Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/179

Rh he was frequently called upon to testify as an expert on questions of engineering. Mr. Trautwine was a member of scientific bodies, and a contributor of professional papers to technical journals. His works include "Method of Calculating the Cubic Contents of Excavations and Embankments" (Philadelphia, 1851); "Field Practice of Laying out Circular Curves for Railroads" (1851); and "Civil Engineer's Pocket-Book " (1872).

TRAVIS, Joseph, clergyman, b. in Maryland, 13 Sept., 1786; d. in Mississippi. 16 Sept.,' 1858. He became an itinerant minister of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1806, and served in South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and Tennessee. His "Autobiography" was edited by the Rev. Thomas O. Summers, D.D. (Nashville, 1856).

TRAVIS, William Barrett, soldier, b. in Conecuh county, Ala., in 1811; d. near San Antonio, Tex., 6 March, 1836. He was admitted to the bar about 1830. and practised in Claiborne, Ala., but became financially embarrassed, and, leaving that place about 1832, went to Texas, where he afterward took up arms in the struggle for the independence of that country. At the head of 140 men he was besieged in the old mission station of San Antonio de Valerio, which had been named Fort Alamo (see illustration), by Gen. Santa-Anna, with 4,000 Mexicans, on 23 Feb., 1836. The fort was defended for ten days, frequent assaults being repelled with great slaughter, while not a man in the fort was injured. Many appeals for re-enforcements were sent out, but only thirty-two men could get through the Mexican lines. Finally, on 6 March, three assaults were made, and in the hand-to-hand fight that followed the last, the Texans were overpowered. They fought desperately, with clubbed muskets, till only six were left, including Travis, David Crockett, and James Bowie. These surrendered under promise of protection; but when they were brought before Santa-Anna he ordered them to be cut to pieces. In the bloody defeat of the Mexicans at San Jacinto shortly afterward, the Texan battle-cry was &ldquo;Remember the Alamo.&rdquo; In person Travis was of fine stature, with regular features, blue eyes, and auburn hair.

TREADWELL, Daniel, inventor, b. in Ipswich, Mass., 10 Oct., 1791; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 27 Feb., 1872. He early displayed inventive talent, his first device, made when he was quite young, being a machine for producing wooden screws. In 1818 he devised a new form of printing-press, and in 1819 went to England, where he conceived the idea of a power-press. This was completed in a year after his return, and was the first press by which a sheet was printed on this continent by other than hand power. It was widely used, and in New York city large editions of the Bible were published by its means. In 1825 he was employed by the city of Boston to make a survey for the introduction of water, and in 1826 he devised a system of turnouts for railway transportation on a single track. He completed the first successful machine for spinning hemp for cordage in 1829. Works capable of spinning 1,000 tons a year were erected in Boston in 1831, and by machines that he furnished in 1836 to the Charlestown navy-yard all the hemp was spun and the cordage made for some time for the U. S. navy. These machines were used in Canada, Ireland, and Russia, and one of them, called a circular hackle or lapper, has been generally adopted wherever hemp is spun for coarse cloth. In 1835 he perfected a method for making cannon from wrought-iron and steel, resembling the process that was subsequently introduced by Sir William Armstrong. He patented it and received government contracts, but the great cost of his cannon prevented a demand for them. From 1834 till 1845 he was Rumford professor in Harvard, and in 1822, with Dr. John Ware, he established and conducted the &ldquo;Boston Journal of Philosophy and the Arts.&rdquo; His publications include &ldquo;The Relations of Science to the Useful Arts&rdquo; (Boston, 1855); &ldquo;On the Practicability of constructing a Cannon of Great Calibre&rdquo; (Cambridge, 1856); and &ldquo;On the Construction of Hooped Cannon,&rdquo; a sequel to the foregoing (1864).

TREADWELL, John, statesman, b. in Farmington, Conn., 23 Nov., 1745 ; d. there. 19 Aug., 1823. He was graduated at Yale in 1767, studied law, and began to practise in Farmington. He was elected a member of the legislature in 1776, and continued to take part in it until 1785, when he was appointed a member of the governor's council. He sat in the Continental congress from 1785 to 1786. In 1789 he became judge of probate and of the supreme court of errors, which office he held until 1809. He afterward served as judge of the court of common pleas for three years. He was made lieutenant-governor of Connecticut in 1798. He was one of eight that were delegates both to the convention at Hartford that ratified the constitution of the United States in 1788, and of the convention, thirty years afterward, that formed the state constitution. In 1809-'ll he was governor of Connecticut. Gov. Treadwell took an active part in the management of the school fund of Connecticut, and was president of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions during the latter years of his life. He received the degree of LL. D. from Yale in 1800.

TREADWELL, John Goodhue, physician, b. in Salem, Mass., 1 Aug., 1805; d. there, 6 Aug., 1856. He was the son of a physician of Salem, from whom he inherited a large fortune. After his graduation at Harvard in 1825 he adopted the medical profession, and settled in his native town. Dr. Treadwell bequeathed his farm at Topsfield to the Essex county agricultural society, to be used for scientific experiments in agriculture, and to Harvard an estate valued at about $100,000, to be applied to the foundation and maintenance of a professorship of physiology and anatomy. He also left his medical fibrarv to the same institution,

TREADWELL, Seymour Boughton, politician, b. in Bridgeport, Conn.. 1 June, 1795; d. in Jackson, Mich., 9 June, 1867. His parents removed in his infancy to Monroe county, N. Y., where he was educated. He taught in western New York and Ohio, and in 1830 engaged in trade in Albion, N. Y., where he began to attract notice as a temperance and anti-slavery advocate. He removed to Rochester in 1837, and went to Michigan in 1839 to conduct the "Michigan Freeman," an anti-slavery organ, at Jackson. He took an active part in all the conventions and movements of the Abolition-