Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Mansfield, Jared

MANSFIELD, Jared, mathematician, b. in New Haven, Conn., 23 May, 1759; d. there, 3 Feb., 1830. He was graduated at Yale in 1777, and taught in New Haven and Philadelphia, making a reputation as a mathematician. He entered the regular army as captain of engineers, 3 May, 1802, and was promoted major, 11 June, 1805, and lieutenant-colonel, 25 Feb., 1808. He resigned on 23 July, 1810, was U.S. surveyor of Ohio and the Northwest territory from 1803 till 1812, and professor of natural and experimental philosophy in the U.S. military academy from the latter year till he resigned the chair, 31 Aug., 1828. In 1825 he received the degree of LL.D. from Yale. He is the author of “Essays, Mathematical and Physical” (New Haven, 1802). - His son, Edward Deering, author, b. in New Haven, Conn., 17 Aug., 1801; d. in Morrow, Ohio, 27 Oct., 1880, was graduated at the U.S. military academy in 1818, but instead of entering the army, pursued a classical course at Princeton, where he was graduated in 1822. He was admitted to the bar in Connecticut in 1825, and, removing to Ohio, practised in Cincinnati until 1835, when he accepted the professorship of constitutional law and history in Cincinnati college. Retiring from the practice of the law, he was editor of the “Cincinnati Chronicle” from 1836 till 1849, of the “Atlas” from 1849 till 1852. and of the “Railroad Record” from 1854 till 1872. While editing the “Chronicle” and “Atlas” he introduced the public to many young writers, among whom was Harriet Beecher Stowe. During the last twenty-five years of his life he was a regular contributor to the Cincinnati “Gazette.” He was long the correspondent of a New York journal, under the pen-name of “A Western Observer.” He served as commissioner of statistics for Ohio from 1859 till 1868, and was an associate of the French “Société de statistique universelle.” He wrote many treatises on mathematics, politics, education, and the early history of Ohio. His most interesting production is a volume of “Personal Memories,” extending to the year 1841 (1870). He received the degree of LL.D. from Marietta college, Ohio, in 1854. He was also the author of “A Discourse on the Utility of Mathematics”; “A Treatise on Constitutional Law” and “A Political Grammar of the United States” (Cincinnati, 1835); “The Legal Rights, Duties, and Liabilities of Married Women” (Salem, 1845); “The Life of Gen. Winfield Scott” (New York, 1848); “The History of the Mexican War” (1849); “American Education” (1851); “The Memoirs of Daniel Drake” (Cincinnati, 1855); and “A Popular Life of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant” (1868).