Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/121

Rh phia in 1876, has lectured at Wills hospital on dis- eases of the eye for many years, and was elected its emeritus surgeon in 1877. He has been clinical lecturer on diseases of the eye and ear in Jefferson medical college since 1873, and ophthalmic sur- geon to the college hospital since 1877. Among his important contributions to medical literature are a series of papers published in the " American Journal of the Medical Sciences," in conjunction with Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, on the use of the ophthal- moscope in the diagnosis of intracranial tumors, and clinical reports of cases of severe and pro- longed headache, dependent upon astigmatism, which have been relieved by the correction of optical defects. He revised the section on diseases and injuries of the eye in Dr. Samuel D. Gross's "Sys- tem of Surgery," and has invented a new method •of diagnosing and correcting ametropia by means of a simple instrument, which is now in general use among ophthalmological surgeons in this coun- try and Europe. — Alexander's youngest son, Frank, railway superintendent, b. in Chambersburg, Pa., 5 July, 1841, was educated at Chambersburg acad- emy, and in 1858 began to learn the railway busi- ness in the Pennsylvania railroad company's shops at Altoona. Col. Thomas A. Scott appointed him to a responsible position in the U. S. military rail- way system early in 1861, and he was sent to Alex- andria, Va., where he assisted in rebuilding bridges and restoring shops, machinery, and rolling stock. On 1 July, 1862, he was transferred to Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army, but, after accompanying it during its march through Kentucky, he returned to the Army of the Potomac. He was then en- gaged in directing the lines of railroad that played an important part in the Antietam campaign, and was subsequently made assistant superintendent of the lines south of Acquia creek. He co-operated with Col. Scott in removing the 11th and 12th corps, with their full equipment of artillery and wagons, to Chattanooga, and was afterward given control of the lines south of Nashville, which he rendered capable of transmitting sufficient re-en- forcements and supplies to relieve the National army from its embarrassments, and enable it to assume the offensive. He resigned from the mili- tary service in 1864, and on 1 June of that year became superintendent of the eastern division of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad. While hold- ing this office he organized a system of track-in- spection which was adopted by the entire road, and made improvements in the construction of the roadway. In 1873 he was made superintendent of motive power on the Pennsylvania railroad, and in 1874 became its general manager.

THOMSON, Charles, patriot, b. in Maghera, County Derry, Ireland, 29 Nov., 1729 ; d. in Lower Merion, Montgomery co., Pa., 16 Aug., 1824. He was brought to. this country with three other brothers by his father in 1740. The father died just in sight of land, and the young Thomsons were thrown on their own resources when they landed at New Castle, Del. An elder brother, who had emigrated before them, gave them such aid as he could, and persuaded a countryman. Dr. Francis Allison, to take Charles into his seminary in New London, Pa. Here he made rapid progress, and while yet little more than a boy he was chosen to con- duct a Friends' academy at New Castle. He often visited Philadelphia, met Benjamin Franklin there, and was brought to the notice of many other emi- nent men. His reputation for veracity was spread even among the Indian tribes, and when the Dela- wares adopted him into their nation in 1756 they called him in their tongue "man of truth." Rev. Ashbel Green, in his autobiography, says that it was common to say that a statement was " as true as if Charles Thomson's name was to it." He was one of the first to take his stand with the colonists, and he exercised immense influence, owing to the confidence of the peo- ple in his ability and integrity. He travel- led through the coun- try ascertaining the wishes of the farmers, and trying to learn whether they would be equal to the ap- proaching crisis. "He was the Sam Adams of Philadelphia," said John Adams, " the life of the cause of liber- ty." He had just come to Philadelphia in September, 1774, with his bride, a daughter of Richard Harrison, of Pennsylvania, when he learned that he had been unanimously chosen secretary of the 1st Continental congress. " He was the soul of that political body," says Abbe Robin, the chaplain of Rochambeau. He would receive no pay for his first year's services, and congress presented his wife with a silver urn, which is still preserved in the family. He remained in this post under every congress up to 1789, not only keeping the records but taking copious notes of its proceedings and of the progress of the Revo- lution. When he retired into private life he made these notes the basis of a history of the Revolution, but he destroyed the manuscript some time before his death, as he feared that a description of the unpatriotic conduct of some of the colonists at that period would give pain to their descendants. Mr. Thomson wrote "An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawaneese Indians, etc.. with Notes by the Editor on Indian Customs" (London, 1759), and "The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Covenant, commonly called the Old and New Testament; translated from the Greek [the Old Covenant from the Septuagint] " (4 vols., Philadelphia, 1808). This work is now very rare. It contained the first English version of the Septuagint that had been published at the time, and was considered by biblical scholars in Great Britain to have reflected high honor on American scholarship His own copy of this translation, with his last manuscript corrections, is in the Philadelphia library. He also published "A Synopsis of the Four Evangelists, or a Regular History of the Conception, Birth, Doctrine, Miracles, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ, in the Words of the Evangelists" (Philadelphia, 1815), and left in manuscript "Critical Annotations on Gilbert Wakefield's Works," which were presented in 1832 by John F. Watson to the Massachusetts historical society. — His relative, William, soldier, b. in Pennsylvania in 1727; d. in Sweet Springs, Va., 22 Nov., 1796, is said in some Irish biographies to be the brother of Charles, to have been born in Maghera, Ireland, about 1726, and about fourteen years old when he arrived in this country. He was taken to South Carolina by some friends of his family, was brought up as a frontiersman, and became famous in the district for his skill with the rifle. He fought against the Regulators in 1771, at the head of a regiment under