Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/194

168 latter commander in the brief campaign in the Shenandoah valley, participated in theT battle of Winchester, and was mortally wounded at Cedar Creek while rallying his troops.

RAMSEY, Alexander anatomist, b. probably in London, England, in 1754: d. in Parsonsfield. Me.. 04 Nov.. 1S04. He studied medicine under George Cruikshank in London for several years, and became famous for his anatomical preparations. He came to this country about 1800. and delivered a short course of lectures on anatomy and physi- ology in Columbia college. He possessed much pro- fessional learning, but his vanity, arrogance, and pomp, combined with his grotesque person, inter- fered with his success as a teacher, and won him the name of " the Caliban of science." He adopted the theorv that the bite of a venomous snake was rendered "innoxious by alkalies, and died from the results of an experiment on himself. He published " Anatomy of the Heart, Cranium, and Brain " (Edinburgh, 1813), and " Plates on the Brain " (London. 1813).

RAMSEY, Alexander, secretary of war. b. near Harrisburg, Pa.. 8 Sept., 1815. He was educated at Lafayette college, and in 1828 became clerk in the register's office of his native county. lie was secretary of the Electoral college of Pennsylvania in 1840,'the next year was clerk of the state house of representatives, was elected to con- gress as a Whig in 184,'. and served till . He was chair- man of the state central committee of Pennsylvania in, and was ap- pointed first terri- torial governor of Minnesota in 1849, holding office till 1853. During this service he nego- tiated a treaty at Mendota for the ex- tinction of the title of the Sioux half- breeds to the lands on Lake Pepin, and two with the Sioux nation by which the TJ. S. government acquired all the lands in Minnesota west of Mississippi river, thus opening that state to colonization. He also made treaties wit h t he Chippewa Indians on Red river in 1851 and 1853. He became mayor of St. Paul, Minn., in 1855, was governor of the state in 1860-'3, and in the latter year was elected to the U. S. senate as a Re- publican, holding his seat in 1863-'75. and serving as chairman of the committees on Revolutionary claims and pensions, on post-roads and on territo- ries. He became secretary of war in 1879, suc- ceeding George W. McCrary, and held office till the close of Hayes's administration. He was appointed by President Arthur, in 1882, a member of the Utah commission, under the act of congress known as the Edmunds bill (see EDMUNDS, GEORGE F.), con- tinuing in that service till 1880. In 1887 he wa- a delegate to the centennial celebration of the adop- tion of the constitution of the United States.

RAMSEY, James Gattys McGregor, author, b. in Knox county, Tenn.. in 1706 : d. fn Knoxville. Tenn., in 1884. His father, Francis A. Ramsey, (17601819), emigrated to the west early in life, and became secretary of the state of "Franklin." which was subsequent!) admitted to thr Union under the name of Tennessee. The son was lib- erally educated, and studied medicine, receiving the degree of M. D., but never practised his prol'es- sion. In early manhood he engaged in banking, and in later days he was elected president of the Bank of Tennessee, at Knoxville. While yet a young man he began the collection of material for a history of Tennessee. The papers of Gov. Sevier and Gov. Shelby were placed in his hands, and from them and other valuable documents he published the " Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eigh- teenth Century " (Charleston, S. C., 1853). He also founded the first historical society in the state, and at his death was president of the one at Nashville, which he left in a flourishing condition. When Tennessee seceded from the Union he was appointed financial agent for the southern wing of the Con- federacy. He joined the Confederate army on its retreat from Knoxville, and remained with it till its final dissolution. During the occupation of that city by National troops the house in which his father had lived and he had been born was burned, and all the valuable historical papers it contained were destroyed. In consequence of the war he lost most of his property.

RAND, Asa, clergyman, b. in Rindge. N. H., 6 Aug., 1783 : d. in Ashburnham, Mass., 24 Aug., 1871. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1806, and ordained as a minister of the Congrega- tional church in January, 1809. After a pastor- ate of thirteen years' duration at Gorham, Me., he edited the "Christian Mirror" at Portland, Me., in 1822-'5. afterward conducted the "Recorder" and the " Youth's Companion " at Boston, and in 1833 established a book-store and printing-office at Lowell. He published the " Observer " at this place, lectured against slavery, and was then pas- tor of churches at Pornpey and Peterborough. N. Y. He published " Teacher's Manual for Teaching in English Grammar" (Boston, 1832), and "The Slave-Catcher caught in the Meshes of the Eter- nal Law " (Cleveland, 1852). His son. William Wilberforce, author, b. in Gorham, Me., 8 Dec., 1816, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1837, at the Theological seminary at Bangor, Me., in 1840. au-1 in the latter year was licensed to preach a* a (.'mi- gregational minister. He was pastor of the Re- formed Dutch church of Canastota, N. Y., from 1841 till 1845, editor for the American tract so- ciety, New York city, in 1848-'72. and has since been its publishing secretary. He is the author of " Songs of Zion " (New York, 1850 ; enlarged ed.. 1866) ; " Dictionary of the Bible for General Use " (1860; enlarged and largely rewritten, 1887); and other smaller books.

RAND, Benjamin Howard. educator, b. in Charlestown, Mass., 16 Feb., 17!i2: d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 9 June, 1862. He settled in Philadelphia early in the 19th century, and was engaged in the teaching of penmanship, in which for more than twenty-five years he had a high ivpuiatii'U. Mr. Rand published "The American Penman " (Philadelphia, 1856); "Rand's Penmanship" (8 ]>art-i: "Rand's Copy-Book " (9 parts) ; and "Appendix" (5 parts). These books ran through several editions, and at the time of his death the sile of the different numbers had aggregated more than one and a half million copies. His daughter, Marion Howard, author, b. in Philadelphia. Pa.. "> Jan.. 1824, d. in Grahamville. S. ('., 9 June. 1s4'.i. contributed largely to "The Offering." The Young People's Book," "Graham's Magazine." "Godey'a Lady's Bonk," and other periodicals. Specimen I her poetry are contai 1 in Read's " Female Poets of America" and in May's "American Female Poets." His son, Benjamin Howard, physician.