Jump to content

Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/364

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
338
ROWLAND
ROWLEY

the government of Canada, while the Earl of Elgin was absent in England. He was knighted in 1850, and was a field-marshal, and colonel of the 52d foot at the time of his death.


ROWLAND, Henry Augustus, clergyman, b. in Windsor, Conn., 18 Sept, 1804; d. in Boston, 4 Sept., 1859. He was graduated at Yale in 1823, and at Andover theological seminary in 1827. During the three years following he was agent of the American Bible society in New York and Connecticut, and he was ordained in the Presbyterian church on 24 Nov., 1830. He was called to Fayetteville, N. C., in 1831, and three years later to the pastorate of the Pearl street church, New York city. In 1843 he accepted charge of the Honesdale, Pa., parish, and from 1855 till his death was pastor of the Park Presbyterian church in Newark, N. J. The degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Union college in 1853. He published many single sermons, and, besides contributions to the religious press, was the author of “On the Common Maxims of Infidelity” (New York, 1850); “The Path of Life”(1851); “Light in a Dark Alley” (1852); and “The Way of Peace” (1853). See “Memorial of the Life and Services of the Late Henry A. Rowland,” by E. R. Fairchild (New York, 1860).—His son, Henry Augustus, physicist, b. in Honesdale, Pa., 27 Nov., 1848, was graduated at Rensselaer polytechnic institute in 1870 as a civil engineer, and engaged during 1871 in the surveying of a railroad in western New York. He then taught for a time in Wooster university, but in 1872 returned to the institute as instructor in physics, becoming assistant professor in 1874. Prof. Rowland spent a year abroad studying with Helmholtz in Berlin and in examining physical laboratories in Europe. In 1876 he was invited to accept the chair of physics, with charge of the laboratory, in the newly founded Johns Hopkins university, and he has since held that place. The honorary degree of Ph. D. was conferred on him by that university in 1880. He was a member of the electrical congress that met in Paris in 1881, and served on the jury of the electrical exhibition there in that year, and fur his services was made a chevalier of the Legion of honor. Prof. Rowland is a permanent member of the International commission for establishing electrical units, is corresponding member of the British association for the advancement nf science, one of the twelve foreign members of the Physical society of London, and is an associate of the American academy of arts and sciences, from which in 1884 he received the Rumford medal for his researches in light and heat, and in 1881 he was elected to the National academy of sciences. In 1883 he presided over the section on physics of the American association for the advancement of science at Minneapolis, and delivered a valuable address entitled “A Plea for Pure Science.” His original work has been extensive, and includes numerous researches that have been made under his supervision at the Johns Hopkins. While he was in Berlin he showed experimentally that a moving charge of statical electricity has the same magnetic effect as a current. He has more recently gained reputation by his large diffraction gratings, which are ruled, by a method of his own, directly on concave mirrors. An image of the spectrum is thus produced without the aid of lenses. The photographs of the solar spectrum that he has succeeded in making with the aid of these gratings surpass anything else of the kind that has ever been done. They were exhibited to the National academy of sciences in 1883. He has also made an extremely accurate determination of the value of the ohm, the absolute unit of electrical resistance. Among his papers are “On Magnetic Permeability” (1873); “On the Magnetic Permeability and Maximum Magnetization of Nickel and Cobalt” (1874); “Studies on Magnetic Distribution” (1875); “On a Magnetic Effect of Electric Connection” (1876); “Research on the Absolute Unit of Electrical Resistance” (1878); “On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat” (1880); “On Concave Gratings for Optical Purposes” (1883); “On the Relative Wave-Lengths at the Lines of the Solar Spectrum” (1886); and the article on “Screws” in the “Encyclopaedia Britannica”; also he has published “On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat” (Baltimore, 1880). and “Photographs of the Normal Solar Spectrum” (seven plates, 1886).


ROWLANDSON, Mary, captive. She was a daughter of John White, and wife of the Rev. Joseph Rowlandson, the first minister of Lancaster, Mass., who died in 1678. On 10 Feb., 1676, during King Philip's war, the Indians surprised and burned Lancaster, and took her captive. For several days she had no food, and after her child was frozen to death and buried in the forest, she was sold by her Narragansett captor to a Sagamore named Quanopin, in whose wife she found a “most uncomfortable mistress,” who treated her with insolence. The Indians with whom she lived remained near the site of Petersham, Worcester co., Mass., until they crossed Connecticut river on hearing that they were pursued. Mrs. Rowlandson then met King Philip, who treated her with much civility. Soon the Indians returned to Worcester county. Timothy Dwight says: “Mrs. Rowlandson went through almost every suffering but death. She was beaten, kicked, turned out of doors, refused food, insulted in the grossest manner, and at times almost starved. Nothing but experience can enable us to conceive what must be the hunger of a person by whom the discovery of six acorns and two chestnuts was regarded as a rich prize. At times, in order to make her miserable, they announced to her the death of her husband and children.” Her captivity lasted nearly three months, and was ended through the agency of a resident of Concord, Mass. She was redeemed for about eighty dollars, which was contributed by several women of Boston. She published her experience in a book entitled the “Narrative of the Captivity and Removes of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson among the Indians” (Cambridge and London, 1682; 2d ed., Boston, 1720; new ed., 1723). The 5th edition was edited by Joseph Willard (Lancaster, Mass., 1828).


ROWLEY. Thomas Algeo, soldier, b.in Pittsburg, Pa., 5 Oct., 1808 ; d. there, 14 May, 1890. He was educated in private schools, held several public offices in Pittsburg, and entered the U. S. army as 2d lieutenant of Pennsylvania volunteers to serve in the war with Mexico. He was afterward promoted to captain, and served in Maryland and District of Columbia regiments. From 1857 till 1860 he was clerk of the courts of Alleghany county, and at the beginning of the civil war he enlisted as captain in the 13th Pennsylvania volunteers, and was promoted to be major and colonel. Re-enlisting as colonel of the 102d Pennsylvania volun- teers, he served three years, was made brigadier-general for services at Fredericksburg. Ya.. on 29 Nov., 1862, and resigned his commission on 29 Dec. 1864. From 1866 till 1870 he was U. S. marshal for the western district of Pennsylvania, and he afterward practised law in Pittsburg, Pa.


ROWLEY. William Reuben, soldier, b. in Gouvernenr, St. Lawrence co., N. Y., 8 Feb.. 1824; d. in Chicago, 111., 9 Feb., 1886. After teaching in