Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/252

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BELL
BELL

the bar in 1853, after which he practised for some time in Hammondsport, and was postmaster there during Lincohi's administration. Later he moved to Bath, N. Y., where he followed his profession with great success. In 18(54 he removed to New York, where he has since resided. About this time he became the attorney and counsel of the Union Pacific railway, and assisted in preparing the act of congress under which the road was constructed. He has been employed in several important suits in New York, and as attorney for numerous corpora- tions and (irgani/ations. Mr. liellwas t lie originator and president of the " Saturday Niglit Club." Since 1870 he has devoted special attention to medical jurisprudence, having in that year joined the Medi- co-legal Society of New York. For six years he was its president, and its success is largely due to his energy. In 1883 he founded the " Medico-Legal Journal," and is still its editor. His writings on medical jurisprudence include the inaugural and retiring addresses during the years he was i iresident of the medico-legal society, and also the following- named pamphlets : " The Coroner System and its Needed Reforms " (1881) ; " Suicide and Legisla- tion" (1882); "The Rights of the Insane" (1883); " Madness and Crime " (1884) ; " Shall we hang the Insane who commit Homicide ? " (1885) ; and " Clas- sification of JMcntal Diseases as a Basis of Insan- ity" (1880). He has also contributed largely to the daily press.


BELL, George, soldier, b. in Maryland, about 1832. He was graduated at West Point in 1853. During the civil war he served as assistant in the organization of the subsistence department for the Manassas campaign, as principal assistant com- missary to the Array of the Potomac, and in charge of subsistence depots, and as chief of commissariat of the departments of Washington and the Poto- mac. On 9 April, 1865, he was brevetted briga- dier-general for services during the war.


BELL, Henry Haywood, naval officer, b. in North Carolina, about 1808; drowned at the mouth of Osaka river, Japan, 11 Jan , 1808. He was ap- pointed a midshipman from North Carolina in August, 1823, and during more than forty-five years of service saw much severe fighting. He was on board of the •' Grampus " when she was en- gaged in clearing the coast of Cuba of pirates. He was connected with the East India squadron for many years, and commanded one of the vessels of the squadron which, in November, 1856, captured and destroyed the four barrier forts near Canton, China. Early in the civil war he was appointed fleet-captain of the Western Gulf squadron. At the capture of New Orleans he commanded one of the three divisions of the fleet, and was sent to take formal possession of the city by raising the U. S. flag over the custom-house and city hall. For a time in 1863-'4, after the recapture of Galveston by the Confederates, he was in command of the Western Gulf blockading squadron. In July, 1865, he was ordered to the command of the East India squadron, his rank being then that of commodore. In July, 1866, he was promoted to be rear-admiral, and in 1867 he was retired ; but Rear-Admiral S. C. Rowan, who was to have relieved him, had not arrived when he was drowned in attempting to en- ter the Osaka river in a boat from the " Hartford," his flag-ship His widow died in 1886.


BELL, Hiram Parks, lawyer, b. in Jackson co., 6a., 27 Jan., 1827. He received an academic edu- cation, taught school for two years, read law, was admitted to the bar in 1849, and has since prac- tised at Gumming, Ga. He was a candidate for presidential elector on the Bell ticket in 186C, and opposed the secession ordinance in the convention of 1861. He was a member of the state senate in 1861, and resigned to enter the confederate army, being commissioned captain in March, 1862. He became colonel of the 43d Georgia regiment, was dangerously wounded at the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, Miss., 29 Dec, 1862, and resigned soon af- terward. He was a member of the Confederate congress in 1864 and 1865, and served in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1873 till 1875, and again from 1877 till 1879. He was a delegate to the St. Louis convention of 1876, which nominated Mr. Tilden for the presidency. In congress Mr. Bell favored using the proceeds of the sale of pub- lic lands for educational purposes,


BELL, John, physician, b. in Ireland in 1796 ;. d. in 1872. He emigrated to the United States in 1810, was graduated at the university of Pennsyl- vania in 1817, was for several years a lecturer on the institutes of medicine in the Philadelphia med- ical institute, and afterward professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the medical college of Ohio, He was widely known as a lecturer and popular medical writer. His principal works are " Baths and Mineral Waters " (Philadelphia, 1831) ; " Health and Beauty " (1838) ; " Regimen and Lon- gevity " (1842); *' Lectures on the Practice of Phys- ic " (4th ed., 1848) ; " Baths and the Water Regi- men " (1849) ; and " Mineral and Thermal Springs of the United States and Canada " (1855). Dr. Bell was editor of several medical journals.


BELL, John, statesman, b. near Nashville,, Tenn., 15 Feb., 1797; d. at Cumberland Iron Works, Tenn., 10 Sept., 1869. His father was a. farmer in fair circumstances. He was gradu- ated at Cumber- land college (now the university of Nashville) in 1814, studied law, settled at Fi-ank- lin, Tenn., and was elected to the state senate in 1817. Declin- ing a re-election, he adhered to his profession until 1827, when, after an excited can- vass, he was elect- ed to congress over Felix Grun- dy, by a thou- sand majority,

although Grundy

had the support of Gen. Jackson, then a presidential candidate. Bell was re-elected six times, serving in the house of representatives until 1841, and for ten years he was chairman of the committee on Indian affairs. He was at first a free-trader, but changed his views and became an earnest protectionist. He was opposed to nullification, and, although voting against the bill to charter the United States bank in 1832, he protested against the removal of the deposits, and this course led to a breach between him and President Jackson. He was one of the founders of the whig party. This change was marked by his election in 1834 to the speakership of the house, in opposition to James K. Polk, whom the democrats supported. He joined with Judge White in the anti-Van Buren movement in Tennessee, which completed his sins in the estimation of President Jackson, who could not, however, prevent his re-