Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/243

 DERBY

DERBY

1833, and the firm of Derby & Jackson failed in 1861 by reason of a large credit extended to south- ern booksellers who were customers for his popular books by noted southern authors. He brought out a remarkable list of successful au- thors, publishing the first books of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Henry Ward Beecher, Phoebe and Alice Gary, Augusta J. Evans, S. G. Goodrich, "Marion Harland," B. P. Shillaber ('• Mrs. Partington "), Mrs. F. M. Whitcher (" Widow Bedott "). Henry Wickoff, and many others. His intimate ac- quaintance with literary and public men and women extended to every section of the United States, and besides the prominent authors of his time included such public men as Millard Fill- more, William H. Seward, Alexander H. Stephens, Jefferson Davis, George Bancroft, Conunodore Vanderbilt, William H. Appleton, Horace Gree- lej', William CuUen Bryant and George W. Childs. He was U.S. commissioner for the Paris exposition of 1868 and received from Napoleon III. gold and bronze medals " for services." He was U.S. dispatch agent for the state department at New York in 1864-6.5, and transmitted by steamer to Charles Francis Adams, U.S. minister to Great Britain, the official dispatches giving to the old world the intelligence of the assassi- nation of President Lincoln. He was an associ- ate National academician and one of the early members of the Century association. He was married in 1839 to Lavanchie White, daughter of Isaac and Belinda Fitch of Cooperstown, N. Y., who died Oct. 12, 1880. He wrote : Fifty Years Among Authors, Books and Fuhlish^rs (1884). He died in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the home of his daughter, Mrs. John Howard Brown, Sept. 23, 18^2.

DERBY, Orville Adelbert, geologist, was born in Kelloggsville, N.Y., July 23, 1851. He was graduated from Cornell university, B.S. in 1873 and M.S. in 1874. He Avas in.structor in geology and paleontology in Cornell, 1873-75 ; and assist- ant on the geological commission of the empire of Brazil, 1875-78. In 1879 he became director of the third section of the National museum at Rio de Janeiro, and in 1886 assumed also the direc- torship of the geographical and geological com- mission of the province of Sao Paulo. He was made a feUow of the London geological society and of the American association for the advance- ment of science, and is the author of contributions to the American Journal of Science, the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, and the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society.

DERBY, Richard, merchant, was born in Salem, Mass., Sept. 12, 1712; son of Richard Derby, shipping merchant, and grandson of Roger Beviiy, the first ancestor in America. Richard Derby Jr. in 1738 was master of his father's sloop Banger, trading with Cadiz and Malaga, and in

1742 had acquired part ownership in and was captain of the Volant, in which vessel he traded with Barbadoes and the French islands. In 1757 he settled as a merchant in Salem. His ships suffered from English privateers and French cruisers and he sought redress from the British ministry. He was a member of the general court of Massachusetts, 1769-73, and a member of the governor's council in 1774, and again in 1776-77. His widow founded Derby academy, Hingham, and his son Richard was a delegate to the Provincial congress of Massachusetts and an earnest patriot. His son John, owner of the Columbia, which on her second voyage hi the Pacific discovered the Columbia river, carried to England the first news of the battle of Lexington and first brought to General Washington at Cambridge the intelligence of the effect of the news on the public mind of London. At the close of the war he was also the first to bring to America the news of peace. Capt. Richard Derby died in Salem, Mass., Nov. 9, 1783.

DERBY, Samuel Carroll, educator, was born at Dublin, N.H., March 3, 1842; son of Dexter and Julia (Piper) Derby; grandson of Samuel and Betsey (Knowlton) Derby, and of John Brooks and Julia (Greenwood) Piper, and a descendant of John Derby, Marblehead, Mass., 1677, and of Nathaniel Piper of Ipswich, Mass. , who died in 1676. His ancestors were Eng- lish and among the early settlers of New England. His early years were spent upon a farm. He was pre- pared for college at Appleton academy. New Ipswich, N.H., and was graduated from Harvard in 1866. He was principal of the Union school at Ilion, N.Y., 1866-67, and instructor in Mr. E. S. Dixwell's Latin school, Boston, 1867-

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In 1870 he was ap- pointed professor of English and German in Antioch college, YeUow Springs, Ohio, after- ward changing his chair to that of Latin. He became acting president of the college in 1873, and president in 1877, a position which he resigned in 1881 to accept the chair of Greek and Latin in the Ohio state university at Columbus. In 1883 the chair was divided and he was made professor of the Latin language and literature. From 1881 to 1892 he was librarian of the university. The years 1876-77 and 1892-93 were spent by him in