Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/214

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CHITTENDEN.


CHITTENDEN.


pelier, because, among other reasons, of the adop- tion of a resolution that it was the duty of a citizen to assist in the capture of fugitive slaves. These delegates immediately organized the Free - Soil party, which matured into the Republican party. With E. A. Stansbury, he established, and until the election in September, 1848, edited and pub- lished, the Free-Soil Courier at Burlington. He edited and annotated an edition of : Reeve's Do- mestic Relations (1846), and Debates and Pro- ceedings of the Secret Sessions of the Peace Conference held in Wasliington in Felxruary, 1S61 (1864). He also published : An Address at the Opening of the Fair of the Christian and Sanitary Commissions (1863) ; Debates and Pro- ceedings of Congress on the Siibsidies to the Pacific Railroads (1871) ; The Capture of Ticonderoga (1872) ; Tliree Letters on Repudiation in Vir- ginia (1872) ; Address at the Inauguration of the Statue of Ethan Allen (1874); Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration (1891) ; Personal Reminiscences, 1S40-90 (1893) ; An Unknown Heroine ; an Historical Episode of the War Betu-een the States (1893). He died in Burlington, Vt., July 22, 19U0.

CHITTENDEN, Martin, governor of Vermont, was born at Salisbury, Conn., March 12, 1769, son of Gov. Thomas and EUzabetli (Meigs) Chitten- den. He removed to Jericho, Chittenden county, Tt., in 1776, and was graduated at Dartmouth college in 1789. The year after his graduation he was elected a representative from Jericho to the state legislatux'e, and served by re-election eight years. In 1798 he removed to AVilliston, Yt., and for two years served in the state legislature from that town. In 1802 he was elected a representa- tive in the 8th Congress, and was re-elected to the four succeeding congresses. In 1813 he was elected governor of the state, and was re-elected in 1814. He served as judge of probate during 1821-22. He died at Williston, Vt., Sept. 5, 1840.

CHITTENDEN, Russell Henry, chemist, was born in New Haven, Conn., Feb. 18, 1856. He was graduated a Ph.B. at Yale in 1875, and after studying in Germany for a few months he re- turned to Yale as instructor of chemistry in the Sheffield scientific school, and ■was advanced to the chair of physiological chemistry in 1882. In 1880 Yale conferred upon him the degree of Ph.D. He was elected a member of the national academy of sciences in 1890. He is the editor of : Studies from the Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry of the Sheffield Scientific school of Yale College, begun in 1885, and became director of the Shef- field .scientific school in 1898.

CHITTENDEN, Simeon Baldwin, merchant, was born in Guilford, Conn., March 29, 1814. He was elucatedat Guilford academy and in 1843 engaged ia mercantila business in New York citv.


He was vice-president of the New York chamber of commerce in lS67-'69, and was elected to fill a vacancy in the 43d Congress, taking his seat Dec. 7, 1874. He was re-elected to the 44th, 45th, and 46th congresses. He was prominent in many railroad enterprises and president of the New Haven and New London Shore line. He gave to Yale university in 1887 the sum of $250,000, to be used for a library building. He also endowed a professorship at Yale, and gave large sums to the New York eye and ear infirmary, the Brooklyn art association and the young women's Christian association of Brooklyn. A memorial window to his memory was placed in the Church of the Pil- grims, the Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs, pastor. He died in Brooklyn. N. Y., April 14, 1889.

CHITTENDEN, Thomas, governor of Vermont, was born in Guilford. Conn., Jan. 6, 1730; son of Ebenezer, and fourth in descent from William Chittenden, who, with a colony of twenty-six others from the parish of Cranbrook, in the county of Kent, England, settled in and near Guilford, Conn., in October, 1039. In his eighteenth year he shipped as a sailor on a schooner from New Haven to Cuba, was captured by pirates, landed on a barren island, and returned in October, 1749, when he was married to Elizabeth Meigs. He then removed to Salisbury, Conn., where he be- came a leading citizen, representing the town for six years in the legislature, and was colonel of miUtia. After 1763 he, with others, procured from the colonial governor of New Hampshire a grant of the township of Williston, which they organized in 1774. He removed to his new home in October, 1774, and was scarcely settled when the breaking out of the war compelled another removal. He lived through 1776 in Danby, then removed to Pownal, and later to Arlington, where he resided until 1787, when he returned to his Wilhston farm. He was elected president of the council of safety upon its organization early in 1777, and held that office until the end of the war. He was chairman of a committee which met at Dorset, July 24 and Sept. 25, 1776, and adopted the first " covenant or compact " between the settlers. He was a mem- ber of the conventions at Westminster, January 15, and at Windsor, June 4, July 2, and Dec. 24, 1777, which framed and adopted the first consti- tution. In February, 1778, he was elected the first governor of Vermont, and held the office by annual re-elections (except during the year 1779) until his death. He furnished Governor Clinton help in 1781 when Fort Ann was captured, but when Vermont was in danger Clinton refused help, and Chittenden wrote General Washington in 1782 that he would join the British rather than submit to New York. In 1791 he was one of the commissioners to negotiate for the admission of Vermont into the Union. He died Aug. 25, 1797.