Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/214

BARLOW.BARNARD. convention organized to erect Savoy into the 84th department of France, and was defeated in the election for deputy. While at Chambery he wrote "Hasty Pudding." He returned to Paris, wrote "The Columbiad" and prepared the groundwork for a history of the American revolution and one of the French revolution, and in 1795 was appointed by President Washington consul at Algiers, and he succeeded in negotiating a treaty of peace with the Dey, and in redeeming the American captives held by Barbary. In 1805 he returned to America, declined all political honors and devoted himself to literature. In 1811 he was appointed United States minister to France, sailed on the Constitution, Commodore Hull, and after nine months of skillful diplomacy received an invitation from Napoleon, then engaged in his Russian campaign, to meet him at Wilna, Poland, to sign the treaty already agreed upon. He became involved in the retreat of the French army from Russia, and, overcome by cold and privation, died at Yarmisica, in Poland, Dec. 24. 1812.

BARLOW, Samuel Latham Mitchell, lawyer, was born at Granville. Mass., June 5, 1826, son of Samuel Bancroft Barlow, physician. He was descended from English stock, which first settled in Massachusetts in 1620. The family removed to New York city while Samuel was very young, and in 1840 he obtained a position in a law office, and remained with the firm seven years. In 1847 he established an office of his own and attained a high reputation at the bar. In 1852 he became a member of the firm of Bowdoin, Larocque & Barlow. He adjudicated a difficulty between Cornelius Vanderbilt and William H. Aspinwall, arising from a Panama-Nicaragua enterprise, which made the millionaires friends and future co-operators. Mr. Barlow's reputation rapidly widened, and he was much sought as a railroad lawyer. Shortly after the Franco-Prussian war, a contract was made by Commodore Garrison and some others to send about $1,600,000 worth of arms to the French government. But the agreement having been made with Gambetta, Thiers, then in authority, refused to pay so large a sum. Barlow arranged the matter amicably, and within three months the arms were received and paid for. The lawsuit which took the control of the Erie railway from the hands of Jay Gould was the most famous and one of the most successful ever undertaken by Mr. Barlow. The stockholders sued Gould for $10,000,000, placing their interests in the hands of Mr. Barlow. After consulting with his lawyers, Mr. Gould decided to compromise by paying $9,000,000, and when the railway was turned over to the stockholders. Mr. Barlow was made director and private counsel. Mr. Barlow was a Democrat in politics and as one of the largest stockholders, controlled the New York World until 1869. He was one of the founders of the Manhattan club, a member of the Century association and of the Grant monument association, and a liberal patron of the fine arts. He made a notable collection of rare and costly books and works of art, his library being especially rich in Americana. He maintained a fine stock farm and country residence at Glen Cove. Long Island, where he died suddenly July 10, 1889.

BARLOW, Thomas Harris, inventor, was born in Nicholas county, Ky., Aug. 5, 1789. He was of limited education. He built a steamboat at Augusta, Tenn., about 1820, and in 1827 constructed a miniature steam locomotive, with car attached, to carry two passengers and with power to ascend a grade of eighty feet to the mile. He operated it in a room on an oval track, the first Western railway train in America. In 1835 he constructed a large locomotive with two up- right cylinders and lever beams, both engines attached to one axle with crooks at right angles, and upright boilers. This he expected to run from Lexington to Frankfort, but owing to the peculiar construction of the rails, it was abandoned. In 1845, while teaching his grand-children the motion of the heavenly bodies, he conceived the idea of a small planetarium. After three years of patient labor the instrument was finished, and sold to Girard college, Philadelphia. Others were soon constructed, and one was exhibited at the World's Fair in New York, in 1851, and sold for two thousand dollars. West Point military academy bought one of larger size, as did Annapolis naval academy, and one was sent to New Orleans. It is one of the most exact and remarkable machines ever invented, showing the motions of the solar system, the dates of the eclipses, and of the transit of Mercury and Venus. In 1855 he obtained a patent for a rifled cannon, which, being tested at the Washington navy yard, developed remarkable accuracy and range. Previous to this he invented an automatic nail and tack machine. He died in Cincinnati. O., Feb. 22, 1865.

BARNARD, Charles, author, was born in Boston, Mass., Feb. 13, 1838; son of C. F. Barnard, clergyman. As a boy he attended public schools and aided his father in his mission work at the Warren Street chapel. He studied for the ministry, but ill health forbade his completing his course, and for a short time he carried on a florists business. He then became assistant editor of the Boston Journal of Commerce, musical editor of the Boston Post, and head of the "World's Work Department" in the Century Magazine. He was made superintendent of instruction of the Chautauqua town and country club, a branch of the Chautauqua university. Among his amateur operas and dramas are: "The Triple Wedding,"