Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/104

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

AMES.AMES.

considerable attention. Upon his return to America, he re-opened his studio in Boston, but went from there to Baltimore, and thence to New York city. He was elected a member of the National academy of design in 1870. Some of his most noteworthy pictures are: "Maud Muller," "Miranda," the "Old Stone Pitcher," "The Death of Daniel Webster," "Might;" and portraits of President Felton of Harvard, Ristori, Emerson, Rachel, Prescott, and Gazzaniga; his portraits of Ross Winans and a young lady of Baltimore were exhibited in 1872. He died Oct. 30, 1872.

AMES, Joseph Sweetman, educator, was born in Manchester, Vt., July 3, 1864; son of George Lapham and Elizabeth (Bacon) Ames; and a descendant of the Ames and Bacon families of Connecticut. He was graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1886; was a university scholar in 1886; held a fellowship there in 1887; was assistant in physics, 1889-'93, associate professor of physics and sub-director of the physical laboratory, 1893-'98, and professor of physics from 1898. He received the degree of Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins in 1890, and was elected an honorary member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1899. He was editor-in-chief of Harper's "Scientific Memoirs" (1898); editor of the "Free Expansion of Gases" (1898); and "Fraunhofer's Papers" (1898); and became assistant editor of the Astrophysical Journal in 1892. He is the author of: "The Theory of Physics" (1897), and joint author of "A Manual of Experiments in Physics" (1898); "Elements of Physics" (1900); "Introduction of Electric Currents" (2 vols. 1900).

AMES, Julia A., editor, was born in Livingston county, Ill., Oct. 14, 1861. She was graduated at Illinois Wesleyan university and at the Chicago school of oratory, and contributed articles to the Woman's Christian temperance union department of the Chicago Inter-Ocean. She became assistant national superintendent of press work for the union and had charge of the Union Signal in 1889. She died Dec. 12, 1891.

AMES, Mary Clemmer (Mrs. Hudson), was born in Utica, N. Y., in 1840, daughter of Abraham and Margaret (Kneale) Clemmer. She was educated at the academy, Westfield, N. Y. In 1857 she married a Mr. Ames, and the union was annulled in 1874. She early began to write poetry. From 1866 to 1869 Mrs. Ames resided in Washington, writing regular letters for the New York Independent. From 1869 to 1871 she was employed upon the Brooklyn Daily Union, and in 1873 resumed her connection with the Independent. She was writing a novel in 1879 when she met with a carriage accident, whereby her skull was fractured, and her literary career closed. She established a charming home in Washington, paying for the property entirely from the earnings from her literary work. June 19, 1883, she was married to Edmund Hudson, editor of the Army and Navy Register, and with him made a tour of Europe. Prominent among her works are: "Ten Years in Washington" (1870); "A Volume of Poems" (1872); "Outlines of Men, Women and Things" (1873); "Memorial of Alice and Phoebe Cary"; "Erena" (1870); "A Woman's Right"; "His Two Wives" (1874). An edition of her works was issued in 1885. She died Aug. 18, 1884.

AMES, Nathan P., manufacturer, was born at Westfield, Mass., in 1803. He was apprenticed to a cutler and became an expert forger of edged tools. He started business for himself in Chicopee Falls, Mass., where he opened a cutlery shop in 1829. The establishment soon became famous for its fine swords, and received large orders from the United States government. In 1834 the business was transferred to Cabotville, Mass., where the corporation of the Ames manufacturing company was organized, and among other important contracts the establishment furnished many of the swords and cannon used by the government in the civil war. Some of the prominent statues erected in New York, Washington, and Boston were cast by the Ames company. Mr. Ames went abroad in 1840, to make himself acquainted with the latest methods in European foundries. He died in Cabotville, Mass., April 23, 1847.

AMES, Oakes, manufacturer, was born in Easton, Mass , Jan. 10, 1804; the elder son of Oliver and Susanna (Angier) Ames. He early gained a thorough knowledge of the details of the shovel business, and became overseer of the manufactory. In 1860 Mr. Ames was elected councillor from the Bristol district, and served in the cabinet of Governor Andrew. He was in 1862 elected to represent his district in the 38th Congress, and was re-elected to four succeeding congresses. Prior to 1864 Congress had attempted, by offering land grants and other inducements, to persuade men of enterprise to open a railroad through the great central plains and so connect the east and west. Government interests imperatively needed such a a road. Urged by President Lincoln and others, Oakes Ames undertook this immense and hazardous work, risking his entire fortune in the enterprise, and though the difficulties to be overcome were very great, they were conquered, and on the 10th of May, 1869, the rails of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific were joined, and the east and west united. This was seven years earlier than the terms of the contract required, and in the carriage of mails and the transportation of troops and supplies was of vast service to the government. The necessary limits of this