Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/428

 EDWARDS

EELLS

representative in the 14tli-19th congresses, 181G- 27. lie then served in the state senate, 18H3-44, ftucl agjiin in 1850, when he was president of the senate. lie wajs a deleg-ate to the s^ate constitu- tional convention of 18;?.") and president of the gecesxion convention of 18G1. Ue died in Warren county, X.C. Dec. IS. 1873.

EDWARDS, William, inventor, was born in Eli/..iljetiitown. X.J., Nov. 11, 1770; son of Timo- tliy Edwards (1738-1813), merchant, who in 1770 removed to Sti»ckbridge. ^Jlass., where he was judge of the probate court of Berkshire; grand- eon of the Rev. Jonathan and Sarali (Pierrei)ont) E l^vards; and great -grand-son of the Rev. Timo- thy Edwards, jKistor of the church at East Windsor, Conn., 1694-1738. He was a practical tanner and located his first taunerj' at Northamp- ton, Mass., finding market for his leather in Boston. He invented a process by which three- fourths of the time consumed by European tanneries in preparing leather was saved. He removed in 1817 to the virgin hemlock forests of Greene county, N. Y., and erected a model tannery fit Hunter on Schoharie creek on an estate of r200 acres, the business being conducted by a stock company. In 1822. with his son and Jacob Lorillard, lie purchased the land from the com- p.iny. greatly enlarged the plant, invented and introduced improved machinery by which the avaiUible water-power was used in place of man- ual lat»or. He died in Brooklyn, X. Y., Dec. 1, 1851.

EDWARDS, William David, lawyer, was born in Greenpiiint, N.Y.. Dec. 17, 1855; son of William W. and Emma J. (Nation) Edwards. Earl}' in 1861 he removed with, his parents to Lafayette, Jersey City, N.J. He attended the public schools, prepared for college at Hasbrouck institute, Jersey City, and was graduated from the Univer- bity of the city of New York, A.B. 1875, A.M. 1878. He studied law in the ofliice of Senator William Brinkerhoff of Jersey City, 1875-78, meanwiiile pursuing a course at Columbia college law sc1kx>1, where he was graduated in 1878. He entered urwn the practice of law in Jersey City, forming a partnership with Hamilton Wallis under the firm name Wallis & Edwards, which Buljsequently l)ec-ame Wallis, Edwards & Bum- stead. He was for years chairman of the Demo- cratic general committee in Hud.son county, and served his party as a campaign speaker. He was city attorney of Bayonne, N.J., 1883-88, although not a resident of that city; was state senator from Hudson county, 1886-89, and declined to be a candidate for a second term. In 1889 he was appointed corporation counsel of Jensej' City.

EDWARDS, William Henry, author, was born 8t Hunter, CJreene fownty. N.Y., Marcli 15, 1822. He was a grandson of William Edwanls. the tan- ner and inventor. He was graduated at Wil-

liams in 1842 and was admitted to the New York bar in 1847. He made a voyage u]) the river Amazon in 1846. and collected specimens and materials for his writings on natural history. He was married May 29, 1851, to Katherine Colt Tappan, and subsequently made his home in Coalburgh, W.Va. His published works include Voyage up the Amazon (1847) ; The BiMcrflien of yorlh America (3 series, 1879, 1884, 1897) ; f^haks- per, not Shakespeare (1899).

EELLS, Gushing, missionary, was born at Blandford, Mass., Feb. 16, 1810; son of Joseph and Elizal)eth (Warner) Eells; and a descendant of Samuel Eells, an officer in Cromwell's army, who immigrated to America in 1661. He was prepared for college at Monson academy, Mass., and was graduated at Williams in 1834, and from the Theological institute of Connecticut in 1837. He was ordained a Congregational minister in October, 1837, and on March 5, 1838, was mar- ried to Myra Fairbank of Holden, Mass. They offered themselves as missionaries to the Ameri- can board of commissioners for foreign missions and were appointed to Oregon, arriving at Walla AValla in August, 1888, having made most of the journey from Missouri on horseback. They served among the Spokane Indians until June, 1848, when they removed to Willamette valley, where Dr. Eells taught school, the foundation of Willamette university at Salem. He was for several years the first teacher in what was after- ward Pacific university at Forest Grove, Oregon ; and taught in other places until 1860, when he re- turned to Walla Walla and laid the foundation of Whitman college. He was elected president of its board of trustees on the granting of its charter in 1859. He gave to the college nearly ten thousand dollars and spent nearly a year in the east working in its behalf, securing for it about twelve thousand dollars. In 1872 he re- moved to Snohomish and afterward to Colfax, Cheney and Medical Lake, Washington Terri- tory, and organized and was the first pastor of six Congregational churches. In 1888 he retired from active work and made his home with his son, the Hon. Edwin Eells, at Tacoma, Wash. He received the degree of D.D. from Pacific university in 1887. He died in Tacoma, Wash., on his eighty-fourth birthday, Feb. 16, 1893.

EELLS, James, clergyman, was born in Westmorelan.l, N.Y.. Aug. 27, 1822. He was graduated from Hamilton college in 1844; studied theology at the Western Reserve and the Auburn theological seminaries, and was graduated at the latter in 1851. He was ordained and installed at Penn Yan, N.Y., August, 1851; was pastor at Penn Yan, 1851-54; at the Second Presbyterian church. Cleveland, Ohio, 1855-59 and 1870-74; Brooklyn, N.Y., 1860-70; First Presbyterian