This burial vault holds the remains of nine members of two prominent Baltimore families whose live were intertwined through business partnerships and marriage.
Cumberland Dugan (1747-1836), the patriarch, left Ireland at age 19, settling briefly in Roxbury, Massachusetts before coming to the small but growing town of Baltimore. Through marriage and banking, Dugan forged personal and business ties with other powerful Presbyerian families, particularly the Smiths and Hollins. And, like many other wealthy men, he became a public figure and political office holder.
Dugan's daughter, Rebeccda, (1788-1860), married John Smith Hollins (1787-1858), the son of Dugan's business partner who served as mayor of Baltimore from 1852-1854.
A Godefroy Design?
Did Maximilian Godefroy design this burial vault for Cumberland Dugan? Compare its doorways to those of the William and Robert Smith vault. And consider its graceful proportions. Built with local freestone, it is further distinguished by a gavetto cornice that forms the eaves of a slate hipped roof.
[painting]
Of Wealth and Means Cumberland Dugan arrived in the American colonies with considerable wealth - and an acumen for commerce and politics. A successful flour merchant who served in the Baltimore City Council and Maryland Legislature, Dugan also introduced the first true rowhouses along a Baltimore wharf in 1796.
Cumberland Dugan by Thomas Sully, oil on canvas, 1821
Brooklyn Museum, 21.56. Carll H. de Silver Fund
Inscriptions:
Cumberland Dugan, a native of the City of Coleraine County of Londonderry and Kingdom of Ireland And for the last 71 years a resident of America, 68 years of which in Baltimore. He departed this life 1st Nov. 1836 in the 90th Year of his Age.
Also, his Wife Margaret Dugan, Born Dec. 7, 1762, Died June 25, 1852
Hammond Dugan, Born Jany 5, 1797, Died Feby 28, 1841
Frederick James Dugan, Born March 31, 1804, Died march 24, 1858
Georgianna E. Hollins Daughter of John Smith & Rebecca Hollins.
Born Sept. 19, 1819, Died March 23, 1840
John Smith Hollins, Born Oct. 9, 1787, Died Nov. 28, 1856
C. Dugan Hollins, Born June 27, 1823, Died Dec. 23, 1858
Rebecca Hollins, Relict of John Smith Hollins Born Oct. 22, 1788, Died May 27, 1760
Rebecca Hollins, Relict of John Smith Hollins Born Oct. 22, 1788, Died May 27, 1760
[painting]
Mr. Mayor John Smith Hollins, mayor of Baltimore from 1852-1854, was the son of a British maritime banker who came to Baltimore in 1783. His mother, Jane Buchanan Smith, was Sam Smith's sister. As a merchant, Hollins invested heavily in privateers (ships with government-issued "Letters of Marque" which allowed them to seize enemy commercial vessels). In 1814, Hollings fought against the British at the Battle of North Point as a member of the Fifth Maryland Regiment.
John Smith Hollins, oil on canvas
reproduced in Wilbur Coyle's Mayors of Baltimore (1909)
Courtesy of the Maryland State Archives.
[photograph]
Neighbors - In Life and Thereafter French architect John Abraham Chevalier designed this stylish double-house in the late 1790s for Paul Bentalou. (Bentalou's burial vault is in the catacombs.) Sam Smith's townhouse stood next door.
Around 1800, Bentalou sold the pair to Cumberland Dugan and a business partner. The Dugans moved into the house on the right. Dugan acquired the other house and presented it to his daughter - probably as a wedding present - in 1811. For the next several decades, the Dugans and the family of Rebecca and JOhn Smith Hollins lives side-by-side, a relationship that carried over into death in the family burial vault.
Photograph of the Bentalou / Dugan-Hollins Houses on Exchange Place, ca. 1900
The Maryland Historical Society
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