Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/587

Rh NUTT, Cyrus, educator, b. in Trumbull county, Ohio, 4 Sept., 1814; d. in Bloomington, Ind., 23 Aug., 1875. He was graduated at Alleghany college, Meadville, Pa., in 1836, was principal of the preparatory department of Indiana Asbury (now De Pauw) university, and afterward professor of languages till 1845, when he became pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in Bloomington. In 1846-'9 he was professor of Greek in Indiana Asbury university, then for five years president of a female college in Fort Wayne, and for the next three presiding elder of the Richmond district in Indiana. In 1857 he became acting president of Indiana Asbury university, and in 1860 president of the State university at Bloomington. Several of his baccalaureate sermons were published.

NUTT, George Washington Morrison, dwarf, b. in Manchester, N. H., 1 April, 1844; d. in New York city, 25 April, 1881. He was first placed on exhibition in Barnum's museum in New York city, accompanied Charles S. Stratton (&ldquo;Tom Thumb&rdquo;) on a tour around the world in 1869-'72, and subsequently conducted theatrical shows in Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, Cal., in partnership with his brother, Rodney, who, besides himself, was the only diminutive member of the family. Afterward he managed travelling companies. &ldquo;Commodore&rdquo; Nutt, as he was called, though well-proportioned, was only 43 inches high.

NUTTALL, Enos, colonial Anglican bishop, b. in England, 26 Jan., 1842. He was educated by private tutors, was ordained to the ministry of the Established church, and became incumbent of St. George's church, Kingston, Jamaica, in 1866. In 1880 he was consecrated bishop of Jamaica. He received the degree of D. D. in 1880. He has published numerous social and ecclesiastical pamphlets and addresses and several sermons.

NUTTALL, Thomas, naturalist, b. in Settle, Yorkshire, England, in 1786; d. in St. Helen's, Lancashire, 10 Sept., 1859. He learned the printer's trade in England, but in his twenty-second year came to the United States, and at the suggestion of Benjamin S. Barton studied natural history, and subsequently devoted the remainder of his life to scientific pursuits. His interest in the subjects of botany and ornithology led him to travel extensively throughout this country, and in the course of his journeys he visited nearly all of the states of the Union, penetrating westward through the territory of Arkansas, and southward to the Everglades of Florida, traversing also the districts that border on the Mississippi, the northern lakes, and reaching the then far-distant Pacific, on which he sailed to the Sandwich islands. In 1822 he became professor of natural history in Harvard and curator of the botanical gardens, which appointments he held until 1834. He returned to England in 1842, and spent the rest of his life chiefly on the estate of Nutgrove, near Liverpool, which had been bequeathed to him on condition that he should reside upon it. Elias Durand said of him: &ldquo;No other explorer of the botany of North America has personally made more discoveries; no writer on American plants, except perhaps Professor Asa Gray, has described more new genera and species.&rdquo; Besides contributions to periodicals, he published &ldquo;The Genera of North American Plants and a Catalogue of the Species to 1817&rdquo; (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1818); &ldquo;A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory during the Year 1819&rdquo; (1821); &ldquo;Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada,&rdquo; I. Land Birds (Cambridge, 1832); II. Water Birds (Boston, 1834); and &ldquo;The North American Sylva, or a Description of the

Forest-Trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, not described in the work of François André Michaux&rdquo; (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1842-9).

NYE, Edgar Wilson, humorist, b. in Shirley, Me., 25 Aug., 1850; d. near Asheville, N. C., 22 Feb., 1896. He was educated at River Falls, Wis., removed to Wyoming territory, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1876. He began early to contribute humorous sketches to the newspapers, using the pen-name of &ldquo;Bill Nye,&rdquo; was connected with various western journals, and afterward settled in New York city. He had published &ldquo;Bill Nye and the Boomerang&rdquo; (Chicago, 1881); &ldquo;The Forty Liars&rdquo; (1883); &ldquo;Baled Hay&rdquo; (1884); &ldquo;Bill Nye's Blossom Rock&rdquo; (1885); and &ldquo;Remarks&rdquo; (1886).

NYE, James Warren, senator, b. in De Ruyter, Madison co., N. Y., 10 June, 1814; d. in White Plains, N. Y., 25 Dec, 1876. He was educated at Cortland academy. Homer, N. Y., leaving it in 1832 to study law in Troy, N. Y. After being admitted to the bar, he practised in his native county, gained a reputation as an effective speaker before a jury, was chosen district attorney, and in 1840 was elected county judge, serving eight years. He was a Democrat in polities up to the time of the Barn-burner campaign. In 1848 he was an unsuccessful candidate for congress as a Free-soil Democrat. Removing to Syracuse, N. Y., he practised there till 1857, when he went to New York city, having been appointed the first president of the Metropolitan board of police, which office he held till about 1860. He was a member of the Republican party from its formation, and was identified with its Radical wing. He was a witty and eloquent platform orator, and during the canvass of 1860 did effiective service for his party in a tour through the west in company with William H. Seward. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him governor of Nevada territory, where he counter-acted the influence of the Pro-slavery party and, with Thomas Starr King, of San Francisco, did much to keep the Pacific states and territories in the Union during the early period of the civil war. On the admission of Nevada as a state, in 1865, he was elected U. S. senator, and drew the short term, and in 1867 was re-elected. He was noted for his humor and conversational powers. After he retired from public life his mind became impaired.

NYEL, Louis Isidore, French missionary, b. in Alsace early in the 18th century. After studying with the Jesuits he entered their order. He embarked for China at Saint Malo on 26 Dec, 1703, but the vessel on which he sailed experienced contrary winds and was obliged to anchor in Callao, from which place the missionary went to Lima. He intended to go thence by way of Mexico, and by the Philippine islands to China, but whether he executed his project is uncertain. He wrote an account of his adventures on the coast of America to Pere la Chaise, the confessor of Louis XIV., dated Lima, 20 May, 1705. It is entitled "Traversee de Saint Malo au Perou, Detroits de Magellan et deLeMaire, ports du Chili, description de Lima: relation de deux nouvelles missions etablies depuis quelques annees dans I'Amerique meridionale." He also wrote "Histoire de la vie et de la mort du P. Cyprien Baraze," one of the first founders of these missions. These are published in vol. ix. of the "Lettres edifiantes" (edition of 1781). His account of the voyage is full of interesting geographical details, and his description of the Moxos Indians attracted attention for its bearing on ethnographic questions. Some of Nyel's letters were translated into German, and published in the " Weltbott" of Stocklein.