Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/417

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CORSON


CORTHELL


then became a banker in his native state and in 1861 joined the Confederate army as colonel of the 17th Virginia regiment. He was wounded at the battle of Manassas, fought at Boonesboro' and Sharpsburg, and in 1862 was promoted briga- dier-general, serving as such in the expedition against Knoxville. In 1865 he was taken pris- oner at Sailor's Creek, Va. He resumed his banking business in 1865, and retired in 18T4. He died in Alexandria, Va., Feb. 11, 1895.

CORSON, Hiram, educator, was born in Phila- delphia, Pa., Nov. 6, 1828. He received a liberal •education, was a tutor in Treemount seminary at Norristown, Pa., and in 1850 was employed in the library of the" Smithsonian institution, where he devoted much attention to English, French and German literature. He was married, Sept. 13,

1854, to Caroline Rollin (born in Paris, France, Dec. 29, 1828), a well known author and translator. He

left the librarj' in 1856 and resumed teaching. In 1859 he removed to Philadelphia and delivered courses of lectures on Eng- (^ < A_^ ^^^^^ literature un-

fyrOPL^iilV^CfU^ til March, 1865,

^ when he wes

elected professor of moral science, history and rhetoric in Girard college and vice-president ex officio of the insti- tution. In August, 1866, he resigned to accept the chairs of Anglo-Saxon and English language and literature, and of elocution, in St. John's college, Annajjolis, Md. In 1870 he went to Cornell university as professor of rhetoric and oratory. The name of the chair was changed to Anglo-Saxon and English literature in 1872, and to English literature and rhetoric in 1886. He was vice-president of the New Shakespeare so- ciety, University college, London, and lectured before that society and before the Browning society of London. In America he lectured at the various universities and learned societies on English literature. He I'eceived the degree of A.M. from the College of New Jersey in 1864 and that of LL.D. from St. John's college in 1877. He published Chaucer's Legende of Goode Wotiien (edited, with notes, 1864); An Essay on the Study of Literature (1867); An Elocutionary Manual (1867); Handbook of Anglo-Saxon and Early Eng- lish (187 \); The Claims of Literary Culture (1875); Tlie Idea of Personality as Embodied in Bobert Browning's Poetry (1882); Jottings on the Text of


Hamlet (1884); An Introduction to the Study of Bobert Browning's Poetry (1886, 3d ed., 1889); An Litroduction to the Study of Shakespeare (1889); Wiat Does, What Knows, What Is (1891); A Primer of English Verse (1892); The Aims of Literary Study (1895); and The Voice and Spiritucil Educa- tion (1896); Selections from Chaucer's Canterbui^ Tales (edited, 1896). He retired in June, 1903.

CORSON, Juliet, educator, was born in Rox- bury, Mass., Feb. 14, 1842. From 1848 she was an inmate of the home of her maternal uncle, Dr. Alfred Upham, in New York citj^ and she fol- lowed a course of classical reading under his direction. From 1863 to 1870 she was book re- viewer and contributor of the column " News of the World of Women " for the Neiu York Leader. She also wrote for the Courier and for the Xutional Quarterly Beview. She was instrumental in form- ing the free training schools for women in New York city, which included training in commercial and domestic service, upon the public school sys- tem. She gave lessons in 1878 at Montreal, Can- ada, under the supervision of the public school commissioners, and in 1879 instructed classes in the high school of Washington, D.C. In 1880 she furnished the French government with her plan of work and list of books for use in the pub- lic schools of that republic. In 1885 she demon- strated to the board of education, Oakland, Cal., the possibility of teaching domestic economy as a part of regular public-school instruction and sent to that city a trained teacher, afterward introduc- ing the system in the public schools of Philadel- phia. Her work was largely philanthropic, an effort to spread the gospel of good cooking among the masses,' and the theme of her first book was " How well can we live if we are moderately poor?" In 1890 she inaugurated the practice kitchen at the Catholic protectory and founded in the South a cooking school for young colored women. In 1889 she became editor of the House- hold Monthly. She secured at the Columbian Ex- po.sition, 1893, the only medal given for dietetics. She published several cook-books. She died in New York city, June 18, 1897.

CORTELYOU, George Bruce, cabinet officer, was born in New York, July 26, 1862. He was graduated at the Normal school, Westfield, Mass., in 1882, became a stenogrnpher, and was gradu- ated in law at Georgetown, D.C, in 1895. He was private secretary to the President from that j^ear till his appointment as Secretary of Com- merce in 1903.

CORTHELL, Elmer Lawrence, engineer, was born at South Abington, Mass., Sept. 30, 1840; son of James Lawrence and Marj-^ (Gueney) Cor- thell; grandson of Hosea Corthell and of David Gueney, and a descendant of Siierebiuh Cortliell, who served in the Revolutionary War. He en-