Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/41

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HABBERTON, John, author, b. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 24 Feb., 1842. He lived in Illinois from his eighth till his seventeenth year, and was educated in the common school. He then went to New York, learned to set type in the establishment of Harper and Brothers, and subsequently entered their counting-room. He enlisted in the army as a private in 1862, rose to the rank of 1st lieutenant, and served through the war. He re-entered the employ of the Harpers in 1865, and remained there till 1872, when he went into business for himself, and in six months was bankrupt. He now became a contributor to periodicals, and was literarv editor of the "Christian Union" from 1874 till 1877, since which time he has been on the editorial staff of the New York " Herald." His first literary work was a series of sketches of western life. His "Helen's Babies" (which one publishing- house re- jected because it was too small for a book, another because it was too childish for adults to read, and a third on the ground that its moral tendency would be bad) was published in Boston in 1876, and has sold to the extent of more than 250,000 copies in the United States. Eleven different English editions of it have appeared, besides sev- eral in the British colonies, and it has been trans- lated into French, German, and Italian. "This book." says the author, " grew out of an attempt to keep for a single day a record of the doings of a brace of boys of whom the author is half owner." Mr. Habberton's other publications are " The Bar- ton Experiment " (New York, 1877) ; " The Jericho Road" (Chicago, 1877); "The Scripture Club of Valley Rest " (New York, 1877) ; " Other People's Children" (1877); "Some Folks," a collection of short stories (1877) ; " The Crew of the Sam Wel- ler" (1878); "Canoeing in Kanuckia," in connec- tion with Charles L. Norton (1878) ; " The Worst Bov in Town" (1880); "Just One Dav" (1880); "Who was Paul Grayson?" (1881); "The Bow- sham Puzzle " (1883) : a humorous " Life of Wash- ington " (1883) : " One Tramp " (1884) ; and " Brue- ton's Bayou " (1886). He has edited selected essays from the " Spectator," " Tatler," " Guardian," and " Freeholder^' (3 vols., 1876-'8). His first drama, " Deacon Crankett," was produced in 1880.

HABERSHAM, James, statesman, b. in Beverly, Yorkshire, England, in 1712 ; d. in New Brunswick, N. J., 28 Aug., 1775. Little is known of his parentage, except that it was noble. When he was asked by his sons the meaning of the title " Honorable " prefixed to his name on old letters, he replied that such things were worse than useless in a colony, as they tended to promote pride and unchristian feeling. In company with his friend, George Whitefield, the evangelist, he arrived in Savannah, Ga., on 7 May, 1738, and opened a school for orphans and destitute children at Bethesda, nine miles from that town, but in 1744 became a merchant. In 1750 he was appointed with Pickering Robinson a commissioner to advance the cul- ture of silk in the colony, and in 1754 became sec- retary of the province and one of the councillors. In 1767 he was one of the presidents of the upper house of assembly, and in 1769-'72 he officiated as fovernor during the absence of Sir James Wright, [e raised at Bethesda the first cotton in the state, and sent the first few bales that were exported thence to England. — His son, Joseph, statesman, b. in Savannah, Ga., 28 July, 1751 ; d. there, 17 Nov., 1815, was one of the members of the first commission appointed by the friends of liberty in Georgia in July, 1774, and one of those who on 11 June, 1775, on receiving intelligence of the skirmish at Lexington, seized the powder in the royal magazine in Savannah for the use of the patriots. In June of that year he was ap- pointed a member of the council of safety, and in July commanded a party that captured a govern- ment ship with munitions of war, including 15,000 pounds of powder. On 18 Jan., 1776, while a mem- ber of the assembly, he raised a body of volun- teers, who took Gov. Wright prisoner, and confined him to his house under a guard. Hewasappointed ma- jor of the 1st Georgia battalion, 4 Feb., 1776, and defended Savannah from a British naval attack early in March. Af- ter Savannah was taken in the winter of 1778, he removed his family to Vir- ginia, but on the landing of D'Estaing participated in the disastrous attack on

Savannah in 1779.

At the close of the war he held the rank of lieu- tenant-colonel. He was a member of the state as- sembly and its speaker in 1785 and 1790, and was postmaster-general of the United States from 25 Feb., 1795, to 28 Nov., 1801. He was president of the branch of the U. S. bank at Savannah from 1802 until the expiration of its charter. — Another son, John, soldier, b. in Savannah, Ga., in 1754: d. near Savannah, 19 Nov., 1799, received a good English education and engaged in mercantile pur- suits. He took an active part in the pre-Revolu- tionary movements, and was afterward major of the 1st Georgia Continental regiment. He was greatly trusted by the Indians, and after the Revo- lution Washington appointed him Indian agent. He was a member of the Continental congress from Georgia in 1785-'6, and was collector of cus- toms at Savannah in 1789-'99. — John's son, Joseph Clay, physician, b. in Savannah, Ga., 18 Nov., 1790 ; d. there, 2 Nov., 1855. was educated at Princeton and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in medicine in 1814. He began practice in Savannah in 1815, continuing there till his death. He was health officer of Savannah, president of the medical society of Georgia, and was noted for his benevolence and for his love of science. — James's grandson, Richard Wylly, congressman, b. in Savannah, Ga., in 1786 ; d. in Clarkesville, Ga., 2 Dec, 1842, was graduated at Princeton in 1805, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Savannah, where he attained note in his profession. In 1835, becoming interested in the gold-mines of that region, he removed to Clarkesville, Habersham co. He was elected a representative from Georgia in congress and served from 1839 till his death. He was much praised for his resignation of the office of U. S. district attorney in 1825, when a collision between the administration of John Quincy Adams and Gov. George M. Troup was imminent. Mr. Habersham induced the