Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/533

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NELSON
NENGUIRU

and Spain in 1864-'G. He was U. S. minister to Mexico in 1869-'73. Since the expiration of his term of office he has practised law in Washington, D. C, and in Terre Haute, Ind. — His brother, William, soldier, b. in Maysville, Ky., in 1825 ; d. in Louisville, Ky., 29 Sept., 1862, entered the U. S. navy in 1840, commanded a battery at the siege of Vera Cruz, and afterward served in the Mediterra- nean. He became master in 1854, lieutenant in 1855, and in 1858 was ordered to the " Niagara," in which he carried back to Africa the negroes that were taken from the slaver " Echo." He was on ordnance duty in Washington, D. C, at the be- ginning of the civil war, was promoted lieutenant- commander in 1861, and was in charge of the gun- boats on Ohio river, but soon exchanged the naval for military service, and in September became brigadier - general of volunteers. He organized Camp Dick Robinson, between Garrardsville and Danville, Ky., and another in Washington, Mason CO., Ky., was successful in several engagements in eastern Kentucky, raised several regiments, com- manded the 2d division of Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army, which was the first to join Gen. Grant at the battle of Shiloh, and was wounded at Rich- mond, Ky. He was in command at Louisville when that city was threatened by Gen. Braxton Bragg, and in July, 1862, was appointed major- general of volunteers. He was shot to death by Gen. Jefferson C. Davis in an altercation with that officer at the Gait house, in Louisville, Ky.


NELSON, Wolfred, Canadian insurgent, b. in Montreal, 10 July, 1792 ; d. there, 17 June, 1863. He was the son of William Nelson, a commissariat officer in the British navy. He studied medicine, was licensed to practise in January, 1811, and es- tablished himself at St. Denis, on Richelieu river. In the war of 1812 Dr. Nelson volunteered and served as a surgeon. In 1827 he successfully con- tested the representation of Sorel with Attorney- General (afterward Chief -Justice) James Stuart, and was subsequently native in Canadian politics. He was one of the principal promoters and leaders of the rebellion of 1837, and presided over the meet- ing of the '• Four counties " at St. Charles on 23 Oct., when resolutions inimical to the British gov- ernment were adopted and armed resistance to con- stituted authority was finally determined upon. A troop under Col. Charles S. Gore was despatched to arrest Dr. Nelson and other insurgents ; but he and his friends retreated to his residence at St. Denis, where with a small force of the inhabitants a successful resistance was made. Shots were fired, but the insurgents being strongly posted in a stone-house, the troops were forced to retreat. Soon afterward a force of 1,000 insurgents were defeated at St. Charles by a body of loyalist troops under Col. George A. Wetherall. After this disaster, the flight of Louis J. Papineau, the leader of the re- bellion, and the approach of British troops. Dr. Nelson attempted to escape, but was arrested and kept in confinement until he was sentenced to im- prisonment for life in the Bermudas. The house of lords having declared the transportation of Dr. Nelson and his companions illegal, he was permit- ted to leave the island, and came to the United States, 1 Nov., 1838. He settled in Plattsburg, N. Y., and practised medicine until August, 1842, when, an amnesty having been declared, he returned to Montreal and resided there till his death. In 1844 he was elected by his old friends on Richelieu river to represent the county of that name, and was re- elected to the next parliament. Declining a third election, he was appointed in 1851 an inspector of prisons, which office he held till December, 1859, when he became chairman of the board of prison ins})ectors. During the ship fever of 1847 he had rendered great service to the poor, sick, and dying immigrants at the risk of his own life, and during the cholera years, as chairman of the board of health, he was also zealous. He was twice elected mayor of the city of Montreal, and repeatedly chosen president and vice-president of the Medical board and college of surgeons for Lower Canada. — His brother, Robert, surgeon, b. in Montreal in January, 1794 ; d. in Gifford's, Staten island, 1 March, 1873, studied medicine, and attained emi- nence as a surgeon. He served during the war of 1812, and in 1827 was elected, with Louis J. Papi- neau, to represent Montreal in parliament. He was known fb sympathize with the insurgents, but did not participate actively in the uprising of 1837. After the encounter between his brother and the royal troops at St. Denis, Robert was arrested and imprisoned, but he was afterward admitted to bail. He then went to the United States, and in 1838 invaded Canada at the head of 600 men and concentrated his force at Napierville. He styled himself " president of the provisional government." Hearing of the approach of the British under Sir James Macdonell, he retreated toward the frontier, but made a final stand in a church, from which he was dislodged, and fled to the United States, leav- ing fifty killed and an equal number wounded. He went afterward to California, and in 1862 was a consulting surgeon in New York. In addition to articles in medical journals, he wrote an account of the Asiatic cholera that prevailed in Canada in 1832 and translated Hupeland's " System of Medicine." — Robert's son, Charles Eugene, physician, b. in Montreal, 28 March, 1837, was educated in London and Cheltenham, England, and at the Napoleon college, Paris. In l858 he began the study of medicine in London, was graduated in 1863, and the same year began practice with his father in New York. In 1883 he became editor of the New York " Planet," in 1885 assistant editor of the " Eastern Medical Journal," Worcester, Mass.. and in 1886 its editor. He has founded the Robert Nelson gold medal (commemorative of his father) in connection with the medical school of Lennox- ville university, Canada. Dr. Nelson invented a rectal bougie, which bears his name. He has con- tributed many articles to the " New York Medi- cal Journal," " New England Medical Monthly," " Canada Medical Record," and other similar pro- fessional publications, and is the author of a life of his father, which was published in the "New York Medical Register" for 1873.


NENGUIRU, or LANGUIRU, Nicolao, better known as Nicolao L, b. in Paraguay about 1720; d. in the mission of Conceigao in 1773. He was a half-breed, and held the office of magistrate of Conceigao in 1754, when the Jesuits refused to surrender the missions that had been ceded by the treaty of Madrid to Portugal, and, arming the Guarani Indians, appointed Nicolao nominal commander, in order to hide their disobedience to the royal order. The enemies of the Jesuits in Europe took advantage of this action to destroy their influence with King Ferdinand VI., and asserted, according to Robert Southey in his "History of Brazil," that the Jesuits, renouncing their allegiance to Spain, had set up an empire of their own under the rule of King Nicolao I. This story was spread with much zeal, and even money, struck in the new king's name, was circulated in Europe, while Martin Dobrizhoffer asserts that at that time no money was in use in the missions, that there was no mint in Paraguay, and that the coins were