Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/298

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276
DUTTON
BUTTON

Rev. Azel Backus, and graduated at Yale in 1803. He studied theology under President Dwight, and was ordained pastor of the Congregational church at Guilford in 1806. He resigned in 1842 because his abolitionist views were unacceptable to his con- gregation. A year later he went as a missionary to Iowa, but was attacked with the disease of which he eventually died, and did not remain. — His son, Samuel William Southmayd, clergyman, b. in Guilford, Conn., 14 March, 1814; d. in Mill- bury, Mass., 26 Jan.. 1866. He was graduated at Yale in 1833, and spent the following year in teaching in Mount Hope college, Baltimore, Md. In 1834 he was rector of the Hopkins grammar- school in New Haven. From 1836 till 1838 he was a tutor in Yale, and at the same time pursued theological studies in the seminary. He was pas- tor of the North church in New Haven from June, 1838. until his death. As a preacher, he was char- acterized by plainness, directness, and simplicity. He was widely known for his charity, and was a noted champion of the anti- slavery cause. In 1843, upon the establishment of the " New Eng- lander," he became one of the associate editors, and contributed to its pages more articles than any other writer save Dr. Bacon. He also pub- lished various addresses, and a " History of the North Church during the Last Century " (1843).


DUTTON, Arthur Henry, soldier, b. in Wal- lingford. Conn., 15 Nov., 1838 ; d. in Baltimore, Md., 2 July, 1864. He was graduated at West Point in the engineer corps in 1861. He served on the statf of Gen. Mansfield in Washington at the beginning of the war, and then had charge of the defences of Fernandina, Fla., until he lie- came colonel of the 21st Connecticut regiment on 5 Sept., 1862. While on duty in North Caro- lina with his regiment, he served as chief of staff to Maj.-Gen. Peck, and subsequently held a simi- lar position upon the staff of Maj.-Gen. W. F. Smith. After the battle of Drury's Bluff, in which he greatly distinguished himself, he was placed in command of the 3d brigade. While reconnoi- tring with his brigade in the neighborhood of Ber- muda Hundred on 5 June, 1864, he came upon the enemy strongly intrenched and almost hidden from view. Being, as usual, on the skirmish line, he was mortally wounded in the beginning of the engagement. — His brother, Clarence Edward, soldier, b. in Wallingford. Conn., 15 May, 1841, was graduated at Yale in 1860, and subsequently spent two years in study at New Haven. In 1862 he became 1st lieutenant and adjutant, a,nd short- ly afterward captain, in the 21st Connecticut volun- teers. He was engaged at Fredericksburg, Nor- folk, Cold Harbor, Bermuda Hundred, and Drury's Bluff. In 1863 he was admitted to the U. S. army as 2d lieutenant in the ordnance corps, after passing a severe competitive examination, and was promoted 1st lieutenant in March, 1867. Mean- while he had been stationed at Water vliet arsenal in West Troy, in 1865, and came under the influ- ence of Robert P. Whitfield and Alexander L. HoUey, who directed his attention to geology and the technology of iron. For five years his leisure was occupied in the study of these subjects, and in 1870 he read Ins first paper, " On the C'hemistry of the Bessemer Process," before the American associa- tion for the advancement of science, at their Troy meeting. He was transferred to the Frankford arsenal in 1870, and in 1871 to the Washington ar- senal, where he remained until May, 1876, having been promoted to captain in Ji;ne, 1873. While in Washington he renewed his studies in geology and devoted considerable attention to the micro- scopic examination of rocks. His work was no- ticed by the officers of the U. S. geological survey, and during the summers of 1875-'7 he was detailed for duty in connection with the survey of the Rocky mountain region under Maj. John W. Pow- ell. The winters of these years were spent in the west as chief ordnance officer of the Department of the Platte. In 1878 fie was ordered to report to the secretary of the interior, and subsequently was associated with the U. S. geological survey, being in 1887 geologist in charge of the division of vol- canic geology. His work on the geology of the high plateaus of central Utah was begun in 1875 and completed in 1877, and that in the Grand Caflon district was finished in 1880. In 1882 he visited the Hawaiian islands for the purpose of ex- amining the volcanoes, and then made a special study of the great volcanic fields of the northwest. He began the examination of the Mount Taylor and Zuni district of New Mexico in 1884, and in 1885 began an investigation of the cascade and coast ranges of northern California and Oregon, on which he was occupied several years. In 1886 he was employed for a short time in studying the causes of the Charleston earthquake, concerning which he prepared a monograph, Capt. Dutton is a member of several scientific societies, and in 1884 was elected a member of the National academy of sciences. Besides upward of fifty articles on scien- tific subjects, he has published the following gov- ernment reports : " Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah " (Washington, 1880) ; " Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District " (1882) ; " JPhysical Ge- ology of the Grand Canon District" (1882); "Ha- waiian Volcanoes " (1884) ; and " Mount Taylor and the Zuni Plateau " (1886).


DUTTON, Henry, jurist, b. in Plymouth, Conn., 12 Feb., 1796- d. in New Haven, Conn., 12 April, 1869. His grandfather, Thomas, was a cap- tain in the Revolutionary army. He was brought up on a farm, prepared himself under difficulties for college, entered the junior class at Yale, and was graduated with honor in 1818. He then taught school, and at the same time studied law in Fair- field, Conn., was a tutor in Yale in 1821-'3, and after that established himself in practice at New- town, where he remained fourteen years, and was twice elected to the legislature. The next ten years he practised at Bridgeport, where he was prominent in his profession, became state attorney, and was for two terms a member of the legislature. In 1847 he became professor of law in Yale, and removed to New Haven. He was elected to the state senate in 1849, once again to the lower house of the legislature, was for one year judge of the New Haven county court, and in 1854 was elected governor of Connecticut. He was judge of the su- perior court arid of the supreme court of errors from 1861 to 1866, at the same time retaining his profes- sorship. After he was retired from the bench at the statutory age of seventy years, he resumed the practice of law till compelled to retire by failing health. He served on the commissions of 1849 and 1866 to revise the state statutes, and was chairman of the committee that made a new compilation of them in 1854. Judge Dutton was instrumental in the passage of the law allowing ]iarti('S to a suit to testify in civil cases. He advocated the law allow- ing the prisoner's counsel the right of a closing ar- gument before the jury, introduced in the legisla- ture the bill giving the superior court sole juris- diction in divorce cases, and aided in the passage of bills to secure more effectually the rights of mar- ried women. He published a " Digest of the Connecticut Reports" (1833), with an analytical