Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/450

This page needs to be proofread.

LICK


LIEBER


instruments and made a small fortune. He settled in San Francisco, Cal., in 1847, and in- vested 130,000 in real estate and other enterprises. He built one of the finest hotels on tJie Pacific coast and named it the Lick House. This hotel was sold by the trustees to the estate of James G. Fair for $1,350,000. la 1874 he gave all his prop- erty, valued at that time at about $2,000,000, to certain public and charitable purposes. Twice before his death he desired to make changes in liis schedule of gifts, and each time on the trus- tees expressing some doubts as to their legal right to give assent, he requested them to resign and selected new trustees. After providing for a number of minor legacies, ranging from $2000 to $25,000 cash, to relatives, fi-iends and charities, and providing for four monuments, to cost $5000 each, to his father, mother, grandfatlier and sis- ter in Pennsylvania, he left, for the erection of a bronze monument in Golden Gate park to Francis Scott Key, $60,000; for a group of bronze stat- uary representing the history of California, to be erected in front of the City Hall, San Francisco, $100,000; for the founding of the Old Ladies' Home at San Francisco, $100,000; for the erection and maintenance of free public baths in that city, $150,000; to found and endow an institution to be called the California School of Mechanical Arts, $540,000; to his son, John Henry Lick, $150,000, which amount the trustees afterward increased to $535,000, as final compromise settlement after a prolonged contest in the courts; and to construct an observatory and place therein a telescope which should be more powerful than any that had been made, and to constitute the observatory a department of the University of California, $700,000. The site was selected during Mr. Lick's lifetime on the summit of Mt. Hamilton, 4209 feet above the sea, fifty miles southeast of San Francisco, and twenty-six miles by stage line east from San Jose. It includes a reservation of about 2600 acres, extending roughly in a circle one mile below the site of the observatory. The telescope has an object glass of thirty-six inches clear aperture, the dome of the observatory is turned by hydraulic power, and the floor is raised and lowered by the same means. He also pro- vided that after all the bequests had been paid the residue of the estate sliould be divided equally between the California Academy of Sciences and the Society of California Pioneers, of which he was president. The trustees in the management of the estate not only completed all the stated bequests, but divided a surplus of $1,200,000 between the two societies named as residuary legatees. His board of trustees directed that his remains be placed in a vault under the pier sustaining the telescope of Lick observatory, ami they were so disposed in 1887. He died iu San Francisco, Cal., Oct. 1, 1876.


LIDDELL, nark Harvey, educator, was born in Clearfield, Pa., April 1, 1866; son of Thomas and Sophronia (Swan) Liddell. His father came to America from Berwickshire, Scotland. He was graduated B.A. from the College of New Jer- sey in 1887, returning thither as university fel- low in English in 1888-89. He was Latin master at Germantown academy, Philadelphia, 1889-91, and at Lawrenceville school, N.J., 1891-93. He continued the special study of English at Oxford, 1893-94; at Berlin, 1894-95, and again at Oxford, 1895-96. He was elected associate professor of English literature at the University of Texas, 1897-98, and was made professor of English there in 1898, resigning in 1900 to devote his time to the preparation of an edition of Shakspere. He was married, Dec. 30, 1890, to Mary Stanley, daughter of Samuel and Mary Gray (Patterson) Field, of Philadelpliia. He was part editor of the Globe Chaucer (1896); editor of The Middle Translation of PaUadius' de Be rustica (1895); Chaucer's Prologue, Knightes Tale and Nonnes Preestes Tale (1901), and Shakspere's Works in Elizabethan English, with a new critical text (40 vols., 1901. et seq.)

LIEBER, Francis, publicist, was born in Ber- lin, German}', March 18, 1800; son of Frederic William Lieber, an ironmonger who resided in Breite Strasse. In 1815 he served in the Prus- sian army, participating in the battles of Ligny, Waterloo and Namur, at which last he was severely wounded. He acquired his edu- cation at the Pepi- niere in Berlin, the gymnasium at Has- enhaide, at the Uni- versity of Jena where he was graduated in 1820, at Halle, and at Dresden. He took part in the revolution in Greece in 1821. He was repeatedly persecuted by the Prussian authorities

on account of his libei'al political views, and was twice imprisoned. Finally, on May 17, 1826, he fled to England where he supported himself by giving private instruction and by contributing to German papers. He applied for the chair of German in the London university, but while waiting for a settlement he received an appointment as gymnasium instructor in Boston, Mass., which he accepted and in June, 1837, took charge of the gymnasium, succeeding Dr. Charles Follen. He was married, Sept. 21, 1829, to Ma- tilda Oppenheimer, of London, England, and re- sided in Philadelphia, 1833-35. He was commis-


1