Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/715

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LEFFERTS
LEGARE
677

by Archbishop Kenrick. On his arrival in Detroit he had a dispute with some of the laity as to the tenure of church property in the city, in which he was finally successful. At this time there were only two Roman Catholic churches in Detroit, and twenty-five in the states of Michigan and Wiscon- sin, which were included in his diocese. During his episcopate the number of churches in Detroit increased to eleven, and in that part of Michigan called the lower peninsula to 160, the upper penin- sula and Wisconsin having been formed into new dioceses. He built the cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, and purchased sites for churches and other church property in places where cities where likely to be built. His foresight in this respect has re- sulted in a permanent revenue for the diocese of Detroit for religious and charitable purposes. The Indian missions were the object of his special care, and he established stations at obscure and distant points where the Indians and half-breeds could attend religious services. To provide a sup- ply of priests he founded the Redemptorist con- vent of Detroit. He was also instrumental in founding the American college of Louvain, Bel- gium, with the same object. While the number of priests in his diocese when he entered on his office was but eighteen, at his death it had increased to eighty-eight in the lower peninsula alone. He was a strong supporter of Roman Catholic education, and introduced into his diocese several brother- hoods and sisterhoods that they might open schools. Numerous charitable institutions are due to the energy of Bishop Lefevre, among them four or- f»han asylums, St. Mary's hospital and insane asy- um, and the Michigan state retreat. He attended several of the provincial councils of Baltimore and Cincinnati, and the national council of 1852, and took an active part in these assemblies.


LEFFERTS, Marshall, engineer, b. in Bedford, L. I., 15 Jan., 1821 ; d. near Newark, N. J., 3 July, 1876. He was educated in the common schools. was first a clerk, and subsequently a civil engineer, and, returning to mercantile pursuits, became a partner in the importing-house of Monewood and Company, New York. In 1849 he became presi- dent of the New York, New England, and New York state telegraph companies, from which office he retired in 1860 and began a system of telegraph- wires, which was worked on the automatic plan of transmission. These patents were subsequently purchased by the American (now the Western onion) telegraph company, of which he became electric engineer, and at the same time he was con- sulting engineer of the Atlantic cable company. He was the first in the United States to make and apply instruments for the detection of faults in electric cables, and to reduce the system of relays to common standards. He resigned his office with the Western Union telegraph company in 186? to organize the commercial news department of that company, became president of the gold and stock telegraph company in 1869, and when, two years afterward, the latter purchased the commercial news department, he again assumed its control. He joined the New York 7th regiment in 1851 as a private, became its lieutenant-colonel the next year, and its colonel in 1859. In 1861 this regi- ment, under his command, was the first to leave the city for the seat of war. It was again called out in 1882 and in 1863, and at the latter date was stationed in Frederick, Md., where Col. Lefferts was military governor, returning to New York to protect the city in the draft riots of July, 1863. At the close of the war he resigned his command, and accepted that of commandant of the veteran corps of the 7th regiment, holding office until his death, which occurred on the railroad train while he was going with his corps to the Fourth of July parade in Philadelphia in 1876.— His son, George Morewood, physician, b. in Brooklyn, 24 Feb., 1846, was educated at the College of the city of New York, graduated at the New York college of physicians and surgeons in 1870, and in 1872-'3 studied in Vienna. He then settled in New York city, making a specialty of diseases of the throat and chest, and in July, 1874, he performed the op- eration of subhyoidean laryngotomy for the first time that it has been attempted in the United States. He is professor of laryngoscopy in the New York college of physicians and surgeons, is surgeon and consulting surgeon to several New York hospitals, is a member and trustee of various professional bodies, and in 1876 was president of the New York laryngological society. He con- ducted at one time the quarterly reports of laryn- goscopy in the " New York Medical Journal," and the semi-annual reports on syphilis of the mouth, nose, and larynx in the "Archives of Dermatol- ogy." He contributed largely to medical litera- ture, and is the author of "Diseases of the Nose and its accessory Cavities " (New York, 1884) ; •' Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Nasal Ca- tarrh " (St. Louis, Mo., 1886) ; and " Phannacopia for Diseases of Throat and Nose" (New York, 1887). He has also translated " Frankel on the Gen- eral Diagnosis of Diseases of the Nose, Pharynx, and Larynx " (1876) ; and " Ziemssen's Cyclopaedia of Practice of Medicine" (1876).


LEFFINGWELL, Charles Wesley, clergyman, b. in Ellington, Conn., 5 Dec., 1840. He entered Union college in 1857, and studied there for two years. During 1859-'60 he was principal of Gal- veston academy, Texas. He then entered Knox college, Galesburg, 111., and was graduated in 1862. He was vice-principal of the military school at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in 1862-'5. studied theology at Nashotah theological seminary, Wis., and after his graduation in 1867 was for a brief period tutor there. He then took orders in the Episcopal church, and was assistant minister in St. James's church, Chicago, 111., in 1868. Soon afterward he founded and became rector of St. Mary's school, Knoxville, III. He received the degree of D. D. from Knox college in 1875. Dr. Leffingwell has been presi- dent of the standing committee of the diocese of Quincy, and was editor of the diocese and province in 1875-'9. Since 1879 he has devoted himself earnestly to journalism in the interests of his church, and is editor of a weekly paper, "The Living Church." In addition to his work as editor, he has prepared a " Reading- Book of English Clas- sics for Young People" (1879).


LEFTWICH, Joel, soldier, b. in Bedford county, Va,, in 1759 ; d. there, 20 April, 1846. During the Revolutionary war he fought at Germantown and at Camden, and was severely wounded at Guilford. In the war of 1812 he commanded a brigade under Gen. Harrison, and he was subsequently major- general of militia, often a member of the Virginia legislature, and for many years a justice of the peace of Bedford county.


'LEGARE, Hugh Swinton (leh-gree), statesman, b. in Charleston, S. C, 2 Jan., 1789; d. in Boston, Mass., 20 June, 1843. He was of French Huguenot stock on the paternal, and Scottish on the maternal, side. A physical infirmity that debarred him from manly sports gave him a taste for reading, and to become an orator was the chief object of his ambition. He was graduated at the College of South Carolina in 1814, studied law for