OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Butler, Ezra

Edition of 1900.
​BUTLER, Ezra, clergyman, b. in Lancaster, Mass., in September, 1763; d. in Waterbury, Vt., 12 July, 1838. His mother died when he was a mere boy, and, after living for a few years with his eldest brother, he went, at the age of fourteen, to Claremont, N. H., where he took charge of a large farm, remaining there till he was of age, with the exception of six months' service in the revolutionary army, in 1779. In 1785, with his brother Asaph, he removed to Waterbury, Vt., then in the ​midst of a dense forest. They arrived there on 20 March, having travelled the last twenty-five miles of their journey on snow-shoes. Mr. Butler began to think seriously on religious subjects in 1790, became a Baptist in the following year, and in 1800 began to preach at Bolton, Vt. A Baptist church was organized in Waterbury in the same year, and he was its pastor for more than thirty years. He had been the first town clerk of Waterbury in 1790, and had been elected to the legislature in 1797, and he did not allow his ordination to the ministry to interfere with his public career. He was in the legislature eleven years, in the council fifteen years, was first judge of Chittenden county court from 1803 till 1806, chief justice of that county from 1806 till 1811, and of Washington county from 1814 till 1826. He was a member of congress from 1813 till 1815, a delegate to the Vermont constitutional convention of 1822, and governor of the state from 1826 till 1828. His administration as governor was marked by the suppression of lotteries, and by improvement in the state educational system. Gov. Butler was of the Jeffersonian school of politics, and was fifty-three years in the public service, not including the time when he held local offices.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Buttrick, John

Edition of 1900.
​BUTTRICK, John, soldier, b. in 1715; d. in Concord, Mass., 16 May, 1791. He was one of the leaders of the Concord militia on the memorable 19th of April, 1775.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bárcena, Mariano de la

Edition of 1900.
​BÁRCENA, Mariano de la (barth'-en-a), Mexican engineer, b. in Guadalajara, Mexico, 26 July, 1853. From early youth he has been devoted to study and research in natural sciences. Many of his works have been translated into German and French. Bárcena is a member of several European and American scientific associations, and is director of the meteorological observatory of Mexico. He has discovered and classified many Mexican plants, and published an excellent book on the natural products of the state of Jalisco, and a treatise on geology. Bárcena represented his nation at the New Orleans exhibition in 1885.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Baum, Friedrich

Edition of 1900.
​BAUM, Friedrich, soldier, d. of wounds in Bennington, Vt., 18 Aug., 1777. He arrived in Canada in 1776, was a lieutenant-colonel of the Brunswick dragoons in Burgoyne's expedition, and was sent out with 800 men and two pieces of artillery to procure cattle and horses to mount Riedesel's dragoons, and complete his corps of loyalists. Approaching Bennington, Vt., he cast up intrenchments, but was attacked by Col. Stark, commanding the New Hampshire militia. In the engagement that followed, Baum attempted to cut through the encircling lines of the Americans, when his command was defeated and he mortally wounded. He died two days later.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bayard, George Dashiell

Edition of 1900.
​BAYARD, George Dashiell, soldier, b. in Seneca Falls, N. Y., 18 Dec, 1835 ; d. 14 Dec, 1862. His parents removed to Iowa in his early youth, and he attended a military school kept by Maj. Dorn. He learned fencing from Col. Korponay, an exiled Hungarian soldier, and from him acquired the military spirit that led him to seek an appointment as a cadet. After graduation at the U. S. military academy in 1856 he was assigned to the 1st cavalry. Four years were passed in frontier and garrison duty. He was severely wounded in a fight with the Kiowa Indians. In 1861 he was cavalry instructor at West Point, and on 16 March of that year was promoted to first lieutenant in the 3d cavalry; captain 4th cavalry, 20 Aug., and was granted leave of absence, to become colonel of the 1st Pennsylvania cavalry volunteers, 14 Sept., 1861. He became brigadier-general of volunteers 28 April, 1862, and served in the arduous campaigns of the Shenandoah, northern Virginia, and on the Rappahannock, distinguishing himself by the dash and bravery of his reconnoissances. He was mortally wounded at Fredericksburg, 13 Dec, 1862, and died the following day. He was buried with military honors at Princeton, N. J. A memorial volume by his father, Samuel J. Bayard, was published in New York in 1874.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Beach, Moses Yale

Edition of 1900. The note on Alfred Ely Beach is not present in the 1891 edition.
​BEACH, Moses Yale, inventor, b. in Wallingford, Conn., 7 Jan., 1800: d. there, 19 July, 1868. In early life he displayed mechanical ability, and at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker in Hartford, and by his industry he succeeded in purchasing his freedom before the expiration of his time. He then established himself in the cabinet business in Northampton, but was unsuccessful, and removed to Springfield. There he endeavored to manufacture a gunpowder engine for propelling balloons; but this enterprise was also a failure. He next attempted to open steam navigation on Connecticut river between Hartford and Springfield, and would have succeeded if financial difficulties had not obliged him to cease operations before his steamer was completed. Mr. Beach then invented a rag-cutting machine, which has since been generally used in paper-mills, but from which he received no pecuniary benefit on account of his delay in procuring a patent. He then settled in Ulster co., N. Y., where he became interested in an extensive paper-mill, and was at first successful, but after seven years was compelled to abandon it. About 1835 he removed to New York, where he acquired an interest in the “Sun,” the pioneer of the penny press, of which he soon made himself sole proprietor. During the Mexican war, President Polk sent him to Mexico to arrange a treaty of peace; but the negotiations were broken off by a false report announcing the defeat of Gen. Taylor by Santa Anna. In 1857 he withdrew from active business. His son, Alfred Ely, b. in 1826, d. in New York city, 1 Jan., 1896, was for fifty years active in the editorial management of the “Scientific American.” He founded the Beach Institute for Freedman in Georgia.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Batchelder, John Putnam

Edition of 1900. He also has an article in the Dictionary of American Biography.
​BATCHELDER, John Putnam, physician, b. in Wilton, N. H., 6 Aug., 1784; d. in New York city, 8 April, 1868. He was a great-nephew of Gen. Israel Putnam. After an academical education, he began the study of medicine, and in 1807 was licensed to practise. He did not receive the degree of M. D., however, until 1815, after attendance on the lectures of Harvard medical school. He began practice in Charlestown, N. H., removed thence to Pittsfield, Mass.; afterward to Utica, N. Y., and in 1843 to New York city. He was appointed professor of anatomy in Castleton college, Vt., in 1817, and soon afterward professor of surgical anatomy in the Berkshire medical institution at Pittsfield. He was a successful surgeon, and performed many operations of great importance, and requiring extraordinary skill and daring. For many years he made the treatment of diseases of the eye a specialty. He was president of the Academy of Medicine, and of the New York medical association in 1858. He published “Thoughts on the Connection of Life, Mind, and Matter” (Utica, N. Y., 1845), besides essays and medical treatises.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Beach, Abraham

Edition of 1900.
​BEACH, Abraham, clergyman, b. in Cheshire, Conn., 9 Sept., 1740 ; d. near New Brunswick, N. J., 14 Sept., 1828. He was graduated at Yale in 1757 with the honors of the valedictory, became a convert to the Episcopal faith, and studied theology under Dr. Samuel Johnson and his relative, John Beach. In 1767 he went to England, and there received ordination to the priesthood. He was appointed missionary to New Brunswick, and entered upon his work in September, 1767. During the revolutionary war his position between the two armies was exceedingly embarrassing. In consequence his church was closed, and he did not officiate until December, 1781, when, in accordance with the suggestions of the archbishop of Canterbury, it became permissible to conduct public worship with the omission of the prayers for the king and parliament. In 1784 he became the assistant minister of Trinity church in New York, and continued an active worker in the diocese of New York until 1813. He was on many occasions a delegate ​to the general conventions, and in 1801, 1804, and 1810 was president of the house of lay and clerical delegates. Of Rutgers college, established in 1770 at New Brunswick, he was an early trustee. In 1786 he was elected a regent of the university of the state of New York, and in 1787 a trustee of Columbia college, from which institution he received the honorary degree of D. D. in 1789. He was likewise actively associated with many of the benevolent institutions of New York. Subsequent to his resignation from Trinity parish he retired to his farm on Raritan river, near New Brunswick, where he resided until his death. His only publications were sermons.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Batchelder, Samuel

Edition of 1900.
​BATCHELDER, Samuel, inventor, b. in Jaffrey, N. H., 8 June, 1784; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 5 Feb., 1879. His early life was spent in New Ipswich, whither his parents had removed, and in 1808 he became interested in a cotton factory at this place, which was the second that was erected in New Hampshire. In 1825 he removed to Lowell, where he superintended the erection of the Hamilton Company's mills. In 1831 he was called on to undertake the erection of a cotton-mill for the York Manufacturing Company in Saco, Me., and to superintend its operations. The mills under his management were very successful, and the plant and capital were greatly enlarged. In 1846 he removed to Cambridge, Mass., where he continued to reside, and, although a representative in the Massachusetts state legislature, he yet for many years continued his relations with the mills, being president of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, the Appleton Company, the Essex Company, the Everett Mills, the York Manufacturing Company, and the Exeter Manufacturing Company — having an aggregate capital of about $5,000,000. About 1832 he devised the first stop-motion to the drawing-frame, which has since been used in this country and England. In 1832 he patented the steam-cylinders and connections now universally used in dressing-frames for drying yarns. His greatest invention was the dynamometer used for ascertaining the power for driving machinery. It was first used in the York mills in 1837, and was considered preferable to any known apparatus for determining the power actually used in driving machinery. In early life he contributed to the “Boston Monthly Anthology” and to the “Port Folio,” and he was the author of the “Responsibilities of the North in Relation to Slavery” (Cambridge, 1856), and “Introduction and Early Progress of the Cotton Manufacture in the United States” (Boston, 1863). A sketch of his life was published in pamphlet form (Lowell, 1885).
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bayard, James Asheton (Jr.)

Edition of 1900.
​BAYARD, James Asheton, statesman, b. in Wilmington, Del., 15 Nov., 1799; d. there, 13 June, 1880. He was a son of the preceding, and the younger brother of Richard Henry Bayard. He received a classical education, studied law, and practised in Wilmington, taking a high rank in his profession. During the administration of President Van Buren was U. S. attorney for Delaware. In 1851 he was elected by the democrats a U. S. senator to succeed John Wales, a whig, and was re-elected in 1857, and again in 1862. In 1863, on taking his seat in the senate, when required to take the “iron-clad” oath, he resented it as an indignity and an invasion of the sovereign rights of the states; but, after uttering a protest against its constitutionality, he took the oath, and immediately resigned his seat. George R. Riddle, who was elected in his place, died soon afterward, and Mr. Bayard consented to serve through his own unexpired term, from 1 April, 1867, to 3 March, 1869. In 1869 his son, Thomas F. Bayard, succeeded him as senator from Delaware. After his retirement from public life he resided in Wilmington. Mr. Bayard was for a long time chairman of the committee on the judiciary in the senate. He was eminent as a constitutional lawyer, and was highly esteemed for his refined sense of public honor, which was manifested in a noted instance upon his receiving an offer of stock of the Credit Mobilier in 1868, in reply to which he wrote: “I take it for granted that the corporation has no application to make to congress on which I should be called upon to act officially, as I could not, consistently with my views of duty, vote upon a question in which I had a pecuniary interest.”
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Darby, John

Edition of 1900.
​DARBY, John, educator, b. in North Adams, Mass., 3 Sept., 1804; d. in New York, 18 Sept., 1877. He was graduated at Williams in 1831, and remained there as an instructor till he accepted a professorship in Wesleyan female college at Macon, Ga. Afterward he became professor of mathematics at ​Williams. In 1845 he was obliged, on account of his health, to go to a warm climate. He was connected with the educational departments of Georgia and Florida, was the founder of the Culloden female college, and afterward professor of natural science in Auburn college, Ala. In 1869 he was elected president of the Wesleyan university of Kentucky, but in 1875 resigned, and removed to New York city. He was a regular contributor to the religious press, and was the author of several educational and scientific works, including “Manual of Botany” (Macon, 1841); “The Botany of the Southern States” (New York, 1855); and “Chemistry” (1860).
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Darwin, Charles Robert

Edition of 1900. Supplement.
DARWIN, Charles Robert, English naturalist, b. in Shrewsbury, England, 12 Feb., 1809; d. in Down, Kent, England, 18 April, 1882. He was a grandson of Dr. Erasmus Darwin. Immediately after his graduation at Cambridge in 1831 he volunteered to accompany the ship “Beagle” as naturalist on an exploring expedition around the world, on which he was engaged till 2 Oct., 1836. Leaving the ship at Valparaiso, Darwin crossed the South American continent to Buenos Ayres, discovering on his way the gigantic fossil remains that first brought his name into notice. On his return he settled on a country estate in Kent, where he spent his life in scientific occupations, writing his remarkable works on botany and natural history, and propounding the theory of the origin of species by the natural selection of favorable variations, which soon became celebrated as the Darwinian theory. His writings that relate to this hemisphere include “Journal of Researches during a Voyage Around the World” (1839); “Geological Observations in South America” (1846); and many papers, such as “The Connection of Certain Volcanic Phenomena in South America.” See “Life and Letters of Charles Darwin,” by his son, Francis (2 vols., New York, 1887).
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Daveiss, Maria

Edition of 1900.
​DAVEISS, Maria (Thompson), author, b. in Harrodsburg, Ky., 31 Oct., 1814; d. there, 19 Dec., 1896. Her early education was received in Harrodsburg. In 1839 she married William Daveiss. Her poem in compliment to a bride was extensively copied, and was followed by “The Nun” and “A Harvest Hymn.” “Roger Sherman, A Tale of '76,” and “Woman's Love,” are her best-known stories. She received from the Kentucky state agricultural society a premium for an essay on the “Cultivation and Uses of the Chinese Sugar-Cane,” which she was successful in introducing into the state. Mrs. Daveiss published a “History of Mercer and Boyle Counties, Ky.” (1886).
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Davenport, Charles

Edition of 1900. Supplement.
​DAVENPORT, Charles, manufacturer, b. at Newton, Mass., 25 May, 1812. Having learned the coach and carriage builders' trade, he began for himself in 1832 at Cambridge. In 1834, as the firm of Davenport & Bridges, he entered upon the business of building railroad cars, and for some years of locomotives. As car-builders his was not only the pioneer firm of the United States, but for the twenty-two years during which he carried on the business his was the largest car establishment in the country, having factories at Cambridgeport, and from 1840-'50 also at Piermont and Newburg, N. Y. His first cars for the Boston and Worcester railroad, early in 1835, were after the pattern of a long omnibus upon four wheels, seating 24, to be entered by a central door upon either side, and from a step running the length of the car, as on a modern open street-car. Within the fixed seats faced all one way, and were separated on either side by a central aisle the length of the car. The car was turned about on turn-tables at the end of each trip. In the cars built next he made the seats with narrow, reversible backs, and by next year with broad backs, similar to the modern car-seat. He thus did away with the need of turning around the car itself. In 1837 he built the entrance door and platform steps at the ends of the car, instead of the side, thus opening a passageway through a train from car to car. In 1838-'9 he built the first 8-wheel car, to seat 60, and in 1840 the first 16-wheel car, to carry 76 passengers. Thus from year to year he constantly added new improvements, as he had earlier been the first to build a large pleasure-party barge sleigh. In 1856 he retired from business, having constructed over $4,000,000 worth of cars for over fifty different railroads in this country and Cuba. He was an advocate and promoter of many public improvements in and about the city of Boston. Among others, the originator of the earliest plan for the Boston Back Bay park, and of the Charles river embankment improvement in Cambridge, upon the opposite side of the river, both of which have now been largely carried out. He resides ​near his son. Dr. Bennett F. Davenport (q. v.). in the Boston suburb of Watertown.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Davidson, James Wood

Edition of 1900.
​DAVIDSON, James Wood, author, b. in Newberry district, S. C., 9 March, 1829. He was graduated at South Carolina college, Columbia, in 1852, studied languages under private tutors, in 1854-'9 was professor of Greek in Mount Zion college, Winnsboro, S. C., and in 1859 became principal of Carolina high-school, Columbia. In 1862-'3 he was adjutant of infantry in Jackson's corps of Lee's army. He left Columbia in 1871, and lived two years in Washington, D. C., and eleven years in New York city, where he was literary editor of the “Evening Post” in 1873, and American correspondent of the London “Standard” in 1873-'8. He removed to Figulus, Dade co., Fla., in 1884, where he continues his literary work, and is engaged in fruit-culture. In 1885 he was a member of the Florida constitutional convention. Mr. Davidson has published “Living Writers of the South” (New York, 1869); “School History of South Carolina” (Columbia, 1869; new ed., 1886); and “The Correspondent” (New York, 1886); and has edited “Lyrics and Sketches,” by William M. Martin (1865), and “The Educational Year-Book” (1872). He has in preparation a “Dictionary of Southern Authors,” and “Helen of Troy,” a fiction of Homeric times.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Davenport, Adolphus Hoyt

Edition of 1900.
​DAVENPORT, Adolphus Hoyt, actor, b. in Stamford, Conn., 4 Aug., 1828; d. in New Orleans, La., 22 Oct., 1873. An early fondness for the stage influenced him to become an actor, and, transposing his name, which was Adolphus Davenport Hoyt, he became known as “Dolly Davenport.” His first appearance was as Willis, in “Paul Pry,” at the Baltimore athenæum during 1848, and his success was such that he was soon intrusted with the role of Claude Melnotte, which he played to Mrs. W. H. Russell's (now Mrs. John Hoey) Pauline. At the solicitation of his parents, he studied law with Homer H. Stewart, of New York, and, after two years' preparation, was admitted to the bar. But he soon reappeared on the stage, and played in Wallack's old theatre, for the benefit of David S. Palmer, as Box in “Box and Cox.” Early in 1853 he appeared as Montano in “Othello,” and as Capt. Charles in “Who Speaks First?” at the old Broadway theatre. His first appearance in Philadelphia was at the old Chestnut street theatre, and he was a member of the company during 1853-'4. Subsequently he was a member of the Walnut street theatre's company, and played there during the season of 1855-'6. He then drifted southward, and acted principally in southern cities. He was manager of the Mobile theatre during 1872, and was connected with Bidwell's academy of music.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Dana, Stephen Winchester

Edition of 1900.
​DANA, Stephen Winchester, clergyman, b. in Canaan, N. Y., 17 Nov., 1840. He was the son of a Congregational clergyman, and descended in the eighth generation from Richard, through Benjamin, the third son. He was graduated at Williams in 1861, taught in Hinsdale, Mass., for two years, and then studied theology in the Union theological seminary, New York city, where he was graduated in 1866. He was pastor of a Presbyterian church in Belvidere, N. J., from November, 1866, till July, 1868, when he was called to the Walnut street church in West Philadelphia, which has steadily grown under his pastoral care and earnest preaching. He has published sermons and religious tracts. — His cousin, William Parsons, artist, b. in Boston, Mass., 18 Feb., 1833, was attracted to a sailor's life, and made several voyages, then decided to study art, went to Paris in 1852, became a pupil of Picot and Le Poitevin and a student in the School of arts, and spent his summers sketching in Normandy and Brittany. He returned to the United States in 1862, was chosen a national academician in 1863, painted in New York city and Newport, and afterward established his studio in Paris, France. His first pictures were marine views, but subsequently he treated genre subjects with success, and has been happy in painting children, horses, and dogs. Some of his principal works are “Chase of the Frigate Constitution”; “Waiting for the Fishing-Boat”; “Low Tide at Yport”; “French Peasant-Girl”; “Maternal Care”; “Heart's-Ease”; “Emby's Admirals”; “Land of Nod”; “English Greyhound”; and “Gathering Seaweed.”
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Davenport, Bennett Franklin

Edition of 1900.
​DAVENPORT, Bennett Franklin, sanitary chemist, b. in Cambridge, Mass., 28 May, 1845. He was graduated at Harvard in 1867, then spent some time in the university in Tübingen, after which he was graduated at Harvard medical college in 1871, and also at the College of physicians and surgeons in New York in 1871. After settling in Boston, he devoted his attention to sanitary chemistry. In 1879 he became professor of chemistry in the Massachusetts college of pharmacy, and in 1882 inspector of milk and vinegar to the city of Boston, and also analyst to the Massachusetts state board of health. In these capacities he has regularly furnished reports to the annual documents of the Boston and State board of health. He has also prepared the semi-annual reports on foods and drugs in the Boston “Medical and Surgical Journal.” Dr. Davenport is a member of the chemical societies of London, Berlin, and New York, and of other scientific bodies.