Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/492

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452
MRAK
MUDGE

MRAK, Ignatius, R. C. bishop, b. in Polland, Carniola. Austria, 10 Oct., 1810. He iinished his theological studies in 1887 and was ordained priest the same year. After spending several years in missionary labors in Carniola, he came to the United States in 1845 and was stationed at Arbre Croche, at the same time attending to the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians at Manistee, La Croix, Mid- dleton, and Castor island. In 1855 he was trans- ferred to Eagle Town, on Grand Traverse bay, where he established a school for the Indians, and he also attended ten other Indian mission stations. He was appointed vicar-general of the diocese of Sault Sainte Marie in 1860, and on the death of Bishop Baraga was nominated for the see of Mar- quette and Sault Sainte Marie. He was conse- crated by Archbishop Purcell on 7 Feb., 1869. Al- though his health began to fail, he continued the discharge of his duties until his infirmities com- pelled him to resign his see in 1878. In 1881 he was made bishop of Antinoe in partibus.


MUDGE, Enoch, clergyman, b. in Lvnn, Mass., 28 June. 1776 : d. there, 3 April, 1850. He was de- scended from an old New England family, the first member of which mentioned in local annals is Goodman Mudge, who in 1649, as appears by an old deed, purchased a house and five acres of land in New London, Conn., for " five bushels of wheat and a dog." He entered the Methodist Episcopal church in 1793, and travelled as an itinerant min- ister in Maine, enduring great hardships, under which his health gave way, and he was compelled in 1799 to ask for a location in order that he might recuperate. He was therefore settled at Orrington, Me., where he labored until 1816. During this pe- riod he was twice chosen to the legislature, the first time to obtain a repeal of the law that imposed a tax on other denominations for the support of the Congregational church, in which effort he was suc- cessful. In 1816 he again became an itinerant, and was stationed successively at Boston, Lynn, Portsmouth, N. H., Newport, R. I., and other places. In 1832 he was transferred to the Sea- man's chapel at New Bedford, where he spent the remainder of his active life, returning to Lynn in 1844. While residing at the latter place in 1819 he was elected a member of the convention that revised the constitution of Massachusetts. He was the author of a " Camp-Meeting Hymn-Book " (1818) ; " Notes on the Parables " (1828) ; " Lvnn," a poem (1830) ; " The Parables of Our Lord " (1831) ; " Lec- tures to Seamen " (1836) ; " The Juvenile Exposi- tor," published in seventy numbers of " Zion's Her- ald " ; and many other lectures and occasional dis- courses. He was a frequent contributor to the press of both prose and poetry. — His son, Enoch Redington, merchant, b. in Orrington, Me., 22 March, 1812 ; d. in Swampseot, Mass., 1 Oct., 1881, left home at fifteen years of age, went to Port- land, Me., and entered a banking-house. On the failure of the firm he engaged in business for him- self, and as a result of land speculations failed in 1835 for $20,000, which was then considered a large capital. Going to New York city, he had the general management for four years of the Astor house. In 1840 he went to New Orleans and opened the St. Charles hotel, where he made $150,000 and paid the debts he had previously incurred. Re- turning to New York city in 1845, he became in- terested in manufacturing, and in 1846 built the Saratoga Victory cotton-mills, thirty miles from Cohoes, N. Y. He was engaged for the next ten years in various commercial enterprises, and in 1857 became an agent for the sale of the products of several New England woollen and cotton mills. His sales gradually increased, until in 1865 they amounted to between $8,000,000 and $9,000,000. In 1866-'7 Mr. Mudge was a member of the Massa- chusetts senate. He built St. Stephen's Episcopal church at Lynn, 3Iass., as a memorial of his de- ceased children, Fanny Olive and Charles Reding- ton, a graduate of Harvard, who was killed at the battle of Gettysburg. — Enoch's nephew, Al- fred, printer, son of Samuel Mudge, b. in Ports- mouth, N. H., 25 April, 1809 ; d. in Hull, Mass., 14 Aug., 1882, was compelled to earn his own living at fourteen, but soon afterward apprenticed himself to a printer. In 1825 he went to Boston, where he completed his apprenticeship with Samuel H. Parker. Six years afterwai'd he began business for himself on a very slender capital, and in 1834 lost by fire what little he had accumulated. He then removed to School street in the same city, where he became firmly established. Mr. Mudge was the pioneer job printer of New England, there having been before his time no office where orders for commercial work could be well and promptly executed. Among his achievements was the set- ting up and printing, in nine working-days, of an octavo volume of 524 pages which contained but one typographical error. He printed, among other specimens of fine work, " History of the City Hall," published by the city authorities of Boston, a gen- ealogical record of the descendants of Hugh Clark, of Watertown. and the '• Mudge Memorials," being an account of the Mudge family. — Another nephew of Enoch, Zachariah Atwell, author, son of James Mudge, b. in Orrington, Penobscot co., Me., 2 July, 1813, was educated at Lynn, Mass., acade- my and Wesleyan university, but was not gradu- ated. After teaching in Massachusetts and Mississippi he entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1840, and has since been stationed at various places in Massachusetts. In 1854 he received the honorary degree of A. M. from Wesleyan university. From 1859 till 1862 he was editor of " The Guide to Holiness." During his pastoral labors, extending over forty-five years, Mr. Mudge has found time to prepare for publication a large number of works of fiction for Sunday-school libraries. He has also issued " Sketches of Mission Life among the Indians of Oregon " (New York, 1854); "The Christian Statesman, a Portraiture of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton " (1865) ; "Witch Hill, a History of Salem Witchcraft " (1870) ; " Arctic Heroes "" (1874) ; " North-Pole Voyages " (1875) ; " History of Suffolk County, Mass." (1879) ; " Fur-clad Adventurers " (1880) ; and others of a similar character. — Zachariah's brother, Thomas Hicks, educator, b. in Orrington, Penobscot CO., Me., 27 Sept., 1815 ; d. in Baldwin City, Douglas CO., Kan., 24 July, 1862, was graduated at Wesleyan university in 1840, studied three years in Union theological seminary, New York city, and entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1857-'8 he was professor of sacred literature in McKendree college, Lebanon, Ill., and he afterward preached in Missouri until he was compelled to leave at the beginning of the civil war. In 1862 he was appointed professor of ancient languages and biblical literature in Baker university, Baldwin City, Kan., where he remained until his death. — Another brother, Benjamin Franklin, educator, b. in Orrington, Penobscot CO., Me., 11 Aug., 1817; d. in Manhattan, Riley co., Kan., 21 Nov., 1879, was graduated at Wesleyan university in 1840, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Lynn, Mass., from 1844 till 1859, being elected mayor in 1852. He settled in Kansas in 1862, and in 1864-'5 was state