Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/161

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ATTUCKS.ATWATER.

association. Dr. Atlee's contributions to the medical profession are extensive and valuable. His works are largely periodical articles, and he also published: "Memoir of William R. Grant, M.D.", (1853); "General and Differential Diagnosis of Ovarian Tumors" (1873); "Struggles and Triumphs of Ovariotomy" (1875), and "Fibroid Tumors of the Uterus" (1876). See "In Memoriam, Washington Lemuel Atlee," by Thomas Murray Drysdale, M. D., published in the Transactions of the American gynecological society (1879). He died Sept. 7, 1878.

ATTUCKS, Crispus, martyr, was born in the vicinity of Cochituate lake, Framingham, Mass., about 1723. His ancestors were probably Natick Indians, who had intermarried with negro slaves. He was a man of imposing stature, being six feet and two inches tall. March 5, 1770, because of real or fancied insolence from a detachment of soldiers, commanded by Captain Preston of the 29th regiment, a party of men and boys, armed with sticks and missiles, and led by Crispus Attucks, bore down upon the "redcoats," who were stationed in front of the custom house on King street. Believing that the soldiers would not dare to fire, the mob pushed aside the muskets with sticks, threw stones and snow-balls, and filled the air with taunts of cowardice. A soldier was knocked down, and on regaining his position, he saw Attucks, the black giant, armed with a club, and heard the war-whoop inherited from his Indian ancestors. It was scarcely possible for a human being to endure this without retaliating, and the soldier raised his musket and fired, killing him. Then other soldiers fired into the mob, and several men were killed or wounded. Three days later the four victims of the massacre were borne with unparalleled pomp to the burial-ground, where they were placed in one vault. The shops were closed, and all the bells were ordered to be tolled. Inaccurate and inflamed accounts of the affair were spread throughout the colonies, and Crispus Attucks, the disorderly slave, was heralded as a martyred patriot. Patrick Carr, who died of his wounds on the 14th, was buried on the 17th in the same vault. Later Captain Preston and the soldiers were brought to trial for murder. John Adams defended them. Two were convicted for manslaughter and slightly branded; the others were acquitted. In 1888 a ten thousand dollar monument was erected on Boston common, to the memory of Crispus Attucks, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, Samuel Gray, and Patrick Carr, "the first martyrs in the cause of American liberty, having been shot by the British soldiers, March 5, 1770." See the article on Attucks in the American Historical Record for 1872, and George Bancroft's "History of the United States."

ATWATER, Amzi, pioneer, was born at New Haven, Conn., May 23, 1776. In 1794 he went to Westfield, Mass., where he studied mathematics and surveying, and the following year started for western New York. On his route he met an expedition led by Moses Cleveland on its way to survey the Western reserve of Ohio, and he became lineman and assistant surveyor for the party, with which he remained two years, running township lines for it and for the Holland land company in western New York. He settled in Mantua, Ohio, in 1800, and when Portage county was organized, in 1808, he was elected its first county judge. He died June 22, 1851.

ATWATER, Caleb, author, was born at North Adams, Mass., Dec. 25, 1778. After his graduation from Williams college in 1804 he became a lawyer, and in 1811 removed to Circleville, Ohio, where he became prominent in local politics, serving in the Ohio legislature, and also as Indian commissioner. He published: "Remarks made on a Tour to Prairie du Chien" (1831); "Writings of Caleb At water" (1833); "Western Antiquities" (1833); "History of Ohio, Natural and Civil" (1838), and an "Essay on Education" (1841). He was a contributor to the transactions of the American antiquarian society. He died at Circleville, Ohio, March 13, 1867.

ATWATER, Lyman Hotchkiss, educator, was born at New Haven, Conn., Feb. 20, 1813. He was graduated from Yale college in 1831, and after three years' study in Yale theological seminary he went to Fairfield, Conn., where for twenty years he had charge of the Congregational church, leaving in 1854 to accept the chair of mental and moral philosophy at Princeton college. In 1869 he was made professor of logic and of moral and political science. He contributed extensively to current literature and was for a number of years editor of the Princeton Review. He was the author of "Manual of Elementary Logic" (1867). He died Feb. 17, 1883.

ATWATER, Wilbur Olin, chemist, was born at Johnsburg, N. Y., May 3, 1844. He was graduated from Wesleyan university in 1865, and was successively principal of Colchester academy, Vt., 1865; High school, Spencer, Mass., 1866; High school, Westport, N. Y. In 1868-'69 he studied in the Sheffield Scientific school at Yale college, and there received the degree of Ph.D., in 1869. He spent two years in Europe, chiefly in the study of chemistry and kindred subjects, at the German universities. In 1871 he returned to the United States, and accepted the chair of chemistry at the University of Tennessee. In 1873 he removed to Orono, Maine, to take a similar position at the Maine Agricultural and Mechanical college, and later in the same year became instructor of, and from 1874 to 1881