Abraham Clinton Strite

Beginning his professional career as a teacher, first in Boonsboro and then at Hagerstown (Maryland) High School, Abraham Clinton Strite also pursued the study of law while he was teaching. He was admitted to the Washington County Bar in 1885 and began his own practice in 1887. In 1898 he was appointed to act as a referee in bankruptcy proceedings for the U.S. District Court in Maryland and served at different times as attorney for the City of Hagerstown and for the Washington County Commissioners. In 1904, he was elected mayor of Hagerstown, following one of his mentors, Judge Martin L. Keedy, into that office. A native of Leitersburg, Strite served as a director of the Hagerstown and Waynesboro Turnpike Co. and later invested in the Hagerstown and Waynesboro Electric Railroad Co. He also served as the first president of the City Savings Bank of Hagerstown, when it was organized in 1905 and then was president of the Planters' Mutual Fire Insurance Co. It was his law office that prepared the legal papers for the founding and tax exempt status of the Washington County Historical Society.

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