MOUNTMELLICK, a market town of Queen’s county, Ireland, pleasantly situated on the Owenass (an affluent of the Barrow) which nearly encircles it. Pop. (1901), 2407. It is the terminus of a branch of the Great Southern & Western railway, 712 m. N. of Maryborough and 5812 W.S.W. of Dublin. A branch of the Grand Canal also reaches the town, providing water communication with Dublin, and with Waterford by the river Barrow. There are industries of malting, tanning, woollen and salt manufactures, and iron-founding. A settlement of Quakers has contributed largely to the prosperity of the town. A provincial school of the Leinster Society of Friends was founded here in 1796.
MOUNT MORGAN, a municipality of Raglan county,
Queensland, Australia, 28 m. by rail S.S.W. of Rockhampton.
Pop. (1901), 6280. Railway communication was
opened in 1898. The town has been considered to stand on
the richest gold site in Australia, the gold being very fine and pure.
MOUNT SORREL, a market town in the Loughborough (Mid)
parliamentary division of Leicestershire, on the river Soar, 7 m.
N. of Leicester. Pop. (1901), 2417. The Sileby station on the
Midland main line lies 112 m. E. The position is beautiful,
a steep hill, once crowned by a castle, rising above the well-wooded
valley. At Barrow-upon-Soar, 212 m. N. (pop. 2409;
Barrow and Quorn railway station), lime is worked extensively.
The village of Quorndon or Quorn, 112 m. N.W., is the headquarters
of the well-known Quorn hunt. Quorndon is an urban
district (pop. 2173).
MOUNTSTEPHEN, GEORGE STEPHEN, BARON (1829–),
Canadian financier, was born on the 5th of June 1829 at Dufftown,
Banffshire, Scotland, the son of William Stephen and
Elspeth Smith. He was educated at the parish school, after
which he was for a time a herd boy. In 1850 he went to Canada
and soon became a prominent business man in Montreal. In 1878
he joined with his cousin, Donald Smith (afterwards Lord
Strathcona), in the purchase of the St Paul & Pacific railway.
This led to his interest in the development of western Canada,
and from 1881 onwards he was associated with his cousin in the
construction of the Canadian Pacific railway, for his services
in connexion with which he was in 1886 made a baronet, in
1891 raised to the peerage; and in 1905 made G.C.V.O. In
1888 he left Canada, and thereafter lived in England and
Scotland. He gave lavishly to charity and education, and with Lord Strathcona built and endowed the Royal Victoria hospital at Montreal.
MOUNT-TEMPLE, WILLIAM FRANCIS COWPER-TEMPLE, Baron (1811–1888), English politician, second son or the 5th
Earl Cowper, was born at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, on the
13th of December 1811. He was educated at Eton, and entered
the Royal Horse Guards, attaining the rank of brevet-major
in 1852. His mother, Emily Mary, was sister to the prime
minister, Lord Melbourne, whose secretary William Cowper
became in 1835; in this year he entered parliament as member for
Hertford, which he continued to represent until 1863. As
commissioner of works (1860–1866) he carried the bills for the
Thames Embankment (1862), and for the new law courts
(1863); but he is best known for the amendment, known as
the “Cowper-Temple clause,” which he introduced into the
second reading of the Education Bill of 1870, that no catechism
nor denominational teaching of any kind should be included
in the religious instruction given in rate-aided schools. His
mother, who married Lord Palmerston as her second husband,
died in 1869, and under his stepfather’s will William Cowper
succeeded to some of the Palmerston estates in Ireland and
Hampshire, and assumed the additional name of Temple. He
was M.P. for South Hampshire from 1868 until 1880 when he
was raised to the peerage as Baron Mount-Temple of Mount-Temple,
Sligo. He died at Broadlands, near Romsey, on the
16th of October 1888. He was twice married, but left no
children, the Palmerston estates descending to the Right Hon.
Evelyn Ashley (1836–1907), who was under-secretary of state
for the colonies from 1882 to 1885.
MOUNT VERNON, a city and the county-seat of Jefferson
county, Illinois, U.S.A., about 75 m. E. by S. of St Louis. Pop.
(1890), 3233; (1900), 5216 (111 foreign-born); (1910), 8007.
It is served by the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Louisville
& Nashville, the Wabash, Chester & Western, and the Southern
railways. It is the headquarters of the fourth appellate
court district of the state. Mount Vernon was settled in 1819,
incorporated as a village in 1837 and chartered as a city in
1872. Many of its buildings were destroyed by a cyclone on the
19th of February 1888.
MOUNT VERNON, a city and the county-seat of Posey county,
Indiana, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, in the extreme south-west
corner of the state. Pop. (1890) 4705; (1900), 5132, including 892
negroes and 262 foreign-born; (1910), 5563. It is served by the
Evansville & Terre Haute, the Louisville & Nashville, and the
Evansville & Mount Vernon (electric) railways. The city is a
trading centre for the surrounding farming region. It has a
valuable river trade, and various manufactures. The first settlement
here was made in 1803, and in 1819 a town was laid out and
named Mount Vernon. It became the county-seat in 1825, and
was incorporated as a town in 1846 and chartered as a city
in 1865.
MOUNT VERNON, a town of Linn county, Iowa, U.S.A.,
16 m. E. of Cedar Rapids. Pop. (1900), 1629; (1910, U S,
census), 1532. Mount Vernon is served by the Chicago & North
Western railway. It is the seat of Cornell College (Methodist
Episcopal; coeducational), which was opened as the Iowa
Conference Seminary in 1853, and was chartered in 1857 under
its present name, adopted in honour of William W. Cornell
(1823–1870), an iron manufacturer of New York City and a
benefactor of the institution. Cornell College includes a collegiate
department, an academy, a conservatory of music, a
school of art, a school of oratory and a summer school; in 1907–1908
it had 40 instructors and 755 students. Mount Vernon
was settled in 1842, was laid out in 1847, and was incorporated
as a town in 1869.
MOUNT VERNON, a city of Westchester county, in south-eastern
New York, U.S.A., on the Bronx river and Eastchester
Creek, 13 m. from the Grand Central station, New York City.
Pop. (1890), 10,830; (1900), 20,340, of whom 5265 were foreign born
(many being Italians) and 516 negroes; (1910, census),
30,919. It is served by the New York Central & Hudson River
and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways, and by
electric lines to New York City, Yonkers, New Rochelle, &c. The
city has various manufactures, but in the main is a residential
suburb of New York; the finest residences are in the eastern, central
and north-eastern sections, the last being known as Chester
Hill; the foreign-born element is largely concentrated in the
western part. Mount Vernon is in the township of Eastchester,
which was settled from Connecticut in 1664, possibly in the hope
of pushing Connecticut’s boundary nearer the Hudson. It was
called “Ten Farms” or East Chester. A parish of the same
name was established in 1693, but was disallowed in England.
About 1682 the “Ten Farmers” established a free school.
In 1764 the foundations were laid of the present St Paul’s (Protestant Episcopal), which was used through a part of the American War of Independence as a British military hospital. St Paul’s churchyard dates back to the close of the 17th century. Along the White Plains road (now Lincoln Avenue) Washington retreated, pursued by General Henry Clinton, before the battle of White Plains in 1776. The city of Mount Vernon was founded in 1851 by several realty companies. The postal authorities objected to the name Monticello, originally used, and Mount Vernon was adopted instead. Mount Vernon was incorporated as a village in 1853 and was first chartered as a city in 1892. West Mount Vernon was founded by the Teutonic Homestead Association and was annexed to Mount Vernon in 1869.
See William S. Coffey, “East Chester,” pp. 720–764 of vol. ii. of J. T. Scharf’s History of Westchester County, N.Y. (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1886).
