Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/644

This page needs to be proofread.
610
SOUDER
SOULE

SOUDER, Casper (so w'-der), journalist, h. in Philadelphia, Pa.. 8 Nov., 1819: d. there, 21 Oct., ]si;s. He supplemented a common-school educa- tion by private study, and in 1850-'G4 was connect- ed with the Philadelphia "Dispatch," devoting himself specially to local antiquities. In 1853 he also became associated with the " Evening Bulle- tin," of which he was afterward an editor and part proprietor till his death. Mr. Souder was an active supporter of the administration during the civil war. His "History of Chestnut Street," which was published serially, has been praised for trust- worthiness and originality of treatment.


SOULABIE. Louis Ferdinand (soo-lah-bee), explorer, b. in Pierre-fi tte-Lestatas, Beam, in 1587 : d. in Bahia in 1656. He became a Jesuit, wa* sent to labor among the Indians of Brazil, and was attached for years to the Amazon missions. His travels in the country, which extended to Napo river, gave him opportunities to make hydrograph- ical observations, and he prepared a valuable chart of the basin of the Amazon, with which he became thoroughly familiar. In 1637 he became assistant of Father Cristobal Acufla and accompanied Texei- ra's expedition, which sailed down the Amazon from Peru to its mouth. The maps and geographical ob- servations in Aeuna's narrative, " Descubrimiento del Rio de las Amazonas " (Madrid, 1641 ), are Soula- Ijie's work. Soulabie was afterward professor of theology in the college of the Jesuits at Bahia. He left inVnanuscript " Historia del descubrimiento y de la conquista de la America meridional," which was afterward published (Rome, 1752).


SOULE, Caroline Augusta mthor, b. in Albany, N. Y., 3 Sept., 1824. Her father's name was Nathaniel White. She was graduated at Albany female academy in 1841. and on 28 Aug., 1843, married Rev. Henry B. Soule. a Uni- versalist clergyman, who died in 1851, leaving her with five children to support. Since that time she ha* de ted herself to teaching and to literature. She was corresponding editor of the ' Ladies' Re- pository" in Boston from 1855 till 1863, and for eleven years edited and published " The Guiding Star," a Sunday-school fortnightly, in New York. Afterward she was ordained as a minister of the Universalist church, and in 1879 became its first foreign missionary. She is now (1898) pastor of a congregation in Glasgow, Scotland. In a recent letter Mrs. Soule says: "I have written everything from a sermon to a song, and done everything from making sorghum molasses in a log-cabin on a prairie to preaching three times a Sunday in the city of London." Besides numerous contributions to current literature, she has published " Memoir of Rev. H. B. Soule" (New York, 1852); "Home Life " (Boston, 1855) ; "The Pet of the Settlement " (1859); and "Wine or Water" (1861); and edited for two years " The Rosebud," an annual, to which she contributed many articles (1854'5).


SOULE, George, educator, b. in Barrington, Yates co., N. Y., 14 May, 1834.. After the death of his father in 1838 he" was taken to Illinois by his mother. He was graduated at Sycamore acad- emy, 111., in 1852. and'during the next three years studied medicine, law, and the commercial sciences in St. Louis, Mo. In 1856 he founded the Soule commercial and literary college in New Orleans, La., of which he is still" (1898) president. He was an officer in the Confederate army from 1862 to the close of the war, attaining the rank of lieu- tenant-colonel. He was captured at Shiloli. and afterward was chief of the labor bureau of Gen. Kirby Smith's army. Col. Soule is engaged in lec- turing and writing on educational and social top- ics, and has held many offices in benevolent and civic societies. He has published "Practical Mathematics-" (New Orleans, 1872); a series of " Philosophic Arithmetics " on a new system (1884) ; and "Science and Practice of Accounts" (1887).


SOULE. Joshua. M. K. bishop, b. in Bristol, Me.. 1 Aug.. 1781 ; d. in Nashville. Tenn., 6 March, 1867. His father was a man of great local influ- ence, went by the name of " Captain Soule." and was one of the select-men of Bristol. When Joshua was sixteen he united with the Methodist church, and about a year later introduced himself to a Methodist presiding elder and asked that he might travel with him. Consent being given, he began his career as " boy preacher." but. though young, he was tall, dignified, and able, and acquired note as an opponent of Calvinism, Unitarianism. and Universalism. He studied hard and made great progress. When he was but twenty-three he was placed in charge of the state of Maine as presiding elder. He was on the committee to draft the constitution of the delegated general conference, which, since 1813, has been the fundamental law of the church. He was a delegate to the general conference of 1812, and also to that of 1816. At the latter he was elected book-agent and editor of the " Methodist Magazine." He did not like these posts, and had made up his mind not to accept a re-election ; but in 1820, before that question was raised, he was elected a bishop. A great debate had occurred on whether presiding elders should be elected or. as before, appointed by the bishops. Mr. Soule was opposed to their election, but the majority of the conference voted in favor of it. Having full confidence in his sincerity, they elected him bishop, but he declined rather than administer what he believed to be an unconstitutional law, re- entered the pastorate, and was stationed first in New York and then in Baltimore. In 1824 the general conference reversed its action and re- elected him bishop. These circumstances have no parallel in the history of the denomination, and are indisputable proofs of his great ability and influence. Up to 1842 he continued in the du- ties of the office, and then visited Great Britain as a delegate from the general conference of the United States to the British Wesleyan conference. In 1844 the general conference was held in New York. Bishop James 0. Andrew had become complicated with slavery, and the conference passed a resolution asking him to desist from the exercise of his functions until this encumbrance should be removed. It was Bishop Soule's opinion that the conference had no right to pass such a resolution. Bishop Andrew declined the proposition, and the result was a division of the church. Bishop Soule adhered to the southern members, and when the Methodist Episcopal church, south, was established he went with it, and became its senior bishop. In 1848 he visited the general conference of the Mrt h- odist Episcopal church at Pittsburg, but was not recognized as a bishop or a delegate, though he was courteously received as a visitor. At the age of sev- enty-two he retired from public life. Bishop Soule was a great man intellectually, of remarkable per- sonal appearance, dignified and even ostentatious in bearing, of a strong and imperious will. Had he been thoroughly educated, and in early life br< nn: lit into close relations with educated men, his infirmi- ties, if not eradicated, would have been concealed. As it was. few men in church or state have exerted greater intelligence over their contemporaries.


SOULE, Pierre, statesman, b. in Castillon, in the French Pyrenees, in September, 1*02: d. in New Orleans, 26 March, 1870. His father held the