Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/393

 COOMBS

COOMBS

prises as president, manager or treasurer. He •was made an overseer of HarA-ard in 1886; was re-elected in 1891; was park commissioner of Boston under Mayor Cobb in 1875-76, and a dele- gate to the Pan-American congress in 1889. He gave to Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., where his

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MANCHESTER LIIiRARV.

summer home was located, a library building costing $40,000, and to Harvard the Jefferson physical research laboratory which cost $115,000. ,On April 28, 1892, he was appointed by President Harrison U.S. minister to France to succeed Whitelaw Reid, resigned, and served until the close of the administration in 1893. In 1898 he was appointed by President McKinley to serve on the joint high commission for the adjustment of questions pending between the United States and Great Britain in respect to the relations of the former Avith the Dominion of Canada, Avhich position he accepted.

COOMBS, Charles Whitney, musician, was born at Bucksport, Maine, Dec. 25, 1859; son of L. Augustine and Caroline (AVhitney) Coombs. He was educated in Europe. For five years he studied music under Speidel and Seifriz in Stutt- gart. He spent a year in Italy and Switzer- land, and in the autumn of 1884 went to Dresden, where he studied composition with Draeseke, organ with Janssen, and voice production with Lamperti. In 1886 he visited Paris, and gave much attention to the French school, having been previously almost entirely under German influences. Later he spent a year in England studying church music. He had charge of the music in the American church at Dresden, 1887- 91, and on his return to America took up his resi- dence in New York city where he was engaged as organist and choir master in the church of the Holy Communion and as professor in the New York college of music. He comi)osed the can- tata 77(e Vision of St. John, and many songs and anthems.

COOMBS, Leslie, soldier, was born near

Boonsboro. Ky., Nov. 28, 1793; the twelfth child of a Virginia patriot who took part in the siege of Yorktown and in 1782 made a new home in Kentucky. The son received but little school training and when nineteen years old joined the U.S. army and engaged in the campaigns of the northwest against the Indians. He was the bearer of important dispatches from General Winchester to General Harrison, which he deliv- ered by traversing the wilderness in midwinter over the snow and through a hostile country over one hundred miles. Afterward in an effort to notify General Harrison, besieged at Fort Meigs, of the advance of General Clay with reinforce- ments he, with a single Indian guide, was over- powered by the enemy when in sight of the fort and escaped to Fort Defiance. He was commis- sioned captain in 1813. He was conspicuous for bravery when Colonel Dudley was defeated, and was severely wounded at Fort Miami. He was admitted to the bar in 1816 and became one of the leading lawyers of Kentucky. In 1836 he raised at his own expense a regiment to aid the new republic of Texas. He was state auditor of Kentuck}- and was repeatedly elected to the legislature. He canvassed the southwest for General Harrison in 1840 and the north and east for Henry Clay in 1844, and in 1846 he actively recruited volunteers for the Mexican war. In 1849 he undertook to stem the current that had already swept the southwest in favor of seces- sion, and at the request of Henrj- Clay held Union meetings throughout Kentucky. In 1850 he was a candidate for representative to the 32d congress but was defeated by John C. Breckin- ridge. In 1860 he was elected as a Union man clerk of the court of appeals. When Gen. S. B. Buckner organized the Kentucky state guards. Colonel Coombs in conjunction with L. H. Roixs- seau organized a Union camp and recruited and drilled soldiers for the Federal army. After the war he engaged in railroad building. He died in Lexington, Ky., Aug. 21, 1881.

COOMBS, William Jerome, representative, was born in Jordan, N.Y., Dec 24, 1833; son of Charles and Mary Coombs, and grandson of Peter Coombs, a soldier of the Revolution. He was prepared for college in the academy at Jordan, and in 1850 entered business in New York city. In 1854 he engaged in the exporting business in which he was very successful, establishing in 1870 the firm of Coombs, Crosby & Eddy. He was active in municipal politics, being identified with the Republican party until 1888 when he supported Mr. Cleveland and the Democratic party, and was an unsuccessful candidate for rep- resentative in the 51st congress. In 1890 he was elected as a Democrat a representative from the