Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/93

York, 1832 ; new ed., 1842) ; " Memoir of Phillis Wheatley " (Boston. 1834) ; " Memoir of S. Osgood Wright " (1834) ; " Traits of the Boston Tea-Party " (1835); "Traits of Indian Manners, etc." (1835); and " Tales of the American Revolution " (1846).

THATCHER, Henry Knox, naval officer, b. in Thomaston, Me., 26 May, 1806 ; d. in Boston, Mass., 5 April, 1880. He was a grandson of Gen. Henry Knox, fie received his early education in the schools of Boston, and in 1822 was admitted as a cadet at the U. S. mili- tary academy. The records of the acad- emy show that he was absent on sick- leave from 28 Nov., , till April, , when his res- ignation is record- ed. He had ex- changed his cadet- ship for the ap- pointment in the navy, which he en- era 1 as a mid- shipman, 4 March,

1823. He became

a passed midshipman, 23 March, 1829, and was commissioned lieutenant, 28 Feb., 1833. After serving in various parts of the world, he was pro- moted to commander by action of the naval re- tiring board, 14 Sept., 1855. He commanded the sloop " Decatur," Pacific station. Early in 1862 he was ordered to command the sailing-sloop " Con- stellation " on the Mediterranean station, and he was thereby prevented from engaging in active operations during the first years of the civil war. He was promoted to the grade of commodore, 16 July, 1862, without having had any commission as a captain. In July, 1863, he returned from the Medi- terranean and took charge of the steam frigate " Colorado " on the North Atlantic blockade, and in her commanded the first division of Com. David D. Porter's fleet in both attacks on Fort Fisher. He was then appointed acting rear-admiral in ad- vance of his regular promotion to that grade, and was ordered to succeed Vice-Admiral Farragut in command of the Western Gulf squadron at Mobile. There he conducted combined operations with Gen. Edward R. S. Can by which resulted in the sur- render of the city and the Confederate fleet after its flight and pursuit up Tombigbee river. The navy department sent him congratulations on the successful results at Mobile. Other points on the Gulf were quietly surrendered, and on 2 June, 1865, Galveston, Tex., was occupied by Thatcher's squadron without opposition, and the entire coast was restored to the Union. He was placed in command of the consolidated Gulf squadrons until May, 1866, after which he commanded the North Pacific squadron until August, 1868. He was commissioned rear-admiral, 25 July. 1866. and was placed on the retired list, 26 May, 1868. After his return home he was port-admiral at Portsmouth, N. H., in 1869-'71, after which he was unemployed until his death. Upon his death the secretary of the navy published an obituary order and directed salutes of thirteen minute-guns to be fired in his honor, and flags to be displayed at half-mast. He was a member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati and the military order of the Loyal le- gion. While in command of the North Pacific squadron he was presented with a medal and made a knight of the order of Kamehameha I. by the king of the Hawaiian islands, which honors he was allowed to accept by act of congress.

THAXTER, Adam Wallace, journalist, b. in Boston, Mass., 16 Jan., 1832; d. there, 8 June, 1864. He was graduated at Harvard in 1852, and at the law-school in 1854. Devoting himself to literature, he was for seven years dramatic and literary critic of the “Boston Evening Gazette,” from which his health finally compelled him to withdraw, and he contributed to many periodicals. He was the author of a poem that he read before a Harvard society (Cambridge, 1850) and “The Grotto Nymph” (Boston, 1859), and produced some successful plays, among which are “Olympia,” “The Sculptor,” “The Painter of Naples,” “The Regicide,” “Mary Tudor,” and “Birds of a Feather.”

THAXTER, Celia, poet, b. in Portsmouth, N. H., 29 June, 1836. Her father, Thomas B. Laighton, took her when she was a child to the Isles of Shoals, where she has spent most of her life at Appledore. She married there Levi Lincoln Thaxter, of Watertown, Mass., in 1851. She has published “Among the Isles of Shoals” (Boston, 1873); “Poems” (1871); “Driftweed” (1878); “Poems for Children” (1884); and “The Cruise of the Mystery, and other Poems” (1886). Among the finest of her single poems are “Courage,” “Kittery Church-Yard,” “The Spaniards' Graves,” “The Watch of Boon Island,” and “The Sandpiper.”

THAYER, Abbott Henderson, artist, b. in Boston, Mass., 12 Aug., 1849. He studied in the Brooklyn academy of design and the National academy, under Lemuel E. Wilmarth. In 1875 he went^to Paris, where for a year he was a student at the Ecole des beaux arts under Charles E. R. H. Lehmann, and three years with Jean L. Gerome* He painted chiefly animals until he had been two years abroad. Since that time he has devoted him-j self principally to figure-painting. He has also essayed landscapes with success. At the Paris; salon of 1877 he exhibited "Le sommeil," and in. the following year he sent a portrait. He is a member of the Society of American artists, to whose exhibitions he has contributed, besides several por- traits, "Child and Cats" (1884); "Woman and Swan " (1886) ; and " An Angel " (1888). ; THAYER, Alexander Wheelock, author, b. in South Natick, Mass., 22 Oct., 1817. He was graduated at Harvard in 1843. and at the law- school in 1848. He contributed musical and other letters to the Boston "Courier" in 1857-'8 under the pen-name of " A Quiet Man," and to " Dwight's Journal of Music " under the name of " A Diarist," wrote many articles for Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians," and was musical critic of the New York "Tribune." In 1859-'82 he was. U. S. consul at Trieste, where he still resides. He has published " Signor Masoni, and other Papers of the Late J. Brown," a collection of his own con- tributions (Berlin, 1862); "The Hebrews and the. Red Sea " (Andover, 1883) ; and " Life of Beetho- ven," which is valued for its accuracy and extent of research (3 vols., Berlin, 1866-87).

THAYER, Eli, educator, b. in Mendon. Mass., 11 June, 1819. He was graduated at Brown in 1845, was subsequently principal of the Worcester academy, and in 1848 founded the Oread institute, a collegiate school for young ladies, in Worcester, Mass., of which he is treasurer. He was for several years a member of the school board of Worcester, and in 1853 an alderman of the city. In 1853-'4 he was a representative in the legislature, and while there originated and organized the Emigrant aid company, laboring till 1857 to combine the