“Few men in the city enjoy the confidence of their friends as did Mr. Skinner. His advice was sought by his business associates and by politicians, although he was never actively identified with any party, except as a voter. It was his sound judgment and fair-mindedness which drew men to him and which helped to make him president of the South Baltimore Business Men’s Association.”
–The Baltimore Sun, November 12, 1911
I live in a house previously owned by George B. Skinner.
As I walked around Bolton Hill and read all the blue historical plaques on homes identifying former residents, I was motivated to do research on who had owned the house I live in at 1526 W Mount Royal Ave. before it was converted to apartments. Interesting tile work around the fireplaces got me curious as to what inspired a resident to select that design. I began exploring past issues of The Baltimore Sun through the excellent databases on the Pratt Library website. Several of the results returned for the period between 1901 and 1911 mentioned George Berwick Skinner (1846-1911), including his obituary from Nov. 12, 1911. It occupied an entire column in The Sun and was full of information on his life that provided several more paths to follow.
His career
Mr. Skinner, a tobacco merchant, died of heart failure in his office of the George B. Skinner Co. at 343 N. Charles St. He started his career working as a wholesale tobacconist at Walshe, Carrol and Co., and then D.J. Walshe & Co., and in 1886 Skinner bought out Walshe. He changed the company name to Stewart and Skinner, which it remained from 1901-06 when it was incorporated as the George B. Skinner Company. He worked there until his death.
His environs
The Oct. 13, 1901 edition of The Sun mentions a meeting of the Mount Royal Improvement Association (predecessor to BHCA) to organize against the establishment of a zoo or menagerie in the car barns at Mount Royal Ave. and McMechen St. Their concern was that “The odor and danger from the keeping of wild beasts in the barns would constitute a nuisance.”
They went on to say in a petition: “The establishment of a zoo in the locality, which is at present one of the most desirable in the city for residences; that it is improved by handsome and expensive houses, erected under the belief that it would be preserved from all injurious encroachments; that it is near the handsome entrance to Druid Hill Park, and that the proposed zoo or menagerie will almost destroy its attractiveness and value….”
George B. Skinner attended this meeting.
His family
Mr. Skinner was a grandson of William Skinner Jr. (1792-1853) who came to Baltimore from Dorchester County in the 1820s with his brother, Jeremiah, to repair wooden ships. They were boat builders and established Wm. Skinner and Sons Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. When William died in 1853 operations were taken over by his son, Jeremiah Patterson Skinner (1816-1860), the father of George B. of Mount Royal Ave. However, George decided not to follow in the family business and forged his own path in the tobacco industry. The collection of the Baltimore Museum of Industry (BMI) contains two artifacts from Skinner’s boat yard: the green crane at the exit of the parking lot and the steam tugboat Baltimore at a dock just outside the museum building. The company was sold to Bethlehem Steel in 1922.
George was married three times; first to Mary Katherine Wingate from 1869-1879, and then to Laura Joice from 1893-1898. At his death in 1911, he lived with his third wife, Belle Sherman Orem (1866-1944). They married in 1900. His father-in-law, Josiah Bailey Orem (1827-1911), was, like George’s grandfather, also from Dorchester County.
This is where the plot thickens. Through an exploration on Family Search, I found that J. Bailey Orem was married to Caroline Pattison Skinner (1829-1911), who also happened to be the aunt of George B. Skinner. If correct, it seems that George married his cousin, who was 20 years younger than he, and that his father-in-law was also his uncle! Caroline also died in 1911.
J. Bailey Orem was a Civil War veteran who fought on the Union side. He died on June 16, 1911, at the age of 84, six months after George. Prior to military service he was a carpenter. J. Bailey’s death notice says that he was survived by “his widow and a daughter, Mrs. George B. Skinner,” but the obituary a few days later says that he died at the home of his daughter and doesn’t mention a wife. Oh, the challenges of historical research.
After her father’s death in June 1911, and George’s death in November 1911, Belle Sherman Orem Skinner continued living in the house on Mt. Royal Ave for a year. Along with the Skinner’s two married daughters, Cornelia S. Browning and Hattie W. S. Edwards, they sold the house in 1912 to Sarah L. Fahey, and Belle moved to East Baltimore. She died in 1944 at the age of 77.
His civic life
George Skinner was very involved with community affairs. He was the president of the South Baltimore Businessmen’s Assn. beginning in 1894. He lived at 111 S. Sharp St. before moving to Mount Royal Avenue, and continued supporting that organization after the move. I haven’t been able to find much more information on the SBBA. They were instrumental in getting Hanover and many other streets paved, a bridge added to the foot of Light Street, and improvements on Federal Hill and at Riverside Park. They also endorsed a bill before the legislature to regulate the labor of children. The organization sent a “delegation” to Mr. Skinner’s funeral at his Bolton Hill home.
What got me interested in finding out who lived here, in addition to the blue historical plaques scattered around Bolton Hill, is that there is tile work around the fireplaces in this apartment that look like someone may have been fascinated with what was called “Orientalism,” the depiction of Eastern and Middle Eastern cultures that was the craze of western artists and academia in the 19th century. George’s obituary in The Sun provided a clue.
George Berwick Skinner was a founder of a men’s fraternal organization called the Knights of the Golden Eagle, formed in Baltimore in 1872, and – at the time of Mr. Skinners death – was in 26 other states. Their purpose was to unify men and help them find work when unemployed. Membership was open to “Christian white men over 18 who were of good moral character, sound mental and physical health, able to write and support themselves, and were law-abiding citizens.” Their rituals were based on the Crusades and involved a hierarchy of three degrees including a pilgrim, a medieval knight and a crusader. They called their local lodges Castles, and the statewide structures Grand Castles, with Supreme Castles above that. The Odd Fellows helped them become established in Philadelphia in 1875, and eventually they moved their headquarters there. There was a female auxiliary called the Ladies of the Golden Eagle, but women were barred from advancing beyond the Temple degree.
The Knights of the Golden Eagle ceased to exist in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Coincidently (or not) George Skinner’s office at 343 N. Charles was a block up the street from the stunning former Masonic temple built in 1866 that is now The Grand event venue. George was also the treasurer for the Lafayette Lodge of Masons, and treasurer of the Maryland Commandery, Knights Templars, treasurer of South Baltimore General Hospital and a director of the Border State Savings Bank. As if that wasn’t enough, he was also a member of the Crescent and Catholic Clubs and was working with other Democrats to revise the structure of city government.
George had jury duty the day before he died; he was the jury foreman. The following statement was given by the judge to Skinner’s fellow jurors when they met after his death, and was printed in the Nov. 19, 2011 edition of The Sun:
“Always a public-spirited and respected citizen, a patriotic man, Mr. Skinner spent what was his next to last day upon earth in public service; and I doubt that, even though he had known that was to be his last day among us, he would have cared to spend it otherwise than in serving the community in which he lived.”
— John Loggins
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