Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/415

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EVERTS
EWELL
391

(Indianapolis, 1878), and " What shall we do with tho Drunkard'? or. Rational Views of the Use of Alcoholic Drinks" (Cincinnati-, 1888).


EVERTS, William Wallace, b. in Granville, Washington co., N. Y., 13 March, 1814; d. in Chi- cago, 111., 25 Sept., 1890. He was graduated at the Hamilton literary and theological institution in 1887, and in the same year was ordained as pastor of the Baptist church in Earlville, N. Y. In 1839 he became pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist church in New York, and in 1842 he founded the Laight street Baptist church in the same city. Subse- quently he was pastor in Wheatland, N. Y., Louis- ville, Ky., and in Chicago, where he remained for twenty years. While there he was actively engaged n>founding the Chicago university and the Chicago Baptist theological seminary. He removed to Jersey City, N. J., in 1879, and became pastor of a Baptist church there, but resigned his charge in 1885. Dr. Everts is the author of the following works : " The Pastor's Hand-Book " (New York, 1856); "The Bible Prayer-Book": "The Scriptural School Reader"; "Life and Thoughts of John Foster " ; " The Voyage of Life " ; " The Promise and Training of Childhood"; "Words in Earnest"; and " Tracts for the Churches."


EVERTSEN, Cornelis, Dutch naval officer, b. in Zealand. He was a son of Admiral Cornells Evertsen, who was killed in a battle with the Eng- lish in 1666. He commanded a squadron of fifteen ships that was despatched against the English colonies in 1673. After capturing or destroying the Virginia fleet of tobacco ships in the Chesa- peake, he sailed northward, and on 7 Aug. anchored off Staten Island. His fleet had been re-enforced, and now, with its prizes, numbered 27 sail, with 1,600 men. Evertsen demanded the surrender of the city, saying, " We have come to take the place, which is our own, and our own we will have." Some of the Dutch citizens visited the hostile fleet, and described the state of the defenses to the offi- cers. The Dutch militia spiked the guns of a recently erected battery. On 8 Aug. the fleet moved up the bay, exchanged shots with the fort, and landed 600 men under Capt. Anthony Colve, to whom the fort was surrendered without blood- shed, the British garrison being allowed to march out with tlie honors of war. The name New Or- ange was given to the reconquered city. The neighboring settlements hastened to make their submission, and Evertsen, after confiscating the Duke of York's property, restoring the old form of municipality, and proclaiming Colve governor- gener-al, set sail for Holland.


EWART, Thomas West, lawyer, b. in Grand View, "Washington co., Ohio, 27 Feb., 1816; d. in Granville. Ohio, 8 Oct., 1881. He was self-educated, but rose to prominence in his profession. He was a member of the convention that formed the present constitution of Ohio, and was actively en- gaged for more than a generation in promoting the educational and missionary work of the Baptist denomination, with which he was identified. He was a trustee of Denison university, president of the Ohio Baptist state convention, and vice-presi- dent of the American Baptist missionary union. In 1878 the degree of LL. D. was conferi-ed upon him by Denison university.


EWBANK, Thomas, scientist, h. in Durham county, England, 11 March. 1792; d. in New York, 16 Sept., 1870. At the age of thirteen he was ap- prenticed to a tin and copper smith, and about 1819 emigrated to New York, and followed the trade of a machinist, occupying at first Fulton's factory at Paulus Hook, which had remained undisturbed since the inventor's death. In 1820 he began the manufacture of metallic tubing in New York, and retired in 1836 to devote himself to literary and scientific pursuits. From 1849 till 1852 he was U. S. commissioner of patents. As a member of the commission to examine and report upon the strength of the marbles oft'ered for the extension of the National capitol, he suggested the employ- ment of woolen instead of the plates of lead usual- ly placed between the stones, and established the fact that lead caused the stones to give M^ay at half the pressure they would sustain without it, and that consequently in all previous trials there had been an undervaluation of the power of resistance to pressure in building-stones. He was one of the founders of the American ethnological society. He published " Descriptive and Historical Account of Hydraulic and other Machines, Ancient and Mod- ern " (New York, 1842 ; 15th ed., with additions, 1863) ; " The World a V/orkshop, or the Physical Relation of Man to the Earth " (1855) ; " Life in Brazil," describing a visit to that country in 1845-'6, with an appendix on a collection of Ameri- can antiquities (1857); "Thoughts on Matter and Force" (1858); "Reminiscences in the Patent Of- fice " (1859) ; and a variety of miscellaneous essays on the philosophy and history of inventions, which appeared chiefly in the " Transactions of the Franklin Institute." His " Experiments on Ma- rine Propulsion, or the Virtue of Form in Propel- ling Blades," was reprinted in Europe. In 1860 he published an essay that he had read before the Ethnological society, entitled " Inorganic Forces Ordained to Supersede Human Slavery."


EWELL, Benjamin Stoddert, soldier and educator, b. in Washington, D. C., 10 June, 1810; d. in James City, Va., 19 June, 1894. He was a grandson of Benjamin Stoddert; was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1832, and assigned to the 4th artillery. He served in the military academy as assistant professor of mathematics in 1832-'5, and as assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy in 1835-'6, when he resigned. From 1886 till 1839 he was one of the principal assistant engineers of the Baltimore and Susquehanna railroad. He was professor of mathematics at Hampden-Sidney from 1840 till 1846, when he was elected to the Cincinnati professorship of mathematics and military science in Washington college, Lexington, Va., which office he held two years. In 1848 he was elected professor of mathematics and acting president of William and Mary, and became president in 1854. He held this office till the beginning of the civil war, when the college was suspended. He then served in the Confederate army as colonel of the 32d Virginia regiment in 1861-'2, and afterward was appointed adjutant-general to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, when he commanded the departments of Tennessee and Mississippi. He was again elected president of William and Mary in 1865, and until 1888 retained the office. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him from Hobart college in 1874. He was made an honorary member of the Royal historical society of Great Britain in 1880. Dr. Ewell urged the election and re-election of Gen. Grant to the presidency because of his moderation and magnanimity at the close of the civil war. He was opposed to secession in 1861, thinking it unnecessary and unconstitutional, and resisted the measure until war was waged. Since 1865 he has exerted himself to foster harmony between the north and the south, and loyalty to the National government. He spoke in the house of representatives at Washington on 1 April, 1874, and again on 25 Jan., 1876,