De Camp, John – De Haven, John Jefferson
De Camp, John
naval officer, was born in 1812, in New Jersey. He was promoted to the rank of commodore in 1866, commanded the store-ship Potomac at the Pensacola navy-yard during 1866- 67, and the receiving-ship Potomac at Philadelphia during 1868-69, and was retired in 1870 with the rank of rear-admiral. He died June 25, 1875, in Burlington, N. J.
Decatur, Stephen
naval officer, was born Jan. 5, 1779, in Sinneputent, Md.
He entered the navy at the age of nineteen, and rose to the rank of commodore. He died in 1820.
De Charms, Richard
clergyman, author, was born Oct. 17, 1796, in Philadelphia, Pa. He was a Swedenborgian clergyman of Baltimore and New York city; and the author of Freedom and Slavery in the Light of the New Jerusalem; The New Churchman Extra; and Lectures at Charlestown. He died March 20, 1864.
Dechert, Henry M
lawyer, financier, was born March 11, 1832, in Reading, Pa. He graduated from Yale college and has attained distinction as a great lawyer and financier of Philadelphia, Pa.
He is the president of The Commonwealth Title, Insurance and Trust company of Philadelphia, composed of lawyers and conveyancers only. He is also the president of the Pennsylvania State Asylum for Chronic Insane; and has occupied many positions of honor in his city, county and state.
Decker, Robert M
artist, was born June 8, 1847, in Troy, N. Y. He has attained prominence as a landscape painter.
De Costa, Benjamin Franklin
clergyman, author, was born July 10, 1831, in Charlestown, Mass. He is a prominent episcopal clergyman of New York city, well known as an historical writer.
He is the author of The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America, illustrated by translations from the Icelandic Sagas; The Northmen in Maine; The Moabite Stone; Verrazano, the Explorer; The Rector of Roxburgh, a novel; and a number of historical monographs.
De Coursey, Samuel Gerald
railroad president, was born Sept. 28, 1839, in Queenstown, Md. In 1895 he became president of the Western New York and Pennsylvania railroad.
Deems, Charles Force
clergyman, college president, author, was born Dec. 4, 1820, in Baltimore, Md. He was a methodist clergyman, prominent for many years in New York city as pastor of the Church of the Strangers. He was president of several different colleges in the south. He was the author of Triumphs of Peace, and Other Poems; Home Altar; Twelve College Sermons; Life of Dr.
Adam Clarke; Devotional Melodies; Weights and Wings; The Light of the Nations; The Gospel of Common Sense as Contained in the Epistle of James; The Gospel of Spiritual Insight; A Scotch Verdict in Re-Evolution; My Septuagint, which comprise the larger number of his writings. He died in 1893.
Deere, Charles H
manufacturer, was born March 28, 1835, in Vermont.
His companies are Deere and Co., or the Moline Plow works, and the Deere and Mansur Co. He held the office of the president of the board of labor statistics of the state; was presidential elector during the first Harrison campaign; and served as state commissioner to the World's Columbian exposition.
Deering, John William
merchant, congressman, was born Aug. 7, 1833, in Saco, Maine. Since 1867 he has been engaged in the southern pine lumber business and in building vessels. In 1883 he was elected mayor of Portland, Maine; and in 1894 was a representative in congress.
Deering, Nathaniel
author, was born June 25, 1791, in Maine. He was the author of Carabasset, a tragedy; The Clairvoyants, a comedy performed both in Portland and Boston; and Bozzaris, a tragedy. He died in 1881 in Portland, Maine.
Deering, Nathaniel C
congressman, was born Sept. 2, 1827, in Denmark, Maine. He was a representative in the state legislature in 1855 and 1856. He removed to Osage, Iowa, in 1857; was a clerk in the United States senate for several years; and then a special agent of the postoffice department, serving until 1869. He was a national bank examiner from 1872 to 1877; and was elected a representative from Iowa to the forty-fifth, forty-sixth, and forty-seventh congresses as a republican.
Deering, William
manufacturer, financier, philanthropist, was born April 24, 1826, in Oxford county, Maine. Controlling a good patent and pushing his business with spirit, he found himself, in 1880, compelled to move the works to Chicago and build a larger plant. In 1894 the old firm of William Deering and Co. took out a charter as the Deering Harvester Co., of which he is controlling proprietor.
De Fontaine, Felix
journalist, author, was born in 1832 in Massachusetts. He was a journalist of Charleston during the civil war, but subsequently, and for the greater part of his career, on the staff of the New York Herald. He was the author of Gleanings from a Confederate Army Notebook; Army Letters of Personne, 1861-1865; and News from the Front. He died in 1896.
De Forest, Henry W
railroad president, was born Oct. 29, 1855, in New York city. In 1889 he became president of the New Jersey and New York railroad.
De Forest, Jesse
was born about 1575 in France. He was the first settler of New Amsterdam, now New York city.
He died about 1626.
De Forest, John William
soldier, author, was born March 31, 1826, in Seymour, Conn. He is a novelist of New Haven who was a federal officer in the civil war. He is the author of History of the Indians of Connecticut to 1850; Oriental Acquaintances, or Travels in Asia Minor; European Acquaintances; Witching Times; The Lauson Tragedy; Seacliff, Miss Ravenal's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty; Overland; Kate Beaumont; Honest John Vane; The Bloody Chasm; The Wetherel Affair; Justine Vane; Irene Vane; Irene the Missionary; and Playing the Mischief.
De Forest, Robert E
lawyer, jurist, state senator, congressman, was born Feb. 20, 1845, in Guilford, Conn. In 1874 he was elected by the legislature of Connecticut judge of the court of common pleas for Fairfield county, which position he held for three years. In 1878 he was elected mayor of Bridgeport; in 1880 was elected to the legislature; and in 1882 was elected to the state senate. He was corporation counsel for the city of Bridgeport; and was elected mayor in 1889, and re-elected in 1890. He was elected to the fifty-second and re-elected to the fiftythird congress as a democrat.
Defrees, John D
journalist, state legislator, was born Nov. 8, 1811, in Sparta, Tenn. He settled at South Bend, Ind., in 1831; served in the legislature of that state for eight years; and was for many years the owner and editor of the Indiana State Journal. In 1861 he was appointed, by President Lincoln, superintendent of public printing.
Defrees, Joseph H
merchant, state legislator, congressman, was born May 13, 1812, in Carthage, Tenn. He turned his attention to merchandising in Indiana; in 1836 was elected sheriff of Elkhart county, and was re-elected in 1838. In 1849 he was elected to the Indiana legislature; in 1850 to the state senate; and in 1864 was chosen a representative from Indiana to the thirty-ninth congress.
De Garmo, Charles
college president, author, was born Jan. 7, 1849, in Mukwanago, Wis. In 1891 he was elected president of Swarthmore college. He is the author of Essential of Methods; Lindner's Empirical Psychology; Herbert and Pedagogy; and other works.
Degener, Edward
farmer, merchant, congressman, was born Oct. 20, 1809, in Germany. He was a member of the Texas constitutional convention in 1866, in which he favored universal suffrage; and was again a member of the constitutional convention in 1868. He was elected to the forty-first congress as a republican.
De Graff, John I
congressman. He was a representative in congress from New York from 1827 to 1829, and again from 1837 to 1839.
De Groot, Albert
seaman, was born in 1813 on Staten Island. He promoted the erection of the Vanderbilt bronzes, and presented to the printers of New York the statue of Benjamin Franklin, which stands in front of the Times and Tribune buildings. He died Sept. 17, 1887, in Richfield Springs, N. Y.
De Haas, Maurice Frederick Hendrick
artist, was born in 1832.
Among his numerous pictures are Farragut's Fleet Passing the Forts Below New Orleans; and The Yacht Dauntless off Dover.
De Haas, William Frederick
marine painter, was born in 1830 in Holland. He emigrated to New York in 1854, and devoted himself to painting coastscenery. He exhibited at the National academy, Sunrise on the Susquehanna, and Fishing-Boats Off Mt. Desert. He died July 16, 1880, in Fayal, Azores.
De Hart, William Chetwood
soldier, author, was born in 1800 in New York state. He was an officer in the United States army who published Observations on Military Law and Constitution and Practice of Courts Martial. He died April 2, 1848, in Elizabethtown, N. J.
De Hart, William Henry
clergyman, was born March 21, 1837, in New Brunswick, N. J. He has been pastor of the reformed church in various cities; and has served as stated clerk of the general synod of the reformed church in America.
De Haven, Edwin J
arctic explorer, was born in 1819 in Philadelphia, Pa. He served in Wilkes' exploring expedition from 1839 till 1842, and commanded the first expedition fitted out, at the expense of Henry Grinnell, of New York, to search for Sir John Franklin. He died Oct. 2, 1865, in Philadelphia, Pa.
De Haven, John Jefferson
lawyer, legislator, jurist, was born March 12, 1845, in St. Joseph, Mo. In 1849 he moved to California, received his education in the common schools of that state, and was admitted to the bar in 1866. In 1867 he was elected district attorney of Humboldt county; was elected a member of the state assembly in 1869; and a state senator in 1871 for the term of four years. For two years he was city attorney for Eureka; was republican candidate for congress in 1882; and in 1884 was elected judge of the superior court of Humboldt county for a term of six years. In 1888 he was elected to congress; and in 1890 was elected associate justice of the supreme court of the state of California for the term ending Jan. 5, 1895. He then resumed the practice of law in San Francisco; and since June 8, 1897, has been United States district judge for the northern district of California.