Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/229

Rh HILDRETH, Samuel Prescott, physician, b. in Methuen, Mass., 30 Sept., 1783; d. in Marietta, Ohio, 24 July, 1863. He was descended from Richard Hildreth, of Cambridge, England. He labored on a farm, and after receiving an academic education studied medicine with Dr. Kittridge of Andover, and received his medical degree in 1805. He began to practise in New Hampshire, but removed to Ohio in 1806, and settled at Belpre. In 1808 he went to Marietta, where he practised with success, also serving in the legislature in 1810-'11. In 1837 he was a member of the geological survey. He presented his valuable scientific library and collections in natural history and conchology to Marietta college. For nearly forty years he contributed to &ldquo;Silliman's Journal&rdquo; on meteorology, geology, and paleontology. His publications are &ldquo;History of the Diseases and Climate of Southeastern Ohio,&rdquo; printed in 1837 by the Cleveland medical society, of which he was president; &ldquo;Pioneer History&rdquo; (Cincinnati, 1848); &ldquo;Lives of the Early Settlers of Ohio&rdquo; (1852); &ldquo;Contributions to the Early History of the North-West&rdquo; (1864); and &ldquo;Results of Meteorological Observations made at Marietta in 1826-'59,&rdquo; reduced and discussed by Charles A. Schott (in &ldquo;Smithsonian Institution Contributions to Knowledge,&rdquo; 1870).

HILGARD, Theodore Erasmus, lawyer, b. in Mannheim, Germany, 7 July, 1790; d. in Heidelberg, Germany, 14 Feb., 1873. He studied at the Universities of Heidelberg and Paris, and took a legal course in Coblentz. During the time of the French rule he followed his profession in Trèves, and, on the restoration of the Rhenish provinces to Germany, settled in Zweibrücken, where he held the appointment of associate justice of the court of appeals from 1821 till 1835. He was also a member of the provincial assembly from 1821 till 1826. In 1835 he came to the United States, and settled in St. Clair county, Ill. He purchased a farm near Belleville, and besides its general management gave much attention to viticulture, being the first to introduce it in Illinois. At first he tried to discover which of the Rhenish or French vines were best adapted to the climate, but soon found the indigenous Catawba grape most suitable, and he produced a wine that acquired a high local reputation. The town of West Belleville, which has gradually surrounded the original homestead, was laid out on his property and under his direction. Meanwhile he gave special attention to the education of his children, whom he instructed personally in languages and philosophy. In 1851 he returned to Germany, having been invited by the Bavarian government to take part in recasting the law of mortgages of that country into a more modern form. Subsequently he came back to the United States, but, finding his family dispersed, he again returned to Germany, and passed the remainder of his life quietly in Heidelberg. While on his farm in the United States he revived an early taste for poetry, and devoted a portion of his leisure to making translations of ancient and modern poems into German, some of which were published and received with high commendation, notably Ovid's &ldquo;Metamorphoses,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Fire-Worshipers&rdquo; from Moore's &ldquo;Lalla Rookh.&rdquo; Besides numerous legal and historical articles and minor poems contributed to American and European periodicals, he published &ldquo;Twelve Paragraphs on Pauperism&rdquo; (Heidelberg, 1847); &ldquo;Ten Paragraphs on Constitutional Monarchy, and Republics&rdquo; (1849); &ldquo;My Recollections,&rdquo; an autobiography (1858); and &ldquo;The Hundred Days, an Epic Poem&rdquo; (1859). &mdash; His son, Julius Erasmus, scientist, b. in Zweibrücken, Bavaria, 7 Jan., 1825; d. in Washington, D. C., 8 May, 1891, with his father he settled in Belleville, Ill., where he obtained his education under the guidance of the elder Hilgard. In 1843 he removed to Philadelphia, began the study of civil engineering, and in 1845 was invited by Alexander D. Bache to become one of his assistants on the coast survey. He soon became recognized among the leading spirits in the work, and rose to the office of assistant in charge of the bureau in Washington. This place he held until the death of the superintendent in 1881, when he was appointed to fill the vacancy. Mr. Hilgard also had charge of the construction and verification of the standards of weights and measures, and was for some time engaged in preparing metric standards of great precision for distribution to the several states. In this connection he was appointed a delegate to the International metric commission which met in Paris in 1872, and a member of the executive committee of the international bureau of weights and measures. At the time of its organization, Mr. Hilgard was invited to become director of this bureau, but declined. In 1885, on the advent of a new administration, Mr. Hilgard, after spending two thirds of his life in the service of the government, was suspended, and then permitted to resign. Prof. Alexander Agassiz, who declined to succeed him, in commenting on the behavior of the committee of investigation, says: &ldquo;Their dictum upon the late superintendent (Mr. Hilgard), at least as far as his professional career is concerned, is answered by his position as an investigator in the scientific world.&rdquo; Prof. Hilgard's scientific work was chiefly in connection with his practical labors, consisting of researches and the discussion of results in geodesy and terrestrial physics, and in perfecting methods and instrumental means connected with the same. In 1872 he executed a telegraphic determination of the longitude between Paris and Greenwich, which supersedes the value previously admitted, correcting it by nearly half a second of time. The magnetic survey of the United States, prosecuted at the expense of the Bache fund, arising from a bequest of Supt. Bache to the National academy of sciences, was placed by the academy under the direction of Supt. Hilgard, and he also rendered great service to scientists throughout the United States by lending to them valuable instruments for original research. He was one of the original members of the National academy of sciences, and for some years its home secretary. In 1874 he was elected president of the American association for the advancement of science, and he was also an honorary member of other scientific bodies. His publications include papers, lectures, and addresses, which have appeared principally in the annual reports of the coast survey. His lecture on &ldquo;Tides and Tidal Action in Harbors,&rdquo; delivered before the American institute, New York, is remarkable for its lucid and terse exposition of principles without the aid of mathematical symbols. &mdash; Another son, Theodore Charles, physician, b. in Zweibrücken, Germany, 28 Feb., 1828; d. in New York city, 5 March, 1875, came to the United States with his father, when he was seven years old, and received his education from the members of his family. He early developed a fondness for the study of nature, and made collections of western flora for the distinguished botanist, Dr. George Engelmann. Subsequently he studied medicine at the Universities of Heidelberg, Zurich, Vienna, and Berlin, and, on his return to the United States, began the practice of his profession in St. Louis. In 1854 he published &ldquo;Experimental Observations on