Charles Benedict Calvert (August 23/24, 1808 – May 12, 1864) was a U.S. Congressman from the sixth district of Maryland, serving one term from 1861–1863. He was an early backer of the inventors of the telegraph, and in 1856 he founded the Maryland Agricultural College, the first agricultural research college in America, now part of the University of Maryland. He was a direct descendant of the Lords Baltimore, proprietary governors of the Province of Maryland.
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Calvert was born in 1808 at his family's estate at Riversdale, Maryland, His mother was Rosalie Eugenia Stier (1778–1821), the daughter of a wealthy Belgian aristocrat, Baron Henri Joseph Stier (1743–1821) and his wife Marie Louise Peeters. The Stiers had fled to America in the early Nineteenth Century as Napoleon's armies occupied their home town of Antwerp. Calvert's father, the wealthy planter George Calvert (1768–1838), was the son of the Loyalist politician Benedict Swingate Calvert (c.1730–1788) - a natural son of the penultimate Proprietary Governor of Maryland, Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore.
Calvert completed his preparatory studies at Bladensburg Academy of Maryland. Later, he received a certificate of completion from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1827, even though he attended the university spuriously, and engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock breeding. Calvert served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1839, 1843, and 1844.
Calvert was a strong backer of the inventors of the telegraph, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail. On April 9, 1844, Morse and Vail successfully tested their device by transmitting a message from the nation's capital to the Calvert home, Riversdale.[1] This test came 45 days before the more celebrated event when Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought?" from Washington to Baltimore, along telegraph lines that ran above the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line near Riversdale.
Calvert became president of the Prince Georges County, Maryland, Agricultural Society and the Maryland State Agricultural Society, and served as vice president of the United States Agricultural Society. He founded the first agricultural research college in America (later known as the Maryland Agricultural College at College Park, and presently known as the University of Maryland, College Park) which was chartered in 1856. Calvert was also one of the early advocates for the establishment of the United States Department of Agriculture.
In 1860, Calvert was elected as a Unionist to the Thirty-seventh Congress, serving from March 4, 1861 until March 3, 1863, but was not a candidate for renomination in 1862. He resumed agricultural pursuits until his death at Riversdale, and is interred in Calvert Cemetery.
Charles Calvert married Charlotte Augusta Norris (1816–1876) in Baltimore on June 6, 1839. They had six children[2]:
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Work Scott |
President of the Maryland Agricultural College 1860 (acting) |
Succeeded by John M. Colby |
| United States House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by George Wurtz Hughes |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 6th congressional district March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1863 |
Succeeded by seat abolished |