Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/100

LAFAYETTE chine shops, ornamental iron works, breweries, marble works, flouring mills, plough works, reaper works, woollen mills, pump factories, cooperages, &c. Pork packing is extensively carried on. There are five national banks, with an aggregate capital of $2,505,000, and two savings banks. The city is divided into six wards, is governed by a mayor and council of 12 members, and has a police force and^a fire department. The county jail, erected in 1869 at a cost of $95,000, is a substantial struc- ture. The city contains several hotels, a home for the friendless, and an opera house which cost $62,000. Lafayette is the seat of Purdue university, named in honor of John Purdue, who gave it $150,000 and 100 acres of land. It also received the proceeds ($212,238) of the congressional land grant for a state college of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and the state and county have aided it by donations amounting to $110,000. The buildings already Purdue University Building. erected, at a cost of $110,000, are the dormi- tory, boarding house, laboratory, gymnasium, military hall, manufacturing shop, power and gas house, and janitor's residence. The univer- sity building proper is in process of construc- tion, and will cost $75,000. The institution has 184 acres of land connected with it. St. Mary's academy (Roman Catholic) has about 300 pupils, and there are several other Catholic schools. There are five public school buildings, the Ford school house, erected in 1869 at a cost of $85,000, being the finest. The young men's Christian association has a free reading room and library. Three daily, one semi-weekly (German), and four weekly newspapers are published, and there are 24 churches. La- fayette was laid out in 1825, and received a city charter in 1857. It is becoming a favorite place of resort for invalids and tourists. LAFAYETTE, or La Fayette, Marie Jean Paul Boch Yves Gilbert Metier, marquis de, a general of the American revolution and a French statesman, born at the chateau of Chavagnac, near Brioude, Sept. 6, 1757, died in Paris, May 20, 1834. His family was one of the most an- cient and eminent in the French nobility. His father, the marquis de Lafayette, was an offi- cer of the army, and fell in battle in Germany at the age of 25. His mother died soon after- ward, and he was thus left in infancy heir to a large estate. At an early age he was sent to the college of Plessis at Paris, and when only 16 married a lady still younger, a daughter of the count d'Ayen, son of the duke de Noailles. He entered the army as an officer of the guards, and in 1776 was stationed at Metz with his re- giment, in which he was a captain of dragoons. At a dinner given by the commandant of the garrison to the duke of Gloucester, brother of the king of England, who was then on a visit to Metz, Lafayette heard that the American colonies had declared their independence. Be- fore he left the table he had mentally resolved to draw his sword in the cause of American liberty, and he imme- diately went to Paris to make arrangements for the execution of his plan. He became acquainted with the American agents in Paris, Franklin, Deane, and Arthur Lee, and communicated to them his intention of pro- ceeding to America. This was at the darkest period of the revolu- tionary war, and the news had just reached France of the occupa- tion of New York, the loss of Fort Washing- ton, and the disastrous retreat of the Americans through New Jersey. The cause of America looked desperate, and the few friends whom Lafayette had apprised of his design urged him to abandon it. Even the American commissioners told him they could not in conscience urge him to go ; they had not the means even to give him a passage across the Atlantic. But he replied that the more desperate were the affairs of the Ameri- cans, the more necessity was there for giving them assistance ; and as for passage, he would purchase a vessel for himself and his compan- ions. He accordingly caused a vessel to be secretly fitted or.t at Bordeaux. While his preparations were going on, to avert suspicion from himself, he made a visit to his kinsman the marquis de JSToailles, then French ambas- sador in London ; but while in Great Britain he scrupulously abstained from using the op- portunity afforded of obtaining military infor- mation that might be of service to the Ameri-