History of Leyden, (Franklin County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

Henry Kirke Brown, sculptor, was born at Leyden, Mass., Feb. 24, 1814. He received the ordinary training of a farmer's boy, and made his first attempt in art when a lad of twelve years. The materials used were of the coarsest description, but his portrait of an old man was a success. His mother encouraged his love for art. In 1832 he went to Boston and studied portrait painting under Chester Harding. He then engaged as a civil engineer on the Illinois Central railroad, and afterwards studied anatomy in Cincinnati. For his own amusement be modelled the head of a lady in clay, and his success determined him to become a sculptor. In 1840 he went to Albany, where he executed portrait busts of local statesmen and two ideal statues. Through the aid of friends he was enabled to spend several years in Italy, where he executed his "Ruth," a group consisting of a boy and a dog which is in the possession of the New York historical society, and studied faithfully and profitably from 1842 to 1846, when he returned to the United States, and opened a studio in New York, and with the aid of skilled workmen from Europe made the first bronze casts ever attempted in America. He executed an alter piece for the Church of the Annunciation, and portrait busts of William Cullen Bryant and Dr. Willard Parker. He then settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he executed many commissions for monumental art and he perfected the casting in bronze. He spent 1848 among the Indians, where he obtained some excellent life casts. In 1850-'52 he was engaged on the statue of DeWitt Clinton for Greenwood cemetery, Brooklyn, the first bronze statue ever executed in the United States. He executed the equestrian statue of Washington in Union square, N.Y., finished in 1855, when he went to Columbia, S.C., to execute a group for the pediment of the state house. Of this group he had finished the ideal figure of South Carolina, when rumors of the civil war determined him to return to his home. This figure was destroyed by Sherman's troops in 1865. He served as a member of the national art commission, appointed by President Buchanan, 1859-'60, in the U. S. sanitary commission through the civil war; and was sculptor of state statues of Lincoln, in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and Union square, New York, Gens. George Clinton, Winfield Scott and Philip Kearny; equestrian statues of Gens. Winfield Scott and Nathanael Greene, and statues of Dr. George W. Bethune and Richard Stockton, and "The Resurrection." He died at Newburg, N.Y., July 10, 1886.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Ralph Pomeroy Buckland, soldier, was born at Leyden, Mass., Jan. 20, 1812. His parents moved to Ohio, where he received his education. He was admitted to the bar in 1837, and commenced practice at Fremont. In 1848 he was a delegate to the national Whig convention, and from 1855 to 1859 he was state senator. He entered the Union army in 1861 as colonel of the 72nd Ohio volunteers, which he had organized, and at the battle of Shiloh he commanded the 4th brigade of Sherman's division, receiving promotion to brigadier-general, Nov. 29, 1862, for gallantry on this occasion. He commanded a brigade in the 15th army corps at Vicksburg, was later assigned to the command of the district of Memphis, and was brevetted major-general of volunteers in March, 1865. In January, 1865, he resigned his commission in the army in order to accept a seat in the 39th Congress as representative from his state, having been elected while in the field. He was re-elected in 1866 to the 40th Congress, and served on the committees on banking, currency and militia. He was president of the board of managers of the Ohio soldiers' and sailors' orphans' home at Xenia from 1867 to 1873, and the government director of the Union Pacific railroad from 1877 to 1880. He died at Fremont, Ohio, May 28, 1892.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Charles C. Carpenter, naval officer, was born in Leyden, Mass., Feb. 27, 1834; son of David N. and Maria P. (Newcomb) Carpenter. He was appointed midshipman from Massachusetts, Oct. 1, 1850, and from 1851 to 1855 was attached to the sloop Portsmouth of the Pacific squadron. During 1855-56 he was at the naval academy, and June 20, 1856, he was promoted passed midshipman. Until 1858 he was with the home squadron. He was promoted lieutenant, Jan. 23, 1858; served on the Mohawk off Cuba, 1859-60, and on the Flag and the Catskill of the South Atlantic squadron, 1862-63; participating in the attacks on Charleston, S. C. He was promoted lieutenant commander, July 16, 1862; served at the naval academy, 1864-65; on the flagship Hartford of the Asiatic squadron, 1866-67, and commanded the Wyoming 1868. He was stationed at the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, N. H., 1868-69, and in 1871; was promoted commander in March, 1869; served on the North Atlantic squadron, 1871-72 and 1875-76, and was promoted captain March 25, 1880. He was at the Boston navy yard 1880-2; commanded the Hartford 1882-4; the receiving ship Wabash 1888-90, and the Portsmouth navy yard 1890-94. He was promoted commodore, May 15, 1893; rear admiral 1894; commanded the Asiatic squadron 1894-96, and was retired, Feb. 27, 1896. During the Spanish-American war he served as commandant of the Portsmouth navy yard. He committed suicide at Jamaica Plain, Mass., April 2, 1899.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor