Portraits of Maryland Comptrollers

portraits of Maryland Comptrollers

A Permanent E xhibit Louis L. Goldstein Treasury Building Annapolis, Maryland

The old Treasury Building, built in 1735.

portraits of Maryland Comptrollers

A Permanent E xhibit Louis L. Goldstein Treasury Building Annapolis, Maryland

Table of Contents

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

A Brief History of

The Office of the Comptroller . . . . . . . . . .7

List of Comptrollers (years in office)

Comptroller Biographies 1. Philip Francis Thomas 1851-1853 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8.

2. Henry E. Bateman 1853-1854 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9

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3. William Pinkney Whyte 1854-1856 . . . . . . . . . . .10 .

4. William Henry Purnell 1856-1861 . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 ..

5. Dennis Claude 1861 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .12 ..

6. Abram Lingan Jarrett 1861-1862 . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 7. Samuel Snowden Maffit 1862-1864 . . . . . . . . . . .14 ....

8. Henry Hollyday Goldsborough 1864 . . . . . . . . . . . .15 . .

9. Robert John Jump 1864-1867 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 10. William James Leonard 1867-1870 . . . . . . . . . . . 17 11. Levin Woolford 1870-1878 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 12. Thomas James Keating 1878-1884 . . . . . . . . . . . .19 13. J. Frank Turner 1884-1888 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 14. L. Victor Baughman 1888-1892 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Table of Contents

15. Marion deKalb Smith 1892-1896 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 16. Robert Patterson Graham 1896-1898 . . . . . . . . 23 17. Phillips Lee Goldsborough 1898-1900 . . . . . . . .24 18. Dr. Joshua W. Hering 1900-1904 . . . . . . . . . . . .25 ..

19. Dr. Gordon T. Atkinson 1904-1907 . . . . . . . . . . 26 20. Dr. Joshua W. Hering 1907-1910 . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 21. William B. Clagett 1910-1911 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 22. Charles H. Stanley 1911-1912 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 ..

23. Emerson Columbus Harrington 1912-1916 . . . .30 ...

24. Hugh A. McMullen 1916-1920 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 25. E. Brooke Lee 1920-1922 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 . ...

26. William S. Gordy, Jr. 1922-1939 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 27. J. Millard Tawes 1939-1947 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 28. James J. Lacy 1947-1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 29. J. Millard Tawes 1950-1959 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 30. Louis L. Goldstein 1959-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 31. Robert L. Swann 1998-1999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 32. William Donald Schaefer 1999-2007. . . . . . . . . . . 39 33. Peter Franchot 2007-present. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Foreword

Foreword This exhibit features images of every Maryland Comptroller with the exception of two, Robert John Jump (1864-1867) and Thomas James Keating (1878-1884) for whom no images have been located.

Current Comptroller Peter Franchot would like to thank the staff of the Maryland State Archives for the creation, preparation and installation of this permanent exhibit.

Acting State Archivist Timothy D. Baker, Elaine Rice Bachmann, Director, Artistic Property, Exhibits, Outreach, State House Office of Interpretation and the entire conservation and preservation staff deserve special recognition for their vision and dedication to preserving Maryland’s history.

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A Brief History of the Office of the Comptroller

A Brief History The Office of Comptroller of the Treasury was created by Maryland’s Constitution of 1851 to have “general superintendence of the fiscal affairs of the state,” and to provide a check on the activity of the State Treasurer. Elected by the voters of the state, the Comptroller originally served for four years, with the term shortened to two years in 1864. In the Constitution of 1867, the Comptroller’s term was lengthened again to the current four-year term. There is no limitation on the number of terms the Comptroller may serve.

The first Comptroller’s Office was likely in the Old Treasury Building, Maryland’s oldest public building, built in 1735. From 1858-1902, the Comptroller’s Office was located in the Land Office Building, formerly located on State Circle. In 1902, the Comptroller’s Office moved to newly completed Court of Appeals Building, located on the site of the current Department of Legislative Services Building. Upon completion of the Goldstein Treasury Building in 1958, the Comptroller’s Office moved to its present location.

Maryland’s comptrollers have been lawyers, doctors, bankers, miners, newspapermen, teachers and farmers.

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Comptroller Biographies

1. Philip Francis Thomas (1810 - 1890) Easton (Talbot County) Lawyer, Democrat Comptroller - 1851 - 1853 As Maryland Governor (1848-1851), the Thomas administration was instrumental in a new constitution that created the elected office of “Comptroller of the Treasury� in 1851. He was the first Comptroller and set up the office in 1851 with one clerk and an annual salary of $2,500. After serving as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury on the eve of the Civil War, he became a Confederate sympathizer and retired from public life.

After the war, Thomas was prevented from becoming a U.S. senator, but later served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Maryland House of Delegates.

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Comptroller Biographies

2. Henry E. Bateman (ca. 1807 - 1892) Queen Anne’s and Talbot Counties Newspaper Editor, Democrat Comptroller - 1853-1854 An influential newspaper editor of the Centreville Times and later the Easton Star, Bateman was the second Maryland Comptroller. After the Civil War, he led a Talbot County delegation that helped successfully overturn the wartime Union constitution with a new document in 1867.

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Comptroller Biographies

3. William Pinkney Whyte (1824-1908) Baltimore City Lawyer, Democrat Comptroller - 1854-1856 Whyte held nearly every Maryland elective office and was known as the Old Line State’s “Grand Old Man.” As the third Comptroller, he was credited with a simplified system that demonstrated the “wisdom of the Constitution in providing the safeguard to the Treasury.”

In the 1870s, he served both as Governor and U.S. Senator and went on to finish his career as the Baltimore City Solicitor as well as completing a third term in the U.S. Senate.

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Comptroller Biographies

4. William Henry Purnell (1826-1902) Worcester County Lawyer,Whig, Know-Nothing, Unionist and Democrat Comptroller - 1856-1861 After serving as a trial lawyer, Purnell’s career as Comptroller was notable for the disputed 1861 election. Purnell won the election with “riots and frauds” in Baltimore, but resigned to serve as a postmaster and then a Union general early in the Civil War. Prevented from entering post-war politics, he became a college president in Delaware and then in Frederick and New Windsor, Maryland.

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Comptroller Biographies

5. Dennis Claude (ca. 1782-1863) Anne Arundel County Military Surgeon Comptroller - 1861 With a distinguished career as a War of 1812 military surgeon, Maryland politician, and Mayor of Annapolis for four decades, 79-year-old Claude was appointed Comptroller for a few months during the 1861 war crisis. Governor Henry H. Hicks brought in Claude to prevent Abram Jarrett from taking office. Jarrett was the choice of a legislature that supported Maryland secession to the southern Confederacy.

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Comptroller Biographies

6. Abram Lingan Jarrett (ca. 1808-1894) Harford County, Lawyer Democrat Comptroller – 1861-1862 Jarrett, a Harford County court clerk, won the disputed 1861 Comptroller election when the Southern leaning House of Delegates declared him the winner after William Purnell won more votes with questionable tactics in Baltimore. Governor Henry Hicks, determined to keep Maryland in the Union, appointed Dennis Claude as his own loyal Comptroller. For a few months in 1861, two competing Comptrollers, Jarrett and Claude, set up shop in downtown Annapolis. The courts decided that the House of Delegates had the jurisdiction to determine Jarrett the winner, but he only served three months before being replaced by another election in January of 1862.

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Comptroller Biographies

7. Samuel Snowden Maffit (1819-1864) Cecil County Democrat and Unionist Comptroller – 1862-1864 Maffit was Comptroller in the Governor Augustus Bradford Unionist war administration but did not support the abolition of slavery. His service to the Union was cut short by his untimely death in 1864 of consumption almost a year before the end of the war.

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Comptroller Biographies

8. Henry Hollyday Goldsborough (1817-1899) Talbot County Lawyer, Whig, Democrat, Unionist and Republican Comptroller - 1864 A veteran state politician for a quarter of a century and a Union soldier, Goldsborough was brought in to finish the term of deceased Comptroller Samuel Maffit. He soon became the leader of the successful effort to amend the constitution in 1864. The new document that abolished slavery and punished supporters of the South was replaced in only three years. Goldsborough then became a Republican circuit court judge.

After an unsuccessful bid for Congress, he ended his career as the appraiser of the Port of Baltimore.

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Comptroller Biographies

A photo of Comptroller Jump has never been located. As a symbol in its place, this is what the Civil War ten dollar bill looked like at that time. Abraham Lincoln was president and he appeared on the bill as well.

9. Robert John Jump (1833-1912) Caroline County, Lawyer Unionist and Republican Comptroller – 1864-1867 Jump had been a clerk of the Caroline Court for two decades when he was brought in to serve as the final Civil War Comptroller. Later, he became a State’s Attorney and Register of Wills in his native county.

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Comptroller Biographies

10. William James Leonard (1816-1901) Worcester (now Wicomico) County Lawyer and Merchant, Whig, Republican and Democrat, Comptroller - 1867-1870 Whig Maryland Delegate and grain and lumber merchant in the 1850s, Leonard was a Union colonel in the Civil War and served time as a prisoner in Richmond’s Libby Prison. At the end of the war, he served as a provost marshal on the Eastern Shore and as an 1864 Republican elector for Lincoln. By 1867, Leonard had returned to the Democratic fold, serving as the first Comptroller under the 1867 Constitution that welcomed Democrats back into Maryland politics and abolished the loyalty oath to the Union.

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Comptroller Biographies

11. Levin Woolford (1819-1890) Princess Anne (Somerset County) Lawyer, Farmer and Banker, Democrat Comptroller - 1870-1878 Clerk of the Somerset County Court from 1851 to 1869, Woolford served as Comptroller for two terms. He later was a state tax commissioner, founder of the Somerset County Savings Bank and influential vestryman in the Protestant Episcopal Church.

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Comptroller Biographies

A photo of Comptroller Keating has never been located. As a symbol in its place, this is what the fifty dollar bill looked like at that time. Rutherford B. Hayes was president and Benjamin Franklin appeared on the bill.

12. Thomas James Keating (1829-1898) Queen Anne’s County Lawyer, Newspaper Editor and Banker, Democrat Comptroller - 1878-1884 Keating was a strong supporter of states’ rights. Before the Civil War, he purchased the Centreville Sentinel and changed its name to the Centreville States Rights. During the passions of the war, the Eastern Shore Unionist “Home Guards” burned his newspaper office to the ground in 1864. During and after the war, Keating served as Queen Anne’s County State’s Attorney until his election as Comptroller. During his long tenure, Keating was respected as a good financial manager and worked hard to “retrench and reform” state finances, including reducing the debt. When he left office to become a banker and later a tax commissioner, the Maryland financial picture was said to be in a “healthy condition.”

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Comptroller Biographies

13. J. Frank Turner (1844-1916) Talbot County Lawyer, Democrat Comptroller - 1884-1888 Turner began his career as a Register of Wills and Clerk of the Talbot County Courts. When he became Comptroller, Turner continued the trend to reduce the state debt and run the office in a more professional manner. He was heavily involved in continuing efforts to extricate the state from ill-fated investments in canals and railroads. He also focused on managing the state fleet against the criminal excesses of the oyster pirates. In his later career, Turner took an active interest in the commercial success of the Town of Easton.

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Comptroller Biographies

14. L. Victor Baughman (1845-1906) Frederick County Lawyer and Farmer, Democrat Comptroller - 1888-1892 As a youth, “Vic” Baughman was caught up in war fever and served in the Confederate cavalry, remaining noted for his horsemanship throughout his life. As an editor of the Democratic Frederick Citizen, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress, but was elected Comptroller. Baughman had strong political allies and was the Democratic leader of Frederick County, called the “Napoleon of Western Maryland.” He managed the C&O Canal, the B&O Railroad and the regional Electric Railway. A notorious episode during his tenure as Comptroller was the embezzlement of state funds

by Treasurer Stevenson Archer. Baughman was also involved in settling the substantial debts incurred by Maryland during the fighting of the Civil War.

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Comptroller Biographies

15. Marion deKalb Smith (1850-1910) Kent County Lawyer, Democrat Comptroller - 1892-1896 A Clerk of the Kent County Court and a State’s Attorney, Smith was known for his hardline about oyster piracy on the Chesapeake Bay. In 1890, he refused to pardon two watermen who had fired on a state vessel.

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Comptroller Biographies

16. Robert Patterson Graham (1868-1921) Wicomico County Lawyer, Republican Comptroller - 1896-1898 One of two Republicans in a long line of Democrats, Graham was active in Salisbury politics before becoming Comptroller. After more than a decade as a state tax commissioner, Graham was appointed Secretary of State by Governor Phillips Lee Goldsborough in 1912 and sought road improvements, tax reform and uniform election laws.

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Comptroller Biographies

17. Phillips Lee Goldsborough (1865-1946) Dorchester County Lawyer, Republican Comptroller - 1898-1900 One of a half-dozen Comptrollers who were also governors, Goldsborough was a fixture in Maryland politics for 50 years, often as the loyal opposition to Democratic administrations. As a young Cambridge State’s Attorney, Goldsborough was chosen by Republican Governor Lloyd Lowndes to successfully run for Comptroller. From that first state office, he went on to serve first as Governor (1912-1916) and then U.S. Senator (1929-1935), an office he had first run for 30 years earlier. President Franklin Roosevelt chose him to serve on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 1935 until his death.

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Comptroller Biographies

18. Dr. Joshua W. Hering (1833-1913) Frederick and Carroll Counties Physician and Banker, Democrat Comptroller - 1900-1904 (first tenure) An active and public-spirited member of his community, Hering began his statewide career as a senator representing Carroll County. He became Comptroller soon after for two separate terms during the Progressive Era, when government, led by President Theodore Roosevelt, began to take a greater role in daily life. During Hering’s first tenure as Comptroller, Maryland was successfully sued to ensure that funding for schools was equitable for blacks as well as whites. Hering was also involved in the groundbreaking 1902 Supreme Court case (Northern Central Railway v. Maryland) that forced the Northern Central Railway to pay higher taxes administered by a state law that the railway claimed was unconstitutional.

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Comptroller Biographies

19. Dr. Gordon T. Atkinson (1846-1942) Crisfield (Somerset County) Physician, Democrat Comptroller - 1904-1908 As an active participant in the Crisfield seafood boom of the late 1800s, Dr. Atkinson ran a medical practice along with a drug store, an ice manufacturing plant and a bank in the downtown area. He served as Comptroller for one term and afterwards returned to a busy career in his native lower Eastern Shore.

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Comptroller Biographies

20. Dr. Joshua W. Hering (1833-1913) Frederick and Carroll Counties Physician and Banker, Democrat Comptroller - 1908-1910 (second tenure) Dr. Hering returned as Comptroller after Atkinson completed two terms. Hering’s office took credit for “upgrading buildings, building good roads, lowering taxes and reducing state debt.” During the middle of his last term, he resigned his position to take a position as a member of the Public Service Commission, a new agency established to regulate public service companies in Maryland.

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Comptroller Biographies

21. William B. Clagett (1854-1911) Prince George’s County Tobacco Farmer, Democrat Comptroller - 1910-1911 A lifelong farmer in the tidewater tobacco fields of Maryland’s western shore, Clagett entered state politics as a Senator at the turn of the century. He became Comptroller to finish the unexpired term of Dr. Joshua Hering who went on to the new Public Service Commission.

Clagett died only a year after his tenure as Comptroller began.

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Comptroller Biographies

22. Charles H. Stanley (1842-1913) Prince George’s County Lawyer, Democrat Comptroller - 1911-1912 The last bearded Comptroller, Stanley represented an earlier generation and had fought for three years as a private in the Confederate army. Originally from Connecticut, he had an active and varied career in his adopted Maryland as a farmer, State Delegate, Mayor of Laurel, banker and director of the B&O Railroad and the Maryland Agricultural College. Stanley was appointed Comptroller to finish the term of William B. Clagett, who died in office.

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Comptroller Biographies

23. Emerson Columbus Harrington (1864-1945) Dorchester County Teacher and Lawyer, Democrat Comptroller - 1912-1916 Harrington was a very successful student and tutor at St. John’s College before serving as principal at Cambridge Academy and High School for more than a decade.

He went on to the law and was Dorchester County State’s Attorney for one term before rising to state office first as Comptroller and then governor (1916-1920) during World War I. After a bitter campaign in 1915, Governor Harrington organized the successful Council of Defense which effectively addressed wartime problems and built Camp (Fort) Meade. He sought a more efficient state government and a new budget system, reluctantly supported the right of women to vote as well as the movement to prohibit alcohol, a controversial issue in the Free State. After leaving office, Harrington returned to Cambridge to his law practice and local business for more than 20 years.

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Comptroller Biographies

24. Hugh A. McMullen (1859-1937) Allegany County Miner, Merchant and Banker, Democrat Comptroller - 1916-1920 Western Maryland’s one representative in the Comptroller’s office, McMullen was a highly successful local businessman. He was a miner and a prospector in Colorado for a time. Returning home, he and two brothers became merchants and opened the first department store in Cumberland, the town’s first bank, and two coal mines, one in West Virginia and another in Kentucky.

As Comptroller, McMullen was best remembered for getting Marylanders to concentrate on emergency needs created by World War I.

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Comptroller Biographies

25. E. Brooke Lee (1892-1984) Montgomery County Lawyer, Democrat Comptroller - 1920-1922 A war hero in World War I, Major Lee was a member of an influential Montgomery County family and found himself elected Comptroller right after his return from the fighting in France. In his short tenure, the new Central Purchasing Bureau was part of the Comptroller’s widely expanded role. Lee also helped create a new budget department headed by the Comptroller.

After going into the private real estate business, he was elected to the House of Delegates and served Maryland Governor Ritchie in several capacities. Later in life, he became a nationally recognized breeder of Polled Hereford Beef Cattle.

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Comptroller Biographies

26. William S. Gordy, Jr. (1873-1950) Salisbury (Wicomico County) Banker, Democrat Comptroller - 1922-1939 Gordy, a self-described by-the-book businessman, was Maryland’s first professional Comptroller, serving a then record of almost two decades. From the first gas tax in 1922 to the first income tax in the late 1930s, he ran the Comptroller’s Office efficiently through the biggest economic swings in American history.

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Comptroller Biographies

27. J. Millard Tawes (1894-1979) Crisfield (Somerset County) Banker, Democrat Comptroller - 1939-1947 (first tenure) Tawes was an important player in state government for more than three decades, an era marked by devastating war and unheard of growth and prosperity. After World War II, the Maryland state budget increased from $60 million to $219 million in just six years.

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Comptroller Biographies

28. James J. Lacy (1904-1950) Baltimore City Businessman, Democrat Comptroller - 1947-1950 Lacy was brought especially into the Governor William Preston Lane administration to help institute Maryland’s first retail sales tax. He had the thankless task of successfully implementing one of the most unpopular taxes in Maryland history. On July 1, 1950, this able young Comptroller died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 46.

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Comptroller Biographies

29. J. Millard Tawes (1894-1979) Crisfield (Somerset County) Banker, Democrat Comptroller - 1950-1959 (second tenure) Tawes was reappointed to his former office in July 1950 after the sudden death of James Lacy. Tawes, a master of budget detail and a political insider, won two more elections as Comptroller. He was the only Marylander elected to all three major state offices: Comptroller, Treasurer and Governor.

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Comptroller Biographies

30. Louis L. Goldstein (1913-1998) Prince Frederick (Calvert County) Lawyer and Politician, Democrat Comptroller - 1959-1998 Goldstein was the longest serving statewide-elected official in America.

His name was synonymous with the Comptroller’s job. His accomplishments were legendary. During the civil rights struggle, Goldstein and Maryland were leaders in equal opportunity almost a decade before the federal government.

He was the thoroughly professional administrator of billions of dollars for roads, schools and hospitals under seven governors. He was an unflagging booster of Maryland’s history, culture and tourism. Goldstein was rightly proud of the state’s consistent AAA bond rating. Under his leadership, the Comptroller’s Office was an international leader in the application of technology to financial record keeping.

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Comptroller Biographies

31. Robert L. Swann (born 1935) Calvert County native Government Employee Comptroller - 1998-1999 A 37-year veteran of the Maryland Comptroller’s Office, Swann joined the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division in 1961 and became an assistant to Comptroller Goldstein in 1966. He was appointed a deputy comptroller after a department reorganization in 1994. Because of his widely recognized expertise in state government, Swann was appointed Comptroller, after the 1998 death of Comptroller Goldstein, and served until a new Comptroller was elected.

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Comptroller Biographies

31. William Donald Schaefer (1921-2011) Baltimore City Lawyer and Politician, Democrat Comptroller - 1999-2007 William Donald Schaefer served in public office for more than 50 years. He was governor of Maryland (1987-1995); mayor of Baltimore City (1971-1987); president of the Baltimore City Council (1967 to 1971); and member of the Baltimore City Council (1955-1967). In 1998, he was elected the 32nd comptroller of Maryland and re-elected in 2002. During his two terms as comptroller, Schaefer expanded online services to individuals and businesses, initiated an aggressive tax law enforcement campaign and introduced several cost-saving efficiencies.

He also recouped nearly $200 million for the state in 2004, by closing a frequently used tax loophole that allowed companies to shelter income. Long known as a tireless advocate for the needy, Schaefer also expanded and encouraged employee participation in more than 25 charity and outreach endeavors during his tenure as comptroller.

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Comptroller Biographies

33. Peter Franchot (born 1947) Montgomery County Politician Comptroller - 2007-present Army veteran Peter Franchot, served in the United States Army from 1968 to 1970.

Franchot has experience as an attorney and a self-employed business development consultant. From 1980 to 1986, Franchot served as staff director to Congressman Edward J. Markey. Prior to his election to statewide office, Comptroller Franchot served 20 years (1987-2007) in the General Assembly, representing the people of Montgomery County, Maryland in the Maryland House of Delegates.

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The current Treasury Building, built in 1958.

80 Calvert Street, Annapolis, Maryland 21404 www.marylandtaxes.com