USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1 > Part 44
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OPKINSON, JOSEPHI, Judge, and author of " Hail Columbia," was born in Philadelphia, November 12th, 1770. He was a son of Francis Hopkinson, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Ile graduated from the University of Pennsylva- nia in the class of 1786, and studied law with Judge Wilson and William Rawle. He commenced the practice of his profession in Easton, but soon returned to Philadelphia, where he acquired a high reputation. He was a counsel for Dr. Rush in his libel suit against Cob- bett, and for Judge Chase, of the United States Supreme Court, when the latter was impeached by the Senate. He was a member of Congress from 1815 to 1819, where he opposed the re-charter of the United States Bank. After a residence of three years in Bordentown, New Jersey, he returned to Philadelphia, and in 1828 was appointed by President Adams Judge of the United States District Court, an office which his grandfather had held under the British Crown, and to which his father had been chosen when the Judiciary was organized, in 1789, on the adoption of the Federal Constitution. IIe filled this office until his death, January 15th, 1842. He was vice president of the Ameri- can Philosophical Society, president of the Academy of the Fine Arts, and a trustee of the University of Pennsyl- vania. The song of " Hail Columbia " was composed by him in the summer of 1798, when war with France was supposed to be impending. It was instantly received with enthusiasm, and sung in all parts of the Union,
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already left, an embargo had been laid on our shipping, and many sailors imprisoned. Dr. Logan persuaded the French Government to raise the embargo, and prepared the way for a negotiation which terminated in peace. He was United States Senator for six years, 1851 to 1807; and, in 1810, went to England on the same peaceful mission which led him to France; but in this instance was unsuccessful. He died at Stenton, April 9th, 1821. Ile published Ex- periments on Gypsum, and on the Rotation of Crops, 1797.
UPONCEAU, PETER STEPHEN, Lawyer and Scholar, was born in the Isle of Rhe, France, June 3d, 1760. When fifteen years of age he entered the Ecclesiastical Order and received the tonsure ; but disliking the restraints of a religious life, shortly after abandoned it. He went to Paris, made the acquaintance of Baron Steuben, and be- came his private secretary and aide-de-camp. From 1777 to 1779, he attended the Baron in his military operations during the War of American Revolution, and then left the army. In 1781, he became a citizen of Pennsylvania, and was appointed secretary to Livingston, who had charge of the Department of Foreign Affairs. At the close of the war, he studied law and was admitted to practice. For many years he occupied a very prominent position at the Philadelphia bar, and also before the Supreme Court during its sessions at Washington. IIe was thoroughly Americanized; spoke and wrote the language with great precision and facility. Among his various acquirements, he was a great philologist. ITis treatises on the Chinese tongue are full of learning, and, with his other writings, brought him much reputation at home and abroad. He was President of the American Philosophical Society for many years. He resided for a very long time at the northeast corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets, where he died, April Ist, 1844, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. The Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, in 1732, conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Asts. In after years, he was a Trustee of the same institution.
RNE, JAMES, Merchant, was born June 7th, 1790, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and received his early education in the same town. After leaving school, he adopted a seafaring life, which he fol- lowed so successfully that in a few years he be- came commander-at an unusually early age -- of the ship " Jason," sailing out of the above-named port. Becoming tired of that occupation, he determined to turn his attention to other and less dangerous pursuits, and, ac- cordingly, embarked extensively in the iron business, first |railroad to Pittsburgh from Harrisburg.
in Delaware county and, subsequently, in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Ile remained in that business till 1822, when he removed to Philadelphia, making that city his per- manent residence. From 1822 to 1849, he was located in Market street, above Fifth ; in the latter year he removed to Chestnut street, opposite the State House. The business in which he engaged-that of selling carpetings-was en- tirely new to him ; but though personally unacquainted with the details of the trade, his natural business tact, energy and ability were such that his sales rapidly increased, and he found himself growing daily in prosperity and wealth, and the concern was in a fair way of attaining its present important proportions. He continued thus enlarging and consolidating his business till the day of his death, which occurred on November 12th, 1852. At his death, he left a widow and five children-two daughters and three sons, the latter of whom succeed him in the business. ITis poli- tical opinions induced him to identify himself with the Whig party, of which he always manifested himself a consistent and firm supporter. In religion, he was a Presbyterian, being an active, zealous and valuable member of the Tenth Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Twelfth and Walnut streets. In his social relations he was remarkable for his kind-hearted disposition, his amiable character, active bene- volence and unaffected piety, qualities which endeared him to the household circle of his own family as well as to all those outside of it who had the good fortune to come in contact with him. ITis commercial career was marked by unusual ability, the strictest integrity and straightforward- ness of purpose, which gained him the esteem of his fellow merchants, and of all those who had business transactions with his house. The original name of the firm was J. & B. Orne; but, since July, 1858, it has been carried on under the style of J. F. & E. B. Orne. The present members are John Flagg Orne & Edward Benjamin Orne; the locality of the business has been moved to No. 904 Chestnut street.
INTON, JOHN L., was born in Philadelphia, on January 12th, 1871. His grandfather came from the northern part of Ireland, prior to the Revolution, took an active part in it, and was wounded several times on the retreat of the army with General Washington, when crossing the Delaware at Trenton. Ilis father, John Linton, was also in the field in the war of 1812. He himself was educated for commercial pursuits, and entered his father's store at an early age. He was appointed Secretary and Treasurer of the Harrisburg & Lancaster Railroad, at the age of eighteen years, and held the position for seven years. During the latter part of this period he became one of the originators of, and, in fact, one of three who started, the project of a Ile afterwards
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entered the steamship business, and started a line between Philadelphia and Charleston. The first steamship ever brought to sail from Philadelphia he was instrumental in bringing to the port. He labored for the interest and pros- perity of his native city with all his powers. On the break- ing out of the Rebellion, as Major Linton, he was one of the first to enter the field, and did good service. In 1863, he was sent to Europe. by the Government on important service, which was well performed. Subsequently, he was appointed Revenue Agent, under the Internal Revenue Law, for the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and a portion of New York; in which position he worked up the largest whisky fraud on the Government on record-that of John Devlin, of. Brooklyn, New York-boing highly ap- plauded, at the time, by the press for his energy and in- tegrity. He was one of the clerks of the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, of 1872-'73, and enjoyed in large measure the confidence and esteem of that body.
ULLY, TIIOMAS, Artist, was born at Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England, in 1782. When he was about ten years of age, his parents came to the United States for the purpose of following their profession as actors. While quite a youth, he de- veloped a strong disposition to become an artist, and after a vain attempt to train him to business habits, his father placed him with his brother-in-law, Mr. Belzons, for instruction in the arts of design. He soon quarrelled with his tutor, however, and finally left the house with a deter- mination to go to sea. A friend offered to procure him an appointment as midshipman, but before it arrived he was invited by his brother, Lawrence, who was settled in Rich- mond, Virginia, as a portrait painter, to make his home with him. This invitation he gladly accepted; became his brother's pupil, and very shortly his assistant. In ISor, the family removed to Norfolk, and on arriving there he com- menced to take portraits in oil. He received considerable assistance from a portrait painter named Bainbridge, who was settled in Norfolk, and was so successful, in a business point of view, that when, in 1803, Lawrence and his family returned to Richmond he remained in Norfolk. Very shortly after Lawrence Sully died, and the maintenance of his family fell upon Thomas, who somewhat more than a year after his brother's death married his widow and adopted his children. About this time, he attracted the attention of Thomas A. Cooper, the eminent tragedian, who, struck by his evident talents, made him an exceedingly liberal offer to induce him to remove to New York. From him he received, rent free, a studio in the New York Theatre, and through him many orders. He now availed himself of every opportunity for improvement, and took particular pains to study the styles of Trumbull and Jarvis, who were then the fashionable portrait painters in New York, and, in ! of years, and was for a long time its Vice-President. He
1807, he went to Boston and studied for a year under Gilbert Stuart. Shortly after, he established himself in Philadelphia, when he speedily obtained an abundance of sitters. In 1807, he visited England, and made the acquaint- ance of Benjamin West, from whom he received such as- sistance that at the end of nine months he returned home a very much better artist than before. For a number of years thereafter he was the fashionable portrait painter of Philadelphia. Stephen Girard, who knew him well and admired him exceedingly, built him a studio and exhibition gallery at his home, on Fifth street, above Chestnut, and offered to sell him the property on remarkably advantageous terms. This house was inhabited by him during the balance of his life, and he painted regularly in the studio up to within a short time before his death. In 1837, he again visited England, with a commission from the St. George's So- ciety of Philadelphia to paint a full-length portrait of Queen Victoria, who had then just ascended the throne. The artist had considerable trouble in gaining access to the Queen, who, however, on being informed of his desire to paint her portrait, very graciously consented to give him all the sittings necessary. This was the first portrait of the Queen ever painted, and the engraved copies of it that were made attained a ready sale. On his return home, he pro- ceeded to make a copy of this portrait for the purpose of placing it on exhibition. This was objected to by some of the members of the St. George's Society, and the result was a quarrel between the artist and his patrons, the exhibition of the picture in the meantime being rendered useless for any purposes of profit by the appearance of one painted by E. Leutze from the engraving of his rival's work. The portrait of Queen Victoria was his last large work, but he continued to paint with success for a great number of years, and produced a large number of fine portraits of dis- tinguished citizens. The chief characteristics of his style were delicacy and refinement, although he also ex- celled greatly as a colorist, and he was particularly success- ful with the portraits of ladies and children. Without in- tentionally flattering his subjects, he had the art of repre- senting what was best in them, and of making agreeable portraits of very unpromising sitters. Some of his works are among the finest specimens of portraiture in this coun- try. The portrait of George Frederick Cooke, in the cha- racter of " Richard III.," which belongs to the Academy of Fine Arts, and his portrait of Lafayette, in Independence Hall, are noble works of art. Among his other noticeable works, may be mentioned portraits of Thomas Jefferson, Dr. Samuel Coates, Dr. Rush, Commodore Decatur, Fanny Kemble, Charles Kemble, and Nicholas Biddle, and a large painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware, exe- cuted for the Legislature of North Carolina, but now in the Boston Museum. He was not only a fine artist, but he was also a skilful musician. He was an active member of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia for a number
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took a great interest in musical matters, and did much to | by the ablest surgeons of the day. From this appointment promote the cultivation of musical taste in Philadelphia. Ile died on November 5th, 1872.
ARE, ROBERT, M. D., Chemist, was born in Philadelphia, January 17th, 1781. In early life he managed an extensive brewery which his father had established, but, having a scientific taste, soon abandoned manufacturing and turned his attention to chemistry. When but twenty years of age he invented the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe, for which the Rumford medal was awarded him by the Ameri- can Academy, at Boston. The so-called " Drummond Light " and the Calcium Light is, in fact, solely due to this discovery. His researches were so full and his knowledge so complete respecting the modern science of chemistry that he was elected to the Professorship of that Science in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, in 1818, and discharged its duties until his resignation, in 1847. Ile devoted great labor and skill to the construction of new and improved forms of the voltaic pile, which Pro- fessor Faraday, in 1835, adopted, after striving for twenty-five years to improve upon Dr. Hare's ideas. His " Defla- grator " enabled Silliman, in 1823, to demonstrate the fusion and volatilization of carbon, which before had been deemed impossible. This apparatus was produced in 1820. Four years previously he had invented his " Calorimeter," which even at the present day has not been improved upon. IIe was one of the limited number of life-members of the Smithsonian Institute; to it he gave, soon after he resigned his professorship, all his chemical and physical apparatus, which has thus become the property of the nation. He died May 15th, 1858.
ARRETSON, JAMES EDMUND, M. D., Phy- sician, was born in Wilmington, Delaware, Octo- ber 4th, 1828. He is of German descent, and his ancestors originally settled at Newport in that State, whence the family, at a later day, removed to Wilmington. He was educated at the Mantua Classical Institute, in the latter city. After leaving school he was artieled to an attorney, and read law under the preceptorship of the then Attorney-General of the State. Conceiving, however, a predilection for the profession of medicine, he abandoned his legal aspirations for the more interesting study of medicine ; and, after the usual course of reading and lectures, delivered at the University of Pennsyl- vania, graduated from that institution. In 1860, he was made Demonstrator of Anatomy in his alma mater, as the successor of Dr. D. Hayes Agnew. This position, in the most famous school in the country, has always been filled
he passed to the Professorship of the Principles and Prac- tice of General Surgery in the " Philadelphia Dental Col- lege," which position he subsequently resigned to accept the clinical post of Aural Surgeon to the University of Penn- sylvania. He is now, in connection with Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, conducting the clinical surgical cases in that school. For the past twenty years he has been ardently devoted to surgery, and has contributed largely to both medical and general literature. The details of his surgical clinics have been extensively published, and through them he has be- come widely known in the medical world. He is the author of : 1. Diseases and Surgery of the Mouth, Jaws, and As- sociale Parts ; 2. A System of Aurat Surgery. Both of these works have been widely read and circulated both in this country and in Europe. In general literature, over the nom de plume of " John Darby," he has written Odd Hours of a Physician, which has been most favorably re- ceived, and is highly spoken of by the public press. He is also the author of a philosophical work entitled, Thinkers and Thinking ; founded upon the text : " What is life ? what is it to live? what is it to get the most out of living?" In this book the author reviews the thinking of the world from the time of the Ionic philsophers down to the Positivists of to-day. He is married to a daughter of George Craft, a prominent Friend of New Jersey.
YON, PATRICK, the famous Blacksmith and Lock Manufacturer, was born in London, Eng- land, about 1779, and landed in Philadelphia November 25th, 1793. He was, in many respects, an extraordinary man, but it was accident rather than intellectual endowments which made him celebrated. This accident originated with the great rob- bery perpetrated in the Bank of Pennsylvania. Lyon had been employed by the directors to make alterations in the vaults of the bank and attend to the doors. While so engaged, im- pressions of the locks were taken, but this did not attract attention at the time. On Sunday, September 2d, 1798, in the height of an epidemie of yellow fever, the astounding discovery was made that the bank had been robbed of over $160,000; and as Lyon's celebrity in making and picking locks was so well known, it was at once conjectured that he was the burglar. What still further added to the sus- picion was his absence from the city. He had gone to Lewistown, Delaware, to escape the pestilence. As soon as he heard of the charge against him he returned and de- livered himself up. Bail was asked to the amount of $150,- 000, and in default he was committed. He suffered terribly in prison, for the yellow fever was raging there. Subse- quently the bail was reduced to $6000, and he was released. The grand jury ignored the bill ; and he thereupon sued the
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bank and recovered $12,000 damages. It was subsequently ascertained that the bank had been robbed by the inside porter and another, who being taken down with the fever made a confession, and nearly all the money was recovered. Lyon in after years was celebrated as the builder of the famous hand fire-engine used by the " Diligent " Engine Company of the Volunteer Fire Department, which in its repeated trials with the " crack " engines of other cities carried off the victory, both as to vertical and horizontal streams. He lived to a ripe old age, and died in his adopted city, respected by all who knew him. His portrait, at full length, is the property of the Academy of Fine Arts, and represents him while working at the forge.
EIDHARD, CHARLES, M. D., Physician, was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1309, and is a step- son of the eminent political economist and re- fugee, Professor List, whom he accompanied in his exile to Switzerland and this country. The professor's emigration was at the instance of his friend, General Lafayette; and followed Dr. Neidhard's admission to the higher gymnasium at Stuttgart. Com- mencing the study of medicine with Isaac Iliester, M. D., of Reading, in this State, and continuing it for three and a half courses at the University of Pennsylvania, two sessions of the Philadelphia Medical Institute, and two years of the clinical lectures of the Pennsylvania Hospital, he fell seriously ill from over-application after completing his studies. IIe thereupon consulted Dr. W. Wesselhæft, of Bath, Pennsylvania, a personal friend who had adopted homcopathy. His own recovery, and his physician's argu- ments, led him in the same course. As his friend, Professor Ilist, had been made United States Consul to Leipzig, Saxony, he followed him, and there thoroughly mastered the principles of medicine, and became a member of the Leipzig Medical Society, in IS35. He afterwards took his degree as Doctor of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics at Jena. Returning to Ame- rica, in 1836, Dr. Neidhard commenced the practice of homcopathy in Philadelphia, and, excepting visits to Eu- rope, has remained here permanently ever since. ITis European visits were to the famous hospitals of the great capitals to learn every advance. This knowledge he embodied in a course of three lectures, that were published under the title of, " Homeopathy in England, France, and Germany, with a Glance at Allopathic Men and Things." .In 1837, he graduated at the Allentown Homoeopathic Medical Col- lege, and received an honorary degree from the Hahnemann College of Chicago. He was one of the original members of the American Institute of Homoeopathy. Having been appointed Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Homo- pathic Medical College of Philadelphia, he lectured regu- larly for three years. In addition to these labors, he has enriched the medical literature of the country with the
following treatises : 1. A Translation from the French of " Crosorio on Homeopathic Medicine ; " 2. Answer to the Delusions of Dr. Oliver Wendeil Holmes ; 3. Public Address before the Rhode Island Homeopathic Society on the Homeo- pathic Law of Cure ; 4. On Crotalus horridus in Yellow Fever. This last work has been translated into the Spanish language, at Havana, Cuba. His treatise on Diphtheria in the United States is admirable and exhaustive, and is regarded in England and America as one of the best ever published. Ilis essay entitled, Where do we Stand ? How can we Best Promote the Scientific Progress of Homeopathy ? was pub- lished in the British Journal of Homeopathy, in 1869. In this essay he defends with signal ability his opinion that the similarity of the remedy must correspond not only with the symptoms, but with the deeper pathological state, as far as this can be ascertained, and that this is essential to the suc- cess of the homoeopathic treatment. These views, based upon a strong common sense, and written from a thorough acquaintance with the subject, have produced a deep im- pression upon the professional and the public mind.
UTHEY, JOHN SMITHI, Lawyer, was born of American parents, on September 3d, 1820, in West Fallowfield (now Highland) Township, Chester county, Pennsylvania. He is the eldest child of Robert and Margaret Futhey. His ances- tors came from Arbroath, in the county of For- far, on the eastern coast of Scotland, where the family was very prominent and influential, Alexander and Henry . Futhie being members of the old Scottish Parliament in the reign of Charles II., while others filled other positions of trust and honor. The family came to this country about the year 1720, and were early members of the Octorara Presbyterian Church. His father, Robert, was a member of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, in 1841- 42. He himself was educated at the Unionville Academy, Chester county, and, in IS41-'42, was a student of the Law De- partment of Dickinson College, of Pennsylvania. He also studied law in the office of Townsend Haines, of the West Chester bar, and was admitted to the practice of law, Feb- ruary 7th, 1843. He was married to Elizabeth J., daughter of Amos M. Miller, of West Fallowfield Township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, September 18th, 1845. In 1848- '49, he was appointed by the Hon. Cornelius Darragh, At- torney-General of Pennsylvania, Deputy Attorney-General for Chester county ; and, in 1853, he was elected District Attorney of Chester county by the popular vote ; this posi- tion he held from November of the latter year until Novem- ber 1856, discharging the duties with great ability. He has been for many years one of the leading members of the West Chester bar, and has long enjoyed a large and lucra- tive practice. He has a decided and a well-improved taste for archivological investigation, and has contributed much
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valuable antiquarian information to the press. He is now engaged in gathering materials for a History of Chester County. He is the author of a work of decided merit en- titled, The History of the Upper Octorara Church, which he wrote in honor of its one hundred and fiftieth anniver- sary. He is an active member of the First Presbyterian Church, of West Chester, and, in 1872, was elected a ruling elder thereof for three years.
RY, JACOB, D. D., Clergyman, was born at the Trappe, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, Feb- ruary 9th, 1834. He is a son of the late Hon. Jacob Fry. He received a thorough classical edu- cation, which enabled him to enter Union College, at Schenectady, New York, from which he gra- duated with the class of 1851. Ilaving decided to enter the work of the ministry, he studied theology at the Theolo- gical Seminary of the Lutheran Church, at Gettysburg, and thence graduated in the autumn of 1853. Ile was at once called to the First English Lutheran Church, at Carl- isle, Pennsylvania, and became its pastor, February Ist, 1854, being then not quite twenty years of age. In this town he remained for eleven years, during which time the congregation enjoyed an increasing and continued pros- perity, no less than 398 new communicant members being added, while the church edifice was greatly enlarged and beautified ; a parsonage was also erected adjoining the church, and a house for the sexton. During his residence here, he was married to Eliza Jane Wattles, of Gettysburg. In June, 1863, during the invasion of Pennsylvania by . General Lee's army, the rebels held the entire population prisoners for one week ; and while all the other churches ! were closed, Dr. Fry opened his, and preached to many of the invaders. On their departure the town was shelled, and the church building was struck by the missiles. In 1863, he was elected Secretary of the West Pennsylvania OUDINOT, ELIAS, LL.D., first President of the American Bible Society, was born in Philadelphia, May 20, 1740. On his father's side he was of French extraction, while his mother was of Welsh descent. After receiving a thorough classical education, he commenced the study of the law under Richard Stockton, of New Jersey, whose eldest sister he married, and on commencing the practice of his profes- sion was very successful. At the outbreak of the Revolu- tion he embraced the patriot cause, and, in 1777, was ap- pointed by Congress Commissary-General of prisoners. In the same year he was elected delegate to Congress, and be- came President of the same, November, 1782, and in that capacity signed the Treaty of Peace. Returning to his pro- fession for a few years, he was again clected a member of Congress under the Constitution, and served in all six years. Synod of the Lutheran Church, and during the same year was chosen one of the Directors of the Theological Semi- nary at Gettysburg. On Christmas day, 1864, he was un- animously elected pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, of Reading, Pennsylvania, which call he accepted. Ile re- moved to that city, February Ist, 1865, and at once entered upon his pastoral duties. Previous to his arrival, the con- gregation, owing to various causes, were very much scat- tered, and the church was in a reduced condition. By his indefatigable exertions, a favorable change was soon effected; the absentees returned, new members were added, and it has prospered exceedingly. In 1867, the present parsonage, adjoining the church, was erected at the cost of $10,500. During the same year the church edifice was entirely reno- vated. In 1868, he induced the congregation to purchase ground and erect a chapel in the northeastern part of the | In 1796, President Washington named him Director of the
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