Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/108

82 "Mind Studies for Young Teachers," and was editor of the "New York State Recorder," an annual, and "The Sunday-School at Work," a quarterly.

DANFORTH, Elliot, lawyer, b. in Middleburg, Schoharie co., N. Y., G March, 1850. lie studied at the public schools of his native town and at the Schoharie academy. He then travelled widely in the western part of the country and on the Pacific slope, and was admitted to the bar in 1873. In 1878 he formed a law partnership with George II. Winsor, and in 1880 he was elected president of the village of Bainbridge, holding the office for three terms. He was also a member of the local board of education, in 1880 he was sent as a delegate to the national Democratic convention at Cincinnati, and in 1884 to the Chicago convention, he declined the offer of a nomination to congress in 1880. In 1884 he was appointed deputy state treasurer and held the position until 1889, when he was elected treasurer; two years later he was re-elected. He was nominated for lieutenant-governor at the Democratic convention at Syracuse, 29 Sept., 1898. He has published addresses on "Indians of New York," delivered before the Oneida county historical society; on "Old Schoharie," delivered before the Schoharie county historical society; and " Address at the 280th"Celebration of the Purchase of Mamaroneok, N. Y.. from the Indians. Sept. 21, 1891."

DANIEL, James Jacquelin, lawyer, b. in Columbia, S. C., 14 Aug., 1832; d. in Jacksonville, Pla.. 2 Oct., 1888. He taught in, and then conducted an academy for boys in Columbia, S. C., until 1848, when he removed to Florida, where he studied law and was admitted to practice. This profession he followed until the beginning of the civil war, when he raised a company for the 2d Florida infantry, and accompanied that regiment to Virginia. He took part in the peninsula campaign of 1863, but failing health compelled him to return to Florida, where ho was placed in charge of the conscript bureau. This post he held, with the rank of colonel, until the close of the war, when he returned to Jacksonville and resumed the practice of law. Refusing all political appointments, he continued active in his profession until his death, which was caused by yellow fever. Col. Daniel was interested in the development of Jacksonville, was president of its board of health, its auxiliary association, the Florida emigration society, and the Florida publishing company, and was an officer or director in various banks, railroads, and other corporations.

DANIELS, Charles, jurist, b. in New York city, 12 March, 1836; d. in Buffalo, 30 Dec. 1897. He was left an orphan at the age of ten, and at fourteen apprenticed himself to a shoemaker in Buffalo, at the same time studying law in the intervals of work. He afterward became clerk in a lawyer's office, and in 1847 was admitted to the bar. In 1863 he was elected a justice of the state supreme court as a Republican, to fill a vacancy, and in 1869 he was re-elected, serving until 1891. In 1886 he was an unsuccessful candidate for judge of the court of appeals. After his retirement from the bench Judge Daniels was chosen to the 53d and 54th congresses, and later he practised his profession in Buffalo till his death.

DARWIN, Charles Robert, English naturalist, b. in Shrewsbury, England, 12 Feb., 1809; d. in Down, Kent, England, 18 April, 1882. He was a grandson of Dr. Erasmus Darwin. Immediately after his graduation at Cambridge in 1831 he volunteered to accompany the ship &ldquo;Beagle&rdquo; as naturalist on an exploring expedition around the

world, on which he was engaged till 2 Oct., 1836. Leaving the ship at Valparaiso, Darwin crossed the South American continent to Buenos Ayres, discovering on his way the gigantic fossil remains that first brought his name into notice. On his return he settled on a country estate in Kent, where he spent his life in scientific occupations, writing his remarkable works on botany and natural history, and propounding the theory of the origin of species by the natural selection of favorable variations, which soon became celebrated as the Darwinian theory. His writings that relate to this hemisphere include &ldquo;Journal of Researches during a Voyage Around the World&rdquo; (1839); &ldquo;Geological Observations in South America&rdquo; (1846); and many papers, such as &ldquo;The Connection of Certain Volcanic Phenomena in South America.&rdquo; See &ldquo;Life and Letters of Charles Darwin,&rdquo; by his son, Francis (2 vols., New York, 1887).

DAVENPORT, Charles, manufacturer, b. at Newton, Mass., 25 May, 1812. Having learned the coach and carriage builders' trade, he began for himself in 1832 at Cambridge. In 1834, as the firm of Davenport &amp; Bridges, he entered upon the business of building railroad cars, and for some years of locomotives. As car-builders his was not only the pioneer firm of the United States, but for the twenty-two years during which he carried on the business his was the largest car establishment in the country, having factories at Cambridgeport, and from 1840-'50 also at Piermont and Newburg, N. Y. His first cars for the Boston and Worcester railroad, early in 1835, were after the pattern of a long omnibus upon four wheels, seating 24, to be entered by a central door upon either side, and from a step running the length of the car, as on a modern open street-car. Within the fixed seats faced all one way, and were separated on either side by a central aisle the length of the car. The car was turned about on turn-tables at the end of each trip. In the cars built next he made the seats with narrow, reversible backs, and by next year with broad backs, similar to the modern car-seat. He thus did away with the need of turning around the car itself. In 1837 he built the entrance door and platform steps at the ends of the car, instead of the side, thus opening a passageway through a train from car to car. In 1838-'9 he built the first 8-wheel car, to seat 60, and in 1840 the first 16-wheel car, to carry 76 passengers. Thus from year to year he constantly added new improvements, as he had earlier been the first to build a large pleasure-party barge sleigh. In 1856 he retired from business, having constructed over $4,000,000 worth of cars for over fifty different railroads in this country and Cuba. He was an advocate and promoter of many public improvements in and about the city of Boston. Among others, the originator of the earliest plan for the Boston Back Bay park, and of the Charles river embankment improvement in Cambridge, upon the opposite side of the river, both of which have now been largely carried out. He resides