Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/262

 DEXTER

DE YOUNG

and Miiltllesex counties, subsequently removing to Boston, Mass. lie was a representative in the state legishiture. 17«8-90; a representative in the tki congress, 179^95, ixud a United States senator in the Gth congress, 1799-1800. He resigned his seiit in the senate in June. 1800, to accept the cabi- net jxxsition of secretary of war offered him by President Adams. He was transferred by Presi- dent Adams to the treasury department in Deceml)er. lf<W. and continued as secretary of the trejusury through the administration of Mr. Adaiu-s. He tlien resumed the practice of liis profession and fretiuently api)eared before the United States supreme court at ^Yashington. He supported the war meiisures advocated by Presi- dent Jetfers«5n. and in 1812 the Republican policy of war. In 181o President Monroe offered liim the mission to Sjjain which he declined. In 1816 he was the Republican candidate for governor of Ma.ss;\chusetts and published an address to the electors announcing the radical differences be- tween his views and those of the party. His name was not withdra^^^l and he was defeated at the polls. He was president of the first society formed in Massachusetts to promote temperance, and a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences. He was an overseer of Harvard, 1810-1.5. and received from that institution the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1813. He died at Athens. N.Y.. May 3, 1816.

DEXTER, Seymour, jurist and banker, was bom at Independence, Allegany coimty, N.Y., March 20, 1841; son of Daniel and Angeline (Briggs) Dexter; grandson of William Dexter; and a lineal descendant of the Rev. Gregorj- Dex- ter, who settled upon the Providence plantations with Roger "Williams. He was prepared for college at Alfred academy and entered Alfred university, where his course was interrupted by the outbreak of the civil war. He served a two years' enli.stment in the 23d regiment, N.Y.V., and return- ing to the university was graduated in 1864. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1866 and practised in Elmira, N. Y. In 1872 he was appointed city attorney for Elmira, and in 1873 was elected a memljer of the New York as-sembly. He was coimty judge and surrogate of Chemung county. 1877-89. He resigned in 1889 to accept the presidency of the second natifmal bank of Elmira, N.Y. He was president of the New York

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state bankers' association, 1896-97; organized and became president of the (Jliemung Valley building and loan association in 187.J; and was president of the New York state league of co-ojjerative siiv- ings building and loan associations in 1890. In

1892 he organized the United States league of local building and loan a.ssociations, and was elected president at its first annual meeting in

1893 and again in 1894. He is the author of the motto of the league, " The American home, the siifeguard of American liberties." He is the author of a treati.se on co-operative savings and loan associations (1889); was elected a member of the American economic association, and of the American social science association. He was married in 1868 to Eleanor E., daughter of Ebenezer and Eleanor (Maxson) "Weaver of Leon- ardsville, N.Y. Alfred imiversity conferred upon him the degree of Ph.D. in 1885.

DEXTER, Simon Newton, manufacturer, was born in Providence, R.I., May 11, 1785; son of Andrew Dexter, the first cotton manufacturer in the country, and a nephew of Judge Samuel Dexter, 1761-1816. He attended Brown univer- sity for a brief period, removing to Boston at an early age to enter a mercantile house. He re- mained in that city until 1815 when he removed to "Whitesboro, N.Y., and engaged in civil engi- neering. He built a part of the Erie canal in 1817, and of the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, 1824-29. In 1830 he accepted the agency of the Oriskany manufacturing company in Whitesboro, N.Y., and in 1832 became manager of the Dexter company, meanwhile investing heavily and suc- cessfully in various other manufacturing inter- ests. He was president of the Whitesboro bank, 1833-53, and held other local positions. He was a trustee of Hamilton college, Clinton, N.Y., 1835-62, and a generous patron of that institu- tion, supporting a professorship for some jears, and giving to the college in all over $30,000. He died in Whiteslwro. N.Y., Nov. 18, 1862.

DE YOUNG, Meichel Harry, journalist, was bom in St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 1, 1848; son of ^Rleichel H. and Amelia (Morange) de Yoimg, and grandson of Henry ^lorange. He was taken to California in 1854 and settled in San Francisco, where on Jan. 16, 1865, he began to pulilish with his brother Charles, a small theatrical advertising sheet called the Dramatic Chronirle. Their capital was §20, but within a short time the net receipts of the paper aggregated about §1000 a month. The paper was gradually enlarged and became the principal newspaj^ec in California, its name being changed to the San Francisco Chronicle. In ISSO, on the death of his brother Charles. Mr. de Yoimg became editorial as well as financial manager. In 1889 he was appointed by Governt)r Waterman a commissioner to the Paris exposi-