Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/27

Rh party on the repeal of the Missouri compromise. His period of service was distinguished by the legislation on the Missouri compromise, the Kansas troubles, and the Homestead and Pacific railroad bills, as well as the election of Speaker Banks and the presidential campaigns of Fremontand Lincoln. He rendered important services on the committees on Indian affairs, agriculture, and territories, being a member of the latter six years and its chairman four. His first speech was delivered upon the homestead bill, a measure which he continued to urge at every congress for ten years, when he had at last the satisfaction of signing the law as speaker. At the convening of the first or extra session of the 37th congress, 4 July, 1861, he was elected speaker, and held the position until 4 March, 1863, when, on retiring, he received a unanimous vote of thanks, the first vote of the kind given to any speaker in many years. He was a delegate to the National Republican conventions of 1864 and 1868, and chairman of the Pennsylvania state committee during the latter campaign. In 1857 he was a victim of the National hotel poisoning. He spent the summer of 1870 in California, Oregon, and British Columbia, and in 1871 he settled in Houston, Tex., as president of the International and Great Northern railroad of Texas, remaining there until 1875, when he returned to Pennsylvania and took an active part in the state election of that year and the presidential campaign of 1876. In the autumn of 1876 he declined the mission to Russia.

GROWDON, Joseph, jurist, b. in England ; d. in Pennsylvania, 9 Dec, 1730. He was the son of Lawrence Growdon, of Cornwall, England, who was largely interested in the tin-mines. He came to this country shortly after Penn's arrival, and settled in Bucks county, Pa., where he took up 10,000 acres. In 1684 he was chosen to the assem- bly of Pennsylvania, was thereafter almost continu- ously chosen to this body until 1722, and for eleven years was speaker. From 1687 till 1703 he was a inember of the provincial council, under the admin- istration of Gov. Penn and Lieutenant-Governors Evans and Gookin. In 1690 he was commissioned one of the judges of the supreme court, and held this office for several years. In 1707 he was ap- Eointed chief justice of the court, which place he eld until 1716. He filled the many offices of trust committed to him with marked ability, and but few men in the province in his day attained to a higher degree of usefulness. — His son, Joseph, lawyer, b. in England ; d. in Pennsylvania in 1738, was appointed attorney-general of Pennsylvania, 7 March, 1726, and served in that capacity till his death. In 1735 he was appointed advocate for the crown in the vice-admiralty. — Another son. Law- rence, jurist, b. in Pennsylvania, 14 March 1694 ; d. there, 1 April, 1770, was a merchant at Bristol, England, in 1730. In 1734 he was chosen to the assembly, in which body he remained until 1738, in 1747 became a member of the provincial council, and was for twelve years a justice of the supreme court of the province. In conjunction with Rev. Richard Peters, secretary of the land-office, he was appointed commissioner for running a "temporary boundary" with Maryland, Col. Gale and Mr. Chamberlayne being the Maryland commissioners. He was a man of large wealth. — His daughter, Grace, was the wife of Joseph Galloway, the distinguished lawyer and Tory.— Grace, daughter of Joseph Growdon, the elder, became the wife of David Lloyd, who was speaker of the assembly, councillor, attorney-gen- eral, and chief justice of Pennsylvania.

GRUBE, Bernhard Adam, missionary, b. in Germany in 1715; d. in Bethlehem, Pa., 20" March, 1808. He studied at Jena, united with the Mora- vian church, and in 1746 was sent to Pennsylvania, where he was employed in the Indian mission and ministry of his church. His contributions to the department of American philology were a " Dela- ware Indian Hymn- Book" and a "Harmony of the Gospels " (Delaware) (Friedensthal, Pa., 1767).

GRUND, Francis Joseph, author, b. in Bo- hemia in 1805 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 29 Sept., 1863. He was educated at the polytechnic school in Vienna, and in 1825 became professor of mathe- matics in the militarv school at Rio Janeiro, Brazil. He settled in Philadelphia in 1826, and for many years was connected with the press. In 1854 he was appointed U. S. consul at Antwerp, and in 1860 was transferred to Havre and made diplo- matic agent to the south German states. He was chosen editor of the Philadelphia " Age," a Demo- cratic newspaper, in April, 1863, but soon became a Republican and resigned the post. He pub- lished, besides numerous essays and addresses, " Exercises in Arithmetic " (Boston, 1833) ; " Ameri- cans in their Moral, Religious, and Social Rela- tions" (1837); "Aristocracy in America" (1839); and a German campaign life of Gen. William Henry Harrison (Philadelphia. 1840) ; and translated Her- schel's " Astronomical Problems." GRUNDY, Felix, statesman, b. in Berkeley county, Va., 11 Sept., 1777; d. in Nashville, Tenn., 19 Dec, 1840. He was a seventh son. His father, an Englishman, came to this country early in life. In 1779 he removed to Red Stone Old Fort, near what is now Brownsville, Pa., and in 1780 to Ken- tucky. In both places the family were much ex- posed to Indian depredations, and three of Grundy's brothers were killed by the Indians dur- ing his infancy. His first instruction was received from his mother, who was an ambitious woman of strong character, and he then went to Dr. James Priestly's Bardstown acade- my. His mother wished him to enter the medical profes- sion, but his natu- ral tastes led him to the law, which he studied under George Nicholas. He was elected to the Kentucky constitutional convention in 1799, and from that year till 1806 was a member of the legislature. He introduced a bill to establish the circuit court system, which was passed over the governor's veto, and in 1802 had a debate with Henry Clay, then as little known as himself, on banks and banking, in which was foreshadowed the future course of both in national politics. In 1806 Grundy was appointed a judge of the supreme court of errors and appeals, and in March, 1807, he became chief justice. The salary being too small to enable him to live comfortablv, he resigned, and in the winter of 1807-8 removed to Nashville, Tenn., to practise law. Here he achieved a great reputation as a criminal lawyer. He defended 105 criminals on capital indictments, of whom but one was executed. In 1811 he was elected to congress as a war Democrat, and was re-elected in 1813, but resigned next year on account of the illness of