History of Binghamton, (Broome County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

John L. Broome, naval officer, was born in New York city, March 8, 1824. He entered the marine corps when twenty-four years of age, and rose by various promotions from the rank of 2d lieutenant to that of lieutenant-colonel. He served in the Mexican war and in the civil war with distinguished gallantry. He was especially conspicuous in the gunboat engagements on the western waters, and notably in the upper Mississippi and Red river expeditions under Admirals Porter, Farragut and Walke. For his bravery he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel. He died at Binghamton, N.Y., April 12, 1898.

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

Robert M. Pratt, portrait painter, was born at Binghamton, N.Y., March 21, 1811; son of Zenas and Sally (Sabin) Pratt; grandson of Elias and Patience (Clark) Pratt, and a descendant of Lieut. William Pratt. He studied art under Samuel F. B. Morse and Charles C. Ingham, and established himself in New York city as a portrait and flower painter. He was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1849 and an academician in 1851. His portraits include; Aaron D. Shattuck (1859), and George H. Smillie (1865), both owned by the National Academy. He died in New York city, Aug. 31, 1880.

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

Richard Henry Mather, educator, was born in Binghamton, N.Y., Feb. 12, 1885; son of Henry and Frances (Whiting) Mather; grandson of Capt. Sylvester Mather of Lyme, Conn., and a descendant of Richard Mather, 1635. He was graduated from Amherst college, A.B., 1857, A.M., 1860; studied philology at Berlin, Germany, 1857-59; was a teacher at Williston seminary, 1858-59; instructor in Greek at Amherst, 1859-62; associate professor of Greek language and literature, 1862-68; professor of Greek and German language, 1868-79; and professor of Greek language and literature, 1879-90. He lectured on sculpture, 1879-88 and visited Europe to select casts, engravings and photographs for the art museum at Williston Hall. This museum contains the second finest collection of casts in the United States and was largely composed of Professor Mather's selections. He went abroad in 1888 and prepared a course of lectures on Greek life. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from Bowdoin college in 1879. He edited several Greek text-books for use in colleges, including: Herodotus (1872); selections from Thucydides, the Electra of Sophocles (1882); Abstract of Lectures upon Sculpture (1882); and the Prometheus Bound of ?schylus (1883). He died in Amherst, Mass., April 16, 1890.

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

Oliver Johnson, reformer, was born at Peacham, Vt., Dec. 27, 1809. He was brought up on a farm, learned the trade of a printer at the office of The Watchman and Gazette in Montpelier, Vt., and in 1829 went to Boston, where in 1831 he established with Leonard W. Kimball The Christian Soldier, in opposition to the doctrine of Universalism. Mr. Johnson was among the earliest disciples of William Lloyd Garrison, and an active worker in the anti-slavery cause. He was one of the twelve men who organized in Boston in 1832 the New England Anti-Slavery society, having for its fundamental principle the duty of immediate emancipation. When Mr. Garrison was sent to England in 1833 as an agent of this society, Mr. Johnson took his place as temporary editor of the Liberator. On several occasions in subsequent years, including 1838 in Mr. Garrison's absence, he occupied the same post. In 1836 he was appointed a travelling agent of the American Anti-Slavery society, and on his lecturing tours he met much opposition and personal abuse, notably in being mobbed at Greenville, R.I. He served as corresponding secretary and lecturer of the Rhode Island Anti-Slavery society, 1837-38. In 1840 when the National Anti-Slavery Standard was founded in New York city he took editorial charge until a permanent editor could be found, and in the spring of 1841 Lydia Maria Child assumed the editorship. He then resumed the work of an anti-slavery lecturer, and in 1842 returned to Boston as correspondent of the New York Tribune. He was an assistant to Horace Greeley on the Tribune, 1844-48, but was obliged to relinquish his place on account of ill-health. In 1848 he established the Republican, a free-soil paper, in Philadelphia, Pa., and he edited the Practical Christian, Milford, Mass., 1848-65; the Anti-Slavery Bugle at Salem, Ohio, 1848-51, and the Pennsylvania Freeman in Philadelphia, 1851-53, when he assumed charge of the National Anti-Slavery Standard in New York. Here he remained until slavery was abolished. He was married, in 1863, to Jane, daughter of John S. C. Abbott. Mrs. Johnson was born at Worcester, Mass., in 1833, and died at Binghamton, N.Y., Dec. 5, 1900. Mr. Johnson was managing editor of the Independent, 1865-70, resigning that post to take charge of the Weekly Tribune at the request of Horace Greeley. He was managing editor of the Christian Union, 1873-76, under the direction of Henry Ward Beecher. Subsequently he was editor of the Orange, N.J., Journal for several years, and was an assistant editor of the New York Evening Post, 1881-89. He is the author of: Consider This, Ye that forget God (1832); An Address on Slavery (1835); Correspondence with George F. White, With an Appendix (1841); Life of William Lloyd Garrison and His Times (1881). He died in Brooklyn, N.Y., Dec. 10, 1889.

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