Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/780

tenant-colonel, 28 July, 1866, and colonel of the 10th infantry, 10 Dec.,' 1872.

SULTE, Benjamin, Canadian author, b. in Three Rivers, Quebec, 17 Sept., 1841. lie early devoted himself to literary pursuits, became edi- tor of " Le Canada" in 1866, entered the service of the Canadian parliament as one of its trans- lators in November, 1867, and in 1870 became at- tached to the department of militia and defence. He established in Three Rivers the Literary ni-u- tute, of which he was the first president, was elected in 1866 corresponding member of the " Cer- cle artistique et litteraire " of Brussels, Belgium, was president of the Institute Canadien-Francais in 1874-'6, and was corresponding delegate of " L'Institution ethnographique de France" in 1*711. He became a member of the Royal society of Can- ada in 1882, and in 1885 was made president of its first section. He is also connected with various learned societies in the United States, Canada, and Europe. He has contributed to periodicals, and published " Les Laurentiennes " (Montreal, 1870) ; " History of Three Rivers " (1870) ; " Les chants nouveaux " (1876) ; " Melanges d'histoire et de litterature " (Ottawa, 1876); "Chronique triflu- vienne " (Montreal, 1879) ; and " Histoire des Ca- nadiens-Francais " (8 vols., 1882-'o).

SUMMERFIELD, John, clergyman, b. in Preston, England, 31 Jan., 1798; d. in New York city, 13 June, 1825. He was educated at a Moravian school, and removed to Dublin in 1813, where he plunged into a life of dissipation, and was finally imprisoned. A period of contrition succeeding, he united in 1817 with the Wesleyans, where his pulpit talents attracted universal attention, and in 1819 he was preaching to immense congregations in Dublin and doing missionary labor. His health failing, he removed to New York in 1821, and was admitted to the Methodist conference of that state. In 1822 he visited

Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, his eloquence everywhere arousing enthusiasm. The same year he visited France and England, again in quest of health, and having been appointed a delegate to the anniversary meeting of the Protestant Bible society in Paris. Upon his return, in April, 1824, he preached in the large cities with great success, and formed missionary societies till the following February. He was a founder of the American tract society a short time before his death. Princeton gave him the degree of M. A. in 1822. His biography was written by John Holland (New York. 1829) and by William M. Willett (Philadelphia, 1857), and his "Sermons and Sketches of Sermons" were published (New York, 1842).

SUMMERS, Thomas Osmond, clergyman, b. in Dorsetshire, England, 11 Oct.. l*1i. lie came to the I'nited States in 1830. united with the Methodist church, was admitted to the P.altinioiv conference in 1835, and appointed to the Augusta circuit, Ya. In 1840 he was 01 i ili> organizers of the first Texas conference, four year- later lie was transferred to the Alabama conference, of which he was a member till 1876, and in 1845, as secre- tary of the Louisville convention, he assisted in the organization of the Methodist Episcopal church. south. The following year he was appointed co- editor of the " Southern Christian Advocate " and chairman of the committee to compile a new hymn- book. In 1850 he was elected by the general con- ference editor of their books and tracts and of the " Sunday-School Visitor." and in 1858 he took charge of the ' Quarterly Review." During the civil war he returned to Alabama and performed pastoral work till 1866. when he was appointed editor of the Nashville " Christian Advocate." He became professor of systematic theology in Yan- derbilt university. Nashville. Tenn., in 1S74. was dean of the theological faculty, and ex-oflicio pas- tor of the institution. He has been secretary of every general conference of his church. The de- grees of D. D. and LL. D. have been conferred upon him. Dr. Summers has revised and edited hundreds of church books with introductions, notes, and ad- ditions. Among his works are "Commentaries on the Gospels and on the Acts of the Apostles" (6 vols.); "Commentary on the Ritual of the M. E. Church, South " : " Talks. Pleasant and Profitable " ; " The Golden Censer " : " Refutation of Thomas Paine's Theological Writings, not answered in Bishop Warren's 'Apology'"; Watson's "Biblical and Theological Dictionary," enlarged and revised ; and many tracts, pamphlets, and sermons.

SUMNER, Charles, statesman, b. in Boston, Mass., 6 Jan., 1811; d. in Washington, D. C.. 11 March, 1874. The family is English, and William Sumner, from whom Charles was descended in the seventh generation, came to America about 1635 with his wife and three sons, and settled in Dorchester, Mass. The Sumners were generally farmers. Job, grandfather of Charles, entered Harvard in 1774, but in the next year he joined the Revolutionary army, and served with distinction during the war. He was not graduated, but he received in 1785 an honorary degree from the college. He died in 1789, aged thirty-three. Charles Pinckney Sumner (b. 1776, d. 1839), father of Charles, was graduated at Harvard in 1796. He was a lawyer and was sheriff of Suffolk county from 1825 until a few days before his death. In 1810 he married Relief Jacob, of Hanover, N. H., and they had nine children, of whom Charles and Matilda were the eldest and twins. Matilda died in 1832. Sheriff Sumner was an upright, grave, formal man, of the old Puritan type, fond of literature and public life. His anti-slavery convictions were very strong, and he foretold a violent end to slavery in this country. In his family he was austere, and, as his income was small, strict economy was indispensable. Charles was a quiet boy, early matured, and soon showed the bent of his mind by the purchase for a few cents of a Latin grammar and “Liber Primus” from a comrade at school. In his eleventh year he was placed at the Latin-school where Wendell Phillips, Robert C. Winthrop, James Freeman Clarke, and other boys, afterward distinguished men, were pupils. Sumner excelled in the classics, in general information, and in writing essays, but he was not especially distinguished. Just as he left the Latin-school for college he heard President John Quincy Adams speak in Faneuil hall, and at about the same time he heard Daniel Webster's eulogy upon Adams and Jefferson. It was in a New England essentially unchanged from the older, but refined and softened, that Sumner grew up. At the age of fifteen he was reserved and thoughtful, caring little for sports, slender, tall, and awk-