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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Vassar , Matthew 1792 -1868 (search)
Vassar, Matthew 1792-1868
Philanthropist: born in Tuddenham, England, April 29, 1792; came to the United States with his father in 1796, when the family settled on a small farm near Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and established a brewery of ale in a small way. In 1812 Matthew began the business at Poughkeepsie, and by this and other enterprises he accumulated a large fortune.
In declining life, as he was childless, he contemplated the establishment of some public institution.
At the suggestion of his niece (Miss Booth), a successful teacher of girls, he resolved to establish a college for young women, and in February, 1861, at a meeting of a board of trustees which he had chosen, he delivered to them $408,000 for the founding of such an institution, now known as Vassar College (q. v.). A spacious building was erected, and in September, 1865, it was opened with a full faculty and over 300 students.
Other gifts to the college and bequests in his will increased the amount to over $800,000.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Wadsworth , Peleg 1748 -1829 (search)
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Waldo , Daniel 1762 -1864 (search)
Waldo, Daniel 1762-1864
Clergyman; born in Windham, Conn., Sept. 10, 1762; graduated at Yale College in 1788; was a soldier in the Revolutionary army; suffered the horrors of imprisonment in a sugar-house in New York, and was pastor and missionary from 1792.
At the age of ninety-three he was chaplain of the national House of Representatives, when his voice and step were as vigorous as a man of sixty.
He died in Syracuse, N. Y., July 30, 1864.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Wentworth , Sir John 1737 -1820 (search)
Wentworth, Sir John 1737-1820
Colonial governor; born in Portsmouth, N. H., Aug. 9, 1737; nephew of Benning; graduated at Harvard College in 1755.
In 1766 he was sent to England as agent of the province, when the Marquis of Rockingham procured his appointment as governor of
Benning Wentworth. New Hampshire, which he held in 1767-75.
He was also appointed surveyor of the King's woods, which was a lucrative office.
On the assumption of all political power by the Provincial Congress of New
The Wentworth mansion, little Harbor, N. H. Hampshire, Sir John, the last royal governor, seeing his power depart, and fearing popular indignation, shut himself up in the fort at Portsmouth, and his house was pillaged by a mob. He prorogued the Assembly (July, 1775), retired to Boston, soon afterwards sailed to England, and remained there until 1792, when he was made lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia.
He died in Halifax, N. S., April 8, 1820.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), White House , the, Washington, D. C. (search)
White House, the, Washington, D. C.
In Washington, D. C., the residence of the President of the United States.
The building is architecturally attractive, being a model of the palace of the Duke of Leinster in Ireland.
It is constructed of sandstone; is two stories high, 170 × 86 feet, with a colonnade of eight Ionic columns in front and a semicircular portico in the rear; and derives its name from the fact that the exterior is painted white.
The cornerstone was laid in 1792; the building was first occupied by President Adams in 1800, who held the first New Year's reception in it on Jan. 1, 1801; was burned by the British in 1814; and was restored in 1818.
The front door is on the north side of the building, and opens from a pillared private portion of the house.
On the left-hand side is a hall from which rises the staircase that is climbed by all the people who go to see the President on business.
From this supplementary hall opens the great East Room that occupies one end
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Whitney , Eli 1765 -1825 (search)
Whitney, Eli 1765-1825
Inventor; born in Westboro, Mass., Dec. 8, 1765; graduated at Yale College in 1792; obtained a collegiate education largely by the earnings of his own hands.
In the year of his graduation he went to Georgia, became an inmate of the family of Mrs. General Greene, and there invented his cotton-gin, which gave a wonderful impulse to the cultivation of the cotton-plant, rendering it an enormous item in the foreign and domestic commerce of the United States.
The seeds of the cotton raised in the United States adhered so firmly to the fibre that it was difficult to separate them from it. The seeds were separated from the cotton-wool by the slow process of picking by hand, which was chiefly done by negro women and children.
The separation of one pound of the wool from the seeds was regarded as a good day's work for one woman.
So limited was the production on account of the labor that even high prices did not stimulate its cultivation, and the entire cotton cr
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Wilkinson , James 1757 - (search)