Archive:20th Century Biographical Dictionary, Volume 2
Archives > Archive:Extracts > 20th Century Biographical Dictionary, Volume 2
The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. 10 vols. Rossiter Johnson, ed., Boston: The Biographical Society, 1904. [A corrected edition of The Cyclopedia of American Biography (1897-1903) and Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States (1900-1903).] (Republished by Gale Research Company, Book Tower, Detroit, 1968) Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 68-19657. Volume II: Bro--Cowan.
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CARRINGTON, Henry Beebee, soldier, was born at Wallingford, Conn., March 2, 1824; son of Miles M. and Mary (Beebee) Carrington, and grandson of James Carrington, a partner of Eli Whitney. He was graduated from Yale in 1845. During 1846-47 he was professor of natural science and Greek at the Irving institute, Tarrytown, N. Y. In 1847 he studied at Yale law school, and the following year removed to Columbus, Ohio, where he practised his profession in partnership with William Dennison. He was an active anti-slavery Whig, and helped in organizing the Republican party in 1854. He was appointed judge-advocate-general by Governor Chase in 1857. As adjutant-general he placed ten regiments of Ohio militia in West Virginia before volunteers could be mustered; organized the first twenty-six Ohio regiments. He was commissioned colonel of the 18th U. S. infantry, May, 1861; established Camp Thomas, Ohio; commanded a brigade at Lebanon, Ky., and in 1862 mustered 100,000 Indiana troops. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers Nov. 29, 1862, commanded the district of Indiana, exposed the Sons of liberty, raised the siege of Frankfort, Ky., and was mustered out of the volunteer service in 1865. In 1866 he was in command of Fort Kearny, Neb., and was in charge of the military operations in Colorado during 1869. In 1870 he was retired from active service on account of wounds, and was professor of military science at Wabash college, Ind., from 1870 to 1878, after which he made his home in Hyde Park, Boston, Mass. He received the degree of LL. D. from Wabash college in 1873. He published: The Scourge of the Alps (1847); Russia Among the Nations and American Classics (1849); Ab-sa-ra-ka, Land of Massacre (1868); Battles of the American Revolution, 1775-81 (1876); Crisis Thoughts (1878); Battle Maps and Charts of the American Revolution (1881); The Indian Question (1884); Battles of the Bible and Boston and New York, 1775 and 1776 (1885); The Exodus of the Flat Head Indians (1902).
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CHANDLER, William Henry, chemist, was born at New Bedford, Mass., Dec. 13, 1841; son of Charles and Sarah (Whitney) Chandler, and brother of Charles Frederick Chandler. He was graduated an A.M. at Union college in 1861 and until 1867 was chemist at the New Bedford, Mass., copper works and at the Swan Island guano company. From 1868 to 1871 he was assistant in chemistry at the school of mines, New York, and in the latter year was given the chair of chemistry at Lehigh university, Bethlehem, Pa. From 1878 he was also director of the university library. He was elected a member of various chemical societies in London, Paris, and America, and from 1870 to 1877 was joint editor and proprietor with his brother, Charles F. Chandler, of the American Chemist. He received the degree of Ph.D. from Hamilton college in 1873. He is the author of Products of Mining and Metallurgy (1891); The Construction of Chemical Laboratories (1893), and of various reports of the universal exposition at Paris in 1889.
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CLAP, Thomas, educator, was born in Scituate, Mass., June 26, 1703; son of Deacon Stephen and Temperance Clap; grandson of Samuel and Hannah (Gill) Clap; and great-grandson of Thomas and Abigail Clap. He was graduated from Harvard in 1722. He then studied theology and in August, 1726, succeeded the Rev. Samuel Whiting as pastor of the church at Windham, Conn. He was especially learned in mathematics, astronomy and philosophy. He constructed the first orrery or planetarium made in America. In 1739 he was chosen president of Yale college as successor to the Rev. Elisha Williams. His people in Windham were so unwilling to part with him that the matter was referred to an ecclesiastical council, who advocated the change, and on April 2, 1740, he was formally installed in the presidency. The state legislature voted to pay an indemnity of ú53 to the people of Windham for the loss of their minister. On assuming the duties of his new office Mr. Clap at once drew up a code of laws to supersede the laws of Harvard college, which had until then been in use at Yale. These were published in 1748 in Latin, the first book published in New Haven. In 1745 he obtained a new charter for the college from the state legislature, and in 1752 a new building was erected. He next called for a new chapel which was completed in 1763 and many marked improvements were made under his administration. Whitefield's visit to New England brought some unpopularity upon President Clap, who had no sympathy with the revivalist. After several unsuccessful attempts by the trustees to secure a professor of divinity he was invited in 1753 to preach to the students in college hall. This course was objected to by the New Haven church, which claimed the college as within its parish boundaries. In 1756 a professor of divinity was chosen. Other controversies increased his unpopularity and a memorial was sent to the legislature petitioning for an examination into the college affairs. A written denial of the charges made was prepared by him and the memorial was dismissed by the legislature. In 1765 he called for the resignation of two of the tutors, who had embraced the opinions of the Sandemanians. The remaining tutor then resigned, as did the successors shortly afterward. President Clap offered his resignation in July, 1766, and after conferring the degrees in September he retired from office. He was married in 1727 to Mary, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Whitney, by whom he had two daughters: Mary, who became the wife of David Wooster, afterward major-general in the Revolutionary army, and Temperance, who was married to the Rev. Timothy Pitkin, son of Gov. William Pitkin of Connecticut. Among his publications are: An Introduction to the Study of Philosophy (1743); The Religious Constitution of Colleges, especially of Yale College, New Haven (1754); A Brief History and Vindication of the Doctrines received and established in the Churches of New Eugland, with a specimen of the New Scheme of Religion beginning to prevail (1755); An Essay on the Nature and Foundation of moral Virtue and Obligation (1765); Annals or History of Yale College (1766); and Conjectures upon the Nature and Motions of Meteors, which are above the Atmosphere (1781). He died in New Haven, Conn., Jan. 7, 1767.
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CLEVELAND, Grover, 22nd and 24th President of the United States, was born in Caldwell, Essex county. N. J., March 18, 1837; son of the Rev. Richard Falley and Ann (Neal) Cleveland; grandson of Deacon William and Margaret (Falley), great-grandson of the Rev. Aaron and Abiah (Hyde), great-great grandson of the Rev. Aaron and Susannah (Porter), great-great-great grandson of Captain Aaron and Abigail (Waters), great-great-great-great grandson of Aaron and Dorcas (Wilson) Cleveland, and great-great-great-great-great grandson of Moses Cleaveland, who came to America from Ipswich, Suffolk, England, in 1635, settled in Woburn, Mass., in 1641, and was married Sept. 26, 1648, to Ann, daughter of Edward and Joanna Winn of Woburn. Richard Falley Cleveland was graduated from Yale in 1824; was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1827; and was married in Baltimore, Md., to Ann Neal, daughter of a prosperous merchant of Irish birth. A number of years afterward they removed to Caldwell, Essex county, N. J., where their third son was born, and he was given the name of Stephen Grover, after his father's predecessor in the Caldwell church. [snip] Mr. Cleveland was inaugurated March 4, 1885, and at once announced as members of his cabinet, Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware, secretary of state; Daniel Manning of New York, secretary of the treasury; William C. Endicott of Massachusetts, secretary of war; William C. Whitney of New York, secretary of the navy; William F. Vilas of Wisconsin. postmaster-general; Augustus H. Garland of Arkansas, attorney-general, and Lucius Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi, secretary of the interior. He made Daniel S. Lamont, who had been his secretary while governor, private secretary to the President.[snip]
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COOMBS, Charles Whitney, musician, was born at Bucksport, Maine, Dec. 25, 1859; sen of L. Augustine and Caroline (Whitney) Coombs. He was educated in Europe. For five years he studied music under Speidel and Seifriz in Stuttgart. He spent a year in Italy and Switzerland, and in the autumn of 1884 went to Dresden, where he studied composition with Draeseke, organ with Janssen, and voice production with Lamperti. In 1886 he visited Paris, and gave much attention to the French school, having been previously almost entirely under German influences. Later he spent a year in England studying church music. He had charge of the music in the American church at Dresden, 1887-91, and on his return to America took up his residence in New York city where he was engaged as organist and choir master in the church of the Holy Communion and as professor in the New York college of music. He composed the cantata The Vision of St. John, and many songs and anthems.
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