Biography

Excerpt: "James Wormley, the ninth child of Lynch and Mary Wormley, was born 16 January 1819 in Washington, D.C., and died 18 October 1884 in Boston, Massachusetts. He married Anna Thompson (1823-1892) of Norfolk, Virginia on 30 January 1841. James owned and operated the popular Wormley Hotel in Washington, D.C. During the drawn-out, disputed Presidential Election of 1876, Wormley's Hotel became the venue for the secret meetings between emissaries from the Hayes and Tilden camps. The meetings culminated on 26 February 1877 in which the Wormley Agreement settled the stalemate in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes. Wormley cultivated friendships with many politicians and city business leaders, including U.S. Senator Charles Sumner, and was an activist for black public education. James and Anna had four children: William Henry Ashburton, James Thompson, Garrett Smith, and Anna Matilda Wormley."