Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/643

Rh and in 1816 he went to Warwick county, Ind., where for several years he was a clerk in a mer- cantile house. He was elected to the legislature in 1822, continued in office till 1846, when he en- listed as a private in the 2d regiment of Indiana volunteers, was in a few weeks commissioned its colo- nel, and in June re- ceived from President Polk the appointment of brigadier - general. He was wounded at the battle of Buena Vista, was brevetted major-general for gal- lantry at Huamantla, commanded at Atlix- eo, took Matamoras, 22 Nov., 1847, cap- tured Orizaba in Jan- uary, 1848, and the next month fought the robber-chief Jaranta at Tchualtaplan. He was known as the " Marion of the Mexican army." At the conclusion of the war he was appointed governor of Oregon by President Polk, was its delegate to congress, being elected as a Democrat in 1851— '7, and in 1853 com- manded the settlers in the campaign against the Rogue Indians, whom he defeated at the battle near Table Rock, in which he was severely wound- ed. On the admission of Oregon as a state he was elected U. S. senator, served 'from 1859 till 1861, and in 1860 was nominated for vice-president on the John C. Breckinridge ticket. His defeat ended his political career, and he passed his old age in ob- scurity and poverty in a remote part of Oregon. — Joseph's son, Lafayette, congressman, b< in Van- derberg county, Ind., 12 Nov., 1842, was educated in Washington, D. O, and in Stamford, Conn., adopted law as a profession, and removed to Ore- gon. He was a member of the legislature in 1864, code-commissioner of Oregon in 1874, and in that year was elected to congress as a Democrat to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of George A. La Dow, serving till 1877. He was defeated at the next congressional election, and is now (1887) en- gaged in the practice of law. — Another great- nephew of Joel, Henry Smith, senator, b. in Mont- gomery county, Ky., 24 Feb., 1811 ; d. in Craw- fordsville, Ind., 11 June, 1881, worked on a farm and attended school at intervals till he was six- teen years old. He began the study of law at eighteen, was admitted to the bar at twenty-one, and, removing to Indiana, practised his profession till 1854. He was in the legislature in 1837, and the next year was elected to congress as a Repub- lican, serving till 1843. The defeat of Henry Clay for the presidency retired Mr. Lane from political life for sixteen years. At the first National Re- publican convention he made so effective a speech that, in June, 1856, he was elected permanent presi- dent of that body, and for several years he led the Republican party in the state. The election of 1858 gave the Republicans the majority of both houses of the Indiana legislature. In 1859, with the aid of the " Americans," they elected Mr. Lane to the U. S. senate, hoping to annul the informal election of 1858 that gave the seat to Jesse D. Bright. The case was referred to the congres- sional committee on elections, which reported in favor of the validity of the former election, and sustained Mr. Bright. Mr. Lane became governor of Indiana in I860, and in February of that year was elected to the U. S. senate, serving till 1867. He retired from politics at the end of his term, and, except as Indian peace-commissioner under Gen. Grant, undertook no regular public service. He was a delegate to the loyalists' convention in 1866, to the Chicago national Republican conven- tion in 1868, and to that of Cincinnati in 1876. LANE, John, pioneer, b. in Virginia, 8 April, 1789; d. in Vicksburg, Miss., 10 Oct., 1855. His early life was passed in Georgia, where he was a student for several years at Franklin college. He entered the South Carolina conference of the Methodist church in 1814, and the next year was sent to the Natchez circuit, becoming the pioneer of Methodism in Mississippi. His earlv work there was among the Cherokee and Creek Indians, whose confidence he won by his daring and self- sacrifice. He was appointed presiding elder on the Mississippi circuit in 1820, and this year set- tled on the estate of his father-in-law. Rev. Newit Vick, the site of the present city of Vicksburg, which Mr. Lane named in Vick's honor. Mr. Lane subsequently engaged in business, was pro- bate judge of Warren county, and, although preach- ing continually, became one of the most influen- tial business men in the state of Mississippi. He re-entered the conference in 1831, and during the greater part of his subsequent career was a presid- ing elder. For many years he was president of the conference missionary society, and of the board of trustees of Centenary college, Jackson, La.

LANE, Jonathan Homer, mathematician, b. in Geneseo, N. Y., 9 Aug., 1819; d. in Washing- ton. D. C, 3 May, 1880. He was graduated at Yale in 1846, entered the employ of the U. S. coast survey in 1847, and a year later was made assistant examiner in the U. S. patent-office, becoming prin- cipal examiner in 1851. Subsequently he re-en- tered the coast survey, and from 1869 till 18b0 was connected with the bureau of weights and meas- ures. He devoted considerable attention to as- tronomy, and was sent, under the auspices of the coast survey, with the expedition to Des Moines, Iowa, to observe the total solar eclipse of 1869, and to Catania, Spain, in 1870, for a similar pur- pose. Mr. Lane was a member of scientific socie- ties, and was early elected to membership in the National academy of sciences. Among his impor- tant inventions were a machine for finding the real roots of the higher equations; a machine for very exact uniform motion ; a visual telegraph ; a visual method for the comparison of clocks at great distances apart : an improved basin for mer- curial horizon : and a mechanism for holding the Drummond light and reflector on shipboard. His principal memoirs were " On the Law of Electric Induction in Metals" (1846); "On the Law of In- duction of an Electric Current on Itself" (1851): " Report on the Solar Eclipse of 7 Aug., 1869 " (1869); "Theoretical Temperature of the Sun" (1870): "Report on the Solar Eclipse of 12 Dec, 1870" (1871); "Description of a New Form of Mercurial Horizon "(1871); and"Coefficientsof Ex- pansion of the British Standard Yard Bar "(1877).

LANE, Sir Ralph, governor of Virginia, b. in Northamptonshire, England, about 1530; d. in Ireland in 1604. He was the second son of Sir Ralph of Orlingbury, and Maud, first cousin of Catherine Parr, queen of Henry VIII. The son entered the queen s service in 1563, was an equerry in her court, held a command in Ireland in 1583-'4, and in 1585, by invitation of Sir Walter Raleigh, took charge of the colony that the latter was about to send to Virginia. Sir Richard Grenville (q. v.), who commanded the fleet that bore the colony to