Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/174

138 liabilities in 1879, removed to Philadelphia, and organized the llerdic coach company, inventing the cab or omnibus that is known by liis name, which soon became popular, and in a measure re- stored his fortunes. Mr. llerdic invested in saw- mills during iiis career in Williamsport, and in- Tented what is known as the " boom," by wliieh logs are floated down stream and caught in a blockade, doing awav with the expensive raft system.

HERNDON, William Henry, b. in Greens- burg, Ky., 25 Dec, 1818; d. near Springfield, 111., 18 March, 1891. His parents emigrated from Vir- ginia about 1808 to Green county, Ky. ; in 1821 tiiey removed to Illinois and settled near Spring- field. His father, Archer G. Ilerndon, was at one time elected to the legislature of Illinois, being a colleague of Abraham Lincoln from Sangamon county. The son when not attending school as- sisted his father in his si ore, and spent one year at the Illinois college at Jacksonville. Returning home, he entered the employ of Joshua P. Speed, whose store was the favorite resort of Mr. Lin- coln, Stephen A. Douglas, Edward D. Baker, and other young men who became famous. In 1841 he began the study of law in the office of Lincoln and Stephen T. Logan, was admitted to the bar and became the former's partner in 1848, and re- mained such till Lincoln's death. A student not only of law, but of political economy, psychology, and general literature, Mr. Herndon was of great assistance to Lincoln. They travelled the circuit, and together gained an extensive practice as law- yers in central Illinois. In 1853 Herndon was elected clerk and in 1855 mayor of the city of Springfield ; was a candidate for presidential elec- tor on the Fremont ticket in the campaign of 1856 ; was appointed bank commissioner for Illinois in 1857, holding that office till it was abolished in 18G8-'4. In the campaigns of 1856, '60, and '64 Mr. Herndon canvassed Illinois for the Kepubli- can ticket. Although offered an appointment to office by President Lincoln he declined it, and con- tinued the practice of law till 1872, when he retired from the profession and moved to his farm, six miles from Springfield. In the religious world he was known as a free-thinker, and frequently ap- pealed in the press of the day in advocacy of his liberal views. In 1865 he began the collection of material for a life of Lincoln, which in 18S5-'9, with the assistance of Jesse W. Weik, was pub- lished under the title of " Herndon's Lincoln.

HERRESHOPF, John Brown, boat-builder, b. in Bristol, K. I., in 1841. He comes of an old Rliode Island family which for generations has sent its sons to sea. It was an ancestor of his, John Brown, that provided the boats for the men that burned the " Gaspee," and one of the sliips of this same John Brown was the first vessel to carry the Stars and Stripes to China. With such hereditary influences Jolni Brown Herreshoff natu- rally took an early interest in boats. When scarcely in liis teens he had become an expert sailor, but at the age of fifteen he became blind. This mis- fortune, however, did not drive liim away from his beloved boats. A hand of wonderful delicacy of touch and a memory of wonderful capacity for details stood him in stead of his eyes. His history from this time on is really the history of the Herreshoff manufacturing company, of which he became president, and the history of the boats de- signed and built by the company. In the con- struction and building of these boats his name is closely linked with that of his brother, Nathaniel G., b. in Bristol, R. 1., about 1848. He studied at the Massachusetts institute of technology in 1866- '9, and then underwent an apprenticeship at the Corliss engine-works in Providence, where he heljied build the great engine that sujjiilied the motive power for the machinery at the Centennial exposition in Philadel|ihia. This training he sup- plemented bv a course of engineering abroad, where he visited many of the best-equipped ship- yards in Europe. U'pon his return he devoted himself to his business, giving his attention to the designing of steam vessels as well as sailing yachts. He has given si)ecial care to the con- struction and design of ihe machinery in u.se on the boats built by the company, his coil boiler being perhaps one of the best known and most characteristic of his inventions. In 1876 he de- signed and built for the U. S. naval school at Newport a torpedo-boat, the " Lightning," cafia- ble of making twenty miles an hour. At that time no other firm in the country made a Sfmcialty of high-speed machinery, and for this reason the government placed a staff of naval officers at the Herreshoff shops to experiment along that line. Another early steamboat designed by him was the " Stiletto " ; later came the torpedo-boat "Gushing," the "Now Then," "Henrietta," and " Vamoose," to mention only a few. One of his earliest designs for sailing craft was the " Shad- ow." The boat that gave him the greatest fame was perhaps the " Gloriana," a forty-six-footer, launched in 1891, which with her raking stem and overhang stern marked an important st«p in yacht architecture. The " Wasp," in the following sea- son, showed an advance in speed even on that swift boat. Then came the " Vigilant," designed as a defender of the " America's" cup in 1893, the "Defender " in 189.5, and the " Columbia " in 1899.

HERRICK, George Frederic, missionary, b. in Milton, Vt., 19 April, 1834. He was graduated at the University of V^ermont in 1856 and at An- dover theological seminary in 1859, and went at once as a missionary of the American board to Turkey. A large part of his life since that time has been spent in Constantinople, where he has been much engaged in literary work for the mis- sion. He was one of the revisers of the Turkish translation of the Bil)le. and has publislied in Turk- isli commentaries on Matthew, Mark, and The Acts. In 1870-'3 he was professor of church history in the theological seminary in Marsovan, Turkey, and in 1879 he was ap])ointed to the same chair there. The degree of D. I), was given him by the Univer- sity of Vermont. Dr. Herrick has also published in Turkish "History of the Christian Religion and Church " (Constantinople, 1873) and " Belief and Worship " (1878).

'''HERSEY. Alfred Dishing''', merchant, b. in Hingham. Mass., 26 Nov., 1804 : d. in Boston, 8 March, 1888. He received an academic education, settled in Boston, and, with Horace Scudder and Barnabas Davis, was a lessee of commercial and mercantile wharves, becoming their largest owner. He was also interested in the shipping business, owning shares in forty vessels. He built the South Shore railroad between Braintree and Cohasset and was its first president, was one of the original owners and directors of the Boston and Hingham steamboat company, and was heavily interested in cotton-mills in New Hampshire. Mr. llersey was the last of the old school of Boston merchants and wharfingers, an active Republican politician, and a public-spirited citizen.

HESLIN, Thomas, R. C. bishop, b. in the parish of Killoe, Longford eo., Ireland, in April, 1847. He accepted the call of Archbishop Odin to New Orleans in 1863, and with several other students