Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/308

 COBB

COBB

the battle of Gettj-sburg. At tlie close of the war he located in Tuskegee, Ala., where he was elected circuit judge of the state in 1874, was re- elected in 1880, and again in 1886. He was a Democratic representative from the 5th district of Alabama in the 50th, 51st, 52d and 53d congresses. He was given a certificate of election to tlie 54th congress, but on April 21, 1896, the committee on elections awarded his seat to Albert T. Goodwyn of Robinson Springs, Ala. He died in Las Vegas, N.M., Junes, 1903.

COBB, Jonathan Holmes, pioneer silk cul- turist, was born in Sharon, Mass., July 8, 1799. He was graduated at Harvard in 1817. Becoming- interested in the subject of silk culture, he began a series of experiments which resulted in the successful propagation and feeding of silk worms in the United States. The Massachusetts legis- lature in 1831 appropriated §600 to enable Mr. Cobb to prepare for gratuitous distribution a work on the cultivation of the mulberry tree and the culture of silk. In 1833 the U.S. congress ordered 2000 copies of the work printed for circulation by the representatives. Three years thereafter Mr. Cobb became superintendent of the New England silk company at Dedham, Mass., and this company, under a protectiA-e duty on sewing silk of forty per cent, arranged to manufacture 200 pounds per week, with a capital of $50,000. Sixteen sewing silk machines were set in motion and the result was very encouraging, when in 1844 the factory was destroyed by fire. From its ashes arose the great silk industry of America, which in 1890 aggregated an annual product of over !?30,000,000 worth of fabrics made from silk, and of so excellent a quality as to command a sale in foreign countries. Mr. Cobb greatly advanced the material prosperity of his adopted town, founding a newspaper and an institution for savings. His work. Manual of the Mulberry Tree and the Culture of Silk, was published in 1831. He died at Dedham, Mass., March 12, 1882.

COBB, Joseph Beckham, author, was born in Oglethorpe county, Ga., April 11, 1819; son of Thomas W. Cobb, U.S. senator; grandson of John Cobb, and great-grandson of Thomas Cobb, who migrated from Virginia and settled in Georgia about 1764. Joseph attended the University of Georgia, but was not graduated. He removed to Noxubee count}', Miss., in 1838, and devoted himself to literature. In 1851 he was a member of the Whig state convention and was elected to the state senate for several terms. In 1853 he was nominated by the American party as a can- didate for representative in the 33d congress but failed of election. His published works include The Creole, or the Sie(je of Xeic Orleans (1850); Mississippi Scenes (1850) ; and Leisure Laliors (1858). He died in Columbus, Ga., Sept. 15, 1858.

COBB, Levi Henry, editor, was born m Cor- nish, N.H., June 30, 1827; son of Levi and Calista S. (Bugbee) Cobb; grand.son of Ebenezer and Mercy (Porter) Harlow Cobb; and of Eeuben and Polly (Marsh) Bugbee; and a descendant of Henry Cobb, who came to Plymouth, Mass. , from England in 1629. He jirepared for college at Kimball union academy, Meriden, N.H., and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1854 and at Andovei theological seminary in 1857. He received his A.M. degree from Dartmouth in 1857 and was ordained and installed pastor at North Andover, Mass., Oct. 28, 1857, holdinj;- the pastorate till 1864. He was a teacher at Memphis, Tenn., and Meriden, N.H., 1864-67; pastor at Springfield, Vt., 1867-74; superintendent of the Congrega- tional home missionarj- society, Minnesota, 1874— 81; missionary secretary, 1881-82; and secretary of the Congregational church building society, 1882-99. He was elected a member of the Con- gregational club of Minnesota in 1879; of the Congregational club of New York in 1882 ; of the Anthropological society in 1883; of the Americau institute of Christian philosophy. New York, in 1884 ; of the International council, London, Eng- land, in 1891 ; and corporate member of the A.B.C.F.M., in 1872. He was married Jan. 12, 1858, to Harriet J. Herrick. He received the degree of D.D. from Dartmouth in 1881. He edited sixteen volumes of the Church Building Quarterly.

COBB, Rufus W., govei'nor of Alabama, was born in Ashville, Ala. , Feb. 25, 1829. He attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and was admitted to the practice of law in Alabama, in 1855. He was a state senator, 1873-78, and served as president of that body. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1875 ; and governor of Alabama, 1878-82.

COBB, Samuel Tucker, journalist, was born in Waterville, Me., June 11, 1825; son of the Rev. Sylvanus and Eunice Hale (Waite) Cobb. In 1829 he was taken to Maiden, Mass., where he was educated. In 1845 he engaged with his father on the Christian Freeman and Family Visi- tor, of which he became managing editor. Later, with his brother, Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., he juib- lished the Eechahite, a temperance paper. He afterward edited other temperance journals and during the civil war published in conjunction, with his brothers, George Winslow and Sylvanus, Jr., the Union League. In 1872 he became liter- ary editor of the Boston Home Journal, published by his son-in-law, Mr. W. Wallace Waugh. He was married Oct. 16, 1847, to Sophronia Rugg, daughter of Capt. William and Lucy Holmes (Cambridge) Tisdale. Her mother was the daughter of Edward Cambridge of Bristol, Eng-