Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/316

 DOUGLASS

DOUGLASS

"William and Sarah (Kirtlaiul). ami great-grand- son of Col. William and Ilanna (Manslield) Douglas. He way eighth in descent from Deacon William Douglas, who wius horn in Scotland in liilO and arrived in America ahout 1039. He was prepared for college at Hopkins grammar school, was graduated at Yale in 1851, and re- ceived the honorary degree of A.M. from Trin- ity college in 1H.")4. where he pursued a course in theology. He had studied law on leaving Yale, hut forsook it for the ministry of the EpiscojKil church. He was ordained a deacon by Bisli.ip Brownell in 18.")3, and a jiriest liy Bi.shop Williams in 18')4. He was rector of St. John's, Warehouse Point, Conn., 1853-55; of Grace, AVaterjiroof, La., 1855-58; and of Epiphany, New Iberia, La.. 1858-Cl. He was president and pro- fessor of languages at Jefferson college, Wash- ington, Miss., 1860-64; organized the Bishop Green training school at Dry Grove. Miss., 1871, and was its jirincipal, 1864-81; was rector of Calvary, New Orleans, La., 1881-86, and of Grace, St. Francisville, La., 1886-98. He was married at Natchez, Miss., Oct. 27, 1857, to Sarah L., daughter of Pennington and Elizabeth (New- man) Tucker of Adams county. Miss. Of their children two were sons, the Rev. William Taylor Douglas, and George Herbert Douglas, M.D. He was archdeacon of the diocese of Louisiana at the time of his death. He received the degree of S.T.D. from Columbia in 1875. He died in St. Francisville, La., Dec. 19, 1898.

DOUGLASS, David Bates, engineer, was born at Pompton, N.J., 3Iarch 21, 1790. He was graduated from Yale in 1813, and on October 1 of that year entered the army with the commis- sion of 2d lieutenant of engineers. He spent the winter at the U.S. military academy and in the summer of 1814 marched to the seat of war at Niagara, N.Y., at the head of a corps of sap- pers and miners. He fought at the battle of Lundy's Lane, and in the subsequent defence of Fort Erie he constructed and defended a battery with such efficiency that he was promoted first lieutenant and brevetted captain, and the organ- ization became known as the Douglass battery. He was promoted captain and major and was a.ssistant profes.sor of natural and experimental philosophy in the U.S. military academy, 1815- 20; astronomical surveyor U.S. boundary com- mission. 1819-20; professor of mathematics at the Military academy, 1820-23, and of civil and military engineering, 182.3-31. He resigned his commission in 1831 and took charge of the con- struction of the Morris and Essex canal, wliere lie introfluced the inclined plane as a substitute for the lock system. He was professor of natural philo.sophy and civil engineering in the University of the city of New York, 1832-39; president and

professor of moral and intellectual philosophy, Keuyon college, 1840-14; and of civil engineering and architecture in the University of the city of New York, 1844-53. His plan for supplying the city of New York with water, reported in 1885, was adopted and resulted in the Croton water works, of which he was the first chief engineer. He built the railroad from Brooklyn to Jamaica, the supporting wall for Brooklyn Heights, planned the Greenwood cemetery, and introduced the water suppl}' for Brooklyn. In 1840 he was elected j^resident of Ken5'on college and lield the office four years. In 1845^6 he laid out the Catholic cemetery, Albany, N.Y. ; in 1847 he was engaged in developing the landscape features of Staten Island, and in 1848 laid out the Protestant cemetery at Quebec. He was professor of mathe matics and natural philosophy in Geneva college, 1848-49. He received the degree of A.M. from Yale and the College of New Jersey in 1819 and from Union in 1825, and that of LL.D. from Yale and Hobart in 1841. He died in Geneva, N.Y., Oct. 19, 1849.

DOUGLASS, Frederick, reformer, was born in Tuckahoe. Talbot coimty, near Easton, Md., about February, 1817; a slave to Aaron Anthony on the plantation of Col. Edward Lloyd. His mother was a mulatto and his father white. He learned to read and write when nine years old while with Sophia -^: - ^ ,

Auld of Baltimore, a relative of his master. He was afterward put at work in the ship- yard of his master's brother, Hugh An- thony, and was later .sent to the farm of Edward Covey, who frequently severely chastised him for writing passes for slaves, until he re-

similar attempts. Soon after this, with three other slaves, he formed a plot to escape, but was arrested and put up for sale. His master re- lented and sent him to Baltimore, where he was again employed in Hugh Anthony's shipyard. He escaped from servitude. Sept. 2, 1838, went to the city of New York, where he was married to Anna Murray, a free colored woman, and inmie- diately removed with his wife to New Bedford, Mass., where he obtained a livelihood by working in the shipyards and on the docks. To conceal his identity he changed his name from that of his master, to Douglass. At an anti-slavery con- vention in Nantucket in 1841, he made his first