Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/339

Rh convention of 1800. He served in congress from 4 July, 1861, till 3 March. 1867, and was a firm opponent of the measure that was adopted in .Inly, isii I. doubling the land-grant' of the Union Pacific railroad company, and making the government security a first instead of a second mortgage upon the road. Prom 1868 till 1876 he was secretary and treasurer of the company, and from 4 March. 1STT. till 4 March, IMS:!, lie was U. S. senator. He was a founder of the First national bank in Concord, an owner of Port George island, Pla., and was for several years president of the Boston, Concord, and Montreal railroad company.

ROLLINS, Ellen Chapman, author, b. in Wakefield, N. H., 30 April, 1831 ; d. in Philadel- phia, Pa., 29 May. 1881. Her maiden name was Hobbs, and in 1855 she married Edward Ashton Rollins (brother of Daniel G.), who was U. S. com- missioner of internal revenue from 1864 till 1869, and afterward president of the Centennial national bank of Philadelphia. She wrote under the pen- name of " E. H. Arr," and her chief publications are " New-England Bygones" (Philadelphia, 1880), and " Old-Time Child Life " (1881).

ROLLINS, James Sidney, lawyer, b. in Rich- mond, Madison co., Ky., 19 April, 1812 ; d. near Columbia, Mo., 9 Jan., 1888. After graduation at the University of Indiana in 1830 and at the law- school of Transylvania university, Ky., in 1834, he practised law in Boone county. Mo. He served on thf staff of Gen. Richard Gentry during the Black Hawk war, and in 1836 became an editor of the Columbia " Patriot," a Whig journal. From 1838 till 1844, and again in 1854-'6, he served in the Missouri house of representatives, and he was a member of the state senate from 1846 till 1850, boldly opposing the extension of slavery into the territories. He was defeated as the Whig candi- date for governor in 1848 and 1857. Mr. Rollins was a delegate to the Baltimore convention of 1844, which nominated Henry Clay for president, and was active in the canvass that followed. He was elected to congress as a Conservative, taking his seat in the special session that was called by President Lincoln, serving from 4 July, 1861, till 3 March, 1865. In 1862 he introduced a bill to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific, which, with a few amendments, became a law in July, 1862, and under its provisions the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and Kansas Pacific railroads were built. He voted for the adoption of the thirteenth amendment to the constitution, although at the time he was one of the largest slave - owners in Boone county. He was a delegate to the Phila- delphia Union convention in 1866, and in that year served again in the legislature of Missouri, where he introduced and secured the passage of a bill to establish a normal department in the state uni- versity. He was appointed a director of the Union Pacific railroad company, but resigned, and again served in the state senate, introducing a bill to establish an agricultural and mechanical college. He was also the author of many important meas- ures that were passed by the legislature to advance the interests of the state university, and from 1869 till 1887 was president of its board of curators, which in 1872 declared him " Pater Universitatis Missouriensis."

ROLPH, John, Canadian physician, b. in Thorn- bury, England, 4 March, 1792; d. in Toronto, Can- ada, 19 Oct., 1870. He emigrated to Canada, prac- tised as a physician in Toronto, and took part in the insurrection of 1837. On 18 Nov. of that year Rolph, William L. Mackenzie (q. c.i. and others determined at a secret meeting to captmv Toronto on 7 Dec., and then to summon a popular convention to which would be submitted a consti- tution that had already been drafted. In carrying out these plans Dr. Rolph was to be the sole ex- ecutive authority, while Mackenzie was to arrange the details. Rolph, fancying that the government had heard of the proposed attack on Toronto, changed the date to 4 Dec., which so disarranged Mackenzie's plans that the attack on the city utterly failed. In the mean time Dr. Rolph, though suspected, was sent by the governor as one of the bearers of a flag of truce to the insurgents. At the same time Rolph induced Mackenzie to delay the attack until nightfall, when he promised that the disaffected in the city would join them. After the failure of the attempt upon Toronto. Dr. Rolph, despairing of success, fled to the United States, and subsequently went to Russia, where he resided for several years. He returned to Canada after the amnesty had been declared, and prac- tised law and medicine in Toronto. He was a member of the Canadian parliament, and founded the " People's school of medicine," which is now (1898) a department of Victoria college, Cobourg.

ROLPH, Thomas, Canadian author, b. about 1820; d. in England in 1883. He practised as a physician at Ancaster, Upper Canada, ami was ap- pointed emigration commissioner for the govern- ment of Canada. He wrote A Brief Account of the West Indies and United Slalrs" (Ilumlas. 1836); "Emigrant's Manual" (1843); and "Emi- gration and Colonization " (1844).

ROMAN, Andrew Bienvenue, governor of Louisiana, b. in Opelousas, La., 5 March, 1785 ; d. in New Orleans, La,, 26 Jan., 1866. His ancestors emigrated from Provence, France. After his graduation at St. Mary's college, Md., in 1815, he settled asa sugar-planter in St. James's parish, and represented it many years in the legislature, of which he was speaker for four terms, and parish judge in 1826-'8. He was governor of Louisiana in 1831-'5. and again in 1839-'41. and during his administration founded Jefferson college, cleared the state water- courses of rafts, and fprmed a company to drain the swamp lands around New Orleans and protect it from overflow. He was a member of the State constitutional convention in 1845, and was sent to Europe in 1848 as agent of a financial company. He was a member of the Con- stitutional convention of 1852. and of the Secession convention of 1861. He had been a Whig in poli- tics throughout his career, and used all his influ- ence to prevent disunion. With John Forsyth and Martin J. Crawford he was appointed by the Confederate provisional congress to confer with the U. S. government in Washington for the pur- pose of securing a peaceable separation.

ROMANS, Bernard, engineer, b. in Holland about 1720; d. probably at sea in 1784. lie was educated in England, and sent to this country by the government as a civil engineer about 1753. He was also its botanist in Florida, receiving a pension of 50 a year for his services. He was early imbued with the Revolutionary spirit, and enjoyed the acquaintance of Washington, who suggested that the New York committee of safety engage him as their engineer. He entered that service in 1775 in the hope of obtaining a commission in the Continental army, and on 18 Sept. submitted his plans and estimates of the expenses of erecting the proposed fortifications on the Highlands, opposite West Point, offering to complete the same for S.'i.diiO, the ordnance only excepted. The com- mit tee decided to employ him at a salary, and his