Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/175

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TOWNSHEND
TRACY

Jeffrey Amherst's expedition against Fort Ticon- deroga, and was killed there in the trenches by a cannon-ball, and taken to Albany for burial.


TOWNSHEND, Norton Strange, educator, b. in Clay-Coton, Northamptonshire, England, 25 Dec, 1815. He came to this country in 1830, and settled with his parents in Avon, Ohio, where he attended school and also taught. Subsequently he began the study of medicine, and was graduated in 1840 at the College of physicians and surgeons in New York. He then went abroad, and, after attending the World's anti-slavery convention in London in July, 1840, as the delegate of the Anti-slavery soci- ety of Ohio, he studied in the hospitals of Paris, Edinburgh, and Dublin. In 1841 he returned to Elyria, Ohio, where he settled in the practice of his profession, but in 1848 he was elected to the Ohio legislature, where he was active in securing a repeal of the " black laws " of that state and the return of Salmon P. Chase to the U. S. senate. He was a member of the convention that in 1850 framed the present constitution of Ohio, and in the same year was eleeted as a Democrat to congress, serving from 1 Dec, 1851, till 3 March, 1853. At the end of his term he was elected to the Ohio senate, where he introduced measures that led to the founding of an asylum for training imbecile youth, of which institution he was a trustee for twenty-one years. Later he was active with Dr. John S. Newberry and others in the movement that aimed to estab- lish an agricultural college in Ohio. In 1858 he was chosen a member of the board of agriculture and served till 1863, also in 1868-9. Early in 1863 he was appointed medical inspector in the U. S. army, and he served in that capacity until the end of the civil war. In 1867 he was named a member of the committee that was appointed to examine and report upon the system of wool appraisement and duties in the custom-houses of Boston, New York, and elsewhere, prior to the tariff revision of that year. He was appointed professor of agricul- ture in Iowa agricultural college in 1869, but re- signed a year later to accept the appointment of trustee and assist in founding the Agricultural and mechanical college of Ohio, in which institution, now known as the University of Ohio, he has held since 1873 the chair of agriculture.


TOWNSHEND, Richard Wellington, member of congress, b. in Prince George county, Md., 30 April, 1840. He was educated in public and private schools at Washington, D. C, removed in 1858 to Illinois, and, after teaching for some time in Fayette county, studied law, and was admitted to the bar at McLeansborough in 1862. He was clerk of the county court of Hamilton county from 1863 till 1868, and district attorney for the next four years. He was a delegate to the National Democratic convention in 1872. He settled in Shawneetown in 1873, was elected a member of congress in 1876, and has since been continuously re-elected, serving in the congress which began its sessions on 5 March, 1887, as chairman of the com- mittee on military affairs. He was the author of the proposition to secure the establishment of an American Zollverein, which was embodied in a bill passed by congress in 1888.


TOWSON, Nathan, soldier, b. near Baltimore, Md., 22 Jan., 1784; d. in Washington, D. C, 20 July, 1854. He was educated at the common schools, and at the beginning of the war with Great Britain was appointed captain in the 2d U. S. artillery, 12 March, 1812. He was trans- ferred to the corps of artillery in May, 1814, and to the light artillery, 17 May, 1815. He served with distinction during the war of 1812, par- ticularly in the capture of the brig " Caledonia " from under the guns of Fort Erie. 8 Oct., 1812, for which he was brevetted major, and for gallantry at the battle of Chippewa, 5 July, 1814, he was brevet- ted lieutenant-colonel. In the assault upon Fort Erie in August of the same year he again distin- guished himself, and received the recognition of the government as a brevet colonel. He was ap- pointed paymaster-general of the army in 1819, and in 1821 colonel of the 2d artillery. The senate failed to confirm the president's nomination, and Col. Towson was reappointed paymaster-general, 8 May, 1822. He was brevetted brigadier-general, 30 June, 1834, and major-general, 30 May, 1848. for meritorious conduct during the war with Mexico.


TOY, Crawford Howell, educator, b. in Nor- folk, Va., 23 March, 1836. He was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1856, studied at the University of Berlin in 1866-8, was professor of Hebrew in the Southern Baptist theological semi- nary at Greenville, S. C, and Louisville, Ky., in 1869-79, and since 1880 has occupied that chair at Harvard. Besides articles on Semitic philology and biblical criticism he has published " History of the Religion of Israel " (Boston, 1882), and " Quota- tions in the New Testament" (New York, 1884).


TRACY, Marquis Alexandre De Prouville de, governor of Canada, b. in France in 1603 : d. there in 1670. He was a lieutenant-general in the French army, and in 1655 retook Cayenne from the Dutch, and brought several of the adjacent islands under French authority. In 1664 he was appointed viceroy of Canada, which at that time was an object of considerable attention at the French court, especially in what was known as the parti devot. So, when Tracy set sail, a throng of young nobles embarked with him, and the king gave him 200 soldiers, and promised that 1,000 more should follow. All Quebec was on the land- ing-place when he arrived, 30 June, 1665, and he debarked with a pomp and ceremony such as the city had never before seen. He soon won the fer- vent admiration of the inhabitants by his piety, and at the same time he betrayed a lack of no qualities needful in his position. After a severe campaign, he subdued the Iroquois Indians, con- cluding a peace with them that lasted nearly twenty years. He then went on an expedition against the Mohawks, at the head of a force of 1,200 French soldiers, and laid their country waste, taking possession, in the name of the king, of all their lands. The Mohawks sued for peace, and re- ceived Jesuit missionaries. The English, hearing of Tracy's advance, claimed the country he invad- ed, and Sir Richard Nicolls, governor of New York, wrote to the New England governors, begging them to join him against the French. But the New England governors were not prepared for war, and, fearing that their Indian neighbors might take part with the French, hesitated to act. The treaty of Breda in 1667 secured peace for a time between the rival colonies. Tracy returned to France in 1667. "The Jesuits," says Parkman, "resumed their hazardous mission to the Iroquois, and Tracy's soldiers having made peace, the Jesuits were the rivets to hold it fast. Of all the French expeditions against the Iroquois, that of Tracy was the most productive of good."


TRACY, Charles, lawyer, b. in Whitestown, Oneida co., N. Y., 17 Feb.,' 1810; d. in New York city, 1 June, 1885. He was graduated at Yale in 1832, admitted to the bar in 1835, and passed his earlier professional life in Utica, N. Y. He removed to New York city in 1849, and continued in active practice there until his death, and for many