Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/363

 BOMFORD.

BONAPARTE.

Encyclopaedia,"' translated from Herzog, and condensed (1856-'58) ; " Five years at Race street Church" (1859), and "Reformed not Ritualistic " (1867). He died at College ville. Pa., Aug. 19, 1890.

BOMFORD, George, soldier, was born in New York in 1780. He was graduated at West Point in July, 1805, with the rank of 2d Ueutenant of engineers. He received promotion to 1st lieu- tenant in 1806, and to captain in 1808. In 1810 he was appointed superintending engineer of the works on Governor's Island, in New York harbor. During the war of 1812 he served on ordnance duty with the rank of major, and to his skill and inventive talent the countrj' was largely indebted. He established workshops in which gun-carriages were constructed, ammunition prepared and many kinds of pyrotechny fabricated. He intro- duced bomb cannon under the name of '' Cohim- biads," and at the close of the war he was given the rank of lieutenant -colonel of ordnance. In 1831 he was made lieutenant -colonel of artillery, and in 1825 received the brevet rank of colonel. In May, 1832, he was promoted colonel and chief of ordnance of the United States army. Until 1842 he commanded the ordnance corps andwas at the head of the ordnance bureau in Washington ; for the following six years he was inspector of arsenals, ordnance, arms, and mimitions of war, and made many valuable inventions and experi- ments on the best form for pieces of heavj^ ord- nance. He died in Boston, Mass., March 25, 1848.

BOMFORD, James V., soldier, was born on Governor's Island, N. Y. harbor, Oct. 5, 1811; son of George Bomford, military engineer. He was appointed a military cadet at West Point in 1828, and was graduated with the brevet rank of 2d lieutenant in 1832. He served on the Black Hawk expedition, and afterwards on en- gineer duty. In 1837 and 1838 he took part in the Florida war, and Avas on duty in various parts of Florida until 1845, when he went to Texas. He served bravely throughout the war with Mexico, being present at most of the principal engage- ments, and for gallant conduct at Contreras and Churubusco received the brevet rank of major. For service in the battle of JMolino del Rey he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, and until 1860 he was on duty in Texas. He was promoted to the rank of major in 1860, and served during the civil war, excepting one year spent in a Confederate prison. He was promoted to a colonelcy in 1864 for meritorious action at Perry ville, Ky. , and after the war he served at various posts imtil retired June 8, 1874. He died Jan. 6, 1892.

BONACUM, Thomas, R. C. bishop, was born in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland, Jan. 29, 1847. In 1848 he immigrated with his parents to the United States. He received his preliminary

training for the priesthood at the Salesianum of Milwaukee, Wis. ; he was then sent to the College of St. Vincent at Cape Girardeau, where he fin- ished his theological studies. Fr. Bonaciun was elevated to the priesthood on June 18, 1870, in the church of the Holy Name of Jesus, at St. Louis, Mo. He was first sent on the mission to the unsettled parts of Missom-i, but was afterwards relieved of his work and given time to continue his studies. In 1881 he was appointed pastor of the chiirch of the Holy Name of Jesus, at St. Louis, and was afterwards chosen theologian of Archbishop Kenrick at the third coimcil of Balti- more. In 1887 he was made first bishop of the diocese of Lincoln, Neb., erected Aug. 2, 1887. In this new field Bishop Bonacum actively encouraged Catholic immigration to the state. At his suggestion the clergy united in a circular letter calling attention to the fertility of the soil in Nebraska, the cheapness of fares and easy methods of transit, and invited imniigi'ation. The diocese had, in 1896, fifty priests, forty-two churches with, and forty -six without, resident pastors, five chapels, forty-one stations, eight convents, thirteen parochial schools and about twenty-three thousand Catholics.

BONAPARTE, Elizabeth Patterson, was born in Baltimore, Md., Feb. 6, 1785; the daughter of William Patterson, who came a poor boy from Ireland to Maryland, where he became a promi- nent merchant, and one of its wealthiest citizens. She was a beautifvd girl of eigh- teen when she met Jerome Bonaparte at a social gathering m Baltimore, and desjute the opposition of her father, a marriaj..,e was speedily ai- ranged, the ceremom taking place, with all legal formalities on Christmas Eve, 1803, when the groom had but just passed his nineteenth birthday. Mr. Pat- terson's fears that the marriage would be offensive to the first consul proved to be well groimded. Attempts were imsuccessfully made through Robert R. Livingston, the American minister at Paris, and other influential persons, to reconcile Napoleon to his brother's marriage. He ordered Jerome to return immediately to France, " leav- ing in America the yovmg person in question. '' Jerome refused to obey, and a year was spent in travel and in residence at Baltimore. Mean- while Napoleon had proclaimed himself emperor, and in 1805 Jerome, hoping for a reconciliation