Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/342

 COLLIER

COLLIN

a,ncl sister of Pres James B. Angell of the Univer- sity of Michigan. He was dean of the metlical faculty, University of Vermont, 1871-74, filling at the same time the chair of general chemistry and toxicologj' in the medical department. He was secretary of the state board of agriculture, mining and manufactures, 1872-76. He was on the board of scientific commissioners to the international exposition at Vienna in 1873, and in 1877 resigned his chair at the University of Vermont to accept the appointment of chief -chemist to the department of agriculture, Wash- ington, D.C., making valuable investigations and suggestions as to the cultivation and use of sor- ghum in making sugar in the United States. He retired from the dei^artment in 1883, but continued to reside in Washington, occupied in preparing his investigations for iDublication, until the fall of 1887, when he was elected a director of the New York agricultural experiment station at Geneva, N.Y. Illness comijelled his resigna- tion from the position in October, 1895, and he removed to Ann Arbor, Mich. He invented an apparatus for obtaining the residue of sugar from the refuse of cane in the ordinary process of manufacture. He published Sorghum ; Its Cidt- iire and Manufacture Economically Considered, and as a Source of Sugar, Syrup and Fodder (1884). He died in Ann Arbor, Mich., June 29, 1896.

COLLIER, Robert Laird, clergyman, was born in Salisbury, Md., Aug. 7, 1835. He became a clerk in a drug store at an early age and later a Methodist exhorter in the Salisbury circuit. He was transferred to the Philadelphia confer- ence, where he preached until 1856, when he entered the Methodist general Biblical institvite at Concord, N.H. He was graduated in 1858 and held various pastorates in the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1866 he became a Channing Unitarian, and was pastor at Davenport, Iowa, Chicago, 111. , and Brooklj-n, N.Y., 1866-76; Boston, Mass.. 1876-80; Leicester, Bradford, and Birmingham, England, 1880-85, and Kansas City, Mo., 1885-88. In 1888 he ijurcliased a country home, " Ever- glades," near Salisbury, Md. He was U.S. con- sul at Leipzig under President Garfield, and with Dr. Gould of Johns Hopkins university, was sent to Europe by President Cleveland to gather labor statistics. On this mission he visited nearly every country of continental Europe. In 1888 he retired from the ministry and devoted himself to preparing for the government the statistics thus acquired. He was naarried to a daughter of Hiram Price of Davenport, Iowa, and had one son, Hiram Price Collier, who became a Unitarian clergj-man. Iowa university conferred upon him the degree of D.D. in 1865. He published Every- day Subjects in Sunday Serinotis (1869) ; Meditations on the Essence of Christianity (1876) ; and English

Home Life (1885). He died suddenly at "The Everglades," near Salisbury, Md., July 26, 1890.

COLLIER, Thomas Stephens, author, was born in New York city, Nov. 4, 1842. He entered the U.S. navy in 1856 as an apprentice ; was made mate April 28, 1866, and boatswain July 9, 1866. He was retired in October, 1883, by reason of disabilities incident to his long service. He was a tireless bibliophile and numismatist, and a discriminating collector of china, his visits to the different ports of the world affording him unusual opportunities to gratify his tastes. After his retirement lie devoted himself to litera- ture and to arranging, classifying and indexing his collections of books, coins and china. He contributed to the press both prose and verse and in 1889 published his collected poems under the title, Song Sprays. He early made his home in New London, Conn., helped to organize the county historical society, served as its secretary and became an authority on the early publica- tions of colonial America. He died in New London, Conn., Sept. 21, 1893.

COLLIN, Charles Avery, lawyer, was born at Benton, Yates county, N.Y., May 18, 1846; .son of Henry C. and Maria L. (Park) Collin ; grand- son of Avery Park, and a descendant of early New England families. His first Collin ancestor, a Huguenot refugee, settled in Milford, Conn. He was prepared for college at Penn Yan academy and was graduated at Yale in 1866. In 1870 he was admitted to the bar and practised law at Elmira, N.Y., until the organization of the Cor- nell university law school, in 1887, when he became a professor of law there. In the same year he was employed as special counsel by Governor David B. Hill, and was continued in the same position by Governor Flower. In 1889 he was chosen one of the three commissioners of statutory revision, and held the office until 1895, when he removed to New York city and engaged in the practice of law. In 1892 he edited volumes V. and VI. of the eighth edition and in 1896 edited the ninth edition of the revised statutes of New York. He is the author of many contributions to reviews and magazines.

COLLIN, John Francis, author, was born in Hillsdale, N.Y., April 30, 1802; son of John and Ruth Holman (Johnson) Collin; grandson of John and Sarah (Arnold) Collin; great gi-andson of John and Hannah (Merwin) Collin; and great^ grandson of John Collin of Narragansett, who came to America in 1686, probably from the lie de Re, south of tlie province of Poitou, France. He received the ordinary education accorded farmers' sons of his day and followed the vocation of his father. He was elected to the state assembly in 1834 and was for many