Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/318

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272
VAN WYCK
VOORHBES


ing the war, was ready for service as soon as she was needed. She was supplied with every neces- sity, and almost every conceivable luxury for the care of the sick as well as the wounded, and was the first vessel ever employed by any

VAN WYCK, Augustus, jurist, in New York city, 14 Oct., 1846. He studied at Phillips Exeter academy and at the University of North Carolina, being graduated from the latter with high honor, and receiving the degree of master of arts. He then studied law in Richmond, Va., and for a time practised there. In 1871 he removed to Brook- lyn, and soon began to take an active part in political affairs. In 1880 he was one of the chief promoters of the successful movement for the re- organization of the Democratic party in Brooklyn, and was elected president of the Democratic gen- eral committee of Kings county in 1883. For sev- eral years he was a member of the Democratic state committee, and served frequently as a delegat»to national, state, county, and city conventions of his party. In 1884 he was elected judge of the city court in Brooklyn, in succession to Alexander McCue. After the abolition of the old Brooklyn city court, under the provision of the New York state constitution of 1894, he was transferred, 1 Jan., 1896, to the bench of the supreme court. On 29 Sept., 1898, he was nominated for governor of New York by the Democratic party, but was de- feated by Theodore Roosevelt, Republican. He has made many addresses before colleges, societies, and political clubs. — His brother, Robert Anderson, lawyer, b. in New York city, 20 July, 1849. He was graduated at Columbia law-school in 1872 at the head of his class. In 1889 he was elected judge of the city court, and was re-elected in 1893. On 3 Nov., 1897, he was elected first mayor of Greater New York, defeating Dr. Seth Low and Gen. B. F. Tracy, the Republican candidates. Judge Van Wyck is president and one of the founders of the Holland society, and is also a member of the Demo- cratic club. He was active in making the arrange- ments for New York's magnificent reception of Admiral Dewey in September, 1899.

VAUGHAN, Alfred Jefferson, b. in Dinwiddle county, Va., 10 May, 1830; d. in Indianapolis, Oct. 1, 1899. He was graduated at the Virginia military institute in 1851, and was appointed deputy U. S. surveyor of California in 1854. He raised a com- pany for the Confederate army early in 1861, which became a part of the 13th Tennessee infantry, of which John V. Wright was elected colonel and Vaughan lieutenant-colonel. On the resignation of Col. Wright, who was elected to the Confederate congress, Vaughan became colonel of the regiment, and as such commanded the regiment in the battle of Shiloh, also in the campaign to Kentucky under Gen. Kirby Smith. He was engaged in the battles of Belmont, Richmond, Perry ville, and Murfreesboro'. He also commanded his regiment, consolidated with 154th Tennessee at Lookout Mountain and Chiekamauga, and was appointed a brigadier- general in the Confederate army in 1863. Gen. Vaughan was ordered, with his brigade, to re-enforce Gen. Longstreet at Knoxville, and returning was engaged in the battle of Missionary Ridge, and in the campaign under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston from Dalton to Atlanta. In this campaign, at Marietta, 4 July, 1864, he lost a leg, which disabled him from further military service. He had eight horses killed under him in battle, and was frequently mentioned for gallant conduct. Gen. Vaughan settled in Mississippi at the close of the war, but in 1873 removed to Memphis, and in 1878 was elected clerk of the criminal court of Memphis, which office he held for two terms. He was state commander of the United Confederate veterans of Tennessee with the rank of major-general.

VEAZEY, Wheelock Graves, soldier, b. in Rockingham county, N. H., 5 Dec, 1835; d. in Washington, D. C, 32 March, 1898. He was edu- cated at Phillips Exeter academy, and, graduating from Dartmouth, was admitted to the bar of Ver- mont in 1860. At the commencement of the re- bellion he entered the army as a captain of Ver- mont volunteers, served with distinction at Gettys- burg in the flank assault on Pickett's division, and received his discharge as a full colonel. He was judge of the supreme court of Vermont from 1878 till 1889, and was the founder of the Grand army of the republic in that state. He succeeded Aldace P. Walker on the interstate commerce commission in 1889, serving until 1896, when he was compelled to resign through ill-health.

VINTON, Frederic Porter, artist, b. in Ban- gor, Me., 39 Jan., 1846, and was educated in the public schools of Chicago, to which city his family removed when he was a child. Until 1875 he was engaged in mercantile pursuits, but for twelve years he had been studying art and painting, and at the age of twenty-nine he went to Paris and be- came a student of Leon Bonnat, two years later entering the atelier of Jean Paul Laurens. His first picture, exhibited in the salon of 1878, was painted for Thomas G. Appleton. On his return from Europe he opened a studio in Boston, which he still occupies. During that period Mr. Vinton has become well known as a portrait-painter, having received commissions for pictures of Lorn Playfair, Wendell Phillips, Francis Parkman, Gen. Charles Devens, Charles Francis Adams, George F. Hoar, and many other prominent citizens of Mas- sachusetts. He is a member of the National acad- emy of design (1891), also of the Society of Ameri- can artists, and he received a gold medal at the World's Columbian exposition of 1893.

VOORHEES, Foster MacGowan, governor, b. in Clinton, N. J., 5 Nov., 1856. He was graduated from Rutgers college, studied law, and was admit- ted to the New Jersey bar. He was for several years a member of the board of education of Eliza- beth, where he resides, was a member of the as- sembly for three terms, and was elected to the state senate in 1894. As president of the senate he succeeded Gov. William J. Griggs when he en- tered McKinley's cabinet as attorney-general in January, 1898. In the same year Mr. Voorhees was elected governor of New Jersey for the term of three years beginning in January, 1899, and in October he presented, on behalf of the state, a diaraond-hilted sword to Admiral Sampson for his famous naval victory at Santiago, accompany- ing the valuable gift with an appropriate address.