Charles Seth Lane

Princeton Class of 1872.

http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2014/10/22/pages/9367/bios.xml

CHARLES SETH LANE, for a number of years prominently identified with the banking affairs of the State, and closely associated with the business interests in this city and Washington County, died at his residence on Prospect Street at 7:30 o'clock yesterday morning. He was 68 years of age.

Mr Lane had been in ill health for the past two years and had not been active in a business way for the past eighteen months. His death was due to heart trouble.

He was the eldest son of John C and Elizabeth (Horine) Lane. He was born in Frederick County on October 27, 1848. Soon after his father's death in 1855, he moved with his mother to Washington County, taking up residence at Boonsboro. It was in this town that Mr Lane obtained his early education, attending a private school there. Later he became a student at St Timothy's at Catonsville, Md. Then with his brothers, the late John Clarence and Col William P Lane, he became a student at Edge Hill Academy, Princeton, NJ, the then preparatory school of the college. In 1868, Mr Lane, with his two brothers entered Princeton College and graduated in the class of 1872.

His banking career commenced in the summer of that year when he became a clerk in the banking house of Johnston Brothers & Company, of Baltimore. In the fall of 1874 he came to Hagerstown and accepted a position in the then young banking firm of Hoffman, Eavey & Company. Later he was taken into the firm. Upon the death of Mr Hoffman, the firm took the name of Eavey, Lane & Co. After the death of Mr Eavey in December 1903, Mr Lane became the senior member of the firm. On May 1, 1908 this private banking institution became the Maryland Surety & Trust Co, of which Mr Lane was elected president. In this capacity, Mr Lane served until his death.

Mr Lane had long been actively interested in the public enterprises of the city. He was instrumental in forming the Hagerstown Street Railway Company, and served this corporation as vice-president and a director until the merger of the Hagerstown and Frederick Railway Company.

He was for some years a director of the Washington County Water Co. He succeeded the late Mr Edward W Maley as president of that company in May 1911. Previous to his election to this office, Mr Lane served in the capacity of vice-president of that corporation. He was also director of the Washington county Mutual Insurance Company. His political views were Democratic. He also served one term as Street Commissioner of this city. He was one of the original members of the Conococheague Club.

Mr Lane was elected vice-president of the American Banker's Association in 1895, and has always been prominently identified with the Maryland Bankers' Association, serving at various times on many of its most important committees. In the State's financial circles, he was considered one of the ablest and most astute bankers in Western Maryland.

He married in May 1876, Hetty E, daughter of Rev Alexander T McGill, D.D.L.L.D., of the Princetown Theological Seminary. Mrs Lane was a sister of the late Chancellor of New Jersey, Alexander T McGill, and Surgeon General John D McGill, of the same state.

Mr Lane is survived by his widow, and three sons, Alexander M Lane, a Washington newspaperman; Charles Seth Lane Jr and John M Lane, officers in the Maryland Surety & Trust Co; one brother, Col William P Lane; and two sisters, Mrs Julia Keedy, widow of the late H H Keedy, and Mrs Samuel C Knode, Boonsboro.

The funeral will be held on Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 from St John's Episcopal Church. Interment in Rose Hill Cemetery.

• ** Morning Herald, Hagerstown, Maryland Monday, November 20, 1916
  • * Obituary provided by FAG contributor, SANEBEE, #47775620
    • Son of: John "Cornelius" Lane and Elizabeth C Horine* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 7 2019, 15:52:13 UTC