studying with him at night after the day's work was over, living quietly and economically at Greenville while he was in Washington. Always quiet and gentle, she lived for others, and was happiest when surrounded by her family. In youth she is said to have been a great beauty. Mrs. Johnson survived her husband six months, dying at the home of her eldest daughter, in Green county, Tenn., Jan. 15, 1876. Their daughter Martha was born in Greenville, Tenn., Oct. 25, 1828, was educated at Georgetown, D. C., and while yet a school-girl frequently visited the White House as a guest during President Polk's administration. In 1851 she returned to Tennessee, and on Dec. 13, 1857, married Judge David T. Patterson. During her father's administration she presided at the White House, Mrs. Johnson being an invalid, and she and her sister, Mrs. Stover, assisted at the first reception held by President Johnson, Jan. 1, 1866. In the spring of 1866 an appropriation of $30,000 was made by congress, for the purpose of refurnishing the White House, and Mrs. Patterson undertook to superintend the work herself, finding that unless she did so the funds would not go far toward accomplishing the desired object. Mrs. Patterson was a woman of great good sense, excellent judgment, remarkable executive ability, and filled her position at the White House with dignity. She, like her mother, had not fondness for display, and cared little for social gayety, preferring the quiet pleasures of home. She said: We are plain people from the mountains of Tennessee, called here for a short time by a national calamity. I trust too much will not be expected of us." Mary, another daughter, was born in Greenville, Tenn., May 8, 1832, and in April, 1852, married Daniel Stover, of Carter county, East Tennessee. He died in 1862, leaving her with three children, and in 1869 she married William R. Bacon, of Greenville, Tenn. She lived at the White House during nearly all of her father's term, but entered very little into the gay society of the Capital, owing to extreme diffidence and a taste for simpler, more quiet pleasures. Mrs. Johnson died in Bluff City, Tenn., Apr. 19, 1883.

MCCULLOUGH, Hugh. (See Index.) HARLAN, James, secretary of the interior, was born in Clarke county, Ill., Aug. 26, 1820. He was the son of Silas Harlan, a native of Pennsylvania, and his mother, Mary Conley, was born in Maryland. These two families emigrated to Warren county, O., where the children, who were quite young, were brought up in the same neighborhood, and when they reached their majority were married, and immediately emigrated to Clarke county, Ill., where they settled on a farm. Here they had four children, of whom James was the second. When he was four years of age the family migrated to Indiana, which was at that time an Indian country, and there formed a home in the midst of a dense forest. The number of children increased meanwhile to ten, four sons and six daughters, and James, who had become an excellent farm hand, was his father's chief assistant in clearing and making the new home. In May, 1841, young Harlan was granted his freedom, with a gift of $100 from his father, and started out to make his way in the world. Up to this time he had received instruction in the district schools, and had studied diligently, evening and mornings, thus becoming what is called a good scholar for the period. He now went to Greencastle, Ind., and entered Indiana Asbury University, from which institution he was graduated in 1845, with the highest honors. During his college course he supported himself by working on a farm, teaching the common school, and meanwhile boarding himself. Soon after leaving college he was married, at Greencastle, by Rev. Dr. Simpson, president of the college, after

ward Bishop Simpson, to Ann Eliza Peck. The following spring he took his wife to Iowa City, having been appointed principal of the Iowa City College, which was subsequently succeeded by the State University. In 1847 Mr. Harlan was elected superintendent of public instruction on the whig ticket. A year later he was re-elected to the same position, but was counted out by members of the returning board in favor of Thomas H. Benton, Jr., nephew of the celebrated "Old Bullion." Mr. Harlan now began to study law, was admitted to the bar, began to practice, and was progressing satisfactorily when he was offered and accepted the presidency of the Iowa Wesleyan University. During the presidential canvass of 1848 he made a number of stump speeches in favor of Gen. Taylor. In 1849 he declined an offer of candidacy for state senator, and in 1850 declined the whig nomination for governor of Iowa. He continued to practice his profession until the summer of 1853, when he entered on the duties of president of the Iowa Wesleyan University, and professor of mental and moral sciences, in which position he remained until he was elected U. S. senator in 1855. Mr. Harlan was re-elected to the senate in 1861, and resigned on May 13, 1865, to take the office of secretary of the interior, to which he had been appointed by Presi dent Lincoln about a month before the latter's assassination. Mr. Harlan had been prepared and equipped for his new position by service on the senate committees, on public lands, Indian affairs, agricultu ral bureau and Pacific railroad. In 1866 Mr. Harlan was elected to the senate for the third term and resigned from the interior department, taking a seat in the senate March 4, 1867, and serving until the end of his term. Mr. Harlan was highly esteemed throughout his senatorial career for his practical wisdom as a statesman, his influence and power in debate,

Jas Heuban

and his captivating oratory. It is said of him, that whenever he spoke on the existing issues of the time, he always called out the ablest democratic members in reply-such senators as Stephen Douglas, Louis Cass and Mr. Benjamin. The governor of Illinois said of him, "Mr. Harlan makes the best campaign speeches of anyone in the state." Senator John P. Hale called him "the most successful passer of bills." Charles Sumner esteemed him so highly that he requested the senate who placed him on the committee on foreign relations to make Mr. Harlan chairman. Roscoe Conklin said of Mr. Harlan, "He is the strongest, most convincing debater I have ever listened to, one of the really great men who have served in the senate.' His speech on the St. Domingo question, in reply to those of Sumner and Carl Schurz, was considered the greatest forensic triumph in the senate since the reply of Webster to Hayne in 1822. Altogether Mr. Harlan was considered the most powerful political speaker Iowa introduced to the country. And this description was equally accurate down so late as 1890, when, at what was known as the "Speaker Reed" meeting at Burlington, Ia., he made an address which Speaker Thomas B. Reed pronounced the best half-hour tariff speech he had ever heard. From 1882 until 1885 Mr. Harlan was presiding judge of the court of commissioners of Alabama claims. Since then he has lived at Mount Pleasant, Ia.

BROWNING, Orville Hickman, secretary of the interior, was born in Harrison county, Ky., in 1810. He was educated at Augusta College, Bracken coun

ty, Ky., and while there employed his leisure hours in working in the office of the county clerk, studied law, was admitted to the bar, practiced his profession in Quincy, Ill., served in the Black Hawk war in 1832, was a member of the state senate in 1836, serving four years, and was elected to the lower branch of the legislature, where he served three years. A mem ber of the Bloomington convention, he assisted Abraham Lincoln to form the republican party of Illinois, and was a delegate to the Chicago convention in 1860 that nominated Lincoln for president. In 1861 Gov. Yates appointed him U. S. senator, to fill Stephen A. Douglas's seat, and he served in this position for two years. In the early part of his term as senator he declared himself in the senate to be in favor of the abolition of slavery, should the South force the issue, and on Feb. 25, 1862, in a debate on the confiscation bill, he earnestly opposed it. During his residence in Washing. ton he practiced law with Jeremiah Black and Thomas G. Ewing. In 1866 he was an active member of the Union executive committee, was appointed secretary of the interior by President Johnson in the same year, and served un til the end of the administration. He acted as attorney-general in 1868, and was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1869. After his term as secretary of the interior expired he returned to Quincy, Ill., where he practiced his profession until his death Aug. 10, 1881.

OH Browning

RANDALL, Alexander Williams, postmaster-general and eighth governor of Wisconsin, was born in Ames, Montgomery Co., N. Y., Oct. 31, 1819, the son of Phineas Randall, a native of Massachusetts, and resident of Montgomery county, N. Y., and subsequently of Waukesha, Wis. Alexander passed through college, studied law, and began the practice of his profession in 1840, in Waukesha. He was appointed postmaster at Waukesha, and in 1847 was elected a member of the convention that framed the constitution. In 1855 he was a member of the state assembly, an unsuccessful competitor for the attorney-generalship, and was chosen judge, to fill an unexpired term of the Milwaukee circuit court. In 1857 he was elected governor of Wisconsin, re-elected in 1859, occupying the gubernatorial chair at the outbreak of the war. Quick of apprehension and ready in opinion and action, he was admirably suited to the needs of the hour. He declared at once the loyalty of Wisconsin to the Union, and the purpose of her people to fight for its integrity in such a way as to draw national attention, and his prompt and efficient measures, well seconded by all, augmented the useful service of the state, and gave her character and standing. He assembled the legislature in extra session, but before it could act, he organized the 2d regiment, using for this purpose the public funds before a lawful appropriation had been made; but when the legislature convened it upheld him in what he had done. When his term as governor expired in 1861 he contemplated entering the army, but was prevailed upon by President Lincoln to accept the post of minister to Italy, where he remained for a year, and returning home became first assistant to Postmaster-Gen. Dennison; in 1866 President Johnson

Abs, W Randall

appointed him postmaster-general, and he served in that capacity to the end of that administration. He died July 25, 1872, in Elmira, N. Y.

STANBERY, Henry, attorney-general, was born in New York city Feb. 20, 1803, the son of Jo nas Stanbery, a doctor, who removed from New York to Zanesville, O., in 1814. Henry entered Wash ington College, in Pennsylvania, and was graduated in 1819, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1824. He practiced his profession with Thomas Ewing, in Lancaster county, O., where he remained for many years, and became the first attorney-general of Ohio, the office being created in 1846 by the general assembly. On accepting this post he removed to Columbus, O., and made his home there for several years, where he established an extensive and important practice in the U. S. courts that were held there at that time, and also in the supreme court of Ohio. He was a member of the convention that met in 1850 and framed the present state constitution, removed to Cincinnati in 1853, and was appointed attorney-general of the United States by President Johnson in 1866. It was his devotion to his country and his desire to use his powers for her welfare at a trying period that caused him to accept this office, which he resigned, at the request of the president, in order to become one of his counsel at the time of the impeachment trial. Mr. Stanbery was in such delicate health that he was obliged to have his argu ment read in court. At the conclusion of the trial the president nominated him as justice of the U. S. supreme court, but the senate declined to confirm the nomination. Mr. Stanbery then returned to his home in Cincinnati, where he became president of the Law Association. Mr. Stanbery died June 26, 1881.

DAVIS, Henry Winter, member of congress, was born Aug. 16, 1817, at Annapolis, Md., where his father, Rev. H. L. Davis, was then president of St. John's College. His boyhood from the age of ten was spent on a plantation in Anne Arundel county, Md., where, from familiar contact with the negroes, he learned to hate slavery. Graduating from Kenyon College, Gambier, O., in 1837, and coming into his property on his father's death, he supported himself by teaching rather than allow his slaves to be sold. Having studied law at the University of Virginia, he practiced for some years at Alexandria, Va., and from 1850 at Baltimore, where he became prominent at the bar and in politics. Always an anti-democrat, he was first a whig, then an "American," and as such was in congress 1855-61. His adhesion to the republican party in 1859 entailed much obloquy, which he bore with defiant firmness. He declined the second place of the national ticket in 1860, and the next year offered himself as a Union candidate for congress and was defeated. He was again in the house 1863-65, and as a radical of high character and great ability from a southern state, exercised much influence. Here he steadily favored the most active measures for the support of the war, including the emancipation and enlistment of the slaves. For his relations with the administration, which were not always cordial, see Nicolay and Hay's "Life of Lincoln," and the "Century Magazine." Fearless, independent, and high-minded, a statesman rather than a politician, he was in public life somewhat haughty, uncompromising and autocratic, if not impracticable; as a scholar, an orator, and a man of innate force and deep convictions, he was respected in proportion as he was known. In 1865 he made a speech in Chicago favoring negro suffrage, which he claimed was the only way to insure his possession of his newly acquired freedom. He published a single book "The War of Ormuzd and Ahriman in the Nineteenth Century," 1852; but his speeches were collected in 1867. He died in Baltimore Dec. 30, 1865.

EVARTS, William M. (See Index.)

SHIPHERD, John J., founder of Oberlin Col lege, was born at West Granville, Washington Co., N. Y., March 28, 1802, the son of the Hon. Zebulon R. and Elizabeth B. Shipherd. He was carefully and religiously educated, and while preparing for college at a school at Pawlet, Vt., he passed through a religious conversion, beginning in conflict and ending in joy. While on a visit to his home he was slightly indisposed, and, by mistake, swallowed a dose of poison, which greatly impaired his eyesight, compelling him to abandon his intention of entering college, and he engaged in business. In 1824 he married Esther Raymond, of Ballston, N. Y., and removed to Vergennes, Vt., and took up the marble business. But he finally entered the study of Rev. Josiah Hopkins, of New Haven, Vt., where he spent a year and a half studying theology. He had adopted a system of shorthand writing, arranging the heads and subdivisions of his discourse upon a card in stenographic characters on account of his eyes, and continued this practice throughout his life. He first had charge of the church at Shelburne, Vt., and during the next two years was engaged in general Sunday-school work, making Middlebury his headquarters, editing a Sunday-school paper, and traveling through the state organizing schools. He subsequently took a commission from the American Home Missionary Society and went out to the valley of the Mississippi, and became pastor of a church at Elyria, O., in October, 1830, where he held revivals in his own parish and in the neighboring region. He resigned his pastorate in 1832 to lay the foundations of Oberlin in connection with his friend, Philo P. Stewart. He was ardent, hopeful, sanguine; was especially interested in the establishment of a community of Christian families, which should be a centre of religious influence and power for the genera tion of forces which should work mightily upon the surrounding country. Two or three sites were of fered for the purpose, but Mr. Shipherd finally selected a tract of 500 acres belonging to Messrs. Street & Hughes, of New Haven, Conn. It was thought best for Mr. Shipherd to go to New Haven and deal directly with the owners, and at the same time to interest New England families to emigrate. He reached New Haven and asked Street & Hughes for the gift of 500 acres for a manual-labor school,

proposing to gather a colony of familes who should pay a dollar and a half an acre for 5.000 acres in addition, but they were not inclined to fall in with his proposition. He visited them several times unsuccessfully; but one morning as he left his house he remarked to his landlady, "I shall succeed today;" and he did. A plan for raising funds was the establishment of scholarships. Each donor of $150 was entitled perpetually to the privileges of the school for a single pupil, the scholarship not entitling the pupil to board or tuition, but merely to a place in the school, the money paid for the scholarship to be invested in lands, buildings tools, etc. Mr. Shipherd's tour occupied him nearly a year, and in September, 1833, he returned to Ely

ria and Oberlin. In September, 1834, a church was organized, called "The Congregational Church of Christ at Oberlin," now known as "The First Congregational Church at Oberlin." The confession of faith was Calvinistic in doctrine, after the New England type, and Mr. Shipherd became pastor. His letters to his flock were like the letters of St. Paul to the churches. The following quotation is from his letter urging them to pass a resolution to admit colored students to the school: "Moreover, let me exhort you, as the Lord's peculiar people, to be zealous in finding out and employing those means by which the world is to be converted. Fear not, brethren, to lead in doing right. There must be a mighty overturning before He whose right it is shall rule over all nations, and the servants of God will have to turn much upside down, as Paul did, before all will be right. You know, beloved, I would not have you rash or inconsiderate in changing a single custom; but I would have you study and pray out

power..

the mind of the spirit and execute it promptly without asking how the world or even the church would like it. Nothing is more impolitic as well as wicked than to substitute expediency for duty. This is now a prevalent sin of the church, which nullifies her My fears are excited by your recent expressions of unwillingness to have youth of color educated in our institute. Those expressions were a grief to me such as I have rarely suffered. Although I knew that with some of you the doctrine of expediency was against the immediate abolition of slavery, because slaves are not qualified for freedom, I supposed you thought it expedient and a duty to elevate and educate them as fast as possible, that, therefore, you would concur in receiving those of promising talent and piety into our institution. So confident was I that this would be the prevailing sentiment of Oberlin in the colony and institute that about a year ago I informed eastern inquirers that we received students according to character, irrespective of color; and, beloved, whatever the expediency or prejudice of some may say, does not our duty require this? Most certainly. God made them of one blood with us; they are our fellows. Suppose, beloved, that your color were to become black, what would you claim, in this respect, to be your due as a neighbor? You know, dear brethren and sisters, that it would be hard for me to leave that institution which I planted in much fasting and prayer and tribulation, sustained for a time by only one brother, and then for months by only two brethren, and for which I have prayed without ceasing, laboring night and day and watering it with my sweat and tears." Mr. Shipherd removed to Olivet in 1844, desiring to build there a new Oberlin, but he died there later in the same year.

STEWART, Philo Penfield, founder of Oberlin College, was born at Sherman, Conn., July, 1798. When he was ten years old his father died, and he was sent to live with his maternal grandfather at Pittsford, Vt., and at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to his uncle at Pawlet, Vt., who was engaged in saddle and harness making. During his apprenticeship of seven years he attended the Pawlet Academy three months in every year.

Mahar Morgan House

During his attendance at the academy, the influence of a Christian teacher caused him to devote his life to God's service, and after completing his apprenticeship he experienced another conversion, in a conflict with his love of money. At the age of twentythree he accepted an appointment as missionary among the Choctaw Indians in Mississippi. He made the journey on horseback, preaching the gos

pel on his way. He superintended the secular affairs of the mission, taught the boys' school, and with the help of an interpreter held services in the different Indian settlements. His health failing, he returned to Vermont for a time, but returned to the mission in 1827, taking as recruits one young man and three young women, and in 1828 he married Eliza Capen, one of the young women. At the end of three years her health compelled him to resign, and after a correspondence with his former schoolmate at Pawlet, Rev. J. J. Shipherd, he joined him at Elyria in 1832. During the summer these two men talked and prayed over the needs of the Mississippi Valley, Mr. Shipherd being more especially interested in the establishment of a Christian community, and Mr. Stewart attracted by the idea of a school where labor and study should be combined on such principles of thrift and economy that the students would be able to defray all their expenses. The result of their endeavors is Oberlin College and colony. While Mr. Shipherd was in the East, Mr. Stewart had the general supervision of the work of the new colony, meeting the colonists, and advising and encouraging them, and holding meetings with gentlemen of the region who were acting as trustees. He and his wife pledged themselves to Oberlin Institute for five years, with no compensation but the cost of living, and when the school opened in 1833 they took charge of the boarding hall, continuing to do so until 1836. The charge for board in the Hall was seventy-five cents a week for a purely vegetable diet, and a dollar for the addition of meat twice a day. Nearly fifty years later, in the year 1880, the building on main street opposite the northeast corner of the college square was purchased and fitted up for a boarding-hall; with an additional lot, it has cost $5,000 and has been named "Stewart Hall" in memory of the early founder, and for the maintenance of his principles of economy. Young women may have board and room at two dollars a week, and young men, board only, for the same price. During the first year Mr. Stewart was also, in the absence of Mr. Shipherd, general manager and treasurer of the college. His practice of frugality and plainness of diet were somewhat too severe and were not generally accepted, and in 1836 he resigned his position, and, feeling some disappointment, removed with his wife to Vermont, and subsequently to New York. In the latter place he completed the invention of a stove on which he had been engaged for two or three years, and in which he became very successful. In his stove works he was a philanthropist, as in his work among the Indians and at Oberlin, and his object was not so much to acquire wealth as to bring economy and comfort into the homes in the land, and although he wrote that "to prepare patterns for a cooking stove is a slow and difficult work," his efforts were crowned with success, and the Stewart cooking stove has become well known. He settled at Troy, N. Y., near the manufacturers who worked out his inventions, and where he lived as simply and frugally as in his earlier life, giving largely of his means to help in good works. Oberlin shared his

prosperity, though it did not fulfill his ideal of a college and Christian community. Mr. Stewart died Dec. 13, 1868. MAHAN, Asa, first president of Oberlin College (1835-51) was born at Vernon, N. Y., Nov. 9, 1800. He was graduated from Hamilton College in 1824, from Andover Theological Seminary in 1827, was ordained in 1829, and became pastor of the Congregational church at Pittsford, N. Y. In 1831 he accepted a call to the Sixth Presbyterian church in Cincinnati, was trustee of Lane Theological Seminary, and in 1835 accepted the presidency of Oberlin College, with the chair of intellectual and moral philosophy, and the assistant professorship of theology. Oberlin College has been called a development from the missionary and reform movements of the early quarter of the nineteenth century. Its founders were home missionaries in the West and among the Indians, and Oberlin has always kept the missionary spirit alive. It was the first college in the world to admit young women on equal terms with young men, and received colored students twentyeight years before emancipation. In 1831 John J. Shipherd, under commission from the Home Missionary Society, entered upon his work as pastor of the church at Elyria, O., feeling keen solicitude for the future of the Mississippi valley. In the summer of 1832 he received a visit from an old school friend, Philo P. Stewart, who, on account of his wife's failing health, had retired from mission work among the Choctaws, but who was zealous in his desire to extend Christian work in the West. After prayers and consultation, these two men agreed that the needs of the country could best be supplied by the establishment of a community of Christian families and a Christian school which should be "a center of religious influence and power which should work mightily upon the surrounding country and the world-a sort of missionary institution for training

laborers for the work abroad." The school was to be conducted on the manual-labor plan, and to be open to both young women and young men. There was no thought of building a college, but simply an academy for instruction in the English and useful languages, and, if it were the will of Providence, in "practical theology." The name "Oberlin Collegiate Institute" was selected, and not until 1851 was it changed to "Oberlin College." The name "Oberlin" was chosen to signify the hope that the members of the enterprise might be moved by the spirit of the self-sacrificing Swiss colporteur and pastor, John Friederich Oberlin. Mr. Shipherd resigned his pastorate in October, 1832, and with his friend, set out to accomplish their enterprise. They reject ed several offers of sites because they wished to be apart from older settlements in order to have room for self-development into a peculiar Christian society, and finally accepted a tract of 500 acres, twelve miles from Lake Erie, and within the limits of the Connecticut Western Reserve. The colonists went from New England and signed "The Oberlin Covenant," a quaint document, in which they engage "to hold and manage our estates personally, but pledge a perfect community of interest as though we held a community of property," and promise "industry, economy and Christian self-denial," in order that they may appropriate what they

Asa Mahian,

66

have above their necessary expenses, for the spread of the gospel." They also agreed to dress plainly, furnish their houses simply, to educate their children thoroughly, to "make special efforts to sustain the institutions of the gospel at home and among our neighbors," and "to maintain deep-toned and elevated personal piety." In the first report published in 1834, the object of the founders is again set forth: "Its grand object is the diffusion of useful science, sound morality, and pure religion among the growing multitudes of the Mississippi valley. It

aims also at bearing an important part in extending those blessings to the destitute millions which overspread the earth. For this purpose it proposes as its primary object the thorough education of ministers and pious school teachers; as a secondary object the elevation of female character. And as a third general design, the education of the common people with the higher classes in such a manner as suits the nature of republican institutions." The first settler under the Oberlin compact was Peter P. Pease, who, on Apr. 19, 1833, moved into a log house that he had built on the future college campus. A saw mill and flour mill were soon in working order, and a wooden building 35x40 feet, and 21⁄2 stories in height, was erected, and contained the entire college for more than a year. School was first opened on Dec. 3, 1833, with forty-four students, twenty-nine young men, and fifteen young women, half of them from the East. The teachers engaged by Mr. Shipherd had not arrived, and John F. Scovill, a student from the Western Reserve College, Hudson, O., was asked to take temporary charge. In the spring of 1834 the teachers arrived-Rev. Seth Waldo, a graduate of Amherst and Andover, was professor of languages; James Dascomb, M.D., of Dartmouth Medical College, was professor of chemistry, botany, and physiology; Daniel Branch, of Amherst, became principal of the preparatory department, and Mrs. Dascomb principal of the ladies' department. After five years the manual-labor department was discontinued, it having been proved that student-labor was unable to compete with ordinary labor, and the mills were sold. In 1835 certain events decided the future character of Oberlin. By a vote of the trus tees of Lane Theological Seminary at Cincinnati, O., the students were prohibited from discussing the subject of slavery, and about four-fifths of them left the seminary. Rev. John Morgan, one of the professors, was asked to resign on account of his antislavery views, and at the same time, Rev. Asa Ma