Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/382

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352
WARD
WARD

ation for the advancement of sciences since 1875, and is a member of other scientific societies. In addition to his series of catalogues, which contain valuable notes on the articles that are described therein, he has published "Notice of the Mega- therium Cuvieri (Rochester, 1863) and " Descrip- tion of the most Celebrated Fossil Animals in the Royal Museums of Europe " (1866).


WARD, Marcus Lawrence, governor of New Jersey, b. in Newark, N. J., 9 Nov., 1812 : d. there, 25 April, 1884 He received a good education and engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was originally a Whig, aided in forming the Republican party, and was a delegate to the !N ational Republican con- ventions in Chicago in 1860 and in Baltimore in 1864. During the civil war he frequently visited the camps and battle-fields to alleviate suffering, and for his many services was called the Soldiers' Friend. He devised a system by which communi- cation could be transmitted without cost from the soldier on the field to his family, and also estab- lished a free pension bureau, which he maintained at his personal expense. In recognition of his patriotism the government gave to the hospital that he equipped in Newark the name of the " U. S. Ward hospital," which after the war was converted into a home for disabled soldiers. In 1862 he was defeated as a candidate for governer of New Jer- sey, but he held this office in 1865-8. In 1866 he was chosen chairman of the National Republican committee. He was afterward elected to congress as a Republican, serving from 1 Dec, 1873, till 3 March, 1875. In the latter year he declined the office of Indian commissioner. Gov. Ward was an early member of the New Jersey historical society, of the Newark library association, and the New Jersey art union, aided education in the state, im- proved the condition of the state prison, and was an active philanthropist.


WARD, Matt Flournoy, author, b. in Scott county, Ky., 19 May, 1826 ; d. in Helena, Ark., 30 Sept., 1862. He was educated at Louisville, Ky., and Cambridge, Mass., travelled extensively, and engaged in cotton-planting in Arkansas on his re- turn, but resided much of the time in Louisville, Ky. In 1854 he shot a schoolmaster, named W. H. G. Butler, for chastising his brother, was tried on an indictment of murder, and acquitted. He was killed before his house by a Confederate soldier, who mistook him for one of the enemy, as he wore a blue blouse like a National officer. His publications are " Letters from Three Conti- nents " (New York, 1850) ; and " English Items, or Microscopic Views of England and Englishmen" {1852). A report of his trial was printed (Louis- ville, 1854), and at the time of his death he was writing a book in which he intended to use some of the incidents of the Butler tragedy.


WARD, Matthias, senator, b. in Elbert county, Ga., about 1800; d. in Raleigh, N. C, 13 Oct., 1861. He was taken while a child to Madison county, Ala., where he received a classical educa- tion- After teaching for two years, he studied for the bar. Removing to Texas in 1836, he became a citizen of the new republic, and was elected to its congress, serving for several years. After the admission of Texas to the Union, he was a member of the state senate. He was a delegate to the Democratic national conventions of 1852 and 1856, and in the latter year presided over the State con- vention. On the "death of J. Pinekney Henderson he was appointed to the seat in the U. S. senate that was thus made vacant, serving from 6 Dec., 1858, till 4 Jan., 1860, when he was succeeded by Louis T. Wigfall, whom the legislature had elected.


WARD, Nancy, Indian prophetess, b. about 1740; the time of her death is unknown. Her fa- ther was a British officer named Ward, her mother a sister of the reigning vice-king, Atta-culla-culla. She was the sibyl of the Cherokees. The power of Oconostota over the nation was absolute in time of war, but in war or peace it had generally to give way to the will of Nancy Ward, who was sup- posed to be the inspired mouth-piece of the Great Spirit. James Robertson, who visited her at the Cherokee capital, Echota, in 1772, describes her as a woman "queenly and commanding," and her lodge as furnished in a style of barbaric splendor. Other traditional accounts speak of her as strik- ingly beautiful, with a tall, erect form, a promi- nent nose, regular and flexible features, a clear, though tawny, complexion, long, silken black hair, large, piercing black eyes, and an air that was im- perious and yet kindly. She must have possessed remarkable traits of character to have retained almost autocratic control over the fierce and un- tamable Cherokees when she was known to sympa- thize with their enemies, the white settlers. The first event recorded of her is the saving the lives of two pioneers — Jeremiah Jack and William Ran- kin — who had ventured down to buy corn of the Indians. They had come into collision with a dis- orderly party of Cherokees, and their lives were about to be sacrificed, when Nancy Ward appeared among the Indians and commanded them to de- sist. She was instantly obeyed, and the settlers went home with their canoe loaded with corn. An- other instance of her kindly spirit was her saving the life of the wife of William Bean, the first white settler beyond the Alleghanies. Mrs. Bean had been captured on the eve of the attack on the fort at Watauga, and, being taken to the Indian towns, was condemned to be burned at the stake. The fagots were already heaped about her, and Drag- ging Canoe, the chief of the Chickamaugas, who had ordered the execution, was standing by, when Nancy Ward came upon the ground and com- manded her to be liberated. This was done, and Mrs. Bean was sent back with a strong escort to her husband. Numerous other instances are re- lated of her releasing captives that were taken by her nation in their many wars with the whites. Among others was that of a young woman who be- came the ancestress of John M. Lea, of Nashville. She is reported to have said : " The white men are our brothers ; the same house holds us, the same sky covers us all " ; and she always acted in ac- cordance with this sentiment. But her greatest service to the white settlers was in giving them constant warnings, through a course of years, of every intended raid of the Cherokees. The light- est hostile whisper spoken in the Cherokee coun- cils was repeated by her to Isaac Thomas, an In- dian trader, to be by him conveyed to John Sevier and James Robertson at Watauga. Thus were the whites always prepared for the attacks of the In- dians, and, with the overpowering numbers against them, it is hard to conceive how in any other way they could have been saved from extermination. In doing this Nancy Ward betrayed her own peo- ple, but she did so from .noble motives and in the interest of humanity, and for this service she is to this day held in grateful remembrance by the descendants of the early settlers.


WARD, Nathaniel, clergyman, b. between the years 1578 and 1580; d. in Shenfield, England, in 1652. Cotton Mather, in the "Magnalia," gives his birthplace as Haverhill, England, which is probably correct; and the date of his birth as "about 1570," which is evidently wrong. His