Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/133

Rh way tabernacle, New York. In 1876 she made her first concert-tour with Patrick S. Gilmore's orches- tra, and in 1877 she travelled with Theodore Thomas. In the same year Maurice Strakosch signed a six-years' engagement with her, and un- der his management she made several tours in the United States and in Europe, meeting with great success. Miss Thursby has appeared only in con- cert and oratorio, and has rejected the most flat- tering offers that were made her while abroad to appear in opera. Her forte is sacred music, and in rendering the soprano parts of Handel's and Havdn's oratorios she is unexcelled.

THURSTON, Asa, missionary, b. in Fitchburg, Mass., 12 Oct., 1787; d. in Honolulu, Hawaii, 11 March, 1868. He worked at the trade of scythe-making till he was twenty-two years old, then fitted himself for college, was graduated at Yale in 1816, and passed through the course of theological instruction at Andover seminary. On his graduation in 1819 he was ordained as a missionary, and on 23 Oct. sailed with his wife for the Sandwich islands. He established himself at Kailua, Hawaii, where he resided for more than forty years, retiring to Honolulu when incapacitated by paralysis for continued active work. He was a pioneer among the missionaries to the Sandwich islands, and instructed two of the kings while they still resided at Kailua. He also translated a large part of the Bible into the Hawaiian language.—His wife, Lucy Goodale, b. in Marlborough, Mass., 29 Oct., 1795; d. in Honolulu, Hawaii, 13 Oct., 1876, was educated at the academy in Bradford, Mass., and taught until she married and went to the Sandwich islands. She left an autobiography which was completed by Persis G. Taylor, her daughter, and Rev. Walter Freer, and published under the title of &ldquo;Life and Times of Mrs. Lucy G. Thurston&rdquo; (Ann Arbor, 1876).—Their son, , was graduated at Yale in 1862, studied theology, and returned to Hawaii, where he preached until the time of his death in 1884.

THURSTON, John Mellen, lawyer, b. in Montpelier, Vt., 21 Aug., 1847. In 1854 his family removed to Madison, and two years later to Beaver Dam, Wis. He was graduated at Wayland uni- versity in 1867, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1869, and in the same year removed to Omaha, Nebraska. He was appointed city attor- ney in 1874, and, while holding that office, was elected in 1875 to the legislature, in which he acted as chairman of the judiciary committee. He re- signed the attorneyship in 1877 to become assist- ant attorney of the Union Pacific railroad company, of which he became general attorney in 1888. In 1875 he was defeated as a candidate for the district judgeship. He was a presidential elector in 1880, and in 1884 chairman of the delegation to the Na- tional Republican convention. , He was again at the head of the delegation in 1888, and was select- ed by the convention at Chicago for temporary chairman. His address in calling that body to or- der won him a national reputation as an orator.

THURSTON, Laura M., poet, b. in Norfolk, Litchfield co., Conn., in December, 1812 ; d. in New Albany, Ind., 21 July, 1842. Her maiden name was Hawley. She was educated for the pro- fession of teaching at the Hartford female semi- nary, and taught in Philadelphia, Pa., and New Milfo'rd and Hartford, Conn., removed to New Al- bany in order to take charge of an academy, and in September, 1839, married Franklin Thurston, a merchant of that place. She contributed to news- {>apers and magazines over the signature of " Yio- a." Her poems, some of which were descriptive of nature and some didactic, were highly esteemed, and many of them are preserved in Rufus W. Gris- wold's and other collections of American poetry.

THURSTON, Robert Lawton, mechanical en- gineer, b. in Portsmouth, R. I., 13 Dec, 1800 ; d. in Providence, R. I., 13 Jan., 1874. He early de- veloped talent as a mechanic, and on attaining his majority began to learn the trade of a machinist. His skill attracted the attention of John Babcock, who invited his assistance in the manufacture of an experimental steam-engine which was placed in a small ferry-boat for use near Fall River. Its success led to the construction of engines for the " Rushlight " and the " Babcock," which ran between Providence and New York. He then entered the iron business in Fall River, but in 1830 returned to Providence, where, with the son of John Babcock, he founded in 1834 the first steam- engine building establishment in New England, known as the Providence steam-engine company. They purchased the Sickles patent for the " drop cut-off" for steam-engines, and were the first either in America or in Europe to manufacture a standard form of expansion steam-engine. For a series of years they were engaged in litigation with George H. Corliss, against whom they brought suit for infringement of the Sickles patent. This case, which was one of the most noted patent suits that was ever tried, called for the services of several of the most eminent lawyers and mechanical experts of the time. The Greene engine, which they introduced, is now claimed by many engineers to be one of the best of modern steam-engines. In 1863 the unsettled condition of affairs resulting from the civil war, with incidental lack of business, led to Mr. Thurston's withdrawal. — His son, Robert Henry, mechanical engineer, b. in Providence, R. I., 25 Oct., 1839, received his early training in the workshops of his father and was graduated in the scientific course at Brown in 1859. After two years' experience with his father's company, he entered the U. S. navy as third assistant engineer, and served on various vessels during the civil war. He was present at the battle of Port Royal and at the siege of Charleston, and was attached to the North and South Atlantic squadrons until 1865, when he was detailed as assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy at the U. S. naval academy in Annapolis, where he also lectured on chemistry. In 1870 he visited Europe for the purpose of studying the British iron manufacturing districts, and on 1 April, 1872, he resigned from the navy, after attaining the rank of 1st assistant engineer. Meanwhile, in 1871, he had been called to the chair of mechanical engineering at the Stevens institute of technology, where he remained until 1885, when he was appointed director of the Sibley college of Cornell university with the professorship of mechanical engineering. In 1871, on behalf of a committee of the American institute, he made a series of experiments on steam-boilers, in whicih for the first time all losses of heat were noted, and. by condensing all the steam that was generated, the" quantity of water "entrained " by the steam was measured. Prof. Thurston was appointed a member of the U. S. commission to the World's fair in Vienna in 1873. and. besides serving on the international jury, edited the " Reports of the United States Commissioners to the International Exhibition, Vienna, 1873" (4 vols., Washington, 1875-'6), which includes his own special "Report on Machinery and Manufactures." He was a member of the U. S. commission on the causes of boiler-explosions, and of the U. S. board to test iron, steel, and other metals. His exten-