Averell, William Woods (05 November 1832–03 February 1900), Union general and businessman, was born in Cameron (Steuben County), New York, the son of Hiram Averell and Huldah Hemenway, farmers. Averell attended the U.S. Military Academy, graduating in 1855, twenty-sixth in a class of thirty-four, only excelling in horsemanship. He then served with the cavalry in the Southwest and was seriously wounded during a fight against the Navajos at Canyon de Chelly, New Mexico Territory (1858). He was in New York on convalescent leave when the Civil War began....
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Averell, William Woods (1832-1900), Union general and businessman
Edward K. Eckert
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Averell, William Woods (1832-1900)
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William W. Averell. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-1655).
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Bacon, Robert (1860-1919), banker, diplomat, and soldier
Calvin D. Davis
Bacon, Robert (05 July 1860–29 May 1919), banker, diplomat, and soldier, was born in Jamaica Plain near Boston, Massachusetts, the son of William Benjamin Bacon and Emily Crosby Low. Raised in an old Massachusetts family long prominent in business, he was educated at Hopkinson’s School and at Harvard, graduating in 1880. Although his intellectual abilities were considerable, he won attention for his athletic ability, personality, and good looks, as he would throughout life. After graduation he traveled around the world, then joined the banking firm of Lee, Higginson, and Company. In 1883 he became a member of E. Rollins Morse and Brother. That year he married Martha Waldron Cowdin; they were the parents of three sons and a daughter....
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Bedinger, George Michael (1756-1843), soldier, legislator, and businessman
Ellen T. Eslinger
Bedinger, George Michael (10 December 1756–08 December 1843), soldier, legislator, and businessman, was born in York County, Pennsylvania, the son of Henry Bedinger and Magdalene von Schlegel, innkeepers. In 1737 his grandfather had moved to Pennsylvania from the vicinity of Strasbourg in Alsace-Lorraine. At the time of George Michael’s birth, the family name was spelled Biedinger and German was the language spoken at home. Late in life Bedinger was described by a contemporary as a “full blooded Virginia Dutchman.”...
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Benner, Philip (1762-1832), soldier, pioneer ironmaster, and entrepreneur
John W. Malsberger
Benner, Philip (19 May 1762–27 July 1832), soldier, pioneer ironmaster, and entrepreneur, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of Henry Benner and Dinah Thomas, farmers. For Philip Benner as for many of his generation, the American Revolution was the defining experience of his early life. When his father, a vocal patriot, was imprisoned by the British, Philip went to war in the Continental army wearing a vest in which his mother had quilted guineas in case of emergency. Benner fought as a private under the command of his relative General ...
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Bowie, Jim (1795-1836), popularizer of the bowie knife, speculator, and co-commander of Texan forces at the Alamo
Archie P. McDonald
Bowie, Jim (1795– March 1836), popularizer of the bowie knife, speculator, and co-commander of Texan forces at the Alamo, was the son of Rezin Bowie and Elvy Jones; his formal given name was James. Bowie’s birthday and his mother’s name are the subject of dispute. Some sources claim that he was born in 1795, while others believe the correct year was 1796; some claim that his mother’s name was Alvina, perhaps shortened to Elvy, and that the reading of her name as “Jones” from Spanish documents is an erroneous extrapolation from markings that could have been intended as “Jane.” Similarly, some sources state that Bowie was born in Burke County, Georgia, while others opt for Elliot Springs, Tennessee. ...
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Butterfield, Daniel (1831-1901), soldier and businessman
Edward G. Longacre
Butterfield, Daniel (31 October 1831–17 July 1901), soldier and businessman, was born in Utica, New York, the son of John Butterfield, a businessman, and Malinda Harriet Baker. From his father, president of the Overland Mail and partner in the American Express Company, Butterfield acquired an interest in organizing and administering business corporations. He attended private academies before graduating at eighteen from Union College. Following a brief attempt to study law, he traveled extensively in the South, where he foresaw sectional conflict. In 1857 he married Elizabeth (full name unknown); they had no children. She died in 1877....
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Butterfield, Daniel (1831-1901)
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Daniel Butterfield. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-1651).
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Chisolm, Alexander Robert (1834-1910), soldier and financier
Edward G. Longacre
Chisolm, Alexander Robert (19 November 1834–10 March 1910), soldier and financier, was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, the son of Edward Newfville Chisolm and Mary Elizabeth Hazzard, planters. Orphaned at an early age, he was sent to New York City to be raised by an aunt. In 1852 he quit his studies at Columbia College to return to “Chisolm’s Island,” his family’s ancestral estate sixty miles south of Charleston. Until the outbreak of the Civil War Chisolm administered the coastal plantation, which covered 4,000 acres and employed more than 200 slaves....
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Connor, Patrick Edward (02 March 1820?–17 December 1891), soldier, entrepreneur, and politician
Ann Engar
Connor, Patrick Edward (02 March 1820?–17 December 1891), soldier, entrepreneur, and politician, was born Patrick Edward O’Connor in County Kerry, Ireland. His exact birth date and the names of his parents are in question. As a teenager, he emigrated with his parents to New York City, where he probably briefly attended public school....
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Garrard, Kenner (1827-1879), soldier and businessman
James K. Hogue
Garrard, Kenner (30 September 1827–15 May 1879), soldier and businessman, was born in Fairfield, Kentucky, the son of Jeptha Dudley Garrard, a lawyer, and Sarah Bella Ludlow. Garrard, although born in Kentucky at his paternal grandfather’s home, was raised in his parents’ home in Cincinnati, Ohio. His maternal grandfather, Israel Ludlow, was a prominent real estate investor in Cincinnati. Garrard entered Harvard University at Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the class of 1848 but left after he received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated from West Point in 1851 and was commissioned in the artillery but transferred to the cavalry in 1852. He served with the First Regiment of Dragoons (a form of mounted infantry) until the outbreak of the Civil War on the frontier....
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Gilpin, William (1815-1894), geopolitician, soldier, and land speculator
Thomas L. Karnes
Gilpin, William (04 October 1815–19 January 1894), geopolitician, soldier, and land speculator, was born in New Castle County, Delaware, the son of Joshua Gilpin, a manufacturer of fine paper, and Mary Dilworth. He was educated at home until age thirteen, when he was sent to Settle, England, for preparatory school. Two years later he returned home, and after an examination, he was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania as a junior. He received his A.B. in 1833 at the age of eighteen....
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Gridley, Richard (1711-1796), artilleryman, military engineer, and entrepreneur
David B. Ingram
Gridley, Richard (03 January 1711–21 June 1796), artilleryman, military engineer, and entrepreneur, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Captain Richard Gridley and his third wife, Rebecca, whose maiden name is uncertain. His father, a currier by trade and an active militia officer, died when young Richard was only three years old. In 1719 his widowed mother married Benjamin Landon, a Boston shopkeeper. After grammar school, Richard was apprenticed to a merchant. In 1731 he married Hannah Deming; they had nine children....
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Hambleton, Thomas Edward (1829-1906), blockade runner and financier
Edward L. Lach, Jr.
Hambleton, Thomas Edward (17 May 1829–21 September 1906), blockade runner and financier, was born in New Windsor, Maryland, the son of Thomas Edward Hambleton, a dry-goods merchant and entrepreneur, and Sarah Slingluff. His parents moved in 1831 to Baltimore, where Hambleton received his early education before enrolling in St. Mary’s College, from which he graduated in 1849. He then entered into a partnership in Baltimore that manufactured agricultural implements. In 1852 he married Arabella Stansbury, with whom he had three children....
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Hascall, Milo Smith (1829-1904), soldier and businessman
James K. Hogue
Hascall, Milo Smith (05 August 1829–30 August 1904), soldier and businessman, was born in Le Roy, New York, the son of Amasa Hascall and Phoebe Ann Smith, farmers. Milo Smith Hascall spent most of his youth on his parents’ farm in New York but eventually moved while still a boy to Goshen, Indiana, where his three brothers lived. In Goshen he taught school and worked in his brother’s store before receiving an appoinment to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. Hascall attended West Point from 1848 until he graduated in 1852, ranking fourteenth out of forty-three cadets. He found his first assignment to the peacetime U.S. Army at Fort Adams, Rhode Island, distasteful and boring, resigned his commission in September 1853, and returned to civilian life in Indiana....
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Hunter, David (1802-1886), soldier and businessman
Rod Paschall
Hunter, David (21 July 1802–02 February 1886), soldier and businessman, was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Andrew Hunter, a minister, and Mary Stockton. His maternal grandfather was Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. David entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1818 and graduated with the class of 1822. He served on the American frontier and was stationed at Fort Dearborn, now the city of Chicago, from 1828 until 1831. He married Maria Indiana Kinzie, the daughter of Chicago’s first permanent white resident, John Kinzie. Hunter resigned his army commission in 1836 and pursued business interests, engaging in land speculation in and around Chicago. His efforts in civilian life were not sufficiently rewarding, so he applied for a restoration of his army commission. His application was accepted, and in 1842 he was made a paymaster with the rank of major. For the next eighteen years he served at various frontier posts....
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Hunter, David (1802-1886)
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David Hunter. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-1820).
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Johnson, James (1774-1826), soldier, entrepreneur, and political leader
Lindsey Apple
Johnson, James (01 January 1774–13 August 1826), soldier, entrepreneur, and political leader, was born in Orange County, Virginia, the son of Robert Johnson, a frontier planter and political leader, and Jemima Suggett. Emigrating to Kentucky, the family experienced the dangers of frontier life. According to Leland W. Meyer’s description, during a battle with American Indians at Bryant’s Station (Lexington) in 1782, eight-year-old James extinguished fire arrows on cabin roofs while his mother led a group of women to resupply the station with water....
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Kane, Thomas Leiper (1822-1883), lawyer, soldier, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and defender of the Mormons
David J. Whittaker
Kane, Thomas Leiper (27 January 1822–26 December 1883), lawyer, soldier, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and defender of the Mormons, was born in Philadelphia, the son of John Kintzing Kane, a jurist, and Jane Duval Leiper. He attended school in Philadelphia and from 1839 to 1844 traveled in England and France, studying and visiting relatives. While in Paris he served for a time as an attaché of the American legation. Small in stature and never robust, he would spend most of his life struggling with ill health. In Paris he met Auguste Comte and others who surely encouraged his social conscience, which would be manifested later in his concern for philanthropic causes. In 1844 Kane returned to Philadelphia, where he studied law with his father. Although he was admitted to the bar in 1846 and clerked briefly for his father, who was a federal judge, his interests and activities generally moved in other directions....
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Lyon, Matthew (1749-1822), congressman, soldier, and entrepreneur
Aleine Austin
Lyon, Matthew (14 July 1749–01 August 1822), congressman, soldier, and entrepreneur, was born in Wicklow County, Ireland. Little information about Lyon’s parents has survived, and most of the information about Lyon’s youth is derived from the recollections of a grandson who read Lyon’s memoirs before they were mutilated by attic mice....
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