Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/300

 CLUTZ

CLYMER

osophy in Rose Gates college, Okolona. Miss., eight years, and president of the College of the Holy St. John, for two years. He received the degree of A.M. from the University of the city of New York in 1853; that of D.D. from St. Mary's college, Miss., in 1860; and the degree of D.D. and LL.D. from St. John's college, La., in 1869. He was a life member of the New York historical society. He died at Quantico, Md.,

Nov. lo. isoe.

CLUTZ, Jacob A., educator, was born near Gettysburg, Pa., Jan, ."), 1848; son of Henry and Hannali (Buffington) Clutz. In 1863 he entered the preparatory department of Pennsylvania col- lege, Gettysburg, leaving the following year to enter the army in response to the call of the governor of Pennsylvania for emergency men to repel the threatened invasion bj' the Confeder- ates, and after serving about four months he was mustered out with his companj- and re- turned to his studies. He was graduated from Pennsylvania college in 1869 and from the theo- logical seminary at Gettysburg in 18T2. He was pastor of Zion's Lutheran church. Newville, Pa., 1872-73; of St. Paul's English Lutheran church, Baltimore, Md., 1873-83; and general secretary of the Board of home missions of the General Synod, 1883-89, when he entered upon his duties as president of Midland college. Atchison, Kan. He was made a member of the Board of foreign missions in 1877; was corresponding secretary for nearly eight years, and assisted in organizing and became first treasurer of the Children's for- eign missionary .society of the General Synod. He was elected president of the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran church at its thirty- fifth convention held in Lebanon, Pa., May 20- 29, 1891. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by his alma mater in 1889.

CLYMER, George, signer of the Declaration of Independence and a framer of the Constitu- tion, was born in Philadelphia, Pa.. March 16, 1739; son of Christopher and Elizabeth (Fitz- Avater) Clymer ; and grandson of Richard Clymer who came to America from Bristol, England, at the beginning of the seventeenth century and settled in Philadelphia, Pa., as a shipping mer- chant. His father, also a native of England, died in 1746, and George was brought up by his uncle, William Coleman, a prosperous merchant, the friend of Franklin, who educated the boy, and made him clerk, then partner, and finally his successor to the business. At the outbreak of hostilities between the colonies and Great Britain he espoused the patriot cause and became captain of a volunteer company raised for the defence of the rights of the colonists. He was a member of the committee of safety, was active

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in adopting measures which prevented the sale of taxed tea, and as Continental treasurer, sub- scribed liberally to the loan and transferred all his .specie to the treasury, taking for it Continen- tal money. His connection with the Declaration came about after its adoption, he having been substituted with four others, by the legislature, to take the place of five mem- bers of the Pennsyl- vania delegation, who refused to sign and deserted their seats in congress, July 20, 1770. In September, 1776, he was delegated with Richard Stock- ton to inspect the northern army at Ticonderoga, and was one of the committee left in charge "' of needful public business " in Phila- delphia during the enforced absence of congress, then in session in Baltimore. The general as- sembly, in September, 1777, did not re-elect Mr. Clymer, and in the same year he suffered the loss of his house and furniture at Chester, de- stroyed by the British army. He was appointed by congress a commissioner to Fort Pitt, where he succeeded in gaining such information as re- sulted in the aggressive warfare against Detroit. On No^'. 24, 1780. he was again elected a delegate to the Continental congress and was deputed, with John Nixon, to organize the Bank of North America. He accompanied Edward Rutledge on a mission from congress to the southern states in 1782, and in the same year took up his resi- dence in Princeton, in order to educate his chil- dren at the College of New Jersej-. He was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, 1785-88, and moved, Sept. 27, 1887, the last day of the session, a state convention to consider the Con- stitution, and after a stormy debate, carried it and secured thus the vote of Pennsylvania for ratification. He was a delegate to the conven- tion that framed the Federal constitution in 1787 and was elected a representative from Pennsyl- vania to the 1st U.S. congress. He opposed con- ferring titles upon executive officers, declared for the independence of representatives as effected by the instructions of constituents, and favored gradual naturalization laws and the assuming of state debts by the Federal government. He de- clined a re-election to congress in 1791, and was appointed collector of exci.se duties in Pennsyl- vania, the enforcement of which tax led to the whiskey riots. In June, 1796, in connection with Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens, he