History of Manchester, (Bennington County) Vermont United States of America

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Biographies:

Mansfield French, educator, was born in Manchester, Vt., Feb. 21, 1810. He attended Bennington seminary, 1826-30, and the divinity school of Kenyon college, Ohio, 1830-34, where he also served as principal of the preparatory school of the college. In April, 1831, he joined the Rev. Luther G. Bingham as proprietor of the Marietta Institute of Education which, Dec. 17, 1832, was incorporated as Marietta Collegiate institute and Western Teachers' seminary, changed to Marietta college, February, 1835. He also founded the Granville female seminary, and the Circleville female college, of which he was for a time principal. In 1845 he joined the North Ohio conference of the Methodist church and was president of the female college, Xenia, Ohio, 1845-48. In 1853, with the Rev. John F. Wright, he took the first movement before the Cincinnati conference toward establishing a college for colored persons in Ohio. In 1855 Mr. Wright was appointed president and Mr. French secretary of the committee which authorized the purchase of Xenia Springs property, and on Aug. 30, 1856, Wilberforce university was incorporated with twenty-four trustees, of which four were colored men. Mr. French was made secretary of the board. In 1858 he removed to New York city where he continued the publication of The Beauty of Holiness, a religious monthly, devoted largely to antislavery agitation. In 1862 he went to Washington at the request of prominent New York abolitionists to present to President Lincoln the claims of "contraband" slaves to the fostering care of the nation. He visited Port Royal, S.C., in 1862, and at a meeting at Cooper Union, New York, in the same year, organized the "National Freedman's relief association," of which he was elected general agent. In March, 1863, he gathered a large class of teachers and undertook the education of the colored population of Port Royal. He established negro families on abandoned plantations, and taught them improved methods of farming. During the progress of the civil war he organized an expedition to intercept telegraphic communication between the Confederate forces and delivered the messages to the war department at Washington. In 1832 he was married to Miss Winchell, who aided him in his missionary work. He died at Pearsalls, N.Y.,March 15, 1876.

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

Edmund Hatch Bennett, educator, was born at Manchester, Vt., April 6, 1824, son of Milo Lyman Bennett, justice of the supreme court of Vermont. He was educated at the Burr seminary, and was graduated from the University of Vermont in 1843. He entered upon the study of the law in the office of his father, and in 1847 was admitted to the Vermont bar. In 1848 he removed to Massachusetts, was admitted to the Suffolk bar and began practice at Taunton where he took up his residence. In 1858 he was appointed judge of probate and insolvency, holding the office until his resignation in 1883. From 1865 to 1867 he was mayor of Taunton, and in 1889 he delivered the address in honor of the 250th anniversary of the foundation of that city. From 1865 to 1871 he was lecturer at Harvard law school. In 1872 he received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Vermont, and was afterwards made dean and professor at the Boston university law school. In 1896 he was chairman of the Massachusetts commission on "Uniformity of Legislation" throughout the United States, and also chairman of the commission to revise the Massachusetts statutes. He was married, June 29, 1853, to Sally, daughter of Samuel L. Crocker, and their son, Samuel C. Bennett, was professor and assistant dean of the Boston law school. He edited many legal works, including all those of Judge Story: "English Law and Equity Reports" (30 vols.); "Cushing's Reports" (vols. IX. to XII.); "Massachusetts Digest"; "Bingham on Infancy"; "Blackwell on Tax Titles"; "Leading Criminal Cases" (2 vols.); "Greenleaf's Reports" (8 vols.); "Goddard on Easements"; "Benjamin on Sales"; "Pomeroy's Constitutional Law"; "Indermauer's Principles of Common Law"; "Fire Insurance Cases" (5 vols. ). He was co-editor of the American Law Register for many years. He died in Boston, Mass., Jan. 2, 1898.

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

Samuel Irenaeus Prime, editor, was born in Ballston, N.Y., Nov. 4, 1812; son of the Rev. Nathaniel Scudder and Julia Ann (Jermain) Prime. He was graduated at Willlams college, 1829; taught in Washington academy and at Mount Pleasant, Sing Sing, N.Y., 1829-32, and attended Princeton Theological seminary, 1832-33. He was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Bedford in 1833; was principal of the academy at Weston, Conn., 1833-35, and was ordained by the presbytery of Albany, June 4, 1835. He was married first, Oct. 15, 1833, to Elizabeth Thornton, daughter of Edward Kemeys of Sing Sing, N.Y., and secondly, Aug. 17, 1835, to Eloisa Lemet, daughter of Moses Williams of Ballston Spa, N.Y. He was pastor at Ballston Spa, 1835-36; principal of the academy at Newburgh, N.Y., 1836-37, and pastor at Matteawan, N.Y., 1837-40. He was editor of the New York Observer, 1840-49 and 1851-85, and proprietor, 1858-85; visited Europe, Palestine and Egypt, 1853-54; made a second visit to Europe in 1866, and a third in 1876, and in all his travels wrote weekly contributions to the Observer, under the signature "Iren?us." He was secretary of the American Bible society in 1849, and editor of the Presbyterian at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1850. He resided in Newark, N.J., Brooklyn, N.Y., and New York city. He was a delegate to the fifth general conference of the Evangelical alliance at Amsterdam in 1867; corresponding secretary of the American alliance, 1867-84; a vice-president and director of the American Tract society, and of the American and Foreign Christian union, and a founder and president of the New York Association for the Advancement of Science and Art. He was also president of Wells college for-women at Aurora, N.Y., 1869-73; a trustee, 1870-85; trustee of Williams college, 1869-85, and a member of various religious, benevolent and literary societies. He received the degree D.D. from Hampden-Sidney college in 1854. He contributed to Harper's Magazine for more than twelve years, and is the author of: The Old White Meeting-House (1845); Life in New York (1845); Annals of the English Bible (1849); Thoughts on the Death of Little Children (1852; 2d ed., 1865); Travels in Europe and the East (2 vols., 1855); The Power of Prayer, translated into French and Tamil (1858); The Bible in the Levant; American Wit and Humor (1859); Letters from Switzerland (1860); Memoirs of Rev. Nicholas Murray, D.D. (1862): Kitwan (1862); Memoirs of Mrs. Joanna Bethune (1863); Five Years of Prayer and the Answers (1864); Fifteen Years of Prayer (1872): Walking with God (1872); The Alhambra and the Kremlin (1873); Songs of the Soul (1874); Life of S. F. B. Morse, LL.D. (1875); Iren?us Letters (1st ser., 1880; 2d set., 1885); Prayer and its Answer (1882). He died in Manchester, Vt., July 18, 1885.

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

John Hancock Pettingill, theologian, was born in Manchester, Vt., May 11, 1815; son of the Rev. Ames and Hannah (Dean) Pettingill. His father (1780-1830) a graduate of Harvard, 1805, was pastor of Methodist churches in New York and Connecticut, 1807-30, and published a "View of the Heavens" (1826), and "The Spirit of Methodism" (1829). John Hancock Pettingill was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1837, A.M., 1840; was a teacher in the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in New York city, 1838-43, and was a student at Union Theological seminary, 1839-41. He was ordained to the Congregational ministry, Dec. 6, 1843; was stated supply at South Dennis, Mass., 1843-48; pastoral Saybrook, Conn., 1848-52; district secretary of the A.B.C.F.M. at Albany, N.Y., 1853-60, and visited the missions of the American Board in Servia, Turkey and Greece, 1856-57. He was pastor at Saxonville, Mass., 1860-63, at Westbrook, Conn., 1860-66, and was chaplain of the Seamen's Friend society at Antwerp, Belgium, 1866-72. He visited northern Europe in the interest of missions, and in 1866 assisted in the care of those sick with cholera, which service was publicly acknowledged by the Belgian government. He resided in New York city, 1872-76; in Philadelphia, 1876-86, where he gave his time chiefly to literary work, and in 1866 removed to New Haven, Conn. He was married, April 28, 1845, to Rebecca S. Parker of Falmouth, Mass., and secondly, June 17, 1863, to Jeannie, daughter of Judge Copeland of Brooklyn, N.Y. He wrote principally on the science of religion, and was the first American teacher to propound the doctrine that eternal life was dependent upon knowledge of and faith in Christ as held by the primitive Church up to the time of Plato. He was subjected to great losses and determined opposition by reason of his teachings, and his books were not received with favor even after he had succeeded in having them published. Finally they grew in favor and were reprinted in several continental languages, and at his death he had a large number of disciples. He wrote for current magazines, and is the authorof The Homiletical Index (1877); The Theological Trilemma (1878); Platonism versus Christianity (1881); Bible Terminology (1881); Life Everlasting (1882); The Unspeakable Gift (1884); and Views and Reviews in Eschatology (1887). He died in New Haven, Conn., Feb. 27, 1887.

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