Chronicles of Baltimore - Part 21



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1873. The night of the 29th and the early morning hours of the 30th of 
January, 1873, will long be remembered in this region as one of the 
coldest periods ever experienced. In the city of Baltimore the mercury 
fell before sunrise, 6 A. M., to 10 degrees below zero, which is perhaps 
the lowest temperature ever recorded in this city. At Lutherville, 
Baltimore County, the thermometer ranged 20 degrees below zero; at Mount 
Washington 22 degrees; at the Relay House, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 24 
degrees below zero.

The Fifth Regiment Maryland National Guard is to the city of Baltimore 
what the Seventh Regiment is to New York, or what the First Regiment of 
Grey Reserves is to Philadelphia. It is a military organization whose 
members are all recognized as gentlemen, an organization that aspires to 
have the best possible military drill, and at the same time to cultivate 
the self-respect, the manly bearing, the social courtesy, and the 
fraternal feelings that belong to the most advanced civilization. This 
fine regiment, so elevated in its aims, and composed of such excellent 
materials, is only six years old. It has labored under some disadvantages, 
one of the principal being the want of a suitable permanent armory and 
drill-room. In November, 1872, the City Council, appreciating the 
character and purpose of this military organization, and realizing the 
great benefit that might under certain contingencies result from having 
such an organization to sustain law and social order, donated to this 
Fifth Regiment the great rooms over the newly built Richmond Market. All 
that the city gave was the bare walls. The Fifth Regiment being composed 
of generous men--many of them men of means and influence--they out of 
their own pockets spent over eight thousand dollars to fit up this new 
armory in good style, and they can now boast of having one of the finest 
and most complete armories in the United States. The new armory was 
formally delivered over by the city authorities to the Fifth Regiment on 
Thursday night, February 6th, and this was the occasion of an immense 
opening reception, not less than six thousand persons being present. 
Addresses were delivered by Mayor Vansant, Governor Whyte, and Colonel 
Jenkins.

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Mr. Alexander Kirkland, senior partner and original founder of the firm of 
Kirkland, Chase & Co., died on Saturday, March 1st, aged 89 years. Mr. 
Kirkland was instrumental in establishing the sugar refineries whose 
business is now so valuable to the city. The firm of Kirkland, Chase & Co. 
was, during its existence, one of the best-known and most widely respected 
in the city, having a large trade with Porto Rico and Rio Janeiro, and 
being intimately connected with the business transactions of many other 
large importing houses here and in other parts of the United States and 
the Canadas.

On Wednesday, the 21st of May, the finance commissioners of Baltimore city 
ordered the payment of 30 per cent., the first instalment on the city's 
subscription of $1,000,000 to the capital stock of the Valley Railroad, 
Robert Garrett, Esq., president.

The Carmelite Nuns, whom we have mentioned before in this work, and who 
for forty-two years occupied the old Convent on Aisquith street, vacated 
that establishment and removed in March to the new monastery at the corner 
of Biddle and Caroline streets. The Carmelite community is among the 
religious pioneers of Maryland. The Carmelite order is the oldest in the 
Church, going back even in its primitive state to the period when Elias or 
Elijah and his disciples worshipped in the retirement of Mt. Carmel, 
where, in the 12th century, a monastery was founded; the order afterwards 
migrating under its fifth general to Europe, to escape the persecutions of 
the Saracens. The female branch of the order was founded in the 15th 
century. In the 16th century (1562) St. Theresa and St. John of the Cross 
set on foot a reformation of the order in Spain, and the reform has spread 
everywhere; the Carmelite Nuns all looking to St. Theresa as their mother 
and foundress, the community in Baltimore keeping, with some few necessary 
exceptions, the strict rule of St. Theresa. There are some ninety convents 
of Carmelite nuns, in each of which the number is generally restricted to 
twenty-one. During the 18th century an aunt of the late Father Matthews, 
of Washington city, went from her elegant and retired home in Charles 
county, Md., to join the order of the Carmelite Nuns, at a house of theirs 
in Belgium. Two sisters of the same clergyman afterwards crossed the sea 
to join their aunt in her cloistered home. Miss Brent also joined them 
there, but she died in Belgium. In 1790 the three ladies mentioned above, 
who were then become members of the strict order of Mr. Carmel, together 
with another lady who joined them in England, came back to their native 
shores, settled in Charles county, and there established a community. 
Their little family was by degrees augmented by accessions from some of 
the first families of Maryland; many pious ladies, charmed with the odor 
of virtue and sanctity, finding in this rising congregation opportunity 
for bidding adieu to the world and all the vanities of life, to dedicate 
their youth and wealth to religion. When they

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left their home in the country and came to found a house in Baltimore in 
1831, they numbered twenty-four sisters, with Rev. Mother Angela Mudd as 
superioress. At one time the Sisters had a very respectable school for 
girls, which was much frequented; but this mode of life being contrary to 
the spirit of their rules, which is to be altogether retired, they, at the 
suggestion of the late Archbishop Kenrick, closed their academy. They 
devote all their time to prayer, meditation, manual labor, pious reading, 
and the like, praying not only for themselves but for all, chiefly for 
those who live in the city or place where they reside.

The splendid Church of the Ascension, Protestant Episcopalian, a prominent 
ornament of the beautiful neighborhood of Lafayette Square, was almost 
totally destroyed by fire on Monday night, May 12th. The fire was caused 
by the sexton smoking out a wasp's nest in the roof over the organ gallery.

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, held 
on the evening of Wednesday, March 12th, the following important letter 
was received from Mr. Hopkins, setting forth his grand designs for the 
relief of the indigent sick and the orphan. This letter was received by 
the citizens of Baltimore with intense gratification. Of all the monuments 
which grace our city, none can approach this monument, which is soon to be 
erected on such broad foundations and with such munificent provision for 
the relief of the sick and the care and shelter of the destitute orphan:

"Baltimore, March 10th, 1873.

"To Francis T. King, President; and John W. Garrett, Hon. Geo. W. Dobbin, 
Galloway Cheston, Thomas M. Smith, Wm. Hopkins, Richard M. Janney, Joseph 
Merrefield, Francis White, Lewis N. Hopkins, Alan P. Smith, and Charles J. 
M. Gwinn, Trustees of 'The Johns Hopkins Hospital':

"Gentlemen:--I have given you in your capacity of trustees, thirteen acres 
of land, situated in the city of Baltimore, and bounded by Wolfe, 
Monument, Broadway, and Jefferson streets, upon which I desire you to 
erect a hospital. It will be necessary to devote the present year to the 
grading of its surface, to its proper drainage, to the laying out of the 
grounds, and the most careful and deliberate choice of a plan for the 
erection and arrangement of the new hospital buildings. It is my wish that 
the plan thus chosen shall be one which will permit symmetrical additions 
to the buildings which will be first constructed, in order that you may 
ultimately be able to receive four hundred patients, and that it shall 
provide for an hospital which shall in construction and arrangement 
compare favorably with any other institution of like character in this 
country or in Europe. It will therefore be your duty to obtain the advice 
and assistance of those at home or abroad who have achieved the greatest 
success in the construction

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and management of hospitals. I cannot press this injunction too strongly 
upon you, because the usefulness of this charity will greatly depend upon 
the plan which you may adopt for the construction and arrangement of the 
buildings. It is my desire that you should complete this portion of your 
labor during the current year, and be in readiness to commence the 
building of the hospital in the spring of 1874.

"It will be your duty hereafter to provide for the erection upon other 
ground, of suitable buildings for the reception, maintenance and education 
of orphan colored children. I direct you to provide accommodation for 
three or four hundred children of this class; and you are also authorized 
to receive into this asylum, at your discretion, as belonging to such 
class, colored children who have lost one parent only, and in exceptional 
cases to receive colored children who are not orphans, but may be in such 
circumstances as to require the aid of the charity. I desire that you 
shall apply the yearly sum of twenty thousand dollars, or so much thereof 
as may be necessary, of the revenue of the property which you will 
hereafter receive, to the maintenance of the Orphans' Home intended for 
such children.

"In order to enable you to carry my wishes into full effect, I will now, 
and in each succeeding year during my life until the hospital buildings 
are fully completed and in readiness to receive patients, place at your 
disposal the sum of one hundred thousand dollars. In addition to the gift 
already made to you of the thirteen acres of land in the city of Baltimore 
upon which the hospital will be built, I have dedicated to its support and 
the payment of the annual sum provided to be paid for the support of the 
Orphans' Home, property which you may safely estimate as worth to-day two 
millions of dollars, and from which your corporation will certainly 
receive a yearly revenue, of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and 
which time and your diligent care will make more largely productive. If 
the Hospital and Orphans' Home are not built at my death, it will be your 
duty to apply the income arising from this property to their completion. 
When they are built, the income from the property will suffice for their 
maintenance. The indigent sick of this city and its environs, without 
regard to sex, age, or color, who require surgical or medical treatment, 
and who can be received into the hospital without peril to the other 
inmates, and the poor of the city and State, of all races, who are 
stricken down by any casualty, shall be received into the hospital without 
charge, for such periods of time and under such regulations as you may 
prescribe. It will be your duty to make such division of the sexes and 
patients among the several wards of the hospital as will best promote the 
actual usefulness of the charity. You will also provide for the reception 
of a limited number of patients who are able to make compensation for the 
room and attention they may require. The

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money received from such persons will enable you to appropriate a larger 
sum for the relief of the sufferings of that class which I direct you to 
admit free of charge, and you will thus be enabled to afford to strangers, 
and to those of our own people who have no friends or relatives to care 
for them in sickness, and who are not objects of charity, the advantage of 
careful and skilful treatment.

"It will be your especial duty to secure for the service of the hospital, 
surgeons and physicians of the highest character and of the greatest 
skill. I desire you to establish, in connection with the hospital, a 
training school for female nurses. This provision will secure the services 
of women competent to care for the sick in the hospital wards, and will 
enable you to benefit the whole community by supplying it with a class of 
trained and experienced nurses.

"I wish the large grounds surrounding the hospital buildings to be 
properly enclosed by iron railings, and to be so laid out and planted with 
trees and flowers as to afford solace to the sick and be an ornament to 
the section of the city in which the grounds are located. I desire that 
you should, in due season, provide for a site and buildings of such 
description and at such distance from the city as your judgment shall 
approve, for the reception of convalescent patients. You will be able in 
this way to hasten the recovery of the sick, and to have always room in 
the main hospital building for other sick persons requiring immediate 
medical or surgical treatment. It is my special request that the 
influences of religion should be felt in and impressed upon the whole 
management of the hospital; but I desire, nevertheless, that the 
administration of the charity shall be undisturbed by sectarian influence, 
discipline, or control. In all your arrangements in relation to this 
hospital, you will bear constantly in mind that it is my wish and purpose 
that the institution should ultimately form a part of the medical school 
of that university for which I have made ample provision by my will. I 
have felt it to be my duty to bring these subjects to your particular 
attention, knowing that you will conform to the wishes which I definitely 
express. In other particulars. I leave your board to the exercise of its 
discretion, believing that your good judgment and experience in life will 
enable you to make this charity a substantial benefit to the community.

"I am very respectfully your friend,
"Johns Hopkins."

On Tuesday, March 18th, the following resolutions were offered by Mr. Kerr 
in the Second Branch of the City Council, and adopted unanimously by both 
branches: "Whereas, By the appropriation already made of a large part of 
his immense fortune to provide the means of relieving human suffering and 
of protecting those who are helpless in our midst, and also by his 
promised munificent endowment of a free university to be established in the

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suburbs of the city, Johns Hopkins has nobly contributed to the future 
welfare and happiness of our people, and should receive every evidence of 
public appreciation and gratitude; therefore, Be it resolved by the Mayor 
and City Council of Baltimore, That the practical and unostentatious 
charity of Mr. Hopkins, in thus disposing of the wealth which he has 
accumulated in Baltimore during a life of extraordinary activity, success 
and usefulness, for the benefit of her own people, has not merely enrolled 
his name in the list of famous benefactors of mankind, but furnishes the 
most striking proof of the sincerity and earnestness of his purpose. 
Resolved, That the city of Baltimore is proud to record among the many 
distinguishing facts of her history this crowning act of magnanimity on 
the part of one of her own citizens, whose whole career has materially 
contributed to her advancement and prosperity, and whose name has long 
been known wherever commercial enterprise and integrity are respected. 
Resolved, That the Mayor be requested to communicate to Mr. Hopkins a copy 
of these resolutions neatly engrossed."

Gen. Columbus O'Donnell, one of the wealthiest and most honored citizens 
of Baltimore, died on Sunday, May 25th.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States was 
formally opened in the city of Baltimore on Thursday morning, May 15th, in 
the Central Church, corner of Saratoga and Liberty streets. About five 
hundred of the commissioners were present, among them many of the most 
learned and distinguished men of the Church. Rev. Dr. Smith, pastor of the 
Central Church, made a short prayer, and then read the hymn that is so 
frequently sung upon such occasions, "All hail the power of Jesus' name." 
Rev. James Ellis read a portion of the Scriptures, and Rev. Dr. Brown, 
president of Hamilton college, led in prayer. Rev. Samuel J. Niccolls, D. 
D., Moderator of the last General Assembly, delivered the opening sermon. 
His theme was "The Apostles' Prayer." Rev. Howard Crosby, D. D., of New 
York, was elected moderator.

The Hebrew Orphan Asylum, situated on the Calverton Heights, was dedicated 
on Sunday afternoon, May 18th, before a large number of Israelites of this 
city with impressive ceremonies. About half-past two o'clock, the choir, 
consisting of about sixty-five voices, comprising the combined choirs of 
the synagogues of the city, opened the services with the singing of an 
introductory hymn, Prof. Rosewald, the leader, presiding at the organ. A 
fervent prayer was then offered by Rev. Dr. Szold. A dedicatory ode 
composed by Roy. A. Hoffman, and put to music by Prof. Rosewald, was then 
sung by the entire choir with striking effect. A trio in this piece was 
handsomely sung by Mrs. Rosewald, Miss K. Benner, and Miss Jennie Putzel. 
Mr. Wm. S. Rayner, who generously presented to the Asylum the old City 
Almshouse, valued at $50,000, was then introduced, and delivered an 
eloquent and glowing address.

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The corner-stone of the new German Orphan Asylum, on Aisquith street, 
opposite the Eastern Female High School, was laid on Sunday afternoon, 
June 22d, with imposing ceremonies. A procession, which preceded the 
ceremony proper, was composed of most, if not all, of the German lodges 
and societies in the city, and it is admitted to have been one of the 
finest and largest demonstrations of its kind seen in this city for a long 
time. The procession was under the command of chief marshal Otto Duker, 
with Charles Seipp and H. Wehr as assistants, and the following staff: 
Adjutant-in-chief C. F. Winter, George Strohmeyer, A. Prey, G. Rauth, B. 
Stolte, August Kiel, D. F. Kahl, George Robinson, H. Mooyer, C. Edelmann, 
L. Strassburger, John Scharz, C. Sauer, F. Everett, Jacob Edelmann, J. 
Drechsler, H. E. Valentine, F. Plitz, E. Siebert, F. Meyer, H. Lehr, J. 
Guenther, S. Neuhahn, H. Best, P. Otto, F. Schwear and H. Noss. The first 
division was marshalled by Charles Blumhardt, who was assisted by A. Beck 
and G. Schwerder as adjutants. The second division was marshalled by 
Charles Schwarzhaupt, and Lewis H. Robinson and John Vanderhorst as 
adjutants. The third division was under the command of H. Eckes, with H. 
Drockenbrot and H. Menger as adjutants. The fourth division was under the 
marshalship of C. Lotz, with H. Schuchhardt and William Burkheimer as 
adjutants. The fifth division was under the command of C. Knoeff. The 
opening address was delivered by Professor Facius, the president of the 
German Orphan Asylum. Governor Whyte also delivered an address, which was 
received by a perfect ovation of applause.

Friday morning, June 20th, shortly after five o'clock, fire was discovered 
issuing from the five-story stone building known as the Mount Vernon 
Cotton Mill No. 1, on Jones Falls, about two miles from the city, owned 
and worked by the Mount Vernon Company, of which Captain Wm. Kennedy was 
president, and Mr. Albert Carroll superintendent. The fire spread rapidly 
through the building, and in a few moments it was destroyed. The loss of 
the building, stock and machinery was estimated at $207,000, which were 
insured for $185,000.

In June, the Maryland Academy of Art, through Mr. John H. B. Latrobe, the 
president, transfered all their statues, casts, &c., to the Peabody 
Institute.

Mr. Frederick Pinckney, who had been for many years deputy State's 
Attorney, and for over thirty years identified with the Criminal Court of 
Baltimore city, died about 10 o'clock Friday night, June 13th, at the 
country residence of Mr. John E. Owens, near Towsontown, Baltimore county. 
He was the fifth son of the great lawyer and statesman William Pinckney, 
and was, perhaps, the most learned man in the State.

Colonel Solomon Hillen, formerly Mayor of Baltimore, member of Congress 
and of the State Legislature, died suddenly on Thursday, June 26th, at 
Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York.

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The through Southern train on the Baltimore and Potomac railroad, which 
left Richmond Saturday night, June 28th, arrived at Calvert Station at 
6.45 Sunday morning. This was the first regular passenger train that used 
the Potomac Railroad tunnel, engine No. 2, Jerry Sweeney engineer, pulling 
the train, with Conductor John T. West in charge. The first through train 
from Washington for New York passed through Baltimore on the same night. 
The Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel is one of the greatest enterprises of the 
kind that has ever been executed. With the exception of the Hoosac Tunnel, 
it is the longest on this side of the Atlantic. The Baltimore and Potomac 
Tunnel is about one and a half miles long, and although of the most solid 
and durable construction, has been built in two years. The ground was 
broken near the intersection of Cathedral street and North avenue on the 
first of June, 1871; upon August 9th, 1871, the masonry was begun; upon 
the 27th of the same month the brickwork was begun to be laid, and from 
that time to the present the work has been prosecuted with marvellous 
rapidity. The force employed in the work ranged from 500 to 700 men at 
different periods, comprising stone-cutters, stone-masons, bricklayers, 
timber-men, miners, rock-men, blacksmiths, machinists, carpenters, and 
common laborers. During the progress of the work four men were killed, 
each of whom lost his life by accident. Over one hundred thousand cubic 
yards of rock were blasted out. The side walls are of solid masonry of 
Cockeysville marble, rock faced, but dressed at beds and joints. The arch 
is built of five rings of brick and backed up with rubble masonry. At 
places where the bottom was composed of quicksands or yielding earth of 
any kind, an inverted arch was constructed of four rings of brick. About 1,
250,000 cubic feet of masonry were used in the construction, and 15,000,
000 brick. The cost of the work is thought to be about $2,300,000. The 
following are the distances to the bottom of the excavation. Above this 
the arch of the tunnel rises twenty-two feet in height. The width of the 
tunnel is twenty-seven feet: John street, 49 feet; Park avenue, 52 feet; 
Bolton street, 50 feet; Linden avenue, 43 feet; Eutaw street, 42 feet; 
Madison avenue, 31 1/2 feet: Druid Hill avenue 33 feet; Division street, 
33 feet; Pennsylvania avenue, 32 feet; Fremont street, 40 feet; Republican 
street, 351/2 feet; Carey street, 321/2 feet; Calhoun street, 27 feet; 
Stricker street, 21 feet; Gilmor street, 331/2 feet. The station at 
Fremont street is 350 feet long and 32 feet deep, and at John street 200 
feet long and 49 feet deep. The lengths are as follows: Eastern facade to 
open cut at John street, 1,148 feet; open cut from John to Oliver streets, 
200 feet; John street to Pennsylvania avenue, 3,625 feet; Open cut from 
Pennsylvania avenue to Fremont street, 350 feet; Fremont street to Gilmor 
street, 2,196 feet; Length of tunnel proper, 6,969 feet; Length of open 
cuts, 550 feet; Length of entire line, 7,519 feet. In addition to this 
there is a tunnel of 150 feet under the bed of

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Fulton street. The eastern terminus of the tunnel is about 67 feet above 
tide-level; it ascends with a rise of 11/2 feet to the hundred, up to 
Pennsylvania avenue at which point the grade changes to 101/2 inches the 
hundred, making the ascent from Northern Avenue to Pennsylvania avenue, 
nearly 70 feet, and the ascent thence to the western terminus about 45 
feet, a total ascent of 115 feet. The contractor and constructor of the 
Baltimore and Potomac tunnel was Mr. Thomas Rutter of New York, a 
gentleman whose energy, skill and capacity have been conspicuously 
displayed in many works of the kind, and who has acquired a fame as a 
builder of tunnels which will be still farther increased by this last 
great manifestation of his ability. The plans and specifications were 
prepared by Mr. Thomas Seabrook, general manager; Mr. C. S. Emack, the 
chief engineer, and Mr. H. H. Carter, the resident engineer. Mr. Rutter 
was ably assisted by Mr. John H. Moss, his superintendent, who took charge 
of many of the details. In concluding this article, mention must not be 
omitted of the railway officials prominently concerned in the enterprise. 
Mr. J. D. Cameron, president of the Northern Central, and Ex-Governor Oden 
Bowie, president of the Baltimore and Potomac, and Mr. J. N. Dubarry, vice-
president of both roads, worked with unflagging energy in carrying out 
their great enterprise. A large amount of the funds for the building of 
the Baltimore and Potomac tunnel came from the subscriptions of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, and perhaps it is ultimately due to the sagacity 
and enterprise of President J. Edgar Thompson, of the road, and Col. 
Thomas A. Scott, that the Baltimore and Potomac tunnel was built at all.

In July the Maryland Bible Society purchased the lot of ground on the east 
side of Charles street, and decided to erect a new building. The building 
committee consisted of Francis T. King, Win. B. Canfield, Isaac D. Jones, 
Geo. H. Pagels, and Francis A. Crook.

Captain William Kennedy, one of the most highly respected citizens of 
Baltimore county, died at his residence on Saturday, October 4th. And on 
the 5th of August Mr. Hugh Gelston, a native of Connecticut, but for very 
many years settled in Baltimore, where he acquired a large fortune. Prof. 
Thomas D. Baird, LL. D., principal and professor of Mental and Moral 
Philosophy in Baltimore City College, died, universally lamented, on 
Thursday morning, July 10th, aged 54 years.

On Friday, August 1st, Thomas R. Hollohan and Joshua Nicholson suffered 
the extreme penalty of the law by hanging in the jail-yard of this city, 
for the murder of Mrs. John Lampley, on the night of the 2d of January 
previous. They were indicted by trio Grand Jury of the City Criminal 
Court, then in session, but upon being arraigned, removed their cases to 
Anne Arundel county. They were tried at Annapolis, at the April term of 
the Circuit Court, and were both found guilty of murder in the first 
degree.

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When the prosecuting, attorney was making his closing argument before the 
jury, Hollohan made himself the principal actor in a scene which, for a 
few minutes, produced a great panic in court. He had obtained a short iron 
spike in his cell, which he put in one of his stockings, and this was 
supplemented with a few pieces of coal. Having thus improvised a "slung 
shot," he hid it in his clothing so that it was not noticed when he was 
brought into court. He sat quietly in the prisoner's dock until the 
prosecuting attorney had got into the middle of the closing address to the 
jury, and then, when all eyes were turned upon the orator and away from 
the prisoner, he suddenly sprang from his place and dealt Deputy-Marshal 
Frey a heavy blow with his slung-shot. There was a desperate struggle in 
the court-room for a few minutes, at the close of which Hollohan, ghastly 
and bleeding, was forced into the dock again. The prosecuting attorney, 
interrupted in the midst of a brilliant climax, was very naturally 
indignant, and so were the learned judges, at this wanton contempt for 
their dignity and defiance of their authority. No further argument was 
needed, and the jury promptly brought in a verdict of murder in the first 
degree.

On the 23d of August James West (colored) suffered the extreme penalty of 
the law by hanging in the jail-yard of this city, for the murder of Anna 
Gibson, a woman with whom he had cohabited, having confessed the crime.

The first train of cars passed through the Union Railroad tunnel on 
Thursday, July 24th; it was the fast train from Washington for New York.

On Friday morning, July 25th, the most extensive and destructive 
conflagration ever known in Baltimore occurred near the heart of the city, 
and threatened at one time to rival the previous disasters of Chicago and 
Boston. The fire broke out at about 10:15 A. M., in the shavings box 
adjoining the engine-room of the planing mill and sash and blind factory 
of Messrs. Jos. Thomas & Sons, on Park and Clay streets. The large 
quantity of combustible matter in the buildings gave the flames such 
strength and volume that they swept over the surrounding buildings in a 
very short space of time, and the heat became so fierce that the firemen 
could not work in Park street. In the meantime, the men who were working 
up-stairs knew nothing of the fire, and were compelled to jump from the 
second and third story windows to save themselves; in doing which several 
of them received slight injuries. The greater number of the houses hard-by 
had shingle roofs, which had been so baked and dried by the hot sun as to 
be inflammable in the highest degree; and under the copious shower of 
blazing cinders that fell upon them, they were soon smoking and blazing. A 
strong wind was blowing towards the northeast, and the gusty flaws swept 
the flames many feet to the surrounding buildings, while vast clouds of 
smoke and cinders were carried squares

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beyond. Flames would shoot up in several places at once from buildings in 
close proximity to the fire, and in a short time there were eighteen 
houses on fire on Park, Clay, and Saratoga streets. Thomas's factory was 
shaped like an L, and the flames roaring with uncontrolled fury throughout 
the whole building, streamed out both into Clay and Park streets. In a 
very short time the row of houses on the west side of Park, between 
Lexington and Clay streets, were on fire. The buildings between Thomas's 
mill and Clay street caught fire on the roof, and in a short time so 
intense was the heat that a lot of hose belonging to the fire department 
was burned up. The wind carried the flames away from the buildings 
fronting on Lexington street, or else they would have been also entirely 
consumed. As it was, a great number of them had the back buildings burned, 
and great damage was inflicted by the water which the engines poured in 
from all available points.

The flames soon leaped across Park street and seized the extensive livery 
stables of John D. Stewart, No. 111 Lexington street, and extending to 
Clay street. In anticipation of this the horses and carriages had been 
taken out. The rear portion of the stable was soon wrapped in roaring 
flames, sending up sparks and cinders into the air and spreading to the 
contiguous buildings. Meanwhile those dwelling in the vicinity were in the 
greatest consternation. All along Lexington street, from Park nearly up to 
Howard, people were hastily dragging their furniture and clothing from the 
houses, and the streets were soon heaped high with household goods. While 
the houses on Clay street, between Park and Liberty streets, were in 
flames, the sight was one that struck terror to the hearts of the stoutest 
firemen attached to the Baltimore fire department. The flames, fed from 
the material of the stables, carpenter and paint-shops, united and twisted 
into columns of flame and smoke, mounting until nothing else could be seen 
rolling along the street and above the house-tops. Men of iron nerves 
shrank back from the scorching blast which met them. Women ran to and fro, 
wringing their hands and moaning in hysterical grief over the destruction 
of their homes. Men with Wagons and drays were endeavoring to force their 
way to the scene; some were carrying away articles by hand, and everything 
was in uproar and confusion. Just about eleven o'clock the bells of St. 
Alphonsus church began to ring, adding their clangor to the noise, and 
with the varied cries from the restless mass of humanity in the streets, 
the shrill whistles and hoarse puffing of the steamers, the shouts of the 
firemen and policemen, and with the deep roar of the flames, made up a 
babel of noise that greatly intensified the horror of the scene. By eleven 
o'clock the flames had spread over a large area. Park street, between 
Lexington and Saratoga, was ablaze for its greater portion. Clay street, 
from Park half way up to Howard street, was wrapped in flames, and the 
fire had burnt through into Lexington street in three separate places. 
Scorched

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and blinded by the intolerable heat, it was almost impossible for the 
brave firemen to go into Park street at all, and the flames roared up with 
such unabated strength that the panic-stricken people threw out furniture 
with reckless haste, unnecessarily breaking and damaging it.

The flames now spread so rapidly in every direction that it is impossible 
to give an account of the progress in the order of time. Upon Lexington 
street the First English Lutheran church was a mass of flames, and soon 
nothing was left of the building but the walls. The pastoral residence 
next door was also greatly damaged by the flames. The row of houses 
between the church and Park street were on fire several times, and were 
greatly damaged. The row on the west side of Park street, between Thomas's 
factory and Lexington street, seemed at one time doomed to total 
destruction, but by strenuous efforts the firemen were enabled to check 
the flames in this direction. The east side of Park street was burned to 
the ground from the corner of Saratoga street to the building on the 
corner of Lexington and Park streets. At one time the Mansard roof of this 
building was all ablaze, and the flames streamed out through the windows 
of the two upper stories, but the firemen were successful in saving it 
from utter destruction. Meanwhile the roof of St. Alphonsus Catholic 
church took fire several times, but the flames were extinguished by men 
upon the roof before they could spread. Its tall spire and glittering 
cross could hardly be seen at times for the clouds of smoke that eddied 
about it, and it was momentarily expected to take fire. Although scorched 
and blistered by the fierce heat, it, however, escaped.

At fifteen minutes before eleven o'clock fire was discovered on the roof 
of the dwelling house on the northeast corner of Mulberry and Park 
streets, and from the fact that all the steam-engines were busily engaged 
on Clay, Park and Saratoga streets, considerable time elapsed before any 
water could be thrown upon the new fire which had broken out at the 
locality just mentioned, and by the time a steam-engine could be 
dispatched to the place, the roofs of six houses were in flames and 
threatened to extend to Cathedral street; but, fortunately, the flames 
were mastered after a hard fight, and the magnificent dwellings on 
Cathedral street, opposite the Cathedral, saved. At the same time a one-
story structure, connected with the Maryland University, under the charge 
of Dr. Dalrymple, situated on Mulberry street opposite, was set on fire by 
embers wafted from Saratoga street and destroyed, and it was with the 
greatest difficulty that the Academy of Art and its costly models, &c., 
were prevented from sharing the same fate. The roof of the academy was on 
fire so often that the greater portion of the shingles had to be removed, 
and had not a large number of gentlemen formed an independent fire brigade 
and battled with the fire upon roofs along Mulberry street, there is no 
estimating when and where the conflagration would have spent its fury.

Page 703

All this time the flames were spreading rapidly along the south side of 
Saratoga street from Park to Liberty streets. The Central Presbyterian 
Church was not at first considered to be in very great danger, as the 
sparks were not carried in its direction, but the wind shifting, it was 
now evident that it could hardly escape taking fire. At about one o'clock 
the tall spire took fire in the cornice, when a rapid effort was made to 
remove the furniture. Soon after the falling embers ignited the roof. and 
as soon as the flames penetrated the interior of the building they roared 
through the whole edifice with uncontrollable fury. The fine houses on the 
north side of Saratoga street, the residences of A. S. Abell, Johns 
Hopkins, Professor N. R. Smith, Mrs. Cummings, the old "Wyatt Mansion"--
the parsonage of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church--and other 
prominent citizens, were then in dangerous proximity to the flames, but 
owing to the unusual width of the street and men stationed upon the roofs 
with fire-extinguishers, they were saved.

The whole row on the south side of Saratoga street between Park and 
Liberty street was then in flames. The large school buildings of the St. 
Alphonsus Church, extending through from Saratoga to Clay streets, were 
thoroughly possessed by the raging fire, and their total destruction was 
evident. The square between Saratoga and Mulberry street is intersected 
with alleys built up with small houses occupied chiefly by negroes. The 
roofs of these houses were momentarily taking fire, and it was only by the 
strenuous exertions of a number of policemen and some colored men, who 
were not quite unmanned by fright, that the flames were prevented from 
gaining headway. With the fires upon Mulberry and Saratoga streets, the 
frightened denizens of the locality thought themselves surrounded with 
flames, and ran about screaming and crying, throwing their furniture into 
the streets with reckless and altogether unnecessary haste, and giving 
vent to their feelings with the characteristic gush and effusion of 
negroes. The scene was terrible, and was enough to strike terror into 
those whose dwellings were in proximity to the fire. It seemed at one time 
as if the flames would cross Liberty street, and the inhabitants of the 
fine row of houses between Liberty and Charles street began to move out 
with great haste. Valuable furniture was piled upon the pavements, and 
drays and wagons were removing it as rapidly as possible. Charles street 
was blockaded with a long procession of laden wagons carrying away the 
goods of the frightened people. At times there would be a complete jam, 
and there would be the greatest uproar and confusion before the mass of 
vehicles was extricated. So intense was the heat on Saratoga street whilst 
the people were moving their household effects, that in one case an 
express wagon used in removing some bedding took fire. It was with 
difficulty the horse was loosed, and then men and boys rushed with the 
wagon through the street to the front era building, whose

Page 704

destruction was inevitable, and there let it burn up. All along the east 
side of Liberty street the panic-stricken people were endeavoring to get 
out such of their furniture as they could remove, for the flames were 
encroaching upon the row of houses on the west side, and were leaping 
forth so ravenously that they were expected to seize the houses upon the 
east side as well. The firemen worked with the greatest energy, and by 
their unremitting toil, quite early in the afternoon the area in which the 
fire originated was under control. In fact the fire had burnt itself out, 
Park and Clay streets being smoking ruins. The fire along Saratoga street 
was also under control, and four houses on the south side near Howard 
street were preserved intact, as well as the house on the southwest corner 
of Park and Saratoga streets. The others were wholly or partially 
destroyed. At a later period the row of houses on the south side of 
Saratoga street, extending from Park to Liberty street, were brought under 
control, but not until the greater portion was in shapeless ruins. 
Standing in Saratoga street, one could look down through tottering walls 
and isolated piles of brick almost to Lexington street. Clay street was so 
completely covered with bricks that in some places the sidewalks were 
undistinguishable. The row of houses on the north side of Mulberry street, 
between Park and Cathedral streets, was perhaps the last to be 
extinguished.

During the progress of the fire the dome of the Cathedral appeared in the 
light of a habitable globe. A number of men, at great personal risk, 
exposed themselves on its giddy height, and were continuous in their 
efforts to prevent its taking fire with water and wet blankets. The escape 
of the Cathedral from fire was in large part due to the exertions of James 
P. Rock, Mr. Walsh, Gustavus Creamy, Mr. Stack, John McNally, Charles 
Arthur, Alfred Riep, Sr., and Joseph Miskelly. There were others whose 
courage deserves equal praise, but whose names could not be ascertained. 
There were relays of volunteers every half hour on the dome, which is 
covered in part with shingles and partly with metal.

The Central Presbyterian Church was one of the largest structures in the 
city, built of brick, with an imposing square tower, large auditorium, and 
very lately brought into prominence among members of the denomination from 
all parts of the United States, as well as foreign countries, on account 
of the recent convocation within its walls of the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church of the United States. The church was built in 1855 for 
its first pastor, Rev. Stuart Robinson. He was minister up to 1857. Upon 
the resignation of his charge to go to Louisville, Ky., where he is at 
present, he was succeeded by Rev. J. E. Peck, D.D., who remained up to 
1859. Rev. Dr. Peck was succeeded by Rev. Silas G. Dunlap, who had charge 
of the congregation up to 1861, when he was succeeded in his apostolic 
mission by Rev. Joseph T. Smith, D.D., who was ordained early in the year 
1862, and who is

Page 705

the present pastor of the church. The elders under Rev. Dr. Smith were Dr. 
James McIntire, Wm. Boggs, James Warden, Richard K. Cross, Edward C. 
Small, and Wm. H. Cole; the deacons, Wm S. Cross, E. J. D. Cross, 
Archibald McElmole, Harding Longcope, Theo. K. Miller, Louis C. Dietch, 
William Reynolds, R. H. Millikin, and Henry G. Tyson. The original cost of 
the church was $70,000, exclusive of the organ, built in 1863 by Henry 
Erben of New York, at a cost of $2500.

At eight o'clock P. M. the weary firemen ceased from their labors, and 
went to their quarters. For eight hours they fought the flames with steady 
fortitude, and not a few fell to the ground overpowered by the heat. Many 
acts of heroism were quietly performed which will go unrecorded. Infirm 
persons were carried from burning buildings, and no doubt many lives were 
saved by these gallant men; but all their most praiseworthy acts are 
performed in the regular line of duty, and the outside world knows nothing 
of them. On the 25th of July they did a most noble day's work, especially 
when the limited means are considered which they had to use in the 
accomplishment of the results as illustrated, and proves the Baltimore 
fire department equal, if not superior, to any in the world. This 
excellent department of our city government was under the charge of a 
board of fire commissioners, consisting of John S. Hogg, Thomas W. 
Campbell, James Logan, Edwin L. Jones, and George F. Thompson, with John 
S. Hogg as president, and Thomas W. Campbell as secretary, Henry Spilman 
chief engineer, George W. Ellender assistant engineer, John M. Hennick 
assistant engineer. The police department, under the charge of Marshal 
Gray and Deputy Marshal Frey, also deserve great credit for the manner in 
which they saved furniture, household goods, and in some cases human life. 
During the progress of the fire many of the citizens carried ice-water, 
lemonade, and other refreshments to the nearly exhausted firemen and 
police, but Messrs. Richard H. Snowden and Charles McCoy deserve special 
mention.

General R. H. Carr, commanding general of the second brigade M. N. G., 
soon after the fire gained headway, issued the following order: 
"Headquarters Second Brigade M. N. G, Baltimore, July 25th, 1873. Special 
orders No. 9. Col. Clarence Peters, commanding sixth regiment infantry M. 
N. G., will hold his command in readiness to assist the police 
commissioners in case they should need his services for the purpose of 
protecting property from depredation. R. H. Cart, Brevet Major-General. 
Thomas J. McKaig, Jr., Colonel and Chief of Staff."

In compliance with this order Col. Peters issued the following: 
"Headquarters Sixth Regiment Infantry, M. N. G. Baltimore, July 25th, 
1873. General orders No. 11. In accordance with special order No. 9, 
headquarters second brigade, this command will assemble at the armory on 
this Friday evening at 8 o'clock,

Page 706

fully armed and equipped for duty. By order Clarence Peters, Colonel 
Commanding. (Official.) A. J. O'Connor, Acting Adjutant."

In accordance with the order a large number of the command assembled at 
the armory, but it was not found necessary to call upon them for 
assistance, and after remaining there until about 9 o'clock they were 
dismissed. About fifty-five policemen were on duty during the night in the 
burnt district, for the purpose of protecting the property, and keeping 
persons from approaching too near the crumbling walls.

At 11.50 A. M., when the magnitude of the conflagration was fully 
anticipated, a dispatch was promptly forwarded to Washington asking for 
help, as follows: "To the Chief Engineer Washington City Fire Department: 
Send every spare engine and carriage here immediately. Henry Spilman, 
Chief Engineer." This message on reaching Washington city was delivered to 
Martin Cronin, chief of the fire department, and in one hour s time 
engines Nos. 2 and 3 fully equipped, and having with them a compound pipe, 
arrived at the Camden street depot, under charge of the chief of the 
Washington fire department, assisted by the president of the board of fire 
commissioners and Commissioner Joseph Williams. The distance from 
Washington to Baltimore was made in thirty-nine minutes. Chief Cronin at 
once reported to Chief Spilman of the Baltimore fire department, who 
placed engine No. 3 on Pleasant street below Charles, and No. 2 on Liberty 
below Lexington street, and they immediately commenced work on the 
buildings near Liberty and Saratoga streets, doing efficient and valuable 
service The officers and members of engine company No. 2, the Franklin, 
were Charles Hurdle, foreman; John Sinclair, Samuel Dawes, Samuel Ricks, 
Hugh Myers, Philip Meredith, Wm. Hunt. The officers of No. 3, the 
Columbian, were James Lowe, foreman; Daniel Barron, Jasper Smith, Michael 
Kane, Walter Cox, Francis Lewis, Conrad Kaufman, Lewis Low (representative 
of No. 1 truck Washington), John Fisher, F. P. Blair, James Frazier, L. T. 
Folansbee (exempt.) Each company had their horses, hose-carriages, and 900 
feet of hose. The locomotive which accomplished the extraordinary feat of 
running forty-two miles in thirty-nine minutes was No. 413, and was in 
charge of Samuel Buckey, engineer. The train consisted of three gondolas 
and one passenger coach, Captain Wm. Bines, conductor, and all in charge 
of Col. Koontz, agent for the railroad at Washington.

Soon after the news was received in Philadelphia that a large fire was 
raging in Baltimore, the chief engineer of the fire department of that 
city sent the following dispatch: "H. Spilman, chief engineer of the 
Baltimore fire department. I have four full companies at your service. Do 
you need them? Wm. H. Johnson" The following reply was received from 
Baltimore: "Wm. H. Johnson, chief engineer of the Philadelphia fire 
department. Many

Page 707

thanks for your kindness; the fire is under control; no use for more 
engines. H. Spilman." The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad 
gave notice that they had made preparations for the transportation of fire-
engines in case they were needed. H. F. Kenney, of the P. W. and B. R. R., 
telegraphed three times to the acting Mayor Greenfield, of Baltimore, 
offering the use of that railroad. He said he could run fast extras with 
engines and firemen, if the Mayor of Baltimore said so, putting them in 
Baltimore in less than two hours. Telegrams from the authorities of York, 
Harrisburg, Alexandria, Martinsburg, tendering aid in the way of fire-
apparatus, were also received. Major Richards, of Washington, telegraphed, 
tendering to Marshal Gray the services of a portion of the Washington 
police force. The officers of the Northern Central Railroad Company sent 
their employees at the Bolton shops down to the scene to render 
assistance, and the employees of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company 
were held in readiness at the Mount Clare shops, and would have been sent 
if they had been needed.

The City Council met informally on Friday night, July 25th, in accordance 
with a call from acting Mayor Greenfield (Mayor Joshua Vansant on a visit 
from the city), and appointed the following committee to relieve those who 
were made destitute by the fire: MessEs Seim, Conn and Gifford, of the 
First Branch, and Messrs. Sommerlock, White and Ford, of the Second 
Branch. Resolutions of thanks were passed to those cities who had tendered 
assistance. The following was received from Mayor Alexander, of Columbia, 
S. C.

Columbia, S. C., July 26th, 1873. To his Honor the acting Mayor of 
Baltimore:--We have heard of your calamity by telegraph this morning. How 
can we aid you? The people of Columbia will come to the aid of Baltimore 
in any way in their power. Answer.   John Alexander, Mayor.

To the above Mayor Vansant (who had returned to the city) sent the 
following:

Mayor's Office, City Hall, Baltimore, July 26th, 1873. To his Honor the 
Mayor of Columbia, S. C.:--Your telegram tendering aid of your noble 
people, on account of our disaster of yesterday, is received, for which 
you have our grateful appreciation. From appearances we will not require 
aid from our sister cities. I will write to you by mail.

Joshua Vansant, Mayor.

In the official report of Charles T. Holloway, Fire Inspector, it is 
learned that 113 buildings were destroyed, as follows: 2 churches, 3 two-
story and attic brick houses, 64 three-story brick houses, 18 four-story 
brick houses, 1 two-story frame house, 1 three-story frame house, 1 one-
story brick house, making in all 113. These buildings were occupied as 
follows: Mills, 2; silk factory, 1; carpenter

Page 708

shops, 4; stables, 4; carvers, tobacconists and segar manufacturers, 3; 
tailors, 4; cabinet-makers, 3; school-houses, 3; marble worker, 1; 
painters, 2; sewing machine agency, 1; dress-makers, 2; shoemakers and 
shoe dealers, 6; machine shop, 1; restaurants, 4; tin-smith, 1; grocery, 
2; coal-office, 1; plumbers and gasfitters, 2; housefurnishing, 1; office, 
1; boarding-houses, 3; hat and bonnet factory, 1; hair-dresser, 1; academy 
of art, 1; university, 1; watchmaker, 1; confectioner, 1; leather dealer, 
1. These buildings, with the exception of 17, were also occupied as 
dwellings. It is estimated the loss will amount to about $750,000, with 
insurance for about one-third of the amount.

About half-past two o'clock on Wednesday morning, September 10th, a fire 
broke out from the rear upper portion of the Holliday Street Theatre, and 
rapidly spreading, soon involved the entire structure. Soon after the 
alarm was sounded the fire-steamers began rushing to the scene; but before 
they could get to work upon the building, the flames burst out and 
illuminated the whole centre of the city, and sparks were showered through 
the air over the buildings for many squares around. The wind was blowing 
gently at the time, in a southwesterly direction, and a most disastrous 
fire seemed imminent; but through well-directed exertions of the firemen 
and citizens, who rushed to the scene with alacrity,only four buildings 
were burned. The roofing of the City College buildings or old "Assembly 
Rooms" adjoining, took fire soon after the flames burst from the theatre, 
and that structure was soon in flames, and came very nearly sharing the 
fate of the theatre. The St. Nicholas Hotel, on the north of the theatre, 
was also on fire, and a number of buildings in the rear of the burning 
structures. The fire threatened at one time to consume the best and most 
closely-built part of the business centre of Baltimore.

The Hon. T. Parkin Scott, Chief Judge of the Supreme Bench of this city, 
died on Monday, October 13th, in the 70th year of his age. He was 
possessed of high abilities as a lawyer, and was much respected for his 
great probity of character.

Ishmael Day died on Saturday, December 28th.

At a quarter past two o'clock on Friday morning, December 12th, the New 
American Theatre, known to old residents as the Baltimore Museum, at the 
northwest corner of Baltimore and Calvert streets, belonging to the estate 
of the late Judge John Glenn, and his son Mr. W. W. Glenn, was discovered 
on fire, and in a short time was destroyed. The fire was first seen 
issuing from the southwest corner of the fourth story of the old Museum, 
and being located in the air as it were, the firs department had 
considerable difficulty in arranging hose so as to have full play upon the 
flames. inside of thirty minutes, however, the flames were under complete 
control, when all apprehensions of a disastrous conflagration passed away. 
The only plausible solution as to the origin of the fire is that it 
resulted from carelessness on the part of some of Mr. Howe's company 
connected with the theatre.

Page 709

Johns Hopkins, Esq., died on Wednesday morning, December 24th, in the 79th 
year of his age. Mr. Hopkins was born in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, on 
the 19th day of May, 1795. His father was Samuel Hopkins of this county, 
and his mother was Hannah Janney Hopkins, of the well-known Tucker-Janney 
family, of Loudoun County, Virginia. Samuel Hopkins was descended from an 
English Quaker family of respectability, and emigrated with five brothers 
soon after the colonization of Maryland. In his boyhood Mr. Johns Hopkins 
received a moderate education, worked upon his father's farm until 1812. 
When in his eighteenth year he came to Baltimore to engage in commercial 
pursuits. He entered the counting-room of his uncle, Gerald T. Hopkins, a 
well-known grocery merchant, He displayed an extraordinary industry and 
energy, and in a short time he had mastered the details of the business. 
In 1819 Mr. Hopkins, in connection with Benjamin P. Moore, established the 
grocery house of Hopkins & Moore. The young merchants had no cash capital, 
but the reputation Mr. Hopkins had already earned as a young man of 
enterprise, energy and honor, stood with the firm in place of money. This 
partnership was dissolved in 1822, and Johns Hopkins took with him two 
younger brothers, and established a business under the firm name of 
Hopkins & Brothers, in a frame house at the corner of Pratt and 
Hollingsworth streets. The business of the firm was rapidly developed, 
principally with the Valley of Virginia, where the firm had large family 
connections. After his retirement from business life the most remarkable 
portion of his career commenced. With large means at his disposal, he made 
judicious investments, which soon gave him a leading place as a 
capitalist. The Rialto Building, on Second street, at the corner of 
Holliday, is a monument to him, and immense warehouses were during his 
life erected by him. He was connected with nearly all the great 
enterprises that have marked the history of Baltimore. In 1847 he became a 
director in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and took an active 
part in its management up to the time of his death. In 1854 he was 
appointed chairman of the finance committee, which position he always 
held. Prior to 1857, when the company was embarrassed by the monetary 
difficulties of the country and internal dissensions, and was unable to 
provide in due season for the heavy obligations imposed upon it by the 
extension of the road, he voluntarily endorsed the notes of the company, 
pledging his private fortune to its support, and thus sustained the credit 
of the company and insured the completion and success of the road. He 
possessed from 15.000 to 17,000 shares of its stock, with an actual market 
value of $3,000.000. His interest was only exceeded by that held by the 
State of Maryland and city of Baltimore During the panic in the fall of 
1873 he again came to the assistance of the road, and furnished it with 
over $900,000 in cash, by which it paid its interest in cash, while other 
great

Page 710

roads were paying in certified checks or in scrip. Necessarily his 
connection with various banks in Baltimore was very large, and it may be 
said that he controlled them. His judgment was so good and his interests 
so large as to make his voice all-powerful with them. He was for many 
years president of the Merchants' Bank, and a director in the First 
National, in the Mechanics', Central, National Union, Citizens', and the 
Farmers and Planters'. He was a largo stockholder in many of the banks of 
this city, as well as in a number in Virginia. All enterprises appealed to 
him for aid, and, ever mindful of the prosperity of Baltimore, he assisted 
with his means. He was treasurer of the Republic Life Insurance Company of 
Chicago, director of the Baltimore Warehouse Company, director of the 
Merchants' Mutual Marine Insurance Company, a large stockholder in the 
George's Creek Coal Company and in the Merchants' and Miners' 
Transportation Company. The latter company have one of their steamers 
named after him. On the receipt of the news of the great panic of 1873 at 
his office in the Commercial Building, corner of Lombard and Gay streets, 
he became somewhat excited, and he saw at once the serious character of 
the financial trouble, and exclaimed, "This is a tornado!" By the time the 
clearing-house met on the afternoon of the panic he had made up his mind 
what to do, and he gave some of his strength and confidence to each member 
of that important and financial body. He said that he could put his 
shoulder to the wheel, that he held $2,000,000 of commercial paper, and 
had large investments, all of which were affected by the unexpected 
crisis, but he would devote his money and his influence to avert the panic 
from the business community of Baltimore. This he was able to do, and he 
was the only single man that could have done it. He started the next 
morning to carry out his object, and after his money was exhausted, he 
loaned his name, which was as good as a bank-note, and in many instances 
he charged nothing for it. He thus prevented a panic like that which swept 
New York and other cities, bringing disaster to commerce, to mechanical 
and all other kinds of industries.

Mr. Hopkins was a Quaker, without being a professed member of any church. 
He dressed in the plainest fashion; was tall in stature, with a slight 
stoop in the shoulders, with a plain and wrinkled face, but a not unkindly 
eye. He was brief in his conversation, but to the point. He was of a quick 
mind and temperament, and when he came to a determination it was difficult 
to get him to change it. He was honest, industrious, generous and liberal. 
In his will he endowed to the amount of about $6,000,000 the following 
institutions: A university at Clifton (his country residence), with a law, 
medical, classical, and agricultural school. A free hospital in the city 
of Baltimore for four hundred patients, complete in all its appointments 
and departments, for the reception and treatment of the indigent sick of 
Baltimore and its vicinity,

Page 711

and in special cases of casualty for the people of the State generally, 
without respect to age, sex or color. The hospital will form a part of the 
medical school at Clifton. A convalescent hospital in a country 
neighborhood, within easy reach of the city, to which patients from the 
free hospitals may be removed as soon as relieved of their maladies, and 
where they may completely recruit their strength and vigor before 
returning to their customary labors. An enclosure of the thirteen acres of 
the hospital as in part a free park to all who choose to enter it; a low 
stone wall will surround it, surmounted by iron railings, and the grounds 
are to be graded, laid off into walks, and ornamented with trees and 
shrubs and parterres of flowers, with seats for rest, and sprinkling 
fountains. connection with the hospital a training school for nurses will 
be established, in accordance with the plans of Florence Nightingale. Such 
nurses are to be paid out of the trust funds, and will be permitted, after 
becoming skilled in their duties, to exercise their profession, wherever 
their services may be engaged, among the general community. A home for 
colored orphans and for colored children having but one parent, and in 
exceptional cases for such colored children not orphans as might be in 
need of charity. The Home is to be in Baltimore County, and is designed to 
accommodate about four hundred inmates, and to be enlarged when necessary. 
Messrs. Lewis Hopkins, Galloway Cheston, Francis T. King and Charles J. M. 
Gwinn are his executors. His estate is estimated to be about $10,000,000.

The following very prominent and worthy citizens died at the dates given: 
Mr. Noah Walker, Monday, February 2d; Horatio L. Whitridge, Wednesday, 
February 11th; Hon. Robert Fowler, Tuesday, March 3d; Judge Bolivar D. 
Danels, Sunday, March 1st.

The harbor of Baltimore penetrates the heart of the city, from which the 
ground rises slowly for distances varying from one hundred to one thousand 
yards, then rapidly into successive heights, forming an amphitheatre with 
views from each tier increasing in beauty as it ascends, until the city, 
the harbor, the river, the bay, the surrounding country, spreading out 
their varying features, present a scene of beauty seldom surpassed by the 
seats of commerce in the old or new world. Baltimore is one of the best 
built cities in the country. Its churches, libraries, hotels, theatres, 
educational institutions, including the University of Maryland, a law 
school, two schools of medicine, with infirmaries attached, are altogether 
consistent with its commanding position as one of the great centres of 
American trade and commerce, Its system of public schools is admitted to 
be of the best. At a cost of $460,000 in 1869, it sustained 119 schools, 
with 558 teachers and 24,000 scholars, in all grades, from primary to 
college, in houses which, for convenience and healthfulness of 
arrangement, answer the most fastidious requirements. Its churches, 
embracing every denomination, number 191, many of them of fine 
architectural

Page 712

beauty. The buildings occupied by the United States and State and City 
governments compare favorably with those of other cities, and the 
magnificent new City Hall of marble is scarcely inferior to any structure 
in the country, except the Capitol at Washington, whilst its splendid 
monuments of marble bare given it the name and compliment of the 
"Monumental City." Nor have pleasure and health been neglected; eleven 
parks purify the air and invite the people to their shades. No park in 
America vies, we believe, with the hundreds of acres of woodland and lawn, 
hill and dale, of our exquisite "Druid Hill." The cent contribution of 
every citizen or sojourner who rides in our City Passenger rail cars, 
suffices to pay for and support this life-giving lung of our metropolis. 
The visions of Canton Company stock speculators of over thirty years ago, 
though not entirely realized, are still demonstrated to have been more 
than "baseless fabrics" by the wharves, factories, dwellings, and hum of 
business covering the once vacant spaces at the base of those eastern 
hills which are now crested with the groves and avenues of Patterson Park. 
There is no longer the stir of ship-building on Fell's Point, but it has 
only changed quarters for the shores of Federal Hill and Locust Point, on 
the southern side of the basin and harbor. There, too, a fresh town has 
sprung up on the "Whetstone Peninsula," with long lines of paved streets, 
houses, public buildings, quays, coal-wharves, and extensive piers and 
fire-proof warehouses for the European steamers from Bremen and England, 
connected with the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Still onward the city 
stretches, over the peninsula to the Middle Branch and Fort McHenry on the 
south and east, and on the west threatens still to include "Moale's Point" 
in the city's limits, in spite of the denunciations of that ancestor of 
the family who in 1729 refused his lands for the site of the future 
metropolis. Northwestwardly and westwardly, northwardly and eastwardly, 
the city has run out its streets and avenues; the forest has been felled, 
the hills as well as the level grounds are now covered with substantial 
improvements, slowly but securely won by the patient, unostentatious 
accretions of wealth and people during the last forty years. Large numbers 
of private, individual houses (not vast and crowded lodging houses) have 
been built for and are occupied by the working-classes, demonstrating the 
demand for, as well as the recompense of, labor in our community, The old 
"Howard's Park" is filled with residences and public buildings of a richer 
character, in substantial comfort and taste comparing favorably with the 
dwelling quarters of more boastful capitals. The observer of this busy and 
beautiful scene from the top of the "Washington Monument," in the centre 
of these luxurious dwellings, whence the whole panorama of Baltimore is 
distinctly visible, now beholds a magnificent city nestling under the 
sheltering slopes around the head-waters of the branches of the Patapsco, 
whore our ancestors planted themselves so confidently

Page 713

one hundred and forty-five years ago. From the still wooded heights north 
of the Northern Boundary avenue, to the waters of the basin and across the 
peninsula to the Middle Branch, the space is densely packed, quite four 
miles in width, with solid improvements, while from Canton and Fell's 
Point on the east, to the House of Refuge and Druid Hill Park on the west 
and northwest, seven or eight miles in length, the substantial buildings 
are centrally quite as dense, and only scattering in parts of the extreme 
outskirts.

"The city of Baltimore, though its prosperity suffered from the civil war, 
still had certain partial compensations in the increased knowledge 
obtained by our countrymen of its geographical importance, of the value of 
Maryland lands, streams and mines, as well as in the temporary depot trade 
in military supplies and troop transportation. But the war stopped the 
great trade of Baltimore with the South, and broke the city's connection 
with the West. Since the conflict ended the revival of this suspended 
prosperity has been steady and firm; nor can any one observe our thronged 
streets, our crowded cars, our packed vans, the gay crowds of pleasure-
seekers in our parks, the wide-awake, healthy alacrity of our people at 
all times, the rows of comfortable houses built and building in every 
direction, without being aware of Baltimore's substantial growth. Prior to 
1820 we were rich from foreign and domestic trade, combined and nearly 
monopolized in Baltimore. We are now endeavoring to re-assert our lost 
supremacy mainly through the continuation and increase of the internal 
improvement system.

"Before the days of sea-going and ocean-crossing steamers, it was objected 
to Baltimore that it was not a seaport, being at the end of two hundred 
miles of inland navigation; and it was replied that London, Paris, 
Antwerp, Bremen, Dresden, Berlin, and Hamburg, the great European trade 
cities, and Amsterdam, the great financial centre of the continent, were 
not seaports. But since the era of sea-going steamers, the geographical 
fact is of no appreciable practical importance, the vehicle of 
transportation being continuous. And so we return to the great thunders of 
Baltimore, in 1729, that in truth it is the original and natural terminus 
of internal American trade on the Atlantic seaboard, indicated by the 
geography of the country. The canal and railway companies, incorporated 
over fifty years ago, have been and are still striving to demonstrate 
this. Their success in sustaining the city amid all the rivalries of 
trade, of competing States and cities, amid the disasters of war, with the 
small capital of a comparatively small State and small city exclusively, 
has been marvellous; yet that they have succeeded under all such 
discouragements and disadvantages, is proof of the soundness of their 
basis: the central and national supremacy of Baltimore. It was from 
Baltimore town, in colonial and ante-revolutionary days, that the trading 
adventurers,

Page 714

soldiers, or pioneers, set forth when they went westward, wending their 
way by Fort Cumberland until they penetrated the wilderness, with their 
long trains of pack-horses, (before the days of wagons) bearing luxuries 
into the forest, to be exchanged for the peltries which were then almost 
the only circulating medium of the region. Maryland, lying like a wedge 
between Pennsylvania and Virginia, and having in its centre another wedge 
in its magnificent bay and river, whose affluents penetrated its extreme 
northwestern corner, afforded the easiest levels for a channel of trade 
for passing the mountains and reaching the navigable waters of the Ohio, 
then almost the outer boundary of civilized men. Thus our State became the 
chief recognized line of travel, and our town the chief depot between the 
Atlantic slopes and shores and the valleys beyond the Alleghany range. 
Historically, as well as geographically, Baltimore is, therefore, to be 
reckoned the earliest commercial ally of the West. It was certainly so in 
the days when Braddock and Washington pursued the line we have indicated, 
towards Fort Pitt or Fort Du Quesne; and also in periods when the common 
interests and common-sense of men pointed out a trail for trade, 
independently of all extraneous rivalries or influences. It continued so, 
indeed, till the opening of the Mississippi by steam navigation, and until 
the establishment of the New York Canal.

"The geographical fact still remains--immutable. All the art, all the 
ingenuity, all the capital of other States and cities, are unable to 
change the surface of the earth, or their relative situation on it. They 
have been unable to destroy the great truth that Baltimore is not only the 
natural depot of American continental trade, but also the central point of 
the seaboard Union in instantaneous intercourse with the national capital, 
and that its great Western railway is the shortest, directest, and, of 
course, most economical communication between the West and the sea. A 
glance at any skeleton map of the United States, on which the great 
railways are truthfully laid down, will show this. It will be seen that 
while Boston, New York and Philadelphia stretch out their iron arms 
longingly to the West, every grasp they make drags commodities over a 
longer road, and of course at greater cost.

"While seeking central communications westwardly, we have not been 
unmindful that there were northern lands and lakes and mines which might 
contribute to our and the South's prosperity and convenience. Accordingly 
we have threaded the Susquehanna with a canal and a road, which places 
Lake Erie nearer to Baltimore than to New York or Philadelphia. Our 
communications with the North and East and their connections are perfect 
through the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, the Western 
Maryland, and through the Northern Central Railway, whose connecting lines 
at Harrisburg, Williamsport and elsewhere throw into its power the 
products, not only of Western New York and

Page 715

Western Pennsylvania, but of the northwestern lake and prairie country of 
our Union. By the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad we are linked inseparably 
with all sections, under the alliances and systems inaugurated through the 
masterly administration of President Garrett. These roads and connections 
[together with the Baltimore and Potomac under the able management of 
President ex-Governor Oden Bowie] link our city by direct and regular 
intercourse with Washington, Richmond, and the affiliated southern roads 
penetrating Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and 
Louisiana. Through Harper's Ferry and Winchester we penetrate the Valley 
of Virginia, and will-shortly make complete southern connections in that 
direction. Through Grafton we wend northwardly to Wheeling or westwardly 
to Parkersburg; from the latter striking straight forward to St. Louis and 
its connecting Pacific Railroad; and from the latter, uniting with that 
griddle of railways which checkers Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois 
and the far Northwest. The Connellsville and Pittsburgh connection with 
our Baltimore and Ohio road has opened a great line of travel; and will 
continue to do so, especially when the independent Baltimore, Pittsburgh 
and Chicago road is finished. This line will be the shortest, cheapest, 
and most direct from the Northwest to tide water. New York has been 
hitherto held as the objective point of Chicago on the Atlantic; but by 
this line, Baltimore, now a first-class port, will be one hundred and 
fifty-two miles closer to Chicago than by the average distances of the 
existing lines used to New-York. By the New York Central road from Chicago 
to New York, it is 185 miles further than from Chicago to Baltimore; by 
the New York and Erie, 166 miles; and by the Allentown route the distance 
is 104 miles greater to New York than by the new route from Chicago to our 
city. From Louisville to Baltimore the distance through Cincinnati is 696 
miles, or 291 less than to New York by the Ohio and Mississippi and New 
York and Erie lines, and 209 less than to New York by the New York 
Central, and 155 less than by the Allentown route of the Pennsylvania 
road. Through the Ohio and Mississippi road to Cincinnati, and the 
Marietta and Cincinnati road thence, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 
presents a line 210 miles less in distance to Baltimore from St. Louis 
than the average distance by the three trunk lines used from St. Louis to 
New York. The Baltimore and Ohio Company now controls and works, under a 
permanent lease, the Central Ohio road from Bellaire on the Ohio river to 
Columbus the capital of the State; and it has also a line which extends 
from Newark on its Central Ohio division to Sandusky on the lake. The new 
lines of the Baltimore and Ohio road in connection with its Metropolitan 
branch from the Point of Rocks, reduce the distance from Pittsburgh to 
Washington city, as compared with the route via Harrisburg, full seventy-
five miles.

"Shortened distance is, of course, a main element of transportation;

Page 716

but facility for transfer and cheapness of handling are not the least of 
the material advantages sought for in the competitions of commerce. The 
establishment of the Locust Point piers and warehouses has shown the 
wisdom and foresight with which our great railway has been directed. This 
is, at once, a depot on deep water for coal, and also a depot for freight 
and passengers, reached without change of cars from any part of the 
country. The coal is delivered in the hold from the original vehicle of 
transportation; and the landed emigrant mounts the car for his western 
home without delay, or a dollar's cost for the movement of his baggage, or 
danger of the impositions practised in other cities by the greedy runners 
of rival railways.

"But the main purpose of this great Locust Point depot and pier -- 650 
feet long and 100 feet wide, covered with fire-proof warehouses -- is the 
accommodation of the Clyde-built steamers at this marine terminus of the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It was believed until within a few years that 
New York alone could maintain lines of steamers to Europe. The trials made 
by the Baltimore and Ohio Company of a small class of these vessels 
induced more extensive experiments. Accordingly two first-class 
steamships, of 2,500 tons burthen, were built and put on the sea between 
Bremen and this port, and in less than a year it was found necessary to 
double the line; and so successful had the attempt proved, that when the 
new stock was offered for the additional capital required, the astute 
merchants of Bremen, who entirely comprehended the advantages of 
Baltimore, offered subscriptions for forty times the sum desired, so that 
the apportionment of the stock made but two and a half per centum upon the 
subscriptions asked for. Another line for Liverpool is necessary and 
organizing, The great ocean steamers of New York are supplied with coal 
carried by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and shipped from Baltimore. 
The cost of transportation hence to New York is $2.50 per ton; and as our 
Baltimore steamers in their voyage hence to Bremen consume 800 tons, they, 
consequently, save two thousand dollars on each voyage as compared with 
New York. Accordingly, it is not surprising to see that we have in 
addition to oar railroad facilities and our Bremen or Liverpool steamers 
regular lines of steam packets to Norfolk, Petersburg, Richmond, Va., 
Wilmington, N. C., Charleston, Savannah, Key West, Havana, Galveston, and 
New Orleans. We have also most successful lines of steamers by canal and 
ocean to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston and to all parts of our own 
bay and rivers. The old established 'Bay Line' of steamers is most 
important and successful in its connections with the railways of the 
South, thus feeding Baltimore with large supplies of staples, and sending 
bark important cargoes of commodities purchased in our city. Our northern 
railways are sufficiently known, while those in connection with Washington 
and New York are now especially esteemed

Page 717

by the thousands who yearly use them, for the ease and security of the 
transportation.

"These rail and water communications, with the vast advantages they have 
by comparative cheapness of fuel and facility for its reception, have 
certainly added largely since the late war to the commerce of Baltimore. 
Two facts are striking. When the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered 
in 1827, the whole wealth of the city is estimated to have been scarcely 
more than about seventeen millions of dollars. The assessed value of real 
and personal estate for taxation in the city in 1870 is $207,181,550; 
while, under the influence of improved business connections, the revenue 
of the railroad has increased from $300,000 per month to $1.000,0001 The 
New York importer of coffee sends his ship to Baltimore to avail of its 
lower port charges and superior and economical facilities for 
transportation. The city has liberally fostered the road by furnishing it 
riparian rights on deep water, and hence the company was enabled to build 
its wharfs, piers, and warehouses, and to furnish without cost to European 
steamers those admirable advantages we have described, by which sagacious 
course the wealth of Baltimore has been augmented by many millions in the 
course of the last ten years. It has re-established not only our western 
internal trade, but effectually reinitiated a lucrative foreign commerce, 
large and varied importations being now made through Baltimore for the 
Ohio and Mississippi valleys.

"Baltimore is nearest the North, nearest the South, nearest the West in 
fact, so central on the seaboard as to be nearest all classes of industry 
and of production. It is nearest the manufacturer of the North, the 
agricultural producer of the West and South the speculator and purchaser 
of Europe and the West Indies, and of purchasers every where. When our 
great road shall be prolonged to the Pacific Ocean [which was accomplished 
in March, 1874] by the contemplated routes, partially in progress, near 
the 40th parallel of latitude, it will become the central belt of North 
America, the twin-clasps of which must be San Francisco and Baltimore."

In drawing to the close of this volume, by the same pen yet wet with what 
the author and compiler has chronicled the latest events of moment of the 
passing year which mark the city's life, he asks, of a liberal and 
discriminating public, indulgence and allowance for the imperfections and 
shortcomings in his work. Through a labyrinth of difficulties in the 
laborious and wide field of research which such a subject as he has 
treated necessarily embraces, he has threaded his way to the consummation 
of his task, endeavoring, at every step, faithfully to gather up and bind 
together, in form and manner as appears, the sheaves of history. If much 
has been missed by the way, or if rudely and clumsily the ground has been 
gone over, after-gleaners, doubtless, will complete the work which an eye, 
a hand and a judgment less skilled than

Page 718

theirs may have failed thoroughly to accomplish; and whatever the 
deficiencies and defects in the book, the author trusts that some 
compensation for the same, in the balance of differences, shall have been 
found in the mere amount of historical information, old and new, collected 
and condensed from a thousand different sources, and outspread in single 
and convenient shape. To many, the numerous extracts and quotations from 
various writers will have been a reintroduction, so to speak, to dear and 
familiar friends -- not the less pleasing, perhaps, that they are thus 
found side by side in the same company harmonizing to a useful end. Of the 
more recent writers from whom the author has freely quoted, none seem to 
him to have supplied so exhaustive and so fresh an account of Baltimore as 
Mr. Brantz Mayer, in his sketch, in the late book "Baltimore, historical, 
biographical." But from first to last, one and all who have touched upon 
the subject have furnished in greater or lesser degree, something of 
value; and all have been culled from without stint, and judiciously, it is 
hoped.

To the reader who may have gone over these pages, standing if he should to-
day on the quay at Locust Point, or the parapet of Fort McHenry, looking 
forth, two pictures will arise--one, in the mind's eye before him down the 
distant past, the other visible to the eye of the body, looming up and 
outstretching in the living present,--pictures striking by their contrasts 
through time and change, and by their intermingled presence exciting 
varied emotions and reflections. In one instant, as it were, the old 
wilderness is here With unbroken wastes around, and untroubled waters--
save by the birch-canoe. In another, sweeps the living moving panorama of 
the life that is. In one, the eye scans, afar, the faint, white sail of 
Captain John Smith slowly creeping up through the then wide unknown, with 
scant, adventurous crew--in another, it beholds the giant ocean steamer 
freighted with its thousand souls, breasting with a new, a master-power 
the now familiar scene. In one instant, looking over the shoulder of 
Captain Smith, the eye follows his skilled hand, outlining with 
extraordinary precision land and water, and fixing names on that most 
accurate and now historical "mappe," the first ever draughted of the 
region here-about. In another, lifting up, it beholds the fiery smoke-
stacks and furnaces of the Abbott and other iron-works in full blast and 
view, and the indented earth around with its opening stores of the raw 
material which supply these works--recognizing by the double glance both 
the sagacity of the great explorer in naming the now familiar Patapsco 
"Bolus," as he did, predicting in that original and appropriate name the 
presence of the precious metal in its banks--and the proof of that 
sagacity and prediction in the resonant hammers, clinking picks and 
belching flues around.

Other figures in the foreground of the past break on the view, following 
in the wake of the first fearless explorer, and seeking the head waters 
here--first, Lord Baltimore, the fortunate and favored

Page 719

founder; and after him, in time and slowly coming up from the lowlands and 
the sea, scatteringly, settler after settler, bringing gradually the 
material for the final foundations and corner-stone of the metropolis of 
the State. To stand thus, and to thus gaze and think down the stream of 
time, this picture offset against that, the far and the near seem one, the 
then and the now as yesterday and to-day. But yesterday, so considering, 
it seems the Dove and the Ark gave up their burdens to the shore, and we 
behold the Catholic Church standard planted at St. Mary's. But yesterday 
we suddenly behold that standard supplanted under the law by the English 
Church establishment, and Papists taxed to keep them from the land. But 
yesterday we see the law in force branding the foreheads and boring holes 
in the tongues of offending men. But yesterday, in the background we 
behold groping their way, people searching for court-house or church by 
the interesting means of slits and notches in trees. But yesterday, coming 
over the hills, groaning and jogging through tortuous tracks, wooded and 
tangled ways, we see wagons, hub deep in mud, laboring down to the 
Eldorado of their wish--this very water's edge--the only outlet to the 
outside world. This, yesterday! To-day, standing where we do, on parapet 
or pier, with all the past and all the present here, the free flag over 
head and the iron rail at our feet--are further words at all necessary 
where intelligent suggestion will so naturally and readily come in to draw 
for itself the lights and shadows and the contrasts of the pictures 
clearer?

We have finished; with all their imperfections these are our "Chronicles 
of Baltimore "--the result of nights and days of labor through months and 
years. We have endeavored to remove the moss from the gravestones of
"Ours," and to any one who will follow us and do better, we will do all we 
can to assist with our experience and kindliest advice.




Page 720

APPENDIX.

CITY GOVERNMENT.

Joshua Vansant, Mayor; Andrew J. King, Clerk to Mayor; John A. Robb, 
Register; S. T. Duvall, Deputy Register and Cashier; J. Sewell Thomas, 
Clerk to Register; Samuel Maccubbin, Comptroller; Samuel S. Mills, Jr., 
Clerk to Comptroller; I. Nevett Steele, City Counsellor; Albert Ritchie, 
City Solicitor; Beverley Diggs, Mayor's Detective.

MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL.

First Branch.--President, Otis Keilholtz; Chief Clerk, A. V. Milholland; 
Reading Clerk, J. Frank Brady; Sergeant at-Arms, Jas. Stanton; Page, 
Daniel Barr. 1st Ward, Jas. T. Kirby; 2d, E. Hergesheimer; 3d, Jas. Logan; 
4th, C. W. Lewis; 5th, Stanley Hynson: 6th John L. Baker; 7th, James Bond; 
8th, M. J. Owens; 9th, Telfair Marriott; 10th, W. T. Browning; 11th, Wm. 
Conn; 12th, Jos. S. Heuisler; 13th, Otis Keilholtz; 14th, Geo. U. Porter; 
15th, Thomas H. Rice; 16th, J. H. Freeburger; 17th, John T. Langville; 
18th, J. G. Linthicum; 19th, John T. Ford; 20th, C. W. Chancellor.

Second Branch--President, Henry Seim; Chief Clerk, J. J. Grindall; 
Assistant Clerk, E. J. Edwards; Sergeant-at-Arms, Jos. W. Wallace; Page, 
H. D. Berry. 1st and 2d Wards, Charles Streeper; 3d and 4th, John K. 
Carroll; 5th and 6th, Henry M. Staylor; 7th and 8th, George Rinehart; 9th 
and 10th, Henry Seim; 11th and 12th, Henry D. Loney; 13th and 14th, John 
S. Hogg; 15th and 16th, Wm. J. Murray; 17th and 18th, Charles A. Wheeler; 
19th and 20th, George A. Kirk.

Tax Department.--City Collector, James M. Anderson; Deputy, J. T. M. 
Barnes; Cashier, R. D. Ducket.

Judges of Appeal Tax Court.--Edward A. Gibbs, William J. King, Beale H. 
Richardson; Thomas Gifford, Cashier; H. P. Mowinkle, Clerk; D. A. Fenton, 
Assistant Clerk.

Water Department.--Water Engineer, James Curran; Register, Wm. L. 
Sharretts.

City Commissioner, John H. Tegmeyer; Assistant, Richard H. Johns; Clerk, 
John E. Toole.

Page 721

Port Warden, Daniel Constantine; Clerk, James H. McNeal.

Park Commissioners.--Joshua Vansant, Chairman; Thomas Swann, John H. B. 
Latrobe, Wm. E. Hooper, James Webb, Louis McLane.

Building Committee of New City Hall.--Joshua Vansant, J. Hall Pleasants, 
Ichabod Jean, Samuel H. Adams, John W. Colley; Walter S. Smith, Secretary, 
John J. Purcell, Superintendent.

Health Department.--Commissioner, James A. Steuart, M. D.; Assistant 
Superintendent, Alfred E. Smyrk; Physician to Marine Hospital, J. S. 
Conrad, M.D.; Secretary, I. W. Mohler; Clerk, W. H. Bosley.

Commissioners for Opening Streets.--Isaac Cox, James S. Morrow, John F. 
Piquett; R. F. Green, Clerk.

Police Organization.--Commissioners, Wm. H. B. Fusselbaugh, President; 
Treasurer, James E. Carr; Thos. S. Morse; Secretary, Marriott Boswell; 
Marshal, John T. Gray; Deputy Marshal, Jacob Frey; Clerk, George Wentz.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Commissioners.--President, John T. Morris; Superintendent, William R. 
Creery; Assistant Superintendent, B. C. Reed; Secretary, H. M. Cowles.

Board of Commissioners.--1st Ward, Henry A. Creagh; 2d, Geo. L. Hamel; 3d, 
John G. Dillehunt; 4th, Dr. Thomas Kelly; 5th, William M. Ives; 6th, John 
F. Hancock; 7th, Robert H. Sinclair; 8th, John Johnson; 9th, Alexander L. 
Spear; 10th, John T. Morris; 11th, John P. Poe; 12th, T. J. Magruder; 
13th, J. L. Lawton; 14th, G. S. Griffith, Jr.; 15th, John Ferry; 16th, 
William R. Brewer; 17th, H. B. Roemer; 18th, Christian Emmerich; 19th, I. 
T. Stoddard; 20th, B. H. Hobbs.

FIRE DEPARTMENT.

Board of Commissioners.--President, Thomas W. Campbell; Commissioners, 
William Wilson, Jr., John T. Morris, James A. Bruce, Samuel Kirk; 
Secretary, G. A. Campbell; Inspector, Charles T. Holloway; Chief Engineer, 
Henry Spilman; Assistant Engineers, Geo. W. Ellender and Jno. M. Hennick.

COURTS.

EIGHTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT.--Baltimore City.

The Supreme Bench.--Hon. George William Brown, Chief Judge. Hons. George 
W. Dobbin, Henry F. Garey, Campbell Whyte Pinkney and Robert Gilmor, Jr., 
associates. The Judges of the Supreme Bench are assigned to the following 
Courts:

Superior Court.--Judge Dobbin, with Judge Garey to assist. George 
Robinson, Clerk.

Court of Common Pleas.--Judge Garey, with Judge Dobbin to assist. I. 
Freeman Rasin, Clerk. John M. Young, Commissioner of Insolvent Debtors.

Page 722

Circuit Court.--Judge Pinkney, with Judge Garey to assist. James R. 
Brewer, Clerk.

Criminal Court.--Judge Gilmor, with Judge Dobbin to assist. William F. 
McKewen, Clerk. Augustus Albert, Sheriff. A. Leo Knott, State's Attorney. 
W. N. C. Carr, Deputy State's Attorney.

City Court.--Chief Judge, George William Brown. Nathaniel C. Robertson, 
Clerk.

The Superior Court, Court of Common Pleas, Criminal and City Courts, 
commence their terms on the 2d Monday in January, May and September. The 
terms of the Circuit Court are 2d Monday in January, March, May, September 
and November; and the 2d Monday of July shall be a return day.

Orphans' Court.--Hon. John A. Inglis, Chief Judge; Hons. George W. Bishop 
and G. W. Lindsay, Associate Judges. J. Harman Brown, Register of Wills. 
The Orphans' Court is in session every day, except Sundays, from 11 
o'clock, A. M., to 1 o'clock, P. M.

THE UNITED STATES COURTS IN MARYLAND.

The State of Maryland is in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, which includes 
Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina.

THE U. S. CIRCUIT COURT.--"The Circuit Court of the United States for the 
Fourth Circuit in and for Maryland District." Hon. Hugh L. Bond, Circuit 
Judge, and Hon. Wm. Fell Giles, District Judge. Clerk, Jas. W. Chew. U. S. 
District Attorney, Archibald Stirling, Jr., Esq. A. M. Rogers, Assistant. 
U. S. Marshal, Edward Y. Goldsborough. U. S. Commissioners, Isaac Brooks 
and R. Lyon Rogers, Esqs.

Terms of Court are held on the first Monday of April and November.

THE U. S. DISTRICT COURT.--"The District Court of the United States for 
Maryland District,"Hon. Wm. Fell Giles, District Judge.

[The officers of this Court are the same as the officers of the Circuit 
Court.]

Terms of Court are held on the first Tuesday in March, June, September and 
December.