Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/511

Rh received his early education in St. Joseph's college, near Susquehanna, and afterward studied for the priesthood in St. Charles Borromeo seminary, Philadelphia, He was ordained a priest on 3 July, 1850,and placed in charge of the preparatory seminary at Glen Riddle. The see of Harrisburg was created in 1868. and Dr. Shanahan was consecrated its first bishop on 18 July of that year. He introduced many sisterhoods into his diocese, and built schools, academies, and charitable institutions. When he was raised to the episcopate there were in it 3 convents, 7 parochial schools, 22 priests, and about 20.000 Roman Catholics. At his death the number of priests was 51 ; churches, 51 : chapels and stations, 75; academies, 7; orphan asylums, 3; parochial schools, 29 ; while the Roman Catholic population had increased to more than 35,000.

SHANK, David, British soldier, b. in Virginia; d. in Glasgow, Scotland, 16 Oct.. 1831. He was appointed a lieutenant under Lord Dunmore in Virginia in 1775, participated in the defence of Gwynn's island and other skirmishes, and served as a volunteer in the battle of Long Island, 27 Aug.. 1770. In March, 1777, he became a lieutenant in the Queen's rangers, and accompanied Gen. Howe's army into New Jersey. He was engaged in the battle of the Brandy wine, 11 Sept., 1777, commanded the picket at Germantown on 4 Oct., and checked the American column that attacked the right of the British army. He was also present at Monmouth. and succeeded to the command of a company in October, 1778. In August, 1779, he led a troop of dragoons, and afterward the cavalry of the Queen's rangers in Virginia, with which he sustained a severe action at Spencer's Ordinary. In October, 1783, he returned to England, and in 1792 assisted in raising, under the patronage of the Marquis of Buckingham, a light-infantry corps of 400 men called the Queen's rangers for Canada, in which company he was commissioned senior officer, and he commanded the troops in Upper Canada in 1796 after receiving the brevet of major on 1 March, 1794. He was made, lieutenant-colonel in January, 1798, and in 1799 returned to England. He was ap- pointed lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian fencibles on 3 Sept., 1803, was promoted to colonel in 1808, and was commissioned major-general in 1811 and lieutenant-general in 1821.

SHANKS, William Franklin Gore, author, b. in Shelbyville, Ky., 20 April, 1837. He was educated in Louisville, and wrote for the Louisville " Journal " and the " Courier." At the beginning of the civil war he became a correspondent of the New York "Herald." and joined its staff in 1865. In 1866 he contributed regularly to Harper's "Weekly" and "Monthly," and prepared an index of the contents of the latter for the first forty volumes. On the death of Henry J. Raymond, he transferred his services from the "Times" to the Tribune," remaining there until 1880. While city editor of the " Tribune " he was imprisoned for contempt of court for refusal to divulge the name of the writer of an article in the paper, taking the ground that he was a privileged witness. After his release on a writ of habeas corpus he brought charges against District Attorney Winchester Britton, who was removed by Gov. Dix. In 1880 he instituted suit, for the first time in this country, against the vendor of a libel, recovering two judgments, and the court of appeals sustained the legal point at issue. In 1885 he organized the National press intelligence company, of which he was made president, and he is still a contributor to various newspapers. He has published " Recollections of Distinguished Generals" (New York, 1865); edited "Bench and Bar" (1868); and printed privately "A Noble Treason." a tragedy (1876).

SHANLY, Charles Dawson, journalist, b. in Dublin, Ireland, 9 March, 1811; d. in Arlington, Pla., 15 Aug., 1875. He was graduated at Trinity college, Dublin, in 1834, and, after holding the office of assistant secretary of the department of public works in Canada in 1842-'57, went to New York, and became connected with the press of that city. In 1860 he was one of the chief contributors to "Vanity Fair," and at one time he was its editor. In 1865-'6 he conducted "Mrs. Grundy." His writings consisted of essays and descriptive articles, poems, and ballads, some of which were imaginative and pathetic, while others were satirical or humorous. They were contributed to the " New York Leader," "Weekly Review," "Albion," and "Atlantic Monthly," and other literary papers, while on the daily journals he was a regular writer on social events and passing trifles. He was an expert draughtsman of comic sketches, and passionately fond of painting. Of his writings, there were published in book-form, illustrated by Henry L.Stephens, "A Jolly Bear and his Friends" (New York, 1866); "The Monkey of Porto Bello" (1866); and "The Truant Chicken" (1866). His best-known poems are "Civil War" and "The Walker of the Snow." His brother, Walter, Canadian engineer, b. at the Abbey, Stradbally, Queen's county, Ireland, 11 Oct., 1819, was educated privately, afterward prepared himself for civil engineering, and came to Canada in 1837, settling in the county of Middlesex. He was resident engineer, under the Canada board of works, on the Beauharnois and Welland canals from 1843 till 1848, resident engineer Northern New York railroad, 1848-'51, chief engineer of the Ottawa and Prescott railway in 1851-'3, of' the western division of the Grand Trunk railway in 1853-'9, and general manager of the same line from 1857 till 1862. His greatest achievement in engineering was the completion of the Hoosac Mountain tunnel, in Massachusetts, in 1869-'75, in which enterprise he was assisted by his brother,. He was chief engineer of the Canada Atlantic rail- way, 1879-'85, and later he was consulting engineer of that line. He sat in the Canadian assembly in 1863-'7, when he was re-elected to the Dominion parliament as a Conservative. He was an unsuccessful candidate in 1872 and 1874, re-elected by acclamation on the death of the sitting member in July, 1885, and again elected in February, 1887.

SHANNON, Wilson, governor of Ohio and of Kansas, b. in Belmont county, Ohio, 24 Feb., 1802; d. in Lawrence, Kan., 31 Aug., 1877. He was graduated at Athens college, Ohio, and at Transylvania university, Ky., and became a lawyer. He began practicing at St. Clairsville, Ohio, and in 1835 was prosecuting attorney for the state. He was governor of Ohio in 1838-'40 and again in 1842-'4, and in 1844 he went as U.S. minister to Mexico. He was a representative in congress in 1853-'5, and territorial governor of Kansas in 1855-'6. During Gov. Shannon's administration in Kansas the troubles between the free-state and pro-slavery parties began to assume a threatening aspect. The governor favored the latter, though he tried to be cautious. He succeeded in peacefully terminating the “Wakarusha war” in 1855, but hostilities were resumed in the following year, ending in the burning of the town of Lawrence by a band of “border ruffians” that had been gathered as a U.S. Marshal's posse. Shannon was finally removed, and succeeded by John W. Geary. He subsequently practised law in Lawrence.