Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/732

690 character, he was always in pecuniary straits. After the duties on spirits were established by congress, he was appointed to test the specific gravity of im- ported liquors. He also made proof-glasses. Finally, through his friend, John Pintard, he re- ceived the appointment of superintendent of the academy of tine arts. During the war of 1812 he constructed and worked the telegraph on Castle Clinton. He is said to have built the tirst steam- engine in the United States. He was the friend of Jefferson and Hamilton, was respected by his contemporaries, and his memory was preserved as that of the original projector of the Erie canal.

COLLETON, James, colonial governor of South Carolina. He was a brother of one of the proprietaries, and was appointed governor with the rank of landgrave, and endowed with 48.000 acres of land, in 1080. He was expected to assert the authority of the proprietaries and secure the enforcement of laws in the constitutions that were disregarded by the colonists. The parliament, which had been elected before his arrival, refused to acknowledge the binding force of the constitu- tions. Colleton thereupon excluded the members of the majority from the legislative halls, and these protested against any acts that might be passed by the remaining members. In 1687 a new parliament was elected that was even less tractable. Colleton endeavored to collect quit-rents on unim- proved land as well as on cultivated fields; but the assembly imprisoned the secretary of the col- ony, seized the records, and defied the governor and proprietaries. In 1689 Colleton, under pretext of threatened danger from the Spaniards or In- dians, called out the militia and proclaimed mar- tial law. Shortly after the English revolution the colonists rose against his despotism, and the legis- lative assembly impeached and disfranchised Colle- ton, and banisiied him from the province.

COLLETT, John, geologist, b. in Eugene, Vermilion co., Ind., 6 Jan., 1828. He was gradu- ated in 1847 at Wabash college, which, in 1881, gave him the degree of Ph. D. Dr. Collett was state senator in 1871, assistant state geologist in 1870-'8, a member of the state-house commission in 1878-9, chief of the bureau of statistics and geology in 1879-'80, and geologist in 1881-'5. From 1870 till 1879 he published annually his re- ports as assistant geologist, and as geologist from 1881 till 1884, and for the years 1879 and 1880 reports of the bureau of statistics and geology.

COLLIER, Sir George, British naval officer, d. 6 April, 1795. He became a commander in the royal navy in 1761, was promoted commodore while in North America in 1779, and became a vice-admiral in 1794. He was appointed in 1775 to the command of the " Rainbow," cruised on the American coast, receiving the honor of kniglit- hood for his activity, was senior captain of the fieet in 1777, and on 8 July captured the " Han- cock," commanded by Capt. Manly, destroyed the magazines and stores at Machias and tliirty ves- sels on the northeast coast, was temporarily chief in command on the American station, in May. 1779, destroyed the principal towns on Chesapeake bay, ravaged the coast of Connecticut in July, visited New Haven, Fairfield, Norwalk, and Green Farms, destroyed many privateers and other vessels, and on 14" Aug. captured Com. Saltonstall's fleet in Penobscot river. His " Journal on the Rainbow " was published in New York in 1835.

COLLIER, Henry Watkins, jurist, b. in Lun- enburg county, Va., 17 Jan., 1801 ;.d. at Bailey's Springs, Lauderdale co., Ala., 28 Aug., 1855. He was educated in the Abbeville district, S. C, where his father settled in 1801. removed with the family to Madison county, Ala., in 1818, and studied law at Murfreesboro, Tenn., and at Huntsville, Ala., where he was admitted to the bar and began prac- tice. In 1823 he settled in Tuscaloosa, where he was elected district judge in 1827. In 1836 he was appointed associate justice of the supreme court of Alabama, in 1837 was made chief justice, and held that office till 1849, when he was elected, without opposition, governor of the state. His support was sought both by the southern rights and the Union party ; but he favored neither side of the question that then agitated the southern states, and in 1851 was re-nominated and elected without a regular nomination. When his second term expired lie retired to private life.

COLLIER, James, lawyer, b. in 1789; d. in Steubenville, Ohio, 2 Feb., 1873. He was a soldiet in the war of 1812, and fought at Queenstown, where he assisted in forming the first American line on the Canadian side. After the war he re- moved to Steubenville, where he practised law with distinction and served as paymaster-general of the state. When the question arose as to the boundary-line between Virginia and Ohio, he, with Thomas Ewing and John Brough, represented the latter state in the joint high commission that set- tled the dispute. In 1849 he was appointed col- lector for California, and went there overland, fighting his way through hostile Indians with a small company of dragoons. When he had reached his destination he was the only officer there, and for some time he acted as military governor.

COLLIER, John Allen, jurist, b. in Broome county, N. Y., in 1787; d. in Binghamton, N. Y., 24 March, 1873. He practised law at Binghamton, was elected to congress as a Clay democrat, serving from 5 Dec, 1831, till 2 March, 1833, was state comptroller in 1845-'6, and was commissioner to revise the code in 1847.

COLLIER, Joseph Avery, clergvman, b. in Plymouth, Mass., 26 Oct., 1828; d. in Kinderhook, N. Y., 13 Aug., 1864. He was graduated at Rutgers in 1849, and, upon the completion of his studies in the theological seminary of the Reformed Dutch church at New Brunswick, was ordained pastor of the churches of Bronxville and Greenville, Westchester co., N. Y. He was pastor at Geneva, N. Y., in 1855-'9, and afterward at Kingston, N. Y. He was the author of " The Right Way, or the Gospel applied to the Intercoui'se of Individuals and Nations" (New York, 1854); " The Christian Home " (Philadelphia, 1859) ; " he Young Men of the Bible" (New York, 1861); " Little Crowns and how to Coin them " (1862) ; "Pleasant Paths for Little Feet" (1864): "Dawn of Heaven," published posthumously, with a biographical sketch of the author, by his brother, the Rev. Ezra W. Collier (1865).

COLLIER, Peter, chemist, b. in Chittenango, N. Y., 17 Aug., 1835. He studied at the Yates Polytechnic institute in his native place, was graduated at Yale in 1861, and in 1870 received his medical degree from the University of Ver- mont. Subsequent to his graduation at Yale he spent several years in the Sheffield scientific school, studying chemistry, and for a time was assistant in the laboratory, receiving in 1866 the degree of Ph. D. In 1867 he was called to the chair of ana- lytical chemistry, mineralogy, and metallurgy in tlie University of Vermont, becoming at the same^ time professor of general chemistry and toxicology in the medical department, of which faculty he was also dean. These offices he held until 1877, and from 1872 till 1876 he was secretary of the