retired list. He was largely instrumental in founding the Army Mutual Aid Association, the object of which is to accord immediate relief to the widows and orphans of deceased brother officers. He has been president of this association for over twenty years, and has always taken an active part in its monthly and annual meetings. It was General Drum who in 1887 first made the recommendation to President Cleveland that the battle flags captured during the Civil War be restored to the Con- federate States. Eighteen years passed by before the recommenda- tion then made was acted upon. In 1905 Congress unanimously voted in favor of the suggestion.
General Drum is a member of the Masonic Order, and of the Loyal Legion; and he is one of the charter members of the Aztec Club (survivors of the Mexican War). He is passing the evening of his active life on his farm at Bethesda, Montgomery county, Maryland. The village is just outside the boundry of the District of Columbia and about five miles from the White House. He is very fond of his farm and garden, and spends much of his time out of doors. Since retir- ing from active military life he has shown much public spirit in the various enterprises that mark the progress of the section in which he makes his home.
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HUGH LATIMER ELDERDICE
E LDERDICE, HUGH LATIMER, D.D., president of West- minster Theological Seminary at Westminster, Carroll county, Maryland, was born at Carlisle, Cumberland county, Penn- sylvania, on the 24th of July, 1860. He is the son of Rev. James Martin Elderdice and Mrs. Matilda Jane Elderdice. His father was for forty-four years an itinerant minister in the Maryland conference of the Methodist Protestant Church; and is affectionately remembered for his modesty, his frugality and industry, and his deep and fervent piety. Hugh Elderdice, the father of James Martin, came from Armagh county, Ireland, and settled in Frederick county, Maryland. Hugh's mother was a Stuart of Scotland.
In his childhood he had absolutely perfect health; and like other healthy boys he was fond of fishing, swimming, hunting, and all out-of-door athletic sports. Part of his boyhood was passed in the village, part in the city, and much of it in the country. He was early taught to make himself useful about his home; and he had given him regular tasks which made him, as he says, "stable boy, master of the woodpile, and hand in the harvest field, clerk in the store, and later, country school-teacher." The effect upon his char- acter of these regular duties, undertaken as a help to the family and for self-support, was to make him "self-reliant and ashamed of no form of honest toil." The influence of his parents was "preemi- nently strong upon his spiritual life," and shaped his religious creed and conduct.
Whatever else he might not be able to do, such a minister as Hugh Elderdice's father was sure to open the way to college for his son. After attending the public schools near his home, he entered the Western Maryland College, and in 1882, was graduated with the degree of A.B. Three years later he received from his alma mater the degree of A.M. From 1882 to 1SS4 he was in attendance at the Yale Divinity School at New Haven, Connecticut. At the beginning of the Senior year he was called home by the death of his father to take his pulpit and care for the mother and younger children. After
Sincerely Hugh, L. Elderdice
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preaching for five years he returned to Yale in September, 1889 and was graduated therefrom in 1890, with the degree of Bachelor of Divinity.
When he was seventeen he began to teach school in Bedford county, Pennsylvania. After one year of teaching, he took up the study of medicine. Then the door to a college course was opened before him. Under Divine guidance, as he firmly believes, he decided upon the ministry as his life-work.
From 1SS5 to 1897 he was pastor and preacher in the Maryland Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church. In the latter year he became president of the Theological Seminary at Westminster, Maryland. From 1900 to 1904 he served as secretary of the General Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church. His relations with the Methodist Protestant Church have been close; and he has been honored by his fellow-Christians in that church with the position of secretary of their highest governing body, the General Conference, and by his election in 1897 to the presidency of the Westminster Theological Seminary, a position which he still fills, with growing ability and ever widening influence. In 1899, St. John's College, Maryland, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
On the 3d of June, 1891, he married Miss Annabel Smith. They have had two children, a daughter and a son, both of whom are living in 1907.
Dr. Elderdice is known as an ardent advocate of temperance; and he is a member of the Prohibition party.
In manhood, as in boyhood, he has been fond of out-of-door exercises, and especially of fishing, lawn-tennis and horseback riding. He has taken courses of physical culture, in the gymnasiums of the Young Men's Christian Association, as well as at college.
When asked to make from his own experience and observation suggestions to the young people of his state who wish to succeed in life, President Elderdice says: "What will most help young people to attain true success is, first, the Bible teaching (Proverbs III, 5-6) 'Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.' And second, this motto: "Do not shirk; lead the van; plan your work; work your plan.' "
ADOLPHUS FEARHAKE
F EARHAKE, ADOLPHUS, was born at Frederick, Frederick county, Maryland, April 23, 1840. He is the son of Adol- phus and Elizabeth Fearhake. His father was a man of sturdy and upright character whose parents came from Germany about 1783. His mother's ancestors came from Germany and Eng- land some time during Colonial times, settling in Maryland. For several generations Mr. Fearhake's family has lived in Frederick county. He received his early education in the primary schools and at the Frederick college. He was taken from school when but four- teen or fifteen years of age, Early in life he was admitted to the bar as an attorney-at-law, though he had begun active life as a land surveyor, when sixteen or seventeen years of age. In 1867 he was elected surveyor of Frederick county, which position he resigned to become deputy law clerk in the office of the clerk of the Circuit Court of the county. This position he held until 1879, when he was elected clerk of the Circuit Court for Frederick county, which office he held for six years. Since the close of his term as clerk he has served as deputy of the clerk and law clerk. His long service in the office has given him a store of information with reference to its affairs, and his unfailing courtesy has made his services of great value to all persons having business with the clerk.
In 1877, on the sixth of June, he married Agnes Elliott; they have had no children. Mr. Fearhake has devoted much time to church and lodge work. During the Civil War he was a private in the Confederate army from 1862 to the close of the conflict. He is a Mason, having held the offices of Worshipful Master of the Lodge, and High Priest of the Chapter. He was also Eminent Commander of the Commandery of the Knights Templar, and is a Patron of the Eastern Star. In politics, Mr. Fearhake is a Democrat, and he affiliates with the Methodist Episcopal church. As a help in life he offers these thoughts, "Sobriety (abstaining from intoxicants) ; good companionship (associating with the best and most reputable people) ;
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usefulness (no loiterer or idler, but keeping always at work); helpful- ness (ready to assist by voice, pen, or means, any good work). Above all, trying to be a consistent Christian."
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THOMAS FELL
F ELL, THOMAS, president of St. John's College, Maryland, was born in Liverpool, England, on July 15, 1851. His father, after whom he was named, had been a staff surgeon in the English army, and was killed in Russia during the Crimean War, in 1855. As a boy, much of his time was spent in the country, where he led a healthy and vigorous life such as is common to the country boy who is devoted to out-of-door sports; and he gave a considerable part of each day to reading and study. His early education was received at the Royal Institution school, at Liverpool, where he was enrolled from 1857 to 1866. After completing his preparatory studies he went to London, and in 1866 was matriculated at King's College.
During his college course he gave much time to the study of languages and metaphysics. After four years spent in attendance at King's College, he studied for three or four years more at the Uni- versity of London, and in 1874 he became a student at the University of Münich for a year.
Dr. Fell entered the profession of teaching by accident rather than by deliberate choice. He began his active work in life in a fiduciary capacity in England, from 1$76 to 1SSO serving as lay- reader under the Bishop of London. For two years thereafter he was a first lieutenant in Her Majesty's volunteer forces; and in 1SS2 he came to America. In the United States he began his career as an educator by accepting the chair of ancient languages at New Windsor College, in 1884, where he continued for the next two years.
Dr. Fell was chosen president of St. John's College in 1SS6; and he has served the university in that capacity continuously ever since. When he went to the Annapolis institution, St. John's College had as brilliant a history as any educational institution in the state. Founded in 1784, during a large part of the first century of its life, it had been the training school at which many of the most talented and many of the most fashionable young men of Maryland received their education. But the city of Annapolis had gradually lost many of the features which in earlier days had attracted students to the
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state capital; and the college in consequence was slowly losing its prominence.
Immediately upon assuming the presidency, Dr. Fell set about regaining for the institution some of its lost prestige, while he also sought to make its financial condition more secure. During his administration the average enrollment of students has been greatly increased. The discipline of the school has been considerably im- proved, and the curriculum has been strengthened. At the same time all the older buildings have been repaired and put into first-class condition, and two new structures have been recently added-a scientific laboratory, and a mess hall room. Much attention has been given to athletic and oratorical contests of the college, and the reputation of St. John's has steadily grown. Furthermore, through the efforts of Dr. Fell, the long existing mortgage debt of the college, amounting to thirty thousand dollars, has been completely wiped out.
The final accomplishment of his administration was the merging of St. John's College with the University of Maryland, of Baltimore; an institution which, like St. John's College, had known a more bril- liant past, and had supported several departments of high standing. The University of Maryland, in former years, had maintained an academic department; but this had been abandoned, while the law school, and the medical, and dental, and pharmacy departments of the university were all of a high grade.
Dr. Fell is an active member of the American Philological Associ- ation, the American Academy of Political Science, and the National Educational Association. He belongs to the Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity, to the University Club of Baltimore, and to the Cliosophic Society of Princeton University. President Fell was married on April 20, 18S1, to Miss Isabella L. Hunter, by whom he has had four children, two of whom are now living.
The good work which has been accomplished by St. John's Col- lege during the past twenty years, is due in great measure to the able administration of President Fell. While the progress which the institution has made under his direction bears testimony to his effi- ciency as a teacher and an executive; the fact that the downward tendency of the college was so promptly arrested during the first years of his presidency bears equally strong testimony to his ability as organizer and financier.
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In 1889, Hampden-Sidney College , of Virginia, conferred upon President Fell the degree of Doctor of Laws; from St. John's College he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy; and in 1907 he was similarly honored by the University of the South with the degree of Doctor of Civil Law.
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NORVAL EMMET FOARD
N ORVAL EMMET FOARD, journalist, Baltimore city, was born June 10, 1837, in Alexandria, Virginia, then a part of the District of Columbia. His father, Joseph W. Foard, was a native of Montgomery county, Maryland, His mother was Jane Eliza Zimmerman. a native of Fairfax county, Virginia, who died in Baltimore March 9. 1904, aged ninety-two years. His father died in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1867, aged fifty-seven years. His early education was received in private schools in Charleston, South Caro- lina, where his parents lived from 1844 to 1852. He completed his studies at St. John's academy, in Alexandria, Virginia. of which institution Reverend Richard L. Carne was the principal, before his ordination as a priest of the Roman Catholic church. In this school Mr. Foard was a teacher for several years, while pursuing his own studies in the higher branches. He was, for a short while after leav- ing school, employed in the clerk's office of the county court of Alex- andria, and for several years was the librarian of the Alexandria library, which gave him excellent opportunity for literary studies. This library, founded in 1794, was a rare collection of English litera- ture for the whole period from its establishment up to about the year 1840. During the Federal occupation of the city, from 1861 to 1865, the library was looted by the soldiers and its books scattered all over the country.
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