Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/292

264 Hunt," a series of descriptive articles in a syndi- cate of newspapers and in book-form (1887).

HORNBLOWER, Josiah, engineer, b. in Staf- fordshire, England, 23 Feb., 1729 ; d. in Newark, N. J., 21 Jan., 1809. He early studied mathematics and the mechanical sciences, and adopted the pro- fession of civil engineering while associated with his elder brother, then eminent as an engineer, whom he accompanied to Cornwall in 1745 to assist in erect- ing steam pumping-engines. Subsequently he be- came proficient in all that pertained to mining and machinery, and especially fire-engines. In 1753 he came to the United States at the request of Col. John Schuyler, settled near Belleville, N. J., and built a steam-engine for the neighboring copper- mines, which was the first one ever constructed in this country. He continued in the successful man- agement of these mines for five years. During the French and Indian war he received the commission of captain, and aided in the local defences of New Jersey. In 1760 he opened a store, and acquired considerable property by trading. At the begin- ning of the Revolutionary war he sided with the Americans, and was sent to the lower house of the New Jersey legislature, where he was extremely active in securing the adoption of measures favor- able to the colonial forces, also serving as speaker in 1780. An unsuccessful attempt was made to abduct him by the British troops in 1781, and dur- ing the same year he was elected to the council or upper branch of the legislature. He continued a member of this body until 1784, when he was se- lected to represent the colony in the Continental congress. After two years' service he withdrew, and in 1793 was again called to the supervision of the New Jersey copper-mine association, but a year later retired from this office. In 1790 he was ap- pointed judge of the Essex common pleas, and he continued on the bench by reappointment un- til failing health compelled his retirement. See " Josiah Hornblower and the First Steam-Engine in America," by William Nelson (Newark, N. J., 1883). — His son, Joseph Coerten, lawyer, b. in Belle- ville. N. J., 6 May, 1777; d. in Newark, N. J., 11 June, 1864. He was well instructed at home in the classics and in mathematics, but on account of feeble health did not enjoy the advantages of a collegiate edu- cation. He studied law in the office of David B. Ogden in Newark, and on ad- mission to the bar in 1803 became associ- ated with his pre- ceptor in business. As early as 1820 he was one of the presi- dential electors, and cast his vote for James Monroe. He was elected by the joint meet- ing of the legislature of New Jersey chief justice of that state in 1832, and re-elected in 1839, mak- ing his full term on the bench fourteen years. In 1844 he was a member of the convention to frame a constitution for the state. Soon after he had re- tired from the bench, he was appointed, in 1847, professor of law in Princeton. He was a member and vice-president of the Philadelphia Republican convention that in 1856 nominated John C. Fre- mont for the presidency. In 1860 he was president of the electoral college of New Jersey, which cast the vote of that state for Lincoln and Hamlin. He was one of the original members of the American Bible society, and was the president of the New Jersey historical society from its foundation in 1845 until his death. — Joseph Coerten's son, Will- iam Henry, clergyman, b. in Newark, N. J., 1 March, 1820; d. in Allegheny, Pa., 16 July, 1883, was graduated at Princeton in 1838, and at the theological seminary in 1843. He labored for five months as a missionary, was ordained to the Pres- byterian ministry in 1844, and after holding a pas- torate in Paterson, N. J., for twenty-seven years, was professor of sacred rhetoric, church govern- ment, and pastoral theology in Allegheny theo- logical seminary from 1871 till his death. Rutgers- gave him the degree of D. D. in 1860.

HORNE, Antoine, Spanish missionary, born in Besancon, Franche-Comte in 1608; died in Bahia, Brazil, in 1697. He became a member of the Jesuit order in 1625, and was sent to the missions of South America. In 1629 he was attached to the missions of Para, and resided for several years on the borders of the river Tocantin, where he acquired a perfect knowledge of the different Indian dialects, and conceived a strong inclination for that people, who had been kept in a state approaching slavery by the Spanish and Portuguese colonists. He resolved to liberate the Indians, and asked the assent and support of his superiors. Although the Jesuits had greatly benefited in South America by the existing order of things, they resolved to give Father Horne full support. The latter travelled through the country in 1643, spoke to the Indians in every city, village, or farm he met on the way, and invited them to make their home in the vast country around the river Tocantin, where they would find freedom and abundance. The Indians came in great crowds, and, two years later, villages that had been prosperous were deserted, and many farms abandoned for want of laborers. The Portuguese colonists became incensed, and denounced Father Home as a republican agitator. The governor of Maranhão thought it necessary to order his arrest in 1646, and sent him to Lisbon, saying, in his official report, that Home's preaching constituted a danger to the authority of the crown, inasmuch as its result had already been the ruin of a formerly prosperous part of the country. John IV., being of a liberal turn of mind, sent for the imprisoned Jesuit, and, after a long conversation with him, expressed his willingness to let him return, but the council of state opposed, and, in spite of the protests of the patriarch of the Indies in behalf of Father Home, the latter remained in close confinement till 1655, when he was released and returned to Maranhão. This place was then governed by one of his former pupils, who allowed him to resume his labors among the Indians in 1656. In 1662 the governor, being satisfied that Horne's ideas would improve neither the Indians nor the country, ordered him to desist, and on his refusal arrested and sent him again to Lisbon as a prisoner. After three years of close confinement, the Jesuits obtained his release, in 1665, from the regent Luisa de Guzman under the condition that he would never return to America. Horne sailed, nevertheless, for Brazil, but, when he landed in Bahia in 1666, he was arrested and confined in a monastery, where he died. Home left several manuscripts, the publication of which was forbidden by the Portuguese government, but, through a fortunate circumstance, they fell, in 1844, at Rio de Janeiro, into the possession of Ferdinand Denis, who deposited them in the National library