Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/658

624 GELELEMEND, or KILL-BUCK, Delaware chief, b. in Pennsylvania in 1737; d. in Goshen, Ohio, in 1811. His name signifies "a leader." He was chief counsellor of the Turkey tribe of the Dela- ware nation, and, after the death of Capt. White Eyes, became principal chief. He was a strenuous advocate for peace among his people during the Revolution, which drew upon him the animosity of those of his countrymen who took up arms against the Americans. Gelelemend united with the Mo- ravian mission at Salem, Ohio, in 1788, and in baptism was named William Henry, after Judge William Henry, of Lancaster, Pa. A lineal de- scendant is Moravian missionary to Alaska (1887).

GEMMILL, John Alexander, Canadian law- yer, b. in the County of Lankark, Ontario, 20 March, 1847. He was educated at the Grange school, Sunderland, England, and at the 'Univer- sity of Glasgow, Scotland ; was admitted to the bar of Ontario in 1871, and has since practised as a parliamentary solicitor in Ontario. He has ed- ited and published " The Canadian Parliamentary Companion " (1883 and 1885).

GEMÜNDER, August, violin-maker, b. in Ingelfingen, Würtemberg, Germany, 22 March, 1814; d. in New York city, 7 Sept, 1895. His father being a violin-maker and repairer, August was brought up to the business, to which he succeeded on the death of the former. In 1839 he removed to Regensburg, and, after residing in several other cities in Germany, he emigrated to the United States in 1846. He remained in Springfield, Mass., until 1865, and then established himself in New York city. Mr. Gemünder makes a specialty of copying the old Italian masters, especially the instruments made by Antonius Stradivarius, Joseph Guarnerius, and Paoli Maggini. In 1844 he was asked by a German violinist to make a violin that should not be an imitation, as to tone or any other quality, of the Italian masters. In executing the order, he succeeded in producing an instrument that he preserved as a model. His violins have been used by some of the leading soloists. They possess a pure, even quality of tone, respond easily, and are thought to excel the Italian instruments, from which they are copied, in power. Mr. Gemünder contributed to the trade journals a series of articles, in which he discussed &ldquo;Old and New Violins,&rdquo; including a comparison of the tone of those instruments with the human voice; &ldquo;The Cremona Secret,&rdquo; a disquisition on the wood used in the manufacture of violins; &ldquo;The Lost Secret and Common Sense,&rdquo; with others on Italian varnish, violin construction, etc. He was at one time in partnership with his brother George. &mdash; His brother, George, violin-maker, b. in Ingelfingen, Würtemberg, Germany, 13 April, 1816, was a pupil of Baptiste Vuillaume, in Paris, and removed to the United States in 1847, establishing himself in Boston, Mass. In 1851 his violins obtained the prize-medal of the world's fair in London. In 1852 he removed to New York, where he afterward resided. Vuillaume, and other European makers of violins, were in the habit of giving a pseudo-antiquity to their wood by a chemical process, thus gaining a desirable quality of tone; but wood thus treated soon loses its resonance, and after a time the instruments become worthless. Gemünder, however, succeeded in making out of natural wood violins that met every requirement, and in respect of volume, power, equality, and quickness of tone are said to be equal to the work of the best old masters. In the model and finish of his instruments, and especially in the varnish, he was unusually successful, so faithfully reproducing the distinctive

characteristics of the old Italian violins that those made by him are not infrequently mistaken for genuine Cremonas. One called the &ldquo;Kaiser,&rdquo; finished in 1873 and sent to the Vienna exhibition, was there pronounced an Italian violin of the classic period, it being considered impossible to produce so fine a tone from a new instrument. Mr. Gemünder has also received medals from exhibitions held in Paris (1867), New York (1870), Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876 &ldquo;hors concours&rdquo;), Amsterdam (1883), Nice (1883-'4), London (1884), New Orleans (1884-'5 &ldquo;hors concours&rdquo;), and London (1885). He is the author of &ldquo;Progress in Violin-making&rdquo; (Astoria, N. Y., 1881), to which is prefixed an autobiographical sketch.

GENEST, Edmond Charles, diplomatist, b. in Versailles, Prance, 8 Jan., 1705; d. in Schodac, Rensselaer co., N. Y., 14 July, 1834. Although he had been brought up at the French court, and al- though his sisters, Madame Auguie and Madame Campan, were in the service of Marie-Antoinette, he early attracted attention by his republican opin- ions. He was sent, in 1789, as charge d'affaires to St. Petersburg, where his situation soon became uncomfortable, and in 1791 he was informed by Count Ostermann, the minister of Catherine II., that he had better not appear again at court, in view of the excitement then existing in France. He remained in Russia until July of the year fol- lowing, when he received his passports. On his return to France he was appointed minister to Holland, but before he could proceed thither he was accredited to the United States in December, 1792. He reached Charleston, S. C, in April, 1793, was cordially welcomed, and in the following month had a formal reception in Philadelphia, where he was presented by the citizens with an ad- dress congratulating France on obtaining the free- dom she had helped the United States to secure. Encouraged by these demonstrations of popular feeling, Genest thought he could easily persuade the American people to espouse the cause of his country, notwithstanding Washington's recently issued proclamation of neutrality. lie openly maintained that the United States were in duty bound to side with France against England, and bitterly denounced the American government for want of sympathy with the young republic. He even went so far as to issue commissions to priva- teers, and ordered that their prizes should be tried and condemned by French consuls in the United States. He also planned hostile expeditions against Florida and Louisiana, which were then colonies of Spain. In consequence of these imprudent meas- ures, Washington demanded and obtained his re- call. Genest, however, decided not to return to Prance, but was naturalized and settled in the state of New York, where he married first a daugh- ter of Gov. George Clinton, and afterward a Miss Osgood. In his adopted country he took great in- terest in promoting improvements in agriculture and in the arts and sciences. At the age of twelve he translated the "Histoire d'Eric XIV., roi de ^uede," from the Swedish of Celsius, for which he received a gold medal from Gustavus III. (Paris, 1777). He also translated from the same language Nicliolas Idman's treatise on the Finns and their language (Strasburg, 1778).

GENIN, John Nicholas, merchant, b. in New York city. 19 Oct., 1819 ; d. there. 30 April, 1878. His grandfather, John Nicholas, came to this country from France in 1780, as clerk in the commissary department under Gen. Rochambeau. while his uncle, Thomas Hedges Genin, was one of the early settlers of Ohio, an active abolitionist, a friend of