Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/355

 COMEGYS

COMEGYS

He was appointed an Indian commissioner and was elected to the Connecticut legislature. He was made an associate of the National academy in 1844 and was a founder and the first secretary of the Artists' fund society. Among his better known works are: A Loyal liefugee (1863) ; A Sol- dier's Wido.w (1867) ; Columbia Eiver (1875) ; Pa>is- ing Shower (1876) ; Bainy Day on Connecticut Shore (1881); View near Schiedam (1883); Winter on Connecticut Shore (1884) ; Home of the Yackamas, Oregon (1885) ; A Poppy Field in Normandy (1885) ; French Waiter (1886) ; Moonlight on the Grand Canal, Venice (1886); A French Village (1886); and Lake 3Iaggiore, Italy (1888). He died on Con- tentment Island, Darien, Conn., July 12, 1888.

COMEGYS, Benjamin Bartis, banker and author, was born in Dover, Del., May 9, 1819; son of Gov. Cornelius Parsons and Ruhamah (Marim) Comegys. His father at the time of the son's birth was cashier of the Farmer's bank. After receiving a public school education Benja- min was clerk in a wholesale dry goods house in Philadelphia, 1839-48 ; clerk in the Philadelphia bank, 1848-51; cashier there, 1851-67; vice-presi- dent, 1867-79, and president from 1879. He was married April 20, 1847, to Sarah Porter Boyd of Pennsylvania. He was elected manager of the American Sunday school union in 1853; member of the Philadelphia clearing house committee in 1858 ; director of the Philadelphia trust safe de- posit and insurance company in 1869 ; manager of the House of refuge in 1873; trustee of the Jeffer- son medical college in 1875; manager of the Western savings fund in 1876; delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian council, Edinburgh, 1877; mem- ber of tlie board of education, 1878; director of City Trusts, 1882; chairman of the clearing house committee, 1885; director of the Pennsyl- vania railroad company, 1887, and vice-president of the Philadelphia trust, safe deposit and insur- ance company, 1890. He received the degree of LL.D. from Jefferson medical college in 1895. His published works include : Public Worship Partly Pesponsive (1873) ; Household Worship (1873) ; Talks icilh Boys and (rirls, or Wisdom Better than Gold (1878); Beginning Life (1879); Prayers for the Chapel and Family (1882) ; A Manual for the Chapel of Girard College (1883) ; A Manual for the Chapel of the House of Befuge ( 1884) ; An Order of Worship with Forms of Prayer for Divine Service (1885);ZZbw to Get On (1885); Thirteen Weeks of Prayer for the Family (1886) ; Old Stories with New Lessons (1888) ; Girard College Address (1889) ; A Pi'imer of Ethics (1890) ; Scriptural Prayer Book for Church Sei'vices (1891) ; Turn Over a New Leaf (1892) ; A Tour round My Library (1893) ;^1 Preshy- terian Prayer Book (1895); Last Words for My Young Hearers and Beaders (1895) ; Endrologian, or Book of Common Order; the Service Book of the

Church, the Service of the Church of Scotland (1897). He also copiously illustrated a copy of Shakespeare, 37 volumes; an edition de luxe of Dickens, 100 volumes, 2000 illustrations ; Waver- ley novels, 70 volumes, 5000 illustrations; Scott's Poetical Works, 4 to 9 volumes; " Romola," 4 vols. ; the " Marble Faun ,"6 vols. ; and Macklin's edition of the Bible, 100 vols., 4000 full page il- lustrations from wood, copper, steel and stone.

COMEGYS, Cornelius George, physician, was born at ' ' Cherbourg, ' ' Kent county, Del. , July 23, 1816; son of Cornelius Parsons and Ruhamah (Marim) Comegys. He was educated at the Dover classical acadeiny and removed to Indiana, where he engaged in business. He returned to Philadelphia and was graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1848. He first practised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then studied in Paris and London, 1851. Return- ing in 1852 he was made professor of anatomy in the Cincinnati college of medicine, and on the organization of the Miami medical college be- came its professor of the institutes of medicine, remaining with that institution after its connec- tion with the Medical college of Ohio, with the exception of four years" interim, until 1868. He introduced numerous reforms in the course of the study of medicine and lectured frequently before medical classes and hospitals. He was married to Rebecca, daughter of the Hon. Edward Tiffin, first governor of Ohio. He assisted in organizing the University of Cincinnati in 1869, and was one of the founders and president of the Cincinnati academy of medicine. He translated Renouard's History of Medicine (1856). He died in Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 10, 1896.

COMEGYS, Cornelius Parsons, governor of Delaware, was born in Kent county, Md., Jan. 15, 1780; son of Cornelius and Hannah (Parsons) Comegys, and a lineal descendant from Cor- nelius and Millimenty Comegys, who emi- grated from Holland to America about 1650. He was a mem- ber of the Delaware house of representa- tives, 1810-15, having been twice speaker, and resigned the chair to enter the army. He was major, lieuten- ant-colonel and ad- jutant-general in the war of 1812; cashier of the Farmers' bank, D'^ver, 1817-1828; state treasurer, 1834-36; and governor of Delaware,

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