Herbert M. St. Clair

Herbert "Maynie" Maynadier St. Clair Sr. (February 1, 1868 – April 12, 1949), commonly known as H.M. St. Clair, was an American businessman, and city councilman in Cambridge, Maryland. He was an African American Republican, and one of the wealthiest people in Cambridge, Maryland in his lifetime. and served on the Cambridge City Council for more than 50 years.

Early life and family Herbert Maynadier St. Clair was born on February 1, 1868, in Cambridge, Maryland.

His son Frederick Douglass St. Clair (1900–1932), was a lawyer and civil rights activist, that died at a young age from Typhoid fever. The Frederick Douglass St. Clair High School in Cambridge was named after him when it opened in 1932. However the school burned down in a fire in 1952, and was succeeded by Mace's Lane High School.

Career After his father Cyrus' death, St. Clair inherited the butchery business, and eventually sold it.

St. Clair served on the Cambridge City Council from 1894 until 1946, representing the second ward. He was also the only Black member of the Cambridge City Council through most of the early 20th century. Throughout his tenure in city council, St. Clair was nonproductive and accused of working in collaboration with the Phillips Packing Company (1902–1957), a local cannery of tomatoes which employed many of Cambridge's people, and held city control from the 1920s until World War II. He was the grandfather of civil rights activist Gloria Richardson (1922–2021).