Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/413

 BRAINERD.

BRAIN ERD.

and the insurance companies, for precedence in the distribution of the Geneva award, and a final victory for the ship-owners rewarded his efforts, and those of his co-laborers. His legal practice was varied, involving nearly all of the more important branches of the law, including those affecting rail- roads, and corporations generally, trusts, wills. and real property. His 7/ ' fr;^^^ connection with cases involving seizures under the Moiety law led to his preparation of a series of amend- ments to customs reve- nue laws regulating such seizures, which were introduced into Congress in 1870. No final action was then taken, but in 1874, as one of the counsel for the committee of the chamber of commerce, he engaged in the effort made before Congress to secure the repeal of the whole Moiety system. The bill then pre- sented included, among other proiwsitions, most of those originally advocated by Mr. Brainerd. This effort was successful, and met with suitable recognition from the entire mercantile com- munity. Mr. Brainei'd was an active member of the N. Y. prison association from 1864 to 1877, and its recording secretary for the ten years after 1867. He was also connected w4th the Young Men's Christian association from 1853, and was chairman of its international committee almost from its organization in 1866. He retired from this committee in 1891. after twenty-five years of service.

BRAINERD, David, missionary, was born nt Haddam, Conn.. April 20, 1718; son of Hezekiah and Dorothy (Hobart) Biainerd. Hezekiah Brainerd was a member of the King's council for the colony. David was a student at Yale, 1739- 41, and was expelled in the latter year for ex- pressing his opinion of a tutor. He was licensed to preach in 1742; became a missionary of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge to the Indians at Kaunameek, near Albany, N.Y., in 1743, and in 1744 placed them under the care of the minister at Stockbridge. He was ordained to the ministry at Newark, N.J., June 11, 1744, and began his labors atanlrisli settlement twelve miles from the Forks of the Delaware, and preached to the Indians in the vicinity. He was a missionary to the Indian town of Crossweek- sung, N.J., 1745-47; visited Jonathan Edwards at Northampton, Mass., in May, 1747, to whose

daughter Jerusha, he was betrothed, and re- mained there until his death, always having been an invalid. He published " Mirabilia Dei inter Indicos," a journal (1746). See"TJie Life of David Brainerd "by John Styles (1842). He died at Nortliampton, Mass., Oct. 9. 1747.

BRAINERD, Ezra, educator, was born in St. Albans, Vt., Dec. 17, 1844; son of Lawrence R. and Catherine (Wood) Brainerd; grandson of Ezra and Louisa (Robbins) Brainerd; and a des- cendant of Daniel Brainerd who came from Eng- land with the Hartford colony, settled in Had- dam, Conn., in 1662, and died April 1, 1715. Ezra was graduated from Middlebury college in 1864; was a tutor there, 1854-'66, and was graduated from Andover theological seminary in 1868. He was professor of rhetoric, English literature and elocution at Middlebury college, 1868-"80, and of physics and applied mathematics there, 1880-'91. In 1885, up(>n the resignation of the Rev. Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, he was appointed temporary pres- ident of Middlebury college and on April 17, 1886, was elected eighth president of the college, also occupying the chair of mental and moral science from 1891. He was one of the three commissioners appointed to revise the school laws of the state of Vermont in 1887. He received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Vermont and from Ripon college. Wis., in 1888. He made important contri- butions to the botany and geology of Vermont.

BRAINERD, John, missionary, was born at Haddam, Conn., Feb. 28, 1720, son of Hezekiah and Dorothy (Hobart) Brainerd. He was gradu- ated at Yale college in 1746, and was licensed to preach April 11, 1747, by the New York presby- tery. He began his labors at Bethel, near Cran- berry, N. J., where his brother David had been preaching. In February, 1748, he was ordained, and was commissioned to take the place of David by the Society for the propagation of Christian knowledge. In September, 1749, he took the de- gree of A.M. from New Jersey college. He was enrolled as a member of the presbytery of New- York in 1751. In his w^ork among the Indians he was met by serious obstacles, and misunderstand- ings arose between him and the society. Although the troubles arose from the perturbed state of affairs and not through any faidt of his, he was requested to relinquish the work. He was af ter- terwards, however, reinstated. He drew largely from his private resources to aid the Indians, advancing over two thousand dollars that should have been paid by the society. His impaired health forced him to give up the work, and he took charge of a church at Newark, N. J. He later preached at Mount Holly and in the country towns sur- rounding Egg harbor, N. J. From 1777 until the time of his death he was stationed at Deerfield N. J., where he died March 18. 1781.