Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/276

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254
DUMMER
DU MOTAY

DUMMER, William, lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, b. in Boston in 1677 ; d. tiiere, 10 Oct., 1761. When Samuel Shute was appointed governor of the colony in 1716, Dummer was com- missioned lieutenant-governor, and after Shute left, 1 Jan., 1723, he acted as governor and commander- in-chief till the arrival of Gov. Burnet in 1728. He conducted the war with the Indians with skill, and was respected for his ability and zealous regard for the public good. After the death of Gov. Burnet he was commander-in-chief again till the arrival of Belcher. After 1730 he lived in retirement. When he died he left his valuable farm and the mansion- house, which is still standing, to endow Dummer academy in Byfield parish, in the town of New- bury, the earliest academy in New England, which was opened on 27 Feb., 1763, with twenty-eight pupils. — His brother, Jeremiah, scholar, b. in Bos- ton, Mass., ajpout 1680; d. in Plaistow, England, 19 May, 1739, was graduated at Harvard in 1699. where he was noted for brilliancy. He studied theology, and afterward spent several years at the University of Utrecht, where he obtained his doc- tor's degree. Soon after his return to America he was sent to England in 1710 as agent of Massa- chusetts, and remained in London in that capacity till 1721. He was a benefactor of Yale college, to which he presented 800 volumes. He was intimate with Bolingbroke, and adopted some of his views. He published theological and philosophical disqui- sitions in Latin while at Utrecht, and a " Defence of the New England Charters" (London, 1728; re- printed, 1765), in which he argued that the New England colonists held their charters by compact, in consideration for redeeming the wilderness and annexing it to the British dominions, and that their land-titles were not derived from the crown, which only possessed political rights over the coun- try, but were based on purchases from the natives and on occupation and their own courage and en- terprise. The proposal of the Board of trade to unite the colonies under a single viceroy and one assembly would produce, in his opinion, the result that it was chiefly intended to avert, that of en- couraging the colonies to throw off their allegiance and constitute themselves a free state.


DUMONCHEL, John Baptist, Canadian merchant, b. in Sandwich, Ontario, in 1784 ; d. in Saint-Benoit, Canada, in 1844. He came in his youth to Lower Canada, and studied in the College of Montreal. After serving some time as a clerk, he opened a commercial establishment in Saint-Benoit in 1810. Although he filled several public offices, he took the part of the people in their conflict with the British authorities, and, in consequence of having presided over some public meetings, was dismissed from the magistracy and deprived of his commission as major of militia. He took part in the insurrection of 1837, and fled after the defeat of the Canadians at Saint-Eus- tache, but was betrayed and given up to the sol- diers of Gen. Colborne. He was brought to Mon- treal and imprisoned, being shortly after joined by his two sons, who had also been taken prisoners. He was treated with great severity, and when Lord Durham offered to liberate him and his compan- ions if he consented to sign a document acknowl- edging that they had been guilty of high treason, he consented to do so. He was set at liberty, how- ever, without the exaction of this penalty.


DU MONT, Julia Louisa, author, b. in Water- ford, Ohio, in October, 1794; d. in Vevay, Ind., 2 Jan., 1857. She was the daughter of Ebenezer and Martha Carey, who were among the earliest settlei's of Marietta, Ohio. Her mother was herself an au- thor, having published a book entitled " The Moun- tain Mourner." While Julia was an infant, her parents returned to their native state, Rhode Isl- and, and after her father's death she accompanied her mother to Greenfield, Saratoga co., N. Y. She attended the Milton academy, taught school in 1811-'2, and in the latter year married John Du- mont, afterward a well-known citizen of Indiana. She went with him to Ohio, and in 1814 to Vevay, Ind., where she spent the rest of her life, becoming eminent as a teacher. Mrs. Dumont was the earliest woman of the west whose writings have been pre- served. She contributed largely to western peri- odicals, both in prose and verse, and published a collection of her writings, entitled " Life Sketches from Common Paths " (New York, 1856). — Her son, Ebenezer, soldier, b. in Vevay, Ind., 23 Nov., 1814; d. in Indianapolis, Ind., 16 April, 1871, was educated at Indiana university, but was not gradu- ated, and, after studying law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in his native town. He was chosen to the legislature in 1838, where he was speaker of the house, was treasurer of Vevay county in 1839-'45, and was for many years president of the state bank. He fought in the Mexican war as lieutenant-colonel of the 4th Indiana volunteers, distinguishing himself at the battle of Huamantla. He was an elector on the democratic ticket in 1852, and again a member of the legislature in 1850 and 1853. At the beginning of the civil war he became colonel of the 7th Indiana regiment, and served with distinction in 1861 at Laurel Hill, Rich Moun- tain, and Carrick's Ford. He then reorganized the regiment for three years' service, and commanded it in the action of Greenbrier river on 3 Oct. under Gen. Reynolds. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 3 Sept., 1861, was engaged at Cheat Mountain on 12 Sept., and commanded the 17th brigade of the Army of the Ohio in January, 1862. He attacked and routed John Morgan at Lebanon, Ky., on 5 May, 1862, and in October of that year commanded the 12th division of Gen. Buell's army. On 28 Feb., 1863, he resigned his commission on account of failing health, and was elected to con- gress as a unionist, serving from 1863 till 1867. Gen. Dumont was appointed governor of Idaho a short time before his death.


DU MOTAY, Cyprien Tessie, chemist, b. in France in 1819 ; d. 'in New York city, 6 June, 1880. He was of an old Breton family, received his edu- cation at Nantes, and then removed to Paris, where he devoted himself to literature. His poems gained him admission to the salon of Madam Recamier, and he became intimate with the foremost writers of the day, including De Musset, Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo, and Dumas. Financial troubles drove him to Germany, where, turning his atten- tion to chemistry and metallurgy, he secured sev- eral patents, one of which, for bleaching and dye- ing fabrics, was bought by an English manufac- turer for 60,000 francs. He then returned to Paris and became consulting chemist in a large labora- tory, but was exiled lor opposing the second em- pire, and saved himself from poverty by selling a process for bleaching wax to a London apothecary for £2,000. Napoleon III. recalled him to Paris in 1860, and he applied himself from that time to industrial chemistry, receiving medals at the ex- hibitions of 1865 and 1878 for his invention. Dur- ing the siege of Paris he directed the ambidance service. Among his many important inventions in Europe were a process for etching glass, im- provements in electric light carbons, a method for the preparation of oxygen on a large scale, and a method of illumination by its use, known as the