\^\ 
 
LIBERTUS VAN HOKKI'LHN, D. U., LL. D. 
 
THE 
 ARGUS 
 
 CATONSVILLE, MD., 
 
 CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 From a small beginning more than 
 two centuries ago as a primitive settle- 
 ment of backwoods planters, Catons- 
 ville has kept on growing as the years 
 have passed in long array until it has 
 become a populous suburb of one of the 
 large cities of America. 
 
 The proximity of so important a busi- 
 ness centre as the city of Baltimore 
 has had the effect of giving to Catons- 
 ville a relatively large number of promi- 
 nent men in all the walks of life, who 
 have found its beautiful and healthful 
 location on a great ridge of land over- 
 looking the Patapsco River and Chesa- 
 peake Bay conducive to both peace of 
 mind and body. 
 
 Some of its citizens reside permanent- 
 ly within its bounds and have their 
 whole being in its village activities, 
 while others find it a convenient abode 
 whence they may daily issue forth to 
 their bread-winning in the neighboring 
 metropolis of Maryland. A third class 
 of suburban dwellers come only during 
 the warmer months of the year in order 
 to escape from the weariness occasioned 
 by scorching brick walls and sweltering 
 humanity in the confines of a great 
 city. 
 
 Each of these classes has contributed 
 its quota of prominent personalities 
 that have at one time or another graced 
 Catonsville with their presence, but it 
 is undoubtedly among the circle of per- 
 manent residents that we may most 
 fittingly seek for those whose lives and 
 interests have been most closely identi- 
 fied with the history of Catonsville in 
 times past. 
 
 I. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 By way of illustration there may be 
 mentioned the group of educators who 
 have given to the village institutions of 
 learning in which have been trained 
 many of the men and women who later 
 became beacon lights in the State and 
 nation. St. Timothy's Hall and Over- 
 lea College both had their day of glory 
 in the years gone by while Mount de 
 Sales Academy still survives after more 
 than half a century of usefulness. 
 
 The churches of the various denomi- 
 nations have in the main also had along 
 career in their mission of spiritual up- 
 lift, and many have been the ministers 
 of the gospel who have won a firm place 
 in the affections of their parishonersby 
 their lovable and sterling qualities. A 
 relatively large number of religious in- 
 stitutions form a species of holy circle 
 about the village, and these are mostly 
 near enough to the centre of population 
 to ward off as it were evil influences of 
 direful power without causing the 
 worldlings to feel all too ill at ease in a 
 saintly atmosphere. 
 
 The more material welfare of the in- 
 habitants has been the concern of an- 
 other group of men who have done much 
 for the advancement of the community 
 by their business enterprise in develop- 
 ing the natural advantages of the 
 region. Roads have been opened in 
 many directions, while horse-car lines, 
 steam railroads and electric tramways 
 have made communication easy with the 
 neighboring city and the surrounding 
 villages. 
 
 Edifices both public and private of 
 many kinds have added their note of 
 comfort and utility to the neighborhood, 
 and especially note-worthy are the 
 many elegant residences dotted over 
 the country for miles around in all di- 
 rections. The men who have builded 
 these things of beauty deserve honor- 
 able consideration at the hands of their 
 fellow-citizens, and their handiwork is 
 much in evidence to whomsoe" .-r it may 
 be that tarries in Catonsville be it for 
 a longer or shorter period of time. 
 
 It would evidently be futile to hope 
 for any complete treatment in a bio- 
 graphical way of so large a group of men 
 worthy of notice, and indeed so many 
 of them are still living that personal 
 notices would hardly be in good taste in 
 a series such as the one here projected. 
 Suffice it, therefore, to include only a 
 few of those who have long since gone 
 to their reward above and whose bene- 
 ficent activities are likely to be for- 
 gotten by the community in which they 
 lived as the personal recollections of 
 their contemporaries gradually become 
 dimmed by the passing years. 
 
•{735/fl 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 II. REV. L. VAN BOKKELEN, D. D 
 
 Most prominent among the educators 
 of Catonsville in times past was un- 
 doubtedly the subject of the present 
 sketch.whose life work has been thought 
 worthy of an independent notice in the 
 recently published Cyclopedia of Educa- 
 tion (Vol. V, p. 705.) 
 
 By descent Libertus Van Bokkelen 
 was both Dutch and Welsh, and he 
 united in his person many of the sterl- 
 ing qualities of both races. A born 
 orator of the mobile lip type, he was 
 essentially a man of affairs of the 
 religious and educational sort as is 
 abundantly shown by his long career of 
 ceaseless activity in many lines of en- 
 deavor. 
 
 He was born in New York City on 
 July 22, 1815, the son of a merchant 
 who dealt largely in Southern products, 
 and one of a large family of children. 
 While still quite young he removed with 
 the family to Brooklyn, but when he 
 had reacded the age of nine he was 
 sent to a boarding-school on Long 
 Island and thus grew up in a school at- 
 mosphere. (See The Biographical Cy- 
 clopedia of Maryland and the District 
 of Columbia, 1879, pp. 408-409.) 
 
 LL. D. 
 
 ■In 1845 at the suggestion of Bishop 
 Whittingham of Maryland he came to 
 Catonsville and established a church 
 military school known as St. Timothy's 
 Hall. This was the first school of its 
 kind in the United States, and it soon 
 became widely known throughout the 
 South. (See The National Cyclopedia 
 of American Biography, Vol. Ill (1893) 
 p. 213, cols. 1-2.) 
 
 Though beginning with nothing, this 
 school in a few years achieved great 
 success. Extensive buildings were 
 erected accommodating no less than one 
 hundred and fifty students, and the cur- 
 riculum included physical culture in a 
 ■!- gymnasium under skilled teachers. The 
 pupils were organized as an infantry 
 battalion and an artillery corps for 
 which the State provided muskets, 
 cannon and other equipments. 
 
 When the Civil War broke out in 1861 
 the institution was at the height of its 
 prosperity, and plans had been made 
 for e.xtending the buildings. When the 
 call to arms came most of the students 
 left, taking with them the muskets and 
 cannon which were soon put to the 
 stern uses of real war. 
 
 The assassination of President Lin- 
 coln by John Wilkes Booth, a former 
 pupil at the school, turned the United 
 States military authorities' attention to 
 it, and General Lew Wallace upon as- 
 suming command of the department on 
 April 19 immediately issued the follow- 
 ing order respecting the uniform worn 
 by the pupils of St. Timothy's Hall, 
 (then known as theCatonsville Military 
 Institute) : 
 
 Headquarters Middle Division, 
 Eighth Army Corps, 
 Baltimore, April 19, 1865. 
 General Orders No. 86. 
 
 The gray uniform worn by certain 
 young men, said to be students, has be- 
 come so offensive to loyal soldiers and 
 citizens that it is prohibited in this de- 
 partment. 
 
 This order will take effect from and 
 after the 25th of the present month. 
 By command of 
 
 Maj.-Gen. Wallace. 
 George H. Hooker, 
 
 Asst.-Adjt. General. 
 
 ... , ^. , ^ J • The mam buildmgs of St. Timothy s 
 
 His education was completed in van- ,, ,, . ^ j u ^ • ,or,r. ,: .. 
 
 , , ^T T 1 , Hall were destroyed by fire in 1872, but 
 
 the old armory is still standing as a 
 memorial of the past 
 
 ous other schools near New York, and 
 he early became interested in a second- 
 ary school on Long Island in which he 
 rose rapidly to a position of consider- 
 able influence. 
 
 In the years 1839, 1840 and 1841 he 
 traveled extensively in Europe study- 
 ing the various systems of instruction 
 in use in France, Italy, Austria, Hun- 
 gary, Bavaria, Switzerland, the Ger- 
 man States, Holland, Belgium, England, 
 Ireland, Scotland and Wales. (See The 
 Maryland Educational Journal, Vol. I 
 (1867), pp. 230-231.) 
 
 After his return to America he com- 
 pleted his theological studies and took 
 holy orders in the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in 1842. 
 
 In the report of the State Superin- 
 tendent of Public Instruction to the 
 General Assembly of Maryland in 1865 
 the school is put down as having eight 
 professors, one hundred and eighty 
 students and property worth forty thou- 
 sand dollars. (See p. 127.) 
 
 In 1850 Dr. Van Bokkelen was married 
 to Miss Amelia D'Arcy, the youngest 
 daughter of John N. D'Arcy, a mer- 
 chant of Baltimore. Their early wedded 
 While residing 'in Catonsville Dr. Van ' ''^'^ ''"^ ^P^"* ^''''^'" ^^ ^'^ Timothy's 
 Bokkelen also filled the position of : H^" °'' '" ^^^ "^^''^^ '■e<='^o'"y °^ St. 
 rector of St. Timothy's Church and had Timothy's Church, and it was here that 
 charge of Grace Church at Elk Ridge I '''®"" ^"^ children were born: Amelia, 
 Landing and St. Peter's Church in Elli- •■ ^^° married William Thode; Benjamin 
 cott City. In the discharge of his varied ; O^den, who married Miss Clara Conkey; 
 ministerial duties he was assisted by the Libertus Morris, who married Miss 
 teachers in his school who had pursued "^''^" '^^ Cushman; Bertha, who 
 clerical studies. His younger brother '^'^'' ^^ ^ '=^''''= E"^- '"^° '^'^'^ """ 
 Rev. James Ellisden Van Bokkelen was '"^""^'^ ^* the age of twenty-seven, 
 his assistant at St. Timothy's Church ^'"•^ ^°^^ Campbell, who married a 
 at the time of his death on Nov. 17, y°""g ^^^^ ^''o™ ^ew York. (From a 
 1850, at the age of twenty-five. He had granddaughter, Mrs. Richard Johnston, 
 
 previously had charge of the church at 
 Elk Ridge Landing. (See American 
 Quarterly Church Review, 1851, p. 639.) 
 In 1864 the number of pupils at St. 
 Timothy's Hall had fallen off so con- 
 siderably owing to the Southern patron- 
 age having been cut off by the war that 
 Dr. Van Bokkelen decided, after hav- 
 ing suffered great pecuniary loss, to 
 give up the school and turn to other 
 means of earning a livelihood. With 
 this object in view he rented St. Timo- 
 thy's Hall to Professor E. Parsons, who 
 continued it under the old name with 
 I great success. 
 
 Apr. 5, 1915.) 
 
 [TO BE CONTINTIED.: 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 II. REV. L. VAN BOKKELEN, D. D., LL. D. (Con.) 
 
 Dr. LibertU3 Van Bokkelen occupies 
 likewise a prominent place in the his- 
 tory of the public schools of Maryland, 
 having been largely instrumental in 
 establishing the whole educational sys- 
 tem of the state. 
 
 As early as 1S59 he was appointed a 
 School Commissioner for the First Dis- 
 trict of Baltimore County and served in 
 this capacity until 1865. 
 
 On Nov. 15, 1864, there appeared in a 
 local paper the following paragraph: 
 
 "Superintendent of Public Education. 
 — Gov. Bradford has commissioned Rev. 
 L. Van Bokkelen, of Catonsville, Balti- 
 more county, as Superintendent of Pub- 
 lic Education for the State of Mary- 
 land. It would have been scarcely 
 possible for the Governor to have se- 
 lected within the limits of the State a 
 gentleman better fitted for this im- 
 portant position, or one whose qualifica- 
 tions are more widely known and appre- 
 ciated. With great experience in the 
 education of youth, he combines all the 
 practical business qualifications re- 
 quired for the successful establishment 
 of the new system of public schools to 
 be established under the new Constitu- 
 tion." 
 
 This official appointment, to which a 
 salary of twanty-five hundred dollars 
 per annum was attached, was the be- 
 ginning of a period of intense activity 
 which may well be considered the high- 
 water mark in Dr. Van Bokkelen's 
 career. 
 
 After visiting schools in the North to 
 observe their educational methods, he 
 elaborated a system of public instruc- 
 tion which was incorporated in a bill 
 entitled "A Uniform System of Public I 
 Instruction for the State of Maryland.' 
 
 1867. As the easiest way of ridding 
 themselves of an obnoxious official the 
 convention simply abolished the office 
 which he held in spite of an eloquent 
 protest on his part. 
 
 When it became evident that Dr. Van 
 Bokkelen would be obliged to give up 
 his position, Mr. William Henry Far- 
 quhar of Montgomery county offered 
 the following resolution at ameetingon 
 Dec. 5, 1867, of the Association of 
 Public School Commissioners and it was 
 unanimously adopted by a rising vote: 
 
 On Dec. 30, 1865, he made his first 
 official report to Governor Bradford, in 
 which he thus described some of his 
 own activities: 
 
 "In accordance with the requirements 
 of the law, I have, since April 1st, 
 visited and delivered addresses in each 
 county, except Calvert. I attended the 
 State Convention of Teachers at El- 
 mira. New York; and the National Con- 
 vention of Teachers at Harrisburg, Pa. 
 I have twice visited Philadelphia and 
 New York on official business, have 
 traveled in the discharge of these duties 
 4,275 miles, and delivered 75 addresses, 
 chiefly explanatory of the School Sys- 
 tem." (See p. 3.) 
 
 On Jan. 24, 1866, the State Senate 
 ordered two thousand copies to be 
 printed, two hundred of which were to 
 he in the German language. 
 
 Dr. Van Bokkelen's administration of 
 his high ofiioe was so successful that 
 Franklin and Marshall College, Lan- 
 caster, Pa., in 1865 conferred on him 
 the degree of LL. D., and during the 
 four years of his incumbency very note- 
 worthy progress was made in the public 
 schools throughout the State. 
 
 But when the Civil War had come to 
 a close and with it the military dicta- 
 torship in Maryland, the popular will 
 once more asserted itself and a re- 
 actionary constitution was adopted in 
 
 "Resolved, That in closing the pres- 
 ent and perhaps the final session of the 
 Association of School Commissioners of 
 the State of Maryland we feel it our 
 duty to express in the most unqualified 
 terms our high estimate of the services 
 of the State Superintendentin the great 
 work committed to our charge. We re- 
 gard the successful operation and the 
 beneficial results of the present admir- 
 able School System as owing in a great 
 measure to his genius in organizing it,, 
 and to his zeal and devotion in carrying 
 it on at great personal sacrifices, known 
 to the members of this Association. Al- 
 though in consequence of the inherent 
 difficulties that beset the inception of 
 every great enterprise, heightened by 
 the peculiar political excitement of the 
 times, the true character and value of 
 his services may not yet be duly appre- 
 ciated, it is our firm belief when these 
 sources of misunderstanding shall have 
 passed away, the name of the Rev. L. 
 Van Bokkelen will be placed high as the 
 highest on the list of the men identi- 
 fied in America with its graatest glory, 
 — free popular education." 
 
 Dr. Van Bokkelen had likewise a 
 career in the National Teachers' Asso- 
 ciation; in 1866 he became a Director, 
 in 1868 the Secretary, and in 1869 the 
 President of the Association. In 1868 
 he took part in discussions on school 
 funds, state normal schools, and text- 
 books; and in 1869 responded to the ad- 
 dress of welcome at Trenton, N. J. 
 This latter meeting took place on Aug. 
 18, 19 and 20, and was the largest con- 
 vention of teachers ever held in the 
 United States up to that time, as more 
 than two thousand were in attendance. 
 (See Proceedings of the National 
 Teachers' Association, 1869, pp. 2-4, 
 etc.) 
 
 During this period also he was an 
 ardent supporter of the Maryland School 
 Journal published at first in Hagers- 
 town, 1864-1865; and revived later at 
 Baltimore under the title Maryland 
 Educational Journal, 1867-1868. These 
 journals were the oflScial organ of the 
 Department of Public Instruction of the 
 State of Maryland, but they led a pre- 
 carious existence owing to the lack of 
 adequate financial support and soon 
 ceased publication. 
 
 Dr. Van Bokkelen's educational 
 scheme was greatly altered from time 
 to time in after years, but it is essen- 
 tially still the basis of the public school 
 system of Maryland. (See State of 
 Maryland, Teachers' Year Book, 
 Scholastic Year 1914-1915, p. 112.) 
 
 [TO BE CONTINUED.] 
 
II. REV. L. VAN BOKKELEN, D. D., LL. D. (Con.) 
 
 In the year 1871 Dr. Van Bokkelen 
 left the state definitely, and accepted a 
 pastoral charge at Mount Morris in 
 Western New York becoming rector of 
 St. John's Church, while at the same 
 time he assumed the management of 
 the Jane Grey Seminary for young 
 ladies. (See Buffalo Express, Nov. 2, 
 1899, p. 6.) 
 
 Trinity Church in Buffalo called him 
 to its rectorship in 1874, and by so do- 
 ing inaugurated the final period of pros- 
 perity in the long and useful life of the 
 subject of this sketch. In a history of 
 this parish published in 1897 an extend- 
 ed account of his work here is given. 
 
 "He brought to his new work a 
 shrewd business capacity, a fund of en- 
 thusiasm and energy, great tact in 
 dealing with men, and an unusual abil- 
 ity in the pulpit. Add to this a sincere 
 and heartfelt desire to promote the in- 
 terests of the church and the great 
 truths of the Christian religion, and we 
 can see he was well fitted for the crisis 
 in which he found himself placed." 
 \ The situation which he found in his 
 'new charge was one that called for a 
 decided change, and he was the very 
 man to bring it about. There were two 
 sister congregations located in unde- 
 sirable downtown districts, and he made 
 it his especial business from the very 
 start to bring about a consolidation of 
 interests and to build a new and hand 
 some church in the residential section 
 of the rapidly growing city. 
 
 After ten years of ceaseless effort he 
 was able to bring about a union of the 
 two parishes, and after two more years 
 of planning to complete a worthy house 
 of worship in a fine new location. 
 
 When the new plan was first sub- 
 mitted by the respective rectors "a 
 long and somewhat animated discussion 
 ensued, in which the various news- 
 papers of the city took such an active 
 part that what at first was a matter of 
 parish concern rapidly enlarged into 
 what seemed to be of vital interest to 
 the municipality." 
 
 The smaller sister church was natu- 
 rally opposed to the consolidation, but 
 when finally the influence of the Bishop 
 was thrown into the scale the opposi- 
 tion melted away, and on June 14, 1884, 
 Judge Lewis granted a decree of con- 
 solidation between the two parishes, 
 and the smaller of the original edifices 
 was thenceforth known as Christ 
 Chapel. The other building was sold 
 and the new edifice was occupied for 
 the first time on Easter Sunday, 1886. 
 Dr. Van Bokkelen at this time re- 
 signed his rectorship because of the in- 
 creasing weight of years, and bade his 
 congregation an affectionate farewell. 
 Being now once more free to go 
 whithersoever he might desire he made 
 a tour of Europe, and later on another of 
 the West and of Alaska. But the angel 
 of death was at hand! 
 
 On Oct. 31, 1889, he consulted his 
 physician in regard to an attack of 
 dyspepsia, but he was not thought then 
 to be in a serious condition. The next 
 morning, Nov. 1, he was found to have 
 passed away silently during the late 
 hours of the night from heart failure. 
 His funeral was held on Nov. 4, 1889, 
 in the Church of the Ascension in Buff- 
 alo, with Bishop Coxe officiating. Twen- 
 ty surpliced clergy took part in the pro- 
 cession that entered the church, which 
 was filled with an audience among 
 whom were many of the leading men 
 of Buffalo. A large number of rela- 
 tives and friends followed the casket, 
 among them being the Rev. L. M. Van 
 Bokkelen of New York, B. C. and R. 
 C. Van Bokkelen of Chicago, Mrs. 
 William Thode of Baltimore, the Hon. 
 J. J. H. Van Bokkelen of Port Town- 
 send, N. Y., and W. K. and S. D. C. 
 Van Bokkelen of Brooklyn. Bishop 
 Coxe spoke briefly but eloquently upon 
 the life and services of the departed 
 clergyman, and dwelt upon some of the 
 features of the great movements in 
 which Dr. Van Bokkelen had been a 
 leader as explaining some points in his 
 character. 
 
 The remains were taken to Chicago 
 for burial, a large number of the mem- 
 bers of the family accompanying them. 
 A local newspaper gave the following 
 estimate of his character and services 
 to his fellowmen: 
 
 "Dr. Van Bokkelen was indeed a re- 
 markable man. He was a scholar who 
 had become an authority on educational 
 questions, a patriot and a philanthropist 
 who dared to be an Abolitionist in a 
 Southern community, an able business 
 man, and, withal, a devout and earnest 
 pastor. To few men has it been granted 
 to do so much good in a lifetime, and 
 none can leave a fairer fame as a 
 legacy to their loved children." (See 
 Buffalo Express, Nov. 2, 1889, p. 4.) 
 
 Dr. Van Bokkelen's death was chron- 
 icled all over the country, and long 
 obituary notices were published in 
 many of the daily papers, especially 
 those of Buffalo, Baltimore and New 
 York. His memory will long be re- 
 vered both North and South as that of 
 an earnest, forceful man who left his 
 imprint on public affairs wherever he 
 happened to go in the course of his long 
 life. 
 
 Though the bitterness of the sectional 
 feeling occasioned by the Civil War has 
 served to mar much of the sentiment 
 once felt for him south of Mason and 
 Di.xon's Line, yet many Southern men 
 had good cause to revere his memory as 
 that of a great educator who had guided 
 their footsteps at the formative period 
 of their lives, and the one-time pupils 
 of St. Timothy's Hall moistened many 
 a battlefield in Virginia and Maryland 
 with their lifeblood during the four long 
 years of war. 
 
 [TO BE CONTINUED.] 
 
In any general estimate of Dr. Van 
 Bokkelen's lifework and character it 
 cannot be failed to mention his intense 
 personality and great enthusiasm for 
 any object upon which he had set his 
 heart. A case in point is his attitude 
 on Abolition, which was one of the rul- 
 ing passions of his life. While still in 
 his teens we find the following expres- 
 sion of his strong feelings set down in 
 his private journal under date of May 
 17, 1835: 
 
 •*I went to New York to the second 
 anniversary meeting of the American 
 Anti-Slavery Society and heard the 
 famous English abolitionist, George 
 Thompson. My heart was gladdened 
 and my mind excited. I became more 
 and more interested in the holy cause. 
 If I am spared my voice shall be raised 
 for the slave even unto death. If all 
 
 During his ministry at Buffalo the 
 rector emeritus of Trinity Church, the 
 Rev. Edward Ingersoll, died on Feb. 6, 
 1882. The following Sunday, Feb. 10, 
 Dr. Van Bokkelen in the course of his 
 sermon spoke thus feelingly of him: 
 
 "The dear and Christian man whom 
 we buried ran well his race, and now 
 the prize is his. His works do follow 
 him. Thoughts of these works are to- 
 day in many minds. There are sweet 
 memories of his words, fragrant recol- 
 lections of his deeds. Could we hold 
 converse with him this the first Lord's 
 Day in the palace of King, he would tell 
 us of the rapture his completed work 
 brings to his sanctified spirit, and how 
 it yearns to have the work finished 
 which was left incomplete. He reviews 
 his thirty years of labor in this church. 
 He sees those whom he received into 
 
 forsake me-father, mother, friends— I , covenant with Christ by holy baptism. 
 
 not hesitate to plead for those who 
 are in bonds. I pledge myself to the 
 Gospel and to this cause. I believe I 
 will live to see slavery abolished. My 
 motto is. Onward. I will go in spite of 
 the devil and all his hosts opposing. 
 With God for my strength what need I 
 fear!" 
 
 And indeed many years later he was 
 able to say: "The incidents of my life, 
 upon which I look back with sincerest 
 satisfaction, are those which in early 
 youth connected me with the anti- 
 slavery cause. While in Flushing I 
 labored for the negro race by conduct- 
 ing a night school and a Sunday school 
 for colored adults and children in which 
 I was assisted by members of the 
 Society of Friends. At the close of the 
 war I was an adviser of the emanci- 
 pated slaves, helping them to build a 
 school and church at Catonsville, and 
 form habits of industry and frugality. 
 In these efforts as in others, I had help- 
 ers and hinderers; but holding to what 
 was right before God and men of good 
 will, I have never failed." 
 
 During the course of his long career 
 as educator and minister of the gospel 
 Dr. Van Bokkelen must have made hun- 
 dreds of addresses and delivered thou- 
 sands of sermons, for there is every in- 
 dication that he was a forceful and 
 fluent speaker who was always ready to 
 express his views before an audience. 
 Most of these have gone unrecorded 
 as he never seems to have published his 
 speeches, but the titles of a few of them 
 have been preserved and selections from 
 them were occasionally given to the 
 public at a later time. 
 
 On June 22, 1865, he delivered an ad- 
 dress on Higher Female Education at 
 the annual commencement of the Balti- 
 more Female College. 
 
 Again on July 10, 1867, he made an 
 address entitled On the Development of 
 the Perceptive Faculties before the 
 Second Annual Convention of the 
 Teachers Association of the State of 
 Maryland in session at Annapolis. 
 
 the goodly company which he marshaled 
 for the laying on of apostolic hands, 
 the great army which he admitted to 
 holy communion, and for whom he broke 
 the bread of life. He counts them as a 
 shepherd numbers his flock that he may 
 know whether they are still safe in the 
 fold. He thinks of those to whom he 
 called, 'Turn ye; why will ye die?' but 
 they gave no heed -men and women 
 with whom he pleaded with earnest- 
 ness, eloquence, and pathos, 'Be ye re- 
 conciled to God!' What think you his 
 earnest desire now is? It is that you 
 join hands with Jesus. Requiescat in 
 Pace." (Quoted by Mary E. Mixer, 
 History of Trinity Church, Buffalo, 
 1897, pp. 49-50.) 
 
 The farewell words of Dr. Van Bok- 
 kelen to his congregation were preached 
 in Trinity Chapel, Easter even, 1886, 
 from the comforting words of the 
 Savior according to Saint John, "And I, 
 if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
 draw all men unto me." The opening 
 sentences of the sermon were an ex- 
 position of the text as suitable to the 
 solemn incidents of the Savior's bitter 
 passion and precious death. The con- 
 cluding part directed the attention of 
 the congregation to the three crosses 
 which were erected on Calvary more 
 than eighteen centuries ago, and con- 
 cluded with an earnest appeal to his 
 parishioners to choose the right way 
 and accept salvation, that life might be 
 happy, death glorious and eternity a 
 season of everlasting joyfulness. 
 
 A few words of farewell to his con- 
 gregation, and his ministry was over. 
 
 In his many notable sermons, in his 
 public addresses connected with various 
 questions of the day, in his intercourse 
 with his brethren of the clergy, Doctor 
 Van Bokkelen always won golden 
 opinions. Liberal in his views, gener- 
 ous in his impluses, in sympathy with 
 all efforts to improve and benefit human- 
 ity, he laid down his work with honor 
 to himself and the respect of the whole 
 community. 
 
C ATOMS VI LLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 III. REV. GEO. W. EBEUNQ, PH. D., 
 
 Another well-known educator of Ca- 
 tonsville, who in a sense succeeded Dr. 
 Van Bokkelen in this field, was Dr. 
 George W. Ebeling, Ph. D., of Overlea 
 College. His career as a teacher ex- 
 tended over nearly half a century, be- 
 ginning as it did in Germany and end- 
 ing in America. 
 
 Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Ebeling, the 
 subject of the present sketch, was born 
 at Alt Wallmoden near Hildesheim in 
 the Kingdom of Hanover, Germany, on 
 December 13, 1821, the year that Napo- 
 leon died. His family had been the 
 hereditary owners of a small landed 
 estate, which had been confiscated from 
 them shortly before under the Napo- 
 leonic regime in Germany. 
 
 At the time of his son's birth the 
 father was pastor of the Lutheran 
 Church at Alt Wallmoden, a small vil- 
 lage near the confines of the Hartz 
 Mountains, and many years later a 
 younger son. Dr. Martin Ebeling, held 
 the same charge. 
 
 A few years after his son Wilhelm 
 was born the father was advanced to 
 the position of Lutheran Superintendent 
 with headquarters at the nearby village 
 of Salzgitter. Thither the Ebeling 
 family removed, and to this day some 
 of their descendants continue to reside 
 there. The father and mother are 
 buried side by side near the vestibule 
 of the old Lutheran Church at Salz- 
 gitter, and in recent years their graves 
 have been visited by various members 
 of the family from America. 
 
 As a boy Wilhelm, as he was usually 
 called by those who knew him intimate- 
 ly, attended schools at Hildesheim and 
 Braunschweig, and graduated in 1841 
 from a gymnasium at the latter place. 
 Little of his life at this early period is 
 now known to his descendants, but one 
 can readily imagine that he was a dili- 
 gent student of both the ancient and 
 the modern languages, especially Latin 
 for which he always manifested the 
 greatest interest and which he was con- 
 tinually quoting in after years. It is 
 probable that during this time he 
 studied Greek, Latin, French, English 
 and German; afterwards he added to 
 these Hebrew and Spanish. Thus it 
 will readily be seen that his range of 
 vision in linguistic matters was quite 
 extended, and that he was well quali- 
 fied to be a teacher in this field. 
 
 In the autumn of 1841 he entered the 
 University of Gottingen as a student of 
 theology, living at first with a family 
 named Tolle at 299 Rothestrasse, and 
 later, after moving several times, with 
 a Doctor Kirsten. The university he 
 selected for the pursuit of his advanced 
 studies was then at the height of its 
 glory and influence as the favorite of 
 the aristocracy of Germany, a position 
 afterwards held by the University of 
 Bonn. (See Personal-Bestand der 
 
 Georg-Augusts-Universitat zu Gottin- 
 gen, 1841-1845.) 
 
 At the University young Ebeling 
 seems to have devoted his attention 
 largely to the study of philosophy in 
 addition to the usual theological sub- 
 jects, and to have become familiar with 
 the teachings of Cicero, Kant and 
 Schleiermacher more especially. In- 
 stead of migrating from university to 
 university, as is the custom with Ger- 
 man students, the young candidate of 
 theology chose to remain at Gottingen 
 to the end of his course of four years. 
 
 The expenses of these years were, 
 however, too great for his slender purse, 
 and in the summer of 1845 he was 
 obliged to leave the university without 
 attaining the degree for which he was 
 striving; and it was only at a later time 
 that his ambition in this direction was 
 gratified. 
 
 Various anecdotes of his university 
 life used to be related by him many 
 years later: How on one occasion he 
 sat up all night and studied just to 
 prove to himself that he could do it; 
 and how on another with youthful folly 
 he procured a pipe with a stem so long 
 that the servant girl lighted it from the 
 ground while he sat at a second-story 
 window and smoked it. 
 
 Five years later, in 1850, he finally 
 received the degree of Doctor of Philos- 
 ophy from the University of Gottingen 
 upon the submission of a Latin diserta- 
 tion on The Conscience as the Image of 
 God. It was this degree which gave 
 him the familiar title of Dr. Ebeling, as 
 he never received any of the com- 
 plimentary degrees so common in 
 America. 
 
 The central idea of the dissertation 
 just mentioned was that there exists an 
 inborn feeling in every one which in- 
 tuitively judges between right and 
 wrong; this feeling we call the Human 
 Conscience, and the only rational way 
 of accounting for its existence is to as- 
 sume it is the divine spark implanted at 
 birth in the soul of every human being. 
 From the above brief outline it will 
 be seen that Dr. Ebeling continued his 
 studies at school and university unin- 
 terruptedly from childhood until he had 
 reached the age of twenty-three; and 
 we can well imagine that in his father's 
 home throughout this period there pre- 
 vailed a decided literary atmosphere, 
 for was not his father a Lutheran bis- 
 hop and did not his younger brother 
 Martin also become a student in theo- 
 logy at Gottingen. 
 
 The effects of his youthful surround- 
 ings and scholarly training were ap- 
 parent to the end of his long life, even 
 after Dr. Ebeling had cut loose from his 
 mtellectual moorings in Germany and 
 emigrated to far-ofi: America at a time 
 when universities were unknown on this 
 side of the Atlantic. 
 [TO BE CONTINUED.] 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 QEORQE C. KEIDEL, ^H. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 III. REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 
 
 Upon leaving the University of Gott- 
 ingen he followed the course usually 
 pursued by young theologians of his 
 day and became a private tutor in the 
 family of a nobleman. Through the in- 
 fluence of a relative he received an ap- 
 pointment in the family of Herr von 
 Reden, who resided on his ancestral 
 estate at Wendlinghausen in the pro- 
 vince of Lippe. 
 
 Here he remained six year (1845-1851) 
 tutoring the two eldest sons Jobst and 
 Paul von Reden. (See Gothaisches 
 Genealogischea Taschenbuch, 1915, p. 
 644.) As an educated gentleman he was 
 here received as a member of the noble- 
 man's family, and consequently moved 
 more or less in aristocratic circles. His 
 magnificent bass voice, and his skilful 
 playing of the violincello, no doubt 
 served him well during these years of 
 cultured ease. While here he also had contained the following brief para- 
 
 week later set sail for America from 
 Bremerhaven on the ship Admiral in 
 command of Captain Carl Wieting. 
 This vessel is officially reported by the 
 United States custom authorities to 
 have been of six hundred and sixty-four 
 tons burden and to have carried thirty- 
 one cabin passengers and two hundred 
 and sixty-eight steerage passengers — a 
 mere pigmy in comparison with the 
 giant German ocean steamers of the 
 twentieth century. (See letter from 
 Collector of Customs at Baltimore, Mar. 
 30, 1915.) 
 
 The voyage was long and trying, and 
 the young theologian suffered so great- 
 ly from seasickness that from that time 
 until his death nearly fifty years later 
 he refused to again venture upon the 
 ocean depths. 
 
 The Baltimore Sun, June 23, 1853, 
 
 time to pursue his theological and lin 
 guistic studies, write his doctor's dis- 
 sertation, and receive his university de- 
 gree. 
 
 From 1851 to 1853 Dr. Ebeling taught 
 in a boy's school at Braunschweig, and 
 thus became used to handling a class of 
 boys for the first time in his career. 
 
 Whether he would have continued in 
 this profession indefinitely, or whether 
 he would later have received a pastoral 
 charge, must remain problematical, for 
 an event occurred about this time which 
 changed the whole course of his life. 
 
 It so happened that there was living 
 at Salzgitter about the middle of the 
 century a government physician Dr. 
 Georg Keidel, who had an only daugh- 
 ter Marie, then in her early twenties, 
 who was keeping house for her widowed 
 father and her six younger brothers. 
 
 Daring his visits home Dr. Ebeling 
 made the acquaintance of Fraulein 
 Keidel, promptly fell in love with her, 
 and soon became engaged to be married 
 in the formal German way. But the 
 young folks' dreams of happiness were 
 destined soon to be rudely shocked. 
 
 Early in the year 1853 Dr. Keidel an- 
 nounced his intention of emigrating 
 with his whole family to far-off Amer- 
 ica, and a rending of family ties in 
 som.e sort was inevitable. 
 
 After much discussion it was decided 
 that Dr. Ebeling should be ordained in 
 Hanover as a Lutheran minister, that 
 he and Fraulein Keidel should be mar- 
 ried at once, and that then he would cut 
 loose from his own family in Germany, 
 and accompany his bride's family to the 
 
 graph: 
 
 "More Emigrants. — The Bremen ship 
 Admiral, Capt. Welting, yesterday ar- 
 rived at this port in 41 days from Liver- 
 pool, via Bremen, having 300 passen- 
 gers in the steerage, and 3,000 bushels 
 salt. Consigned to Schaer & Kohler." 
 This notice is evidently incorrect in 
 several particulars, as the voyage for 
 instance took seven weeks even from 
 Bremen, May 4— June 22. 
 
 The young couple arrived in Balti- 
 more with a piano, a violincello, and 
 some household effects; but they had 
 very little money left after paying for 
 their long journey from home. 
 
 Before leaving Germany Dr. Ebeling 
 had chanced to hear that the German 
 Consul from Baltimore, Mr. F. L. 
 Brands, was spending some time in 
 Germany, and he therefore called on 
 him to make some inquiries about 
 America. 
 
 The consul thereupon gave him a 
 letter of introduction to his pastor, the 
 well-known Lutheran divine Rev. John 
 G. Morris. Soon after arriving in Balti- 
 more Dr. Ebeling presented this letter, 
 stating that it was their intention to 
 continud their journey westward and 
 settle in Missouri. But the pastor of 
 the First Lutheran Church spoke earn- 
 estly to him of the advantages of Balti 
 more as a place of residence, and final- 
 ly succeeded in persuading Dr. Ebeling 
 as well as the whole Keidel family to 
 remain in Maryland. 
 
 Thus the new arrivals became mem- 
 bers of the large German colony living 
 at that time on the banks of the 
 Patapsco, an event which proved de- 
 cisive in its influence on the subsequent 
 
 New World. ^,^,,^ .„ .„., 
 
 Accordingly the young couple were j hiVt'oV'of the" wholefamily group" 
 married on April 28, 1853, and about al [to hk coxTl.NrEHl 
 
Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 III. REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 
 
 As soon as Dr. and Mrs. Ebeling had 
 settled themselves in a Baltimore home 
 the question of earning a livelihood be- 
 came a pressing one, and so to make 
 some sort of a beginning a sign was 
 placed on the house announcing that 
 Dr. Ebeling was prepared to teach the 
 Ancient and Modern Languages, etc. 
 At the very bottom there was added: 
 Vocal and Instrumental Music; and to 
 his great astonishment the first pupil 
 that applied desired piano lessons. So 
 he at once set himself diligently to work 
 to improve the slight knowledge of this 
 art which he happened to have previous- 
 ly acquired. 
 
 While Dr. Ebeling thus practised his 
 bride sat by his side and read aloud to 
 him to wile away the time. By the use 
 of a dumb piano this method of work 
 became feasible, and the importance of 
 music teaching in America as a means 
 of gaining a living added the needed in- 
 centive. This diligence established the 
 habit of practising exercises, and he 
 soon developed an unusual pliability in 
 
 the former minister had deemed it 
 necessary one night to fire off his pistol 
 from the church parsonage to let peo- 
 ple know he was armed. Dn. Ebeling, 
 however, by the use of great tact in his 
 dealings with the parishioners succeeded 
 in overcoming the dissension, and in 
 consequence the congregation soon be- 
 gan to grow and to share in the general 
 prosperity which came to the whole 
 countryside just prior to the Civil War. 
 
 In the spring of 1855 Dr. Ebeling ac- 
 cordingly moved from the city to Ca- 
 tonsville, living at first in the small 
 parsonage by the side of the church 
 with his wife and young son William, 
 who had been born the previous sum- 
 mer in Baltimore. His first home in 
 Catonsville, therefore, was a frame 
 dwelling of four rooms which is still 
 standing, and which for many years 
 afterwards was the residence of the 
 teacher in charge of the German church 
 school adjoining. 
 
 Owing to his small salary as minister 
 Dr. Ebeling was obliged to rely chiefly 
 
 the use of his fingers, while at the same on the revenue derived from giving 
 
 time acquiring a very delicate touch. 
 (See letter from Herman L. Ebeling, 
 June 29, 1915.) 
 
 Soon after settling in Baltimore Dr. 
 Ebeling secured a position as organist 
 in an Episcopal church through the in- 
 fluence of Mr. Samuel Davis, who was 
 obliged to give him a signal whenever 
 he was to begin or stop playing. This 
 adventure led eventually to his forming 
 the acquaintance of Miss Fredericka 
 Karthaus, who afterwards became Dr. 
 Keidel's second wife. 
 
 Towards the end of the following year 
 Dr. Ebeling heard that there was a 
 vacancy in a small German church 
 which had been organized about five 
 years before by a group of Germans 
 living in Catonsville and the surround- 
 ing country. Accordingly on December 
 26, 1854 (Second Christmas Day) he 
 drove out to the country and preached 
 to the new congregation. The result 
 was that he soon after became the pas- 
 tor of Salem Church, succeeding the 
 late Rev. Mr. Brockmann. 
 
 This event was the determining factor 
 for the remaining forty-si.x years of his 
 life, and ended furthermore by drawing 
 all of his wife's family to Catonsv 
 as well. 
 
 Being an ordained minister he deemed 
 it his duty to exercise his holy calling, 
 and so accepted this charge rather from 
 a sense of duty than because of any 
 pecuniary reward. For the congrega- 
 tion was few in numbers and poor of 
 purse, the salary of the minister being' 
 only one hundred dollars a year. 
 
 His congregation he found in a state 
 of disorganization, with one faction of 
 seventeen members threatening to 
 withdraw. Feeling was so tense that 
 
 private lessons and from teaching in 
 various schools in order to support his 
 family. As his pupils were widely 
 scattered in the early years of his resi- 
 dence in Catonsville it was necessary 
 for him to keep a team and drive from 
 place to place. 
 
 Some of his pupils lived in Baltimore, 
 some in Wetheredsville and elsewhere 
 in the country. It was while on a trip 
 to the latter place to give a music 
 lesson that his horse ran away. Doctor 
 Ebeling was thrown from his carriage 
 and his collarbone broken. His lady 
 pupils at Wetheredville later showed 
 their appreciation of his services by 
 presenting the young couple with some 
 silverware. 
 
 During these years he also taught in 
 the Phelps School at Ellicott City, later 
 known as the Patapsco Institute; and 
 on one occasion he walked from Ca- 
 tonsville to Ellicott City, gave his les- 
 sons, and then walked back again to his 
 home on Ingleside avenue. At this 
 time Dr. Ebeling was in his thirties 
 and enjoying all the vigor of young 
 manhood in spite of a slight affection 
 of the heart which he had had all his 
 life and which in the end was the cause 
 of his death. 
 
 As a child in Germany he had been so 
 puny and delicate that his parents had 
 feared lest they would be unable to 
 raise him. But as he grew older he 
 grew stronger, and ended by enjoying 
 really good health throughout his long 
 life. It seems probable that the fact 
 of his living in the healthful surround- 
 ings of the country for so many 
 years had much to do with his general 
 physical welfare and survival to ex- 
 treme old age. 
 
 [TO BE CONTINUED.] 
 
CATONSl/ILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D, 
 
 III. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 
 
 While it is undoubtedly true that Dr. 
 Ebeling's lifework was in the main 
 that of a teacher, yet he also had a 
 career of nearly half a century as a 
 minister of the gospel both in Catons- 
 ville and elsewhere in Maryland. 
 
 During the years 1855 and 1856 he as- 
 sumed the pastoral duties of Jerusalem 
 Church at Gardenville, Baltimore Coun- 
 ty, Md., and was wont to drive over 
 from Catonsville at stated intervals to 
 preach in German to the congregation. 
 (See letter from Rev. P. C. Burgdorf, 
 Ph. D , June 24, 1915.) But the trip 
 over country road and city road and 
 city street was an arduous one, and he 
 soon felt himself obliged to give up this 
 charge. 
 
 When a new church building was 
 erected at Gardenville some twenty 
 years later Dr. Ebeling took part in the 
 dedication services on May 7, 1876, and 
 made a short address in German. (See 
 Baltimore Gazette, May 8, 1876, p. 4, 
 col. 3.) 
 
 The German Lutheran congregation 
 at Ellicott City, Howard county, Md., 
 also received somewhat of his fostering 
 pastoral care many years ago. 
 
 A third subsidiary charge held by Dr. 
 Ebeling for many years was the Ger- 
 man Lutheran church on the Old Court 
 Road near the Liberty Pike and not far 
 from Hebbville. Here for many years 
 Dr Ebeling was accustomed to hold 
 religious services on Sunday afternoons 
 after having taken the long drive over 
 from Catonsville. 
 
 During the exciting times experienced 
 in Maryland at the time of the Civil 
 War Dr. Ebeling, though himself favor- 
 ing the North, was careful to refrain 
 from showing his feelings in his pulpit 
 utterances and thus by tactful silences 
 on his part the war cloud passed over 
 his little flock without producing any 
 great upheaval of feelings or financial 
 catastrophe in the church. 
 
 About this time a number of German 
 Lutheran congregations in Maryland, 
 finding themselves out of harmony with 
 the strong Northern feelings of their 
 English brethern of the Maryland 
 Synod, formed a new synod, and Dr. 
 Ebeling and his congregation associated 
 themselves with the new movement. 
 
 The official organ of this synod was a 
 small church paper known as the Deut- 
 scher Hausfreund, and for some years 
 in the seventies Dr. Ebeling acted a.s 
 the managing editor of this literary 
 venture. The press-work was done in 
 Baltimore, but the copies were distri- 
 buted to the subscribers from the 
 editor's residence Overlea. 
 
 Dr. Ebeling's salary as pastor of the 
 German Lutheran Church in Catonsville 
 had been gradually advanced from one 
 hundred to seven hundred dollars as the 
 congregation had prospered. Butfinan- 
 cial reverses had come to him with ad- 
 vancing years and failing strength, and 
 so in the early eighties he thought seri- 
 ously of giving up his Catonsville home 
 and accepting a charge in the city of 
 Baltimore. 
 
 But his congregation were loath to 
 give up their old pastor after so 
 many years of faithful service, and so 
 with the assistance of relatives and 
 friends his salary was raised to a thou- 
 sand dollars, at which figure it remain- 
 ed until his death many years later. 
 
 Soon another problem of grave im- 
 portance arose in the management of 
 the church: the older members who had 
 been born in Germany kept dropping 
 off one by one, few new recruits came 
 to take thair places, and the younger 
 generations knew little if any German. 
 And so by degrees the English language 
 made greater and greater inroads on 
 the foreign tongue. 
 
 The minor services of the church 
 came gradually to be held in English, 
 the movement away from the German 
 of the Fatherland became more and 
 more pronounced, until finally in the 
 late nineties the plan of holding ser- 
 vices alternately in German and English 
 was adopted as a makeshift. (See 
 George C. Keidel, A Typical Language 
 Problem: Its Solution at Catonsville, 
 Md., in Lutheran Observer, Feb. 4, 
 
 1898, p. 5, cols. 1-2.) 
 
 Soon after this language question had 
 been temporarily settled the chief event 
 in the history of Salem Church occurred, 
 namely its Golden Jubilee, September 
 30, 1899. The official celebration was 
 held on the nearest Sunday, October 1, 
 
 1899, and the church on the hill was 
 filled to overflowing with friends both 
 old and new. 
 
 An elaborate program was carried 
 out in the presence of many visiting 
 Lutheran clergymen, of prominent Ger- 
 mans from the neighborhood, and of 
 more than a dozen of the original 
 members of the congregation. The 
 venerable pastor himself gave interest- 
 ing personal reminiscences connected 
 with the early history of the church. 
 Rev. L. M. Zimmerman and Dr. Ph. 
 Henninghausen followed with appro- 
 priate jubilee addresses, the choir ren- 
 dered special music, and the exercises 
 were concluded by an address on the 
 financial history of the church by the 
 secretary of the church council. 
 
 This important calebration in the his- 
 tory of the German Lutheran Church 
 of Catonsville was widely reported in 
 both the secular and religious press. 
 The Catonsville Argus published a full- 
 page history of the church, the Balti- 
 more papers both English and German 
 repeatedly devoted space to its many 
 interesting features, and the Lutheran 
 Observer published a long article with 
 a picture of the old church and a por- 
 trait of its aged pastor. 
 
 The Protestant Germans of Catons- 
 ville and vicinity felt that by this not- 
 able celebration honor had been done 
 where honor was due, and the vener- 
 able pastor of the flock looked back on 
 the forty-five years of his ministry with 
 the satisfied feeling that his work had 
 been well done. 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES: 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 III. REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 
 
 Soon after coming to Catonsville Dr. 
 Ebeling acquired a great spirit of en- 
 terprise and undertook real estate and 
 other operations whose daring was 
 truly remarkable. It was this great 
 activity of mind and body which quickly 
 forced him into the public attention and 
 won for him a noteworthy place in the 
 history of ths village. 
 
 On August 9, 1855, he purchased a 
 tract of land from John Steele and wife 
 (See Towson Land Records 12.360), 
 giving a mortgage on it to the former 
 owner (See Mortgage Records 6.493). 
 This was the place on Ingleside avenue 
 which was later the site of a butchering 
 establishment for many years, and it 
 was here that his second son Herman 
 Louis was born in 1857. 
 
 A second piece of real estate was 
 bought by Dr. Ebeling on May 21, 1856, 
 from George F. Rentz and wife (See 
 Land Records 15.262), a mortgage on it 
 being given to Charles E. Philips, 
 Trustee, (See Mortgage Records, 7.393). 
 On October 24, 1857, a third place was 
 bought from Frederick Misel and wife 
 (See Land Records 20. 65). These three 
 places all adjoined each other, and they 
 were located on the East side of Ingle- 
 side avenue about one-half mile north 
 of the Frederick Turnpike. Together 
 they formed a considerable tract of 
 land which later received the name of 
 Overlea, and which afterwards under- 
 went many changes both as to shape 
 and size, but which still retains the old 
 name. 
 
 About the year 1860 Dr. Ebeling con- 
 ceived the ambitious scheme of start- 
 ing a large boys' academy on his newly 
 acquired property, and being advised by 
 his friends that it was essential to the 
 success of his project to erect an im- 
 posing structure, he proceeded to put 
 up a large stone building resembling 
 somewhat a castle on the Rhine. Being 
 located on the top of a considerable 
 ridge, and having a total height of 
 fifty-six feet, Overlea dominates the 
 landscape for a great distance in all di- 
 rections, and formerly commanded a 
 good view of Baltimore and the Chesa- 
 peake Bay. 
 
 As St. Timothy's Hall declined the 
 new school flourished, and its rise to a 
 position of importance in the local edu- 
 cational world was rapid after its open- 
 ing in the fall of 1861. (See reports of 
 Commissioner of Education, Washing- 
 ton, D. C, issued annually.) 
 
 The easiest mode of approach to the 
 school from the omnibus line on the 
 Frederick Turnpike was over Dr. Van 
 Bokkelen's extensive meadow (now 
 East Catonsville); and hence the school- 
 boys soon christened it Overlea, and by 
 this name the school was known until it 
 was closed some thirty-five years later. 
 At first it was officially known as Over- 
 lea School, then as Overlea College,and 
 finally as Overlea Home School. Dr. 
 Ebeling retained the principalship of 
 the school until 1892, when he turned it 
 over to his eldest son. 
 
 Students came from far and near, 
 
 Cuba being especially well represented 
 for many years. Many well-known 
 men of Catonsville and Baltimore re- 
 ceived a part of their early training 
 here, the most prominent alumnus thus 
 far having been the late Isidor Rayner, 
 United States Senator from Maryland. 
 But when the Civil War had come to 
 a close, and the public schools of Mary- 
 land began to improve rapidly, a period 
 of decline came over the old school in 
 the late seventies and early eighties, the 
 number of pupils at one time being re- 
 duced to eight. The general school 
 situation at this time has been well ex- 
 pressed by a writer in the Maryland 
 School Journal of 1879, p. 75: 
 
 "At the commencement of the public 
 system, there was an abundance of 
 private schools, seminaries and acade- 
 mies, many of them excellent in their 
 Way; and a well-to-do parent could send 
 his child to a public or private school, as 
 he pleased. But in course of time, the 
 public schools advancing in efficiency, 
 while the private schools remained 
 stationery, parents who are both able 
 and willing to pay for the tuition of 
 their children, withdraw their sons from 
 the private and send them to the public 
 schools, not because the latter are 
 cheaper, but because they are, on the 
 whole, better. Thus private schools 
 have been broken down all over the 
 State of Maryland, and in many other 
 states. No city in the Union had a 
 larger list of good private schools than 
 Baltimore, twenty years ago. A refer- 
 ence to the advertising columns of The 
 Sun will show that we have not half as 
 many today; and it is well known that 
 but few of those in existence have any 
 special merits. There are fathers and 
 mothers who value social consideration 
 higher than mere literary culture, and 
 for them there will always be a private 
 asylum, presided over by a lady of good 
 family, but in reduced circumstances. 
 But the private school, as an institu- 
 tion, is dead in Maryland. The public 
 school has killed it; and the public 
 school is now compelled to do both the 
 work originally cut out for it, and the 
 work done by the private school which 
 it has superseded." 
 
 As an evidence of the wide range of 
 linguistic studies pursued at Overlea 
 the principal planned on one occasion a 
 special commencement to which the 
 pastors of the village churches were 
 invited, whereupon the older students 
 of the school declaimed selections in 
 three several ancient languages and 
 four modern languages. 
 
 In the late eighties and the early 
 nineties a revival of prosperity came to 
 Overlea Home School and once more the 
 old mansion was filled with boarding 
 pupils. But soon conditions changed 
 again and the tide ebbed, until finally 
 the school was permanently abandoned. 
 The memories of old Overlea will, 
 however, last for many a year, and it 
 may be well past the middle of the 
 twentieth century before the last 
 alumnus passes away. 
 
 [TO HE CONTINUED] 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 III. REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 
 
 In addition to his labors in school and 
 church Dr. Ebeling took a great inter- 
 est from time to time in various other 
 matters of local concern. 
 
 At the time when he first came to 
 Catonsville there existed a long and 
 narrow lane which led southward from 
 the Old Frederick road to a new settle- 
 ment of German emigrants officially 
 known in the land records as German- 
 town. This lane had at that time no 
 southern outlet, although it had been 
 intended to extend it for a mile or more 
 to the westward to intersect existing 
 roads. 
 
 Dr. Ebeling soon took up this ques- 
 tion and, abandoning the original pro- 
 ject, opened a road from the end of the 
 lane to Ingleside Avenue. This was 
 called Stony Lane; but of late years it 
 has been widened and rechristened as 
 Harlem Avenue. 
 
 Another and more important road pro- 
 ject in which Dr. Ebeling took an active 
 part was the opening of Edmondson 
 Avenue from the Old Frederick Road 
 to Ingleside Avenue. 
 
 In 1876 a group of citizens living near 
 the western limits of Baltimore City 
 determined to open a new avenue from 
 the old city boundary line to the Old 
 Frederick Road. The new road was to 
 be known as Edmondson Avenue be- 
 cause it was planned as an extension of 
 the Baltimore street of that name. 
 
 When Dr. Ebeling and other exten- 
 sive landowners living nearer Catons- 
 ville heard of this plan they immediate- 
 ly formed a subsidiary committee to 
 continue the new road as far as Ingle- 
 side Avenue. After much discussion 
 this project was carried tlirough, but 
 the opposition of several large land- 
 owners who objected to the new avenue 
 being cut diagonally through their coun- 
 try places was so determined that 
 eventually it was found necessary to 
 adopt a zigzag course as a compromise. 
 This peculiar location of the road is still 
 apparent to every rider on the Ellicott 
 City electric cars and has proved a 
 great annoyance to the traveling public 
 in general. But it was probably Dr. 
 Ebeling's enthusiasm and persistence 
 that made the new road possible at 
 all. 
 
 Some time in the seventies Dr. Ebel- 
 ing also, after much experience as a 
 teacher, undertook to himself write an 
 English grammar. Being a German, 
 however, his thoughts naturally took 
 form in his native language, and in that 
 language he wrote down his proposed 
 book. After this he himself translated 
 it into English; but not altogether trust- 
 ing his command of that to him foreign 
 language, he took his completed manu- 
 script to his neighbor and connection 
 Mrs. Louis J. Keidel and asked her as- 
 sistance in correcting his English style. 
 This request was cheerfully complied 
 with, and then the copy was given over 
 into the hands of a Baltimore printer. 
 
 In the expectation of being able to 
 introduce his textbook into the schools 
 of the state and country Dr. Ebeling 
 determined to secure legal protection 
 for the new work. Accordingly on 
 December 28, 1878, he addressed a 
 letter from Catonsville to the Librarian 
 of Congress at Washington, D. C, 
 "claiming copyright in the United States 
 arid reserving "all rights" connected 
 with it, especially the "right of trans- 
 lation." (See original letter preserved 
 in the Copyright Office ) 
 
 That copyright was duly secured is 
 evidenced by the following entry on the 
 official records (1878, No. 15635 I.): 
 Library of Congress, to wit: 
 
 Be it Remembered, That on the 31st 
 day of December anno domini 1878, 
 Rev. George W. Ebeling, of Catons- 
 ville, Md., has deposited in this office 
 the title of a Book the title or descrip- 
 tion of which is in the following words, 
 to wit: The Sentence and its parts. 
 An analytical syntax for the use of ad- 
 vanced classes of schools, and for self- 
 instruction By George W. Ebeling, 
 Ph. D. All rights reserved. The right 
 whereof he claims as author, in con- 
 formity with the laws of the United 
 States respecting Copyrights. 
 
 A. R. Spoflford, 
 Librarian of Congress. 
 2c. of the above publication deposited 
 February 17, 1879. 
 
 Soon after the publication of this 
 English grammar the author endeavored 
 to introduce it in the public schools of 
 Baltimore and to make it generally 
 known to the educational world The 
 Maryland School Journal of April, 1879, 
 published a short notice of it which read 
 thus: 
 
 "Original, philosophical and practical ; 
 we commend it to the attention of all 
 who are engaged in giving language 
 lessons." 
 
 The following quotation may serve to 
 indicate the general character of the 
 book (pp. 18-19): 
 
 We imagine seeing a man enter this 
 world. By using the personal pronoun, 
 he shows that he finds himself to be an 
 individual, separate from the rest of the 
 world He gives names (nouns) to the 
 things. His mathematical eye distin- 
 guishes matter which can only be meas- 
 ured, from those things which he 
 counts. Of some of these only one 
 specimen exists, the names of which he 
 calls "proper nouns;" of other things 
 there are many, and he calls their 
 names: "common nouns." 
 
 At the end of his little book of some 
 seventy pages he gives a few speci- 
 mens of English composition, among 
 which may be especially mentioned the 
 last one entitled the Power of Music, a 
 subject which always lay very near his 
 heart. 
 
 But in the end the author's fond hopes 
 of a wide circulation of his textbook 
 were not realized, and he could only use 
 it in his own school, which he did for 
 some years. The greater portion of the 
 some sixteen hundred copies was never 
 disposed of, and his one published work 
 has sunk into the oblivion of the things 
 that have been. 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 HI. REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 
 
 As the weight of advancing years 
 obliged Dr. Ebeling to gradually with- 
 draw more and more from his public 
 activities he devoted most of his time 
 to the cultivation of his extensive vine- 
 yard at Overlea and to the society of 
 the numerous friends that came to visit 
 him. For many years he was accus- 
 tomed to take an afternoon drive 
 through Catonsville and around the 
 neighborhood, being usually accom- 
 panied by his faithful wife who watched 
 over him continually during his declin- 
 ing years. 
 
 Thus passed the evening of his long 
 life! 
 
 A slight stoke of paralysis when he 
 was about 75 years old brought with it 
 a loss of physical power, and gradually 
 his heart (which had never been strong) 
 grew less and less able to meet the de- 
 mands made upon it. 
 
 In the spring of 1901 he was obliged 
 to give up his ministerial duties, and 
 was thenceforth confined to his home. 
 During the ensuing summer he failed 
 from week to week and from day to 
 day, until on September 25 the end 
 came. 
 
 On the 27th the funeral took place in 
 his old church in the presence of a large 
 concourse of relatives, friends and 
 parishioners. He was laid to rest by i 
 the side of the church in which he had 
 preached for more than forty-six years, 
 and a few years later his widow was 
 laid by his side. The summit of the hill [ 
 where he now lies commands a view of 
 Overlea on the ridge opposite, where 
 for forty years he lived his life of labor 
 and love. 
 
 Thus far from his native land and 
 own blood kindred he sleeps the sleep 
 of the just after a long and useful 
 ewrthly pilgrimage most of which was 
 spent in the land of his adoption and in i 
 the village which he loved so well. 
 (Compare also tribute in Argus, Octo- j 
 ber 5, 1901.) I 
 
 In any general retrospect of Dr. Ebel- 
 ing's life there naturally come to mind 
 certain characteristics which are de- 
 serving of mention. 
 
 His general lack of worldly wisdom, 
 of which he himself was only too con- 
 scious, led him repeatedly to undertake 
 ambitious schemes which he was wholly 
 unable to carry out. One of these 
 grandiose plans was the building of a 
 large organ in the parlor of his home at 
 Overlea, and in fact his house was 
 planned chiefly with this end in view. 
 Its main feature was a large concert 
 hall with a stone arch at one end to 
 hold the organ, while a water-tank in 
 the tower was intended to supply the 
 motive power for working the bellows. 
 The grounds about his home were al- 
 so laid out on an elaborate scale after 
 the German fashion with which he had 
 become familiar in his younger days, 
 while beautiful evergreens and Paw- 
 loonia trees soon added their distinctive 
 charm. 
 
 At a later time he undertook to erect 
 a conservatory for hothouse grapes, but 
 this too was destined to prove a failure 
 like many others which he attempted to 
 put into execution after the true manner 
 of a dreamer of dreams. 
 
 Another phase of his life in Catons- 
 ville likewise deserves mention, as one 
 of his friends has recently remarked. 
 The charm of his personality coupled 
 with the attractive features of his home 
 at Overlea made the latter a rendezous 
 for notable personalities of many sorts. 
 It would indeed have been an interest- 
 ing memorial if a record of their com- 
 ings and goings had been kept. 
 
 Most of the leading amateur and pro- 
 fessional musicians of Baltimore were 
 at one time or another guest at Over- 
 lea. Clergymen from many parts of 
 the world, literary and university men 
 from far and wide came to visit him. 
 Fond parents of the school boys, 
 parishoners, relatives and friends flock- 
 ed to his hospitable mansion, where open 
 house was the usual order of the day. 
 Several artists of local fame in Mary- 
 land painted oil portraits of him, two of 
 which for many years adorned his parlor 
 at Overlea; and at the time of the 
 church jubilee his benign old face be- 
 came a familiar one to the readers of 
 the church and secular papers. 
 
 His method of preparing his Sunday 
 morning sermons may also be noted as 
 characteristic. During the early part 
 of the week his mind would dwell on 
 some general subject, and then on Fri- 
 day night he would take down his Ger- 
 man Bible and read over the assigned 
 passage for the following Sunday. Con- 
 tinuing his meditations on the chosen 
 text from that time until the appointed 
 hour he was able to deliver his sermon 
 in his native tongue without the assist- 
 ance of notes of any kind. 
 
 In 1897 a large local biographical 
 work was published by a New York 
 firm, and in this a personal sketch with 
 estimate of his character and influence 
 was given. (See Genealogy and Bio- 
 graphy of Leading Families of the City 
 of Baltimore and Baltimore County, 
 Maryland, p. 224.) 
 
 Towards the end of his life his 
 thoughts reverted frequently to his old 
 home in Germany, the successes and 
 failures of his long life passing before 
 his mind's eye one after another, and 
 the conviction becoming ever stronger 
 with him that his life as the last cham- 
 pion of German Lutheranism in bis 
 adopted home was rapidly drawing to a 
 close. 
 
 On October 13, 1901, a memorial ser- 
 vice was held in the church, and with it 
 the old German regime passed into his- 
 tory. 
 
C ATOMS VI LLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 IV. DR. ADALBERT J, VOLCK. 
 
 Among the artists who have lived in 
 Catonsville at one time or another un- 
 doubtedly the most talented was the 
 late Dr. Adalbert J. Volck, who for 
 more than twenty years claimed the 
 village as his home and for more than 
 three score years was prominent in the 
 art circles of Baltimore. 
 
 During the first half of the last cen- 
 tury there resided in the ancient town 
 of Augsburg, in Bavaria, Germany, a 
 manufacturer of wealth, culture and of 
 high personal standing and influence 
 named Volck, a scion of the famous 
 Strakonitch family. 
 
 To him were born two sons of decided 
 artistic tendencies, one of whom, the 
 young Adalbert Johann Volck, soon 
 gave evidence of a more than common 
 gift, which was destined to one day bear 
 rich and abundant fruit in far-ofi' 
 America. 
 
 While the sons were still mere lads 
 the family removed to Nuremberg, 
 sacred in the world of art as the home 
 of the immortal Albert Durer. Ludwig, 
 one of the most liberal patrons art has 
 ever known, was then reigning over 
 Bavaria, his reason yet unimpared, and 
 under his fostering care genius in every 
 form was finding its highest expression. 
 
 At Nuremberg were still assembled 
 Pilatti, Caulbach, Cornelius and Swan- 
 thaler, and in this congenial atmos- 
 phere the young Adalbert found his 
 artistic tastes rapidly unfold. All the 
 time that could be spared from his 
 studies at the local polytechnic school 
 was spent in one or the other of the 
 studios of these masters, who recogniz- 
 ing the lad's gift generously aided in its 
 development. 
 
 Unfortunately for his future artistic 
 career this favorable development was 
 soon marred by an antagonistic influence 
 which quickly ensnared the young stu- 
 dent. From Nuremberg he migrated 
 to the nearby art centre Munich, and 
 here he fell in with members of the 
 Burschenschaf t, a society of insurgents 
 whose membership extended through- 
 out all the petty kingdoms now gath- 
 ered into the great German Empire. 
 
 With youthful enthusiasm the lad 
 threw himself heart and soul into the 
 cause, which had for its object to cir- 
 cumvent the efforts of Bismarck toward 
 the formation of the empire with Prus- 
 sia as its cornerstone, and the granting 
 of constitutional rights to all the sepa- 
 rate states alike. 
 
 With the revolutionary army thus as- 
 sembled young Volck, then but nineteen 
 years of age, marched to Berlin and 
 took part in the big battle which 
 wrested from King Frederick of Prus- 
 sia, great uncle of the present German 
 Emperor, and his Iron Choncellor, the 
 promise of the desired constitution. 
 
 But alas! as history tells, no sooner 
 were the insurgents disbanded than the 
 promise just given under great pres- 
 sure was quietly revoked by those in 
 power. King Ludwig, recalHng his 
 own subjects, punished them like 
 naughty boys by giving them a chance 
 to test their love of warfare by four 
 , years forced service in the Bavarian 
 Army. 
 
 The high spirit of young Volck re- 
 belled at this summary treatment, and 
 he made a precipitate escape tc the land 
 of recognized freedom— America. It 
 was in 1848 that he thus cut loose from 
 his moorings in the Fatherland and en- 
 tered upon a life of adventure in a 
 strange land. 
 
 His first stopping place in this coun- 
 try was Boston, and it is easy to imagine 
 him the typicaldescendant of his Teuton 
 forefathers as pictured throughout the 
 ages: a stalwart youth, fair-haired, fair- 
 skinned and ble-eyed, with the simple 
 manners and tender-heartedness of a 
 child. He was, furthermore, both 
 ignorant of the ways of the country and 
 of its language, with few if any friends. 
 From a position of affluence, amid an 
 environment of culture and refinement, 
 he suddenly found himself reduced to 
 the level of the hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water for a bare subsist- 
 ence. His father was unable to help 
 him, as he himself was compelled to pay 
 a heavy fine for the son's desertion, 
 while any hint leading to the where- 
 abouts of the latter being ascertained 
 would havd meant his eventual recap- 
 ture and punishment. 
 
 But against all obstacles the young 
 exile retained his brave spirit un- 
 daunted, and evidenced the same in- 
 tense enthusiasm for any noble cause 
 which appealed strongly to his sym- 
 pathies and ideal conception of life. In 
 the new land of his choice he did what- 
 ever his hand -the strong, firm hand 
 with its infinite variety of delicate cun- 
 ning—found to do, and did it with all 
 his might. 
 
 His subsequent long and often-times 
 exciting career in America amply bears 
 out the truth of this statement. It is 
 therefore all the more to be deplored 
 that his lack of worldly wisdom, coupled 
 with his devotion to one losing cause 
 after another throughout his life, con- 
 tinually kept his nose on the grind- 
 stone, as he was wont to express it 
 himself. 
 
 As one of his daughters has lately put 
 it, his splendid mind was so filled with 
 the conception of his beautiful art works 
 that he seemed to loose sight of the 
 practical side of life. This was greatly 
 regretted by him in his later years, 
 when it seemed painful for him to speak 
 of what he termed "the mistakes of his 
 life." (Adapted from Baltimore 
 American, June 20, 1909, and letter of 
 Miss Fanny B. Volck, July 27, 1915.) 
 [TO BH CO.VTINUED.] 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 
 
 Adalbert J. Volck was born on April 
 14, 1828, and he was thus just at the 
 threshold of maohood when he reached 
 America about twenty years later. 
 
 After staying in Boston a short time 
 he drifted west, and we next find him 
 in St. Louis, where a brother-in-law had 
 founded a Lutheran church. 
 
 But in 1849 the gold fever broke out 
 in all its violence, and the young artist 
 at once joined in the mad rush to Cali- 
 fornia. This golden delusion soon 
 evaporated, and the same year we find 
 that he had drifted back all the way to 
 Baltimore, where he was destined to 
 spend the remainder of his four score 
 years and three. 
 
 Here he shortly entered the oflnce of 
 Dr. Chapin A. Harris, who with Dr. 
 Horace M. Hayden founded the Balti- 
 more College of Dental Surgery in 1851, 
 the first of its kind in the world. Young 
 Volck entered here as one of its first 
 students and graduated with the class 
 of 1852. In his last years Dr. Volck, as 
 we may henceforth suitably call him, 
 came to be its oldest living graduate. 
 (See Fifty-second Annual Catalogue of 
 the Baltimore College of Dental Sur- 
 gery, Baltimore, Md., p. IL) 
 
 Very early in his career as a dentist 
 Dr. Volk began making trips to Somer- 
 set County on the Eastern Shore of 
 Maryland in order to practice his new 
 profession. One of the oldest em- 
 ployees in the Library of Congress at 
 Washington, Arthur Crisfield, once a 
 soldier in the Confederate Army and 
 later Assistant Register of Copyrights, 
 vividly recalls that Dr. Volck filled 
 some teeth for him on one of these trips 
 prior to the year 1850, which fillings are 
 still doing good service after a lapse of 
 sixty-five years. 
 
 Among his early patients was a Miss 
 Letitia Roberta Alleyn of Baltimore. 
 The acquaintance thus formed soon 
 ripened into a lasting and deep-rooted 
 love, and on July 6, 1852, the young 
 couple were united in holy wedlock by 
 the Rev. A. Webster of Baltimore. 
 (See Baltimore Sun, July 7, 1852, p. 2, 
 col. 4; Baltimore Clipper, July 8, 1852, 
 p. 3, col. 1.) 
 
 - Five children were born of this union, 
 two sons and three daughters, all of 
 whom reached maturity. One of the 
 sons and two of the daughters survived 
 both of their parents, even though the 
 latter had married early in life and sur- 
 vived to extreme old age. Mrs. Volck 
 in fact died in the year of their golden 
 wedding. 
 
 After graduation Dr. Volck continued 
 the practice of dentistry, and in 1855 
 his office and home were at 75 Lexing- 
 ton street, now in the shopping centre 
 of the metropolis of Maryland, but 
 then near the edge of the growing 
 town. By 1858 his oflBce and home had 
 been transferred to 121 N. Charles 
 street, and it was his Charles street 
 abode that was to become famous in 
 later years when the really important 
 epoch of his life was destined to occur. 
 About the year 1859 Dr. Volck re- 
 moved his family to Catonsville, where 
 he purchased a large country place on 
 Ingleside Avenue about half a mile 
 north of the Frederick Turnpike. This 
 place lay to the west of the avenue, 
 with which it was connected by a long 
 lane, and of late years it has been the 
 residence of the Gieske family. 
 
 Having acquired this suburban prop- 
 erty, he was able to indulge in fuller 
 measure than before his artistic tastes 
 by the planting out of large fruit trees 
 removed from Druid Hill Park at the 
 time of its purchase by the City of Bal- 
 timore from the Rogers family, by the 
 establishing of a small deer preserve, 
 and in similar extravagant ways. 
 
 He continued, however, to maintain 
 his city oflSce and residence for some 
 years, and thus was enabled to enjoy 
 the pleasures of both modes of living. 
 Soon after he had established himself 
 in Catonsville the Civil War broke out 
 in all its fury, and Dr. Volck at once 
 threw himself into the contest on the 
 side of the Confederacy with all the 
 enthusiasm of his ardent soul. He did 
 not, however, enlist in the Southern 
 army, but rather took it upon himself 
 to serve the cause in many other ways, 
 as will appear below: 
 
 "He espoused the Confederate cause 
 at its incipiency, and was a special 
 agent of the Confederate Government, 
 scorning any pay. He personally con- 
 ducted across the Potomac River in a 
 private boat artizans, skilled mechanics 
 and men seeking service in the Con- 
 federate Army. Strange to say, he was 
 never apprehended. Money which he 
 had made by his profession and varied 
 talents, he invested in Confederate 
 bonds, feeling confident of the success 
 of the cause, so at the end of the War 
 he was absolutely cleaned out, having 
 left to him only the memory of his 
 deeds, which he was of too modest a 
 nature to dilate upon." (See letter of 
 Major Wm. M. Pegram, Aug. 16, 1915.) 
 Dr. Volck frequently ran the block- 
 ade into Virginia as the carrier of dis- 
 spatches, and also often had Confeder- 
 ate soldiers concealed in his house on 
 Charles street, which served as a ren- 
 dezvous for Southern sympathizers. 
 
 In this attitude he was upheld by a 
 great many of his German compatriots 
 in Baltimore, who commonly sided with 
 the Confederacy during those four try- 
 ing years. 
 
 And indeed at one time he came under 
 the suspicion of the Federal authorities 
 and lived in daily fear of arrest. 
 
 [TO BE CONTINUED.) 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 
 
 On April 19, 1861, a Massachusetts 
 regiment in marching through the 
 streets of Baltimore from President 
 Street Station to Camden Station was 
 attacked by an angry mob of Southern 
 sympathizers. 
 
 About two weeks after this event 
 Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, after several 
 interviews with Gen. Winfield S. Scott 
 at Washington, was ordered to seize 
 and hold the junction of the Washing- 
 ton branch of the Baltimore & Ohio 
 Railroad with the main line leading 
 westward to Harper's Ferry. Accord- 
 ingly Gen. Butler with the Sixth Massa- 
 chussetts' Regiment seized the viaduct 
 at the Relay House and put in position 
 a battery of light artillery. 
 
 About a week later he loaded a por- 
 tion of his force on a train and started 
 in the direction of Harper's Ferry. But 
 this was only a ruse, and the train soon 
 reversed its engine and backed down to 
 Baltimore, reaching Camden Station 
 ju9t at nightfall. Meeting with no op- 
 position the troops quietly marched to 
 Federal Hill in South Baltimore during 
 a violent thunder-storm. 
 
 Gen. Butler at once wrote out a 
 proclamation to the citizens of Balti- 
 more, and had it published in a special 
 edition of the next morning's Clipper. 
 In it he laid down rules and regulations 
 for the military government of the city. 
 The seizure here described took place 
 on May 13, 1861. (See Butler's Book, 
 Boston, 1892, pp. 223-239.) 
 
 These two bloodless military exploits 
 greatly incensed the Southern sympa- 
 thizers of Baltimore, and Dr. Voick as 
 one of of the most ardent among them 
 quickly turned the batteries of his 
 artistic wit against General Butler and 
 at her Northern leaders then promi- 
 nently before the public. 
 
 The almost immediate result was a 
 series of cartoons which have come to 
 some fame as the years have passed. 
 In a letter written by Dr. Volck to the 
 Library of Congress on January 11, 
 1905, he thus refers to them in a man- 
 ner which will serve to authoritatively 
 establish the date of their production: 
 
 "The Butler series was made early in 
 the war at the time of Butler's occupa- 
 tion of Baltimore; the plates of this 
 were sold some years after the war to 
 a Boston firm, and, to my great annoy- 
 ance, were, with an altered letterpress, 
 published for political purposes, at the 
 time of Butler's candidacy for Gover- 
 nor of Massachusetts." 
 
 These are the portraits probably 
 which were issued in Boston in a pam- 
 phlet of which a copy was acquired by 
 the Boston Public Library in 1874 soon 
 after General Butler had been a candi- 
 date for the office mentioned above. 
 This publication is thus described in 
 their card catalogue: 
 
 Exploits, Ye, of ye distinguished at- 
 torney and general Benjamin Franklin 
 Butler (Bombastes Furioso Buncombe.) 
 
 A series of burlesque, pen and ink 
 sketches. Baltimore 186,2 pp., 6 plates 
 8i. 
 
 Their attribution to Dr. Volck is con- 
 firmed by an indistinct monogram which 
 is found on some of the plates, and 
 which is the same as the monogram on 
 many of Dr. Volck's other artistic 
 works. (See official letter from the 
 Librarian, Horace G. Wadlin, August 
 17, 1915 ) 
 
 In the Baltimore Sun of March 31, 
 1912, three of this series of portraits 
 were published with the following titles: 
 The Knight of the Rueful Countenance 
 (A. Lincoln.) Gen. Butler as Simon 
 Tappertit, and Fremont as Sam Tap- 
 pertat. These were made from part of 
 a set owned by Dr. A. Duval Atkinson, 
 918 North Charles street, Baltimore. _ 
 
 Owing to the date of publication the 
 following description from a standard 
 bibliographical work refers no doubt to 
 the original edition issued in Baltimore 
 during the war by Dr. Volck himself: 
 
 Ye Exploits of Ye Distinguished At- 
 torney and General B. F. B. (Bom- 
 bastes Furioso Buncombe.) n. d. Imp. 
 8 vo. 2 plates. A series of "Pen and 
 Ink Sketches." (See Joseph Sabin, A 
 Dictionary of Books relating to Ameri- 
 ca, Volume III, New York, 1870, p. 
 179.) 
 
 There is also a series of twelve comic 
 etchings representing General Butler 
 which are evidently the handiwork of 
 the same artist, and which were pub- 
 lished in a small volume thus described: 
 The American Cyclops, the Hero of 
 New Orleans, and Spoiller of Silver 
 Spoons. Dubbed LL. D. By Pasquino. 
 Baltimore: Kelly & Piet, 1868. 12 mo. 
 27 pp. illustrated. 
 
 The psendonym of the author of this 
 comic poem has been ascertained to 
 stand for James Fairfax McLaughlin, anj 
 many of the etchings show Dr. Volck's 
 well-known monagram, the same as that 
 referred to previously. These illustra- 
 tions bear the following titles: 
 
 Bombastes at the Mass Military Aca- 
 demy, Bombastes preparing for his 
 Crusade to New Orleans, occupation of 
 [ ye wicked city of Baltimore, Conquest 
 of Ye Pump, Battle at Great Bethel, 
 Bombastes is ubiquitous, Ye Vow, 
 Bombastes burneth ye churches, Bomb- 
 astes conqueror of New Orleans, Bomb- 
 bastes encountering ye bricklayer, 
 Bombastes captures Fort Fisher by 
 means of a Patent Volcano, and Home. 
 There are copies of this work in the 
 Library of Congress and in the Boston 
 Public Libary, and they are well worth 
 inspection. 
 
 It is very much to be hoped that some 
 one competent for such a task will make 
 a comprehensive study of Dr. Volck's 
 Butler caricatures, as they are prob- 
 ably derserving of a place in American 
 history during the period of the Civil 
 War. 
 
 [TO BE CONTINUED.] 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PM. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 
 
 Doctor Volck in his trips South, both 
 during and after the War, made the ac- 
 quaintance of many of the Confederate 
 leaders. His picture of StonewallJack- 
 son, taken on the field and afterwards 
 produced on canvas is the only true por- 
 trait of that immortal chieftain. His 
 picture of General Lee's study at the 
 Washington and Lee University, after 
 the War, is another sample of his mar- 
 vellous work. (See letter of Major 
 Wm. M. Pegram, Aup. 16, 1915.) 
 
 To further illustrate and substantiate 
 the truth of these enthusiastic words of 
 one of Dr. Volck's warmest friends 
 there may be here quoted the complete 
 text of the following letters from P.'esi- 
 dent and Mrs. Jefferson Davis to their 
 artist friend: 
 
 "Montreal, C. E. 
 Sept. 5th, 1867. 
 Dr. Adalbert Volck. 
 
 My dear sir. 
 It gives me great pleasure ti be 
 be able to send the accompanying photo- 
 graphs, and I hope that they may some- 
 times serve to recall us to you pleasant- 
 ly. My good little maid Ellen will hand 
 them to you, but cannot convey how 
 very sincerely I am. Yours, 
 
 ' Varina Davis. 
 
 Maggie insists upon being remember- 
 ed even in a poscript." 
 
 From the friendly and familiar tone 
 of the above letter it is evident that Dr. 
 Volck was quite intimate with the Davis 
 family. The "Maggie" mentioned was 
 the President's daughter, and it ia of 
 interest to add that as the original 
 letter was cut into narrow strips (now 
 mounted on a sheet of notepaper) the 
 "good little maid Ellen" probably had 
 it concealed on her person when she 
 made the trip from Canada to Dixie 
 with the photographs. 
 
 Of greater historical interest is the 
 following letter from the President of 
 the Confederate States of America 
 himself: ,.^ 
 
 "Memphis, Tenn. 
 iBt May, 1873. 
 Prof. A. G. Volk. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 Please accept my thanks for the 
 Photograph of your picture of Genl. 
 Lee as he appeared in his study at Lex- 
 ington, Va. a short time before his de- 
 cease. I had not seen Genl. Lee for 
 some time before the date of this pic- 
 ture and his failing health must have 
 materially altered his appearance. 
 
 It is very interesting to see the room 
 as it was when the great Soldier oc- 
 cupied it, for duties widely differing 
 from those the discharge of which had 
 made his name illustrious among the 
 nations. 
 
 The object to which you propose 
 generously to devote your time and 
 talents, must be an additional claim to 
 the consideration of all who would pre- 
 serve the memory of purity, patriotism 
 and heroic virtue, as typified by the 
 Statue of Stonewall Jackson. 
 
 Wishing you success in this under- 
 taking and in all things prosperity and 
 happiness. I am truly yours, 
 
 Jeffersin Davis." 
 
 The above letter would seem to 
 possess historical value as evidencing 
 the high regard in which the President 
 of the Confederacy held his chief lieu- 
 tenants in the conduct of the desperate 
 struggle which was to eventually end in 
 defeat. 
 
 The origin of the portrait of Stone- 
 wall Jackson so warmly praised by 
 Major Pegram above has thus been de- 
 scribed by the artist in a letter to a 
 personal friend: 
 
 "The drawing from which this hasty 
 etching was made is from life. It was 
 on one of my blockade running trips not 
 long after the second battle of Bull 
 Run. I had crossed the Potomac above 
 Ball's Bluff and, carrying impartant 
 papers, was making my way across the 
 country to get to a certain place the 
 name of which I have forgotten, but 
 where I knew of a person who would 
 have me pushed forward. I came quite 
 unexpectedly upon a camp and not meet- 
 ing any picquets I walked right through 
 it. On the other side of the tents and 
 shelters I saw some officers talking to- 
 gether, amongst them Jackson. As I 
 seemed unobserved I pulled out ray 
 sketchbook and made what can hardly 
 be pronounced a speaking likeness of 
 the General. I was almost done with 
 it when one of the officers pointed me 
 out and Genl. Jackson looked around at 
 me with a pleasant smile and turned 
 away. I had, however, to show what I 
 had done for some officer and also prove 
 myself to be a friend. I was sent on 
 horseback with a guide. 
 
 A. J. Volck. 
 
 Balto., April 20, '98. 
 
 The etching was made immediately 
 after my return home 3 or 4 days after- 
 wards, one or two prints taken and for 
 some reason now forgotten, probably one 
 of my frequent arrests, the plate was 
 mislaid. Some 5 or 6 years ago I saw an 
 account of this print, said to be the on- 
 ly one in existence, described in one of 
 the monthly magazines (I think the 
 Century.) This caused me to look 
 through some old rubbish dating from 
 war times and I found the plate, from 
 which the prints were taken. I am 
 sorry the plate has again disappeared. 
 V." (See McHenry Howard, Recollec- 
 tions of a Maryland Confederate Soldier 
 and Staff Officer under Johnston, Jack- 
 son and Lee, Baltimore, 1914, pp. 131- 
 132, with the etching.) 
 
 Another note left by the artist in 
 manuscript form states that it was de- 
 clared by Mrs. Jackson to be the best 
 portrait of her husband that had been 
 made. 
 
 [TO BH CONTINUED.) 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 
 
 The most famous of all Dr. Volck's 
 artistic works is undoubtedly his series 
 of Confederate War Etchings, which 
 has become known far and near, and 
 which has been republished a number of 
 times. As these etchings in truth de- 
 serve closer study at our hands let us 
 begin by seeing what the artist him- 
 self had to say about them more than 
 forty years after their conception and 
 execution. . 
 
 In a letter written by him to the 
 Library of Congress in response to a 
 question as to their authorship, he 
 makes the following statements: 
 
 "The war etchings, now only existant 
 as a fragment, were issued to sub- 
 scribers only. It was intended to carry 
 on the work while the war lasted, but 
 having become a suspected man, and in 
 daily fear of arrest, I made the rest of 
 the 20 plates, extending to Lee'a sur- 
 render and, kept them back for issuance 
 after peace should be re-established. 
 At the deplorable murder of Lincoln I 
 thought it best to go into retirement 
 and an officious friend persuaded me to 
 let him take the last plates (20) to Eng- 
 land and have them printed there. They 
 w«re only recovered after some years 
 all ruined by verdigris and scratches. 
 Feelings and times had changed much 
 of my sentiment of the war and I had 
 neither heart nor energy to make them 
 
 over again with one exception 
 
 they cannot be called 'caricatures.' I 
 feel the greatest regret ever to have 
 aimed ridicule at that great and good 
 Lincoln -outside of that the pictures 
 represent events as truthfully as my 
 close connections with the South en- 
 abled me to get at them. After long 
 days, day by day, of the hardest pro- 
 fessional work, from nightfall to far in- 
 to the small hours, I worked alone on 
 these sketches, drawing, etching and 
 1 printing them myself alone. There are 
 only 200 copies by ray hand in exist- 
 ence. 
 
 Baltc, Jan. 11, 1905. 
 
 A. J. Volck." 
 
 It would appear, therefore, that they 
 were made originally for the artist's 
 friends and Southern sympathizers, and 
 that they were etched and printed by 
 the artist himself in Baltimore. This 
 first edition is the most beautiful one 
 that has been issued, as it was made on 
 Japan paper and mounted on card- 
 board. The artist himself says that he 
 printed 200 sets of these etchings for 
 subscribers only, and it would indeed be 
 a difficult matter to attempt to trace 
 the history of these sets during the last 
 half century. 
 
 Suffice it to state here that there is a 
 well-preserved copy in the Library of 
 the Maryland Historical Society in Bal- 
 timore, where it is protected by a 
 species of portfolio. The artist had 
 originally made thirty plates for this 
 edition, but one of them was lost, and 
 so only twenty-nine etchings are in- 
 cluded in t^e set. With those sent to 
 England, "ss stated above, a complete 
 set would have to comprise fifty etch- 
 ings; but there is no evidence at hand 
 to show that such a set is in existence. 
 As issued by the artist there is one ad- 
 ditional printed page containing a table 
 of contents, which reads as follows: 
 Index 
 to 
 Confederate War Etchings. 
 
 1. Worship of the North. 
 
 2. Passage Through Baltimore. 
 
 3. Writing the Emancipation Pro- 
 clamation. 
 
 4. Battle in Baltimore, April 19,1861. 
 
 5. Searching for Arms. 
 
 6. Enlistment of Sickles' Brigade, 
 N. Y. 
 
 7. Buying a Substitute in the North 
 during the War. 
 
 8. Marylander's Crossing the Poto- 
 mac to Join the Southern Army. 
 
 9. Election in Baltimore, Novem- 
 ber, 1862. 
 
 10. Stone Blockade off Charleston, 
 S. C. 
 
 11. Making Clothes for the Boys in 
 the Army. 
 
 12. Slaves Concealing their Master 
 from a Search Party. 
 
 13. Return of a Raiding Party from 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 I 14. Valiant Men "Dat Fite Mit 
 , Siegel." 
 
 15. Tracks of the Armies. 
 
 16. Formation of Guerrilla Bands. 
 
 17. Jamison's Jayhawkers. 
 
 18. Smuggling Medicines Into The 
 South. 
 
 19. Offering of Bells to be Cast into 
 Cannon. 
 
 20. Albert S. Johnston Crossing the 
 Desert to Join the Southern Army. 
 
 21. Gen'l Stuart's Raid to the White 
 House. 
 
 22. Gen'l Stuart's Return from 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 23. Butler's Victims of Fort St. 
 Philip.- 
 
 24. Prayer in Stonewall Jackson's 
 Camp. 
 
 25. Counterfeit Confederate Notes 
 Publicly Offered for Sale in the "City 
 of Brotherly Love." 
 
 26. Free Negroes in the North. 
 
 27. Free Negroes in Hayti. 
 
 28. Cave Life in Vicksburg During 
 the Siege. 
 
 29. Vicksburg Canal. 
 Up to this point the history of these 
 
 etchings appears to be perfectly plain; 
 but when the bibliographers began to 
 take notice of them, and when various 
 publishers reissued them great con- 
 fusion arose, which it is at present im- 
 possible to wholly disentangle. 
 
 The first such notice published seems 
 to have been the following, which is 
 found in Joseph Sabin, A Dictionary of 
 Books relating to America, from its 
 discovery to the present time, Volume 
 II, New York, 1869, p. 201 : 
 
 "Blada (N), paeudon. Sketches from 
 the Civil War in North America, 1861, 
 '62, '63. By V. Blada, London. 1863. 4 
 
 A series of forty-five sketches, chief- 
 ly of scenes in the Confederate Army, 
 really published in Baltimore. Only 
 twelve copies were struck off for 
 friends, when the plates were destroyed 
 
 for fear of exposing the artist, who is a 
 German dentist in Baltimore." 
 
 No copy of this edition has been lo- 
 cated, but all of the statements made 
 in the above description and note can 
 hardly be correct, for they are evident- 
 ly in direct variance with the assertions 
 of the artist himself as quoted above. 
 
 [TO BE CONTINtlBD.] 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 
 
 Another widely variant account of 
 Dr. Volck's Confederate etchings is 
 from the pen of Murat Halstead, and 
 reads as follows: 
 
 "Dr. Volck was an agent of the Con- 
 federate government and to get his 
 sketches he repeatedly ran the block- 
 ade. The daring artist rinally was ar- 
 rested by the United States govern- 
 ment and confined in Fort McHenry. 
 The sketches were etched and a few 
 copies printed intended for private dis- 
 tribution, after which the original cop- 
 per plates were shipped to England for 
 safety and left with De la Rue & Com- 
 pany of London. Owing to neglect, the 
 plates were rendered uaelsss by damp- 
 ness and verdigris, and never were re 
 etched. (See Historic Illustrations of 
 the Confederacy, in Cosmopolitan Mag- 
 azine, 1890, pp. 496-507.) 
 
 The same writer comments on the 
 spirit animating this series of etchings 
 as follows: 
 
 "We find these etchings full of the 
 sharpest scorn and of rancorous hatred, 
 referring to the early rather than the 
 later period of the war. There is a 
 reason for this that should be well 
 understood. The northern and southern 
 people.. were taught in the course of 
 the grappling in deadly conflict of their 
 gigantic armies, to respect each other. 
 Before the war they were very ill- 
 acquainted, and it was the habit of each 
 section to disparage the other... That 
 which permits and indeed commands the 
 publication of the Confederate etchings, 
 which must be regarded as a vivid and 
 characteristic contribution to history, 
 is the current patent truth that they 
 relate to a state of things that has 
 passed away. 
 
 " It would be unwise not to be sensible 
 that there are sectional matters still 
 open for settlement, controversies that 
 would be very exciting, even infuria- 
 ting yet to come; but of the feeling 
 that the works of Dr. Volck represent 
 •here is so little left that they may be 
 regarded with a compassionate sympa- 
 thy and considered purely as history 
 and art. The intemperance displayed 
 here, the unreflecting remorseless fury 
 that is seen, did not endure to Appo- 
 mattox. The war was a great teacher. 
 It taught the people of the country i 
 north and south to respect themselves 
 and each other. The old will testify 
 that these strange and sinister sketches 
 are true to their time; that they are 
 faithful as the photography of battle 
 fields, of one of the developments of 
 warfare; and the young should temper 
 their surprise that such things are 
 historical, with the sober medi,tations of 
 a genial philosophy." 
 
 There may furthermore be cited a 
 few of Murat Halstead's descriptions 
 of the etchings as appended to the main 
 portion of his article: 
 
 Worship of the North. 
 
 This is the most elaborate etching of 
 all in the series. It shows the public 
 men of the north worshipping, as an 
 idol, a negro on the Chicago platform, 
 the corner of which ia a carved head of 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Passing Through Baltimore. 
 
 Lincoln on his way to the inaugura- 
 tion at Washington, fearful of his life, 
 appears at the partly open door of a 
 freight car to ascertain the cause of a 
 horrible noise and finds that it is noth- 
 ing worse than a cat on top of a 
 hydrant. The car is labelled "Freight- 
 bones; capacity, 000." 
 
 Battle in Baltimore, April 19, 1861. 
 
 A spirited street scene in which the 
 Baltimoreans are assailing the Sixth 
 Massachusetts regiment. 
 
 Making Clothes for the Boys in the 
 Army. 
 
 A touching scene in a southern home. 
 The aged mother is at the flax wheel, 
 spinning the flax into thread; one of 
 the daughters is at the loom, weaving 
 the thread into cloth; while the other 
 daughter is making of the cloth, gar- 
 ments for the sons and brothers in the 
 army. 
 
 Slaves Cancealing their Master from a 
 Search Party. 
 The master stands behind the open 
 kitchen door, cocked pistol in hand, 
 while the slave woman directs the 
 armed and mounted party before the 
 door down the road. A young negro boy 
 sits at the hearth, holding a skillet, and 
 endeavoring to reassure a badly fright- 
 ened younger brother. 
 Return of a Raiding Party from Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 A very pretty study of animal life. 
 The officers, mounted, are directing the 
 soldiers, who are driving the herds of 
 cattle and swine which they have con- 
 fiscated in the rich farming country of 
 southern Pennsylvania. The white- 
 topped wagons are rolling along filled 
 with forage. 
 
 Tracks of the Armies. 
 
 The husband returns to what once 
 had been his home, to find the house 
 demolished and the dead body of his 
 wife among the ruins. The cradle is 
 overturned and the child gone. A vul- 
 ture sits by the chimney, eager to de- 
 scend on the dead. The grief-stricken 
 man clasps his hand to his forehead, 
 and staggers in amid the desolation. 
 The leaf of an open book which lies on 
 the floor says, 'By their deeds ye shall 
 know them.' 
 
 Jayhawkers. 
 
 A gang of marauders are galloping 
 through a hamlet, burning and murder- 
 ing as they go. The leader has swung 
 over his saddle in front of him a young 
 girl whom he is carrying off. A man is 
 aiming his gun at two women who are 
 fleeing across the field 
 Butler's Prisoners in Fort St. Philip. 
 
 A striking scene through the open 
 sally port of Fort St. Philip, captured 
 by Farragut and Butler in April, 1862. 
 Citizens of New Orleans with ball and 
 chain fastened to their ankles are at 
 work digging and are being guarded by 
 colored Union soldiers. In the distance 
 General Butler is seen escorting two 
 women, supposed Union sympathizers. 
 Prayer in Stonewall Jackson's Camp. 
 
 This is one of the most effective 
 etchings in the series. A group of 
 soldiers led by Stonewall Jackson are 
 engaged in prayer. 
 
V 
 
Another phrase of Dr. Volck's many- 
 sided artistic career was his notable 
 connection with amateur theatricals in 
 Baltimore shortly after the close of the 
 C vil War. 
 
 "In the days of the Old Wednesday 
 Club, of whioh he was one of the origi- 
 na'ors. he was sui generis, in many 
 respects its soul, as he was the only one 
 who had the specific talent for design- 
 ing and perfecting features of the 
 greatest moment to the club and its 
 guests on special occasions " 
 
 "Many years ago, at a performance 
 at the Academy of Music for some 
 charitable cause, he actually outdid 
 himself. He portrayed on the stage, 
 within a large frame a perfect por- 
 traiture of Gerome's Duel after the 
 Masquerade, so superb in all its detail, 
 the immense audience would not be- 
 lieve it was not the real picture, until 
 some of the figures walked about. He 
 posed on the same occasion a tableau 
 called The Amazement of the Artist 
 over his Own Work. Two of the 
 Society's most beautiful girls, twins, 
 posed the one as his model, and the 
 other within the frame, he standing off 
 with easel and paint brush in hand. 
 Again the audience was skep'ical, and 
 would not believe the fact until the 
 model raised her hpnd, and the picture 
 bowed to the audience." 
 
 "Then he had a large number of Bal- 
 timore's beauties posing inside frames 
 as portraits of themselves, all recog- 
 nized by their friends. This brought 
 down the house in applause. Who could 
 have devised and portrayed such things 
 as he? I don't know the man. " (See 
 letter of Major Wm. M. Pegram, Aug. 
 16, 1915.) 
 
 At one time Dr. Volck opened a studio 
 as a portrait painter, and executed in 
 oil likenesses of many notable people. 
 At a later time he also executed bas- 
 relief portraits in silver of Professor 
 Basil L. Gildersleeve of the Johns 
 Hopkins University, and of Edward V. 
 Valentine, the well-known sculptor of 
 Richmond, Va. 
 
 On the occasion of Dr. Volck's seven- 
 tieth birthday a complimentary banquet 
 was given him by the Association of 
 Dental Surgeons, of which he was at 
 that time the president. The occasion 
 was a happy one for tha artist-dentist, 
 for around the board were his close 
 friends in his profession who rose in 
 turn to pay the "Nestor of Dentistry in 
 Baltimore" a tribute of respect. 
 
 When the fitting time arrived Dr. C, 
 E. Duck.toastmaster.proposed "Health 
 and Happiness to Our Guest," to which 
 Dr. Volck responded as follows: 
 
 "It was such a surprise to me when I 
 was told that I was to be the recipient 
 of such an honor as this banquet repre- 
 sents that I could not, and cannot now, 
 understand by what merit I should be 
 entitled to it. I can only see in it the 
 efi:ort of that pleasant brotherly tone 
 that has prevailed among the members 
 of this association since its beginning, 
 and of sympathy for a man who has 
 borne the burden of professional labor 
 for so many years without (may I be 
 permitted to say?) ever having dis- 
 graced his profession. 
 
 "Men now and then have disturbed 
 the peace of the profession by their sel- 
 fish ambitions, but I have never seen 
 anything of this among us here There 
 is not a b'ot or blemish on the brother- 
 ly unison of the members of this asso- 
 ciation. I have never met them but to 
 feel at home among them; never met 
 them but mv stock of knowledge. \i as 
 increased; never left them without a 
 renewed feeling of respect for them, 
 without feeling that they respected me. 
 From my heart, gentlemen, I thank you 
 for this honor." 
 
 The toast, "The Life and Work of 
 Dr. Volck," was responded to by Dr. 
 Richard Grady, the founder of th i as- 
 sociation, who said: On their own 
 merits modest men are dumb. We are 
 here tonight to show our feeling for the 
 Nestor of the dental profession in Bal 
 timore. We join in making memorable 
 the seventieth anniversary of the birth 
 of our president. Dr. Adalbert J. Volck 
 
 Born in a foreign land, the career at 
 first planned for him was other than the 
 scenes in which it has been cast. Had 
 he chosen art for his life work, instead 
 of dentistry, there can be little doubt 
 that he would have made his mark. 
 The branch of art for which he is most 
 widely known, perhaps, is his fine work 
 in metals. When the work of the day 
 is over, when his lost patient is gone, 
 then the work of his heart and soul be- 
 gins. Midnight usually finds him in his 
 laboratory, with the tools of the silver- 
 smith in his hands. In his professional 
 and private life he is revered by his 
 colleagues and loved by his friends." 
 
 "Dr. Volck as a Dentist" was re- 
 sponded to by Dr. G. C. Harris, who 
 said: "In 1851 Dr. Volck opened an 
 office in Baltimore, from which time he 
 has enjoyed a rich and distinguished 
 practice. Dr. Volck was the first per- 
 son to insert a porcelain filling. It has 
 always been a happy characteristic of 
 Dr. Volck to lend assistance and give 
 the benefit of his vast experience to 
 brother practitioners. In this way he 
 has drawn around him a coterie of warm 
 professional friends." 
 
 Then followed "Memories of Dr. 
 Volck's Boyhood," written by Rtv. 
 Johannes A. Oertel, and read by Dr. C. 
 J. Grieves. Dr. Oertel "counts it a 
 singular good fortune, after more than 
 half a century, to renew a friendship 
 calling up so many dearly cherished ties 
 of home, of kindred and associations in 
 the person of one, honored alike for his 
 genius as an artist and his sterling 
 qualities as a man." 
 
 "Dr. Volck as a Man, Ever Ready to 
 Help the Afflicted and the Poor," writ- 
 ten by Gen. James Howard, was read 
 by Dr. H. A. Wilson. "Dr. Volck as 
 an Artist in Every Sense of the Word," 
 written by Thomas Hedian, was read by 
 Dr. M. G. Sykes. and a poem, written 
 for the occasion by Col. W. M. Pegram 
 was read by Dr. W. A. Mills. (Adapted 
 from Baltimore Sun, April 15, 1898, p. 
 
 7, col. 1.) 
 
 ITO BH CONTINUED.] 
 
CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 
 
 Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
 
 IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 
 
 A pleaBing picture of the artist at the 
 age of eighty surrounded by the evi- 
 dences of his own handiwork was drawn 
 a few years ago by a writer in a local 
 newspaper, which reads about as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 To understand the breadth and ver- 
 satility of the master's genius one needs 
 to visit him in his home at 1601 Linden 
 Avenue, Baltimore, a home which in its 
 mingled simplicity and artistic wealth 
 recalls the descriptions of the abodes of 
 his great predecessors in Nuremberg. 
 In the wooden frame of the mirror over 
 the drawing-room mantel are inserted 
 large medallions of beaten silver illus- 
 trative of the song of the Nibelungen. 
 Perched upon each end of the mantel 
 shelf are two big carved owls, which 
 once adorned the mantel of the Old 
 Wednesday Club. Scattered about up- 
 on the walls everywhere are delightful- 
 ly -rharacteristic sketches of members 
 of the club, with scenes from the differ- 
 ent performances in which they took 
 part executed in pen and ink with such 
 fineness of touch as to resemble etch- 
 ings. Also on the walls are oil paint- 
 ings and charcoal drawings, while in a 
 cupboard in the dining-room is an ex- 
 quisite collection of hand-painted porce- 
 lain, the work of the same artistic hand. 
 Nearby under a glass case stands a tiny 
 carving in ivory which he introduces as 
 a monument to a favorite horse "Old 
 Jim." The statuette is upon a pedestal 
 of ebony adorned with delicately carved 
 minute hunting accoutrements of ivory. 
 It is upstairs, however, in the big, 
 sunny back room he terms his workshop 
 that the artist best reveals himself, for 
 it is here he follows his favorite pur- 
 suit, which, like Tubal-Cain of old, is 
 that of a worker in metals. Here he 
 does his own casting and smelting by a 
 process first discovered in Paris and on- 
 ly recently introduced in this country, by 
 which the design issues completed from 
 the mold without further finishing 
 touches. Surrounded by the implementt 
 for the work of his heart, the artist 
 forgets for the moment his shrinking 
 from publicity and shows you all sorts 
 of wonderful treasures in beaten silver 
 or repouse work, which he tells you 
 
 means "push and repush," scenes from | 
 fairyland, folklore, poetry, horses' 
 heads, foxes' head, wreathed in tiny 
 roses of silver, all of such perfect and 
 exquisite design and workmanship as 
 causes one to regard the small smelting 
 furnace as the veritable lamp of Alad- 
 din, which the owner had but to rub for 
 the most beautiful treasures to appear. 
 One sees also a superb terrapin set in 
 silver, of which the ladle has the bowl 
 fashioned like an oyster shell, while 
 small diamond-backs climb up the 
 handle amid masses of seaweed. Other 
 characteristic pieces are a hunting dag- 
 ger with handle and scabbard of wrought 
 
 But old age with its infirmities was 
 then already upon him; the last few 
 years of his life were sad ones, he hav- 
 ing been afflicted with partial paralysis 
 in his legs which made it difficult for 
 him to get about among his friends. 
 The oldest and most loyal among them 
 stood by him, however, and prevented 
 him from lapsing into that state in 
 which he could only "chew the cud of 
 sweet and bitter memories." 
 
 The end came on March 26, 1912,from 
 the infirmities of age after he had been 
 confined to his bed for some three weeks 
 in his home on Linden Avenue. There 
 were with him at the time his two sur- 
 
 silver, and a massive tankard and drink- i viving daughters. Miss Fannie B. Volck 
 
 ing-cup of the old German pattern 
 adorned with scenes of the chase. 
 
 Very few of these beautiful concep- 
 tions unfortunately become known in 
 Baltimore, for Dr. Volck shares to a 
 degree the common fate of those who 
 are not without honor, save in th«ir 
 own country. The majority of the 
 choicer bits are largely snapped up by 
 connoisseurs in Washington, Philadel- 
 phia and New York. (Adapted from 
 Baltimore American, June 20, 1909, pt. 
 2, p. 16, cols. 1-4.) 
 
 The last important piece of silver- 
 smithing executed by the artist was a 
 memorial shield to Southern women in 
 1909. It was dedicated by the vener- 
 able craftsman to the women of the 
 South "as a continual reminder to those 
 of the present generation of the splen- 
 did example of self-sacrifice, endurance 
 and womanly virtues displayed during 
 the war between the states, and which 
 still exists as an important factor in 
 making the New South greater and more 
 prosperous than ever. ' These are his 
 own words in explanation of the thought 
 that inspired him while at work on this 
 beautiful creation of the imagination. 
 (See Baltimore American, June 13,1909, 
 pt. 2. p. 10, cols. 4-5.) 
 
 and Mrs. F. H. Falkinburg. His only 
 surviving son, Howard A. Volck of 
 Kansas City, Mo., had paid his old 
 father a visit but a few days before. 
 
 The funeral took place from his resi- 
 dence on March 29, the services being 
 conducted by Rev. Dr. J. S. B. Hodges, 
 rector emeritus of Old St. Paul's P. E. 
 Church, a personal friendof many years 
 standing. The pallbearers were Major 
 William M. Pegram, Dr. William A. 
 Mills, Dr. M. Gist Sykes, and Messrs. 
 Morton Schaffer, Edward Ingle and 
 William F. Thommen. Burial of the 
 mortal remains was made in Loudon 
 Park Cemetery, Baltimore, in a lot 
 situated about sixty feet west of the 
 Stonewall Jackson monument he had 
 helped to erect many years before in 
 the old Confederate lot so well known 
 to visitors. 
 
 In brief conclusion of this personal 
 sketch may we be allowed to quote a 
 statement once made to Dr. William A. 
 ! Mills by Cardinal Gibbons concerning 
 Dr. Volck to the effect "that he was 
 the most universally learned man he 
 ever knew." (See letter dated Aug. 
 30,1916.) 
 
RB?llv"lb