Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/206

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BARRY
BARRY

country, and in 1813 was sentenced to death for treason. He and his fellow-conspirators hid them- selves in the mountains for six years, when Bar- rundia placed himself at the head of the revolu- tionary party of Guatemala. He was conspicuous in the struggle for independence, and was a mem- ber of the first republican constituent assembly. On 10 April, 1824, he introduced and carried a de- cree for the immediate abolition of slavery through- out the republic, and he subsequently procured the adoption of a code modelled after that of Living- ston for the state of Louisiana, which he had translated into Spanish. In 1825 he declined the office of vice-president, but in 1829 accepted that of president, and devoted himself to educational and other reforms. When in 1852 three of the iive states that had composed the old republic again united, he was unanimously chosen presi- dent ; but, as two of the states seceded, he resigned, and employed himself in preparing a narrative of Central American events. In the hope of regain- ing his ascendancy in Guatemala through Ameri- can influence, he set out in 1854 for Washington as minister of Honduras, with the alleged design of negotiating for its annexation to the United States, but died of apoplexy.


BARRY, Henry W., soldier, b. in New York city; d. in Washington, D. C, 7 June, 1875. He was self-educated in the city of his birth, and so improved his opportunities that in early man- hood he became principal of the Locust Grove academy, Kentucky. He then studied law and was graduated at the Columbian law college, Wash- ington, D. C. He entered the union army as a private early in the civil war, and organized the first regiment of colored troops raised in Kentucky. He commanded a brigade, and for a time a divi- sion, and was brevetted major-general of volun- teers. As a member of the state constitutional convention of Mississippi in 1867, he was active during the reconstruction period and was chosen state senator in 18G8, and elected to congress the same year. Reelected for successive terms by the votes of the colored republicans of Mississippi, he retained his seat in congress until his death. Dur- ing his last term he was chairman of the committee on postal ex- penditures.


BARRY, John, naval officer, b. in Tacumshane, county Wex- ford, Ireland, in 1745 ; d. in Philadel- phia, 13 Sept., IM):!. He fol- lowed the sea from child- hood, and, making his home in Phil- adelphia at the age of fifteen, ac- quired wealth as the master of a vessel.

He offered his

services to congress at the opening of the revolu- tionary war, "abandoning the finest ship and the first employ in America " (his own words), and, in February, 1776, was given the command of the " Lexington," in which he made the first capture of a British war vessel accomplished by an American cruiser, that of the tender "Edward." He was then transferred to the frigate " Effingham." During the winter of 1776-'7, while navigation was closed, he commanded a company of volun- teers and assisted in the operations at Trenton with some heavy artillery. In 1777, with four boats, he captured a British war-schooner in the Delaware without losing a man. For some time he acted as aide-de-camp to Gen. Cadwalader. When the British occupied Philadelphia in the latter part of 1777, he took the "Effingham" up the Delaware to save her from capture. The ene- my oifered him a heavy bribe to deliver up the ship, and finally succeeded in destroying her by fire. In 1778 he was assigned to the command of the " Raleigh," which was pursued and driven on shore by a British squadron, after making a gal- lant resistance. In February, 1781, in the "Alli- ance " he conveyed Col. Laurens on a special mis- sion to France, and cruised with success until he put in for repairs in October. In a desperate com- bat he captured the " Atalanta " and the " Tre- passy," and was severely wounded. After carry- ing Lafayette and Noailles to France, he cruised in the West Indies, and in the early part of 1782 fought a sharp battle with an English ship, until the appearance of a superior force compelled him to desist, to avoid capture. On the establishment of the new navy in 1794, he was named the senior officer, with the rank of commodore. lie com- manded the frigate " United States," the building of which he had superintended.


BARRY, John, R. C. bishop, b. in the county Wexford, Ireland, in 1799 ; d. in Paris, France, 21 Nov., 1859. While yet an ecclesiastical student he emigrated to America and finished his studies in the theological seminary of Charleston, S. C, under Bishop England. He was ordained in 1825, and appointed pastor of the church of the Holy Trinity in Augusta. Ga. During the cholera epidemic of 1832 he turned his house into a hospital, and after- ward into an asylum for the orphans made by the pestilence. Bishop England made him his vicar in Georgia in 1839, and he was promoted to the vicar-generalship of the diocese of Charleston, and appointed superior of the theological seminary in 1844. He was the first to establish a Catholic day- school in Georgia. He was present at the council of Baltimore as theologian in 1846, and was ap- pointed vicar-general of the diocese cf Savannah in 1853, where he volunteered to nurse the victims of the yellow fever. On the death oi Bishop Gart- land from the epidemic, he was appointed admin- istrator of the see, and in 1857 was created bishop. He had never fully recovered from the exhaustion brought on by his labors in the epidemics of 1853 and 1855, and he visited Europe for the benefit of his health in 1859.


BARRY, John Stewart, governor of Michigan, b. in Amiierst, N. IL, 29 Jan., 1802; d. in Constantine, Mich., 14 Jan., 1870. He attended a common school, and, when a young man, went to Atlanta, Ga., where he lived until 1832, and then removed to Michigan. He had studied law, but became a merchant at Constantine, Mich., and was active in politics there. On the admission of Michigan into the union, in 1836, he was a member of the constitutional convention, and was also chosen a state senator, an office which he again held in 1840. In the latter year he became interested in the cultivation of the sugar-beet, and went to Europe to study the best methods of preparing the sugar. He was elected governor in 1841. and was twice reelected, serving from 1842 to 1846 and