Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/200

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TOWNSEND


TOWNSIIEND


strenuous opponent of the resolutions then passed upon slavery, and his home in Troy, N. Y., was raiileJ on July 15, 18C3, by an antidraft niub. lie was a delegate from the state-at-large, to the constitutional convention, 1867-68; a Republican representative from New York in the 44th and 4")th congresses, 1875-79; U, S. district attorney for the northern district of New York, 1879-87, and a member of the constitutional commission of 1890, by appointment from Governor Hill. He w;is employed by the U. S. government to attend and rejxirt upon the trial of Cadet "SVhit- taker in New York city, which lasted two years, and which resulted in Whittaker's acquittal. He als > .acted for defence in the noted cases of Hen- rietta Robinson, Andrus Hall. "Whitbeck and George E. Gordon. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from "Williams college in 1866, and was a regent of the Universitj' of the State of New York, 1873-1903. He was married in 1836 to Louisa B. Kellog of Williamstown, Mass.. who difil in 1890. Their daughter married Professor H. B. Nason of the Rensselaer Polytechnic in- stitute, Troy, N. Y. He retired from practice in T'ltl. and died in Troy. N.Y.. March 8, 1903.

TOWNSEND, Mary Ashley (Van Voorhis), authiir. w;us born in Lyons, N.Y.. about 1836. At an early age she removed to New Orleans, La., attended school, and was married to Gideon Town- send of that city. One of their daughters married a son of Edwin M. Stanton. Mrs. Townsend first be- came known in the literary world by her publi, cation in the New Orleans Delta of " Quillotypes." a series of humorous articles under the pen name of Xariflfa. She made several visits to Mexico, where she was elected a member of the Liceo Hidalgo, a literary club of the city of New Mexico, and wrote orginal poems for the opening of the New Orleans Cotton exj>edition, 1884; the un- veiling of the statue of Gen. Albert Sidney Johns- ton. 1887. and for the dedication of the Harvard Memorial library, 1889. She is the author of: The Brother Clerks (1859); A Georgia Volunteer, ]><^m. and Poems (1870); The Captain's Story (1874): Doicn (he Bayou, and other Poems (1882); Distaff and Spindle, sonnets (1895). She died in Galvfston. Texas, June 7. 1901.

TOWNSEND, Virginia Frances, author, was born in New Haven, Conn., in 1830. She edited Arthur's Home Magazine, and is the author of: While it u-as Morning, Buds from Christinas Boughs, and By and By (1859); Amy Deane (1S6-2); The Battle Fields of Our Fathers (1864); One Woman's Two Lovers (1872); Only Girls (1872); Elizabeth Tudor (1874); A Woman's World (1878); Six in All (1878); Lenox Dare (1881); But a Philistine (1884); Darryll Gap (1886): A Boston Girl's Ambition (1887); The Hol- lands (1890); Max Meredith's Milleiiiuyn; Prot-


estant Queen of Navarre; Janet Stroiig; Sirs, Only Sevoiteen; That Queer Girl: The Deerings of Medbury (1890); The Mills of Tuxbury (1890); Mostly Marjorie Day (1892): Dorothy Draycott's To-morrow (1897); Xorton's Woods (1898); and Dorothy Draycott's To-days (1899).

TOWNSHEND, Norton Strange, educator, was born in Clay-Coton, Northamptonshire, England, Dec. 25. 1815. He came with his parents in 1830 to Avon, Lorain county, Ohio, where he worked on a farm, but found no time to attend school. He read extensively, however, and in 1836 tauglit a district school in Avon. He was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Univer- sity of the State of New York, M.D., 1840. He was an active supporter of temperance and anti- slavery reforms, and when about to start for Europe to study in the hospitals of London, Paris, Edinburgh and Dublin, he was requested to carry the greeting of the temperance society of the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons to the temper- ance societies of Great Britain and Ireland, and also served as a delegate from the Antislavery Society of the State of Ohio to the World's Anti- slavery convention in London, in 1840. He re- turned to Ohio in 1841, and commenced the prac- tice of medicine in Avon, subsequently removing to Elyria. He was elected to the state legislature from Lorain count}' by the antislavery party in 1848, and was influential in bringing about the repeal of the "black laws" of Ohio and the election of S. P. Chase as U.S. senator. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1850; a state senator, 1852-53; a Democratic representative from Ohio district in the 32d con- gress, 1853-55. He presented a memorial in favor of establishing a state institution for the care and trainingof imbeciles, which measure was passed by the legislature. 1854, and Dr. Townsend was appointed one of the trustees, holding that position for twenty-one years. He was married first in 1843 to Harriet N. Wood of Ohio, who died in 1853; and secondly in 1854 to Margaret A. Bailey of Virginia. Having abandoned the medical profession, he returned to his farm at Avon, and in 1854 with Professors Fairchild and Dascomb of Oberlin, and Dr. John S. Newberry of Cleveland, he attempted to found an agricul- tural college in Ohio. AVinter courses of lectures were given for three years, but the effort was not financially successful. He was a member of the state board of agriculture, 1858-64 and 1868-60; was medical inspector, U.S.A., with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, 1863-65, and in 1867 was ap- pointed one of a committee to examine the wool appraiser's department of the New York, Boston and otiier custom houses, and to ascertain how imported wools were classified and appraised. About the same time he was associated with