Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/762

728 course without any assistance. In Kentucky he was ordained to the Baptist ministry. In 1845 he opened an academy in Nashville, Tenn., and in the same year became pastor of the 2d Baptist church in that city. In the following year he was made editor of the " Tennessee Baptist." In 1848 he originated the " Southwestern Pub] ishing House," Nashville, Tenn. He has been widely known as a vigorous controversialist, particularly in support of the Baptist high church views that have received the name of " Old Landmarkism." His published works are " The Great Iron Wheel " (Nashville, Tenn., 1854); "The Little Iron Wheel" (1856) ; " The Intermediate State " (Memphis, 1869) ; " Old Landmarkism (1878) ; '• The Intercommunion of Churches " (1879) ; " The Redemptive Work of Christ" (1883); "The New Great Iron Wheel" (1884) ; " Denominational Sermons " (1885) ; and " The Parables and Prophecies of Christ " (1887).

GRAVIER, Jacques, missionary, b. in France ; d. in Mobile, Ala., in 1708. He was a member of the Society of Jesus, and was sent as a missionary to Canada, but it is uncertain at what time. He was stationed at Sillery in the autumn of 1684 and the ensuing spring, but must have gone west soon afterward, as he was on the Illinois mission in 1688, and succeeded Allouez about 1690 as superior. He was appointed vicar-general by Bishop de Saint Vallier in the following year. He has left a jour- nal of his mission extending from 20 March, 1693, to 15 Feb., 1694. He built a chapel outside the French fort for the convenience of the Miami Indians on St. Joseph's river, among whom he labored with great success. He also visited the Peorias, but without result. His chief success was with the Kaskaskias, whose chief he converted, and of whom he baptized 206 in less than eight months. He also planned missions to the Cahokia and Tama- rois bands of Indians, which he subsequently car- ried out, as well as to the Osages and Missouris, who sent ambassadors to him. In 1696 he went to Montreal, but soon returned and devoted himself to the more distant missions. In 1705 some of the Illinois, instigated by their medicine-men, attacked him, and he was severely wounded. The mission- ary proceeded to Paris for treatment, but obtained little relief. He then went to Louisiana, and landed at Isle Massacre, 12 Feb., 1708. His wound, aggra- vated by his long voyage, proved fatal soon after- ward. Father Gravier was the first to analyze the Illinois language, and compile its grammar, which subsequent missionaries brought to perfection.

GRAY, Asa, botanist, b. in Paris, Oneida co., N. Y., 18 Nov., 1810; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 30 Jan., 1888. He received his early education in the Fairfield academy, after which he began the study of medicine with Dr. John F. Trowbridge in Bridgewater, N. Y., and was graduated at the College of physicians and surgeons of the western district of New York in 1831. He soon left his practice and began the study of botany with Dr. John Torrey. In 1834 he was appointed botanist to the U. S. exploring expedition sent out under the command of Capt. Charles Wilkes, but, in consequence of the delay of that enterprise, resigned the post in 1837. He was elected professor of botany in the new University of Michigan, but he declined this chair, and accepted in 1842 the Fisher professorship of natural history at Harvard, continuing there till 1873, when he retired from the active duties of his office, but retained charge of the herbarium. Prof. Gray's scientific work began at a time when the old artificial systems of botany were giving way to the natural system, and, with Dr. John Torrey, he was among the first to attempt the classification of species on the natural basis of affinity. His first paper, presented to the New York lyceum of natural history in December, 1834, bears the title &ldquo;A Notice of Some New, Rare, or Otherwise Interesting Plants from the Northern and Western Portions of the State of New York.&rdquo; Four years later, under the joint authorship of John Torrey and Asa Gray, the first part of the &ldquo;Flora of North America&rdquo; appeared. This work was continued in numbers that were published from time to time until the Compositæe were finished, when the accumulation of fresh material had so increased that to complete the undertaking would require an appendix greater than the &ldquo;Flora&rdquo; itself. In other ways, however, this classification was still carried on. The valuable acquisitions of the U. S. government expeditions were referred to these botanists, and their results are to be found in numerous memoirs published in the government reports, and as separate monographs. The most important of these are &ldquo;Plantæ Lindheimerianæ,&rdquo; an account of plants collected in western Texas by Ferdinand Lindheimer (Boston, 1845-'50); &ldquo;Plantæ Fendlerianæ Novi Mexicanæ,&rdquo; a description of plants collected in New Mexico by August Fendler (1849); &ldquo;Plantæ Wrightianæ Texano-Neo-Mexicanæ,&rdquo; describing the extensive collections made by Charles Wright (Washington, 1852-'3); &ldquo;Plantæ Thurberianæ&rdquo; (Boston, 1854); and &ldquo;Genera Floræ Americæ Boreali-Orientalis Illustrata&rdquo; (New York, 1848-'50).