Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/282

 GEiVTRY

GEORGE

GENTRY, Meredith Poindexter, representa- tive, was born in Rockingham county, N.C., Sept. 15, 1809; son of a wealthy jjlanter, who removed with his family to Harpeth, Williamson county, Tenn., in 1813. He was self-educated, e.xcept a limited district school training before he was fourteen years of age. He became a planter, colonel in the state militia and a pojnilar stump orator. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1835-39, and a Whig represent- ative in the 36th, 37th, 39th, 30th, 31st and 33d congresses, after which he retired to his farm. He opposed the Mexican war and charged the administration with carrying it on for conquest. He joined the secession movement and was a representative in the 1st and 3d Confederate States congresses, 1863-65, but differed with the administration in the prosecution of the war and in many of its other jneasures. He died at Har- peth, Tenn., Nov, 3, 1866.

GENTRY, Thomas George, educator, was born in Holmesburg, Pa., Feb. 38, 1843; son of Alfred and Caroline (Dewees) Gentry; grandson ,of Thomas and Susanna (Castor) Gentry, and of Charles and Sarah (Adams) Dewees. He was .educated at the Philadelphia, Fayette Consoli- dated and Central High schools, and leaving the high school before graduating, worked on a farm three years, during which time he kept up his studies in languages and natural sciences, taking up in course, botany, entomology, ornithology and mammalogy. He entered the profession of teaching in 1861, conducting schools in the vicin- ity of Philadelphia and in the city. In 1884 he was elected principal of the Southwest boys' •grammar school, which was subsequentlj" known as the U.S. Grant boys' grammar school, and in 1890 the three schools in the same building were united and placed under his supervision. He was married, Dec. 37, 1864, to Marj', daughter of Alan and Susanna (Berkheimer) Shoemaker of Lewisburg, Pa. He was elected a member of the Philadelphia academy of natural sciences in 1870; of the Nuttall ornithological club, Cam- bridge, Mass., in 1876; of the Canadian entomo- logical society in 1876; of the Davenport academy of sciences in 1876; of the Franklin literary society of the University of Pennsylvania in 1876 and of the American academy of political and social science in 1890. He received the degree of So.D. from the Chicago college of science in 1888 for meritorious work. He published: ii/e Hi.ilnni-s of Birds of Eastern Priinsylvmua (1876- 77) ; The House Sparrow at Borne and Abroad (1878); Nests and Ecirfs of Birds of the. United States (IS8-2) : Family iVnjiics (1892) : Pigeon Hiver and Other Poems (\SQ2) ; Life and Immortality; or, Sonl in Plants and Animals (1897), and many magazine articles.

QENUNQ, John Franklin, educator, was born in Willseyville, N.Y., Jan. 37, 1850; son of Abram C. and Martha (Dye) Genung; grandson of Barnabas and Susan (Johnston) Genung, and of James R. and Sally (Topping) Dye, and a direct descendant from Jean Guenon (afterward written Genung), a native of La Rochelle, France, who came from Holland to New Amsterdam in 1657 and was married to Grietie Sneden of Har- lem, N. Y. He was prepared for college at Owego academy, 1864-68, and was graduated at Union college in 1870. He studied theology at the Rochester theological seminary, 1872-75, was pastor of Baldwinsville Baptist church, 1875-78; studied at Leipzig and London, 1878-81, and received the degree of Ph.D. from Leipzig in 1881. He was instructor in English in Amherst college, 1883-84; associate professor of rhetoric, 1881^89, and was advanced to the full chair in 1889. He was elected a member of the Society of biblical literature and exegesis in 1883, and of the Authors' club in 1895. He was married. May 15, 1880, to Florence Mabel Sprague. He is the author of: Tennyson's ^' In Memoriam" its Purpose and its Structure (1883) ; Practical Elements of Rhetoric (1886) ; Study of Phetoric in the C'olleije Course (1887); Handbook of Phetorical Analysis (1888); Tlie Epic of the Inner Life; Study of the Booh of Job (1891); Outlines of Phetoric (1893); ]['7iat a Carpenter did loith his Bible (1898), and contributions to )ieriodicaIs.

GEORGE, Andrew Jackson, educator, was born in Goffstowu. N.H., Feb. 16, 1855; son of Amos and Dorothy (Turner) George; grandson of Samuel and Mary Turner; and great-grandson of the Rev. David and Sarah (Howard) Turner. The Turners came to America from Devonshire, England, in 1666-70, and Sarah Howard was great- granddaughter of John Winslow, whose mother, Mary Chilton, is said to have been the first woman who stepped on Plymouth Rock at the landing of the Pilgrims from the Mayflower. He was prepared for college at Francestown (N.H.) academy, and was graduated at Amherst, A.B., 1876, and A.M., 1879. He was master of the high school at Ashland, Mass., 1876-82; sub- master of the high school at Brookline, Mass., 1832-88, and in 1888 became head of the English department, Newton high school. He studied English literature abroad during three summers, and lectured on English literature at Dr. Gan- nett's private school, at Boston university and before the students of Yale university. He was elected a member of the Twentieth Century club of Boston in 1894. He was married, July 12, 1888, to Alice Nelson Vant, and had one son, Robert Hudson George, born Dec. 25, 1889. His published works consist chiefly of classics with notes and include; Wordsworth's Prelude (1887);