USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 49
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In 1861 Mr. Murdoch was filling a theatrical engagement in the South, but the coming storm of the Rebellion warned him to leave. He was present at and a witness of the first battle of Bull Run, and subsequently made a partially suc- cessful effort to raise a regiment, which was defeated by the expiration of the allotted time and the five companies that he had raised being transferred to complete other regiments. His first real participation in the war was as a scout under the orders of Secretary Stanton, with Captain's pay and rations. On receipt of information of the raid of Fitz-Hugh Lee, who had burned the army supply trains outside of Washington, Secretary Stanton ordered Captain Mur- doch to scout as near the enemy as possible and ascertain his strength, as all reports were greatly exaggerated; for this service Mr. Stanton highly compli- mented him.
In 1862 Colonel Wood, who was in command of the Old Capitol Prison, then greatly overcrowded with Confederate prisoners, discovered a plot for the general release of the prisoners and applied in great haste to Secretary Stanton for a cavalry regiment. That official directed Captain Murdoch, who was then doing patrol duty in Washington, to take three men and go at once with Colonel Wood and help delay the rising. Colonel Wood's judicious firmness and assertion
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that a regiment of cavalry surrounded the prison dismayed the ringleaders and nipped the emcute in the bud. A regiment of cavalry did arrive, and the colonel then informed the prisoners the signal would not be given, as the leaders of the plot were all in irons.
In the same year, with a small mounted force of scouts, he patrolled the south shore of the Potomac from Alexandria to Mount Vernon, capturing the Marylanders, who, taking advantage of dark nights and a fair wind, would dart out of the little creeks in canoes with a sail as big as a table-cloth, and in a few minutes would land their goods on the south side. In performing this duty he had frequent encounters with Mosby's guerillas, who swarmed in that locality. In this scouting his party lost one killed and two taken prisoners. One of the latter, named Sherman, was confined in Castle Thunder, and, being a Virginian, was sentenced to be hung as a spy, which was only prevented by a threat of retaliation on the part of Secretary Stanton. The seouts petitioned the Secretary of War to send to Richmond a part of $100,000 in Confederate money which they had captured at different times, to make him comfortable. This was done, and the rebel authorities agreed to accept it for that purpose, provided they were given the control of the money in order to prevent its being used to bribe his guards.
On one occasion, when the enemy's flag could be seen in two places from the dome of the Capitol, the scouts were returning with a number of prisoners after an absence of three days spent within the enemy's lines. Among the prisoners were eight guides who had been of great service to the Confederates in their raids near Washington. It was just before daylight; the night was very dark, and the party had unknowingly reached the Union defences at the south end of the Long Bridge, when they were twice challenged by a sentinel. Worn out and half asleep in their saddles they had not heard it, when the click of twenty musket locks awakened Captain Murdoch, and the response, "A friend," spas- modically uttered, saved them from a volley. The outpost was on the alert, having just been warned against the probability of a sudden attack.
In 1863 Captain Murdoch was appointed Inspector of the Quartermaster's Department, under the orders of Col. C. Tompkins. His inspections embraced corrals, stables, repair shops, granaries, mess-houses and herds of horses and mules on the grazing farms near Washington, there being a part of the time as many as thirty thousand animals in the department, from which were selected the cavalry and artillery horses and the wagon mules. While holding this posi- tion, he was frequently ordered to the different armies with supplies that were required in great haste. On one occasion he was despatched to Sheridan's army with supplies that were much needed, guarded by two regiments of infantry. They passed through Harper's Ferry, entering the valley of the Shenandoah, where they found guerillas in great numbers. As they left Hall Town, Captain Buchanan was murdered by them. The supply train was a long one, and the colonel in command soon felt the want of cavalry, as the fact had become known
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to the guerillas that the paymaster was with the train with nearly two million of dollars. There were about thirty officers, all mounted, who were going to join their regiments, and the colonel requested them to form a company, and help keep his flanks clear of the guerillas and give him notice of any attack. Captain Ilaycock was chosen captain, and he appointed Captain Murdoch as second in command. The party had several skirmishes with the enemy, and, when about twenty-five miles from Harrisonburg, the commanding officer became alarmed and ordered the volunteer guard to push ahead and notify General Sheridan of the danger that the supply train was in. They had reached about half the dis- tance when Captain Haycock called a council and refused to go any further. Captain Murdoch, with fifteen of the party, determined to push on at all hazard, and by a sudden dash they surprised and captured a party of infantry at a farm house near the road. They carried to General Sheridan the important informa- tion that his cavalry were burning all the barns in his rear, which was a misap- prehension of his orders. Captain Murdoch was near by when General Meigs' son, Lieutenant Meigs, was shot by guerillas, and he was in General Sheridan's tent the morning after he gave, in retaliation, an order for the burning of the houses in the vicinity of the place where the lieutenant was killed. Those whose houses had been burned crowded around the tent clamorous for relief; but all the general would consent to do was to grant them rations and send them to the North. On the return of the Union forces down the valley, the destruction of the barns was resumed. By interceding with General Sheridan, Captain Mur- doch had the pleasure of saving the barn of a Mr. Miller, whose wife was at the point of death, and who had shown kindness to the Union soldiers wounded at Mount Jackson.
In the second attack on Washington Captain Murdoch had arrived from the army before Petersburg a few hours after the troops under General Rucker had marched out of Washington, to occupy the rifle-pits that connected the forts. The roads were all closely guarded, and, as he had no time to procure a pass, he mounted his horse, and when he reached the guards put spurs to him, and waving his official papers which he had brought from the army over his head he was taken for a bearer of despatches and permitted to pass. When he arrived at the rifle-pits he tendered his services to General Rucker as a volunteer aide.
During the siege of Petersburg he was despatched to City Point with a stcamer and two barges loaded with war materials. In the night when off the Wolf Trap Shoals, in Chesapeake Bay, one of the barges was run into by a vessel, and was only got to Fortress Monroe wharf by superhuman efforts on the part of the captain and crew of the steamer. They arrived on Sunday morning, but no one could be found to unload the barges, all the freedmen who were employed as workmen being at Hampton village, and no place could be found to beach her. In despair he appealed to the commander at the fort, who said he could do nothing, as the soldiers were not laborers. He then asked for permission to speak to the men, and appealed to them for volunteers. He got them from some
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Pennsylvania recruits, who were on their way to join their regiments. Some pumped and the rest worked up to their necks in water, and finally saved every article of the cargo. Captain Murdoch presented them with cigars and tobacco, and on his arrival at City Point received the thanks of General Grant for his successful efforts to save the stores, as they were much needed.
On the night of the assassination of President Lincoln Captain Murdoch was visiting at F and Tenth streets, and, accompanied by Miss Hooker, ran to the theatre, reaching there a few minutes before the unconscious President was car- ried across the street to the house in which he died. The excitement was intense, and reached a climax when word was brought that Seward, Stanton and Vice- · President Johnson had all been murdered. A frenzy seemed to seize the crowd. A large, broad-shouldered paymaster shouted to them : " Kill every rebel in the Old Capitol Prison !" The massacre of the political prisoners during the French Revolution flashed across Captain Murdoch's mind, and he sprang to the side of the paymaster, and said : "For God's sake, major, don't repeat that ; for, if you do, blood will flow in our Northern cities." This caused him to desist, and doubtless prevented what would have been a terrible blot on the history of the country. The morning after the assassination Captain Murdoch was ordered to proceed to Sherman's army in North Carolina, taking the mail steamer to Fortress Monroe, thence to Norfolk, and through the Dismal Swamp Canal in a little steamer to Albemarle Sound, from there to the army, twelve miles from Raleigh, carrying the first authentic news of the assassination. On the evening of the day of the surrender of General Johnston's army he gave a reading to the officers and men of the Twentieth Corps.
In 1864, prior to the close of the war, when enlistments were not at all encouraging, Captain Murdoch, by order of the War Department, recruited one thousand teamsters, who were sent to the front and thereby relieved that number of enlisted trained soldiers, who had been detailed to serve in that capacity. While at home in Philadelphia on furlough he acted as a volunteer surgeon at the Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon.
At the close of the war he was appointed Inspector of the National Cemeteries under the orders of Colonel Moore, and made a tour of the whole State of Vir- ginia, accompanied by twelve men with two army wagons and tents, and ascer- tained the exact position of all the graves of the Union soldiers, and gave direc- tions for the removal of the bodies. By order of Colonel Moore he selected ground for a cemetery at Cedar Creek; but the order was countermanded, and the dead were buried at Winchester. He selected the ground for the Yorktown Cemetery. When he resigned from the office fifteen thousand Union soldiers had been buried at Fredericksburg Cemetery. At Fortress Monroe he had the dead buried who fell in the fight between the " Merrimac " and " Cumberland," removing them from where they were originally buried at Newport News. An incident in his military career, which may be mentioned, was his appointment, in 1858, by Governor Pollock, of Pennsylvania, as an aide upon his staff with rank of Colonel.
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Mr. Murdoch was the first person to give readings to the soldiers in the camps and hospitals at the very commencement of the war. In this he was encour- aged by the commanders of the army, particularly by General Grant. On one occasion he gave a reading at a church in Washington to raise money to pro- cure a Christmas dinner for the soldiers in the hospitals in that city. A short time after the war he received a complimentary testimonial at Concert Hall, Philadelphia, for these services in the camps and hospitals, which were indepen- dent of his services in the army. General Joshua T. Owen introduced him and made an address, setting forth the cheering effect of the readings and recitations on the convalescents in the dreary monotony of the hospitals. Even the generals enjoyed them, especially Gen. Grant, and Gen. Wheaton of the Sixth Corps.
As an actor Mr. Murdoch has displayed a high order of histrionic talent. In Baltimore after his return from California, he played equal parts with his brother, James A. Murdoch, in such plays as "Venice Preserved," " Henry IV.," and in turn he supported nearly all the principal stars of the country of a generation ago. During one season he, with Louis Mestayer, managed the City Museum of Philadelphia, and was at one time stage manager under Henry Jarrett at the Norfolk Theatre. On his return from the war, at the earnest solicitation of his family, he did not resume the stage, but devoted his attention to the teaching of elocution, in which he has been very successful, having classes at Princeton, Crozier, Wesley, La Salle and Villa Nova Colleges, and at the Seminary at Overbrook, St. Mary's Hall, Rugby and Media Academies, and the leading schools of Philadelphia and Germantown. He has only occasionally appeared on the stage, once as Claude Melnotte at the Arch Street Theatre, and as Hamlet at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, and at Brougham's benefit in New York. His latest appearance was at a testimonial given to him by his friends and pupils at the Chestnut Street Opera House in Philadelphia, June 4, 1888, when he represented Shylock in " The Merchant of Venice." The audience was large and fashionable, and the performance elicited the warm encomiums of the critics for its scholarly conception of the character and evidence of careful study.
In 1879 he visited Europe and was the guest of Cardinal Manning in London, reading for the entertainment of that prelate and his friends. While in the Eng- lish metropolis, at the request of Mr. Thoms, Librarian of the House of Lords, he read to a select number of the nobility in one of the halls of that house. During his sojourn in that city he also made an engagement with Mrs. Bateman to play there six nights under her management. The plays selected were " Hamlet," " Richelieu," " The Stranger," " The Wife " and " The Merchant of Venice." Her death cancelled the engagement.
At the Constitutional Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia, in 1887, Mr. Murdoch was chosen to read Crawford's National Poem, and was highly com- plimented by the President and his wife, and by Archbishop Ryan and the press.
Mr. Murdoch is tall in stature, courtly in manner, positive and impressive in his address, and is an excellent specimen of what would be called by many of the present generation an American gentleman of " the olden time."
ALFRED G. BAKER.
ALFRED G. BAKER.
LFRED G. BAKER, A. M., was born in Philadelphia December 17, 1831, his A father being Michael V. Baker, who, though now deceased, was a well- known citizen yet remembered by many. He entered the University of Penn- sylvania after the completion of his school-boy days, and graduated therefrom in 1851, taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts with distinction, and three years later received his Diploma as Master of Arts. He then entered the store of David S. Brown & Co., Front Street, the largest dry goods commission house in Philadelphia, and having served a term of five years in that widely known mer- cantile school, became associated with Samuel Leonard under the partnership name of Leonard & Baker, as successors to the old established firm of Sill, Arnold & Leonard. Through a period from 1856 to 1870 this firm continued the same, when Mr. Baker retired from the sphere of active mercantile life.
In February, 1869, Charles N. Bancker, Esq., the venerable President of the Franklin Fire Insurance Company, died in his ninety-second year, and Mr. Baker (then one of the Directors) was unanimously tendered the Presidency by his asso- ciates. It will be seen, therefore, that at a very early age, comparatively, he was called upon to assume very responsible duties at the head of one of the largest Fire Insurance corporations in America. During his administration the great fires of Chicago and Boston took place, in 1871 and 1872 respectively, yet the company paid all their obligations promptly and continued the same average dividend to its stockholders.
He voluntarily resigned as the head executive of the "Franklin " upon the completion of the fiftieth year of his age, December, 1881, although he still re- tains his seat as a Director and fills the position of Chairman of the Finance Committee of the institution.
He at all times has taken a large interest in everything that pertained to the science of fire underwriting and its development. He was one of the three origi- nators of the Fire Insurance Patrol of Philadelphia, a body of men who have done so much to save life and preserve property from the flames. He built, at a cost of nearly $50,000, and still owns the model patrol house now occupied by this organization, No. 511 Arch street, and has leased the same at a moderate rental to the insurance companies for a term of years. . Ile was the first Treasurer of the patrol, and after discharging its duties with fidelity for more than twelve years, he resigned of his own free will. For three successive years he was unanimously honored by his associates with the Presidency of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, a powerful body of men, whose central office was located on Broadway, New York city.
In 1858 he was elected a Director in the old Commercial Bank of this city,
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and resigned his position in 1883 to accept a similar one in the Independence National Bank, of which he was one of the eight original incorporators.
In 1886 he retired from the Independence National Bank and was succeeded by his son, George Fales Baker, M. D., as a Director. He was promptly elected a Director in the Southwark National Bank, in which corporation his wife and himself are the largest stockholders.
Throughout all his active business pursuits his affection for literary and scientific matters still held a prominent place. He is President of the Corporators of the University Hospital; Vice-President of the Society of the Alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, life-member of the Historical Society, etc., etc.
When the formation of the University Club was agitated a few years ago, he was among the first to enter the movement with energy, an original corporator and a member of the board of governors. He was elected President of the Academy of Music (Broad and Locust streets) in June, 1884, of which corpora- tion he is the absolute owner of more than one-half the capital stock, and still holds the Presidency, devoting much time to its duties. He is well known for his high appreciation of dramatic and operatic art. The artists of Philadelphia and elsewhere are his debtors for the highly superior suite of studios and their attendant skylights and other appointments that complete the upper floors of the Baker Building, Nos. 1520 and 1522 Chestnut street. He erected a studio made wholly of glass on the roof of the building, for sketching purposes at all hours and in all weathers; this is for the common use of the artist tenants free of rental or expense. It is the only glass studio in America.
Being a large real estate owner, he has done much to improve the city by handsome buildings on Chestnut street, and other central streets, as well as by the erection of dwellings both in central and suburban Philadelphia. In religious faith he is a Presbyterian, while his political proclivities are Democratic.
In 1862 he married Henrietta Rush, daughter of George and Ann Rush Fales, and has two children, a son and a daughter, who are still living.
SAMUEL L. SMEDLEY.
SAMUEL LIGHTFOOT SMEDLEY.
AMUEL L. SMEDLEY, Chief-Engineer and Surveyor of the city of Philadelphia,
S was born in Edgmont township, Delaware county, December 29, 1832. lle is the youngest of three sons of Samuel L. and Hannah Smedley, and is descended from ancestors of the faith of William Penn, who came from Derbyshire, Eng- land, in 1682. Other descendants of George Smedley, the first to come to America, continue to till the soil where he first cleared out the forest. Mr. Smedley's mother was, in her maiden years, Hannah Pennell, daughter of Joseph Pennell, a descendant of Robert Pennell, who came from Nottinghamshire in 1684. Samuel L. Smedley, Sr., was educated beyond most men of his locality. Ile was prominent in the community in which he lived as a teacher and mathe- matician, and besides his inherited occupation of farming carried on surveying and conveyancing. He died at the age of thirty-six, when his son Samuel was in his second year. His widow was a woman of energy, and believing it to be to the advantage of her family to continue on the paternal homestead, took the care of the farm upon herself and managed its affairs successfully until her sons arrived at maturity.
Samuel early evinced an aptitude for study, and was carefully educated at a select school until his thirteenth year, when. he entered the Friends' Boarding School at Westtown. Here he made such rapid progress, that at the end of eighteen months he stood at the head of the senior class. He was then sent to school in Germantown to perfeet himself in the classics, but close application so injured his health that he was forced to return home, where he remained for several years upon the old homestead.
Convinced that his health required an active out-door occupation, Mr. Smedley determined to adopt the profession of surveying, which was congenial to his tastes, a love for which he inherited. Accordingly, in the spring of 1853, he removed to Philadelphia and engaged with Joseph Fox, a noted city surveyor, who had laid out most of the northern portion of the city, and had then recently been engaged to extend the city plan on the west side of the Schuylkill. Pos- sessed of mathematical talent, and being an apt draughtsman, Mr. Smedley soon mastered the minutiæ of his profession, and his promotion was rapid. In 1856 he was engaged by the Commissioners of Blockley to lay out the streets in that township. He also carried on conveyancing and entered into the purchase and sale of real estate, which the rapid growth of the western section of the city made active and profitable. About this time he published a complete atlas of the City of Philadelphia, a laborious and expensive undertaking, but one which was very successful, and the book remains to this day a standard work for conveyancers, and is highly prized by them. In 1858 Mr. Smedley was elected a member of the Board of Surveyors, and was subsequently chosen by the people of the dis- trict for three terms of five years each.
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SAMUEL L. SMEDLEY.
In 1871 his name was presented to the Republican State Convention as a can- didate for the position of Surveyor-General of the State. The novelty of naming a professional surveyor for that position met with much favor, but the policy of placing soldiers upon the ticket prevailed, and General Robert B. Beath was nominated and elected, he being the last to hold the office, as by the provisions of the new Constitution it was merged into that of Secretary of Internal Affairs. In 1872 Mr. Smedley was elected by the City Councils to the responsible office of Chief-Engineer and Surveyor, the position he now holds, having been chosen for the fourth time in March, 1887, his present term expiring in 1892. The duties of this position embrace the establishment of lines and grades of streets, and wharf lines on the rivers ; the planning and building of bridges; the system- atic designing and construction of sewers, with the hydraulic and sanitary questions incident thereto; the difficult problem of providing for public safety in modern rapid transit by the proper adjustment of railroad and street grades; and the numerous other things which in a city, covering the vast area of one hundred and thirty square miles, intersected by two large rivers and many lines of steam railroads, involves a great amount of vigilance and labor, requiring a compre- hensive knowledge of various branches of engineering rarely demanded or called for in other cities.
During Mr. Smedley's term of office he has had charge of the construction of sewers and bridges costing in the aggregate many millions of dollars, among which have been the building of Penrose Ferry Bridge, the new iron cantilever bridge at Market street, and the Fairmount and Girard Avenue bridges-all crossing the Schuylkill river; and numerous smaller ones over railroads, canals and many streams within the limits of the city.
Through the unusual period of thirty years continuous service as a member of the Board of Surveyors, he has been a close observer of the many cases, inseparable to the growth of a metropolis, where the mistaken ideas of the past generations have entailed evils, now so deeply rooted, that a remedy cannot be applied within reasonable cost, and he appreciates the necessity of guarding against their recurrence in planning for future developments.
There are instances when, after years of individual watchfulness for a favorable opportunity to remedy defects, it has arrived; and by prompt action great public benefits have been secured, which, if unembraced, would thereafter have become impracticable. One of these-the raising of the grade of Market street in West Philadelphia, by which two hills and a deep depression were obliterated and the grandeur of the avenue secured for all time, subsequent to its having been exten- sively built upon and paved-was secured through his persevering efforts after the project had been entirely abandoned, although proposed and partially pro- vided for a third of a century before.
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