Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/582

548 he was then conducting. He made ex- cellent investments, and in a few years acquired uTi.-at wraith. Mr. Slater was early interested in the cause of education, and gave liberally for the establishment of the Norwich free academy and other objects. In April, 1882, he placed in the hands of trustees $1,000.000. the interest of which is to be used for the education of freedmen in the south. His son, WILLIAM ALBERT, in November, 1886, transferred to the Free academy, Norwich, a building costing $150,000, which he erected in memory of his father.

SLAUGHTER, Gabriel, governor of Kentucky, b. in Virginia about 1767; d. in Mercer county. Ky., 19 Sept., 1820. He emigrated to Kentucky at an early age, was a skilful and successful farmer, and frequently chosen to the legislature. At the battle of New Orleans he was colonel of a Kentucky regiment, and he received the thanks of the legis- lature for his gallant services on that occasion. In 1816 he was elected lieutenant-governor of Ken- tucky, and on the death of the governor, George Madison, soon afterward, he served as acting gov- ernor for the four years of Madison's term.

SLAUGHTER, William Banks, lawyer, b. in ( 'ulpi'per county, Va., 10 April, 1798; d. in Madi- son. Vis., 21 July, 1879. He was educated at William and Mary, admitted to the bar, practised first in Bardstown, Ky., and then in Bedford, Ind., and in 1832 was elected to the legislature of the latter state. While in that body he introduced a set of resolutions strongly sustaining President Andrew Jackson's proclamation to the South Caro- lina nullifiers. He was appointed register of the land-office at Indianapolis in 1833, and at Green Bay in 1835, and in the latter year was elected a member of the legislative council of Michigan, and introduced a memorial to congress asking that the territory to the west of Lake Michigan be organ- ized into a new territory to be named Wisconsin. After residing in Wisconsin and in his native place, he returned in 1861 to Middleton, Wis., and in 1862 was appointed commissary of subsistence and quartermaster. He wrote for periodicals and encyclopaedias, and published " Reminiscences of Distinguished Men I have Met " (Milwaukee, 1878). His cousin. Philip, clergyman, b. in Spring- field, Va,, 26 Oct., 1808; d. 12 June, 1890. He was a son of Capt. Philip Slaughter, of the llth conti- nental regiment in the army of the Revolution. His education was obtained partly at home and girtly in a classical academy at Winchester, Va. e entered the University of Virginia in 1825, and, after studying law, was admitted to the bar in 1828. Five years later, having resolved to enter the ministry, he went to the Episcopal theological seminary, Alexandria, Va. He was ordained dea- con in Trinity church, Staunton, 25 May, 1834, by Bishop Meade, and priest in St. Paul's church, Alexandria, in July, 1835, by Bishop Richard C. Moore. His first charge was in Dettingen parish, Va. In 1836 he accepted a call to Christ church, Georgetown, D. 0., in 1840 he assumed charge of Meade and Johns parishes, and in 1843 he be- came rector of St. Paul's church, Petersburg, Va. Health failing, he spent 1848-'9 in Europe. On returning home he established in 1850, and edited, " The Virginia Colonizationist " at Richmond, Va. Six years later he built a church on his farm in Culpeper county, and officiated gratuitously fur his neighbors and servants until his church was destroyed by the National army in 1862. He then edited in Petersburg " The Army and Navy M>-- senger," a religious paper for soldiers, and also preached and visited in camp and hospitals. V hen peace returned in 1865 he was for a time associ- aii 1 editor of the" Southern Churchman." Then he went back to his old home, where, as the churches were destroyed, he fitted up a recess-chancel in his own house for church services. Emmanuel church in Slaughter parish having been rebuilt, he accepted charge of it, and served there while health and strength sufficed. He received the degree of D. D. from William and Mary in 1874. Of late years he had held the office of historiographer of the diocese of Virginia, which was tendered to him by the convention. Dr. Slaughter had made large contributions to religious and general literature, not only in publishing special sermons, orations, addresses, tractates, and magazine articles, but also in bringing out various volumes from his pen dur- ing the last forty years. Among these are " St. George's Parish History " (Richmond, 1847) ; Man and Woman " (1860) ; '"' Life of Randolph Fairfax " (1862) ; " Life of Colonel Joshua Fry, Sometime Pro- fessor in William and Mary College, Va., and Wash- ington's Senior in Command of Virginia Forces, in 1754" (New York, 1880); "Historic Churches of Virginia." in Bishop Perry's "Centennial History" (1882); "Life of Hon. William Green. Jurist and Scholar " (Richmond, 1883) ; " Views from Cedar Mountains, in Fiftieth Year of Ministry and Mar- riage " (New York, 1884) ; " The Colonial Church of Virginia " (1885) ; " Christianity the Key to the Character and Career of Washington," a discourse before the ladies of Mount Vernon association, in Pohick church (1886); and "Address to the Min- ute-Men of Culpeper" (1887).

SLEEPER, John Sherbnrne, author, b. in Tyngsboro, Mass., 21 Sept., 1794 : d. in Boston Highlands. Mass., 14 Nov., 1878. He was during twenty-two years a sailor and a shipmaster in the merchant service from Boston. He afterward en- gaged in journalism, was connected with the New Hampshire "News Letter" at Exeter in 1831-'2, and the Lowell " Daily Journal " in 1833, and was editor of the Boston Journal " in 1834-'54. He was mayor of Roxbury, Mass., in 1856-'8. and pub- lished ""Tales of the Ocean " (Boston. 1842) ; " Salt- Water Bubbles " (1854) ; " Jack in the Forecastle " (1860) ; " Mark Rowland, a Tale of the Sea. by Hawser Martingale " (1867) ; and various addresses.

SLEMMER, Adam Jacoby, soldier, b. in Mont- gomery county. Pa., in 1828; d. in Fort Lara- mie, Kan., 7 Oct.. 1868. He was graduated at the United States military academy in July. 1850. and assigned to the 1st artillery. After a short cam- paign against the Seminole Indians in Florida, in which he took a creditable part, he was for four years on frontier service in California, and in 1855-'9 was assistant professor of mathematics at the U. S. military academy. He afterward re- turned to garrison duty at Fort Moultrie, S. C., and in 1860 was transferred to Florida, where in 1861 he commanded a small body of U. S. soldiers in Pensacola harbor, occupying with them Fort Barrancas; but when intelligence of the surrender of Pensacola navy-yard reached him, he trans- ferred his troops on 10 Jan. to Fort Pickens, oppo- site, which he successfully held until he was re- lieved by Col. Harvey Brown, thus preserving the key to the Gulf of Mexico. He- was promoted major of the 16th infantry in May, 1861, was for a short time inspector-general of the Department of the Ohio, returned to active duty in May. 1862, and participated in the siege of Corinth and the subsequent movement to Louisville, Ky., and to the relief of Nashville, Tenn. He was made brig- adier-general of volunteers, 29 Nov., 1862, and took part in the battle of Stone River, 31 Dec.,