Adam Goodheart book research on Col. Clarence Hodson

Col. Clarence Hodson (1868-1928) was born in Laurel Delaware, the son of Thomas S. Hodson (1837-1920) a staunch Republican and active in politics. Hodson grew up in Crisfield. When was twenty-five Clarence was elected president of the Bank of Crisfield, this made him the youngest bank president in the United States, at the time. In 1896 Hodson received the commission of Colonel from Governor Lloyd Lowndes. During his forty-year-long career, he served as Director of more than forty banks, trust and mortgage companies, insurance companies, and public utilities. He fought to change the laws so loan sharks couldn’t use high-interest rates on small loans in New Jersey, other states soon adopted similar laws. He formed the Beneficial Loan Society in Elizabeth, NJ in 1913 and opened an office in Baltimore in March 1915. Over the next fourteen years, two hundred other offices opened across the country. Clarence’s father had always instilled a respect for the importance of higher education, and he passed this on to his children. Upon his death in 1928, his daughter, Lelia Hodson Hynson continued his legacy through The Hodson Trust.

Adam Goodheart is the Hodson Trust-Griswold Director for the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College. He is a historian, essayist, journalist, and New York Times bestselling author of 1861: The Civil War Awakening (Knopf hardcover, Vintage paperback). President Barack Obama invited Goodheart to the Oval Office to recognize 1861’s role in having Fort Monroe – where part of the book is set – declared a national park. In 2006, after several years as a part-time scholar-in-residence at Washington College, Goodheart was appointed Director of the College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. The position was endowed by the Hodson Trust later that year as the Hodson Trust-Griswold Directorship. During Goodheart’s tenure, the Starr Center was awarded a $2.5 million grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the largest federal grant in Washington College’s history. He forged partnerships with the Smithsonian on the American Pictures Distinguished Lecture Series and the Chesapeake Heartland project and with the New York Times on the “Historically Corrected” series of columns, created in collaboration with Washington College students. Goodheart has taught and co-taught Washington College courses in American Studies, English, History, Anthropology, Theatre, and Art, as well as in the freshman seminar program.