Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/200

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DIMMOCK
DINSMOOR

ment in Washington. lie was appointed U. S. minister to Costa Rica and Nicaragua in 1858, and served till 1861, when he became chief of a bureau in the Confederate post-office depart- ment. He was made assistant superintendent of the New Orleans public schools in 18G8, and in 1870 professor of ancient languages in Christian college, at Pass Christian, La. Prof. Dimitry was master of eleven languages, and his favorite study was philology. He wrote many short stories for annuals in 1830-'5, under the signature of " Tobias Gruarnerius," and subsequently contributed to magazines and delivered many lectures, chiefly on historical subjects. Previous to 1846 he had pre- pared, after many years of research, a " History of English Names," but the manuscript was de- stroyed by a fire at the St. Charles institute, La., of which he was then the principal. — His son, John Bull Smith, b. in Washhigton, D. C, 27 Dec, 1885, was educated at College Hill, near Ray- mond, Miss., and accompanied his father to Cen- tral America as secretary of legation in 1859. He served in the Confederate army of Tennessee in 1861-'4, and was dangerously wounded at Shiloh. In 1864-'5 he was chief clerk in the Confederate post-office department. He travelled in Europe in 1869, and in 1874-'6 lived in the United Statfes of Colombia, where he was professor of languages in Colegio Caldas, Earranquilla. He was for seven years dramatic and literary editor of the New Or- leans "Times," and has been connected with the press in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, being for several years with the "Mail and Express." Mr. Dimitry has contributed to current literature, and has published a " History and Geography of Louisiana " (New York, 1877), which has since been used in the public schools of that state. — Another son, Charles Patton, journalist, b. in Washington, D. C, 81 July, 1837, was educated at Georgetown college, D. C, and, although not graduated, received from it the degree of M. A. in 1867. He served in the Confederate army as a private in the Louisiana guard. Since the war he has been connected with the press in Richmond, Va., Wash- ington, D. C, Baltimore, New York, and New Or- leans. Mr. Dimitry has contributed to current literature, both in prose and verse, sometinies under the pen-names of " Tobias Guarnerius, Jr.," and "Braddock Field." His writings include sev- eral novels, but the only one issued in book-form is " The House in Balfour Street " (New York, 1868).


DIMMOCK, Charles, soldier, b. in Massachu- setts in 1800 ; d. in Richmond, Va., 27 Oct., 1863. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1821, assigned to the 1st artillery, and served as assistant professor of engineering at West Point in 1821-'2. He was attached to the artillery school at Fort Monroe in 1825-6 and 1828-9, being ad- jutant of the school in the last-named year. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant in 1828, was assist- ant quartermaster in 1831-*6, and superintended operations at Delaware breakwater in 1831-'3. He was made captain on 6 Aug., 1836, but resigned on 30 Sept., and became a civil engineer in the south, being employed on many important railroads, and in 1837-8 in the location of a U. S. military road to Fort Smith, Ark. In 1843-'7 he was director of the James river and Kanawha canal. He was captain of Virginia militia in 1839-40, lieutenant- colonel in 1841-'2, and superintendent of the state armory in 1843-'61. He was a member of the Richmond city council in 1850, 1854, and 1858, and at the beginning of the civil war entered the Con- federate service, became brigadier-general, and was chief of the ordnance department of Virginia.


DIMMOCK, Georare, naturalist, b. in Spring- field, Mass., 17 May, 1852. He was graduated at Harvard in 1877, taking special studies there for two years after graduation, and continued his zoological studies in Germany and France, return- ing to Cambridge in the latter part of 1882. His wife, Anna K. Hofmann, whom he married in 1878, studied with him abroad, and has written zoologi- cal articles. Mr. Dimmock is the publishing editor of " Psyche," a journal of entomology, issued since 1874 in Cambridge. He is secretary and librarian of the entomological club of that place, councillor of the Boston society of natural history, and of the Appalachian mountain club. He has been a con- tributor to Cassino's " Standard Natural History," the "Science" journal, and other periodicals, for which he has written papers on zoological subjects. The degrees of A. M. and Ph. D. were conferred upon him by Leipsic university in 1881. He is au- thor of a work called " The Anatomy of the Mouth- parts of some Insects of the Order of Diptera" (Boston, 1881), and is now (1898) preparing for publication the genealogy of the Dimmock family.


DIMOCK, Susan, physician, b. in North Carolina in 1847 ; lost on the " Schiller," which was wrecked off the coast of Cornwall, England, 9 May, 1875. When only twelve years old she told her father she wished to study medicine and become a physician. During the civil war her family went north, and twice she applied for admission into the medical school of Harvard university, but was refused. She went to Zurich, Switzerland, where she graduated with honors, and afterward studied at Vienna. Returning to Boston, she became physician of the Hospital for women and children.


DINGLEY, Nelson, Jr., journalist, b. in Dur- ham, Me.. 15 Feb., 1832. lie was graduated at Dartmouth in 1855, studied law, and was admitted to the bar ni 1856, but never practised. He be- came proprietor and editor of the Lewiston, Me., " Journal," holding this post for more than twenty years. Between 1862 and 1873 he was six times elected to the Maine legislature, serving as speaker in 1863 and 1864, and was governor of the state in 1874 and 1875. He has always been a pronounced advocate of temperance. He was elected to con- gress as a Republican, 12 Sept., 1881, and he is still a prominent member of the house. In 1897. as chairman of the ways and means committee. Mr. Dingley gave his name to the tariff bill re- ported by the committee, which became a law in that year.


DINNIES, Anna Peyre, poet. b. in Pineville. S. C, 7 Feb., 1805: d. "in New Orieans, 8 Aug.. 1886. Her father, W. F. Shackelford, removed \o Charleston, where she was educated. At the age of fourteen she married John C. Dinnies, of St. Louis, Mo., where she resided until 1846. when the family removed to New Orleans. La. Before her marriage she had written many of the poems that she published later under the pen-name " Moina," among them the " Charnel Ship." In 1854 she contributed to the " Catholic Standard," a weekly edited by her husband, a series of di- dactic articles entitled " Rachel's What-Not." She contributed also to the literary periodicals of the south. In 1847 she published a collection of one hundred poems, arranged in twelve groups, typify- ing bouquets of flowers, under the title of " The Floral Year" (Boston). The domestic affections form the subject of most of her verses.


DINSMOOR, Robert, poet, b. in Windham, N. H., 7 Oct., 1757; d. there, 16 March, 1836. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, his family having immigrated from the north of Ireland about the be-