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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Cleaveland, Moses 1754-1806 (search)
Cleaveland, Moses 1754-1806 Pioneer: born in Canterbury. Conn., Jan. 29, 1754; graduated at Yale College in 1777; admitted to the bar; made a brigadier-general in 1796; and the same year was selected by a land company, of which he was a shareholder, to survey the tract which had been purchased in northeastern Ohio. He set out with fifty emigrants from Schenectady, N. Y.; reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga on July 22; and finding it a favorable site for a town decided to settle there. His employers called the place Cleaveland in his honor. When the first newspaper, the Cleveland Advertiser, was established, the head-line was found to be too long for the form, and the editor cut out the letter a, which revision was accepted by the public. General Cleaveland died in Canterbury, Conn., Nov. 16, 1806.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Clinton, George 1739- (search)
ve county. In 1768 he was elected a member of the Provincial Assembly, wherein lie soon became the head of a Whig minority. In 1775 he was elected to the Continental Congress, and voted for the resolution for independence in 1776; but the invasion of New York by the British from the sea called him home, and he did not sign the Declaration of Independence. He was appointed a brigadier-general, and as such performed good service in his State. On the organization of the State of New York, in 1777, he was elected the first governor, and held the office, by successive elections, eighteen years. He was very energetic, both in civil and military affairs, until the end of the war; and was chiefly instrumental in preventing the consummation of the British plan for separating New England from the rest of the Union by the occupation of a line of military posts, through the Hudson and George Clinton. Champlain valleys, from New York to the St. Lawrence. In 1788 Governor Clinton presided ove
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Clinton, Fort, capture of (search)
Clinton, Fort, capture of While Burgoyne was contending with Gates on the upper Hudson, in 1777, Sir Henry Clinton was attempting to make his way up the river, to join him or to make a diversion in his favor. Among the Hudson Highlands were three forts of considerable strength, but with feeble garrisons—Fort Constitution, opposite West Point, and Forts Clinton and Montgomery, on the west side of the river at the lower entrance to the Highlands, standing on opposite sides of a creek, with high, rocky shores. From Fort Montgomery, on the northern side of the stream, to Anthony's Nose, opposite, the Americans had stretched a boom and chain across the river to prevent the passage of hostile vessels up that stream. Forts Clinton and Montgomery were under the immediate command of Gov. George Clinton, and his brother Gen. James Clinton. Tories had informed Sir Henry Clinton of the weakness of the garrisons, and as soon as expected reinforcements from Europe had arrived, he prepared
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Clymer, George 1739-1813 (search)
Clymer, George 1739-1813 Signer of the Declaration of Independence; born in Philadelphia in 1739; was an active patriot during the war for independence, and a member of the council of safety in Philadelphia. In July, 1775, he was made joint treasurer of Pennsylvania with Mr. Hillegas; and when, in December, 1776. Congress fled to Baltimore, Clymer was one of the commissioners left in Philadelphia to attend to the public interests. In 1777 he was a commissioner to treat with the Indians at Fort Pitt; and in 1780 he assisted in organizing the Bank of North America. At the close of the war he made his residence at Princeton, N. J.; and in 1784 was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature. In 1787 he was a member of the convention that framed the national Constitution, and was a member of the first Congress under it. A collector of the excise duties in 1791 which led to the Whiskey insurrection (q. v.), and serving on a commission to treat with Southern Indians, Mr. Clymer, afte
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Collier, Sir George (search)
Collier, Sir George Naval officer; entered the British navy in 1761; given command of the Rainbow in 1775, and cruised off the American coast. In 1777 he captured the American vessel Hancock; destroyed the stores at Machias. and thirty vessels on the northeast coast; and later he ravaged the coasts of Connecticut and Chesapeake Bay. On Aug. 14, 1779, he captured the fleet of Commodore Saltonstall on the Penobscot River. He died April 6, 1795.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Commissioners to foreign courts. (search)
gn governments was reported by a committee on that subject, and Franklin, Deane, and Jefferson were appointed (Sept. 26, 1776) commissioners to the French Court. Unwilling to leave his wife, whose health was declining, Jefferson refused the appointment, and Arthur Lee, then in London, was substituted for him; and after the loss of New York these commissioners were urged to press the subject of a treaty of alliance and commerce. Commissioners were also appointed to other European courts in 1777—Arthur Lee to that of Madrid; his brother William (lately one of the sheriffs of London) to Vienna and Berlin, and Ralph Izard, of South Carolina, to Florence. All but the French mission were failures. Arthur Lee was not allowed to enter Madrid, and went on a fruitless errand to Germany; Izard made no attempt to visit Florence, and William Lee visited Berlin without accomplishing anything. There his papers were stolen from him, through the contrivance, it was believed, of the British resid
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Confederation, articles of (search)
of the whole Union. This action having removed all objections, the delegates from Maryland signed the Articles of Confederation March 1, 1781, and the league of States was perfected. The following is the text of this document: To all to whom these Presents shall come, We, the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our names, send greeting: Whereas, the Delegates of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, did, on the 15th day of November, in the year of our Lord, 1777, and in the second year of the Independence of America, agree to certain Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, in the words following, viz.: Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Provi
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Conway, Thomas 1733- (search)
Conway, Thomas 1733- Military officer; born in Ireland, Feb. 27, 1733; taken to France when he was six years old, was educated there, attained the military rank of colonel, came to America in 1777, and entered the Continental army as brigadier-general. He was engaged in the conspiracy with Gates and others to supplant Washington as commander-in-chief, and, when discovered, he left the service and returned to France. In 1784 Conway was made a field-marshal, and appointed governor of all the French settlements in the East Indies. When the French Revolution broke out he was compelled to flee from France. He died about 1800.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Cushing, William 1732-1810 (search)
Cushing, William 1732-1810 Jurist; born in Scituate, Mass., March 1, 1732; graduated at Harvard University in 1751; studied law; became eminent in his profession; was attorney-general of Massachusetts; a judge of probate in 1768; judge of the Superior Court in 1772; and in 1777 succeeded his father as chief-justice of that court. Under the Massachusetts constitution of 1788 he was made chief-justice of the State; and in 1789 President Washington appointed him a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He offered him the chief-justiceship in 1796, as the successor of Jay, but he declined it. He administered the oath of office to Washington in his second inauguration. He died in Scituate, Sept. 13, 1810.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Dale, Richard, (search)
Dale, Richard, Naval officer; born near Norfolk, Va., Nov. 6, 1756; went to sea at twelve years of age, and at nineteen commanded a merchant vessel. He was first a lieutenant in the Virginia navy, and entered the Continental navy, as midshipman, in 1776. He was captured in 1777, and confined in Mill Prison, England, from which he escaped, but was recaptured in London and taken back. The next year, he escaped, reached France, joined Paul Jones, and soon became lieutenant of the Bon Homme Richard, receiving a wound in the famous battle with the Serapis. He continued to do good service Richard Dale. to the end of the war, and in 1794 was made captain. He commanded the squadron ordered to the Mediterranean in 1801, and in April, 1802, returning home, he resigned his commission. He spent the latter years of his life in ease in Philadelphia, where he died, Feb. 24, 1826. The remains of Commodore Dale were buried in Christ Church-yard, Philadelphia, and over the grave is a whit
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