Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/630

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596
CHAVEZ APARICIO
CHEEVER

executed the order, and against Diaz. Chavero then was grand master of a masonic lodge, and expelled Mier y Terán from the brotherhood, and suspended Gen. Diaz from his masonic rights. This action gave Chavero great popularity. In congress Chavero also made a strong speech against Mier and Diaz, but afterward became one of his adherents. Chavero was elected senator in 1886, and is professor of the mining-school and law-school of Mexico. He is the author of the dramas "La Reina Xochitl" and "La tempestad de un beso," "Quetzalcoatl" "Los amores de Alarcón," "La hermana de los Ávilas," "El mundo de ahora," and others. His books relative to Father Sahagun and to the Sun-Stone are often referred to, and well known to antiquaries.


CHAVEZ APARICIO, Fray Trinidad (chah - veth), Spanish missionary, b. in Segovia, Spain, 23 Feb., 1508; d. in Cuba, in August, 1582. He studied at the University of Alcala, was ordained priest at Toledo in 1530, and at once joined some missionaries coming to America. After his arrival at Vera Cruz, in April, 1531, Chavez travelled along the Papaloapan river, and began his missionary work in company with Fathers Diego and Jeronimo de la Cruz. They converted many Indians, erected several rustic buildings and dedicated them as churches, and Chavez remained among the natives after De la Cruz had died of fever in 1540. He continued liis mission alone, baptized many ca- ciques, taught thoin Spanish, and greatly improved their morals and customs. According to Cardoso, he noticed that the members of the Indian nobility drank a special frothy beverage called " xocotl " tried it, and gathered information about its com- position and oi'igin, studied the cacao-plant and its culture, and, on his return to Spain in 1570, made the " chacolatl," which was called " choco- late," a corruption of the Indian name. Chavez was returning to Mexico when he died in Cuba. He left a work entitled " Origenes y cultivo de la planta del cacao."


CHEATHAM, Benjamin Franklin, soldier, b. in Nashville, Tenn., 20 Oct., 1820 : d. there, 4 Sept., 1886. He served as captain of volunteers in the Mexican war, distinguished himself at Monte- rey, Medelin, and Cerro Gordo, and, after the ex- piration of his twelve months' term of service, was again mustered in as colonel of the 3d Tennessee regiment, and served till the end of the war. He was major-general of Tennessee militia after his return, and was a farmer until 1861, when he en- tered the army of the seceded states, being one of the first Tennesseeans to enlist in the Confederate service, and was early appointed a brigadier-gen- eral. He commanded at Mayfield, Ky., in Septem- ber, 1861, and at the battles of Belmont and Shiloh, served subsequently at Columbus, Ky., was a di- vision commander in Bragg's army when it entered Kentucky in September, 1862, was soon afterward promoted major-general, and was engaged at Perryville, Stone River, being wounded and having three horses shot in the second battle, and at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Nashville, and other places. President Grant, who was his per- sonal friend, offered him an appointment in the civil service, but he declined. He devoted himself chiefly to agriculture after the war, but served four years as superintendent of state prisons, and in October, 1885, became postmaster of Nashville.


CHECKLEY, John, clergyman, b. in Boston, Mass., in 1680; d. in Providence, R. I., in 1753. He published in London, in 1723, a reprint of Les- lie's "Short and Easy Method with the Deists," to which he added a " Discourse Concerning Episco- pacy, in Defence of Christianity and the Church of England," consisting of a rude attack on the clergy and people of New England. For this he was tried before the supreme court in Boston in 1724, and fined £50 for libel. He went to England to take orders in 1727, intending to settle at Mar- blehead, but the bishop of London refused to or- dain a man who had rendered himself so obnoxious to the New Englanders, and was a foe to Christians of other persuasions in the community. Afterward he was ordained by the bishop of Exeter, and sent to Narragansett. He settled in Providence in 1739. He was a man of eccentric and irascible conduct, but witty, learned in the classics, and familiar with the Narragansett language. He published, in 1715, " Choice Dialogues about Pre- destination," which were answered by ' Thomas Watter, who defended the Calvinistic doctrine, and were republished with an " Answer by a Strip- ling" in 1720. In 1727 appeared "The Modest Proof of the Order of the Churches," the authorship .of which was accredited to him, introducing the Episcopal controversy into New England, and eliciting replies from Martin Mar-Prelate and Wigglesworth. He published also his speech upon his trial, and reissued it in London in 1738.


CHEESHAHTEAUMUCK, Caleb, Indian, b. in Massachusetts in 1646; d. in Charlestown, Mass., in 1666. He was the only Indian that was ever graduated at Harvard college, having received his degree there in 1665.


CHEESMAN, John Cummings, physician, b. in New York city, 20 -July, 1788; d. there, 11 Oct., 1862. Pie was graduated at the medical depart- ment of Queen's college (now Rutgers) in 1812, having for his preceptor Dr. Valentine Seaman. Subsequently he resided in New York, where he became known as one of the most eminent physi- cians in the United States, and practised there for almost half a century. He held many important offices, among which were surgeon to the public institutions (now Charity hospital) on Blackwell's island, and surgeon to Bellevue hospital. For forty years he was professionally connected with the New Y^ork hospital. Dr. Cheesman was a mem- ber of numerous medical societies.


CHEETHAM, James, journalist and author, b. in Manchester, England, in 1772 ; d. in New York city, 10 Sept., 1810. He was an English radical, a trenchant writer, with a talent for invective, who, escaping from the Manchester riots, came to New York in 1798, and became editor of the " American Citizen." In 1803 he published "Nine Letters on Burr's Defection " ; in 1804 a volume entitled "Reply to Aristides"; in 1809 a " Life of Thomas Paine," reprinted in England in 1817. He was originally a friend of Paine's, but became embit- tered against him, and in writing the last-named work was inspired by enmity. A corrected copy, with revisions in the authors hand-writing, is pre- served by the New York historical society.


CHEEVER, Ezekiel, educator, b. in London, England, 25 Jan., 1614; d. in Boston, Mass., 21 Aug., 1708. He was the son of a linen-draper, received a classical education, and emigrated to America in June, 1637, in order to enjoy freedom of worship. In 1638, with Davenport and Eaton, he founded New Haven, Conn. He was school-master there, and afterward at Ipswich and Charlestown, Mass., and subsequent to 6 Jan., 1671, had charge of the Latin school in Boston. Many of the leading citizens of the colony were his pupils. He published a volume of essays on the millennium, entitled " Scripture Prophecies Explained," and a "Latin Accidence," of which twenty editions were