Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/642

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608
CRIITTENDEN
CHOATE

random sliots. Outside the cry was raised, " Burn them out ! " and, believing that the jail was on fire, the Chisolm party descended the stairs, the mother and an elder son bearing the body of the boy be- tween them, the father following with his daughter Cornelia, a girl of eighteen, who had already been wounded by chance shots. As soon as Chisolm came within sight of the mob he was fired upon, and fell so severely wounded that he was believed to be dead. The daughter received additional wounds at this time, and, with blood streaming from her face and arms, walked through the crowd, beside her father, who was borne to his house, not far distant, and died in about two weeks, from the effect of his wounds. The daughter died two days later, her wounds proving more serious than was at first supposed. At the September term of the county court the leaders of the mob were indicted, having in the mean time been at large, but none of them were ever punished for their part in these murders. No evidence was ever adduced connect- ing either Chisolm or his associates with the assas- sination of Gully ; but the local newspapers repeat- edly justified the mob. The commonly accepted explanation of the aft'air is, that Chisolm had so organized the recently freed and enfranchised ne- groes that he controlled the elections in favor of the republican party — a state of things to which the democrats of the vicinity refused to submit. In December, 1877, Walter Riley, a negro, con- fessed the murder of Gully, and was hanged for the crime, but denied that Judge Chisolm and his associates instigated the act. See " The Chisolm Massacre, a Picture of Home Rule in Mississippi," by James M. Wells (Washington, 1878), giving the Republican view of the case, and " Kemper County Vindicated," giving the Democratic side.


CHITTENDEN, Russell Henry, chemist, b. in New Haven, Conn., 18 Feb., 1856. He was graduated at the Sheffield scientific school of Yale in 1875, and also studied at the University in Hei- delberg. In 1876 he became instructor of chemis- try in the Sheffield school, in 1880 received the de- gree of Ph. D. for his researches, and in 1882 be- came professor of physiological chemistry. Prof. Chittenden has made numerous investigations in the domain of physiological chemistry, the results of which have appeared in the " American Chemi- cal Journal," '* Journal of Physiology," " Zeit- schrift flir Biologic," and other periodicals. He has also edited the " Studies from the Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry of the Sheffield Scien- tific School of Yale College" (New Haven, 1885 et seq.), and has been called on to testify as an ex- pert in important criminal cases.


CHITTENDEN, Simeon Baldwin, merchant, b, in Guilford, Conn., 29 March, 1814; d. in Brook- lyn, N. Y., 14 April, 1889. He entered a store at New Haven, Conn., i-emoved to New York in 1843, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was vice- president of the New York chamber of commerce from 1867 till 1869; was one of the directors in the Continental bank and in the Continental fire insurance company; a director in the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, and other railroads; and president of the New Haven and New London shore line railroad of Conneciicut. He was elected a member of congress from Brooklyn to fill a va- cancy, taking his seat 7 Dec. 1874, and was twice re-elected as an independent republican. Mr. Chit- tenden gave liberally to the Long Island historical societv and other institutions. In 1887 he gave |125.()00 to Yale for a librarv building.


CHITTENDEN, Thomas, first governor of Vermont, b. in East Guilford, Conn., 6 Jan., 1730; d. in Williston, Vt., 24 Aug., 1797. He removed to Salisbury at the age of twenty, and was many years representative, and justice of the peace, but in May, 1774, emigrated to the New Hampshire grants, as Vermont was then called, and settled at Williston, on Onion river. During the controversy with New York, and the war of the revolution, he was assiduously engaged in the councils of his state, to which he rendered great service. He was a member of the convention which, 16 Jan., 1777, declared Vermont an independent state ; and was appointed one of the committee to communicate to congress the proceedings of the inhabitants, and to solicit admission into the Union. He was a member of the convention at Windsor, 2 July, 1777, which framed the first constitution of Ver- mont ; and president of the council of safety, which was vested with all the powers of govern- ment. Under the constitution established in 1778, he was elected governor of the state, and, with the exception of one year, filled that office until his death. In the difficult position in which Gov. Chittenden was placed, contending for independ- ence on the one hand, and unacknowledged by con- gress as a state, in consequence of the claims of New York upon the other, a profound policy was requisite. To prevent invasion, hopes were held out to the British of a return to its allegiance to the king, while the possibility of her deserting the American cause operated, in congress, to pre- vent her being required to submit to the claims of New York. A memoir of him, with a history of the constitution of Vermont during his adminis- tration, was published by Daniel Chipman (1849). — His son, Martin, governor of Vermont, b. in Salisbury, Conn., 12 March, 1769; d. in Williston, Vt., 5 Sept., 1841, was graduated at Dartmouth in 1789. In May, 1776, the family removed to Willis- ton, Vt., but during the same year took up their abode in the southern part of the state, where they remained until the close of the war. Owing to feeble health, he devoted himself to agriculture, of which he was exceedingly fond, at Jericho, in Chittenden co. He was a member of the conven- tion that adopted the U. S. constitution ; was in 1790 elected county clerk and representative, to which station he was re-elected for six successive years, and also at occasional subsequent intervals. He was judge of the county court in 1793-'5 ; chief judge in 1796-1803; and was a member of congress from 1803 till 1813, and judge of probate in 1821-'2. At the age of thirty-three he had at- tained the rank of major-general of militia. He was governor of Vermont in 1813 and 1814, and during the war with England I'efused to comply with the requisition of Gen. Macomb for the state militia. This act was severely commented upon, and prevented his re-election.


CHOATE, Rufus, lawyer, b. in Essex, Mass., 1 Oct., 1799; d. in Halifax. Nova Scotia, 13 July, 1859. His earliest ancestor in this country was John Choate, who became a citizen of Massachusetts in 1667. The grandson of this first ancestor, also named John, was a member of the Massachusetts legislature from 1741 till 1761, and for the next five years a member of the council. His son, David, was a man of strong character and unusual intellectual endowments. Though not trained to the law, on one occasion, when he had a suit pending in court and his counsel happened to be absent, he took up the case himself, examined his witnesses, tore to shreds the testimony of the other side, made a sound and eloquent argument, and won the case. David married Miriam Poster, a woman of strong sense and ready wit, and had