USA > Maryland > Cecil County > Portrait and biographical record of Harford and Cecil counties, Maryland. Containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties. Together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States > Part 8
USA > Maryland > Harford County > Portrait and biographical record of Harford and Cecil counties, Maryland. Containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties. Together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States > Part 8
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President Harrison was born at North Bend,
Hamilton County, Ohio, August 20, 1833. His life up to the time of his graduation from Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, was the uneventful one of a country lad of a family of small means. His father was able to give him a good education, and nothing more. He became engaged while at college to the daughter of Dr. Scott, Principal of a female school at Oxford. After graduating, he determined to enter upon the study of law. He went to Cincinnati and there read law for two years. At the expiration of that time young Har- rison received the only inheritance of his life-his aunt, dying, left him a lot valued at $800. He regarded this legacy as a fortune, and decided to get married at once, take this money and go to some Eastern town and begin the practice of law. He sold his lot, and, with the money in his pocket, he started out with his young wife to fight for a place in the world. He decided to go to Indian- apolis, which was even at that time a town of promise. He met with slight encouragement at first, making scarcely anything the first year. He worked diligently, applying himself closely to his calling, built up an extensive practice and took a leading rank in the legal profession.
I11 1860, Mr. Harrison was nominated for the position of Supreme Court Reporter, and then be- gan his experience as a stump speaker. He can-
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BENJAMIN HARRISON.
vassed the State thoroughly, and was elected by . a handsome majority. I11 1862 be raised the Seventeenth Indiana Infantry, and was chosen its Colonel. His regiment was composed of the raw- est material, but Col. Harrison employed all his time at first in mastering military tactics and drill- ing his men, and when he came to move toward the East with Sherman, his regiment was one of the best drilled and organized in the army. At Resaca he especially distinguished himself, and for his bravery at Peachtree Creek he was made a Brigadier-General, Gen. Hooker speaking of him in the most complimentary terms.
During the absence of Gen. Harrison in the field, the Supreme Court declared the office of Supreme Court Reporter vacant, and another person was elected to the position. From the time of leaving Indiana with his regiment until the fall of 1864 he had taken no leave of absence, but having been nominated that year for the same office, he got a thirty-day leave of absence, and during that time made a brilliant canvass of the State, and was elected for another term. He then started to rejoin Sherman, but on the way was stricken down with scarlet fever, and after a most trying attack made his way to the front in time to participate in the closing incidents of the war.
In 1868 Gen. Harrison declined a re-election as Reporter, and resumed the practice of law. In 1876 he was a candidate for Governor. Although defeated, the brilliant campaign he made won for him a national reputation, and he was much sought after, especially in the East, to make speeches. In 1880, as usual, he took an active part in the campaign, and was elected to the United States Senate. Here he served for six years, and was known as one of the ablest inen, best lawyers and strongest debaters in that body. With the ex- piration of his senatorial term he returned to the practice. of his profession, becoming the head of one of the strongest firms in the State.
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The political campaign of 1888 was one of the most memorable in the history of our country. The convention which assembled in Chicago in June and named Mr. Harrison as the chief stand- ard-bearer of the Republican party was great in every particular, and on this account, and the at-
titude it assumed upon the vital questions of the day, chief among which was the tariff, awoke a deep interest in the campaign throughout the nation. Shortly after the nomination, delegations began to visit Mr. Harrison at Indianapolis, his home. This movement became popular, and from all sections of the country societies, clubs and delegations journeyed thither to pay their re- spects to the distinguished statesman.
Mr. Harrison spoke daily all through the sum- mer and autumn to these visiting delegations, and so varied, masterly, and eloquent were his speeches that they at once placed him in the fore- most rank of American orators and statesmen. Elected by a handsome majority, he served his country faithfully and well, and in IS92 was noin- inated for re-election; but the people demanded a cliange and he was defeated by his predecessor in office, Grover Cleveland.
On account of his eloquence as a speaker and his power as a debater, Gen. Harrison was called upon at an early age to take part in the dis- cussion of the great questions that then began to agitate the country. He was an uncompromising anti-slavery man, and was matched against some ' of the most eminent Democratic speakers of his State. No man who felt the touch of his blade desired to be pitted with him again. With all his eloquence as an orator he never spoke for ora- . torical effect, but his words always went like bul- lets to the mark. He is purely American in his ideas, and is a splendid type of the American statesman. Gifted with quick perception, a logi- cal mind and a ready tongue, he is one of the most distinguished impromptu speakers in the nation. Many of these speeches sparkled with the rarest eloquence and contained arguments of great weight, and many of his terse statements have already become aphorisms. Original in thought,; precise in logic, terse in statement, yet witha! faultless in eloquence, he is recognized as the sound statesman and brilliant orator of the day. By his first wife, Caroline (Scott) Harrison, he had a son and daughter. In 1896 he married Mrs. Mary (Scott) Dimmick, and they, with their daughter, reside in Indianapolis, Ind., where he has made his home since early manhood.
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WILLIAM MCKINLEY.
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WILLIAM MCKINLEY.
ILLIAM MCKINLEY, who was inaugu- rated President of the United States in IS97, was born in Niles, Ohio, January 29, IS43. The family of which he is a member originated in the west of Scotland, and from there removed to the north of Ireland. According to the fani- ily tradition, James and William MeKinley emi- grated to this country from Ireland and founded the two branches of the family in the United States, one settling in the north, the other in the south. At the time of their arrival, James was twelve years of age. He settled in York County, Pa., where he married and spent his remaining years.
David, son of James, and the great-grandfather of William MeKinley, was born May 16, 1755, and three times enlisted in the service of the colonies during the Revolutionary War, serving seven months after his first enlistment in June, 1776, spending six months at the front in 1777, and again in the following year serving eight months. December 19, 1780, he married Sarah Gray, who was born May 10, 1760, and died October 6, 1814. For fifteen years he lived in Westmoreland County, Pa., and thence removed to Mercer County. One year after the death of his first wife he married Eleanor McLean and about the same time settled in Colum- biana County, Ohio, but afterward made his home in Crawford County, where he died August 8, 1840.
James, grandfather of William Mckinley, was born September 19, 1783, married Mary (or "Polly" ) Rose, and with his family moved to New Lisbon, Ohio, in 1809. Their eldest son, Will- iam, Sr., was born in Mercer County, Pa., November 15, 1807, and in 1827 married Nancy Allison, a woman of noble and strong character and consistent Christian life. For some years he was engaged as manager of iron fur- naces at different places. From Niles he re-
moved to Poland, because of the educational ad- vantages offered by Poland Academy. In IS69 he established his home in Canton, and here he died November 24, IS92. His widow lives at the family residence in Canton, and with her are her daughter, Miss Helen, and two orphan grandehildren.
Of the family of nine children, William, Jr., who was seventh in order of birth, was born during the residence of his parents at Niles, Ohio, Jan- uary 29, 1843. His boyhood years were spent in that place and Poland, where he studied in the academy. At the age of seventeen he entered Allegheny College, but illness caused his return to Poland, and on his recovery he did not return to college, but taught a country school. At the opening of the Civil War, though only eighteen years of age, he immediately wanted to enlist. As soon as he could overcome the objections of his mother, he enlisted, in May of IS61, as a private in Company E, Twenty-third Ohio In- fantry. The regiment was commanded by Col. W. S. Rosecrans, who afterward, as general, led his forces on many a bloody battle field, and the first major was Rutherford B. Hayes, afterward President of the United States. As a gallant soldier Mr. Mckinley soon won promotion, serving for a time as commissary sergeant, later was pro- mioted to the rank of second lieutenant for gal- lantry at Antietam, and then won his way up- ward until, at the close of the war, he was pro- moted to major by brevet. July 26, 1865, after more than four years of hard service, he was inustered out with his regiment.
With Judge Charles E. Glidden, of Mahoning County, Mr. MeKinley began the study of law, which he afterward carried on in the Albany (N. Y.) Law School, and in 1867 was admitted to the bar. Beginning the practice of his pro- fession in Canton, he soon became prominently known among the able attorneys of the city. His
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WILLIAM MCKINLEY.
first connection with political affairs was in 1869, when he was elected prosecuting attorney of Stark County, and this office he held for two years. In 1876 lie was nominated for Congressional honors and was elected to the Forty-fifth Con- gress, afterward by successive re-elections serv- ing for fourteen years. In March of 1890 he ill- troduced tlie celebrated Mckinley tariff bill, - which was passed and became a law. In the fol- lowing year, 1891, he was elected governor of Ohio, and two years afterward was re-elected to that high office, which he filled in such a manner as to cominand the respect not only of his own party-the Republican -- but his political op- ponents as well. The connection of his name with the tariff bill and his prominence in the Re- publican party, together with his force and elo- quence as a speaker, brought him into national fame. In the campaign of 1892, for a period of more than three months, he traveled over a territory extending from New York to Nebraska, making speeches in the interest of the Republi- can platform. Those who heard him speak, whether friends or opponents of his political opinions, cannot but have admired his logical reasoning, breadth of intellect, eloquence of speech and modesty of demeanor. During the campaign of 1894 he made three hundred and seventy-one speeches and visited over three hundred towns, within a period of two months, addressing perhaps two million people.
The tariff issue and all the intricate questions of publie revenue that are interwoven with it, constitute the most complicated problems with which a statesman has to deal. To master them in every detail requires an intellect of the high- est order. That Major Mckinley thoroughly un- derstands these questions is admitted by all who have investigated his official utterances on the subject, beginning with the speech on the Wood tariff bill, delivered in the house of representatives April 15, 1878, and closing with his speech in favor of tlie tariff bill of 1890, which as chairman of the ways and means committee lie reported to the house and which was subsequently passed and is known throughout the world as the Mckinley tariff bill of 1890. He opposed the Wood bill be- eause of a conviction that the proposed measure
would, if enacted, prove a public calamity. For the same reason, in ISS2, he advocated a friendly revision of the tariff by a tariff commission, to be authorized by congress and appointed by the president. Ill ISS4 lie opposed tlie Morrison horizontal bill, which he denounced as ambiguous for a great public statute, and in ISSS he led the forces in the fight against the Mills tariff bill.
As governor of Ohio, his policy was conserva- tive. He aimed to give to the public institutions the benefit of the service of the best man of the state, and at all times upheld the legitimate rights of the workingmen. Recognizing the fact that the problem of taxation needed regulation, in his messages of 1892, 1893 and 1894, he urged the legislature that a remedy be applied. In IS92 lie recommended legislation for the safety and comfort of steam railroad employes, and the following year urged the furnishing of automatic couplers and air-brakes for all railroad cars used in the state.
When, in 1896, the Republican party, in con- vention assembled at St. Louis, selected a man to represent their principles in the highest office within the gift of the American people, it was not a surprise to the public that the choice fell upon Major Mckinley. The campaign that followed was one of the most exciting in the history of the country since the period of reconstruction. Especial interest centered in the fact that the point at issue seemed, not, as in former days, free trade or protection, but whether or not the government should declare for the free coinage of silver. This question divided the voters of the country upon somewhat different lines than the old- time principles of the Republican and Democratic parties and thus made the campaign a memorable one. The supporters of the gold standard main- tained that silver monometallism would precipi- tate a panic and permanently injure the business interests of the country, and the people, by a large majority, supported these principles.
January 25, 1871, Major Mckinley was united in marriage with Miss Ida Saxton, who was born in June, 1847, the daughter of James A. Saxton. Their two children died in 1874, within a short time of each other, one at the age of three years and the other in infaney.
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HARFORD
AND
CECIL COUNTIES
MARYLAND
INTRODUCTORY
HE time has arrived when it becomes the duty of the people of this county to perpetuate the names of their pioneers, to furnish a record of their early settlement, and relate the story of their progress. The civilization of our day, the enlightenment of the age, and the duty that men of the present time owe to their ancestors, to themselves and to their posterity, demand that a record of their lives and deeds should be made. In biographical history is found a power to instruct man by precedent, to enliven the mental faculties, and to waft down the river of time a safe vessel in which the names and actions of the people who contributed to raise this country from its primitive state may be preserved. Surely and rapidly the great and aged men, who in their prime entered the wilderness and claimed the virgin soil as their heritage, are passing to their graves. The number remaining who can relate the incidents of the first days of settlement is becoming small indeed, so that an actual necessity exists for the collection and preservation of events without delay, before all the early settlers are cut down by the scythe of Time.
To be forgotten has been the great dread of mankind from remotest ages. All will be forgotten soon enough, in spite of their best works and the most earnest efforts of their friends to preserve the memory of their lives. The means employed to prevent oblivion and to perpetuate their memory have been in proportion to the amount of intelligence they possessed. The pyramids of Egypt were built to perpetuate the names and deeds of their great rulers. The exhumations made by the archaeologists of Egypt from buried Memphis indicate a desire of those people to perpetuate the memory of their achievements. The erection of the great obelisks was for the same purpose. Coming down to a later period, we find the Greeks and Romans erecting mausoleums and monuments, and carving out statues to chronicle their great achievements and carry them down the ages. It is also evident that the Mound-builders, in piling up their great mounds of earth, had but this idea-to leave something to show that they had lived. All these works, though many of them costly in the extreme, give but a faint idea of the lives and character of those whose memory they were intended to perpetuate, and scarcely anything of the masses of the people that then lived. The great pyramids and some of the obelisks remain objects only of curiosity; the mausoleuins, monuments and statues are crumbling into dust.
It was left to modern ages to establish an intelligent, undecaying, immutable method of perpetuating a full history-immutable in that it is almost unlimited in extent and perpetual in its action; and this is through the art of printing.
'To the present generation, however, we are indebted for the introduction of the admirable system of local biography. By this system every man, though he has not achieved what the world calls greatness, has the means to perpetuate his life, his history, through the coming ages.
The scythe of Time cuts down all; nothing of the physical man is left. The monument which his children or friends may erect to his memory in the cemetery will crumble into dust and pass away; but his life, his achievements, the work lie has accomplished, which otherwise would be forgotten, is perpetuated by a record of this kind.
To preserve the lineaments of our companions we engrave their portraits; for the same reason we collect the attainable facts of their history. Nor do we think it necessary, as we speak only truth of them, to wait until they are dead, or until those who know them are gone; to do this we are ashamed only to publish to the world the history of those whose lives are unworthy of public record.
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HON. JOHN A. J. CRESWELL.
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BIOGRAPHICAL
ON. JOHN A. J. CRESWELL. It may well be a matter of pride to the people of Maryland that the state has given to our country many men of large talents, recognized statesmanship and broad intelligence, men well qualified to lead in public affairs. Among its illustrious sons for many years stood the gentle- man whose name introduces this biographical review, and who was the recipient of offices of honor from the commonwealth and the nation. Alike in the halls of congress and in the national cabinet, he ably represented his fellow-men and championed the cause of right and justice. In presenting to our readers a sketch of his long and eventful life, we are perpetuating the record of one of the most influential men, not alone of Cecil County, but of the state and nation as well.
The Creswell family is of English extraction and has been represented in America since a period very early in the settlement of this country. The name of Robert Creswell is enrolled as one of the subscribers to the company for Virginia previous to 1620, and from him sprang the branch of the family that settled on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Maryland. Col. John Creswell, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, had a brother Robert, who removed to Augusta, Ga., in 1795; his children were six in number: John, who remained in Augusta; Martha, who married John Phinezy, a planter near Augusta; Ann, Mrs. William Simms, of Montgomery, Ala .; Jane M., wife of Gassaway B. Lamar, formerly of Augusta, later of New York City, and she, with six of her children, was lost on the ill-fated
steamer "Pulaski" off the coast of North Caro- lina, June 14, 1836; Samuel, who died without issue; and Mary, who married Gen. George W. Summers, of Augusta. The only child of Mrs. Lamar who escaped that deplorable disaster and shipwreck was Charles Augustus Lafayette, who was killed at Columbus, Ga., in 1865, while serving with conspicuous gallantry as an officer in the Confederate army.
The subject of this sketch was born November 18, 1828, in Port Deposit, Cecil County, Md., a thriving town on the eastern bank of the Susque- hanna River, about five miles from its mouth. The place, prior to its incorporation in 1824, was known as Creswell's Ferry, and the larger part of the town is built on the estate formerly owned by Col. Jolin Creswell. The only child of the latter was John Creswell, who represented his native county of Cecil in the house of delegates of Mary- land, session of 1828-29, and died May 12, 1831, leaving the subject of this sketch, but little more than two years of age, and three infant daughters, to the sole care of their mother, Rebecca E. (Webb) Creswell, eldest daughter of Jonathan and Rachel (Ashie) Webb, of Pine Grove, Lan- caster County, Pa. Mrs. Webb was the grand- daughter of Dr. Daniel Heinrich Esch ( Anglice Ashe or Ash), of Hackenburg, Germany, a physician, who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1741 and was lost at sea in 1747, when returning to his native land to secure an estate to which lie had become entitled in his absence.
Through Jonathan Webb, his maternal grand- father, Mr. Creswell was descended in the fifth
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
generation from Richard and Elizabeth Webb, Long Island and Newport, where she arrived who were prominent and influential members of June 13, 169S. She then visited Boston, Salem, the Society of Friends.
Jonathan Webb's father, James Webb (son of Richard), succeeded his brother, William Webb, as a member of the Provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania. William Webb was a member of that body from 1723 to 1736, and James Webb from 1747 to 1775. Among the many important committees on which James Webb served was the committee of correspondence, which assembled at Philadelphia, July 15, 1774.
After the return of Elizabeth Webb from a previous visit to America, in 1699, the Webbs emigrated from Gloucester, England, to the new world, and settled in Birmingham, Chester County, Pa., near Brandywine, where seventy- five years later was fought one of the most san- guinary battles of the Revolution. Elizabeth Webb was a most zealous and enthusiastic missionary in the cause of Christ, possessing tlie courage and fearlessness of character that fitted her for life in America at that time. In her diary, written in her strongly-marked ehirog- raphy and still preserved, she recounts the details of a voyage she made to America with Mary Rogers as her companion, in 1697, "upon truth's service only." Leaving husband, children and all the comforts of home, she embarked at Bristol November 16, and braved the perils of a winter's voyage across the Atlantic. Courageous as the apostles of old, she stood as a pillar of strength amid the storms, and even when the ship was covered with waves and appeared to be sinking, she inspired by her exhortations and example a renewed fortitude in many who "were in great distress because death seemed to approach near unto them." February 5 they came to anchor within the capes of Virginia and a few days there- after effected a landing. Regardless of the in- clemency of the weather, she immediately started upon her missionary work. Crossing the bay, she traversed the eastern shore from Accomac to Cecil and proceeded through Delaware to Pennsylvania, making her first stop in Phila- delphia, from there going through West and East Jersey, and traveling by water to New York,
Salisbury, Hampton, Dover, Amesbury, Lymm and Scituate, and returning to Boston, hield a "heavenly meeting there," which caused her to write, "It is the day of Boston's visitation after her great cruelty to the servants of the Lord." On the conclusion of her work in that city, she returned southward, crossing Massachusetts, going through Rhode Island, and via the sound to New York, thence to New Jersey, Pennsyl- vania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and fifty miles into Carolina "through the wilderness, the swamps and deep waters." After a journey, filled with hardships so great and perils so ap- palling that it seems almost impossible to have been taken by a woman, she reverted to the place of her debarkation, and took passage on the ship "Elizabeth and Mary," Frederick Johnson, mas- ter, for lierself and companion, Elizabeth Lloyd, a daughter of Thomas Lloyd, who was deputy- governor of Pennsylvania, under William Penn. They set sail March 20, 1699, from the mouth of the Chesapeake, and on the 22d of May landed at Plymouth, "all in good health of body and peace of mind;" in thankfulness for which she piously wrote, "Our souls do bow before the Majesty of the Great God whose power and preserving hand we witnessed to be with us upon the mighty waters." Until her death she was unceasingly engaged in Christian work, without a thought of earthly compensation or reward. Anthony William Boehm, chaplain to Prince George of Denmark, the consort of Queen Anne, counted her among his friends.
The facts we have presented regarding the Creswell and Webb families show that the subject of this biography descended from ancestry in which conscience was as hereditary as intelligence and in which the results of generations of honest lives appear to have been transmitted. To the indirect influences of their lives was due much of the nobility that marked his character, and from them he inherited the liberal impulses that won the admiration of all. His education was thorough and broad, fitting him for the responsibilities of life. In June, 1848, he graduated from Dickin-
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