Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Webber, Samuel

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WEBBER, Samuel, educator, b. in Byfield, Mass., in 1759; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 17 July, 1810. He was graduated at Harvard in 1784, taking high rank in mathematics, entered the ministry, and in 1787 was made tutor. In 1789 he was appointed to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy, which he held till he was raised in 1804 to the presidency of the college. Dr. Webber was one of the commissioners that were appointed to settle the boundary-line between the United States and the British provinces. He was vice-president of the American academy, and Harvard gave him the degree of D. D. in 1806. He was the author of a “System of Mathematics.” which was intended for use in Harvard, and for a long time was almost the only text-book on that subject in New England colleges (2 vols., Boston, 1801), and a “Eulogy on President Willard” (1804). He also revised the introduction to Jedidiah Morse's “American Universal Geography” (1796). See a “Eulogy” by Henry Ware, D. D. (Cambridge, 1810). — His son, Samuel, physician, b. in Cambridge, Mass., 15 Sept., 1797; d. in Charlestown, N. H., 5 Dec., 1880, was graduated at Harvard in 1815, taught four years, at the same time studying medicine, and received his medical degree in 1822, after serving as assistant to the professor of chemistry at Harvard for eighteen months. During the rest of his life he resided at Charlestown, N. H., on Connecticut river, where he gave much attention to study, and was elected a fellow of the Royal society of northern antiquarians of Copenhagen, Denmark. He published several poems, including “Logan, an Indian Tale” (1821), and “War” (1824).