and Cameron and other great leaders became his firm and tried friends; that they gave him a hearing and favored requests of his whenever presented. In due time his services were accepted and permission was given to visit the sick and wounded soldiers in the city. When the law allowed the appointment of Chaplains he received his commission, dated May 31, 1862, and was honorably mustered out June 19, 1865. The services rendered by himself and Mrs. Smith to the soldiers in Judiciary Square Hospital can never be computed at their full value. Ministering to more than 11,000 men, his image was borne away stamped deeply upon as many hearts. Probably no man was more widely known throughout the country for the vast labor of love which he carried on. Dr. Smith was proud, and justly so, of his war record. In his anniversary sermon of September, 1865, he said: "I thank God for my military record.”

In the early part of the war hospital facilities in the city were scarce, and it became necessary for the Government to occupy some of the churches. Some of these were requisitioned, but Dr. Smith, knowing the need, offered the Fourth Church as an hospital, and it was so used for eight months. The pews were floored over, the organ was boarded in, and hundreds of men were cared for within its walls.

Notwithstanding all these varied outside interests he let nothing divorce him from the work of his own church. He used to say, "I know nothing but the Fourth Church," but this was uttered in no narrow sense, for he thought of and labored for others continually; but he did consider himself responsible for the particular church given him to shepherd.

Dr. Smith was a preacher in the best sense of the word. He was not an orator; he did not bring into the pulpit the diction and the graces of the study, least of all did he bring

the mooted questions of politics to his people; but he did meet them on the plane of daily living and with a heart understanding and sympathizing with people in the solution of their many problems, he endeavored to help them by the teachings of the Word of God. He was eminently practical in his ministry, and it must have been indeed a careless or indifferent hearer who did not take away real help to meet the issues of life. Plain and unpretending in his manner, the Doctor was blessed with a genial and sympathetic disposition which attached to him many true and warmhearted people. He was completely absorbed in his work and made the wants and anxieties of his congregation his unceasing care.

It was in his pastoral work he particularly excelled. He knew the value of personal interest in his people and he devoted himself to a visitation and care of them in their homes which drew their interest in turn and bound them to him and the church.

I remember one young minister who came when the Doctor was trying out various candidates for the position of Assistant. This man, with a temerity born of ignorance of the man with whom he was dealing, said: "Doctor, how do you get your people to keep you so many years?" The old Doctor flashed one of those keen looks at him, under which an ordinary man might wince, drew himself up, and said with a dignity native to him: "Young man, my people don't keep me; I keep them." Which was literally true. Trouble could not come in a life, nor sorrow in a home, nor disaster and perplexity threaten, and Dr. Smith not know it. And anon he was there, and, with his coming, help and comfort and strengthening.

Dr. Smith also lived in the days before the Civil Service, when the office and the person of the minister had probably greater influence than in the present day. And Dr. Smith

knew his way to Cabinet officers and appointive powers and understood, with that subtle knowledge of human nature which was almost a sixth sense, how to approach and present his case and win his way and get his appointment. Thus vast numbers of young men were attached to him and his church by reason of the kindly service he rendered them. But alas! the day came when all that was changed. There arose another king that knew not John and I was informed, and have no reason to doubt it, that in one great excision forty of Dr. Smith's men lost their places, and there was no power to get them back. Dr. Smith felt this keenly, but it did not let him cease his kindly efforts, and he busied himself among friends and business acquaintances to find places for his protégés.

During all these years, both before and during and at the close of the Civil War, the work of the church under Dr. Smith's care advanced and strengthened. Various colonies went forth to establish other churches, as The Assembly's, Western, Sixth and Eastern, but the places of those thus colonizing were soon taken by others and the church maintained a leading place in the city. At the same time the relations between Dr. Smith and his brethren of the other communions were genial and kind. He was a special friend with his neighbor, Father Mathews, of St. Patrick's Church. Dr. Smith asked him for a contribution to his church when he was building it. Father Mathew said: "Well, you know it wouldn't be allowable for me to help build a Protestant Church. But the sidewalk-that's not part of a church. I'll give you that." And so he did. It is a delightful commentary upon the comity and friendliness among the churches and ministry of that time—at least, of some of them. This fraternity Dr. Smith maintained until the end and he always gave a hearty welcome to new men coming to the city, being especially gracious to his younger brethren.

As the years increased and the disabilities of age began to make themselves felt, Dr. Smith asked his people for an Associate in the work, and his choice and that of the people falling upon the writer of this paper, I was installed in the office and for nearly four years of his closing life had the privilege of association with him. He was always considerate and thoughtful of his young helper and we worked side by side, dividing the duties of the church between us. After two years, however, that is, on the 5th of January, 1876, he met with an accident, being knocked down by a street car horse and was critically ill for a long time. Eventually, however, he recovered sufficiently to be out and to come to church and sit in the pulpit, but he was never able to preach again. To the end, as throughout his long ministry, he retained the love and reverence of his people, and when on the afternoon of January 23, 1878, he fell asleep, a whole church was plunged in mourning as for a beloved father, and multitudes from far and near joined in their

sorrow.

I have thus very incompletely sketched some of the incidents and characteristics of a great, because a serving, life. Dr. Smith still lives in the work he organized and in the lives he influenced. And though a city may move onward in its unceasing progress and the immediate presence of its builders and conservators be lost, yet what they were and did in its upbuilding cannot fail of its purpose, and the memory of men like John C. Smith will be among its imperishable treasures.

JAMES HEIGHE BLAKE,

THE THIRD MAYOR OF THE CORPORATION

IN

OF WASHINGTON [1813-17].

By ALLEN C. CLARK

(Read before the Society, Nov. 16, 1920.)

N THE family Bible, to the entry of birth of a son is added in Dr. Blake's handwriting, "Named after the celebrated Admiral Robert Blake from whose family he is a descendant."

Dr. Blake was of lineage, well born on both sides. The Blakes and Heighes were Maryland colonists, prominent in the Church of England; active in political affairs; and planters with slave holdings.

Richard Blake came from England and settled in Calvert county. He married Susanna or Susan Nichols, daughter of William Nichols. Their son Joseph married Mary Heighe, daughter of Thomas Holdsworth Heighe and Mary Holdsworth Wheeler, his wife. Their son, James Heighe Blake, was born in the same county, June 11, 1768.

Hester Dorsey Richardson, in The Sun, of Baltimore, May 22, 1904, says:

"Richard Blake of My Lordship's Favor in Calvert County was a prominent man in Colonial days, and his fine estate one of the notable homes in the hospitable region in which it was situated. His bride, Susanna Nichols, was known as the 'heiress of St. Edmonds.' Her father, William Nichols, was one of the men sent as representatives of the Province to England in 1695, Col. Joseph Blake, of My Lordship's Favor * * served with distinction

*

all through the Revolutionary War."

To another son of Richard attaches romance. Maryland Gazette, January 25, 1770, is:

In the