Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/66

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BUTLER
BYRNE


city of Mexico in connection with the Tehuante- pec scheme. Soon afterward he founded a daily newspaper at Lynchburg, which stronjjly advo- cated Whig principles. He was also earnest in advancing the material prosperity of the state, and was instrumental in securing the charter for the Virginia and Tennessee railroad. He served as a private in a Virginia regiment until he was re- called to represent his county in the legislature again. This seat he held until the close of the war. After spending some time in travelling through the south, he settled at New Orleans and became the editor of " De Bow's Review." He was subse- quently connected with the New Orleans " Repub- lican," " Commercial Bulletin," and " Price Cur- rent." In 1867 he was elected secretary and treasurer of the New Orleans chamber of com- merce, which office he held for twenty years, until failing health compelled him to retire from public life. He became a Republican, and was receiver of public moneys in the Louisiana land office during the administration of President Hayes. In 1884 ho was the Republican candidate for lieutenant- governor, and in 1886 he was the nominee of the same party for congress. In June, 1887, he re- turned to his former home in Virginia. He was a prolific writer of plays, poems, and tales. Among the latter are " Exile and Empire," which appeared in the " Southern Literary Messenger," and " White Acre against Black Acre," which was published in book-form before the war.

BUTLER, Marion, senator, b. in Honeycults township, Sampson co., N. C, 20 May, 1863, and was graduated at the Universitiy of North Carolina in 1885. For several years he was a school-teacher ; in 1888 he joined the Farmers' alliance, and pur- chased the '• Clinton Caucasian," which has been removed to Raleigh, and now has the largest cir- culation of any paper in the state. He was elected to the state senate in 1890, and was the leader of the alliance forces in that body. Four years later he was elected president of the national Farmers' alliance, and was chairman in 1894 of the Popu- lists' state committee. He was elected to the U. S. senate as a populist to succeed Matthew W. Ran- som, Democrat, in 1895. Mr. Butler, whose term of service will expire in March, 1901, is the youngest member of the senate, and in 1896 he was an ardent supporter of William J. Bryan for president.

BUTLER, Thomas Ambrose, author, b. in Dublin, 21 March, 1837. He was educated in St. Lawrence's seminary, and was graduated at the Roman Catholic university, Dublin, in 1856. He studied for the priesthood" in Maynooth college, and was ordained in 1864 and appointed to a curacy in Wicklow county, but came to the United States in 1867, and was engaged in missionary work in Kansas until 1875. Later he was appointed pas- tor of St. James's church, St. Louis, also contribut" ing to Roman Catholic periodicals and journals. He is the author of " The Irish on the Prairies, and other Poems" (New York, 1874), and " Kansas and Irish Immigration " (1875).

BYERS. Samuel Hankiiis Marshall, poet, b. in Pulaski, Pa., 23 July, 1838. He was educated in the jiulilic schools of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and stud- ied law, but did not practise. He served in the National army, was taken prisoner in November, 1863, and while in confinement in Columbia, S. C, wrote the song entitled " Sherman's March to the Sea," whose popularitv gave its name to the cam- paign it celebrated. lie was U. S. consul at Zurich, Switzerland, in 1869-'84, and consul-general to Italy in 1885. In addition to being a contributor to magazines, Mr. Bvers is the author of " What I saw in Dixie" (Danville, N. Y., 1868); -Switzer- land and the Swiss" (New York, 1875); "The Happy Isles, and other Poems " (1885) : and " Mili- tary Histirry of Iowa" (Des Moines, Iowa, 1888).

BYNNEit, Edwin Lasseter, author, b. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 5 Aug., 1842; d.in Boston, Mass., 5 Aug., 1893. After graduation at the Harvard law school he was admitted to the bar, and prac- tised law in Bo.ston, St. Louis, and New York until 1886, when he devoted himself entirely to litera- ture. The colonial history of New England re- ceived his special attention. He wrote several historical novels, including "Nimporf (Boston. 1877); "Tritons" (1878); " Damen's Ghost" (1881); "Agnes Surriage " (1886); "Penelope's Suitors" (1887); "The Begum's Daughter" (1889): "The Chase of the Meteor, and other Stories" (1891); " Zachary Phips" (1892): and, with Lucretia Peabodv Hale, "An Uncloseted Skeleton" (Boston, 1893).

BYRNE, Thomas Sebastian, R. C. bishop, b. at Hamilton, Ohio, in July, 1841. He entered St. Mary's ecclesiastical seminary, near Bardstown, Ky., where he made his classical and ecclesiastical studies, and continued them at Mount St. Mary's preparatory seminary, in Cincinnati. In 1865 he went to Rome and continued his studies until ill health compelled him to return, when he resumed and completed his theological studies at Mount St. Mary's seminary, and there he was ordained a priest. He remained there for ten years as a professor and until that institution was closed, when he accepted the position of chaplain at Delhi, Ohio. He subsequently became rector of St. Peter's cathedral at Cincinnati, and while there he founded the Springer institute and directed its erection until completed. In July, 1887. he was appointed rector of Mount St. Mary's seminary, and so continued until 1894, when he was appointed bishop of Nashville. He was consecrated in St. Joseph's church, Nashville, in July, 1894.