Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/82

60 ALMY, William, philanthropist, b. in Providence, R. I., 17 Feb., 1761; d. 5 Feb., 1830. He was a teacher and a member of the society of Friends, and became wealthy through marriage with the only daughter of Moses Brown and resulting business arrangements for the manufacture of cotton goods. One of his most important charities was the establishment of the New England yearly meeting boarding-house in Providence, where he educated at his own expense eighty young persons selected by him. He devoted large sums to other charitable objects.

ALOFSEN, Solomon, historian, b. in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 22 Nov., 1808; d. in Arnheim, Holland, 10 Oct., 1876. He was born of a good Dutch family and came to the United States in early manhood as secretary of legation, and, liking the country, settled in Jersey City. Here he married and went into the railroad business, being for a time secretary of the Illinois Central railroad, and dealing largely in investments. His favorite studies were historical and ethnological, and he became a prominent member of the societies of New York and vicinity. He read many papers at the meetings of the New York historical society and made valuable contributions to its collections. After forty years' residence in the United States he returned to Holland, where he was made a member of the royal antiquarian society. His library consisted mainly of Amei'icana, and was especially full in the department of the civil war. It was carefully catalogued and sold in Utrecht in June, 1876.

ALPUCHE E INFANTE, Jose Maria, Mexican patriot, b. in Campeehe, Yucatan, 9 Oct., 1780. He studied in the Seminario Concilia de Merida, and became a priest. He was one of the founders and organizers of the " Logias Yorkinas," an advanced section of the liberal party, and helped Guerrero to the presidency of the republic. His opposition to military power and influence, which in his time pervaded every branch of the administration, was the cause of his banishment to New Orleans. Afterward Alpuche, having returned to Mexico, endured great hardships as a prisoner in the castle of San Juan de Ulua. The rest of his life was full of disappointment and sufferings, until he died in the convent of Santo Domingo.

ALPUCHE, Wenceslao (al-poo'-che), Mexican poet, b. in Tihosuco, Yucatan, 28 Sept., 1804; d. in Tekax, 2 Sept., 1841. He took as models the works of the Spanish playwrights and lyric poets, Calderon, Lope de Vega, Moreto, and Quintana, whom he tried to follow. His best poems are "Hidalgo," "La Independencia," and "La Fama."

ALRICKS, Hermanus, lawyer, b. at Lost Creek Mill, Juniata co., Pa., in 1804; d. in Harrisburg, Pa., 28 Jan., 1874. In 1814 his parents removed to Harrisburg. He received his early education in the academy of that city, and read law there until he was prepared for admission to the bar. He soon attained a lucrative practice, and gained a high reputation for the close reasoning requisite in arguing before the orphan's and registrar's courts. He made it a rule not to undertake a cause unless he was satisfied of its justice. As a collector of historical traditions he was well known to cultivated people throughout the state, and his extraordinarily tenacious memory enabled him to hold his store of information with dates and authorities at the instant service of inquirers. The only public office he ever held was that of deputy attorney-general in 1829, an appointment that involved him in such an unpleasant political fracas that he became very averse to office-seeking.

ALSINA, Adolfo (al-see'-na), Argentine statesman, b. in Ikienos Ayres in 1829: d. there in 1878. He first attracted public notice by a series of lec- tures and contributions to the periodical publications of Buenos Ayres. He became deputy to the provincial chambers, and was highly distinguished for eloquence and general ability. He was governor of the province from 1866 till 1868, and vice-president of the Argentine republic from 1868 to 1874. He several times commanded a body of national guards during civil disturbances.

ALSOP, George, author, b. in England in 1638. He was a Londmi apprentice in his youth, but resided in Maryland in 1658-'62. He published a book with this quaint title: "A Character of the Province of Maryland, also a Small Treatise on the Wild and Naked "Indians or Susquehanokes of Maryland, their Customs, Manners, Absurdities, and Religion, together with a collection of historical letters" (London, 1666). This was republished, with introduction and notes, by J. G. Shea (New York, 1869), and again in Baltimore in 1880.

ALSOP, John, of the continental congress, b, in Middletown, Conn.; d. in Newtown, Long Island, 22 Nov., 1794. He was a prosperous merchant of unquestioned patriotism and integrity, and was a worthy member of the first American congress in 1774-'76. On the occupation of New York by the British forces he withdrew to Middletown, Conn., remaining there until peace was concluded.—His son, Richard, author, b. in Middletown, Conn., 23 Jan., 1761; d. in Flatbush, Long Island, 20 Aug., 1815, studied at Yale college, but did not complete the course, preferring to devote himself exclusively to languages and literature. Although he was brought up to a mercantile life, it proved so irksome that he soon devoted himself to letters, and formed a kind of literary league, popularly known as the "Hartford Wits." These included Theodore Dwight, Lemuel Hopkins, and Benjamin Trumbull. The association, informal as it was, made a notable literary hit, all of its members being among the intellectual lights of the time. Alsop was the leading spirit and the principal writer of the "Echo," a series of burlesque essays (1791-'95). It comprised travesties and exaggerations of current publications, state papers, and the like, making a target of anything, in fact, that offered a mark for the active wits of its editors. These papers were mostly done into polished pentameters, somewhat ponderous but instinct with fun, and not without latent wisdom. Most of the "Wits" were federalists, and the "Echo" soon became bitterly anti-democratic. The whole series was published in a volume in 1807. Alsop's other works include a "Monody on the Death of Washington," in heroic verse (Hartford, 1800); "The Enchanted Lake of the Fairy Morgana" (1808); "The Natural and Civil History of Chili," from the Italian of Molina, and fugitive pieces. In 1815 he edited the "Captivity and Adventures of J. R. Jewett among the Savages of Nootka Sound." He was an accomplished linguist, acquiring languages, as it seemed, by a sort of intuition, and made a distinct impression on the drift of public thought.—Another son, John (poet, b. in Middletown, Conn., 5 Feb., 1776; d. in Middletown, 1 Nov., 1841), was a pupil of Dr. Dwight. He studied in the law school of Judge Reeve at Litchfield, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in New London. He afterward became a bookseller in Hartford, and still later in New York. The latter part of his life was spent in retirement in Middletown. His poems were never issued in hook form, but appeared in various periodicals and collections.