History of Northampton, (Hampshire County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

William Allen, educator, was born in Pittsfield, Mass., Jan. 2, 1784, son of Thomas Allen, a clergyman. He was a direct descendant of Governor Bradford on his father's side. He was graduated at Harvard college in 1802, studied theology, and in 1804 was licensed to preach and was first stationed in western New York. While holding the position of assistant librarian at Harvard college, he began the "American Biographical and Historical Dictionary" (1809), which was the first work of the kind published in the United States, and which he revised and enlarged from the original seven hundred American names to eighteen hundred names in 1832, and seven thousand names in 1857. He was called from his work as a librarian in 1810 to preach as successor to his father in Pittsfield, where he remained seven years. In 1817 he was appointed president of Dartmouth college, and in 1819 of Bowdoin college. He served Bowdoin for nineteen years, retiring at the age of fifty-five, in order to devote himself to literary pursuits. He contributed to a new edition of Webster's dictionary ten thousand words not before given. He wrote: "Junius Unmasked" (1828); "Memoirs of Dr. Eleazar Wheelock and of Dr. John Codman" (1853); "A Discourse at the close of the Second Century of the Settlement at Northampton, Mass." (1854); "Wunnissoo, or the Vale of Housatonnuck," a poem (1856); "Christian Sonnets" (1860); "Poems of Nazareth and the Cross" (1866); "Sacred Songs" (1867). His "Life with selections from his Correspondence," was published in Philadelphia in 1847. He died at Northampton, Mass., July 16, 1868.

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

Ebenezer Lane, jurist, was born at Northampton, Mass., Sept. 17, 1793; son of Capt. Ebenezer and Marian (Griswold) Chandler Lane, grandson of Deacon Ebenezer Lane of Attleborough, Mass., and of Governor Matthew Griswold of Lyme, Conn., and a descendant of William Lane, who immigrated to Dorchester, Mass., from England, in 1635. Ebenezer Lane was graduated at Harvard in 1811; studied law in the office of his uncle, Judge Matthew Griswold, at Lyme Conn., 1811-14, and was admitted to the bar in 1814. He practised successively at Norwich, East Windsor, and Windsor Hill, Conn., 1814-17, and in 1817, removed to Ohio with his stepbrother, Heman Ely, the founder and principal proprietor of Elyria. He was married, Oct. 11, 1818, to Frances Ann, daughter of Governor Roger Griswold, of Lyme, Conn. He engaged in farming and in the practice of law at Elyria until 1819, when he removed to Norwalk, Ohio. He was prosecuting attorney for Huron county in 1819; was admitted to practice in the U.S. circuit court at Columbus, Ohio, Jan. 8, 1822, and was judge of the court of common pleas for the second circuit of Ohio, 1824-30. He was judge of the supreme court of Ohio, 1830-45, when he resigned. He removed to Sandusky, Ohio, in July, 1842, and in 1845 became president of the Columbus and Erie, and other railroads. He was counsel and resident director of the Central Railroad of Illinois, 1855-59. He visited Europe in 1859, and on his return retired from active business, settled in Sandusky, Ohio, and devoted himself to study. He received the degree of LL.D. from Harvard in 1850, was elected a member of the New England Historic Genealogical society, Sept. 3, 1853, and was a member of the New York, the Ohio, and the Chicago historical societies. He died in Sandusky, Ohio, June 12, 1866.

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

Austin Flint, physician, was born in Northampton, Mass., March 28, 1836; son of Dr. Austin and Annie (Skillings) Flint. His paternal ancestors for four generations were physicians. He was a student at Harvard, 1852-53; a civil engineer on the Louisville & Nashville railroad at, Bowling Green, Ky., 1853-54; civil engineer in the office of the city surveyor, Buffalo, N.Y., 1854; student of medicine in the office of Dr. Frank H. Hamilton, Buffalo, N.Y., 1854-56; attended medical lectures at the University of Louisville, Ky., 1854-55 and 1855-56; was assistant to Dr. John C. Dalton, professor of physiology, Woodstock (Vt.) medical college, 1855; attended lectures at the Jefferson medical college, Philadelphia, Pa., 1856-57, and was graduated an M.D. in 1857. He practised in Buffalo, N.Y., where he was editor of the Buffalo Medical Journal, 1857-60; professor of physiology in the medical department of the University of Buffalo, 1858-59; surgeon to the Buffalo general hospital, 1858; and removed to New York city with his father in 1859, where he was professor of physiology in the New York medical college, 1859-60. He then went to New Orleans, La., where he was professor of physiology in the New Orleans school of medicine, 1860-61; went to Europe in 1861, where he studied physiology with Prof. Claude Bernard and histology with Prof. Charles Robin, and on his return to America in the fall of 1861, became acting assistant surgeon, U.S.A., in the United States ("Ladies' Home") general hospital and so continued for five years. He helped to establish the Bellevue Hospital medical college in 1861 and was professor of physiology there from its foundation to 1898. He became professor of physiology in the Cornell university medical college, New York city, in 1898. He was also professor of physiology in Long Island college hospital, 1862-68; visiting physician to Bellevue hospital, 1869, and consulting physician, 1896; consulting physician to the class of nervous diseases, Bureau of medical and surgical relief for the outdoor poor, Bellevue hospital, from 1866; and surgeon-general of the state of New York, 1874-78. He was elected a member of the American medical association; fellow of the New York State medical association and president in 1895; correspondent of the Academy of natural sciences of Philadelphia, and member of the American philosophical society. He was married, Dec. 23, 1862, to Elizabeth B., daughter of Robert M. McMasters of Ballston, N.Y. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Jefferson medical college in 1885. His medical and physiological writings include articles in medical journals, transactions and magazine reports, pamphlets and books. His essay on "A New Function of the Liver" (1862) received honorable mention with "recompense" of 1500 francs from the Institute of France in 1869. He is the author of a treatise on The Physiology of Man, in five volumes; a Text-Book of Human Physiology, and several smaller works. He edited the first volume of the Transactions of the New York state medical association (1885). In 1891 he received from the Republic of Venezuela the decoration of the order of the Liberator, third Class.

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

Benjamin Smith Lyman, geologist, was born in Northampton, Mass., Dec. 11, 1835; son of Judge Samuel Fowler and Almira (Smith) Lyman, and grandson of Judge Joseph Lyman and of Benjamin Smith of Hatfield, Mass. His great-grandfather, Capt. Joseph Lyman, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and of his first ancestors in America. Richard Lyman emigrated from England in 1631, and settled in Northampton, and Lieut. Samuel Smith came from England in 1634, and settled in Hatfield, Mass. Benjamin attended the common schools of Northampton and Phillips academy at Exeter, N.H., and was graduated from Harvard in 1855. He was principal of Deerfield academy, Mass., in 1856, and aided J. P. Lesley in a geological and topographical survey of Broad Top Mountain, Pa. He was assistant in Short's classical school for boys in Philadelphia. Pa., in 1856-57. Through the greater part of, 1857, he travelled in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama to collect statistics of the iron manufacture for the American Iron association. He was assistant to Professor James Hall on the state geological survey of Iowa in 1858, and assisted Mr. Lesley in private geological work in 1859. He studied at the Paris Mining school, 1859-61, and at the Freiberg Mining academy, 1861-62. He was occupied in geological work at Cape Breton, N.S., 1863-65, and in Pennsylvania, California (going by way of Panama and returning by overland stage in 1864), Virginia, Alabama, Illinois and on the Labrador Coast, 1862-69, he was employed by the British government to make surveys of oil fields in India, 1869-71. He received a patent on an application of the solar compass to the surveying transit in 1871. He resided in Philadelphia, Pa., 1871-72; making surveys in West Virginia and elsewhere; made a geological survey of the island of Yesso for the Colonization board of the Japanese government, 1873-75, and a geological survey of the oil fields of Japan for the home department and later the public works department, 1878-79. He returned to America at the end of 1880, resided in Northampton, Mass., and was engaged in geological surveys in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nova Scotia, Colorado and New Mexico. He made a survey of Bucks and Montgomery counties for the Pennsylvania state geological survey; and in 1887 he removed to Philadelphia. He was elected a member of many learned societies including the Geological Society of France, the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the American Philosophical society; the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the German Geological society; the American Institute of Mining Engineers; the American Oriental society; the Asiatic Society of Japan; the German East Asiatic society; the American Folk-Lore society; the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia and the National Geographic society. He is the author of: Telescopic Measurement in Surveying (1868); General Report on the Punjab Oil Lands (1870); Topography of the Punjab Oil Region (1871); General Report on the Geology of Yesso (1877); Character of the Japanese (1885); Report on the New Boston and Morea Coal Lands (1889); An Old Japanese Foot Measure (1890); Japanese Swords (1892). He also contributed to scientific magazines and the transactions of learned societies and published reports and articles which in 1901 had formed a bibliography of upwards of 100 separate titles covering his progress in geological research.

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