William W. Belknap. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-2034).
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Belknap, William Worth (22 September 1829–12 or 13 Oct. 1890)
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Belknap, William Worth (22 September 1829–12 or 13 Oct. 1890), secretary of war
W. Bruce Bowlus
Belknap, William Worth (22 September 1829–12 or 13 Oct. 1890), secretary of war, was born in Newburgh, New York, the son of William Goldsmith Belknap, a career army officer, and Ann Clark. Following his graduation from Princeton in 1846, he studied law at Georgetown University. Belknap moved to Keokuk, Iowa, in 1851 and became the law partner of Ralph P. Lowe, who later became the governor of Iowa and a state supreme court justice....
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Bradley, Omar Nelson (1893-1981)
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Omar Bradley. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-94489).
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Bradley, Omar Nelson (1893-1981), military commander
Kenneth H. Williams
Bradley, Omar Nelson (12 February 1893–08 April 1981), military commander, was born in Clark, Missouri, the son of John Smith Bradley, a schoolteacher, and Sarah Elizabeth Hubbard, a seamstress. Bradley was one of his father’s pupils until age twelve, when his parents settled in Higbee so he could attend public school. From his father, who died of pneumonia when Bradley was fourteen, he gained a love of reading, baseball, and hunting....
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Colton, Walter (1797-1851), clergyman, journalist, and author
Robert L. Gale
Colton, Walter (09 May 1797–22 January 1851), clergyman, journalist, and author, was born in Rutland County, Vermont, the son of Walter Colton, a weaver, and Thankful Cobb. The family soon moved to Georgia, Vermont. Colton was apprenticed to a cabinetmaking uncle in Hartford, Connecticut, where in 1816 he joined the Congregational church. He attended classes at the Hartford Grammar School until 1818, entered Yale College, won a prize for excellence in Latin, and graduated as valedictorian poet in 1822. He studied at the Andover Theological Seminary, graduating in 1825. Later that year he became a Congregationalist evangelist and joined the faculty of the Scientific and Military Academy in Middletown, Connecticut, where he taught moral philosophy and belles-lettres and was chaplain. Publishing essays and poems signed “Bertram” in the Middletown ...
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Dern, George Henry (1872-1936), secretary of war
Christopher D. O’Sullivan
Dern, George Henry (08 September 1872–27 August 1936), secretary of war, was born in Dodge County, Nebraska, the son of John Dern, a pioneer Nebraska farmer, mine operator, and industrialist, and Elizabeth, whose maiden name was the same as her married name, Dern. Both parents were German immigrants. Dern graduated from Nebraska’s Fremont Normal College in 1888 and from 1893 to 1894 attended the University of Nebraska, where he was captain of the football team. In 1894 he accompanied his family to Salt Lake City, joining the Mercur Gold Mining and Milling Company, which his father served as president. Rising rapidly from bookkeeper to company treasurer, he was promoted in 1901 to general manager of the company, which had been reorganized as the Consolidated Mercur Gold Mines Company. Dern was coinventor of the Holt-Dern roaster, a furnace for carrying out the Holt-Christenson roasting process, a technique for recovering silver from low-grade ores. In 1899 he married Charlotte “Lottie” Brown; they had seven children....
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Duffy, Francis Patrick (1871-1932), Catholic military chaplain, editor, and teacher
Scott Appleby
Duffy, Francis Patrick (02 May 1871–26 June 1932), Catholic military chaplain, editor, and teacher, was born in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, the son of Irish immigrants Patrick Duffy and Mary Ready. The third of six children who lived to maturity, Duffy received his early Catholic education from the Sisters of St. Joseph but had to leave school at the age of thirteen to work in a mill. At fourteen, however, he was thought to be too frail to work, so he returned to school. Duffy earned a teacher’s certificate from the Cobourg Collegiate Institute in 1888. Feeling a call to the priesthood, he attended St. Michael’s College in Toronto, studying with the Basilian Fathers and graduating with a baccalaureate degree in 1893. In 1894 he accepted a position at St. Francis Xavier College in New York City, where he earned a master’s degree and applied for formal entry into the seminary. Archbishop ...
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Eastman, William Reed (1835-1925), engineer, clergyman, and librarian
Kathleen Molz
Eastman, William Reed (19 October 1835–25 March 1925), engineer, clergyman, and librarian, was born in New York City, the son of the Reverend Ornan Eastman, an ordained evangelist, and Mary Reed. Eastman descended from an old New England family. Like his father, Eastman attended Yale University, where he achieved election to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated in 1854 with honors. During the first of his three distinctive professional endeavors, he worked as a civil engineer, initially on the enlargement of the Erie Canal, subsequently on the construction of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad, and finally on the survey of the first railroad from Vera Cruz to Mexico City....
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Fithian, Philip Vickers (1747-1776), tutor and chaplain
Robert M. Calhoon
Fithian, Philip Vickers (29 December 1747–08 October 1776), tutor and chaplain, was born in Greenwich, New Jersey, the son of Joseph Fithian and Hannah Vickers, farmers. He was educated at Enoch Green’s school in Deerfield, New Jersey, and received an A.B. in 1772 and an A.M. in 1775 from the College of New Jersey (Princeton), where he studied theology and Greek with the Reverend Andrew Hunter....
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McCabe, Charles Cardwell (1836-1906), Civil War chaplain and Methodist Episcopal bishop
Duane W. Priset
McCabe, Charles Cardwell (11 October 1836–19 December 1906), Civil War chaplain and Methodist Episcopal bishop, was born in Athens, Ohio, the son of Robert McCabe, a tailor, and Sarah Robinson. At age fifteen, McCabe worked on a small farm in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and, by age sixteen, clerked in a store in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In 1854 he enrolled at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, where his uncle, Lorenzo Dow McCabe, was a distinguished professor; he withdrew from school in 1858 but graduated with a B.A. in 1860 and was accorded on honorary M.A. in 1864....
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Plummer, Henry Vinton (1844-1906), Baptist clergyman and U.S. Army chaplain
Geoffrey Gneuhs
Plummer, Henry Vinton (31 July 1844–08 February 1906), Baptist clergyman and U.S. Army chaplain, was born in Prince George’s County, Maryland, the son of Adam Francis Plummer and Emily Saunders. His parents were slaves on “Goodwood,” the plantation of George H. Calvert, a direct descendant of Lord Baltimore. When he was still young, he was sold to people living in Washington, D.C., and then to Colonel Thompson in Howard County, Maryland....
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Saules, James D. (1806?–1850s), African American sailor and musician
Kenneth Coleman
Saules, James D. (1806?–1850s), African American sailor and musician, is best known for likely inspiring Oregon’s first black exclusion law. Saules, whose birthplace is unknown, worked as a whaler in the 1830s. Saules was no anomaly, as the maritime industry was the largest employer of free African American men in the antebellum United States. The ...
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Trumbull, Henry Clay (1830-1903), army chaplain, editor, and author
Dewey D. Wallace Jr.
Trumbull, Henry Clay (08 June 1830–08 December 1903), army chaplain, editor, and author, was born in Stonington, Connecticut, the son of Gurdon Trumbull, a businessman and Whig state senator descended from an early New England family, and Sarah Ann Swan. Educated at Stonington Academy and Williston Seminary, Trumbull did not go to college because of poor health. In 1851 he moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where he was engaged successively in a railroad office, as a druggist, and in a wool and cotton brokerage. Shortly after arriving in Hartford he heard the evangelist ...
