SKETCHES OF STATE OFFICERS. 183
dist Protestant Church in 1892 and re-elected in 1896, and is
the only layman who was ever elected president of that body
and the only person ever re-elected. He was one of the
founders of Western Maryland College; was its treasurer for
many years and is now President of its Board of Trustees.
He was also one of the founders of the Westminster Theo-
logical Seminary and of the Home for the Aged at West-
minster. He is President of the Mutual Fire Insurance
Company of Carroll County and a director in a number of
other institutions. He received the degree of Doctor of
Laws from St. John's College, at Annapolis, in June, 1900.
State Treasurer: MURRAY VANDIVER (Democrat), of Har-
ford county.
Mr. Murray Vandiver was born in 1845 at Havre de Grace,
Md. He is the son of the late Robert B. Vandiver, a descend-
ant of some of the first settlers of Delaware. He was edu-
cated in the public schools of Harford county and Havre de
Grace Academy, and grauated from a business college in
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in 1864. He early engaged in the lum-
ber business in Havre de Grace. He was elected a member
of the House of Delegates of Maryland in 1876, 1878, 1880,
and was Speaker of the House in 1892. He was a member of
the rational Democratic Convention of 1892, which nomi-
nated Cleveland; of 1896, which nominated Bryan the first
time; a delegate-at-large to the National Democratic Conven-
tion of 1900, and a delegate-at-large and chairman of the
delegation to the National Democratic Convention of 1904,
which nominated Parker. From 1888 to 1897 Mr. Vandiver
was secretary and treasurer of the Democratic State Central
Committee, and in 1897 became chairman of the committee
by appointment of Colonel Buchanan Schley. He was re-
appointed chairman of the committee by Colonel L. Victor
Baughman in August, 1899, with the full concurrence of the
State Convention, which position he now holds. As chair-
man of the Democratic State Central Committee Mr. Van-
diver conducted the re-organiation primary campaign in
Baltimore in the fall of 1898, which resulted in the precinct
organization of Baltimore, of which Hon. James P. Gorter
is the head. Mr. Vandiver managed the State campaign in
1899, which restored the Democratic party to power in the
State, as well as exercised an influence in his advisory
capacity in the municipal campaign in Baltimore in the
spring of 1899, which restored the Democratic party to
power in the city. From July, 1893, to October 1, 1897, Mr.
Vandiver was Collector of Internal Revenue for the District
of Maryland, District of Columbia and Delaware and two
|
|