Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/798

753 voted himself to benevolent enterprises, and was president of the New York blind asylum, the American board of commissioners for foreign mis- sions, and the New York branch of the Coloniza- tion society. He bequeathed $371,000 to charitable institutions, and placed in the hands of his only son a fund of $100,000, the interest of which was to be distributed in charity. In addition to large legacies to his twenty-four grandchildren, he in- trusted $5,000 to each to be used in charity.

PHELPS, Austin, clergyman, b. in West Brookfield, Mass., 7 Jan., 1820; d. in Bar Harbor, Me., 13 Oct., 1890. He was graduated in 1837. stud- ied at Andover and Union theological seminaries, was pastor of Pine street Congregational church in Boston in 1842-8, and professor of sacred rhetoric in Andover theological seminary in lS48-'79. He was elected its president in 1869, and after 1879 became professor emeritus. Amherst gave him the degree of D. D. in 1856. His publications include " The Still Hour " (Boston, Edinburgh, and Lon- don, 1858) ; " The New Birth " (1867) ; " The Soli- tude of Christ " (1868) ; " Studies of the Old Testa- ment "(1878); "The Theorv of Preaching " (New York, 1881) ; " Men and Books " (1882) ; " Mv Port- folio " (1882) ; " English Stvle in Public Discourse " (1883) ; " My Study, and Other Essays " (1886) ; and " My Note-Book, or Fragmentary Studies in The- ology " (1891). Dr. Austin also published vari- ous sermons and addresses from 1848 till 1868, among which are " Election Sermon to the Govern- ment of Massachusetts " (Boston, 1861). and edited " Hymns and Choirs " with Prof. Edwards A. Park and" Rev. David Furber (New York, 1859), and " Sabbath Hymn-Book " with Prof. Park and Dr. Lowell Mason (1859). — His wife. Elizabeth Stuart, author, b. in Andover, Mass., 13 Aug., 1815 ; d. in Boston, Mass., 30 Nov., 1852, was the eldest daughter of Prof. Moses Stuart, of Andover. and early attained popularity by her sketches of New England life, in a series of tales that were published under the pen-name of "H. Trusta," an anagram of her maiden name. In 1842 she married Mr. Phelps. She possessed much imaginative talent, and gave promise of a successful literary career, which was terminated by her early death. Her publications include "The Kitty Brown Series " (Philadelphia, 1850) ; " Sunny Side," a story descriptive of life in a country parsonage, which had previously been rejected by several publishers, but reached a sale of 100,000 copies in one year (Andover, 1851; republished in Edinburgh): "A Peep at Number Five" (1851); and the "Angel over the Right Shoulder" (1851). After her death appeared " The Tell-Tale " (1852) : " Little Mary " (Boston, 1853) ; and " The Last Sheaf from Sunny Side," with a memorial of the author by her husband (1853). — Their daughter, Elizabeth Stuart, author, b. in Andover, Mass., 13 Aug., 1844, began to write for the press at thirteen years of age. Much of her life has been devoted to benevolent work in her native town, to the advancement of women, and to temperance and kindred reforms. She delivered a course of lectures before the stu- dents of Boston university in 1876. Her publica- tions include " Ellen's Idol" (Boston, 1864) ; "Up Hill " (1865) ; " The Tiny Series " (4 vols., 1866-'9) ; "The Gvpsy Series" (4 vols., 1866-9); " Mercv Gliddon"s VVork " (1866); "I Don't Know How"" (1867) ; " The Gates Ajar," which reached a twenti- eth edition within the vear of its publication (1868) : " Men, Women, and Ghosts " (1869) ; " Hedged In " (1870) : " The Silent Partner" (1870) ; " The Trotty Book "(1870); " Trotty's Wedding Tour "(1873) ; " What to Wear " (1873) ; " The Good Aim Series " (1874); "Poetic Studies," poems (1875); "The Story of Avis " (1877) ; " My Cousin and I " (1879) ; "Old Maids' Paradise " (1879); "Sealed Orders" (1879); '-Friends, a Duet" (1881); " Bevond the Gates " (1883) ; " Dr. Zay " (1884) ; " The Gates Be- tween " (1887); and "Jack the Fisherman" (1887).

PHELPS, John, merchant, b. in Worcester, Mass., in 1824 : d. in New Orleans, La., 24 April, 1886. He removed to New Orleans in his youth, and engaged in business, in which he was success- ful. He served in the Confederate army during the civil war, subsequently established the cotton house of John Phelps and Co., and took an active part in the political and commercial life of New Orleans. He was four times president of the city cotton exchange, president and director of numer- ous banking houses and insurance companies, and of the " Picayune " and the " Times Democrat " newspaper companies.

PHELPS, Oliver, merchant, b. in Windsor, Conn., in 1749 ; d. in Canandaigua, N. Y., 21 Feb., 1809. He was educated to become a merchant, spent his early years in Suffield, Conn., and sub- sequently accumulated a fortune in Granville, Mass. During the Revolution he served in the commissary department. In 1787, with Nathan- iel Gorham, he purchased from the state of Massa- chusetts a tract of 2,200,000 acres in New York state, which is now comprised in the counties of Ontario and Steuben. This was part of a region of about 6,000,000 acres that New York ceded to ^Massachusetts at the Hartford convention of 1786. The purchasers were to pay for the land in " con- solidated securities " of that time, but a rise in their price prevented a complete fulfilment of the agreement, and Mr. Phelps gave up a part of the land. He opened a land office in Canandaigua, N. Y., the next year, which is said to have been the first in this country, and invented a system of townships and ranges that, with modifications, has since been generally adopted in surveying U. S. government lands. In 1795, with Will- iam Hart and several others, he bought of Con- necticut the tract of land in Ohio that was known as the " Western reserve," which comprised 3,300,000 acres. He afterward returned to Canan- daigua, was a member of congress in 1803-'5, and was a judge of the circuit court. He was active in the projection of the Erie canal and the Welland canal, and built steamboats on Cayuga lake.

PHELPS, Royal, merchant, b. in Sempronius, N. Y., 30 March," 1809; d. in New York city, 30 June, 1884. He received a common-school educa- tion, and early in life went to St. Croix, W. I., where he entered the office of a merchant. He be- gan business on his own account in 1840, estab- lished houses in Puerto Cabello and Laguayra, and in 1847 settled in New York city as one of the firm of Maitland, Phelps and Co., where he acquired a large fortune. Although a life-long Democrat, he was active in support of the National cause at the beginning of the civil war. He was a member of the New York legislature in 1862-'3, vice-president of the chamber of commerce from 1855 till his resignation in 1859, and president of the New York society for the protection of game in 1867-'77. He contributed largely by his influence and money to the erection of the statue of Washington that stands in front of the sub-treasury building in Wall street. His only daughter became the wife of John Lee Carroll, of Maryland.

PHELPS, Samuel Shethar, jurist, b. in Litchfield. Conn., 13 May, 1793; d. in Middlebury, Vt., 25 March, 1855. His grandfather, Edward, a descendant of William Phelps, the colonist, was a