Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/446

 BRAINARD HENRY WARNER ARNER, BRAINARD HENRY, was the founder and first president of the Washington Loan and Trust Company and also of the Columbia National Bank, and has aided greatly in developing the City of Washington, District of Columbia, in which city the larger part of his life has been spent. Many of the public organizations of the District of Columbia owe their origin and success in no small part to him. This is particularly true of some of the leading charitable and religious institutions of the capital. In the Washington Young Men's Christian Association, which has become a great power for good and numbers over twenty-two hundred young men in its membership, Mr. Warner has been warmly interested for years, is at present a director and was formerly president. He is also identified with the Red Cross Auxiliary Association of the District, and was chairman for the District of Columbia during the Spanish war. He was for many years president of the Central dispensary and Emergency hospital and during his administration their building was erected.

He was born at Great Bend, Pennsylvania, May 20, 1847, the son of Henry Warner, a carpenter and builder, and a man of decided religious character. His mother's maiden name was Julia Truesdell; and her strong and elevated character was formative in its effect upon her son. On his father's side, David Jennings Warner of Massachusetts, Captain Henry Dudley Warner of Connecticut, and on his mother's side, Carter H. Truesdell, of Connecticut, were men of worth and standing.

Until he was sixteen, he worked with his father or helped in a store; and he feels that these duties helped to form a reliable and aggressive character. Even in his boyhood he was interested in public affairs; and his early proclivities in this direction led him toward the beneficent public service which has marked his later years. He says, "I had little time and money to take an extended education." He attended the public schools and Great Bend Semi-