Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/260

232 sented Southwick in the Massachusetts legislature for three years, and in 1852 was a member of the state senate. In 1837 he received the degree of A. M. from Williams. For over thirty years he was a licensed preacher in the Methodist church, and served the church in his town without salary.

HOLCOMBE, Henry, clergyman, b. in Prince Edward county, Va., 22 Sept., 1762; d. in Phila- delphia, Pa., 22 May, 1826. After serving as a cap- tain in the Revolutionary army, he began to preach, and in 1785 was ordained pastor of a Baptist church in Pike Creek, S. C. He was a delegate to the South Carolina convention that ratified the constitution of the United States. In 1791 he became pastor of the Baptist churches in Eutah, May River, and St. Helena, was afterward in Beaufort, S. C, and in 1799 accepted a call to Savannah, Ga. There he organized the Savannah female seminary, and con- ducted the " Georgia Analytical Repository." He was also instrumental in establishing Mount Enon academy in 1804, and a missionary society in 1806. Prom 1812 till his death he was pastor of the 1st Baptist church in Philadelphia, Pa. He received the degree of D. D. from Brown in 1810. He pub- lished a " Funeral Discourse on the Death of Wash- ington," and a volume of " Lectures on Primitive Theology " (Philadelphia, 1822).

HOLCOMBE, Hosea, clergvman, b. in Union District, S. C, 20 July, 1780; d. in Jefferson county, Ala., in 1841. He was a farmer until 1800, when he began the study of theology, was licensed to preach in 1801, and, after ten years' labor, re- moved to North Carolina, and finally settled in Jefferson county, Ala. He published "A Collec- tion of Sacred Hymns" (1815); "Anti-Mission Principles Exposed" (1836); and "The History of Alabama Baptists " (1840).

HOLCOMBE, James Philemon, author, b. in Lynchburg, Va., 25 Sept., 1820 ; d. in Capon Springs, Va., 26 Aug., 1873. He was educated at Yale and at the University of Virginia, and was professor of law in the latter institution from 1852 till 1860. He was a secession member of the Vir- ginia convention of 1861, served in the Confeder- ate congress in 1861-'3, and was Confederate com- missioner to Canada in 1863-'5. From 1868 until his death he was principal of the Bellevue high- school, Nelson county, Va. Besides constant con- tributions to periodicals and to the publications of the Virginia historical society, of which he was a member, he published "Leading Cases on Commer- cial Law " (New York, 1847) ; " Digests of the De- cisions of the U. S. Supreme Court " (1848) ; " Mer- chants' Book of Reference " (1848) ; and " Litera- ture and Letters " (1868). — His brother, William Henry, physician, born in Lynchburg, Va., 25 May, 1825, was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1847, and has practised his profession in Lynchburg, Va., Cincinnati, Ohio, and New Orleans, La., where he now (1887) resides. In 1874-'5 he was president of the American in- stitute of homoeopathy. He has published, be- sides numerous contributions to homoeopathic and Swedenborgian literature, "Scientific Basis of Homoeopathy " (Cincinnati, 1852) ; " Poems " (New York, 1860) ; " Our Children in Heaven " (Phila- delphia, 1868)"; "The Sexes Here and Hereafter " (1869) ; " In Both Worlds " (1870) ; " The Other Life" (1871); "Southern Voices" (1872); "The Lost Truths of Christianitv " (1879) ; " The End of the World "(1881); "The New Life "(1884); and " Letters on Spiritual Subjects " (1885).

HOLCOMBE, William Frederic, physician, b. in Sterling, Mass., 2 April, 1827. He was gradu- ated at the Albany medical college in 1850, studied several years in Europe, was a member of the American medical society in Paris, and, settling in New York city, was lecturer on diseases of the eye in the New York university medical college in 1861, professor of eye and ear diseases in the New York medical college in 1862, in the New York ophthal- mic college and hospital in 1863, and in the New York medical college for women in 1867. Dr. Holcombe is one of the founders of the New York genealogical and biographical society. In 1881 he delivered the address at the centennial of Sterling, Mass. Besides occasional articles published in medical journals, he is the author of " The History of Sterling, Mass.," " Genealogy of the Bush Fam- ily, of Watertown, Mass.," "History of the Hol- combes in America," and " Family Records, their Importance and Value" (New York, 1877).

HOLDEN, Edward Singleton, astronomer, b. in St. Louis, Mo., 5 Nov., 1846. He was graduated at the scientific school of Washington university in 1866, and in that year assisted Dr. Benjamin A. Gould in collecting materials for the " Investigations in the Military and Anthropological Statistics of American Soldiers." He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1870, and appointed 2d lieutenant in the 4th artillery. He served at Fort Johnson, N. C, until 1871, when he returned to West Point as assistant professor of philosophy. In 1872 he was transferred to the engineer corps, serving as instructor in engineering. In March, 1873, he resigned his commission in the army, became professor of mathematics in the U. S. navy, and was ordered to the naval observatory at Washington, as assistant in the work of the transit circle. Subsequently he was assistant to Prof. Simon Newcomb in charge of the 26-inch equatorial telescope. His " Monograph of the Central Parts of the Nebula of Orion " is an exhaustive treatise on all of the observations hitherto made upon that subject, including several vears' work of his own (Washington, 1882). In 1876 Prof. Holden went to London to examine the South Kensington loan collection of scientific instruments. He gave much attention to the methods of testing chronometers, and in 1879 the time-ball on the Western Union telegraph building in New York was erected according to his plans. On 6 May, 1878. he observed the transit of Mercury, with Dr. Henry Draper, at Hastings, and in that year was placed in charge of a party to observe the total eclipse of 29 July in Colorado. In 1881 he became professor of astronomy in the University of Wisconsin and director of the new Washburn observatory. He remained there till 1886, and issued four volumes of publications. He was also head of the division of climate and rivers in Prof. Raphael Pumpelly's northern trans-continental survey. In 1882 he terminated his official connection with the navy, but was placed in charge of the government expedition to the Caroline islands, to observe the total eclipse of the sun on 6 May, 1883. In 1886 he became president of the University of California and director of the Lick observatory on Mt. Hamilton, San Jose. He is a member of numerous scientific associations, and has received the degree of LL. D. from the University of Wisconsin (1886), and from Columbia (1887). He has published "Astronomy for Students," with Prof. Simon Newcomb (New York, 1880) ; and is the author of " Sir William Herschel: his Life and Works" (New York and London, 1881). His writings include " On the Adopted Value of the Sun's Apparent Diameter," " On the Number of Words used in Speaking and Writing," " On the Proper Motion of the Trifid Nebula," "The Cipher Despatches," "Studies in