Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/71

 CROSBY

CROSBY

of Montana and in 1883 made him first assistant postmaster-general. In 1889 he was appointed a school commissioner in the cit}^ of New York. He spent most of the time between 1890 and 1897 in foreign travel. He was elected a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Loyal Legion, of the Sons of the Revolution, and of various social and political clubs in New York and AVashington, D.C. While on a crui.se on board the yacht Intrepid in the West Indies he secured valuable relics, including the bell and bronze tablet commemorative of the fight be- tween the Kearsarge and Alabama off Cherbourg in 1864, from the wrecked U.S. sloop-of-war Kear- sarge, lost on Roncador Reef, which he presented to the navy department and which were placed in the naval museum at Annapolis. He was married, June 15, 1863, to Harriet, youngest daughter of the last patroon of Albany, Stephen Van Rensselaer.

CROSBY, Nathan, jurist, was born in Sand- wich, N.H., Feb. 13, 1798; son of Dr. Asa and Betsey (Hoit) Crosby; a brother of Dr. Dixi, Prof. Alpheus, and Drs. Thomas Russell and Josiah Crosby ; and sixth in descent from Simon Crosby of Lancashire, England, who came in the Susan and Ellen to Cambridge, Mass., in 1635. He "Was graduated at Dartmouth in 1820, was ad- mitted to the bar in 1823 and jiractised law in New Chester and Gilmanton, N.H., and in Salis- bury, Newburyport and Lowell, Mass., being jus- tice of the police court in Lowell, 1846-85. In 1845 he negotiated the purchase for the Lowell maaufacturing corporation of the vast territory in New Hampshire, controlling the water supply for that city. His first wife, Rebecca Marqviand, daughter of Stephen and Frances (Coffin) Moody, died in 1867, and he was married in 4870 to Mrs. Matilda (Pickens) Fearing of Providence, R.I. He received the degree of A.M. from Dartmouth in 1833 and that of LL.D. in 1879. He published First Half Century of Dartmouth College ; Becollec- tions of the Essex Bar, and eulogies on Tappan Wentworth and I. S. Wilde of the supreme court. He died in Lowell, Mass., Feb. 9, 1885.

CROSBY, Peirce, naval officer, was born in Delaware county. Pa., Jan. 16, 1824; son of John P. and Catharine (Beale) Crosby; grandson of Peirce and Christiana (Richards) Crosbj'; great- grandson of Judge John (a captain in the Revo- lutionary army) and Ann (Peirce) Crosby ; great^ grandson of John (member of Provincial assem- bly, 1768-71) and Eleanor (Graham) Crosby; great^ grandson of John (member of Provincial assembly, 1723-24) and Susannah Crosbj-; and great* grandson of Richard and Ellinor Crosby, who came from Moore in the County Pallatine, Chester, England, in 1682,and settled in Pennsyl- vania, on the lands which had been purchased by

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him from William Penn in 1681. He was ap- pointed acting midshipman, June 5, 1838, and served in the Mediterranean squadron on board the flagship Ohio, Commodore Isaac Hull, 1838- 41. He returned to the United States, and after- ward served on the frigate Congress and the sloop Preble, 1841-43, in the Mediterranean squad- ron, and on detached duty at the Phila- delphia naval school, 1848. In May, 1844, he was promoted passed midshipman, serving on the U.S. coast survey till 1846 when he cruised on the sloop Decatur and on the gunboat Petrel in the Gulf of Mexico during the Mexican war, taking part in the capture of Tuxpan and Tabasco. In 1848-53 he was acting master of the Pielief on the coast of Africa, and on the Savannah at Norfolk, Va. On Sept. 3, 1853, he was promoted lieutenant and ordered to the Germantoicn, sailing for Brazil, returning in 1857. In 1858-59 he cruised on the Saratoga, in the Gulf of Mexico, and returning was attached to the receiving ship at Philadel- phia. In 1860 he was on duty on Chesapeake bay at the commencement of the civil war, and afterward at Fort Monroe. In 1861, he volun- teered on the Butler expedition to the coast of North Carolina and the capture of forts at Hat- teras Inlet, and with the army boats and a launch of the Pawnee he landed the troops through the surf. He receiAed special com- mendation from Gen. B. F. Butler in liis oflicial report of the operations. In December, 1861, he was in command of the gunboat Pinola, fitted out in Baltimore. He ran the batteries of the Potomac, received her battery in Washington, and joined Admiral Farragut at Ship Island. He took his vessel within two hundred yards of Fort Jackson in trying to break the chain bar- rier across the Mississippi river, and saved the Itsaca which had grounded near the guns of the fort while breaking the chain on the Fort St. Philip side of the river. He aided the mor- tar fleet in its bombardment of the forts, fought his way with Farragut and his fleet by Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and participated in the capture of the Chalmette batteries and of New Orleans. He also took part in the pas.sage of the batteries at Vicksburg and the engagement with the Arkansas. In September, 1862, he was pro- moted commander and became fleet captain of the North Atlantic squadron under Acting Rear-