Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/679

Rh began his surveys in 1700, but fell a victim to the jealousy of the Tuscarora Indians, who confounded the surveyor of their territory with those that de- spoiled them of it. He was captured while he was exploring North Carolina in 1712, in company with a Swiss named Graffenried (q. v.). The latter was permitted to buy himself free, but Lawson was put to death, probably in the manner he thus de- scribes in his book : " Their cruelties to their pris- oners are such as none but devils out of hell could invent. . . . Others keep their enemy's teeth which are taken in war, while others split pine into splint- ers and stick them into the prisoner's body, yet alive, then they light them, which burn like so many torches, and in this manner they make him dance around a great fire, every one buffeting and deriding him till he expires." Lawson left one of the most valuable of the early histories of the Caro- linas, entitled " A New Voyage to Carolina, con- taining the Exact Description and Natural History of that Country, together with the Present State thereof; and a Journal of a Thousand Miles trav- elled through Several Nations of Indians, giving a Particular Account of their Customs. Manners, etc." (London, 1700: new eds. in 1709, 1711, 1714, and 1718). The volume is a quarto of 258 pages, well illustrated with one of the best maps of the time, and with various other engravings, chiefly in natural history. The original edition is now very rare ; it was reprinted at Raleigh, N. C, in 1860.

LAWSON, Leonidas Moreau, physician, b. in Nicholas county, Ky., 10 Sept., 1812 ; d. in Cincin- nati. Ohio, 24 Jan., 1864. His father, a pioneer Methodist clergyman, went to Kentucky from Vir- ginia. The son was graduated at Transylvania university in 1837, made professor of anatomy and physiology there in 1843, and was sent to Europe in 1846 to investigate the progress of medical science in England, France, and Germany. While there, he delivered a course of lectures before the medical department of University college, London. On his return in 1847, he became professor of ma- teria medica and pathology in Ohio medical col- lege, Cincinnati, and was transferred in 1852 to the chair of the principles and practice of medi- cine. He accepted in 1854 the professorship of the theory and practice of medicine in the Kentucky school of medicine at Louisville, but resumed his chair in Ohio medical college in 1857. He became Erofessor of clinical medicine in the University of louisiana at New Orleans in 1S60, but in 1861 returned to Ohio medical college, where he re- mained till his death. He was the earliest writ- er of acknowledged ability on medical subjects in the valley of the Mississippi. He founded the " Western Lancet " in 1847 and contributed abundantly to its pasres, conducting it till 1864. He published an edition of Dr. James Hope's " Morbid Anatomy " (1844) : and " Practical Trea- tise on Phthisis Pulmonalis," which was highly praised, and became a standard both in the United States and abroad (Cincinnati. 1861).— His daugh- ter, Louise, b. in Cincinnati. Ohio, in 1861, began her study of art under the professor of sculp- ture in the Cincinnati school of art. afterward stud- ied in New York and Boston, and then went to Paris, where she was a pupil of Rhodin. She went to Italy in 1884 and pursued her studies in Rome and Perugia. The directors of the Academy of fine arts of Perugia have conferred upon her their diploma of merit. Among her works are the " Rhodian Bov." " Avaconara." and " II Pastore."

LAWSON, Robert, soldier, d. in Richmond, Va., in April, 1805. He became major of the 4th Virginia regiment, 13 Feb., 1776, colonel in 1777, and commanded a brigade of Virginia militia un- der Gen. Greene at the battle of Guilford. LAWSON, Thomas, soldier, b. in Virginia about 1781 : d. in Norfolk, Va., 15 May, 1861. He was appointed surgeon's mate in the U. S. navy, 1 March, 1809, but resigned in 1811 to take a similar place in the army. In May, 1813, he became sur- geon of the 6th infantry; surgeon-general, with rank of colonel, 30 Nov., 1836; was lieutenant- colonel of a regiment of Louisiana volunteers in the Florida war in 1837 ; and commanded a battal- ion of New York and Pennsylvania volunteers till May, 1838. He was brevetted brigadier-general "for meritorious conduct" as chief medical officer of the U. S. forces in the Mexican war, 30 May, 1848. He was author of a " Report on Sickness and Mortality, U. S. Army, 1819-39" (1840); and of a " Meteorological Register, 1826-'30 ; and Appen- dix for 1822-'5 " (Philadelphia, 1840).

LAWTON, Alexander Robert, soldier, b. in Beaufort county, S. C, about 1818. He was gradu- ated at the U. S. military academy in 1839, com- missioned 2d lieutenant in the 1st artillery, and stationed on the northern frontier till 1841, when he resigned. He then studied law at Harvard, and in 1842 was admitted to the bar at Savannah, Ga. He was president of the Savannah and Augusta railroad in 1849-'54, state senator in 1854-'61, and president of the Georgia Democratic convention in 1860. When the civil war began he was colonel of the only volunteer regiment in Georgia, and seized. Fort Pulaski under Gov. Joseph E. Brown's orders. He retained command at Savannah till April, 1861, when he became brigadier-general in the pro- visional Confederate army, and was put in com- mand of the coast of Georgia. In June, 1862, he was transferred to Virginia, and served in several campaigns. He received the command of a divis- ion, was severely wounded at Antietam, and after his recovery served as quartermaster-general till the close of the war. Afterward he resumed the prac- tice of law in Savannah, and was in the legislature in 1875. In 1885 he was appointed by President Cleveland minister to Russia, but the disabilities that he had incurred by taking part in the civil war against the United States government had not been removed, and the appointment could not be confirmed. Subsequently he was appointed United States minister to Austria.

LAY, Benjamin, philanthropist, b.in Colchester, England, in 1681 : d. in Abington, Pa., in 1760. In 1710 he settled in Barbadoes as a merchant, but, becoming obnoxious to the people by his abolition principles, he removed to the British colonies and settled at Abington, Pa., where he was one of the earliest and most zealous opponents of slavery. He was originally a member of the Society of Friends, but left it in'1717, because slave-holding was permitted to its members. Afterward he returned to the society when it assumed an attitude that was similar to his own. Mr. Lay was little over four feet in height, wore clothes of his own manufacture, and was distinguished scarcely less for his eccentricities than for his philanthropy. At one time he attempted to fast for forty days, but long before the expiration of that time his abstinence nearly proved fatal. To show his indignation against slave-holders he carried a bladder filled with blood into a meeting, and in the presence of the congregation thrust a sword, which he had concealed under his coat, into the bladder, and sprinkling the blood on several Friends exclaimed. " Thus shall God shed the blood of those who enslave their fellow-creatures." Upon the introduction of tea into Pennsylvania he delivered a lecture against its use