Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/303

 GIDDINGS

(ili'FOuD

Burea, a representative of tlie principle of free- soil, lu 1S49 his opposition to Wiuthrop for speaker led to the election of the candidate of the Democratic party. He opposed the compro- mise measm-es of 1850. He was repeatedly attacked on the floor of the house, but always ably defended himself. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln consul-general for tlie United States in British North America, and hell the office imtil his death. He published a series of political essays upon the slavery question imJer the pen name " Pacificus " (1845) ; Speeches (18.J3) ; Exiles of Florida (1858, newed., 1863) ; and The liehellioii: its Autlwrs and C'avses (1864). He die 1 in Montreal, Canada, May 37, 1864.

QIDDINQS, Rockwood, educator, was born in New Hampshire. Aug. 8, 1813. He was gradu- ated from Waterville college, Waterville, JIaine, in 1833, and then removed to Virginia, where he began the study of medicine. He settled in War.saw, Ky. , and completed his medical studies, but abandoned that profession for theology and was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1835, beoomin;^ pastor of the Baptist church in Shelby- ville, Ky. He was elected ijresident of George- town college, Ky., in 1838, which was at that time without a faculty or an endowment. He speedily organized the institution with a full corps of professors and gathered into it a number of students. Within eight months he raised an endowment of ijJO.OOO in notes, and in an attempt to collect half of that sum for immediate use, he travelle.l long distances, preaching as he went. Under tha strain his delicate constitution gave way while he was preaching and he died at Shelby viUe, Ky., Oft. 29. 1839.

QIFFORD, Oscar Sherman, representative, was born at Watertown, N.Y. . Oct. 20, 1842; son of Ebenez?ranl Mary (Ressequie) Gifford; great- gran.lso:i of Joseph Gifford, who served in the Continental army; and a descendant on his mother's side from Alexander Ressequie, a Freno!i Huguenot, who settled in America about 1703. He received a common school education, attenlgi the neighboring academy, and served as a private in the Union army, 1863-65. He was admittel to the bar in 1870; settled in practice in Canton, Dakota; became di.strict alloiney for Lincoln county, Dakota, in 1874; was mayor of Canton, 1883-83; was a member of the state con.stit'ational convention which met at frioux Falls. Sept. 7, 1883; and was a delegate frrm Dakota to the 49th and Snth congresses, 1885-^9. In 1888 he was elected, as a Republican, a rrf re- sentative-at-large from South Dakota i)i the .'il.'-t compress, servins;, 1889-9!.

QIFFORD, Robert Swain, painter, was born on Naushon island, Dukes county. Jfass, Dec. 23, 1840; son of William A. and Anna (Bassett)

Gifford; grandson of William Tillinghast and Mary (Robinson) Gifford of Rhode Island, and of Stephen and Mary (Phillippe) Eldridge of Massachusetts; and a direct descendant from WiUiam Gifford, a member of the grand inquest of Plymouth, Mass., in 1650. When a boy he removed with his father to New Bedford, Mass., where he studied with Albert Van Beest, the Dutch marine pamter, and assisted that artist by drawing ships for his views. Subsequently he went to New York city with Van Beest, with whom he worked till 1864, when he opened a studio in Boston, Mass. In 1866 he removed his studio to New York city, and in 1897 was ap- pointed professor of art and director at the Cooper institute. He made a sketching tour in Oregon and California in 1869, Eui'ope in 1870, Algiers and the Sahara desert in 1874, and Brit- tany and southern France in 1875. In 1882 he travelled with the artists F. D. Millet and Ed- win A. Abbey through Denmark and northern Europe in the interest of Harper & Brothers for their magazine. He was elected a member of the National academy of design in 1878, of the Amer- ican society of i:)ainters in water-colors in 1866, and of the Society of American artists in 1877. He was also made a member of the American wa- ter-color society ; of the New York etching club ; of the British society of painter etchers, and of the International art jury at the Chicago exposition, 1893. He received a medal for " The Mosque of Mohammed Ali," hung at the Centennial exposi- tion, Philadelphia, 1876; and also a third-class medal for " Near the Coast " at the Paris inter- national exposition. 1889. On June 9, 1873, he was married to Frances Eliot of New Bedford, Mass., a painter of birds in landscape backgrounds and also an illustrator. Among his water- colors are: Deserted Wlialer (1867) ; Day on the Sea Shore (1869) ; Bloek House at Eastport (1874) ; Ve- netian Companions (1876) ; and The Oasis of Filiaeh, AUjerla (1877). Among his oil paintings are: Seene at Manchester, Cape Ann (1867) ; 3Iount Hood (1870); Halting for Water and Passenger Boats on the .Y(7«(1874); The Hossettl Garden {187 r>) ; The Borders of the Desert and Xeto England Cedars (1877); Xonqvitt Cliff (1882); New Zaandaam (1883); 'llie Shores of Buzzard's Bay {1885) ; Kelp Gatherers (1896); and Clnnd Sliadoins (1898). His A'ear the Const won a prize of $2500 from the American art a.ssociation in 1885 and was after- ward iiurchased by the Metropolitan museum of irt. New Y..rl< city.

QIFFORD, Sandford Robinson, painter, was l))r:i in Greenfield, N.Y., July 10, 1823. He en- tere I Brown university in 1843, but left at the end of his sophomore year, and removed to New York city in 1845. where he studied art with John Rubens Smith and began to paint portraits.