Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/745

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CONANT
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prominent in the American association for the ad- vancement of science, and in 1877 was chairman of the committee on Yellowstone park. In 1886 he was elected secretary of the section of geology and geography in this association. Dr. Comstock has made several important geological discoveries while on the various expeditions with which he has been connected, accounts of which have ap- peared in the " American Journal of Science," the "American Naturalist," the "Engineering and Mining Journal," and other journals to which he is a contributor. While in the west he edited the "San Juan Expositor" in Eureka, Col., during 1879-80, and was mining editor of the " Silverton Democrat " in 1883-'3. He has also published the geological portion of the " Report upon the Recon- noissance of Northwestern Wyoming, including the Yellowstone Xational Park " (Washington, 1875); "Outline of General Geology" (Ithaca, 1878); "Classification of Rocks" (1877); "Notes on the Geology of San Juan Country " (1882); and " Geology and Vein-Structure of Southwestern Col- orado " (1886), the two last from " Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers."


CONANT, Alban Jasper, artist, b. in Vermont, 24 Sept., 1821. After residing for some years in Troy, he removed to St. Louis in 1857. Here he was instrumental in the establishment of an art-gallery. He visited Washington and painted portraits of President Lincoln, Attorney-General Bates, and Sec. Stanton. He was for eight years a curator of the University of Missouri, and is a correspondent of the Institution ethnographique, and author of " Foot- prints of Vanished Races in the Mississippi Valley."


CONANT, John, manufacturer, b. in Ashburn- ham, Mass.; d. in Brandon, Vt., in 1856. He rep- resented the town of Brandon in the legislature for many years, was a member of the convention for revising the constitution of the state, and a presidential elector in 1840. He erected in Bran- don a large Baptist seminary. — His son, Thomas Jefferson, biblical scholar, b. in Brandon, Vt., I'd Dec, 1802; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 30 April, 1891. He was graduated at Middlebury in 1823. having studied Hebrew and German in addition to the usual curriculum, and continued for two years as a resident graduate, to read privately the He- brew scripttxres and the Greek classic writers with the professor of languages. He was tutor iir Co- lumbian college, Washington, D. C, in 1825-'7, and in 1827 became professor of Greek, Latin, and German in Waterville college (now Colby univer- sity), Maine. He held this chair till 1833, wiien he resigned and inade his home near Boston, where he could better prosecute his studies in the orient- al languages. He had already become convinced of the necessity of a new translation of the script- ures, a work to which his life has been chiefly de- voted. He was professor of languages and bibli- cal literature in Hamilton literary and theological seminary (now Colgate university), at Hamilton, N. Y., from 1835 till 1850, but spent two years of that time in study abroad, mainly at Halle and Berlin. In 1851 he accepted the chair of Hebrew and biblical exegesis in Rochester theological semi- nary, which he resigned in 1857, and removed to Brooklyn, N. Y.. having accepted from the Ameri- can Bible union the office of reviser of the common English version of the Bible. He continued in this service till 1875, and also became a member of the Old Testament company of the American com- mittee, co-operating with the committee of the convocation of Canterbury, England, in the revis- ion of the authorized English version of the Bible. He IS conceded to be one of the first Hebraists of the time, and is also a writer of pure and nervous English. He has published a translation of the 11th edition of the Hebrew grammar of Gese- nius, with grammatical exercises and a chrcstom- athy added by the translator (Boston, 1839), and a translation of Dr. E. Rodiger's 17th edition of that work, with the additions (New York, 1877). This work has become a standard text-book in England and America. He has also published " The Book of Job " (New York. 1856), " The Gos- pel by Matthew " (1860). and " The Book of Prov- erbs" (1872), each book containing the received original text, the common version, and a revised version, with critical introduction, and critical and philological notes for scholars. His other works are revised versions in English, with notes, of "The New Testament" (1866); "The Book of Genesis" (1868); "The Book of Psalms" (1872); " Propliecies of Isaiah, Chapters I-XIII " (1874); and the historical books of the Old Testament, from Joshua to second Kings (Philadelphia, 1884); and " BairrlCftv, its Meaning and Use philologically and historically investigated " (New York, 1864). His wife, Hannah O'Brien Chaplin, b. in Danvers, Mass., in 1809; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 18 Feb., 1865, was a daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, and married Dr. Conant in 1830. She was a frequent contributor to literary and religious periodicals, and in 1838 became editor of the " Mothers Monthly Journal," published in Utica, N. Y. Mrs. Conant had a profound knowledge of the oriental tongues, and gave her husband much assistance in his life-work, at the same time keejiing pace with current literature, and controlling a large family. She published " The Earnest Man," a biographical sketch of the missionarv Judson (1855); " Popular History of English Bible Translation" (1856); " The History of the English Bible," a work of great research (1859); translations from the German of Strauss's " Lea, or The Baptism in the Jordan " (1844); Neander's Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, the Epistle of James, and the first Epistle of John (1850-'2); and Uhden's " New England Theocracy " (1857). — Their son, Samuel Stillman, author, b. in Waterville, Me., 11 Dec, 1831, studied at Madison university, Hamilton, N. Y., and in 1S5S went abroad and spent two years in study in Berlin, Heidelberg, and Munich. After being connected with various jour- nals, he was managing editor of " Harper's Week- ly " from 1869 till January, 1885, when he myste- riously disappeared. He contributed largely to periodicals, and translated from the Russian, through the German, Lermontoff's " Circassian Boy " (Boston, 1875). — His wife, Helen Stevens, b. in Methuen, Mass., 9 Oct., 1839, has contributed to periodicals, and has published " The Butterfly- Hunters " (Boston, 1868), and primers of German and Spanish literature (X^ew York, 1878-'9).


CONANT, Roger, pioneer, b. in Budleigh, Dev- onshire, England, in April, 1593: d. in I>everly, Mass., 19 Nov., 1679. He came to Plymouth in 1623, removed to Nantasket in 1625, and thence, in the autumn, to Cape Ann, having been charged by the adventurers in England with the care of that settlement. Some of the settlers became dis- couraged and left, and the rest finally removed to Naumkeag (now Salem), where Conant built the first house in 1626. In May, 1632, he was chosen one of a committee to confer on the subject of raising a general stock for purposes of trade, and in 1636 was ap{)ointed to examine and mark all the Salem canoes, then an important means of trans- port. He was a representative at the first court in 1634, and in 1637 was a justice of the quarterly