Jesse Tyson

Born into a prosperous family, Tyson graduated from Haverford College before succeeding his father as president of the Baltimore Chrome Works, the family’s chromium-mining company. In 1863, at the age of 37, the younger Tyson purchased 200 acres outside the City of Baltimore, along the Jones Falls, hiring architect George Frederick to design and build a Renaissance Revival-style mansion there. Tyson took an active role in designing the grounds of the estate, which he called Clyburn, laying out the formal gardens and planting numerous trees, including a grove of Japanese maples. In 1888, at the age of 61, he married the nineteen-year-old Edyth Jones. The couple soon became popular in Baltimore’s social circles, hosting engagements at their Clyburn estate for nearly two decades. Tyson was also heavily engaged in philanthropy, playing important roles with the Children’s Aid Society, the Baltimore Association for Moral and Educational Improvement of Colored People, the Manual Labor School for Indigent Boys, and the Maryland Industrial School for Girls. He filled leadership positions at the Dime Savings Bank, the Union Railroad Company, the Maryland Union Commission, the Peabody Fire Insurance Company, and the Board of Prisoners Relief. Tyson died of pneumonia at the age of 80 and is interred at the Friends Burial Ground in Baltimore. His estate, known today as the Clyburn Arboretum, was purchased by the City of Baltimore in 1942 and is now a public park.