Thomas Murphy Dukehart was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  His father, Henri van Arden Dukehart, was a grocer who fought the British in the War of 1812.   During the Battle of North Point, Henri befriended a fellow sharpshooter named Thomas Murphy, a newspaperman of high esteem in Baltimore.  The elder Dukehart married Murphy's niece, Mary Ann Murphy, and named Thomas after his wife's uncle.

Thomas Dukehart trained as a machinist and engineer in Reading, Pennsylvania.  In 1858 he followed his father into service of his country, enlisting in the Navy.  He was stationed on the Wyoming for three years, then was sent to the shipyards of Bath, Maine, where he oversaw the fitting of the gunboat Katahdin.  He fought 43 engagements in the Civil War, including Vicksburg and the destruction of Fort Fisher.  His service was widely recognized and rewarded.  He closed his active duty with the war's end, and devoted the next chapter of his life to science and discovery.  

He helped organize the Naval Academy in Annapolis and taught experimental philosophy and chemistry there for three years.  Aboard the U.S.S. Nipsic, he studied the feasibility of carving a canal across the jungles of Panama.  In 1872, Dukehart requested a leave of absence from the Navy to study and improve the manufacture of concrete.  At the end of his leave, he retired from the Navy with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Life as a civillian was filled with opportunities, and at age 37, Thomas Dukehart took one.  In 1872 he became partners with Jacob Medtart in his Maryland Brewery.  To Dukehart, brewing was another chemical and engineering process to be improved.  Within the year, Medtart died, and Dukehart became the brewery's sole proprietor.

The Maryland Brewery was founded in 1824 by Jacob Medtart's father.  It had been using recipes handed down through the family for nearly fifty years.  With a Man of Science at the helm, the old brewhouse formulas were abandoned.  Dukehart introduced a malt extract, as well as an improved porter, ale, and brown stout (apparently, he did not have a taste for lager beer).  Dukehart's beverages were widely acclaimed in Baltimore and beyond, and the business soon made him an even wealthier man.  

In the middle of the Civil War, on November 1st of 1863, Dukehart married Mary Ann Cox Krebs.  It was a union that was blessed with four children.

Dukehart presided over his business for more than 20 years, retaining an executive position even after the Baltimore breweries combined into a trust.  Seemingly tireless, Dukehart finally retired from business at age 75, in 1910.  Just two years later, on August 1st, 1912 Thomas Murphy Dukehart died of a stroke.

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