History of Geneseo, (Livingston County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

Benjamin Franklin Angel, diplomatist, was born in Burlington, N.Y., Oct. 28, 1815. He received an academic education in Geneseo, N.Y., and for several years before he reached his majority he wrote leading political editorials in the democratic newspapers of the town. In 1836 he was admitted to the bar and afterwards was twice elected surrogate of the county. He later held the offices of supreme court commissioner and master and examiner in chancery. In 1852 he was a delegate to the democratic national convention, and in 1853 was appointed by President Pierce consul at Honolulu. In the senate his nomination was rejected while Mr. Angel was discharging his official duties ten thousand miles from home. He returned to the United States by the way of China, the East Indies, Egypt, and through Europe, and wrote interesting letters of his tour. In 1857 he was appointed minister to Sweden by President Buchanan, where he remained until 1862. In 1864 he was a delegate to the Chicago democratic convention. In 1873 and 1874 he was president of the New York state agricultural society. He died at Geneseo, N.Y., Sept. 12, 1894.

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

Samuel Miles Hopkins, clergyman, was born in Geneseo, N.Y., Aug. 8, 1813; son of the Hon. Samuel Miles and Sarah Elizabeth (Rogers) Hopkins. He was graduated at Amherst, A.B. 1832; A.M., 1835, and at Yale A.B. 1835; A.M., 1838. He studied theology at Auburn, N.Y., 1834-36, and at Princeton, 1836-37. He was married, May 15, 1838, to Mary Jane Hanson Heacock, of Buffalo, N.Y. He was ordained in 1839; was pastor at Corning, N.Y., 1839-43; at Fredonia, N.Y., 1834-46, and professor of ecclesiastical history and church polity at Auburn Theological seminary, 1847-95. He was moderator of the general assembly at St. Louis, Mo., 1866. He received the degree of D.D. from Amherst in 1854. He published: Manual of Church Polity (1878); Liturgy and Book of Common Prayer (1883), and contributed to chuch periodicals. He died in Auburn, N.Y., Oct. 29, 1901.

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

Jonathan Homer Lane, scientist, was born in Geneseo, N.Y., August, 1819. He early became interested in the study of electricity to which he gave special attention during his college course. He was graduated from Yale, A.B., 1846, A.M., 1850. He entered the U.S. coast survey in 1847, and the U.S. patent-office in 1848, as assistant examiner, becoming chief examiner in 1851. As astronomer of the U.S. coast survey, he was a member of the expedition that observed the total solar eclipse at Des Moines, Iowa, in 1869, and was sent to Catania, Italy, for the same purpose in 1870. He was connected with the bureau of weights and measures at Washington, D.C., 1869-80. He was the inventor of a machine for finding the real roots of the higher equations, a machine for exact uniform motion, a visual telegraph, a visual method for the comparison of clocks at great distances apart, an improved basin for mercurial horizon, and an instrument for holding the Drummond light and reflector on shipboard. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of other scientific societies. He is the author of memoirs: On the Law of Electric Induction in Metals (1846); On the Law of Induction of an Electric Current on Itself (1851); Report on the Solar Eclipse of Aug. 7, 1869 (1869); Theoretical Temperature of the Sun (1870); Report on the Solar Eclipse of Dee. 12, 1870 (1871); Description of a New Form of Mercurial Horizon (1871); Coeffcients of Expansion of the British Standard Yard Bar (1877). He died in Washington, D.C., May 3, 1880.

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