Benjamin Franklin Newcomer
Frank Newcomer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Benjamin Franklin Newcomer Template:Birth date Beaver Creek, Washington County, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | March 30, 1901 (aged 73) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Railroad executive, banking leader |
| Known for | President of Baltimore’s Safe Deposit & Trust Company; president of Baltimore and Potomac Railroad; trustee of Johns Hopkins University; founder of Maryland Institution for the Instruction of the Blind |
Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Newcomer (April 28, 1827 – March 30, 1901) was a prominent American railroad executive and banking leader based in Baltimore, Maryland.
Early life
Born on April 28, 1827, in a log cabin at Beaver Creek, Washington County, Maryland, Newcomer was the son of Catherine (née Newcomer) and John Newcomer. Known familiarly as Frank from childhood, his family resided in Hagerstown between 1829 and 1834, where he assisted with the family’s agricultural and milling operations. At the age of ten, he was appointed deputy sheriff. In 1840, he enrolled at Hagerstown Academy with aspirations toward civil engineering. The family relocated back to Beaver Creek in 1841, where he resumed farm duties. On July 24, 1842, Newcomer moved to Baltimore to enter his father’s flour and grain commission enterprise, Newcomer & Stonebraker.
Career
At eighteen years old, Newcomer acquired his father’s stake in Newcomer & Stonebraker. Following Stonebraker’s exit in 1862, the firm was renamed Newcomer & Company. The flour business operated until the death of W. J. Doyle in 1896, after which it provided capital for Newcomer's railroad investments. He eventually withdrew from active involvement in the company. In 1853, he played a key role in founding Baltimore's inaugural Corn and Flour Exchange and maintained a directorship there until his passing.
In 1854, Newcomer joined the board of directors for the Union Bank (which later became the National Union Bank of Maryland). Beginning in 1868, he was both an incorporator and president of Baltimore’s Safe Deposit & Trust Company for a tenure lasting 33 years; he also held a directorship at the Savings Bank of Baltimore. During the Civil War period, Secretary of War Simon Cameron proposed establishing Baltimore’s first national bank with Newcomer as its president; however, he declined this offer.
Newcomer was elected to the Northern Central Railway board in 1861 and chaired its finance committee continuously until his death, except for a hiatus from 1874 to 1878. He managed property acquisitions on behalf of the railway and served as director for both the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad and the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad—the latter presidency assumed by him in 1895 following Oden Bowie’s demise. In 1868, he acted as trustee for a syndicate that purchased and revitalized several Southern railroads, which led to the creation of the Southern Railway Security Company. This consortium merged various lines into what became the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad by 1900. Additionally, Newcomer presided over the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad from 1888 to 1890 and fulfilled roles including treasurer, vice president, and director within the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.
Motivated by his siblings’ visual impairments, Newcomer helped establish the Maryland Institution for the Instruction of the Blind (later known as the Maryland School for the Blind). He served initially as its secretary, then treasurer from 1864 onward, eventually becoming president in 1881. He contributed $20,000 toward its construction fund. In 1900, his financial support enabled completion of the Washington Free Library in Hagerstown after his death; he also supported the Washington County Home for Orphans and Friendless Children located there. Through his association with Daniel Coit Gilman, Newcomer was a trustee at Johns Hopkins University and held a directorship at the Mercantile Library.
Personal life
Newcomer wedded Amelia Louisa Ehlen, daughter of John H. Ehlen, a director at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, on November 14, 1848. Together, they had four children: three daughters and one son, Waldo Newcomer among them. Following Amelia's passing in 1881, he remarried in 1887 to Sidonia (née Ayres) Kemp, the widow of Morris J. Kemp; she passed away in 1898.
Although a member of the Christian (Campbellite) church, Newcomer frequently joined his wife in attending Lutheran services. He cultivated strong connections with prominent Pennsylvania Railroad leaders such as Thomas A. Scott, George Brooke Roberts, John Edgar Thomson, and Alexander Cassatt, alongside his business associate William T. Walters and the sculptor William Henry Rinehart.
In his later years, Newcomer endured injuries from an elevator mishap and experienced vision loss in one eye due to cataracts. He passed away from a stroke on March 30, 1901, at his residence in Baltimore and was laid to rest at Green Mount Cemetery.
Legacy
The "Newcomer Memorial Font," an angelic sculpture crafted by Daniel Chester French, stands at Episcopal Emmanuel Church located in Baltimore's Mount Vernon district as a tribute to Newcomer's impact on the city.