Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/631

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SMITH
SMITHSON

at Ohio university in 1849, and at the U. S. military academy in 1553. He resigned in 1:454 and became assistant to I.ieut.-Col. James I). Graham, of the U. S. topographical engineers. then in charge of the government improvements in the great lakes. In 1855 he settled in Buffalo. N. Y., and was principal of a high-School. In 1857 he made the first surveys for the international bridge across Niagara river. and was employed by the city of Buffalo as an expert to examine the bridge plans that were submitted. He was then elected engineer and secretary of the Trenton locomotive-works. N. J., which was at that time the chief iron-bridge manufacturing Company in this country. and he continued so until 1851. While serving in this capaeity he was sent to Cuba by the company. and he also constructed an iron bridge across Savannah river. where. he introduced improvements in sinking cylinders pneumatically. The beginning of the civil war stopped this work, and he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of Ohio volunteers and assigned to duty as assistant adjutant-general at Camp Denison. On 26 June, 1861. he was commissioned colonel of the 13th Ohio regiment and participated in the West Virginia campaigns. after which he joined the Army of the Ohio, and was present at Shiloh and Perryville. He was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers on 15 April. 1862. and commanded successively the 2d and 4th divisions of the Army of the Ohio until late in 1862. after which he joined the army under Gen. Grant and took part in the Vicksburg campaign as commander of the 1st division of the 16th corps. Subsequently he was made chief of cavalry of the Department of the Tennessee, and as such was attached to the staffs of Gen. Grant and Gen. William T. Sherman until. owing to impaired health. he resigned in September. 1864. Returning to his profession. he built the Waugoshanee light-house at the western entrance of the Straits of Mackinaw. wherein 1867 he sank the first pneumatic caisson. Ile aided in opening the harbor of Green Bay. Wis., and has been largely engaged in building bridges. He built the first great all—steel bridge in the world. across Missouri river at Glasgow. Mo.. and was concerned in the construction of the Omaha and the Leavenworth bridges, as well as many others. including that over Missouri river at Plattsmouth. Neb. Gen. Smith has served on numerous engineering commissions. both for the government and for private corporations. He is a member of the American society of civil engineers. and was president of the Civil engineers’ club of the northwest in 1580. His writings have been confined to reports and professional papers.


SMITH. William Stephens. soldier. b. in New York city in 17.3.7; d. in Lebanon. N. Y.. 10 June, 1816. He was graduated at Princeton in 1774, studied law. but entered the I’tevolutionary army as aide to Gen. John Sullivan. was lieutenant-colonel of the 13th Massachusetts regiment from Novem— ber. 177-‘5. till March. 1779, and received several wounds while holding this command. Ile subse- quently served for a short time on Gen. Lafayette's statt', and was aide—de—camp to Gen. Washington from 17.31 till the close of the war. He married the only (laughter of John Adams. and in 1785 ac- companied him on his mission to England as sec— retary of legation. He was appointed by Gen. Washington marshal of the district of New York in 17H9. and afterward surveyor of the port of New York. for three years was a member of the as- sembly. and sat in congress in 1813—‘15. IIe be- came secretary of the New York state society of the Cincinnati in 1790, and its president in 179?.


SMITH. Worthington. educator. b. in Hadley, Mass., in 1795: d. in St. Album. Vt., 13 Feb. 1867. He was graduated at Williams in 1846, studied at Andover theological seminary. and was licensed to preach in 1819. He was pastor of a Congregational church in St. Albans. Vt., from 1823 till 1849, and from 1849 until his death president of the University of Vermont, which gave him the degree of D. D. in 1845. He published "Sermon on Popular Instruction" (St. Albans. Vt. 1846), and "Inaugural Discourse" (1849). His "Select Sermons" were edited, with a memoir, by the Rev. Joseph Torrey (Andover, 1861).


SMITH. Zachariah Frederick. author. h. in llenry county. Ky.. 7 Jan.. 1S27. Ile “as partially educated at Bacon college, Ky" engaged in farming. and during the civil war was president of IIenry college. Newcastle. Ky. Ile served four years as superintendent of public. instruction for Kentucky. was the originator and for four years president of the Cumberland and Ohio railroad company. became interested in the construction of railroads in Texas. and was four years manager for a department of the publishing-house of I). Appleton and Co.. of New York. He was a founder. and for twelve years president. of the Kentucky Christian education society. He has published a “History of Kentucky" (Louisville. Ky.. 1836).


SMITH IRISARRI, Antonio, South American artist, b. in Santiago, Chili, in 1832; d. there, 24 May, 1877. He was educated in the National institute, and in 1849 entered the academy of painting in the University of Chili. He served as a conscript in 1853-'7, but returned afterward to his art, and in 1858 was employed as a caricaturist on the “Correo Literario.” In 1859 he went to Europe and studied in Florence under Charles Marcó. On his return to Chili in 1866 he opened a studio, devoted himself to landscape-painting, and soon acquired fame as an artist, obtaining the grand premium in the national exposition of 1872. His principal pictures are “The Valley of Santiago,” “A Moonlight Night,” “A Waterfall,” “Wood Scenery in the Mountains,” “A Sunset in the Andes,” “Surrounding of a Mountain-Lake,” and “Mist on the Sea-Shore.”


SMITHSON, James, philanthropist, b. in France about 1765; d. in Genoa, Italy, 27 June, 1829. He was a natural son of Sir Hugh Smithson, the first Duke of Northumberland, and Mrs. Elizabeth Macie, heiress of the Hungerfords, of Studley, and niece to Charles, Duke of Somerset. For some time he bore the name James Lewis (or Louis) Macie, but after 1791 he changed it to James Smithson. He was graduated at Oxford in 1786, and had the reputation of excelling all other resident members of the university in the knowledge of chemistry. In 1787, as “a gentleman well versed in various branches of natural philosophy and particularly in chemistry and mineralogy,” he was recommended for election to the Royal society,