Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/184

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TIMBY


TIMROD


contested by Robert Smalls, wbo was seated July 19, 18S2. Tillman was re-elected from the second district to the 4Sth-5'M congresses, serving, 1883- 93, and liolding a place on the committees on l>;itents and the eleventh census. He died at Clark's Hill. S.C.. in 1001.

TIMBY, Theodore Ruggles, inventor, was born in D*>ver, N.Y.. April 5, 1802. He attended schixil very little, but showed a peculiar inven- tive genius, and at the age of fourteen invented a floating dry-dock. In 18-41 he conceived the idea of a revolving, circular iron fort, and had a working model made, which he exhibited to the government and for the following twenty j-ears he labored unsuccessfully for its adoption; but when Ericsson built the Monitor he purchased of Timby the right to use the turret. In 1862 Mr. Timby devised the method of sighting and firing guns by electricit.r, which later came into general use, and his other inventions include a mole and tower system of defense (1880); a planetary system of revolving towers (1880); a system of disapi)earing defensive towers (1881), and a re- volving tower and shield system (1884). Mr. Timby received in 1866 the honorary degree of A.M. from Madison university; in 1882 that of Sc.D. from Wooster, Ohio, and that of LL.D. from the State University of Iowa in 1890.

TIMON, John, R.C. bishop, was born in Cone- waj;o. Pa., Feb. 12, 1797; son of John and Mar- garet (Leddy) Timon. He removed with his parents to Baltimore, Md.. and engaged in mer- cantile business with his father until 1823, when, having decided to become a priest, he entered St. Mary's seminary at the Barrens, Mo. He was ordered sub-deacon in 1824, and accompanied the Rev. John Mary Odin on a missionary journey through Texas; ordained priest at St. Mary's church, by Bishop Rosati in June, 1825, and was professor at St. Mary's seminary. He subse- ijuently joined the Lazarist order, and was in- strumental in settling the difficulties between the Lazarists and Bishop Rosati, in regard to the ownership of property; was first visitor of the Western Province of the Scholasticate and Novi- tiate of the Congregation of the Missions, and did much toward strengthening the order. He assumed charge of the missions in Texas in 1838; offered the first mass at Galveston, and erected the first church at Houston. He declined the office of bishop co-adjutor of St. Louis in 1839; was appointed prefect apostolic of the republic of Texas in 1840; consecrated bishop of Buffalo, N.Y., in St. Patrick's cathedral, New York city, Oct. 17, 1817. by Bishop Hughes, assisted by Bishops \Vaish. McCIoskey and Kendrick, and was installed in St. Louis's church. Buffalo. Oct. 25, 1847. by Bishofrt Hughes, Walsh and Mo < losky. On assuming cliarge of the diocese, a


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controversy resulting from the refusal of the trustees to transfer to liim the title to the church resulted in the closing of the church until 18").'5, when he submitted. He died in Buffalo, N.Y.. April 16, 1867.

TliVlROD, Henry, poet, was b<>rn in Charles- ton. S.C. Dec. 8. 1829; son of William Henry and Thirza E. (Prince) Timrod; grandson of Henry and Susannah (Hargan) Timrod. and of Charles and Sarah (Faesch) Prince. His grand- father, Henry Tim- rod, a tailor, settled in Charleston prior to the Revolution, and his father, Wil- liam Henrj- Timrod, a book-binder by trade, wrote some verses, served as a captain in the Semi- nole war, and died, July 28, 1838, of ty- plioid fever. Henry Timrod attended the schools of Charles- ton, S.C, where he began his life-long

friendship with Paul Hamilton Hayne. He at- tended the University of Georgia, but received no degree. He studied law for a sliort time, but later acted as tutor in the families of several planters. In 1800 his poetry had begun to at- tract the attention of the critics, William Gil- more Simms did what he could to encourage him, and in that year Ticknor & Fields of Bos- ton published a volume of his poetry. Like Simms, Timrod was a fervent state's rights man, and in 1861 he began to write patriotic lyrics that became very popular. In 1862 it was proposed that an edition of his poems be published ia England, but the impoverished condition of the southern states, and the great interest in the war, prevented. He was for a time a private in com- pany B. 20th C. S. V. regiment, but was dis- charged on account of tubercular phthisis. Dec. 15, 1802; was, for a short while, war correspondent for The Charleston Mercury, and later editor of the Columbia South Cdrolinian. He was mar- ried. Feb. 16, 1864, to KateS. Goodwin of Charles- ton, formerly of England. When Columbia was burned in February, ISOo, he was left in extreme poverty, and this, together with the death of his only child, hastened his end. A monument in Timrod's memory was unveiled in Ciiarleston, S.C, May 1, 1901. His friend. Paul H. ^ayne, published a volume of his poems in 1873. and a volume was pulilished by the Timrod ^Memorial association in 1^99. Henry Timrod died in Col- umbia, S.C, Oct. 6, 1867.