Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/160

 CASEY.

CASS.

He was assistant engineer upon the harbor works of Delaware bay and river, and the construction of Fort Delaware until 1854; was assistant pro- fessor of civil and military engineering at the West Point military academy, 1854-'59, and in command of engineer soldiers on Puget Sound, Washington territory, 1859-'61. He was ap- pointed a captain of engineers, Aug. 6, 1861, and served during the civil war as engineer on the staff of the general commanding the department of Virginia, as superintending engineer in the construction of forts and batteries on the coast of Maine, and on special duty with the North Atlantic squadron during the first expedition to Fort Fisher, N, C, in December, 1864. He was made major of engineers, Oct. 2, 1863, and brevetted lieutenant -colonel and colonel, March 13, 1865. He was employed on the coast of Maine until 1867, when he was placed in charge of the division of fortifications in the ofiice of the war department, Washington, D. C. In the summer of 1873 he was sent to Europe at the head of a board to examine the systems of tor- pedo construction adopted in Great Britain, Germany, Austria, and France. He was made lieutenant-colonel of engineers September, 1874. In 1877 he was given charge of public build- ings and grounds in the Districii of Columbia, the Washington aqueduct and the construction of the building for the state, war and navy departments, finished by him in 1888. In 1878 he was selected as the engineer and architect to complete the Washington national monument. This he accomplislied Dec. 6, 1884, by first plac- ing a new and enlarged foundation beneath the old one, by carrying the shaft from a height of 150 feet to 500 feet, and crowning it -wdth a pyra- midion 55 feet in height, in place of the flat terminal of the original design. He was pro- moted colonel, corps of engineers, March 13, 1884, and in 1886 became president of the board of engineers in New York city. He was a member of a board to advise upon the ventilation of the hall of the house of representatives in the capitol, 1877-'86, and a member of the lighthouse board from 1884 to 1893. On July 6, 1888, he was ap- pointed brigadier-general and chief of engineers ; by act of Oct. 3, 1888, was designated to erect the new building for the library of Congress; and by act of Sept. 37, 1890, made one of a commission to locate a large park in the suburbs of Washington. He was a member of the society of the Cincinnati of Massachusetts, the New England historic-genealogical society, the Rhode Island historical society, an officer in the Legion of honor of France, and a member of the national academy of science of the United States of America. He was married to Emma Weir, and left two sons. — Thomas Lincoln, who was gradu-

ated at West Point in 1879 ; and Edward Pearce, who was graduated at the Colmnbia college school of mines in 1886. Besides numerous official reports and articles upon engineering subjects. General Casey contributed several sketches to historical and genealogical magazines. He died in Wash- ington, D. C, March 25, 1896.

CASILEAR, John William, landscape painter, was born in New York city, June 35, 1811. He developed a fondness for art at a very early age. At the age of sixteen he began the study of en- graving with Peter Maverick, with whom he re- mained four years, when, upon the death of Mav- erick, he became a pupil of Asher B. Durrand, who was then engaged in banknote engraving. In 1833 he went into the same business on his own account, and continued in it until 1854, when he devoted himself to the more congenial pursuit of landscape painting. During this period he en- graved only a single plate of any importance. The Head of a Sibyl, his time being chiefly occupied in designing and engraving banknote vignettes. For the purpose of study he visited Europe in 1840. and again in 1857. He was elected an associate of the national academy in 1835. and a full academician in 1851. Among his important pictui-es ai'e : Genesee Meadoios (1871) ; Sep- tember Afternoon ( 1874) ; Vieiv of the Rocky Mountains (1881) ; Genesee River (1887) ; Landscape with Cattle (1888) ; Roger's Slide, Lake George (1891), and Ullsicater (1893). He died suddenly while on a pleasure tour, and left, besides numerous examples of his own work, a valuable collection of foreign arts. His only son, John William Casilear, studied art and became a prominent marine painter and illus- trator. He died at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., Aug. 17, 1893.

CASS, Lewis, statesman, was born at Exeter, N. H., Oct. 9, 1783; son of Jonathan and Mary (Oilman) Cass. His father was a blacksmith who. in 1775, left his forge to enter the Conti- nental army, and remained in active service un- til the close of the revolution, when he received a commission as major, and was assigned to duty under General Wayne in fflie northwest. Lewis, the eldest of six children, acquired his education during the years 1792-'99 at Phillips academy, Exeter, where Benjamin Abbot was the master. He subsequently taught at the acad- emy. About the year 1800 Major Cass resigned his commission in the army and removed with his family to Ohio vallej', settling first at Mari- etta, and the next year removing to near Zanes- ville, where he located forty 100-acre land war- rants. Lewis had gone to Marietta in 1799, where he studied law under Return Jonathan Meigs. • On the arrival of his father and family, he assisted them in building their first home in