Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/88

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DANA
DANA

York, 1843). Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Jr., wrote of him: “In point of time, originality, and ability, Dr. Dana stood deservedly first among scientific writers on agriculture in the United States.” — Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh, nephew of Samuel Luther and James Freeman, soldier, b. in Fort Sullivan, Eastport, Me., 15 April, 1822. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1842, and after being appointed in the 7th infantry as second lieutenant, served on garrison duty in the southwest. During the Mexican war he served with distinction, and was present at many of the important engagements, being severely wounded in storming the intrenchments at the battle of Cerro Gordo. He became captain on the staff and assistant quartermaster in March, 1848, and until 1855 served in garrison duty, principally in Minnesota. From 1855 till 1861 he was a banker in St. Paul, Minn., and was brigadier-general of the militia from 1857 till 1861. During the civil war he accompanied the 1st Minnesota infantry as colonel to the front, becoming brigadier-general of volunteers in February, 1862, and attached to the Army of the Potomac. He served in the battles before Richmond, and at Antietam commanded a brigade in Gen. John Sedgwick's division of Gen. Edwin V. Sumner's corps, and was severely wounded. He was commissioned major-general of volunteers in November, 1862, and was in command of the defences of Philadelphia during the invasion of Pennsylvania by the Confederate army in 1863. Afterward he joined the Army of the Gulf, and commanded the expedition by sea to the Rio Grande, landing at Brazos Santiago, and driving the Confederate forces as far as Laredo, Texas. He then successively commanded the 13th army corps, the district of Vicksburg, the 16th army corps, the districts of west Tennessee and Vicksburg, and finally the Department of the Mississippi. In May, 1865, he resigned from the army and engaged in mining operations in the western states. From 1866 till 1871 he was general agent of the American-Russian commercial company of San Francisco, in Alaska and Washington, after which he became superintendent of railroads in Illinois, and in 1878 of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad.


DANA, Judah, senator, b. in Pomfret, Conn., 25 April, 1772; d. in Fryeburg, Me., 27 Dec., 1845. His mother was the eldest daughter of Gen. Israel Putnam. His father, John Winchester, and the Rev. Joseph, of Ipswich, were both grandsons of Benjamin, the third son of Richard. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1795, studied law, and began practice, in 1798, in Fryeburg, then in Massachusetts. He was government attorney for Oxford county in 1805-'11, judge of probate in 1811-'22, judge of the court of common pleas from 1811 till 1823, judge of the circuit court, a delegate to the convention that framed, the state constitution of Maine in 1819, and in 1833 was elected a member of the executive council, he was an adherent of the democratic party, and, on the resignation of Ether Shepley, was appointed U. S. senator, serving from 21 Dec., 1836, till 3 March, 1837. — His son, John Winchester, governor of Maine, b. in Fryeburg. Me., 21 Jan., 1808; d. near Rosario, New Grenada, 22 Dec., 1867. He was for many years an active democratic politician in Maine, and from 1847 till 1850 was governor of the state. In 1853 he went to Bolivia as chargé d'affaires, was commissioned minister resident on 29 June, 1854, and held that post till 10 March, 1859. In 1861 he was again a candidate for governor of Maine, but was defeated. Soon afterward he went to South America, where he resided at the time of his death.


DANA, Stephen Winchester, clergyman, b. in Canaan, N. Y., 17 Nov., 1840. He was the son of a Congregational clergyman, and descended in the eighth generation from Richard, through Benjamin, the third son. He was graduated at Williams in 1861, taught in Hinsdale, Mass., for two years, and then studied theology in the Union theological seminary, New York city, where he was graduated in 1866. He was pastor of a Presbyterian church in Belvidere, N. J., from November, 1866, till July, 1868, when he was called to the Walnut street church in West Philadelphia, which has steadily grown under his pastoral care and earnest preaching. He has published sermons and religious tracts. — His cousin, William Parsons, artist, b. in Boston, Mass., 18 Feb., 1833, was attracted to a sailor's life, and made several voyages, then decided to study art, went to Paris in 1852, became a pupil of Picot and Le Poitevin and a student in the School of arts, and spent his summers sketching in Normandy and Brittany. He returned to the United States in 1862, was chosen a national academician in 1863, painted in New York city and Newport, and afterward established his studio in Paris, France. His first pictures were marine views, but subsequently he treated genre subjects with success, and has been happy in painting children, horses, and dogs. Some of his principal works are “Chase of the Frigate Constitution”; “Waiting for the Fishing-Boat”; “Low Tide at Yport”; “French Peasant-Girl”; “Maternal Care”; “Heart's-Ease”; “Emby's Admirals”; “Land of Nod”; “English Greyhound”; and “Gathering Seaweed.”


DANA, Richard, jurist, b. in Cambridge, Mass., 7 July, 1699; d. 17 May, 1772. He was the third son of Daniel, who was the son of Richard, who came from England, settled in Cambridge in 1640, and died there about 1695. He was graduated at Harvard in 1718, studied law, practised in Marblehead and Charlestown, and then removed to Boston and became one of the leaders of the bar of Massachusetts. During the critical period that preceded the Revolution he took a prominent part in the protests against the new and oppressive taxes imposed by the British parliament and the appointment of highly paid crown officials, and was a leader in the popular resistance to the usurpations of the British government. He occasionally presided over the Boston town-meetings between 1763 and 1772, was chairman of the committee chosen by the town in 1765 to give instructions to the representatives in the general court with reference to the stamp-act and other new taxes, for the collection of which revenue officers had been sent over from England, and reported the instructions to the representatives of Boston on 20 Nov., 1767, and 8 May, 1770. He was a member of the association of the Sons of Liberty, and at the meeting of 17 Dec., 1769, administered to Andrew Oliver, secretary of the province, an oath binding him not to execute the stamp-act. After the British soldiery fired on the people in the night of 5 March, 1770, he was appointed on a committee to investigate the incidents of the massacre and the order in which they occurred. He took depositions of respectable citizens who had heard threats from the soldiers some days previous to the tragedy, and who swore that the soldiers under Capt. Preston attacked the citizens with violence; that after some of the latter had been struck, young men and boys returned abusive language, and some threw snowballs and pieces of ice at the soldiers; that these fired into the crowd, killing and mortally wounding several persons, when there was no danger to themselves; and that therefore the firing could not have been in self-