Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/285

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

SCHWATKA


SCliWEIXITZ


of a whaling vessel, an account of some utensils he liad seen in Alaska, that might have belonged to Franklin's ill-fated expedition, and obtaining a leave of absence, he organized the American Franklin search party, June 19, 1878, with Will- iam Henry Gilder (q.v.) as second officer. They sailed, June 19, 1878, on the Eotlien, disembarked at King William Land and visited the district mentioned by Captain Barry. The entire parly consisted of four white men and about twenty Eskimos. They found cairns in which were deposited papers and other property of the Franklin expedition; and also found the skeletons of many of the party, all of which they buried. They discovered the grave of Lieut. John Irving, and records showing that Franklin died, June 7, 1817. in his attempt to return south. Schwatka made the longest sledge journey ever known, traveling 3250 miles in eleven months and twenty days; encountered exceedingly cold weather, and supported his party by forage. He returned to the United States, Sept. 22, 1880. He had been promoted 1st lieutenant, March 20, 1879; from October, 1881, until May, 1883, was aide-de- camp on Brig. -Gen. Nelson A. Miles's staff, and Jan. 31, 1884, resigned his commission. In 1883 he took command of the Alaskan exploring ex- pedition, sent out by General Miles. This party, consisting of seven white men, landed at Cbilkat i'llet, and with native hunters crossed the Alaskan coast range of mountains, and traveled to the head of the Yukon river. Here a large raft was constructed, and the party drifted down the river Un- two months, mapping, surveying and exam- ining this unknown country. In 18SG Lieutenant Schwatka. under the patronage of Mr. George Jones of th 3 New York Times, explored the region among the northern spurs of the St. Elias Alps of Alaska. A large river he discovered running through the deep glaciers, he named the Jones river, and a gla-^ifr covering 1000 square miles he called the Aga > iz glacier. He also discovered and named Guyot and Tyndall glaciers. In 1889 Scluvatka led an expedition into the nortliern part of Mexica. Here he found a branch of the Taralmmari tribe, living in cliffs and caves in the backbone ridge of the Sierra Madre, between Sonora and Chihuahua. The results of this ex- pedition were so interesting that in 1889 he made another trip to the same locality and brought a number of these aborigines to the United States, wliere he used them to illustrate his lectures, Lieutenant Schwatka was made an honorary member of the Bremen Geographical society, of the Swiss Geographical society, and a correspond- ing member of the Royal Italian Geographical society. He received the Roquette Arctic medal from the Paris Geograpliical society and a medal from the Imperial Geographical Society of Russia. IX. — i8


He is the author of: Along Alaska's Great River (1885); Nimrod in the North, or Hunting a)id Fishing in the Arctic Regions (1885); The Child- ren of the Cold (1886). He died in Portland, Ore.. Nov. 2. 1892.

SCHWEBACH, James, R.C. bishop, was born at Phiten, Luxemburg, Aug. 15, 1817; son of Nicholas and Margaret (Buscli) Schwebach, He studied under private teachers three years, then at the College of Diekirch two years and in 1864 came to the United States and settled in Wiscon- sin. He attended the Seminary of St. Francis near Milwaukee, finishing there his classical studies, philosophy and theology. In 1869, not having reached the canonical age for ordination, he went to LaCrosse to Bishop Heiss, and was there ordained deacon. He was ordained priest, June 16, 1870, at St. Paul's Cathedral, by Bishop T. L. Grace. He was pastor of St. Mary's church, LaCrosse, Wis., 1870-92; vicar-genaral of the diocese, 1882-93, and on the death of Bishop Flasche, Aug. 3, 1891, became administrator of the diocese, and in the same year was appointed his successor, and was consecrated, Feb. 25, 1892, by Archbisliop Katzer, assisted by Bishops Jans- sen and Cotter.

SCHWEINITZ, Edmund Alexander von, Moravian bishop, was born in Bethlehem, Pa., March 20, 1825; son of Lewis David and Amelia Louise (Le Doux) von Schweinitz. He was graduated from the Moravian Theological sem- inary, Bethlehem, Pa., in 1844; completed his education in the University of Berlin, and was ordained to the ministry in 1850. He was pastor of churches at Lebanon, Philadelphia. Lititz and Bethlehem, Pa., 1850-70; was a delegate to the General Synod at Herrnhut, Saxony, in 1857, and its president in 1879, and president of the Mora- vian Tlieological seminary, 1867-84. He was consecrated a bishop of the Moravian church at Bethlehem, Aug. 28, 1870, and at the time of his death was presiding bishop of tho northern dis- trict of the Moravian churcli. He received the honorary degree of S.T.D. from Columbia college in 1871. He was mai-ried in 1850 to Lydia von Tschirschky of Saxony, and in 1868, to Isabel Allison Boggs of Greencastle» Pa. He founded and edited The Moravian, 1856-66; and is the author of: The Moravian Manual (1859): The Moravian Episcopate (1865); The Life and Times of David Zeisberger (1870); Soine of the Fathers of the American Moravian Church (1881): Unitas Fratrum (1885), and History of the Renewed Unitas Fratrum (MS.). He died in Bethlehem, Pa., Dec. 18. 1887.

SCHWEINITZ, Emil Adolphus de, Moravian bishop, was born in Bethlehem, Pa., in October, 1816; son of Lewis David von Schweinitz (q.v.). He was married to Sophia, daughter of Bishop