Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/36

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
16
CROOKSHANKS
CROSBY

education until 1883, when he was judicially de- clared insane and confined in a private asylum at Hartford, Conn. Though his administration of the department of education was successful in a certain sense, his concessions to the Catholic hier- archy of Ontario in deleting passages obnoxious to them from Collier's school history of England, and the discarding of one of Sir Walter Scott's poems as a teachers' examination class-book, for a similar reason, gave great offence to the majority of the li[)ri';il p.-irly, as well as to the conservatives.


CROOKSHANKS, George, Canadian pioneer, b. in New York in 1773 ; d. in Toronto, 21 July, 1859. His father, a native of the Orkney islands, emigrated to Shrewsbury, N. J., about 1775, but, being a loyalist, soon left the United States and set- tled in New Brunswick. The son went to Canada in 1796. During the war of 1812-'5 he directed the construction of military roads, and attended to the transportation of cannon, etc., for the army. When York (now Toronto) was captured by the Americans, he followed the British forces to Kingston, and his house in York became the head- quarters of the American commander. He was for many years a member of the legislative council, and was noted for benevolence and charity, when systematized charity was unknown. He con- tributed largely toward the erection of St. James Cathedral. Toronto.


CROPPER, John, soldier, b. in Virginia in 1756 ; d. at Bowman's Folly, Accomac co., Va., 15 Jan., 1821. He was a captain in the 9th Virginia regiment of the Revolutionary forces in 1775, was soon promoted to be major of the 5th, engaging in the battle of Brandywine, where his regiment suf- fered severely, and iaecame colonel of the 7th, tak- ing part in the battles of Germantown and Mon- mouth. He was made lieutenant-colonel of the 11th regiment on 15 May, 1778, and afterward pro- moted to be its colonel.


CROPSEY, Jasper Francis, painter, b. In Rossville, N. Y., 18 Feb., 1823. After studying architecture for five years he turned his attention to landscape painting, under the instruction of Edward Maury. He visited England, France, Switzerland, and Italy in 1847, went abroad again in 1855, and resided seven years in London, sending his pictures to the Royal academy and to the International exhibition of 1862. After his return home, in 1863, he opened a studio in New York, where he resided until 1885, when he re- moved to Hastings-on-Hudson. He has been since 1851 a member of the National academy. His works include " Jedburgh Abbey " ; " Pontine Marshes " (1847) : " Backwoods of America " (1857) ; "Richmond Hill" (1862); "Greenwood Lake" (1870); "Lake Nemi in Italy" (1879); "Old Church at Arreton, Isle of Wight " (1880) ; " Ram- apo Valley " (1881); "Autumn on the Hudson" (1882); "Wawayanda Valley" (1883); "Spring- time in England" (1884); "October in Ramapo Valley " (1885) ; " Autumn on Lake George," and " A Showery Day " (1886).


CROSBY, Dixi, surgeon, b. in Sandwich. N. H., 8 Feb., 1800 ; d. there, 26 Sept., 1873. Dr. Crosby received a classical education, but it is not known that he was a graduate of any college. He studied in the medical school of Dartmouth, and received his degree in 1824. In this year he devised a new and ingenious mode of reducing metacarpo- phalangeal dislocation. After practising his pro- fession at Gilmanton and Laconia, N. H., fourteen years, he removed to Hanover. He was the first to open an abscess at the hip-joint. In 1838 he was called to the chair of surgery in the medical department of Dartmouth, which he occupied un- til 1841, when he was promoted to the surgical professorship made vacant by the removal of Prof. Mussey to the west. To this chair was add- ed that of obstetrics and diseases of women and children, and Dr. Crosby for twenty-seven years delivered both courses of lectures. At the begin- ning of the civil war he served in the provost- marshal's office by day and attended to his medi- cal practice at night. In 1868 he turned over the surgical lectures to his associate, and the college did not appoint a full surgical professor till 1871. In 1870 he found himself unable to perform even the divided duty to his satisfaction, and was ap- pointed emeritus professor of surgery, and lectured when he pleased. The degree of LL. D. was con- ferred on him by Dartmouth in 1867. — His broth- er, Natlian, lawyer, b. in Sandwich, N. H., 12 Feb., 1798 ; d. in Lowell, Mass., 9 Feb., 1885, was graduated at Dartmouth in 1820, and practised his profession in Gilmanton, N. H.. Salisbury, New- buryport, and Lowell, Mass. In 1845-6 he pur- chased for the Lowell manufacturing corporations the great lakes of New Hampshire, which now form the reservoirs of water-power for that city. He was commissioned justice of Lowell police court, 19 May, 1846, and held the office till his death. He was the author of " First Half-Century of Dartmouth College," and eulogies on Tappan Wentworth, and Judge S. S. Wilde, of the Massa- chusetts supreme court, and many lectures and essays on historical and philanthropic subjects. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Dartmouth in 1879. — Another brother, Alplieiis, educator, b. in Sandwich, N. H., 13 Oct., 1810 ; d. in Salem, Mass., 17 April, 1874. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1827, and in 1829-'31 was a tu- tor. He studied theology at Andover in 1831-'2, and in 1833-'7 was professor of Latin and Greek at Dartmouth, when, after a tour in Europe, dur- ing 1836-'7, he entered upon the professorship of Greek alone, occupying the chair for twenty years. After resigning the active duties of his professorship at Dartmouth, he resided chiefly in Hanover, N. H., and Newburyport, Mass., till September, 1854, when he was appointed agent of the Massachusetts board of education and lecturer in the teachers' institutes of that state. In 1857 he became principal of the normal school in Salem, Mass., where he remained until 1865. He was the author of various text-books, including "Greek Lessons," " Greek Tables," " Greek Grammar," "Greek Fables," and an edition of "Xenophon's Anabasis." He also published the " Second Ad- vent" (Boston, 1850), and "First Lessons in Geometry " (New York, 1851). — Another brother, Thomas Russell, b. in Gihuanton. N. H., 22 Oct., 1816 ; d. in Hanover, N. II., 1 March, 1872, was also a surgeon. After graduation at the medi- cal department of Dartmouth in 1841, he began the practice of his profession. At the beginning of the civil war he entered the army, and was put in charge of the Columbian college hospital in Wash- ington. In 1866 he became professor of general and military surgery and hygiene in the National medi- cal college, where he remained imtil 1870. During 1854-'64 he was professor of physics and natural history in Norwich, Y"t., university, in 1866-'70 professor of military surgery in the National medi- cal college, and from 1870 until his death profes- sor of animal and vegetable physiology in the New Hampshire agricultural college.- — Dixi's son, Al- phens Benninsj', stirgeon, b. in Gilmanton, N. H., 22 Feb., 1832 ; d. in Hanover, N. H., 9 Aug., 1877, was graduated at Dartmouth in 1853, and at the