NEGenWeb Project
Resource Center
On-Line Library

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

151

Picture button

W. T. Sherman, Jas. G. Blaine, Oliver W. Holmes,
John G. Carlisle, Lyman J. Gage, P. D. Armour,
Benj. Butler, Chas. A. Dana, Thos. B. Reed.


COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

153

his life he divided his time between Great Britain and America, and it is recorded that he crossed the Atlantic thirteen times. He came to America for the seventh time in 1770. He preached every day at Boston from the 17th to the 20th of September, 1770, then traveled to Newburyport, preaching at Exeter, New Hampshire, September 29, on the way. That evening he went to Newburyport, where he died the next day, Sunday, September 30, 1770.

      "Whitefield's dramatic power was amazing," says an eminent writer in describing him. "His voice was marvelously varied, and he ever had it at command-an organ, a flute, a harp, all in one. His intellectual powers were not of a high order, but he had an abundance of that ready talent and that wonderful magnetism which makes the popular preacher; and beyond all natural endowments, there was in his ministry the power of evangelical truth, and, as his converts believed, the presence of the spirit of God." 


Letter/label or barHARLES FRANCIS BRUSH, one of America's prominent men in the development of electrical science, was born March 17, 1849, near Cleveland, Ohio, and spent his early life on his father's farm. From the district school at Wickliffe, Ohio, he passed to the Shaw Academy at Collamer, and then entered the high school at Cleveland. His interest in chemistry, physics and engineering was already marked, and during his senior year he was placed in charge of the chemical and physical apparatus. During these years he devised a plan for lighting street lamps, constructed telescopes, and his first electric arc lamp, also an electric motor. In September, 1867, he entered the engineering department of the University of Michigan and graduated in 1869, which was a year in advance of his class, with the degree of M. E. He then returned to Cleveland, and for three years was engaged as an analytical chemist and for four years in the iron business. In 1875 Mr. Brush became interested in electric lighting, and in 1876, after four months' experimenting, he completed the dynamoelectric machine that has made his name famous, arid in a shorter time produced the series arc lamps. These were both patented in the United States in 1876, and he afterward obtained fifty patents on his later inventions, including the fundamental storage battery, the compound series, shunt-winding for dynamo-electric machines, and the automatic cut-out for arc lamps. His patents, two-thirds of which have already been profitable, are held by the Brush Electric Company, of Cleveland, while his foreign patents are controlled by the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Company, of London. In 1880 the Western Reserve University conferred upon Mr. Brush the degree of Ph. D., and in 1881 the French government decorated him as a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. 


Letter/label or barENRY CLEWS, of Wall-street fame, was one of the noted old-time operators on that famous street, and was also an author of some repute. Mr. Clews was born in Staffordshire, England, August 14, 1840. His father had him educated with the intention of preparing him for the ministry, but on a visit to the United States the young man became interested in a business life, and was allowed to engage as a clerk in the importing house of Wilson G. Hunt & Co., of New York. Here he learned the first principles of business, and when the war broke out in 1861 young Clews saw in the needs of the government an opportunity to
   9


154

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

reap a golden harvest. He identified himself with the negotiating of loans for the government, and used his powers of pursuasion (sic) upon the great money powers to convince them of the stability of the government and the value of its securities. By enthusiasm and patriotic arguments he induced capitalists to invest their money in government securities, often against their judgment, and his success was remarkable. His was one of the leading firms that aided the struggling treasury department in that critical hour, and his reward was great. In addition to the vast wealth it brought, President Lincoln and Secretary Chase both wrote important letters, acknowledging his valued service. In 1873, by the repudiation of the bonded indebtedness of the state of Georgia, Mr. Clews lost six million dollars which he had invested in those securities. It is said that he is the only man, with one exception, in Wall street, who ever regained great wealth after utter disaster. His " Twenty-Eight Years in Wall Street" has been widely read. 


Letter/label or barLFRED VAIL was one of the men that gave to the world the electric telegraph and the names of Henry, Morse and Vail will forever remain linked as the prime factors in that great achievement. Mr. Vail was born September 25, 1807, at Morristown, New Jersey, and was a son of Stephen Vail, the proprietor of the Speedwell Iron Works, near Morristown. At the age of seventeen, after he had completed his studies at the Morristown Academy, Alfred Vail went into the Speedwell Iron Works and contented himself with the duties of his position until he reached his majority. He then determined to prepare himself for the ministry, and at the age of twenty-five he entered the University of the City of New York, where he was graduated in 1836. His health becoming impaired he labored for a time under much uncertainty as to his future course. Professor S. F. B. Morse had come to the university in 1835 as professor of literature and fine arts, and about this time, 1837, Professor Gale, occupying the chair of chemistry, invited Morse to exhibit his apparatus for the benefit of the students. On Saturday, September 2, 1837, the exhibition took place and Vail was asked to attend, and with his inherited taste for mechanics and knowledge of their construction, he saw a great future for the crude mechanism used by Morse in giving and recording signals. Mr. Vail interested his father in the invention, and Morse was invited to Speedwell and the elder Vail promised to help him. It was stipulated that Alfred Vail should construct the required apparatus and exhibit before a committee of congress the telegraph instrument, and was to receive a quarter interest in the invention. Morse had devised a series of ten numbered leaden types, which were to be operated in giving the signal. This was not satisfactory to Vail, so he devised an entirely new instrument, involving a lever, or "point," on a radically different principle, which, when tested, produced dots and dashes, and devised the famous dot-and-dash alphabet, misnamed the "Morse." At last the machine was in working order, on January 6, 1838. The machine was taken to Washington, where it caused not only wonder, but excitement. Vail continued his experiments and devised the lever and roller. When the line between Baltimore and Washington was completed, Vail was stationed at the Baltimore end and received the famous first message. It is a remarkable fact that not a single feature of the original invention of Morse, as formulated


COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

155

by his caveat and repeated in his original patent, is to be found in Vail's apparatus. From 1837 to 1844 it was a combination of the inventions of Morse, Henry and Vail, but the work of Morse fell gradually into desuetude, while Vail's conception of an alphabet has remained unchanged for half a century. Mr. Vail published but one work, "American Electro-Magnetic Telegraph," in 1845, and died at Morristown at the comparatively early age of fifty-one, on January 19, 1859. 


Letter/label or barLYSSES S. GRANT, the eighteenth president of the United States, was born April 27, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont county, Ohio. At the age of seventeen he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in June, 1843, and was given his brevet as second lieutenant and assigned to the Fourth Infantry. He remained in the service eleven years, in which time he was engaged in the Mexican war with gallantry, and was thrice brevetted for conduct in the field. In 1848 he married Miss Julia Dent, and in 1854, having reached the grade of captain, he resigned and engaged in farming near St. Louis. In 1860 he entered the leather business with his father at Galena, Illinois.

      On the breaking out of the war, in 1861, he commenced to drill a company at Galena, and at the same time offered his services to the adjutant-general of the army, but he had few influential friends, so received no answer. He was employed by the governor of Illinois in the organization of the various volunteer regiments, and at the end of a few weeks was given the colonelcy of the Twenty-first Infantry, from that state. His military training and knowledge soon attracted the attention of his superior officers, and on reporting to General Pope in Missouri, the latter put him in the way of advancement. August 7, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, and for a few weeks was occupied in watching the movements of partisan forces in Missouri. September 1, the same year, he was placed in command of the Department of Southeast Missouri, with headquarters at Cairo, and on the 6th of the month, without orders, seized Paducah, which commanded the channel of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, by which he secured Kentucky for the Union. He now received orders to make a demonstration on Belmont, which he did, and with about three thousand raw recruits held his own against the Confederates some seven thousand strong, bringing back about two hundred prisoners and two guns. In February, 1862, he moved up the Tennessee river with the naval fleet under Commodore Foote. The latter soon silenced Fort Henry, and Grant advanced against Fort Donelson and took their fortress and its garrison. His prize here consisted of sixty-five cannon, seventeen thousand six hundred stand of arms, and fourteen thousand six hundred and twenty-three prisoners. This was the first important success won by the Union forces. Grant was immediately made a major-general and placed in command of the district of West Tennessee. In April, 1862, he fought the battle of Pittsburg Landing, and after the evacuation of Corinth by the enemy Grant became commander of the Department of the Tennessee. He now made his first demonstration toward Vicksburg, but owing to the incapacity of subordinate officers, was unsuccessful. In January, 1863, he took command of all the troops in the Mississippi Valley and devoted several months to the siege of Vicksburg,


156

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

which was finally taken possession of by him July 4, with thirty-one thousand six hundred prisoners and one hundred and seventy-two cannon, thus throwing the Mississippi river open to the Federals. He was now raised to the rank of major-general in the regular army. October following, at the head of the Department of the Mississippi, General Grant went to Chattanooga, where he overthrew the enemy, and united with the Army of the Cumberland. The remarkable successes achieved by him pointed Grant out for an appropriate commander of all national troops, and in February, 1864, the rank of lieutenant-general was made for him by act of congress. Sending Sherman into Georgia, Sigel into the Valley of West Virginia and Butler to attempt the capture of Richmond he fought his way through the Wilderness to the James and pressed the siege of the capital of the Confederacy. After the fall of the latter Grant pressed the Confederate army so hard that their commander surrendered at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865. This virtually ended the war.

      After the war the rank of general was conferred upon U. S. Grant, and in 1868 he was elected president of the United States, and re-elected his own successor in 1872. After the expiration of the latter term he made his famous tour of the world. He died at Mt. McGregor, near Saratoga, New York, July 23, 1885, and was buried at Riverside Park, New York, where a magnificent tomb has been erected to hold the ashes of the nation's hero. 


Letter/label or barOHN MARSHALL, the fourth chief justice of the United States supreme court, was born in Germantown, Virginia, September 24, 1755. His father, Colonel Thomas Marshall, served with distinction in the Revolutionary war, while he also served from the beginning of the war until 1779, where he became noted in the field and courts martial. While on detached service he attended a course of law lectures at William and Mary College, delivered by Mr. Wythe, and was admitted to the bar. The next year he resigned his commission and began his career as a lawyer. He was a distinguished member of the convention called in Virginia to ratify the Federal constitution. He was tendered the attorney-generalship of the United States, and also a place on the supreme bench, besides other places of less honor, all of which he declined. He went to France as special envoy in 1798, and the next year was elected to congress. He served one year and was appointed, first, secretary of war, and then secretary of state, and in 1801 was made chief justice of the United States. He held this high office until his death, in 1835.

      Chief Justice Marshall's early education was neglected, and his opinions, the most valuable in existence, are noted for depth of wisdom, clear and comprehensive reasoning, justice, and permanency, rather than for wide learning and scholarly construction. His decisions and rulings are resorted to constantly by our greatest lawyers, and his renown as a just judge and profound jurist was world wide. 


Letter/label or barAWRENCE BARRETT is perhaps known more widely as a producer of new plays than as a great actor. He was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1838, and educated himself as best he could, and at the age of sixteen years became salesman for a Detroit dry goods house. He afterwards began to go upon the stage as a supernumerary, and his ambition was soon rewarded by the notice of the management.


COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

157

      During the war of the Rebellion he was a soldier, and after valiant service for his country he returned to the stage. He went to Europe and appeared in Liverpool, and returning in 1869, he began playing at Booth's theater, with Mr. Booth. He was afterward associated with John McCullough in the management of the California theater. Probably the most noted period of his work was during his connection with Edwin Booth as manager of that great actor, and supporting him upon the stage.

     Mr. Barrett was possessed of the creative instinct, and, unlike Mr. Booth, he sought new fields for the display of his genius, and only resorted to traditional drama in response to popular demand. He preferred new plays, and believed in the encouragement of modern dramatic writers, and was the only actor of prominence in his time that ventured to put upon the stage new American plays, which he did at his own expense, and the success of his experiments proved the quality of his judgment. He died March 21, 1891. 


Letter/label or barRCHBISHOP JOHN HUGHES, a celebrated Catholic clergyman, was born at Annaboghan, Tyrone county, Ireland, June 24, 1797, and emigrated to America when twenty years of age, engaging for some time as a gardener and nurseryman. In 1819 he entered St. Mary's College, where he secured an education, paying his way by caring for the college garden. In 1825 he was ordained a deacon of the Roman Catholic church, and in the same year, a priest. Until 1838 he had pastoral charges in Philadelphia, where he founded St. John's Asylum in 1829, and a few years later established the "Catholic Herald." In 1838 he was made bishop of Basileopolis in partibus and coadjutor to Bishop Dubois, of New York, and in 1842 became bishop of New York. In 1839 he founded St. John's College, at Fordham. In 1850 he was made archbishop of New York. In 1861-2 he was a special agent of the United States in Europe, after which he returned to this country and remained until his death, January 3, 1864. Archbishop Hughes early attracted much attention by his controversial correspondence with Rev. John Breckinridge in I833-35. He was a man of great ability, a fluent and forceful writer and an able preacher. 


Letter/label or barUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES was the nineteenth president of the United States and served from 1877 to 1881. He was born October 4, 1822, at Delaware, Ohio, and his ancestry can be traced back as far as 1280, when Hayes and Rutherford were two Scottish chieftans fighting side by side with Baliol, William Wallace and Robert Bruce. The Hayes family had for a coat of arms, a shield, barred and surmounted by a flying eagle. There was a circle of stars about the eagle, while on a scroll underneath was their motto, "Recte." Misfortune overtook the family and in 1680 George Hayes, the progenitor of the American family, came to Connecticut and settled at Windsor. Rutherford B. Hayes was a very delicate child at his birth and was not expected to live, but he lived in spite of all and remained at home until he was seven years old, when he was placed in school. He was a very tractable pupil, being always very studious, and in 1838 entered Kenyon College, graduating from the same in 1842. He then took up the study of law in the office of Thomas Sparrow at Columbus, but in a short time he decided to enter a law school at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where for two years he was immersed in the


158

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

study of law. Mr. Hayes was admitted to the bar in 1845 in Marietta, Ohio, and very soon entered upon the active practice of his profession with Ralph P. Buckland, of Fremont, Ohio. He remained there three years, and in 1849 removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where his ambition found a new stimulus. Two events occurred at this period that had a powerful influence on his after life. One was his marriage to Miss Lucy Ware Webb, and the other was his introduction to a Cincinnati literary club, a body embracing such men as Salmon P. Chase, John Pope, and Edward F. Noyes. In 1856 he was nominated for judge of the court of common pleas, but declined, and two years later he was appointed city solicitor. At the outbreak of the Rebellion Mr. Hayes was appointed major of the Twenty-third Ohio Infantry, June 7, 1861, and in July the regiment was ordered to Virginia, and October 15, 1861, saw him promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of his regiment. He was made colonel of the Seventy-ninth Ohio Infantry, but refused to leave his old comrades; and in the battle of South Mountain he was wounded very severely and was unable to rejoin his regiment until November 30, 1862. He had been promoted to the colonelcy of the regiment on October 15, 1862. In the following December he was appointed to command the Kanawa division and was given the rank of brigadier-general for meritorious services in several battles, and in 1864 he was brevetted major-general for distinguished services in 1864, during which campaign he was wounded several times and five horses had been shot under him. Mr. Hayes' first venture in politics was as a Whig, and later he was one of the first to unite with the Republican party. In 1864 he was elected from the Second Ohio district to congress, re-elected in 1866, and in 1867 was elected governor of Ohio over Allen G. Thurman, and was re-elected in 1869. Mr. Hayes was elected to the presidency in 1876, for the term of four years, and at its close retired to private life, and went to his home in Fremont, Ohio, where he died on January 17, 1893. 


Letter/label or barILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN became a celebrated character as the nominee of the Democratic and Populist parties for president of the United States in 1896. He was born March 19, 1860, at Salem, Illinois. He received his early education in the public schools of his native county, and later on he attended the Whipple Academy at Jacksonville. He also took a course in Illinois College, and after his graduation from the same went to Chicago to study law, and entered the Union College of Law as a student. He was associated with the late Lyman Trumbull, of Chicago, during his law studies, and devoted considerable time to the questions of government. He graduated from the college, was admitted to the bar, and went to Jacksonville, Illinois, where he was married to Miss Mary Elizabeth Baird. In 1887 Mr. Bryan removed to Lincoln, Nebraska, and formed a law partnership with Adolphus R. Talbot. He entered the field of politics, and in 1888 was sent as a delegate to the state convention, which was to choose delegates to the national convention, during which he made a speech which immediately won him a high rank in political affairs. He declined, in the next state convention, a nomination for lieutenant-governor, and in 1890 he was elected congressman from the First district of Nebraska, and was the youngest member of the fifty-second congress. He championed the Wilson tariff bill, and served


COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

159

three terms in the house of representatives. He next ran for senator, but was defeated by John M. Thurston, and in 1896 he was selected by the Democratic and Populist parties as their nominee for the presidency, being defeated by William McKinley. 


Letter/label or barARVIN HUGHITT, one of America's famous railroad men, was born in Genoa, New York, and entered the railway service in 1856 as superintendent of telegraph and trainmaster of the St. Louis, Alton & Chicago, now Chicago & Alton Railroad. Mr. Hughitt was superintendent of the southern division of the Illinois Central Railroad from 1862 until 1864, and was, later on, the general superintendent of the road until 1870. He was then connected with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad as assistant general manager, and retained this position until 1871, when he became the general manager of Pullman's Palace Car Company. In 1872 he was made general superintendent of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. He served during 1876 and up to 1880 as general manager, and from 1880 until 1887 as vice-president and general manager. He was elected president of the road in 1887, in recognition of his ability in conducting the affairs of the road. He was also chosen president of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway; the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad, and the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railroad, and his services in these capacities stamped him as one of the most able railroad managers of his day. 


Letter/label or barOSEPH MEDILL, one of the most eminent of American journalists, was born in New Brunswick, Canada, April 6, 1823. In 1831 his father moved to Stark county, Ohio, and until 1841 Joseph Medill worked on his fathers farm. Later he studied law, and began the practice of that profession in 1846 at New Philadelphia, Ohio. But the newspaper field was more attractive to Mr. Medill, and three years later he founded a free-soil Whig paper at Coshocton, Ohio, and after that time journalism received all his abilities. "The Leader," another free-soil Whig paper, was founded by Mr. Medill at Cleveland in 1852. In that city he also became one of the first organizers of the Republican party. Shortly after that event he removed to Chicago and in 1855, with two partners, he purchased the "Chicago Tribune." In the contest for the nomination for the presidency in 1860, Mr. Medill worked with unflagging zeal for Mr. Lincoln, his warm personal friend, and was one of the president's stanchest (sic) supporters during the war. Mr. Medill was a member of the Illinois Constitutional convention in 1870. President Grant, in 1871, appointed the editor a member of the first United States civil service commission, and the following year, after the fire, he was elected mayor of Chicago by a great majority. During 1873 and 1874 Mr. Medill spent a year in Europe. Upon his return he purchased a controlling interest in the "Chicago Tribune." 


Letter/label or barLAUS SPRECKELS, the great "sugar baron," and one of the most famous representatives of commercial life in America, was born in Hanover, Germany, and emigrated to the United States in 1840, locating in New York. He very soon became the proprietor of a small retail grocery store on Church street, and embarked on a career that has since astonished the world. He sold out his business and went to California with the argonauts of 1849,


160

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

not as a prospector, but as a trader, and for years after his arrival on the coast he was still engaged as a grocer. At length, after a quarter of a century of fairly prosperous business life, he found himself in a position where an ordinary man would have retired, but Mr. Spreckles did not retire; he had merely been gathering capital for the real work of his life. His brothers had followed him to California, and in combination with them he purchased for forty thousand dollars an interest in the Albany Brewery in San Francisco. But the field was not extensive enough for the development of his business abilities, so Mr. Sprecklas branched out extensively in the sugar business. He succeeded in securing the entire output of sugar that was produced on the Sandwich Islands, and after 1885 was known as the "Sugar King of Sandwich Islands." He controlled absolutely the sugar trade of the Pacific coast which was known to be not less than ten million dollars a year. 


Letter/label or barHARLES HENRY PARKHURST, famous as a clergyman, and for many years president of the Society for the Prevention of Crime, was born April 17, 1842, at Framingham, Massachusetts, of English descent. At the age of sixteen he was pupil in the grammar school at Clinton, Massachusetts, and for the ensuing two years was a clerk in a dry goods store, which position he gave up to prepare himself for college at Lancaster academy. Mr. Parkhurst went to Amherst in 1862, and after taking a thorough course he graduated in 1866, and in 1867 became the principal of the Amherst High School. He retained this position until 1870, when he visited Germany with the intention of taking a course in philosophy and theology, but was forced to abandon this intention on account of illness in the family causing his early return from Europe. He accepted the chair of Latin and Greek in Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts, and remained there two years. He then accompanied his wife to Europe, and devoted two years to study in Halle, Leipsic and Bonn. Upon his return home he spent considerable time in the study of Sanscrit (sic), and in 1874 he became the pastor of the First Congregational church at Lenox, Massachusetts. He gained here his reputation as a pulpit orator, and on March 9, 1880, he became the pastor of the Madison Square Presbyterian church of New York. He was, in 1890, made a member of the Society for the Prevention of Crime, and the same year became its president. He delivered a sermon in 1892 on municipal corruption, for which he was brought before the grand jury, which body declared his charges to be without sufficient foundation. But the matter did not end here, for he immediately went to work on a second sermon in which he substantiated his former sermon and wound up by saying, "I know, for I have seen." He was again summoned before that august body, and as a result of his testimony and of the investigation of the jurors themselves, the police authorities were charged with incompetence and corruption. Dr. Parkhurst was the author of the following works: "The Forms of the Latin Verb, Illustrated by Sanscrit (sic)," "The Blind Man's Creed and Other Sermons," "The Pattern on the Mount," and "Three Gates on a Side." 


Letter/label or barENRY BERGH, although a writer, diplomatist and government official, was noted as a philanthropist--the founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. On his labors for the dumb creation alone rests his fame.

 

Horz. bar

Prior page
TOC
TOC part 2
Next page

© 2002 for the NEGenWeb Project by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller