Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/378

 HOUCK.

BOUDINOT.

^vent to Washington in IH-IS, where lie oiiened a th.-atre. an.l in IS.VJ he established the " AVinter tJar.len " i)f New York. Two years later he went to Umdon. remaining there four years. He then returned to America, where he si>ent the rest of his life. Among his plays not already men- tioned are: "Dot." and "The Relief of Luck- now " (1863) ; " The Trial of Etfie Deans '' (lHfi4) ; "Arrah-Na-Pogue " (1805); " Rip Van Winkle" (1865); "The Parish Clerk" (1865); "Hunted Down" (1866); "Foul Play." with Charles Reade(1867); "How She Loves Him" (1867); " Ixi.st at Sea " (1869) ; " The Rapparee " (1870) ; "Rihiland Bijou" (1873); "Daddy O'Dowd "' (1873); "Janet's Pride," "Faust and Marguer- ite," " Paul Lafarge," " A Dark Night's Work," "The Dead Secret," "Andy Blake," and "The Shau-liraun." He died Sept. 18, 1890.

BOUCK, William C, governor of New York, was l)orn in Schoharie county, N. Y., in 1786. He early l>ecanie prominent in politics, liolding local offices, and was several times elected to the state assembly. In 1820 he was made a state senator, and in 1821 became canal commissioner, holding the office for nearly twenty years. He was elected governor of New Y^ork in 1842, and served throughout the term. In 1846 he was a mem- ber of the state constitutional convention. His last public office was as assistant treasurer of the city of New York, from 1846 to 1849. He died in Schuliarie county. N. Y., April 19, 1859.

BOUDINOT, Elias, philanthropist, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., May 2, 1740; son of Elias and Catherine (Williams) Boudinot. He received an excellent education, and, after .studying law with Ills brother-in law, Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, he was admitted to practice in New Jersey, Nov. 9, 1760. On Sept. 11. 1770, he was licensed as ser- geant-at-law, and in 1790 Yale college conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. On June 11, 1774, he was made a member of the com- mittee of correspondence for Essex county, N. J. In 1775 he was one of the deputies who attended the provincial congress of New Jersey. In 1777 he was elected commissary -general of pri.soners, ami while holding this office, failing to receive sufficient money from Congress to satisfy the pressing necessities of the prisoners, he drew generously from his own re.sources and bor- rowed from his friends. In December, 1777, he was elected a delegate to the Continental Con- gress, and in the spring of 1778 was appointed by General Washington to meet a British commis- sioner and arrange an exchange of prisoners. He also effected an exchange of General Lee, who had been taken prisoner in December. 1776. He retained the office of commissary -general of prisoners until 1779, and his terra in Congre.ss

liaving ended in 1778, he was again elected in

1781, holdmg his seat until 1784. In November,

1782, he was chosen president of Congress, and in this official capacity signed the treaty of peace with England. In 1788 he was elected a repre- sentative to the 1st U. S. Congre.ss, serving by re-election in the 2d and 3d congresses. In 1795 President Washington appointed him director of the U. S. mint; in 1805 he resigned the office, and retired from all public duties, and devoted himself to the study of biblical literature at his home in Burlington, N. J. He was one of the founders of the American Bible society in 1816, and its first president. He left many generous bequests for benevolent objects, in which he was interested. During his lifetime he gave to the American Bible society the sum of $10,000; to Princeton college, of which he was a ti'Ustee, a natural history cabinet worth §3,000, and gener- ous sums to various missions. Among his pub- lished works are: "The Age of Revelation" (1790); "The Age of Reason" (1793); "Second Advent of the Messiah '' (1815) ; " A Star in the West " (1815), and " A Life of the Rev. William Tennent " (1806) . (See " Life of Elias Boudinot, ' ' by J. J. Boudinot, 1896.) He died Oct. 24, 1821.

BOUDINOT, Elias Cornelius, soldier, was born near Rome, Ga., Aug. 1, 1835; son of Elias Boudinot, a Cherokee Indian, descended from a long line of tribal chiefs. His father was educated at a mission school in Cornwall, Conn., and his mother was a daughter of Benjamin Gold, a well-known citizen of Connecti- cut. His father's In- dian name was Kille- kee-nah, and being an unusually intelligent boy, he attracted the attention of Elias Bou- dinot, the philanthro- pist, who gave him per- mission to adopt his name. In 1839, having removed to Arkansas, he was assassinated by a rival faction of the Cherokees, known as the Ross party, and an uncle of young Boudinot sent him to Manchester, Vt., where he acquired a thorough education, and entered the corps of civil en- gineers. In 1853 he returned to Arkansas and became very prominent as a lawyer, and in Indian politics. At the outbreak of the civil war he joined the Confederacy, and was made major of a regiment of Cherokee Indians, whose ojiera- tions included the battles of Oak Hill and Elk Horn, and the campaign in the Red river conn try. He was also secretary of the Secession convention