Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/313

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Gill
Gill

been appointed by Governor Page to succeed Abraluini B. Venable, resigned, at the same time Andrew Moore was appointed to succeed William Gary Nichols, resigned, and at the next election by the legislature Giles was elected to Senator Moore's seat, while Moore «as elected to the one held by Giles. Mr. Giles was reelected in 1811 and resigned, March 3, 1815. In 1798 he served as a member of the state legislature and was a presidential elector in 1801 and 1805. In 1835 he was defeated in the contest for U.S. senator by John Randolph, and in 1826 he was again a member of the state legislature. He was governor of Virginia, 1826-29, and a member of the state constitutional convention of 1829-30. taking a prominent part in its deliberations notwithstauding his opposition to any revision, as manifested in Ills action in the state legislature, 1826. He entered political life as a Federalist, but was opposed to the creation of the Bank of the United States, and on that issue joined the Democratic party. He charged Alexander Hamilton with corruption and peculation, and proposed in the house resolutions censuring the secretary for assuming extraordinary powers and for want of respect to the house. He opposed the Jay treaty in 1796, and the proposed war with France in 1798. He was the Democratic leader of the senate, 1804-11, when he lost the leadership by opposing the policy of President Madison. He was an able parliamentarian and debater and published a number of effective letters and papers: against a plan of general education, the policy of Henry Clay, and that of President Monroe and in explanation of expressions used by him in debate in regard to President Washington. He died in Albemarle county, Va., Dec. 4, 1830.


GILL, Theodore Nicholas, naturalist, was born in New York city, March 21, 1837; son of James Darrell and Elizabeth (Vosburgh) Gill; grandson of Nicholas and Elizabeth (Burton) Gill, and a descendant on his paternal grandfather's side of Nicholas Gill, admiralty judge of Newfoundland, 1722, previously of Devon, England, and on his paternal grandmother's side of Capt. Michael Gill (no relation of Nicliolas), who settled in Newfoundland in 1709. He attended private schools and received instruction from special tutors. In 1860 he removed to Washington, D.C., where in 1863 he was assistant and librarian in the Smithsonian institution and later senior assistant librarian of congress for several years, resigning in 1875. He was connected with the Columbian university as adjunct profe.ssor of physics and natural history, 1860-61; as lecturer on natural history, 1864-66 and again, 1873-84, and became professor of zoology in 1884. In 1873 he was elected a member of the National academy of sciences, and also became a member of over fifty other American and foreign scientific associations. He was elected president of the American association for the advancement of science in 1897. He received from Colmnbian university (D.C.) the honorary degree of A.M. in 1865, that of M.D. in 1866, that of Ph.D. in 1870, and that of LL.D. in 1895. He prepared the reports on zoology for the Smithsonian institution, 1879-86, and is the author of arrangements of the Families of Mullusks (1871), Families of Mammals (1873), and Families of Fishes (1872); Catalocjae of the Fishes of the East Coast of North America (1861 and 1875); Bihlloyraphy of the Fishes of the Pacific of the United States to the end of 1ST9 (1883); and most of the Iclithyologj'of the Standard Xatnral History (1885). Ijesides several hundred articles on natural history for cyclopedias.


GILL, William Fearing, author, was born in Boston, Mass., Sept. 7, 1844; son of Thomas and Catherine (LeBeau) Gill, and a grandson of Thomas and Mary (Wymond) Gill of Devonshire, England. He was educated in the public schools of Boston and by private tutors, and was trained by his father, a prominent journalist and lawyer, for a literary career, and in 1862 held an important position upon the staff of his father's newspaper, The Boston Courier. He went to New York in 1880 and joined the staff of the New York Herald, and in 1884 organized a successful movement to break the "hackmen's ring" in New York city, and introduced a cab system (including hansoms) after the London and Paris systems. About this time, he also brought forward the idea of an American Parthenon, or national gallery of sculpture to be placed in Central Park, New York, and it was announced that the "Poe Memorial" to the poet, Edgar A. Poe, temporarily placed in the Metropolitan museum of art, New York, would inaugurate the American "Poets' Corner." He became associated editorially with the New York Graphic in 1889 and the Mail and Express in 1894. He purchased the Poe cottage at Fordham N.Y., in 1889 with the idea of preserving it as a memo-