Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/160

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140
DENIO
DENISON

death was the result of a fall on the stage in Indianapolis, Ind. She had been married four times. — Her sister Kate, b. in Philadelphia in 1837, was also a popular actress. They resembled each other in person, manner, and ability, and for a time were quite popular in melodramatic characters.


DENIO, Hiram, jurist, b. in Rome, N. Y., 21 May, 1791) ; d. in Utica, N. Y., 5 Nov., 1871. After a thorough education, he began to study law in his seventeenth year, was admitted to the har in 1821, and began practice in Rome. He was district at- torney in 1825-34, and in 1826 removed to Utica. He was circuit judge for the fifth circuit in 1884-'8, and in 1836 formed a law partnership with Ward Hunt. In June, 1853, he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the bench of the court of appeals, and twice afterward was elected to the same office, serving till 1866. He had also been bank com- missioner and clerk of the supreme court, and from 1835 till his death was a trustee of Hamilton col- lege, which afterward gave him the degree of LL. D. Judge Denio was a democrat, but voted for Abraham Lincoln, and supported the war measures of the government. He was considered one of the ablest jurists that ever sat on the bench of the court of appeals. He published "Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court and in the Court for the Correction of Error" (5 vols., 1845-'8), and with William Tracy prepared an edition of the Revised Statutes of New York (2 vols., 1852).


DENIS, Jean Ferdinand, French explorer, b. in Paris, 13 Aug., 1798; d. there, 2 Aug., 1890. He travelled through America, once for five years, 1816 till 1821. He was appointed librarian of the Ste. Genevieve library in Paris in 1861, and held this place till nearly the time of his death. He was the author of many works on the institutions of America, the most notable of which are " L'histoire du Bresil" (1821); "Buenos Avres et le Paraguay" (2 vols., 1823) ; " La Guyane " "(2 vols., 1823) ; " Re- sume de l'histoire du Bresil, suivi du resume sur l'histoire de la Guyane " (1825), which was trans- lated into Portuguese in Rio de Janeiro ; " Precis de l'histoire litteraire du Bresil et du Portugal" (1832) ; and " Le Bresil et le Portugal," published in the collections of "L'Univers pittoresque" (1837 and 1846). He is also the author of several nov- els, as " Ysmael-ben-Kaisar, ou la decouverte du nouveau raonde" (3 vols., 1829); and "Une fete bresilienne eelebree a Rouen en 1850." He pub- lished in 1854 a new and revised edition, with notes, of " Les voyages de Malouet dans les forets de la Guyane," and was a contributor to the Brazilian review, " Corographia Brazilica."


DENIS, or DENYS, Nicolas, French soldier, b. in Tours, France, about 1600. He was governor and proprietor of a part of Acadia and Canada. He had obtained a grant of the country between Cape Can- so and Gaspe, but was obliged, after making impor- tant establishments, to carry on warfare for terri- torial rights with his countrymen, and a fire com- pleted his ruin. He returned to France about 1672, and published " Description geographique et his- torique des cotes de I'Amerique septentrionale, avec l'histoire naturelle an pays" (2 vols., Paris, 1672).


DENISON, Andrew Woods, soldier, b, in Bal- timore, Md., 15 Dec, 1831 ; d. there, 24 Feb., 1877. In 1862 he raised the 8th Maryland regiment for the National array, and in August of that year became its colonel, serving till the close of the war. He commanded the Maryland brigade of Robinson's division at Laurel Hill, where he lost an arm, and was again wounded at White Oak Ridge, near Petersburg. He was brevetted brigadier-general for gallantry in the first-named battle on 9 Aug., 1864, and major-general for the second, 31 March, 1865. Gen. Denison was appointed post- master of Baltimore, 19 April, 1869, and held the office till his death.


DENISON, Charles Wheeler, author, b. in New London, Conn., 11 Nov., 1809 ; d. 14 Nov., 1881. Before he was of age he edited a newspaper in his native town. He afterward became a clergy- man, edited the " Emancipator," the first anti- slavery journal published in New York, and took part in other similar publications. In 1853 he was U. S. consul in British Guiana. He spent some time among the operatives of Lancashire, speaking in behalf of the National cause during the Ameri- can civil war, and in 1867 edited an American paper in London, being at the same time pastor of Grove Road chapel, Victoria park. During the last two years of the war he served as post chap- lain in Winchester, Va., and as hospital chaplain in Washington. He published " The American Village and other Poems " (Boston, 1845) ; " Paul St. Clair," a temperance story ; " Out at Sea," po- ems (London, 1867) ; " Antonio, the Italian Boy " (Boston, 1873) ; " The Child Hunters," relating to the abuses of the padrone system (Philadelphia, 1877) ; and a series of biographies published dur- ing the war, including " The Tanner Boy " (Grant) ; " The Bobbin Boy " (Banks) ; and " M^infield ; the Lawyer's Son " (Hancock). — His wife, Mary An- drews, author, b. in Cambridge, Mass., 26 May, 1826, became connected, on her marriage with Mr. Denison, with the " Olive Branch," of which he was assistant editor. She continued to contribute to magazines, and, when living in British Guiana, wrote tropical sketches for American periodicals. She also contributed to English magazines while in London. Her books are mostly tales of home- life, and include " Home Pictures," a collection of sketches written for periodicals (New York, 1853); "Gracie Amber" (1857); "Old Hepsey, a Tale of the South " (1858) ; " Opposite the Jail " (1858); "The Lovers' Trials" (Philadelphia, 1865); "Annie and Teely" (1869); "That Husband of Mine," an anonymous book, which reached a sale of over 200,00() copies in a few weeks (Boston, 1874) ; " That Wife of Mine " (1877) ; " Rothmell " (1878); "Mr. Peter Crewett " (1878); "His Tri- umph " (1883) ; " What One Boy can Do " (1885) ; and numerous Sunday-school books.


DENISON, Daniel, soldier, b. in England in 1613; d. in Ipswich, Mass., 20 Sept., 1682. He came to New England about 1631, removed from Cambridge to Ipswich in 1635, and was a military leader there. He was a commissioner to treat with the French commander D'Aulny at Penobscot, in 1646 and 1653, and was subsequently major-gen- eral of the colonial forces for ten years. He rep- resented Ipswich several years in the general court, was speaker of the house in 1649 and in 1651-'2. secretary of the colony in 1653, justice of the quar- terly court in 1658, commissioner of the united colonies in 1655-'62, and assistant in 1653-'82. He was appointed commander-in-chief of Massachu- setts troops in 1675, but was jirevented by illness from taking the field in the Indian war of that year. Gen. Denison's daughter married President Rogers, of Harvard. He published " Irenicon, or Salve for New England's Sore " (1684).


DENISON, Frederic, clergyman, b. in Stonington. Conn., 28 Sept., 1819. He was graduated at Brown in 1847. Besides having been pastor of several Baptist churches, Mr. Denison served during three years of the late war as chaplain of the 1st Rhode Island cavalry and the 3d Rhode Island