Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/183

 CHANNING.

CHANNING.

1835. after years of preparation, lie published his book on slavery, which was received with uni- versal commendation. His name received a place in the Hall of Fame, New York university, in October, 1900. His writings were collected and published in seven volumes, the last of which ap- peared in 1872. In 1820 Harvard conferred upon him the degree of D.D. See The Life of Wil- liam Ellery Channing. D.D. (the centenary' memorial edition in one volume, 1882). by his nephew. William Henry Channing. The Chan- ning Memorial church and Noble's heroic-size bronze statue of the great preacher stand in the Touro Park. Newport. R.I. He died in Benning- ton. Vt. Ont. 2. 1842.

CHANNING, William Ellery, author, was born in Boston, Mas.s., Nov. 29, 1818; son of Dr. Walter and Barbara (Perkins) Channing. He was pre- pared for college at the Boston Latin school, and entered Harvard, but did not finish his course. At the age of twenty-one he made a trip west, and, after living alone on an Illinois prairie for several months, he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and became a writer on the Gazette of that city. In 1812 he was married to a sister of Margaret Fuller, and made his home in Concord, Mass. In 1844 he became editorially connected with the New York Tribune, and remained with that paper for nearly two years. During 18o5-"56 he was an editor of the Mercury, published in New- Bedford, Mass. Among his published writings are Poems (1843: 2d series, 1847); Conversations in Rome beticeen an Artist, a Catholic and a Critic (1847); The Woodman and other Poems (1849); Near Home (1858): The Wanderer, A Colloquial Poem (1871): Thorean, the Poet- natnralist (1873): John Bron-n. and the Heroes of Harj)er\s Ferry (1886). He died at Concord, Mass., Dec. 23, 1901.

CHANNING, William Francis, inventor, was born in Boston, Mass., Feb. 22, 1820; son of W^il- liam Ellery and Ruth (Gibbs) Channing. He was appointed assistant on the first geological survey of New Hampshire, made in 1841-'42. In 1842-"43 he w-as associate editor of The Latimer Journal. In 1844 he was graduated at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania with the degree of M. D. Shortly after his graduation he became associ- ated with Moses G. Farmer in improving the American fire alarm telegraph, and remained with him until 1851. He made several inven- tions, among them an inter-oceanic ship railway, patented in 1865. and an electro-magnetic tele- phone patented in 1877. He is the author of TJie Medical Application of Electricity (1849; 6th ed.. cul., 1865); The Municipal Electric Telegraph (1852); The American Fire-Alarm Telegraph (1855), Inter-Oceanic Ship- Railway (1880). He died in Boston, March 20, 1901.

CHANNING, William Henry, clergyman, was born in Boston, Mass., May 25, 1810; son of Francis Dana and Susan (Higginson) Channing, grandson of Stephen Higginson, a member of the Continental Congress in 1783, and a nephew of William Ellery Channing. He was prepared for college at the Boston Latin school, and was grad- uated at Harvard in the famous class of 1829. In 1830 he began the study of theology, and in 1833 was graduated from Harvard divinity school. He .spent some j-ears in travelling, and in preach- ing at various parishes, and in March, 1839, accepted a call to the Unitarian church at Cin- cinnati. In June, 1839, the Western Messsenger, the organ of Unitarianism in the west, was removed to Cincinnati, and he succeeded James Freeman Clarke in editing the paper, continuing to conduct it until March, 1841, when it ceased to exist. He remained in Cincinnati three years, resigning because of a change in his theo- logical views. In 1841 he returned to Boston, and in 1842 preached for a few months in Brooklyn, N. Y. Returning to Boston he identified himself with the socialistic movements of the day, and contributed frequently to periodical literature, meanwhile occasionally lecturing and preaching. In September he e.stablished TJie Present, which was discontinued in April, 1844, in order that he might prepare a biography of his uncle, William Ellery Channing. This w-ork occupied him until 1848. He was deeply interested in the Brook Farm experiment, spending the summer of 1846 with the colonists, and making valued contribu- tions to their papers, the Harbinger and the Phalanx. He was one of the original members and the minister of the religious union of associa- tionists founded in Boston Jan. 3, 1847, and con- tinued until the end of 1850. In the spring of 1852 he preached for a short time in Troy, N. Y., and in the summer went to Rochester, N. Y. , w-here he remained as minister of the Unitarian society until August, 1854. Rochester was the last station on the " underground railroad " by which fugitive slaves were transported to Canada, and Mr. Channing aided in every possi- ble waj' its operations. In the fall of 1854 he went with his family to England, and became a working minister in Liverpool, in 1857 succeeding the Rev. James ]\Iartineau in the chapel on Hope street, and remaining there until June, 1861, when the breaking out of the civil war called him home, and he accepted an invitation to become minister to the Unitarian congregation in Wash- ington. He threw himself into the cause of anti-slavery vvith characteristic fervor. At his suggestion the church edifice was converted into a hos])ital. and his people worshipped in the senate chamber in the capitol. Afterwards, when the whole capitol was used for a hospital, they fovmd