Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/75

 CR08WELL

CROUCH

as secretary of the state board of correction and charities after the expiration of his term as an ■ex officio member of the board. He was married in February. 1852, to Lucy M., daughter of Mor- ton Eddy. She died in 1868 and in 1880 he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of the Hon. Joseph Musgrave of Charlotte, Mich. He died in Adrian, Mich., Dec. 13, 1886.

CROSWELL, Edwin, journalist, was born in Catskill. X.Y., May '29, 1797. His father was editor of the Catakill Hecorder. He was educated at the village school and in his father's printing -office, and became assistant editor of the Eeconh'r while yet a mere lad. On the retirement of his father he assunaed the entire management of the business and in 1824 he was elected state printer. At the same time he became editor of the Albany Arrjus. the official organ of the Democratic party. His editorial management won for him a national reputation, and as the mouthpiece of the " Al- bany regency" the Arfjus directed the party councils of the state and became the authority on Democratic politics and the interpreter of its policy. In 1840, upon the accession of the Whig party, Thurlow Weed succeeded him as state printer, and in 1844, by a quarrel with Mr. Van Buren, he became separated from his powerful early political associate. In 1854 lie retired from journalism and removed to New York city, where he engaged in business. He died in Princeton. N.J., June 13. 1871.

CROSWELL, Harry, clergyman, was born in West Hartford, Conn., June 16, 1778. His early education was acquired under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Perkins and Dr. Noah Webster. He removed to Catskill, N.Y., where he learned the printer's trade and became editor .of a paper o%vned by his brother. In 1802 he founded in Hudson, N.Y., the Balance, a Federalist news- paper. A criticism of Jelf erson published in the Wasp, a paper controlled by Mr. Croswell, in- volved him in one of many libel suits and he was defended by Alexander Hamilton, the speech in his defence being the last and one of the ablest of jthe forensic efforts of that statesman. Mr. Croswell afterward edited a political newspaper in Albany and in 1809 was successfully prosecuted for libel. His friends failing to respond to appeals for help to paj' the judgment, he abandoned journalism and took orders in the Protestant Episcopal chm-ch. He was rector of Christ church, Hudson, N.Y., 1814-15, and of Trinity church. New HaAen, Conn., 1815-58. He received the honorary degree of M.A. from Yale in 1817 and that of D.D. from Trinity college in 1831. He published: Young Churchmen'' s Guide (4 vols.); Manual of Family Prayers; Guide to the Holy Sacrament; and a memoir of his son, the Rev. William Croswell,

D.D. (18.54). He died in New Haven, Conn., March 13, 1858.

CROSWELL, William, clergyman, was born in Hudson, N.Y., Nov. 7, 1804; son of Harry Croswell, afterward rector of Trinity church, New Haven. He was graduated at Yale in 1822 and with an elder brother established a select school in New Haven. In 1824 he engaged with his cousin Edwin Croswell as assistant editor of the Albany Argus. He studied at the General theo- logical seminary in 1826 and with Bishop Brownell in Hartford in 1827, where he also edited the Episcopcd Watchman. He was admitted to the priesthood in 1828, and after holding sev- eral minor pastorates removed to Boston, Mass., as rector of the Church of the Advent, where he remained till his death. He was an extreme ritualist and this led to a controversy with Bishop Eastburn, by whom he was officially censured. Trinity college gave him the degree of M.A. m 1827 and that of D.D. in 1846. His Poems, Sacred and Secular, were edited with a memoir by the Rev. A. Cleveland Coxe (1859). He died in Boston, Mass., Nov. 9, 1851.

CROTHERS, Samuel McChord, clerg.vman, was born in Oswego, 111., June 7, 1857; son of the Hon. John M. Crothers, and grandson of the Rev. Samuel Crothers (1783-1856), who was a member of the Kentucky presbytery, and a writer on anti-slavery, and who in 1820 organized a new church at Greenfield, Ohio, of which he was pastor till his death. He was graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1874 and studied for the three following years at the Union theological seminary, New York city. He was ordained bj- the presbytery of Dayton, Ohio, Jan. 9, 1877, and was stated supply at Eureka, Nev., 1877-78; home missionary at Gold Hill, Nev., 1878, and stated supply at Santa Barbara, Cal., 1879-81. He then studied at Harvard divinitj^ school. 1881- 82, and was pastor of the Unitarian church, Brattleboro, Vt., 1883-87, and of the Unity church, St. Paul, Minn., 1887-94. In 1894 he be- came minister of the First Parish, Cambridge, Mass. He served as one of the preachers of Harvard university, 1894, 1895 and 1896.

CROUCH, Frederick William Nicholls, com- poser, was born in London, England, July 31, 1808 ; son of William F. and Anne Maria Nicholls. His father was a composer of instrumental music and one of the leading violoncellists at the Royal Italian opera, and his mother was the daughter of a celebrated London barrister. At the age of nine he became a singer at the Royal Coburg theatre, and later engaged with numerous thea- tres in Great Britain as singer or violinist, sub- sequently becoming conductor at Drury Lane. While holding this position he composed several ballads which were sung by celebrated singers.