Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/23

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ALEXANDER
ALLEN
5

extensively in the United States and Europe. This agitation was largely instrumental in promoting the passage of the interstate commerce act. He presente<l to the state of Iowa, in 1884, his large and valuable collection of manu.scripts, (lortraits, and interestiiiK autosniph letters.


ALKXAMtKK. James Waddell. president, b. in Princeton, X. J., 19 July, 1839. His father, whose name he Ix'ars, was a prominent Presbyte- rian clergyman, and the son was graduated from Princeton in 1860. He was a member of the New York bar until 1866, when he entered the Equita- ble life insurance society of the Unite<l Slates, with which he haslieen since connected, and on the death of Henry B. Hyde, 2 May, 1899. succeeiled to the office of president. Mr. .lexandcr is al.so presi- dent of the Universitv club, of the Princeton alumni club, and a director in the Mercantile trust comiiany. the Delaware and Hudson com|)any, and in other financial institutions. He is known as a public speaker, and is the author of " Prince- ton, Old and .N'cw ' (New York. 1898).


ALEXANDER. Robert. mcm(>erof the Conti- nental congress, b. in Haltiiuore, Md.. about 1740; d. proliably in p^nglund after 1790. He was elect- ed a member of the jieople's committee, 13 Nov., 1774, and of the provincial convention of Mary- land in 1775. and chosen a deputy to the Conti- nental congress, 9 Dec., 1775, i)eing re-elected, 4 July, 1776. out noon aft«r the promulgation of the Dei'Ianitioii - he .laiiol for England wit h othrr I '. -. Mr. A'eXBiider was afti'rwiinl u|.j ir Maryland luvaiists to pn-r^vnt and nr<>s<'<;iit(> their numerous claims befon' thf ltriti4i government.


ALFARU, I'rndencio (al-far-o), vice-president of San Salvatlor. b. in (iuatemala about 1860. He studied in Atic|ui7.aya, and was admilte*! to the bar at San SalvwUir in 1884. The following year he was elected as a representative in the national assembly. Owing to |>olitical [x'PMK-ution he left San Salvador; returned afterwanl, taking u pnnn- inent part, in 1889, in the revolution that tormi- natcd the rule of tien. Ezeta. During that time he acti-il a.-* secretary to the provisional government. Under the [m'^idpncy <>t Scflor Zutiessez he was appointed ^. ".and soon afterward was fleeted ; Sun Salvador.


ALFONSE, French nabigator, b. in Saintonge, near Cognac, about 1500. His real name was Jean Fonteneau common fninilv name in that locality: Atfonse he took from tfio name of his wife, alentine .lfonse, probably a I'ortiiguese. We know little of his younger years, but it is proljable that he followed the sea from an early agi-. We know that in l%nhema<le a vovage to Newfounil- lunil. Four years later he made pn'paratioiis for a voyage to (ruinea in the " MarU- dc Jard." from Uo<'helle. If he actually made this voyagi- it must have been extremely short, fur on 22 Aug., 1541, lie served as pilot to the two ships that HulM>rval trtok to Canaua from llonfleur on his expedition with Cartier. Alfonse sp<-nt a year and nine months in Canailn. returning to Kochelle by 25 June, 1543. During the latter part of this year and the first part of l.'>44 he was engage<l on a work entitled " CoMiiographie universelle," in which heemtmdied the geographical experience of Ills many years at sea. In •lune, 1544, he fitted out an arme<l cruising ex|>edilion, and it was while upon this cruise that he was taken and killed by the Spanianls. Of Ills '• Cw*inographic " there seems Iti l)e little doubt now that the whole is his own work : the part taken in it by liaulin LeTail- lois. called Seealart, whose name is usually joined with Alfonse in connection with the work, seems to have been little more than changing a few pas- sages, enough to make pretension to a collabora- tion. Alfonse was also the inventor of the fore- top-gallant-mast, its vard,and its sail, the Spanish and Portuguese words for the mast, yi(a»»'/a and Joaiiete, probably coming from the name Jean, of the inventor. See " Bulletin de geographic histo- rique et desiTiptive." 1895.


ALLEN. Charles Herbert, .statesman, b. in Lowell, Mass., 15 April, 1848. He studied in the common schools of his native town and at Am- herst college, where he was graduated in 1869. lie waselecte<l a member of the Lowell school commit- tee in 1874, and he served until 1881. In that year he was elected a member of the lower house of the Mas-sm-husctts legislature; he was re-elected in 1882. In 188;j he was elected state senator; he served for a year, and was apjiointed colonel on the staff of Gov. Robinson. He was then elected to the 49th congress as a Republican, and was re-elected to the 50th congress, tieclining a renominution to the 51st congress, and in 1891 was the Republican candidate for governor of the state, but was de- feate«l by William E. Rus<iell. On the resigiuition of TheiMlore Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the navy, at the outbreak of war with Spain, he was appointo<l to the vacancv. 9 Slav, 1898.


ALLEN. Edward I'lilrlek. R. C. bishon, b. at I»well, Ma.<s., 17 March, I8.W. He attended the I^iwell CMinmercial college, and thence went to Mount St. Mary's college, Kmmettsburg. Md., and graduat(!d there in 1878. He made his theo- logical course there in the seminary, and was or- dained a priest in 1881 by Bishoii Becker. After filling a professor's chair in nis alma mater, Archiiishop Williams, of Boston, called him to assist in [mrochial work at his cathe<lral. After- ward he was assistant |iastor at .South Framing- ham. Three years after his ordination he was called to Mount .St. Mary's college, first as pro- fessor, then as vice-oresident, and subsecpiently as its president. The neavy indebtedness of the col- lege rendered his task a difficult one, but he had not only the courage to undertake it, but he suc- ceetle<l by his energy, labors, and business ability ill paying the debts of the in.stitiitlon. He also improved and enlarged the buildings of the col- lege, enlarged the cnaptd, and increa.scil the fac- ultv. Dr. Allen wius appointed bishop of Mobile, and was coiiMi-rated by Canlinal Gibbons at the cathedral of Baltimore in 1897.


ALLEN, Sir John Campbell, jurist, b. in King Lear. New Brunswick, Oct., 1817; d. in Fredencton. New Brunswick. 27 Sept., 1898. He was educated at the grammar-school. Fre<lericton,and was admitted as an atlorncy-at-law in 1838. Two years later he became a liarrisler. and in 1845-'7 was aji|M)inted one of the commissioners for settling the claims to lands under the fourth article of the treaty of Washington, 1842. He was a member of the hous«' of as,sembly of New Brunswick. 1856- '65: solicitor-general, 1856-'7; sjwaker, 1863-'5; attorney-general. 1H0.5. Sir John was a consistent opi'xmeiit of the scheme of confederation of the maritime provinces and old Caniula, and in June of the lust-nameil year he was sent by the provincial government as a delegate to the British government to urge the objections of New Brunswick to the prop<ised union. In 1865 he retiretl from political life and accepte<l a judgeship in the supreme court. He became chief justice in 1875, and retired through ill-health in 1896. Allen's " Law Refiorts," in six volumes, and his work on the rules of the supreme court and the acts of as-