Portrait and biographical record of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Part 93

Author: Chapman Publishing Company
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: New York, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 906

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Here Colonel Jackson with his family abides from May to November of each year, making fre- quent trips to Baltimore to look after his business interests there. The remainder of the year he spends at his residence in that city, No. 218 West Monument street. From his country home com- munication with the city is easy, as the steamers

stop at his private wharf, while he can also catch the train by crossing the river in his yacht to Ox- ford. Castle Haven is situated nine miles from Cambridge, and only a short distance from the mouth of the Choptank River, whose waters at this point are four or five miles wide. The old colonial residence stands on a gently sloping bluff and commands an excellent view of the river. In early days this was the only point on the Chop- tank where the steamboats stopped, and travelers from Cambridge and all parts of Dorchester County were obliged to drive here to take passage for Baltimore.

The owner of Castle Haven is a native of the Eastern Shore, born September 30, 1849, on a farm situated about five miles from Salisbury, Md., in what was then a portion of Somerset, but is now included within the limits of Wicomico County. He remained on the farm until 1863, and then removed to the town of Salisbury. He was a pupil in the public schools until sixteen years of age, when he entered the employ of E. E. Jackson & Co. (the firm comprising his father, Hugh, and his brothers, E. E. and W. H. Jack- son) and took charge of the mercantile part of their business. In 1870 he was admitted to the firm, and for seven years longer stayed in Salis- bury, at the end of which time the house placed him as head of a branch establishment in Balti- more. This he successfully managed for them until January 1, 1889, when the old firm was dissolved. In 1894 the corporation of the Jack- son Brothers' Company was formed, he becoming a large stockholder in the same. Upon its or- ganization he was made one of the directors, and vice-president of the company. This company has extensive mills for sawing logs in Virginia and North Carolina, whence the raw material is shipped to the three large mills in Salisbury, and is there manufactured into flooring, partition and other finished lumber for builders, and box shooks etc., for the trade.

Upon the organization of the Continental Na- tional Bank of Baltimore, Colonel Jackson be- · caine a large stockholder, was elected a director, and was made president of the institution at the same time, a position which he still occupies.

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He is also a charter member of the Fidelity Trust and Deposit Company, of Maryland, and is one of its directors. I11 ISSI Governor Hamilton ap- pointed him a member of the board of directors of the Maryland State Penitentiary, and he has served sixteen years in this capacity, having been reappointed by Governors McLane, Jackson, Brown and Lowndes. It was chiefly through his efforts that the new penitentiary buildings were started, which when completed will give Mary- land the best and most thoroughly equipped in- stitution of the kind in the United States, if not in the world. In his political affiliations the colonel is Republican.

I11 1872 the marriage of Colonel Jackson and Alice P. Smith, daughter of the late Thomas B. Smith, of Wicomico County, was solemnized. They have two children, a son, John J., and a daugliter, Helen, she being the wife of Hon. James H. Preston, late speaker of the Maryland legislature.

- RANCIS J. HENRY. The subject of this review is one whose history touches the early history of Maryland and whose days have been an integral part of that indissoluble chain which links the early formative period with that of latter-day progress and prosperity. Not alone is there particular interest attaching to his career as one of the pioneers of Dorchester County, but in reviewing his genealogical record we find his lineage tracing back to the colonial history of the nation and to that period which marked the inception of the grandest republic the world has ever known. His grandfather, Hon. John Henry, was one of the most promi- nent factors on the stage of public life in Mary- land in the latter part of the eighteenth century and he and Hon. Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, were the first United States senators to repre- sent his commonwealth in the legislative halls of the nation. His father, John Campbell Henry, was also a leading and influential man. He wedded Mary Nevett Steele, and they became

parents of nine children: John Francis, a lawyer of Cambridge, who died in 1833; James Winfield, a physician of Cambridge and Varina, who died in 1893; Francis Jenkins, the honored subject of this review; Catharine, deceased wife of Dan- iel Lloyd, of Cambridge; Isabela, wife of Dr. Thomas Steele, of Cambridge; Mary, wife of R. T. Goldsborough, of Cambridge; Rider, who married Miss Sutherland, a niece of General Van Dorn, of Mississippi, and lives in Cambridge; Charlotte P., wife of Judge Charles Goldsborough; and Mary, who died in childhood.

Francis J. Henry was born August 13, 1816, and was reared on his father's estate in Cam- bridge. During his youth he was very fond of out-door sports and his love of hunting has re- mained with him throughout his entire life. He still enjoys the chase and can bring down game at long distances without using his eyeglasses, although he is now about eighty-two years of age. He is the picture of a robust old age. His carriage is erect, his cheeks ruddy, his eyes spark- ling and he presents the appearance and vigor of a man many years his junior. He possesses the courteous, chivalrous manner of the old school, is bright and entertaining in conversation and is a typical representative of the southern gentle- man. In the affairs of the county he has been very prominent and has taken a deep interest in all pertaining to its welfare. He was educated in the classical department of the Cambridge Academy, and at the age of seventeen began clerking in a well-known mercantile establish- inent of his native town. The following year he embarked in business on his own account and the enterprise proved very profitable. At the same time he successfully engaged in farming, oper- ating his land with the aid of slaves. He owned forty negroes and by their loss through the Emancipation Act he lost $40,000. But with this exception his career has been a prosperous one and he now has an adequate competency.

Descended from Maryland's best blood, it was natural to him to enter the realms of politics, par- ticularly as he was in close touch with the indus- trial and social life of the day. He was drawn actively into the political field through the solici-

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tation of Hon. Henry Page and ex-Governor Thomas H. Hicks, the war governor of Mary- land, who succeeded in saving the state to the Union. In 1851 he became the first candidate for the office of clerk of the courts, which was inade an elective office by the constitution of 1850, and by continued re-election held that posi- tion for more than twenty-eight years, proving a most efficient, capable and trustworthy official. His popularity is well attested by the fact that he personally knew every voter in Dorchester Coun- ty for many years. His attitude at the beginning of the war was that of an advocate of the Union. He raised a company of one hundred men and per- sonally gave $1,000 for their equipment. His son, John Campbell, took charge of the company and rose rapidly in military distinction, but perceiv- ing that the ulterior object of the war was the freeing of the slaves, he resigned and joined the Confederate service. Our subject up to that time had been a Whig, but he now joined the Dem- ocracy, of which he has since been an ardent advocate. He has always believed that slavery was constitutional and that the correct way to have changed the system would have been by constitutional amendment and by the purchase and liberation of the negroes by the United States government.

Mr. Henry was married August 9, 1836, to Miss Williamina Elizabeth Goldsborough, the youngest and posthumous daughter of Robert Goldsborough, and granddaughter of Charles Goldsborough, of Horns Point. They have nine children: Mary N., wife of John S. Spence, a farmer residing in Secretary, Dorchester County, by whom she has eleven children; John Camp- bell, a manufacturer of New Orleans, who mar- ried Miss Lake, and has four children; Annie, widow of John Steele, who was murdered on the streets of Cambridge about five years ago and at his death left three children; Elizabeth, widow of William T. Goldsborough, of Baltimore, and the mother of two children; Williamina, widow of Daniel S. Muse, and mother of two daughters, now living with her father; Francis J., commis- sioner in chancery and auditor of the court of Dorchester County; Robert G., a lawyer, who is

serving as postmaster of Cambridge, where he lives with his wife, formerly a Miss Muse, and their five children; Nicholas L., who was pay- master in the navy, but is now in the hydro- graphic office in Washington, where he lives with his wife, formerly Nellie Radcliffe, of Cam- bridge, and their five children; and Hampton, a farmer of Dorchester County, who married Miss Le Compte and has five children.

The Henrys were originally Presbyterians, but the family of our subject attends the Episcopal Church. Mr. Henry is one of the venerable and honored citizens of Maryland. Age rests lightly upon him and his latter years are not marked by weakness. Vigorous in body and intellect, he commands the respect and esteem of all, and his life is an example well worthy of emulation.

EORGE W. SPURRY has been one of the most successful farmers of Caroline County ; this, too, notwithstanding the fact that he commenced for himself with a capital of only $1. His energy and industry have been the factors in the accumulation of his present valuable property, lying in the sixth district. At one time his landed possessions were considerably larger than they are now, having aggregated ten hundred and seventy-two acres. At this writing he-is the owner of more than five hundred acres of fine land, devoted mainly to raising farm products.

Mr. Spurry was born in the neighboring state of Delaware, January 25, 1819, and is a son of William and Mary (Griffin) Spurry, both natives of Maryland. He was the youngest son in a fam- ily of ten children and was left an orphan at the early age of thirteen years, in consequence of which his advantages for obtaining an education were extremely limited. He was reared on a farm in Delaware, and stern necessity caused him to learn habits of industry and perseverance, which however, have been of the greatest assistance to him in his work. In youth he learned the trade of a millwright and this occupation he followed for thirty years. Meantime, in 1856, he bought two hundred and fourteen acres lying near Den-

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ton, and liere he engaged in the dairy business, devoting the land largely to pasturage for cattle. In 1843 Mr. Spurry married Adaline Taylor, a native of Delaware. Three children were born of their union, but one alone survives, Mary Jane, wlio is the wife of William E. Saulsbury, a native of Maryland. They reside in Caroline County and are the parents of three children. The fam- ily are faithful members of the Methodist Protest- ant Church, in which Mr. Spurry lias served effi- ciently as a trustee and class-leader. His contri- butions to the church are as liberal as his means will permit, and he not only gives money but also liis time for the advancement of the work of the denomination with which he is identified.

Like many other earnest men who desire their country's good and the welfare of their fellow- men, Mr. Spurry has given careful study to the temperance question, and the consequence is that he is a stanchi Prohibitionist. He works for his party, though with him it is of course a matter of principle rather than any hope of immediate suc- cess. At one time he was its candidate for county treasurer. While his life has had a prosperous course, especially as regards the accumulation of property and the esteein of acquaintances, yet he has had his share of reverses. Doubtless the greatest calamity that has ever befallen him was in 1885, when an accident in a sawmill caused injuries that proved very serious. In order to save his life it was finally decided that amputation of the right limb was necessary, and in 1889 he went to Jefferson Medical Hospital, in Philadel- phia, where the limb was amputated just above the knee. He is a man who occupies a high place in the regard of the people of the third dis- trict and numbers his friends both among the rich and poor of his community.

C APT. W. D. BURCHINAL, whose paternal ancestors came from England with Lord Bal- more's first colony and settled, one branch on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and another in the state of Delaware, resides in Chestertown, and is the present treasurer of Kent County. He

won his title during the late war, when he passed through several of the most arduous and im- portant campaigns. In peace, as in war, he is devoted to his principles and has ever been ready to sacrifice his own welfare to what he deems the good of the majority.

The family of Burchinal is an old and influ- ential one in Delaware, and has been noted for the patriotism of its members and for its representa- tion in the several professions. The captain's grandfather was a distinguished school teacher in Delaware. The father, John Howard, a native of Delaware, was a properous merchant and a dealer in real estate. Removing to Chestertown, he was here engaged in commercial transactions many years. He was a devout and sincere member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. When a young man he married Eliza Burton, a native of Dela- ware, and a daughter of David and Eliza (Spen- cer) Burton, who were members of the Society of Friends, and whose ancestors held a leading part in the early history of the commonwealth. Mrs. Burchinal was a fond and faithful mother to her children, and when she was called upon to lay down life's burdens, she was mourned by all who had come under her sweet influence. The chil- dren were as follows: Mary H., unmarried, is a resident of Chestertown; W. D. is the second child; Elizabeth is the widow of John W. Hines and resides in Baltimore; Joseph J. died soon after reaching his majority; John C., deceased, was a farmer near this place, and left a wife (formerly Miss M. M. Brown) and three children; Anna and Rebecca died when about seventeen years of age; J. Burton is a merchant of Chestertown; and Addie is the wife of Marion de Kalb Smith, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume.

Captain Burchinal was born in Dover, Del., October 4, 1832, and resided in that city until he was seven years of age, when he with his parents went to a farm in Queen Anne's County, Md. Later he was with his father, who carried on a store at the head of the Sassafras River. From 1844 to 1847 he was situated in Odessa, Del., and in 1848 and 1849 resided in Salem, N. J., con- ducting a mercantile business. Then, after a short residence in Millington, Kent County, Md.,

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FRANCIS H. DRYDEN.

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he came to Chestertown. Since 1854 he has been identified with the development and progress of this place, and has been of material assistance in every public enterprise that has been instituted here. About 1858 he began clerking for T. W. Eliason, remaining with him for four years and up to the breaking out of the war.

December 21, 1861, Mr. Burchinal enlisted in Company D, Second Eastern Shore Maryland Infantry. At first he was second lieutenant, but was soon promoted to be adjutant of the regiment and finally rose to the rank of captain, which position he held until the expiration of the serv- ice of the regiment, October 28, 1864. In the spring of 1865 he was appointed quartermaster of the Eleventh Maryland Infantry under Col. John Johannes and served until July, 1865.

After peace had been declared, Captain Burch- inal returned to Chestertown and became inter- ested in the real-estate business. In 1869 he was made inspector of customs of the port of Balti- more under John L. Thomas, Jr., and afterward became assistant cashier of customs, which posi- tion he resigned in 1872 and returned to Chester- town. In 1876 he went back to Baltimore as deputy collector of customs, serving during the administration of President Hayes. In 1881 he resumed farming in Kent County. In 1883 he was elected to the senate of Maryland for four years and in 1887 was re-elected for another four years, serving the people most acceptably for eight years. In 1890 he was appointed surveyor of the port of Baltimore, in which place he officiated for four years to the entire satisfaction of everyone concerned. After his return home in 1895 he was elected county treasurer, and is now acting in that capacity. In these numerous and varied positions he has always manifested the same fidelity to duty, promptness, energy and zeal in every particular that have always char- acterized his work, whether in private or public life.

May 13, 1868, Mr. Burchinal married Mrs. Margaret A., widow of Capt. William H. Brown, of Chestertown. She was born in Kent County and here grew to womanhood, receiving excel- lent advantages in an educational way under the

care of her parents, Arthur and Juliana Merritt. She died June 29, 1894.

For thirty years Captain Burchinal has been one of the leading members of the Republican party in Kent County. He has attended several conventions of the party and was present in Chi- cago in 1868 as a delegate, assisting in the nomi- nation of Grant; again, twenty years later, 1888, he assisted in the nomination of Harrison, in the capacity of delegate. It can be truthfully said of the captain that he has ever been one of the most liberal of party contributors, and noted for acts of charity towards those in need.

RANCIS H. DRYDEN is one of the most enterprising business men of Pocomoke City, Worcester County. During the years that have elapsed since he located here he has been interested in various local industries, but at the present time is chiefly concerned in real-estate transactions. He is vice-president of the Na- tional Home-seekers Association, the office and headquarters of which are at No. 112 Dearborn street, Chicago, Ill. Our subject deals largely in farms and plantations in Maryland and Vir- ginia, and is a reliable man of affairs.

The birthplace of F. H. Dryden is about three miles distant from Pocomoke City, across the line, in Somerset County. The date of the event is May 13, 1844. He lived on a farm until he was fifteen years old, when he went to Princess Anne and entered the employ of Henry King as a clerk in his store. Four years passed in that manner, at the end of which time he came to Pocomoke City and was a clerk for I. H. Merrill for a year or more. Having been careful of his earnings he now had a modest capital which he invested in the business, becoming a member of the firm, which a little later was known as Dickinson, Merrill & Dryden. Altogether Mr. Dryden was in business with Mr. Merrill for fifteen years, and at length they carried on three separate stores. In 1879 he sold his interest in tliese enterprises and invested the proceeds in fertilizers. This

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branch of trade occupied him some seven years, he having agencies in this place and in Norfolk, Va. From 1879 to 1895 he was a member of the drug firm of Lloyd, Dryden & Blaine, of Pocomoke City, but for the past ten years lie has confined himself exclusively to real-estate transac- tions.

AMES LATIMER BANNING is engaged in farming and fruit culture on Tred Avon River, on the farm Avondale, a remnant of the extensive landed estate formerly held by this once large family in Talbot and adjoining coun- ties. So far as known he is the last on the East- ern Shore of Maryland bearing the family name. He was born in Wilmington, Del., in 1848, and is the son of Henry Geddes Banning, who was born at Avondale in 1816, and Emily, daughter of John Eschenburg, and granddaughter of Cæsar A. Rodney.

The following outline, hastily compiled by one who never before gave more than incidental thought to the early history of a family, is largely obtained from such incomplete portions of old manuscripts and other data as could be hurriedly collected, and which no one has heretofore taken the trouble to arrange in order, much less pub- lish; and several old manuscripts have not been received in time for this article. Henry Geddes Banning was the son of Freeburn Ban- ning, who was born in 1777 and died at Avon- dale in1 1826, and Sarah, a daughter of Capt. Henry Geddes, of the United States navy, and granddaughter of James Latimer, of Delaware. Freeburn Banning was a United States naval officer under Captain Geddes, and was the younger son of Jeremiah Banning of the Isthmus, the older son being Robert; there was one daugh- ter also, who left descendants. Freeburn was once impressed, against his will, on board a Brit- ish ship; opportunity offering, he secreted himself in a coil of rope on board an American vessel until at a safe distance.

"Jeremiah Banning of the Isthmus," as he was

known, was born in Talbot County in 1733, and died about 1797. He was a man of uncommon traits, and left a short written history of his time and surroundings, his clearness as a writer making it a matter of regret that he did not write much more. Portions of his "journal," as he called it, have at times been given for publi- cation, while other portions have always been suppressed on account of personalities (no doubt common property then, but now forgotten) re- flecting upon people whose descendants now stand high socially. His journal and other records, now worm-eaten and yellow with age, are still preserved and are of historical interest, as his reminiscences are of the time when Oxford "looked with commiseration on her upstart sis- ter, Baltimore," when "not one person in five hundred," as he expressed it, "had ever heard of the Ohio River," and when nearly all manu- factured articles, "saddles, and even shoes for the negroes," were imported, etc. For twenty- one years he very actively and successfully en- gaged in business as sea captain, importer, slip- per, merchant, etc., crossing the ocean many times to various ports of the old world; then retired to the Isthmus, the oldest Banning homestead now known of in Maryland, but not now in possession of the family.

The Isthmus house was standing till within two or three years, though so old that it is known to have been newly roofed more than a century ago; a typical old hipped-roof Maryland home- stead of the olden time, in which probably as much of bounteous hospitality was dispensed in the course of its long history as in any other house in a state where hospitality was habitual, a habit that became second nature, until Mary- land became notorious for its bounty and its wel- come. If the walls of the old Isthmus house could have spoken what was uttered within them, a history of Maryland more complete in detail than any ever written could no doubt have been compiled. Jeremiah added the farm Avondale to his estate by purchase, not later than 1797, and it was the home of Freeburn Ban- ning after he resigned from the navy.

In 1773 Jeremiah Banning retired to the Isth-

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mus, but not to quiet indolence. "The spirit of '76" was already strong, and, like others of the Bannings or their connections, he became an act- ive American partisan. His old ivory-handled sabre, as colonel of militia in the Revolution, is still preserved, as are numerous household relics marked "J. B." (his or his father's), with rare old china, cut glass, silver and mahogany, indi- cating a life of luxurious ease; while a remnant of his library, marked "Jere Banning," indicates literary tastes, at a primitive time when what would now be considered even an ordinary edu- cation was the exception. Jeremiah had two brothers, Henry and Anthony, the latter of whom resided in Chestertown, Md. All three were con- sidered men of large means for that time; they were the sons of James and Jane Banning, and family tradition has it that James was the first of the name to come from England. Jane, becon1- ing a widow, married one Nicholas Golds- borough, who dying in 1756 (presumably of small-pox judging by an incidental remark in Jeremiah's old journal) made his three stepsons his heirs.

Henry Geddes Banning is the only surviving child of Freeburn, and has been identified with Wilmington, Del., residing there nearly all his life. For more than twenty-five years he has been president of the old Bank of Delaware there. Emily Banning, née Eschenburg, a devoted wife and mother, departed this life September 13, 1897, a victim of that dread malady, paralysis. · Her bright mind made her well known as a rep- resentative Delaware woman, and for some years, and up to the time of her death, she was presi- dent of the Society of Colonial Dames of Dela- ware. James Latimer Banning and John H. Banning are the two children of the above. The latter, with his wife Harriet, née Tybout, reside in Delaware.

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Portrait and biographical record of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Part 93

Author: Chapman Publishing Company Publication date: 1898 Publisher: New York, Chapman pub. co. Number of Pages: 906

Author: Chapman Publishing Company
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: New York, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 906