Shoemaker papers

Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Sr. (1821-1884)

Born in 1821, at Bayou La Fourche, Louisiana, the infant Shoemaker was brought to Maryland by his widowed mother. After spending his youth in Carroll County, near Taneytown, he departed to attend Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. Shoemaker returned to Baltimore to embark upon a business career.

Samuel Shoemaker found early success. The twenty year old was appointed as the agent for the Rappahannock Steam Packet Company. Despite a short digression into the grocery business, Shoemaker soon assumed the agency of another shipping company, the Erricson Line. In 1843, with only two years of transfer service experience, Shoemaker was approached to form an express line between Philadelphia and Baltimore under the auspices of the Adam's Express Company.

Adams Express eventually formed a national network. Founded in 1840 by Alvin Adams, the company had its modest beginning as a Vermont delivery service. Adams, in cooperation with William B. Dinsmore of New York City, E. S. Sanford of Philadelphia, and Samuel Shoemaker, expanded its focus and greatly enlarged its operations. By 1854, Adams Express was incorporated as one of the three major shipping services, along with American Express Co., and later, Well's, Fargo ; Co. Adams Express became the largest of the three, with operations along the Eastern seaboard, and as far west as California when the gold rush exploded. At its peak in the 1880's, the company had 7,800 employees, 1826 wagons and 2,235 horses.

His leadership of the Adam's Express Company Baltimore regional office brought Shoemaker financial prosperity. He bought the Hygia Hotel at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, and was part owner in the Adams White Lead Company. The 1860 U.S. Census revealed his combined real estate and personal worth at less than two hundred thousand; by his death in 1884, Shoemaker had achieved a fortune of approximately 1.4 million dollars.

As his success grew, Shoemaker played an increasing role in Baltimore's business and charitable societies. He appeared to prefer a less visible leadership role in these endeavors. Receipts in this collection reveal personal and company contributions to many various organizations.

Despite Shoemaker's business ties to the South he appeared to maintain a staunch Unionist stance during the Civil War. In the aftermath of Gettysburg, his company organized a hospital corps and sent supplies to alleviate the wounded. At the cessation of hostilities, Shoemaker, as part of the newly organized Maryland Union Committee, rendered financial and material assistance to the impoverished of the South.

In post-war years Shoemaker associated with notable Republicans on the national level. It appears, however, that Shoemaker was content to play a low-key role in political campaign matters. James Garfield, Rutherford B. Hayes, James G. Blaine, and Schuyler Colfax are counted among his correspondents. A friendship, spanning over twenty years, appeared to exist between Samuel Shoemaker and Colfax (Indiana U.S. Representative; Speaker of the House, 1863-65; Vice-president under Grant, 1869-73). The Shoemakers hosted a reception at their city dwelling for President Grant in 1877; Grant attended the wedding of their daughter Sallie. In 1881, in an effort to facilitate in President Garfield's recovery from his wounds suffered during his assassination attempt, Shoemaker sent a cow to the White House so the chief executive could receive a standardized, and more healthful, milk supply.

Samuel Shoemaker's health failed in 1883. For at least a year he attempted various measures to restore his vigor. Some included: Electromagnetic treatments, compound oxygen therapy, the natural springs at the Fountain Spring House in Wisconsin. Resigning from Adam's Express in February 1884, Shoemaker died on May 31 at Old Point Comfort, Virginia. Ex-Vice President Schuyler Colfax escorted his remains back to Baltimore for burial.

Augusta Eccleston Shoemaker (1833-1907)

Augusta Shoemaker was the daughter of Judge John Bowers Eccleston, a prominent Maryland Jurist from Kent County. Upon her 1853 marriage, Mrs. Shoemaker began the formidable tasks of managing a household and raising a large family. Her duties involved the supervision of servants, the planning of social functions, the coordination of yearly family moves and numerous other activities.

Shoemaker was also involved with many charitable concerns. She played a leadership role in the Baltimore Orphan Asylum and sat on the board of other organizations. In 1864, she was a senior member of the women's committee for the Baltimore Sanitary Fair; her duties involved fundraising and along with other organizational efforts. It appears that she routinely gave sums of money in response to individual solicitations from hospital patients and indigents (as evidenced by their pleas, and her notations for amounts to be forwarded, among her papers). After her husband's death she resided at their residence on St. Paul Street.

Note: correspondence from grandchildren to her is sometimes addressed as "Dear Nana."

The Children of Samuel and Augusta Shoemaker:

Augusta Eccleston (b.1855) m. William Cloud Boylston (4-26-1876)

Sallie Fields (b.1856) m. Charles Ridgely Barrett (1-30-1878)

Miriam Eccleston (b.1857) m. Edward Murray (12-7-1881)

Blanche (1859-1898) m. Frederick W. Brune (4-30-1885)

Ellen (b.1861) m. John J. Donaldson (11-17-1885)

Samuel Moor (b.1861-1933) m. Ellen Ward Whitridge (11-19-1884)

John Bowers Eccleston (1867-1880)

Edward (b.1870) m. Elizabeth Hall Turnbull (6-1-1893)

Bessie (b.1871) m. Thomas Whitridge (4-19-1894)



Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Jr. (1861-1933)

Shoemaker was born in Baltimore. Childhood letters from the 1870s detail aspects of family trips he experienced. After attending the College of New Jersey (Princeton), he embarked upon a business career. Shoemaker began his working life by clerking in the wholesale grocery business at the firm of Dinsmore ; Kyle. He eventually immersed himself in the field of cattle breeding. Burnside became noted for its prize livestock. Shoemaker assumed the presidency of the national cattle breeder's association. Later, in 1902 he sat on the Maryland State Roads Commission.

Shoemakers' papers concern aspects of his profession as well as family concerns. The death of Blanche Shoemaker Brune (1898) and her husband Frederick W. Brune (1899), initiated a controversy over the guardianship of their children between the Shoemaker and Brune families.

Ellen Ward Whitridge Shoemaker (1863-1954)

Also known as Nellie, she was a member of a prominent Baltimore family. Involved with numerous charitable efforts. Churchwomen; president of the Women's Auxiliary of the Diocese of Maryland.

Samuel Moor Shoemaker, III (1893-1963)

Samuel Shoemaker became a noted Episcopalian priest. Attended St. George's boarding school at Newport, Rhode Island. Schooled at Princeton, Shoemaker was active in the campus branch of the Y.M.C.A. and worked as a missionary in China. Ordained into the ministry during in 1921 he assumed the assistant rectorship at Grace Church in New York City; he later became the rector of Calvary Church. Shoemaker was an author of the twelve steps creed of the Alcoholics Anonymous.

Shoemaker's youth and early adult letters are featured in this collection. 1898 letters detail a trip to Yellowstone Park. Brief notes to his mother, written on birch bark and sent through the U.S. mail, describe a 1906 trip to the Thousand Islands.

After boarding school Shoemaker attended Princeton University. In 1917, a year after his graduation, he traveled to the Far East to visit and work at various church missions sponsored by Protestant churches and the Princetom arm of the Y.M.C.A. His letters home describe the area, native converts and their lifestyle (a 10/8/1917 note describes Yokohama, Japan). Correspondence from Betty Allen attributes her personal religious committment to Shoemaker's influence.

Mrs. Samuel Moor Shoemaker, III

Helen Dominick Smith, daughter of H. Alexander Smith, U.S. Senator from New Jersey, greatly assisted her husband in all his projects. She was herself a writer and authored several books.

J. Eccleston Harper

Harper was a writer and playwright in fin de siecle Paris. Original manuscripts for a number of his works, including the play The Red Sphinx, exist. Harper also penned a number of children's stories and pieces of short poetry; he also translated

Jane C. Austin

Mrs. Austin acted as a companion/nurse to Mrs. Shoemaker, II (Ellen Whitridge Shoemaker) from 1944-1947. Incoming and outgoing correspondence details aspects of family life, Mrs. Shoemaker's health, and Austin's eventual move to the St. Luke's Home for Aged Women (in New York City). Brief letters from Reverend Shoemaker appear.