tariff was investigated. In 1889 he became judge of the district court of South Carolina, which office he held until his death.
GILCHRIST, William Wallace, musician, b.
in Jersey City, N. J., in 184G. He removed with
his parents to Philadelphia, and at nine years of
age began a course of musical study under Prof.
H. A. Clarke, of the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1872 he went to Cincinnati and became organist
of the New Jerusalem church. In 1888 he returned
to Philadelphia, where he has since resided. He
has won three prizes for compositions from the
Mendelssohn glee club of New York city, and in
1882 the Cincinnati May festival prize was awarded
by Reinecke, Saint Saens, and Theodore Thomas
to his setting of the 46th Psalm.
GILDER, William Henry, clergyman, b. in
Philadelphia, Pa., 17 Sept., 1812; d. at Brandy
Station, Va., 13 April, 1864. His father, John Gilder,
laid the corner-stone of Girard college. The son
was educated at Wesleyan university, became a
preacher in the Methodist church, and was afterward
ordained. In 1836 he made an equestrian
tour of the southern states, going as far as New
Orleans. In 1840 he began the publication of the
“Philadelphia Repository,” a literary monthly, but
discontinued it at the end of a year. Subsequently
he published for a few years in Philadelphia the
“Literary Register,” a quarterly review. Mr. Gilder
in 1842 established Bellevue female seminary
in Bordentown, N. J., which in 1848 he removed
to Flushing, L. I., and in 1857 it was chartered as
a college. He became chaplain of the 40th
regiment of New York volunteers at the beginning of
the civil war, and remained in active service until
his death. — His son, William Henry, explorer, b.
in Philadelphia, 16 Aug., 1838, enlisted as a private
in the 5th New York volunteers at the beginning
of the civil war, and was afterward transferred to
the 40th. But during a large part of the war he
served on the staff of Gen. Thomas W. Egan, and
on being mustered out at its close was brevetted
major. In June, 1878, he accompanied Lieut.
Schwatka, as second in command, on his expedition
to King William's Land in search of the relics
of Sir John Franklin. This expedition was marked
by the longest sledge-journey on record — 3,251
statute miles. In June, 1881, he accompanied the
“Rodgers” expedition in search of the “Jeannette,” and when the “Rodgers” was burned, 30 Nov., he
made a midwinter journey from Bering strait across
Siberia, to telegraph news of the disaster to the
secretary of the navy. He then joined in the search
on the Lena delta for the survivors of the
“Jeannette.” Maj. Gilder spent the summer and autumn
of 1883 in Tonquin, where the French and Anamese
war was in progress, and in 1884 was one of
the first to visit the scene of the earthquakes in
Spain. On these occasions, as well as in his arctic
expeditions, he acted as correspondent of the “New
York Herald.” He has published “Schwatka's
Search” (New York, 1881) and “Ice-Pack and
Tundra” (1883). — Another son, Richard Watson,
editor, b. in Bordentown, N. J., 8 Feb., 1844, was
educated mainly in his father's school. He joined
the staff of the Newark, N. J., “Advertiser” in
1865, and in 1868, with Newton Crane, established
the Newark “Morning Register.” In 1869 he
became editor of “Hours at Home,” and when that
magazine was merged into “Scribner's Monthly”
(now the “Century”) he was made associate editor
of the new periodical. On the death of Dr. J. G.
Holland in October, 1881, Mr. Gilder succeeded
him as editor-in-chief. He received the degree of
LL. D. from Dickinson college in 1883. He has
published four volumes of poems, “The New Day”
(New York, 1875); “The Poet and his Master”
(1878); “Lyrics,” which is largely made up of the
two previous volumes (1885); “The Celestial
Passion” (1887); “Two Worlds” (1891); “The Great
Remembrance” (1893); five books of song (1894);
and “For the Country” (1897). — A sister,
Jeannette Leonard, b. in Flushing, N. Y., 3 Oct.,
1849. After being associated with the editorial
department of “Scribner's Monthly,” she became in
1875 literary editor of the “New York Herald,”
acting later as its musical and dramatic critic. In
1881, she and her brother Joseph established “The
Critic,” which they still edit. She was correspondent
of “The Academy,” London, and is the author
of “Taken by Siege,” a novel (Philadelphia, 1886);
has edited “Pen Portraits of Literary Women,”
with Helen Gray Cone (1887); “Essays from the
Critic,” with Joseph B. Gilder (1882); “Authors
at Home,” with the same (1889); and “Representative
Poems of Living Poets” (1886).
GILDERSLEEVE, Basil Lanneau, educator,
b. in Charleston, S. C., 23 Oct., 1831. He was graduated
at Princeton in 1849, and then studied at the
universities of Berlin, Bonn, and Göttingen in
Germany, taking the degree of Ph. D. at the latter
institution in 1853. Soon after his return to
the United States he was elected professor of
Greek in the University of Virginia, where he
remained from 1856 till 1876, also occupying the
chair of Latin in that university from 1861 till
1866. On the establishment of the Johns Hopkins
university, he was called to the professorship of
Greek there, and has since held that appointment.
He has received the degrees of LL. D. from William
and Mary in 1869, and from Harvard in 1886,
and of D. C. L. from the University of the south
in 1884. Prof. Gildersleeve has taken high rank as
a Greek scholar, and has edited the “American
Journal of Philology,” which was founded in
Baltimore in 1880. He has published six Latin
text-books (New York, 1867-'83) and editions of
“Persius” (1875); “Justin Martyr” (1877); and the
“Olympian and Pythian Odes of Pindar” (1885).
GILDERSLEEVE, Benjamin, editor, b. near Norwalk, Conn., 5 Jan., 1791; d. in Tazewell county, Va., 20 June, 1875. He was graduated at Middlebury college in 1814, and after teaching in
Mount Zion, Ga., until 1817, he entered Princeton
theological seminary, where he remained a year.
He became editor of “The Missionary” in 1819,
and was ordained an evangelist of the Presbyterian
church in August, 1820. His editorial labors
continued, and he had charge of “The Christian
Observer” from 1820 till 1845. He then removed to
Richmond, Va., and became sole editor of “The
Watchman and Observer” until 1850, when for the
four ensuing years he was associated with the Rev.
Moses D. Hoge, D. D., and Rev. Thomas V. Moore,
D. D., in the editorship of “The Central
Presbyterian.” During his residence in Virginia he
preached whenever it was possible, especially in the
Virginia penitentiary, where his work was very
successful. In advanced years his sight failed
him, but he continued his ministry long afterward.
GILES, Chauncey, clergyman, b. in Charlemont, Mass., 11 May, 1813; d. in Philadelphia, 6 Nov., 1893. He was educated at Williams, but left during his junior year. Subsequently he was engaged in teaching, and continued so occupied until 1858, when he became a clergyman of the church of the New Jerusalem. For ten years he preached in Cincinnati, then for fifteen years in New York, after which he became pastor of the first New Jerusalem society in Philadelphia. In
