Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/375

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INGERSOLL
INGERSOLL
347

faith and was appointed librarian of the museum of Rotterdam. He held that office till his death, and published " De la naturaleza y virtudes de los arboles, plantas y animales de la America, de que se aprovecha la medicina " (Rotterdam, 1761): "Rerum medicinalium Novi Orbis thesaurus" (3 vols.. 1763); "Lehrbuch der amerikanischen Geographic" (1764); and "Description geographique et statistique des missions des Jesuites du Para et de l'Uruguay" (1765).


INGERSOLL, Ernest, naturalist, b. in Monroe, Mich., 13 March, 1852. His grandfather was one of the earliest emigrants to the Western Reserve of Ohio. He spent his youth in ranging the fields and marshes in search of natural-history objects, pursued an irregular course in Oberlin college, chiefly devoting himself to science, and was made curator of the college museum. He afterward became a special student in the Harvard museum of comparative zoölogy, devoting himself to the study of birds. He spent the summer of 1873 with Louis Agassiz in his seaside school on Penikese, and after the death of Agassiz served as naturalist and collector with the Hayden survey in the west, and during 1874 contributed scientific articles and sketches of travel to the New York “Tribune.” He made a second trip to the west in 1877, corresponding with the “New York Herald.” He became a member of the U. S. fish commission, and a special agent of the tenth census in 1880, for the investigation of the American oyster industries, and in 1883 he was sent to California to prepare articles for “Harper's Magazine.” Mr. Ingersoll is now (1887) editor of the publications of the Canadian Pacific railway, residing in Montreal. He has made investigations in conchology and other branches of natural history, and is the author of “A Natural History of the Nests and Eggs of American Birds” (seven parts, Salem, 1879); “Birds' Nesting” (1881); a report on the “History and Present Condition of the Oyster Industries of the United States” (Washington, 1881); “Friends Worth Knowing: Glimpses of American Natural History” (New York, 1881); “Knocking 'Round the Rockies” (1882); “The Crest of the Continent” (1883); “Old Ocean” (Boston, 1883); “Country Cousins” (New York, 1884); “The Ice Queen” (1885); “To the Shenandoah and Beyond” (1885); “The Strange Ventures of a Stowaway” (Philadelphia, 1886); “Down East Latch-Strings” (Boston, 1887); several pamphlets; and a series of books on natural history for the young.


INGERSOLL, Jared, stamp-agent, b. in Milford, Conn., in 1722; d. in New Haven, Conn., in August, 1781. He was graduated at Yale in 1742, and in 1765 arrived in Boston from England charged with the commission of stamp-agent for Connecticut, which Benjamin Franklin had advised him to accept. After the demonstrations against the obnoxious act in various parts of the colonies, Ingersoll, assured of the governor's protection, tried to reason the people of New Haven into forbearance. Surrounding his house, they demanded him to resign. “I know not if I have the power to resign,” he replied. He promised, however, that he would re-ship any stamps that he received or leave the matter to their decision. He was finally compelled to offer his resignation, which was not satisfactory to the people of other sections, and, in order to save his house from an attack, he rode from New Haven, resolving to place himself under the protection of the legislature in Hartford. Several miles below Wethersfield he met a body of 500 men on horseback, preceded by three trumpeters and two militia officers. They received him and rode with him to Wethersfield, where they compelled him to resign his office. Entering a house for safety, he sent word of his situation to the governor and the assembly. After waiting for three hours the people entered the house. Ingersoll said: “The cause is not worth dying for,” and made a written declaration that his resignation was his own free act, without any equivocation. “Swear to it,” said the crowd; but this he refused. They then commanded him to shout “Liberty and property” three times, and, throwing his hat into the air, he obeyed. He was then escorted by a large crowd to Hartford, where he read to the assembly the paper that he had just signed. About 1770 he was made admiralty judge of the middle district, and resided for several years in Philadelphia, after which he returned to New Haven. He was the author of a pamphlet on the “Stamp-Act,” which is now very rare (New Haven, 1766).—His son, Jared, jurist, b. in Connecticut in 1749; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 31 Oct., 1822, was graduated at Yale in 1766. He then went to London, studied law at the Middle Temple for five years, and was then more than eighteen months in Paris, where he formed the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin. On his return he became a prominent lawyer of Philadelphia, and, although the son of a loyalist, espoused the cause of the colonies in the Revolution. He was a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental congress in 1780-'1, a representative in the convention that framed the Federal constitution in 1787, twice attorney-general of Pennsylvania, U. S. district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, and received and declined the appointment of chief judge of the Federal court. In 1812 he was the Federal candidate for vice-president of the United States, but was defeated. At the time of his death he was presiding judge of the district court of Philadelphia county.—The younger Jared's son, Charles Jared, statesman, b. in Philadelphia, 3 Oct., 1782; d. there, 14 May, 1862, received a liberal education, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia. He then travelled in Europe, and was attached to the U. S. embassy to France. He was afterward elected to congress as a Democrat, serving from 1813 till 1815, when he became U. S. district attorney, and held that office until he was removed by Gen. Jackson in 1829. Soon afterward he served in the legislature. He was a member of the Canal and internal improvement convention at Harrisburg in 1825, and also of the Reform convention there in 1837, and in Philadelphia in 1838. In 1837 he was appointed secretary of legation to Prussia. He served again in congress from 1841 till 1847, as chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, and distinguished himself as a Democratic leader. In 1847 he was nominated, by President Polk, U. S. minister to France, but was rejected by the senate. He was the author of “Chiomara,” a poem published in the “Port-folio” (1800); “Edwy and Elgira,” a tragedy (Philadelphia, 1801); “Inchiquin the Jesuit's Letters on American Literature and Politics” (New York, 1810); “Julian,” a dramatic poem (1831); and a “Historical Sketch of the Second War between the United States and Great Britain” (4 vols., Philadelphia, 1845-'52). He also published numerous anonymous contributions to the “Democratic Press” of Philadelphia, and to the “National Intelligencer” of Washington, on the controversies with England before the war of 1812 (1811-'15); several “Speeches” concerning that war (1813-'15); a discourse before the American philosophical society on the “Influence of America on the Mind,” which