Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/311

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
TOWNDROW
TREE
265


which captured the ConfeJcrate Gen. Morgan. Going to Chicago in 1869 he became interested in various iron and steel enterprises and in railway construction, out of which he made fl25,000,000. He built the Chicago elevated terminal railway, which he disposed of to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe company. Gov. Cullom made him gen- eral of the 1st brigade of state troops. He was extremely lavish in his expenditures, and his five- storv mansion is one of Chicago's show-places.

TOWNDROW, Thomas, journalist, b. in Derby- shire, England, 7 May, 1810 ; d. in New Kochelle, N. Y., 23 May, 18U8. He came to this country in 1830, settling in Hostou five years later, where he commenced to teach shorthand. He always main- tained that he, and not I'itraan, invented the system. In 1838 he, removed to New York and found employment upon the staff of the New York "Herald." It was in this connection that he first met Horace Greeley, and when the latterestablished the "Tribune," Towndrow joined the staff as a re- porter, and remained with that paper until 1891, when he retired — the oldest rei>orter in New York.

TOWNSEND, John Poiiuroy, financier, b. in Middleburv, Vt., 10 Oct., 1832 ; d. in Tarrytown, N. Y., 12 'Sept., 1898. After spending his boy- hood in Troy, he came to New York city in 1850 and found emplovment with the firm of Wilson G. Hant & Co. lie soon engaged in stave expor- tation and established the firm of Dutton & Town- send, from which he retired in 1882. In 1885 he became president of the maritime exchange, of which he had previouslv been vice-president ; the same year he was also elected president of the New York produce exchange. He retired from the presidency of the maritime exchange in 1888. and in 1889 was chosen president of the Knickerbocker trust company, from which he retired on his elec- tion to the presidency of the Bowery .savings bank in 1894; this position he held until his death. He was also a mcmlier of the chamber of commerce, a director of the Karraers' loan and trust company, a trustee of the Knickerbocker trust company, and was interested in many charitable and religious organizations. He was a student of financial questions and wrote many pa|iers on that subject, which were printed in periodicals and also in pam- phlet form. He prepared a " History of the Bow- ery Savings Bank from its Organization in 1834 to 18S8 " and •' A Hislorv of Savings Banks in the United States" (New Yo'rk. 18!t6l.

TRACY, Benjamin Franklin. lawyer, b. in Owego, N. Y., 26 April, 1830. He was educatetl at the Owego academy, and at twenty-one years was admitted to the bar in his native place. In 18.53 and 1856 he was elected district attorney of Tioga county. In 1802 he was a member of the committee appointed by Gov. txiwin D. Morgan to organize recruiting for the U. S. army, and later was made colonel of the 109th New York regiment. He took part in the bat- tles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania. soon after which failing health com- pelled his return home ;

but he again went to the

front as colonel of the 127lh regiment of colored troops. Later he was placed in command of the rendezvous and prison-camp at Elmira. At the close of the war he was made brevet brigadier- general of volunteers, and settled in Brooklyn. In October, 18G6, he was appointed U. S. district at- torney for the eastern district of New York, to which office he was reappointed, serving till 1873. In December, 1881, to fill a vacancy, he was ap- pointed associate judge of the court of appeals, holding this place until January, 1883. In Septem- ber, 1882, he was nominated for supreme court judge by the Republicans, but was defeated on a party vote. In March, 1889, he was appointed by President Harrison secretary of the navy, was con- firmed by the senate, and immediately entered on the duties of the office. Four years later he resumed the practice of his profession in New York, and in 1897 he was an unsuccessful canilidate for mayor of New York, being defeated by Van Wyck. Gen. Tracy was counsel for Venezuela before the Anglo- Venezuelan boundary arbitration commission, and made his argument in September, 1899.

TRAIL, Florence, author, b. in Frederick, Md., 1 Sept., 18.54. Prolonged illness in childhood resulted in impaired hearing, slight lameness, and a constitution far from robust; neverthe- less she graduated with honors from the Freder- ick female seminary in 1872. and a year later at Mount Vernon institute, Baltimore. She was the pioneer in the belief that every woman should nave a profession or means of self-support, and, though a member of one of the wealthiest fami- lies in Maryland, she left her home to teach in various schools of Kentucky, North Carolina, New York, and Connecticut, giving her salary to the cause of education and assistance of strug- gling young women. Miss Trail is a charter mem- ! oer of the Anna Ticknor library association of Boston, and has for twenty-one years been asso- ciated with the society to encourage studies at home. A four months' tour of Europe in 1883 furnished material for " My Journal in Foreign Lands" (New York, 1885), now a guide-book on i the continent and text-book in several American I schools. She has published over one hundred articles relative to literature and art, and her "Studies in Criticism" (New York, 1888) has been reviewed in Italy and France, and become a text-book in many colleges. She published " Un- der the Second Uenaissance " (Buffalo, 1894). a de- j fence of the dramatic profession, and is now en- ] gaged upon "A History of Italian Literature."

TREE, Lambert, lawyer, b. in Washington, D. C, Nov. 29, 1832. He received a classical edu- cation, and studie<l law for two years with James Mandeville Carlisle in Washingl<in, continuing his law studies at the University of Virginia, and was admitted to the bar in 18.55. He settled in Chicago in 1856, anil was in active practice there for many years. In 1864 he was elected a circuit judge of Cook county, and at the expiration of his first term of office was re-elected. He resigned in 1875 on account of impaired health, and spent three years in foreign travel with his family. In 1878 he re- turned to Chicago and occupied himself with law, literature, and the management of his own and ids wife's large estates. Living in a Republican district, he was twice nominated for congress, and each time pollefi a vote far ahead of his party. In 1885 he was nominated by the Democrats for U. S. senator against Gen. John A. Logan, and failed by a single vote. In 1884 he was a dclegate-at-large from Illinois to the Democratic national conven- tion, and in July. 1885. was appointed U. S. min- ister to Belgium. During his residence in Brus- sels he commissioned the comte de Talaing to exe-