Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/331

This page needs to be proofread.
GIST
GLADDEN

fever victims. His will is a most business-like document and contains the minutest directions for the disposal of his vast estate. His provision for expending $2,000,000 for the erection of a college building for white male orphans, in which no ecclesiastic, missionary or minister of any sect An image should appear at this position in the text.GIRARD COLLEGE whatever is to be employed or even admitted to the premises as a visitor, was explained by the benefactor as limitations "to keep the tender minds of the orphans, who are to derive advantages from this bequest, free from the excitement which clashing doctrine and sectarian controversy are so apt to produce." awaiting the period of active life to determine "such religious tenets as their matured reason may enable them to prefer." He was married in St. Paul's (Episcopal) church, June 6, 1777, to Mary Lumm, daughter of a ship-builder of Philadelphia. His wife showed signs of mental derangement in 1785 and was placed in Pennsylvania hospital while Mr. Girard went to the Mediterranean. She again entered the hospital in 1790 and while there in 1791 their only child was born and soon after died. She died in 1815 and Mr. Girard never remarried. He was baptized and confirmed a Roman Catholic and was buried in the graveyard of Holy Trinity (Roman Catholic) church, Philadelphia, by simple Quaker rites. The Girard estate, as left in trust to the city of Philadelphia, was placed under the management of the board of directors of city trusts of the city of Philadelphia, and the estate continued to produce, under this management, a net annual income (in 1896 of $1.069.326). which supported the college and various hospitals and other institutions provided for in the will. See Annual Reports of the board of Directors, &c., Life of Stephen Girard, by Stephen Simpson (1832), and Girard College and Its Founder, by Henry W. Avery (1860). On May 20, 1897, the board of directors of City Trusts of Philadelphia unveiled on the west plaza of the city hall a statue of the illustrious benefactor, Stephen Girard, of heroic size, and on Jan. 3, 1898, the semi-centennial of the college was celebrated. the exercises including an oration by Thomas B. Reed. speaker of the U.S. house of representatives. Stephen Girard died in Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 26. 1831.

GIST, Mordecai, soldier. was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1743. His ancestors were among the early English settlers of Maryland and when the Revolutionary war became assured he was elected captain of the "Baltimore independent company," raised for the defence of the rights of the colonies. In 1776 he was made major of Maryland regulars and în 1779 he was commissioned brigadier-general in the Continental army by congress, commanding the 2d Maryland brigade. He was conspicuous for bravery at Camden, S.C., in 1780 and was present at Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered in 1781. He was with Green in the south in 1781-82, and commanded the light corps, gaining a signal victory over the enemy at Combahee, S.C., Aug. 26, 1782. He died at his plantation near Charleston, S.C., in 1792.

GLADDEN, Washington, preacher and writer, was born at Pottsgrove, Pa., Feb. 11. 1836; son of Solomon and Amanda (Daniels) Gladden. His father was a native of Massachusetts and was teaching school in Pennsylvania at the time of his son's birth. The first ancestor in America came from England to Plymouth, Mass., in 1640. Washington Gladden began his life on a farm near Owego, N.Y., and received his education in a country district school. He learned the printer's trade in 1859 and was graduated at Williams college. His theological studies were cut short by necessity; but he was licensed to preach in 1860 and was ordained pastor of the State Street Congregational church, Brooklyn, N.Y., in the same year. He was pastor of a church at Morrisania, N. Y., from 1861 to 1866, and at North Adams, Mass.. from 1866 to 1871, when he removed to New York city and was connected with the editorial staff of the Independent, 1871-75. He was pastor of the North Congregational church in Springfield, Mass., 1875-82, meanwhile editing, for a time, the Sunday Afternoon. He became pastor of the First Congregational church in Columbus, Ohio, in 1882. He acquired a wide reputation as an editor and contributor to periodicals, as a public lecturer and reformer, and as an author. He was elected a trustee of Williams college in 1887 and of Marietta college in 1883. He was elected a member of the American social science association; of the American economical association, and of the Ohio archæological and historical society. He received the degree of D.D. from Roanoke college in 1884 and that of LL.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1881, and from Notre Dame university, Ind., in 1895. His published writings include Plain Thoughts on the Art of Living (1868); From the Hub to the Hudson (1869); Workingmen and Their Employers (1876); Being a Christian (1876); The Christian Way (1877); The Lord's Prayer (1880); The Christian League of Connecticut (1883): Things New and Old (1884): The Young Men and the Churches (1885) Applied Christianity (1887); Parish Problems (1888): Burning Questions of the Life that Nor is and that which is to Come (1889): Tools and the Man: Property and Industry Under the Christian