USA > Maryland > Portrait and biographical record of the Sixth congressional district, Maryland V. 2 > Part 10
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Richard Frazee, father of R. T. Frazee, whose name heads this sketch, was born in Allegany County, Md., in 1801, and was occupied in farm- ing hereabouts as long as he lived. He was con- sidered one of the representative men of this section in his day and was loved and honored by all who knew him. He died at the age of sixty- two years. His political faith was that set forth by the Republican party platform. He was mar- ried in 1830 to Miss Harriet Green, daughter of Richard Thomas Green, of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She is still living on the old home- stead, about three and a-half miles from Friends- ville, and though eighty-eight years of age, is remarkably bright and active in mind and body.
Of her six children, our subject is the young- est, and the others are: Emily, Maggie E., Mary A., Eliza M. and Jonathan (who died while in the army in 1862). Mrs. Frazee comes from a pio- neer family in this state and county. Her great- grandfather, Richard Green, served in the French and Indian war in colonial times, and in the prog- ress of the Revolutionary war he was captured by the Indians. While the savages were taking him across the river in a canoe, Mr. Frazee noticed that one of his captors was for an instant relaxed in his vigilance, and seizing his gun the white man shot one of the others, and then with
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ALEXANDER R. HAGNER.
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the butt of his weapon struck the remaining oc- cupant of the boat and threw him into the river, where he was drowned.
Richard Thomas Frazee was born in Friends- ville in 1844, and lived upon a farm until 1878, when he went to Confluence, Pa., where he be- came the proprietor of the Riverside and Sterner Houses, having them in charge some ten years. Then returning to this, his old home, he resumed agricultural pursuits, and followed that vocation exclusively for four years. He has been very fortunate in his connection with the Crawford House and commands a lucrative patronage. His right of franchise he wields for the benefit of the Republican party. In 1873 he married Miss Elvira Ryland, daughter of Sylvester Ryland.
LEXANDER R. HAGNER. A resident of Hagerstown, Mr. Hagner is well known not only in this city, but throughout the state. At the bar of Hagerstown and in the higher courts of Maryland, with which he has been identified since 1882, he has won prominence by his erudition and ability. In the conduct of his cases he has won the reputation of a man well versed in the law. His quick perceptive faculties enable him to readily master any principle of the law and also to discern the motives and purposes of human nature. In addition to his private practice, he is attorney for a number of corpora- tions and the Second National Bank.
Mr. Hagner is a member of an old and honored family of Maryland. His grandfather, Peter V. Hagner, was an auditor of the United States from the period covering the administration of Andrew Jackson to that of James Buchanan. One of the sons of the grandfather was Judge A. B. Hagner, of the supreme court of the District of Columbia; another was Richard H., who served as state's attorney in Calvert County for several terms and in other ways has been prominent in professional and public life. He married Annie M., daughter Dr. Hungerford, of Calvert County, a large land
and slave owner. Mr. Hagner is now seventy- seven and his wife sixty-seven years of age. Both are earnest Christians and consistent members of the Episcopal Church. They are the parents of four children, those besides our subject being Thomas H., who is connected with the Northern Central Railroad; Annie F., wife of William N. Atwell, of Baltimore; and Daniel M., who died at thirty-three years of age.
Born in Calvert County, Md., October 1, 1858, the subject of this sketch has known no other home than this state and has never had a desire to leave the old commonwealth and cast in his fortunes with strangers in a strange community. From an early age he determined to become an attorney and his studies were directed toward that end. He read law with Hon. Alexander Ran- dall and Judge A. B. Hagner, a firm of noted Maryland lawyers. For his legal studies he had laid a solid foundation by a fine classical educa- tion, having attended St. John's College at Ann- apolis until his graduation in 1880; and during his senior year he won the gold medal given by Bishop Pinkney of the diocese for the best essay in metaphysics.
Since 1882 Mr. Hagner has been engaged in practice at Hagerstown. He has become promi- nently known as one of the leaders of the Repub- lican party in his locality, and as president of the Republican Club of Hagerstown. Twice he was a candidate for state's attorney, and the second time he came within four votes of receiving the nomination, although two hundred and fifty ballots were cast. In 1896 he was a candidate to represent the sixth congressional district of Mary- land in congress, and in the convention of his party at Oakland he received twelve votes, (when thirteen would have given him the nomination) for several hundred ballots. The convention continued in session four days and nights and adjourned without making a nomination, but on reconvening at Rockville, he was defeated. In the fall of 1897 he was chairman of the Re- publican county central committee, a position of trust and responsibility, in which he rendered most satisfactory service. In May, 1898, he was appointed by Governor Lowndes one of the board
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of directors of the Maryland House of Correction. In addition to his other interests he is a director of the Hagerstown Land Company, which has been largely instrumental in bringing the different manufacturing industries to this place.
June 26, 1890, Mr. Hagner married Leah B., daughter of Dr. T. W. Simmons, of Hagerstown. They have three children, Alexander Randall, Jr., Florence B. and Louisa Harrison, all young and at home. The family are connected with the Episcopal Church, in which Mr. Hagner is a vestryman.
ARRETT V. DIXON. For seventeen years this sterling citizen of Garrett County has owned and carried on a large and valuable farm in the Second District, one mile from the town of Friendsville. He is a practical agricult- urist, understanding thoroughly everything per- taining to the proper management of a farm, and everything about his homestead bears evidence of his constant care and attention. Beginning life a poor boy, he has gradually worked his way up- ward to a position of an assured competence, and justly enjoys the respect of his associates and neighbors.
The father of our subject was Edward Dixon, a native of Mineral County, Va. He was a wealthy planter, as fortunes went in those days, and owned large estates at one time. He died when in the prime of life, being but forty years of age when his labors were brought to a close. His father, Joseph Dixon, was a pioneer farmer of Mineral County, and lived to the extreme age of one hundred and six years. Edward Dixon married Mary Wilson, daughter of Thomas Wil- son, and nine children came to bless their union. Mrs. Dixon was nearly fourscore years old at the time of her demise.
Garrett V. Dixon was born in Mineral County, Va., upon the parental homestead, in 1836, and there his two first years were spent. He was then brought to this state by his parents and
grew to manhood in Allegany (now Garrett) County. "He mastered the common branches of learning in the schools of that neighborhood, and during the war removed from Deer Park, his for- mer place of residence, to a farm near Accident, this county. He carried on a good farm there for a period of seventeen years, and in 1881 he was enabled to purchase the piece of property known as the Adam Sawyer or Mullen farm. There are three hundred acres in the place, and it is well adapted for general farming and stock- raising. Politically Mr. Dixon is a strong Re- publican, and takes a lively interest in public affairs, though he has never been an aspirant to official distinction. A valued member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he has served as a steward and trustee for some time, and has al- ways given his means and influence toward the maintenance of righteousness, temperance and brotherly love.
In 1861 Mr. Dixon married Frances Herrin, and of the thirteen children born to them, all save two survive. In order of birth they are as follows: Darius McClelland, a merchant and member of the firm of Dixon & Kilso, of Oak- land, Garrett County; James; Winona, wife of George Herrin; Mary E., Mrs. Elmer Green; Arthur, William D., Marshall E., Stella T., Asa V., John T. and Frances May.
HRISTIAN F. HETZEL, justice of the peace, and a well-known resident of Cum- berland, was born in Goeppingen, Wurtem- berg, Germany, September 25, 1838. His father, Philip Joshua, was born in the same dis- trict January 1, 1809, and received excellent educational advantages. Having learned the tailor's trade, he traveled in the principal countries of Europe, working at that occupation, and in that way he not only acquired a knowledge of the trade and its requirements in different coun- tries, but he also gained an excellent idea of life in Vienna, Berlin, Berne, Paris and other prom-
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inent continental cities. On his return to Germany he settled at Goeppingen, where he remained in business until 1844, and then, ac- companied by his family, came to America. He remained in New York until 1850, and then came to Cumberland, where he followed his trade until his death in 1871. In politics he was a Demo- crat and active in advancing the principles of the party, but never sought office. He was a mem- ber of the German Lutheran Church.
In Germany, January 15, 1835, Philip Joshua Hetzel married Margaret Yauss, daughter of John Jacob Yauss, who lived in the same locality as himself. Their children were as follows: Christina Matilda, deceased, who was born Janu- ary 11, 1836, and married John G. Bauer, at one time sheriff of Allegany County, Md .; Caroline Fredericka, deceased, who was born July 12, 1837, and married John Appel, of Cumberland; Christian F .; Barbara, born January 22, 1840, died in 1846; Maria J., born May 29, 1842, now the wife of George F. Schafer, of Cumberland; Anna M., who died in infancy; Gottlieb Eman- uel, born October 27, 1845, and died in infancy; Christian G., also deceased in infancy; John Joshua, who was born February 1, 1849, and resides in New York City.
The paternal grandfather of our subject, Christian Frederick Hetzel, was born in Barten- bach, Tuebingen, April 3, 1766. He first married Maria Dorothea Yauss, whose father was the school-teacher in his town, a position then very important and one that required not only an ex- 'ceptional education, but also a government appointment. After her death he married a sec- ond time, being united October 18, 1796, with Anna Kreeb, who was our subject's grandmother and died November 15, 1855.
When our subject was brought to this country he was a child of seven, unable to speak the English language. His education has been ac- quired principally through his unaided efforts and by contact with the world. When twelve years of age he left home and began to work for Lowndes & Cramer, proprietors of a general store in Cumberland, with whom he worked without compensation for more than a year. He re-
mained with them from 1850 to 1859, and in that time worked himself up until he was head clerk in the establishment. In October, 1859, he re- signed his position and went to Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the mercantile business with his brother-in-law, remaining there until 1868. On his return to Cumberland he bought out a store here and for a time was in partner- ship with John G. Bauer, but bought out his partner in 1880, and continued alone until 1884. In the meantime he became a silent partner in the firm of H. Gerdemann & Co., which connec- tion proved quite remunerative. In 1890 he sold out his interest, having been appointed United States gauger for this district, a position that he held for four years and three months.
In 1894 Mr. Hetzel went to Georgia for the United States Leather Company, and was there for a year, attending to their interests. He then took charge of his brother's store in Pennsyl- vania, where he remained from July, 1895, to April, 1896, then returned to Cumberland, join- ing his family here. Since then he has served as a magistrate, to which position he was appointed by Governor Lowndes. In politics he is a Re- publican. In 1860 he was appointed postmaster for Rainsburg, Pa., and held the position until 1864, when he resigned to go into the service of the Union. At Carlisle, Pa., he met a young man named Kelly, eighteen years of age, who offered to volunteer in his place, and who was ac- cepted, enlisting and remaining in service until the expiration of the time, without receiving a wound in battle. In 1866 he was elected bur- gess (mayor) for the town of Rainsburg.
After coming to Cumberland, in 1871-72, Mr. Hetzel served as a member of the city council. In 1873 he was city treasurer, handling $50,000 in bonds for the floating debt; $90,000 in bonds for the city hall, and.over $65,000 of regular city revenue, all of which caused much extra work during his term. Both in 1874 and ISSo he was a candidate for mayor of Cumberland, but was defeated by W. A. Withers and J. W. Walton by small majorities. February 11, 1884, the mayor and city council of Cumberland appointed him a trustee for the sinking fund of the city.
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In 1894 he was appointed postmaster at Flint- stone, Ga., which position he held from the first to the middle of the year 1895. In 1881 he was elected to the state legislature and served in the session of 1882 with such credit to himself that he was re-elected the following year. During his membership in the legislature he assisted on many important committees, the principal one being the committee on corporations. April 20, 1896, he was commissioned justice of the peace, to which office he was again appointed in 1898.
Mr. Hetzel has been president, vice-president, and treasurer of a number of building associa- tions. Fraternally an Odd Fellow, he is a member of Chosen Friends' Lodge No. 34, En- campment No. 23, and Colfax Rebekah Degree No. 1. He was the first to urge the establish- ment of a Rebekah degree in the state. For twelve years, or until he resigned on going south, he was district deputy grand master for the Odd Fellows' lodges at Cumberland. He was a mem- ber of the grand lodge for a number of years. In religious faith he is a Lutheran.
November 3, 1859, Mr. Hetzel married Mar- garet C. James, daughter of George James, of Rainsburg, Pa. They became the parents of eight children, namely: Maud, who married G. Stanley Butler, of Cumberland; Sarah M., wife of Dr. William F. Twigg, of Cumberland; George Howard, who is in business in Cumberland; Matil- da B., wife of Webb Blackwell, also of this city; Edgar B., of Indianapolis, Ind .; Carl C., in busi- ness in Cumberland; Anna V .; and Bancroft, who is connected with his brothers in business.
The public-school system has a friend in Mr. Hetzel. His own lack of education has made him desirous that the children of this generation may have all the advantages which he was denied, and for this reason he has labored inde- fatigably to advance the interests of the schools. He served as school trustee for twelve years prior to going to Georgia. During that term of service he never permitted politics to enter into the work, but sought the best man for the posi- tion, irrespective of political ties. Among his most valued possessions is a souvenir, an ancient Bible, that has been handed down to him. It
was printed in 1720 and is in German, the trans- lation of which was commenced in 1522 and completed in 1534. A large volume, 11X15, it contains over twelve hundred pages, printed on a paper that is very well preserved, considering its age. The book has been re-bound in pigskin, but even this shows to a considerable extent the ravages of time.
ENRY JOHN COSENS, D. V. S., who was appointed horse and cattle inspector for Washington County in 1896, is of English birth and was a British subject during the period of the Civil war, and for three years was a veter- inary surgeon in the Confederate service. He is a graduate of the Royal Veterinary College of London and is thoroughly master in his chosen profession. He came to the United States just prior to the breaking out of the war, locating in Stanton, Va., and since 1864 he has made his home in Hagerstown. During his service in the southern army he had frequent conversations with most of the noted leaders of their forces, among these having been Generals Lee, Longstreet, Im- boden, Stewart and "Stonewall" Jackson. He once rode all night long to meet with the earnest wish of the last-named officer that he might treat his horse, and was successful in effecting a cure of the noble animal. At one time or another he was called upon to treat the horses of the above- named generals and many others of equal fame.
The paternal grandfather of the doctor bore the name of Edmund Cosens. The parents of our subject were Henry John and Frances ( Rud- wick) Cosens, the former of whom died in 1860, at the age of fifty-eight years, and the latter in 1855, when in her fifty-seventh year. The father was a farmer, owning one of the largest estates in Sussex, England, his property adjoining that of the Duke of Richmond. Mr. Cosens was well known to every one in the shire as he was an ex- tensive stock and grain raiser and frequently sent large shipments to London. He was very pros-
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perous and influential and stood very high in the estimation of his acquaintances. The fine old manor house in which he resided has been in the possession of the family for over two hundred years and is one of the notable landmarks of the county. Mr. Cosens was the supervisor of the poor and occupied other official positions in his community. Both he and his good wife were strictly orthodox, belonging to the Church of England. Of their seven children, Fanny is the wife of Blake Duke, a farmer of Little Hampton, England; Alfred, who died in 1879, was about forty-eight years of age; Cornelius is living on a homestead in Hampshire, England; Emily died at the age of twenty-one, unmarried; Anna C. is the wife of Thomas Wackford of the same parish as is her brother Cornelius; and Eliza is the wife of a Mr. Harrison, of the British navy.
Henry John Cosens was born in Chichester, Sussex, England, March 23, 1837. He was edu- cated at a boarding school in Little Hampton, under the tutelage of Professor Grix, and re- mained on the farm until he was seventeen. He was then apprenticed to Jeffrey Dawtry, a gradu- ate of the Royal Veterinary College of London, and was under his direction four years. Subse- quently he went to the well-known institution just mentioned and graduated therefrom in 1860. That same year he came to this country and has since devoted himself assiduously to his profes- sional practice. He enjoys a reputation second to none in this portion of the state in his depart- ment, and it was an outcome of this feeling that led to his being appointed to the responsible posi- tion which he is at present holding. He and his family are members of St. John's Episcopal Church.
May 9, 1859, Mr. Cosens married Miss Georg- . ina, daughter of John Edward Gooch. Mrs. Cosens is one of nine children and was born in Scotland, March 16, 1843. Her brothers and sisters are as follows: James, a silk merchant of London; Maria, who died unmarried; Henrietta, Mrs. R. V. Horton, who was killed in a railway accident in 1863, while the babe in her arms was uninjured; Elizabeth, who married James In- gram and died in Sydney, Australia; Jane, wife
of Dr. J. Webley, of England; Harriet, deceased, formerly wife of Thomas Ward; Anna, Mrs. George Bond, who is sleeping her last sleep in Holly Wood Cemetery near the resting place of Jefferson Davis; and John Edward, who died of cholera and is buried in the Liverpool Ceme- tery. The mother of this large family was Hannah Widgery in her girlhood, and her mar- riage was solemnized in St. George's Church, Hanover Square, London, one of the wealthiest and most fashionable churches in the world. Her father was a game-keeper and had nine men under his supervision.
To the union of the doctor and wife ten chil- dren were born, viz .: George Albert, a machin- ist of this city; Henry John, Jr., a veterinary surgeon; John Hampden, a machinist; Florence; Clarence Adolphus; Walter Alfred, and Anna Victoria, all at home; Robert Henry and James Alfred, who died with diphtheria in Baltimore while on a visit there with their parents, only a few days apart; and Margaret Pope, who died at the age of seventeen months, October 25, 1885.
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) APT. ROBERT C. BAMFORD, of Hagers- town, formerly a member of the state legis- lature and sheriff of Washington County, was born March 27, 1831, near Sharpsburg, on what was a part of the Antietam battlefield. His father, Henry, who was a native of County Ty- rone, in the north of Ireland, emigrated to Amer- ica at seventeen years of age, in company with John Brinn, the owner of the Antietam iron works near Sharpsburg. In these works he was employed as overseer and also became the owner of an interest in the company, with which he re- mained during the greater part of his life. He died in 1868, at the age of seventy-eight. In re- ligious belief he was an active member of the Lutheran Church, while in politics he was an old- line Whig.
The captain's mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Wilcox, was born in Frederick County,
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Md., and died at the home of her son, Robert C., to take his parents west, but while there the war at the age of eighty-four years. She was a broke out and he resolved to serve his country. He resigned his position, with its $1,800 salary, and organized a company for service, but they did not enter the army. Later he assisted in or- ganizing Company H, First Maryland Infantry, in which he was first lieutenant for a short time. but afterward captain of the company from April, 1862, until mustered out in November, 1864. His term of service covered three years and three months. In January, 1861, he and one hundred picked men were ordered to run a telegraph line from Hagerstown to Hancock, Md. At that time Jackson was making his raid through Virginia and they drove the Federal soldiers across the river into Maryland. After the regiment was or- ganized it was ordered to Winchester, Va., where the men bore a brave part in the battle. They also took part in the siege of Harper's Ferry. where General Miles surrendered September 16. 1862. daughter of John Wilcox, who came from Eng- land to America in young manhood and served as a private in the War of 1812. In religious views she was a Lutheran. In her family there were ten children, but all are deceased excepting our subject and his brother, Henry Augustus, now living in Harrisburg, Pa. The boyhood days of our subject were passed at Sharpsburg, where he was for a short time a pupil in the sub- scription schools. His education, however; was mostly gained by self-culture. At the age of eighteen he began an apprenticeship to the car- penter's trade with Aaron Frye, at Sharpsburg, under whom he worked for two years, and then went to Cumberland, where he was employed at his trade for three months. His next position was with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Com- pany, in the construction of bridges. Through careful study of that department of carpentering he became a master bridgebuilder.
After three years in building bridges in Mary- land he was sent to Ohio by W. W. Baldwin, who was the patentee of an iron and wooden bridge for railroads. He had charge of the building of a bridge of four spans across the Muskingum River at Zanesville, a large bridge, double track, five hundred and fifteen feet long, this being his first work of responsibility. Upon the comple- tion of the bridge he was offered a position as supervisor of bridges, at a salary of $1,200 per year, and this he accepted. At the expiration of a year he was promoted to be roadmaster of the same road, his salary being $1;800. Heremained in that position from 1853 until 1859, when he was engaged by Baldwin, Clark & Co., of Balti- timore, to put up bridges for the Havana & Matanzas Railroad in Cuba. He went to Cuba, where he received a salary of $10 per day and all expenses. He superintended the erection of six bridges, the work taking eight months' time.
On his return to the United States Captain Bamford went to Cambridge, Ohio, the home of the parents of his wife, Margaret E. Hiatt, whom he had married there June 2, 1857. In the spring of 1861 he came to Sharpsburg, expecting
In that engagement Captain Bamford was taken prisoner. He was sent to Annapolis and paroled for six months, after which he was exchanged and sent to the lower Potomac. From March until June he was stationed at the mouth of the Patuxon River, where he was provost-martial on the boat George Wimes. Next he was ordered to Piney Point, and from there took a boat for Baltimore. On the morning of July 2 he formed with the other soldiers in line of battle on the field at Gettysburg, and participated in the fight- ing on the second and third days, receiving three slight flesh wounds. Five balls struck his cloth- ing, all at about the same time, while he was on the skirmish line, but fortunately none of them penetrated his flesh.
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