Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/211

BARKER.BARKER. United States for the removal of a fibroid uterine



tumor; was president of the New York state medical society, in 1856, and the New York academy of medicine, 1878-'84. He received the degree LL.D. from Columbia in 1877; Edinburgh in 1884; Bowdoin in 1887, and Glasgow in 1888. He is the author of "Puerperal Diseases", a series of lectures (1872) which were translated into French, Italian and Spanish, and a treatise on "Seasickness" (1870). He died in New York city, May 29, 1891.

BARKER, George Frederick, physicist, was born at Charlestown, Mass., July 14, 1835. He was graduated at Yale scientific school in 1858, and during his senior year was appointed assistant in chemistry to Professor Silliman. After his graduation he was made assistant to John Bacon of Harvard medical college. he held the chair of natural sciences in Wheaton (Ill.) college during 1861, and in 1862 accepted the acting professorship of chemistry in Albany medical college, where he took a medical course, receiving the degree of M.D. in 1863. In 1864 he was professor of natural sciences in the Western university of Pennsylvania; in 1865 he became demonstrator of chemistry in the medical department of Yale university, and the following year, in the absence of Professor Silliman, occupied his chair. In 1867 he took charge of the department of physiological chemistry and toxicology at Yale, and in 1873 was given the chair of physics at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1881 he was one of the United States commissioners to the international electrical exhibition in Paris, and a delegate to the international congress of electricians. The French government decorated him with the insignia of the Legion of Honor, with the rank of commander. In 1884 President Arthur appointed him a member of the United States electrical commission, and he was employed as an expert in the suit against the American Bell telephone company. His lecture on the "Correlation of Vital and Physical Forces" was published in 1871, and later was republished in French. Among his other published writings are "The Forces of Nature" (1863); "Text-book of Elementary Chemistry" (1870); "The Chemical Discoveries of the Spectroscope" (1873); " The Conversion of Mechanical Energy into Heat by Dynamo-Electric Machines" (1880), and "Barker" (1893). In 1873 he was made vice-president of the American association for the advancement of science, and president in 1879, and in 1876 he was elected a member of the National academy of sciences. He was editor of the journal of the Franklin institute, and for a number of years edited the "Annual Record of the Progress of Physics," published in the Smithsonian reports. He was associate editor of The American Journal of Science, established in 1818, and a contributor to the American Chemist, and the "Proceedings" of the American philosophical society.

BARKER, Jacob, financier, was born at Perkins, Swan Island, Maine, Dec. 17, 1779, of Quaker ancestry and distantly connected with Benjamin Franklin. In 1785 his mother, who had buried her husband in 1780, returned to her home in Nantucket. Here Jacob was educated, and in 1797 he entered the office of Isaac Hicks, a commission merchant of New York. In 1800 he engaged in business as a commission merchant, in partnership with Joseph Minturn and John Bard. His energy and business capacity were great, and so well did he apply them that in a few years he was next to the largest ship-owner in the United States, having extensive business connections in most of the countries of Europe. His commerce in ships was especially large, and brought him into intimate connection with the admiralties of most of the large countries. He imported the first marine steam-engine used in the Clermont, the first steamboat built by Robert Fulton. Mr. Barker was elected to the state senate, and distinguished himself by his zeal and patriotism in all national questions, by his practical judgment, and by his knowledge of law as it related to trade and finance. He ardently supported Jefferson, advocating the embargo and non-importation acts, though their effect was to entail upon him immense losses. He also favored the purchase of Louisiana, and although he was adverse to the declaration of war against England in 1812, he supported the war policy when it was declared. During the war his ships were all captured, but he was still possessed of ample means and almost unlimited credit, by means of which he was enabled to assist the depleted treasury of 1813 by a loan of $5,000,000. On the re-establishment of peace, Mr. Barker started the Union, a newspaper advocating the election of DeWitt Clinton as governor. In 1815 he founded the "Exchange" bank of New York. Owing to financing vicissitudes in 1834 he removed to New Orleans, where he re-built his shattered fortunes. He engaged in the banking business, was admitted to the Louisiana bar, and became actively prominent in politics. As a member of the Society of Friends he was opposed to slav-