Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/150

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
126
TODD
TODD

travel in Europe and Asia, but was prevented by sickness at Trinidad. Having lost the fortune left him by his father, he was obliged to prepare for a profession, and, selecting that of medicine, he be- gan to practise, after the required course of medi- cal study, in Farmington, Conn. He removed to New York about 1810, but returned to Farming- ton, and remained there until 1819, when he went to Hartford, where he soon became the chief con- sulting physician. In 1821 there was a notable increase in the number of insane persons in Hart- ford and the neighborhood. Dr. Todd appreciated the difficulty of treating them in private practice, and it was principally due to him that the atten- tion of the profession and public was awakened to the necessity of having a special institution for their care. He was principally instrumental in founding the Retreat for the insane at Hartford, one of the earliest of the kind, was elected its superintendent, and presided over it till his death. Under him it became one of the best-managed in- stitutions either in this country or Europe. Dr. Todd was repeatedly elected president and vice- g resident of the Medical society of Connecticut. Le was the author of several professional mono- graphs and some occasional addresses.


TODD, John, soldier, b. in Montgomery county, Pa., in 1750 ; d. at the Blue Licks, Ky., 19 Aug., 1782. He took part in the battle of Point Pleasant, Va., in 1774, as adjutant-general to Gen. Andrew Lewis. He settled as a lawyer in Fincastle, Va., but, with his brothers, emigrated to Fayette coun- ty, Ky., in 1775, took part in the organization of the Transylvania colonial legislature that year with Daniel Boone, and penetrated southwest as far as Bowling Green, Ky. In 1776 he settled near Lex- ington and was elected a burgess to the Virginia legislature, being one of the first two representa- tives from Kentucky county, where he served as county lieutenant and colonel of militia. He ac- companied Gen. George Rogers Clark to Vineennes and Kaskaskia, and succeeded him in command of the latter place. In 1777 he was commissioned by Gov. Patrick Henry, of Virginia, to be colonel and commandant of Illinois county, and served two years. He organized the civil government of this county, which afterward became the state of Illi- nois. *Col. Todd went to Virginia in 1779, and was a member of the legislature in 1780, where he pro- cured land-grants for public schools, and intro- duced a bill for negro emancipation. Afterward he returned to his family in Kentucky. While there he, as senior colonel, commanded the forces against the Indians in the battle of Blue Licks, where he was killed. — Levi, brother of John, was a lieutenant under George Rogers Clark in the expe- dition of 1778, and one of the few survivors of the Blue Licks; and Levi's son, Robert S., was the father of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln.


TODD, John, author, b. in Rutland, Vt., 9 Oct., 1800; d. in Pittsfield, Mass., 24 Aug., 1873. His boyhood was passed in poverty, but he fitted him- self for college, and was graduated at Yale in 1822. He spent the following year in teaching, then en- tered Andover theological seminary, and in 1827 was ordained a minister of the Congregational church in Groton, Mass. He became pastor of the church in Northampton in 1883, of the 1st Con- gregational church in Philadelphia in 1836, and of the 1st Congregational church in Pittsfield in 1842. Here he remained as pastor until May, 1872, when his strength was impaired by old age. In 1845 he received the degree of D. D. from Williams. Dr. Todd took a warm interest in the progress of edu- cation, and the Holyoke female seminary partly owes its existence to him. He was a voluminous and popular writer. Besides his contributions to the " Congregationalist " and other religious peri- odicals, and his ser- mons, lectures, and orations, he pub- lished about thirty volumes,all of which were re - issued in England, and sever- al of them have been translated into Ger- man, French, mod- ern Greek, Dutch, Danish, Italian, Ara- bic, Armenian,Turk- ish, and Tamil. His "Lectures to Chil- dren " have been printed in raised letters for the blind, and used as a school- book in the colony of Sierra Leone ; of someof hisbooks sev- eral hundred thou-

sand copies have

been sold, and several of his shorter pieces, notably f Hafed's Dream," were for many years favorites for school readers. His publications include " Lec- tures to Children" (Northampton, 1834; 2d series, 1858); "Student's Manual" (1835; revised ed., un- der the title "Student's Guide," with preface by Rev. Thomas Binnev, London, last ed., 1869) ; " In- dex Rerum" (1835);*" Truth made Simple" (1839); "Great Cities " (1841) ; " The Lost Sister of Wyo- ming" (1841); "Hints to Young Men" (1843); "Simple Sketches" (Pittsfield, 1843); "Summer Gleanings " (London, 1852) ; " Daughter at School " (Northampton, 1854) ; " The Angel of the Iceberg, and other Stories" (1859) ; " Future Punishment " (New York, 1863) ; " Mountain Gems " (4 vols., Boston, 1864) ; " The Water- Dove, and other Gems " (Edinburgh, 1868); "Sketches and Incidents, or Summer Gleanings " (1866) ; " Nuts for Boys to Crack" (New York, 1866); "Polished Diamonds" (Boston, 1866) ; " Hints and Thoughts for Chris- tians " (New York, 1867) : " Serpents in the Dove's Nest " (Boston, 1867) ;" Woman's Rights" (1867), which elicited from Gail Hamilton a reply entitled " Woman's Wrongs : a Counter-irritant " (1868) ; " Hints and Thoughts for Christians " (London, 1869); "The Sunset Land, or the Great Pacific Slope" (Boston, 1869): "Missions" (1869); and "Old-Fashioned Lives" (1870).


TODD, John Blair Smith, soldier, b. in Lexington, Ky., 4 April, 1814 ; d. in Yankton, Dakota, 5 Jan., 1872. He went with his parents to Illinois in 1827, and from that state to the U. S. military academy, where he was graduated in 1837 and assigned to the 6th infantry. He was made 1st lieutenant on 25 Dec, served with his regiment in the Florida war from 1837 till 1840, was on recruiting service during part of 1841, and in active service in the Florida war during the remainder of that year and part of 1842. He was made captain in 1843, and was on frontier duty in Indian territory and Arkansas until 1846. lie served in the war with Mexico in 1847, taking part in the siege of Vera Cruz and the battles of Cerro Gordo and Amazoque. He was on garrison and frontier duty till 1855, when he was engaged in the action of Blue Water against the Sioux Indians. He resigned on 16 Sept., 1856, and was an Indian trader at Fort Randall, Dakota, from that date till 1861,