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IDDLE, JOHN. Born at Detroit, Michigan, February 2, 1859, Colonel John Biddle is the son of William Shepard Diddle, a lawyer of that city, and Susan Dayton (Ogden) Biddle. His ancestry in America is traced from William Biddle, 1682, and in his ancestral line were several distinguished naval and army officers, including Captain Nicholas Biddle, a naval officer of the Revolution, Commodore James Biddle, of the War of 1812, and on his mother's side General Aaron Odgen and General Elias Dayton, of the Revolutionary war.

His first thirteen years of life were spent in the country. He then went to Europe and pursued courses of study in the public schools of Geneva, Switzerland, and Heidelberg, Germany. At the proper age he went to the University of Michigan, leaving it at the end of the freshman year, to enter the United States military academy at West Point, where he was graduated in 1881, and appointed second lieutenant of engineers. Since that date Colonel Biddle has remained in the army as a member of the Engineer Corps. He was promoted first lieutenant in 1883 and captain in 1892, and from 1891 to 1898 was in charge of the river and harbor work at Nashville, Tennessee. When the war with Spain broke out, he was made lieutenant-colonel and chief engineer in the volunteer service, and as chief engineer, sixth army corps, took part in the Porto Rico expedition and the engagement at Coamo. After the war he was stationed in Matanzas, Cuba, in 1898-99; and from 1899 to 1901 he served in the Philipines, as chief engineer of the Islands. He was promoted major in the regular army in 1901, and since November 1 of that year he has been one of the three commissioners of the District of Columbia.

Colonel Biddle has remained unmarried. He is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon college fraternity, the Metropolitan, Chevy Chase and Columbia Golf clubs of Washington, and of several clubs in other cities. His religious affiliations are with the Protestant Episcopal church. He belongs to the American Society of Civil