Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/753

Rh the Mexican boundary survey. He defended the theory of periodical refrigeration, and suggested that the Mississippi depression was the consequence of the upheaval of the Appalachians and the later elevation of the Rocky mountain area. A list of his scientific papers is given in the catalogue of the Royal society of England.

CONRAD, William, clergyman, b. in Pennsylvania, 11 Aug., 1808; d. 16 Feb., 1865. He was educated at the academy and theological seminary of the German Reformed church at York, Pa., licensed to preach by the Westmoreland classis in May, 1835, and labored during the rest of his life in western Pennsylvania as a pioneer preacher. He was one of the founders of Westmoreland college, Mount Pleasant, Pa., to which he presented his large collection of geological specimens, was a frequent contributor to religious journals, and published a volume on &ldquo;Baptism&rdquo; (1847).

CONROY, John Joseph, R. C. bishop, b. in Queens county, Ireland, in 1819. He studied un- der the Sulpicians at Montreal, completed his theo- logical course in Mount St. Mary's, and was or- dained in 1842. He became vice-president of St. John's college, Pordham, in 1843, and was after- ward appointed president. He was transferred to the pastorate of St. Joseph's church, Albany, in 1844, and founded St. Vincent's orf^han asylum, built a convent of the Sisters of Charity, and re- built St. Joseph's church. He became vicar-gen- eral of the diocese of Albany in 1857, and admin- istered its affairs during the absence of the bishop. He succeeded Dr. McCloskey on the latter's promo- tion to the see of New York. During his admin- istration there was a large increase of churches and priests. Among the most noted institutions that he founded are an industrial school, St. Peter's hospital, St. Agnes's rural cemetery, and a house of the Little Sisters of the Poor. He was present at the first and second councils of Baltimore, and took part in the sessions of the Vatican council. In 1869 he convoked a synod of his diocese, and made important regulations for its future govern- ment. In 1870 a coadjutor was appointed at his request, and in 1874 he resigned. He was then created bishop of Curium in paiiihus. and I'esided in New York city, where he died, 20 Nov., 1895.

CONTEE, Benjamin, clergyman, b. in Mary- land in 1755 ; d. in Charles county, Md., 3 Nov., 1815. He was liberally educated, studied theology, and became a clergyman of the Protestant Episco- pal church. In 1776 he was an officer in the 3d Maryland battalion, lie was a member of the Continental congress in 1787-'8, and was elected to the 1st congress under the constitution, in which body he voted in 1790 for establishing the seat of government on the Potomac. Subsequently he became the ]irosi(ling judge of the Charles county, Md., testaiiieutarv court.

CONTRECOEUR, Captain, French soldier, b. about 1730. He was a captain in the French ma- rines, and in 1754 conducted a force of 1,000 men, mostly Indians, with eighteen cannon, down the Alleghany river in boats, for the purpose of pre- venting the British authorities or the Ohio com- pany from planting settlements in the Ohio valley, which was claimed by the French under the treaty of Aix. Ensign Ward, of Capt. Trent's company, had partly constructed a fort at Ohio Fork, now Pittsburg, the spot recommended for the purpose in Washington's report. He surrendered the works to Contrecosur, who finished the stockade, called it Fort Duquesne, and maintained there a garri- son of about 250 Frenchmen, and sometimes as many as 500 Indians. When Braddock advanced with more than 2,000 men, although the garrison was demoralized by fear, Capt. Beaujeu, who had come to relieve Contrecoeur, determined to attack the approaching army, and, while he carried out the brilliant attack that resulted in the rout of Braddock's army, 9 July, 1755, Contrecoeur, to whom the French official reports erroneously give the credit of the victory, remained at the fort. As Beaujeu had been shot, the command again de- volved upon Contrecoeur, who was responsible for the atrocities committed by the Indians.

CONVERSE, Amasa, journalist, b. in Virginia in 1795; d. in Louisville, Ky., 9 Dec, 1872. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1822. After com- pleting his theological course he was for some years a pastor in the south, whence he removed to Philadelphia, and founded the " Christian Ob- server," a Presbyterian weekly organ of old-school doctrine and southern political sympathies. When the civil war began he removed his paper to Rich- mond, Va., and after the war to Louisville, Ky., where it continued to be the organ and exponent of the southern Presbyterian church.

CONVERSE, Charles Crozat, musical composer, b. in Warren, Mass., in 1834. He studied law and music in Leipsic, Germany, returned home in 1857, and was graduated at the Albany law-school in 1861. His musical compositions have appeared under the anagrammatic pen-names &ldquo;C. O. Nevers,&rdquo; &ldquo;Karl Reden,&rdquo; and &ldquo;E. C. Revons.&rdquo; He has published a cantata (1855); &ldquo;New Method for the Guitar&rdquo; (1855); &ldquo;Musical Bouquet&rdquo; (1859); &ldquo;The One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Psalm&rdquo; (1860); &ldquo;Sweet Singer&rdquo; (1863); &ldquo;Church Singer&rdquo; (1863); &ldquo;Sayings of Sages&rdquo; (1863).

CONWAY, Moncure Daniel, author, b. in Stafford county, Va., 17 March, 1832. His father was a magistrate and a member of the Virginia legislature; his mother a daughter of Surgeon-General Daniel. He received his early education at Fredericksburg academy, and was graduated at Dickinson college, Pa., in 1849, where he united with the Methodist church. He began the study of law at Warrenton, Va., and while there wrote for the Richmond &ldquo;Examiner,&rdquo; of which his cousin, John M. Daniel, was editor, in support of extreme southern opinions. He abandoned the law to enter the Methodist ministry, joined the Baltimore conference in 1850, was appointed to the Rockville circuit, and in 1852 to Frederick circuit. He was a contributor to the &ldquo;Southern Literary Messenger,&rdquo; and published a pamphlet entitled &ldquo;Free Schools in Virginia,&rdquo; in which he advocated the adoption of the New England common-school system. Having undergone a change of political and religious convictions, partly through the influence of a settlement of Quakers among whom he lived, he left the Methodist ministry and entered the divinity-school at Cambridge, Mass., where he was graduated in 1854. He then returned to Virginia, in the hope of preaching his humanitarian ideas and transcendental and rationalistic doctrines; but upon reaching Falmouth, where his parents resided, was obliged by a band of neighbors to leave the state under threats because he had befriended Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave from the same district. The same year he became pastor of the Unitarian church in Washington, D. C., where he preached until he was dismissed on account of some anti-slavery discourses, especially one delivered after the assault on Senator Sumner. In 1857 he was settled over the Unitarian church in Cincinnati, Ohio. There he published, among other pamphlets, &ldquo;A Defence of the Theatre&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Natural History of the Devil.&rdquo; The