Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography

Thousands of short American lives — soldiers, inventors, preachers, governors, novelists — each given a paragraph: born where, did what, and why anyone remembered.

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Mercein, Thomas Fitz Ran- Dolph – Merrell, Edward H

Printed page 652 of Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography (1898) · 28 lives

Mercein, Thomas Fitz Ran- Dolph

clergyman, author, was born Nov. 27, 1825, in New York city. He was a methodist clergyman of New York state; and the author of Natural Goodness; The Wise Master Builder; and Childhood and the Church. He died Sept. 15, 1856, in Sheffield, Mass.

Mercer, Anne Jane

philanthropist, was born in October, 1817, in Philadelphia, Pa. She was well known as a philanthropist of her time. She died April 5, 1886, in Philadelphia, Pa.

Mercer, Charles Fenton

soldier, lawyer, congressman, author, was born June 6, 1778, in Fredericksburg, Va.

From 1810 to 1817 he was a member of the general assembly of Virginia. In 1813 he was appointed aid to the governor, and rose to the rank of brigadier-general of militia. He was a member of congress from 1817 to 1840. He was the author of The Weakness and Inefficiency of the Government of the United States, which was not published until 1863. He died May 4, 1858, in Howard, Va.

Mercer, David H

lawyer, congressman, was born July 9, 1857, in Benton county, Iowa. He studied law one year and then entered the senior class of the law department of Michigan state university, graduating in 1882, after which he returned to Brownville to practice his profession.

He served one term as city clerk and police judge; and was twice elected secretary of the republican state central committee. He moved to Omaha in 1885 and for several years was chairman of the republican city and county committees; and was elected secretary of the national republican congressional committee in 1896. He was elected to the fifty-third and fifty-fourth congresses and re-elected to the fifty-fifth congress as a republican.

Mercer, George A

lawyer, author, was born Feb. 9, 1835, in Savannah, Ga.

From 1872-74 he served in the Georgia legislature; and was United States district judge for the southern district of Georgia.

Mercer, Henry William

clergyman, author, was born July 13, 1839, in England. He is the author of a temperance work entitled A Root of Bitterness.

Mercer, James

lawyer, jurist, congressman, was born in 1747 in Hampton county, Va. Hewas a member of the house of burgesses; and a member of all the Virginia conventions, and of the committee of safety. He was a delegate to the continental congress in 1779 and 1780; and a judge of admiralty, and of the first court of appeals of Virginia. He died in June, 1793, in Hampton county, Va.

Mercer, Jesse

clergyman, was born Dec. 16, 1769, in Halifax county, N. C. He has filled pastorates in the baptist churches in Pennsylvania; and was the founder of Mercer university. He died Sept. 6, 1841.

Mercer, John Francis

soldier, congressman, governor, was born May 17, 1759, in Stafford county, Va. He was a soldier of the revolution; and was a member of the old congress from Virginia from 1782 to 1785. He was a member, from Maryland, of the convention which framed the federal constitution, but did not sign that instrument. He was a representative in the new congress from 1792 to 1794.

He was governor of Maryland from 1801 to 1803; and also a member of the legislature of that state. He died Aug. 30, 1821, in Philadelphia, Pa.

Mercer, Margaret

philanthropist, author, was born in 1792 in Annapolis, Md. She voluntarily reduced herself from affluence to poverty by freeing her slaves and sending them to Liberia, and she subsequently taught for twenty years in Virginia. She prepared two volumes for her pupils, Studies for Bible Classes; and Ethics, a Series of Lectures to Young Ladies. She died in June, 1846, in Virginia.

Mercur, Anna Hubbard

poet, was born in Lancaster, Mass. While at Rutgers college she took the gold medal for an essay. Her first published poem was set to music for the graduating class by George Root. She has been a constant contributor to magazines and journals, and her letters from France and Germany have been a valuable acquisition to historical literature. She is the author of a work entitled Cosmos and Other Poems, which contains a number of meritorious poems.

Mercur, James

educator, scientist, author, was born in 1842 in Pennsylvania.

He was a scientist and army officer; professor at West Point since 1884; and the author of Elements of the Art of War; and Military Mines, Blasting, and Demolitions. He died in 1896.

Mercur, Ulysses

lawyer, jurist, congressman, was born Aug. 12, 1818, in Towanda, Pa. In 1861 he was appointed president judge of the thirteenth judicial district of Pennsylvania, and elected to the office in October following for a term of ten years, but resigned on being elected, in 1864, a representative from Pennsylvania to the thirty-ninth congress. He was re-elected to the fortieth and fortyfirst congresses. He died June 6, 1887, in Wallingford, Pa.

Meredith, Elisha E

lawyer, state senator, congressman, was born Dec. 26, 1848, in Sumter county, Ala. He served in the state senate of Virginia from 1883 to 1887; and was presidential elector in 1888. He was elected to the fifty-second and fifty-third congresses and re-elected to the fifty-fourth congress as a democrat.

Meredith, Samuel

soldier, financier, congressman, was born in 1740 in Philadelphia, Pa. He served for a time in the colonial legislature of Pennsylvania; and was a delegate from that state to the continental congress in 1787 and 1788. On the organization of the federal government he was appointed treasurer of the United States, in which office he continued until 1801, when he resigned. He died March 10, 1817, in Belmont, Pa.

Meredith, Solomon

soldier, state legislator, was born May 29, 1810, in Guilford county, N. C. He was chosen sheriff of Fort Wayne county, Ind., in 1834 and 1836, thrice elected to legislature in 1846- 48, and in 1849 became United States marshal for the district of Indiana. In 1854 he was again chosen to the legislature. In July, 1861, he became colonel of the nineteenth Indiana regiment, which saw its first service in Virginia, and lost half its effective force at Gainesville, where he was wounded. He died Oct. 21, 1875, in Cambridge City, Ind.

Meredith, Sullivan Amory

soldier, was born July 5, 1816, in Philadelphia, Pa. He served in the civil war, and was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers. He died Dec. 27, 1874, in Buffalo, N. Y.

Meredith, William Morris

lawyer, was born June 8, 1799, in Philadelphia, Pa. He was a member of the Pennsylvania state constitutional convention of 1837; was secretary of the treasury from 1849 to 1850; and attorney-general of Pennsylvania from 1861 to 1867. He was president of the state constitutional convention of 1872. He died Aug. 17, 1873, in Philadelphia.

Meriam, Ebenezer

meteorologist, was born June 20, 1794, in Concord, Mass.

He was the originator of the theory of cycles of atmospherical phenomena, upon which he published articles that attracted the attention of scientists at home and abroad. He began in 1841, at his own expense, the publication of The Municipal Gazette in New York. He died March 19, 1864, in Brooklyn, N. Y.

Meriwether, David

soldier, congressman, was born in 1755 in Virginia.

In 1785 he settled in Wilkes county, Ga., which he represented in the legislature for several terms. He was a representative in congress from that state from 1802 to 1807. He died Nov. 16, 1822, near Athens, Ga.

Meriwether, David

governor, United States senator, was born Oct. 30, 1800, in Louisa county, Va. He was a senator in congress from Kentucky for one session in 1852; and was appointed in 1853 governor of the territory of New Mexico.

Meriwether, Mrs. Elizabeth

[AVERY], author, was born in 1832 in Tennessee. She is a novelist of Memphis, Tenn.; and the author of The Master of Red Leaf; Black and White; The Ku Klux Klan; and My First and Last Love.

Meriwether, I. A

congressman, was born in Georgia. He was a representative in congress from that state from 1841 to 1843.

Meriwether, James

congressman, was born in Wilkes county, Ga. He was a representative in congress from Georgia from 1825 to 1827.

Meriwether, Lee

public official, author, was born Dec. 25, 1862, in Columbus, Miss. He is a special agent of the United States bureau of labor; and the author of A Tramp Trip: How to See Europe on Fifty Cents a Day; The Tramp at Home; and Afloat and Ashore on the Mediterranean.

Merklin, Leon Charles

linguist, was born in 1740 in New Orleans, La.

He is known by several treatises on the North American Indian dialects, which he pretended to have learned in trading with the Indians. He died in 1797 in Paris, France.

Merrefield, Joseph

author, poet, was born Dec. 19, 1820, in Franklin, Ohio.

He has been secretary of the Maryland Historical society; president of the society for the Protection of Children, and an officer in many charitable institutions.

He is now treasurer of the Johns Hopkins hospital of Baltimore. He is the author of two prose stories; and numerous noems.

Merrell, Edward H

educator, college president, was born April 15, 1835, in New Hartford, N. Y. Since 1862 he has been professor in the Ripon college, Wisconsin, of which institution he was president during 1876-91, and now fills the chair of philosophy.

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