Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/306

  home in 1786 he was made major-general of state militia, and rendered conspicuous service during Shays's rebellion. He was judge of the court of common pleas, Bristol county, Mass., 1784-96; speaker of the lower house of the Massachusetts legislature, 1789-93, and a representative in the 3d U.S. congress, 1798-95. In 1796 he removed to Gouldsboro, Maine, represented the east district of Maine in the Massachusetts senate and was president of that body in 1801-05. He was a member of the Massachusetts council, 1808-10 and 1812-18; lieutenant-governor, 1809; member of the military defence, 1812; and chief justice of the Hancock county (Maine) court of common pleas, 1803-09. In 1817 he returned to Taunton. He was a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences, and received the degree of A.M. from Harvard in 1769, from the College of New Jersey in 1783, and from Brown university in 1790. He died in Taunton, Mass., April 17, 1830.  COBB, George Thomas, representative, was born in Morristown, N.J., Oct. 13, 1813, of Revolutionary stock, his grandfather Cobb having been a trusted soldier and officer under Washington. He was left a penniless orphan at the age of six and his early education was limited. He engaged as clerk in country stores and in the Dover iron works, subsequently entering the business on his own account and from it amassing a fortune. He was a Democratic representative in the 37th congress, convened July 4, 1861. He vigorously supported the war measures of the administration and as his constituents in their next congressional convention condemned the war, he declined a renomination. In 1865 he refused to accept a nomination for governor, offered by the Republican party, and that party, in his native county, elected him state senator and re-elected him in 1868. He was a candidate before the Republican caucus of the legislature for U.S. senator in 1866, in competition with Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, and failed of the nomination by three votes. He was a trustee of Drew theological seminary; mayor of Morristown for two terms, and president of the Sabbath school association of Morris county. He gave to Morristown $15,000 for a schoolhouse; $75,000 for a church, and the ground for Evergreen cemetery. He was killed in a railroad accident at Jerry's Run, Va., on the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad, Aug. 6, 1870.  COBB, Henry Nitchie, clergyman, was born in New York city, Nov. 15, 1834; son of Sanford and Sophia Lewis (Nitchie) Cobb; grandson of Oliver and Abby (Denison) Cobb; and a descendant of Elder Henry Cobb, who immigrated to America from the county of Kent, England, and settled at Plymouth, Mass., sometime previous to 1629. He was prepared for college in private schools in Brooklyn and Tarrytown, N.Y., and was graduated from Yale in 1855. He studied at Union theological seminary, 1856-57, and was ordained to the ministry. May 16, 1860. In the same year he was sent as a missionary to Persia by the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, and remained there two years. In 1866 he became pastor of the Reformed church of Millbrook, N.Y., and resigned in 1881. In 1882 he became secretary of the Board of foreign missions of the Reformed church in America. He was married May 17, 1860, to Matilda E. Van Zandt, and of his children, Sanford Ellsworth was graduated from Yale in 1887. He was elected a member of the American Oriental society. Yale college conferred upon him the degree of A.M. in 1858, and Rutgers that of D.D. in 1878. He wrote Far Hence; a Budget of Letters from our Mission Fields in Asia (1893); Father, Take My Hand; The Gracious Answer; and other short poems.  COBB, Howell, statesman, was born at Cherry Hill, Jefferson county, Ga., Sept. 7, 1815; son of John Addison and Sarah (Rootes) Cobb, and brother of Gen. T. R. R. Cobb, who was killed at the battle of Fredericksburg in December, 1862. When a child he removed with his father to Athens and received his education at the University of Georgia, where he was graduated with honor in 1834. He studied law, and being under twenty-one years of age was admitted to the bar in 1836 by a special act of the legislature. In 1835 he was married to Mary Ann, daughter of Zachariah Lamar of Milledgeville, he being at that time nineteen years of age and his bride seventeen. The Lamars are of French Huguenot family. The Cobbs are of English ancestry. In 1837 he was elected by the legislature solicitor-general of the western judicial circuit of Georgia. He served as a representative in the 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st and 34th congresses. 1843-51 and 1855-57. In December, 1849, he was elected speaker of the 31st congress, after a protracted contest. He was a Democrat of the Jackson school, was opposed to nullification and supported the compromise measures, hoping that it would prove the final settlement of the slavery question. These measures were adopted when Mr. Cobb was speaker of the house. In the 30th congress the Mexican war was the most absorbing subject of discussion and President Polk was violently at-