Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/295

 BENJAMIN.

BENNER.

American as early as 1873. Among his principal contributions to scientific literature are: " Wrinkles and Recipes" (1875); "The Age of Electricity" (1886); '-Tlie Voltaic CeU. its Con- struction and its Capacity" (1893), and "The Intellectual Rise in Electricity " (1895). He also wrote several books and short stories, which show marked Uterary ability. The.se include, "The End of New York" and "The Story of the Telegust."

BENJAMIN, Samuel Greene Wheeler, artist, was born at Argos, Greece, Feb. 13, 1837, son of Nathan and Mary Gladding (Wheeler) Benjamin. In 1845 his parents brought him to America, where he attended school, re-crossing the Atlantic two years later upon the return of his parents to their mission. He lived several years at Smyrna, and then at Constantinople, where his father estab- lished the first newspaper published in the Armen- ian language. He was at Constantinople during the Crimean war, and sent illustrations of naval scenes of the conflict to the Illustrated London News. After the death of his father he returned to America, and entered Williams college, where he was graduated in 1859. He read law for a time, and was then appointed assistant librarian in the New York state library at Albany, where he remained until 1865. During the civil war he raised a com- pany of cavalry, and was a member of the re- serve corps, but was never called into active service. After leaving the state library he took up marine painting professionally. He opened a studio in Boston, and met with success, removing to New York in 1878. He exhibited in the National academy and in various other art exhibitions, and sold paintings in London, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, etc., also making nmnerous book and magazine illustrations. He was art editor of the Magazine of Art, of the Library Table, and of the Mail and Express, and contributed to nearly all of the important American maga- zines, besides writing literary reviews for a leading weekly paper. In January, 1883, he was appointed by President Arthur first United States minister to Persia. Among other transac- tions at that post he prepared a code for the lega- tion, estabhshed a precedent regarding the tenure of reality by foreigners in that country, obtained permission for the building of the first Protestant church in Persia, and demanded and obtained an apology from the Persian government for an affront to the U. S. legation. He returned in June, 1885, after the inauguration of President Cleveland. In 1863 he married Clara Stowell of Brookfield, Mass., who died in 1880. In 1882 he married Mrs. Fannie Nichols, of Alton, 111., the author of " The Sunny Side of Shadows " and vari- ous essays. He published "Constantinople, the Isle of Pearls, and Other Poems" (1860) ; " Ode on

the Death of Abraham Lincoln" (1865) ; "The Turk and the Greek "(1867); "Tom Roper" (1868); "The Choice of Paris, a Romance of the Troad" (1870) ; metrical translation of "Muretus's Advice to a Son" (1870); "What is Art: or. Art Theories and Methods Concisely Stated" (1877); "Con- temporary Art in Europe" (1877) ; "The Atlantic Islands" (1878); "The Multitudinous Seas" (1879; "Art in America" (1879); "Our Ameri- can Artists" (1st series 1879, 2d series 1881); "The World's Paradises" (1880); "Troy; its Legend, History, and Literature" (1880); "A Group of Etchers " (1882); "Cruise of the AUce May in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Adjacent Waters" (1885); "Persia and the Persians" (1886); "The Story of Persia" (1887); "Sea- Spray, or. Facts and Fancies of a Yachtsman" (1888), and a history of modern painting in the " Iconographic Encyclopsedia." Among his well- known paintings are : " Home of the Sea Birds" (1875) ; •• Porta da Cruz, Madeira" (1876) ; " The Corbi^re, or Sailors' Dread" (1876); "The Wide, Wide Sea" (1877); " Yachts struck by a Squall " (1879); "Among the Breakers " (1879), and "In the Roaring Forties" (1882).

BENJAMIN, Samuel NicoII, soldier, was born in New York city, Jan. 13, 1839. At the age of seventeen he was appointed a mihtary cadet at West Point, where he was graduated in 1860 with the rank of 2d lieutenant. A few days later he was promoted 1st lieutenant and served through- out the civil war. He was seriously wounded at the battle of Spottsylvania in May, 1864, and until September was in the hospital and on sick leave of absence. He was promoted to the rank of captain in June, and was brevetted Aug. 1, 1864, " for distinguished and gallant conduct at the battle of Si»ttsylvania, Va." In September he became assistant professor of mathematics at West Point, holding the position for about a year. In March, 1865, he was promoted major, and in May he received the brevet rank of Ueu- tenant-colonel. In September, 1865, he was placed in command of a company in San Francisco harbor, Cal. In 1866 he was made recorder of the artillery board at Washington. D. C, and then returned to West Point as assistant professor of mathematics. In 1869 he was assigned to Fort Monroe, Virginia, in the artillery school for prac- tice. On March 1, 1875, he was made assistant in the adjutant-general's office, and in 1885 held the same post in the division of the Atlantic, serving on Governor's Island, New York, where he died May 15. 1886.

BENNER, Philip, manufacturer, was born in Chester county, Pa., May 19, 1762. After the war of the revolution, throughout which he served, he removed to Coventry. Pa., where he estabhshed a successful iron business, and in 1793