Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/309

 GILBERT

GILCHRIST

went to the front as surgeon of the 5th New York volunteers, Durj'ea Zouaves, and served tliroughout the civil war as army surgeon, medi- cal director and superintendent of U.S. hospitals. After the war he engaged in railroading as assist- ant superintendent of the New Jersey Central railroad. In 1873 he devised and obtained a charter for an elevated pneumatic railway de- signed for rapid transit in New York city, but to which the city refused a franchise. He had in 1867 commenced the erection of the original elevated railroad supported by posts placed at the curbs along Greenwich street and Ninth avenue, from the Battery to Thirtieth street, which, in spite of litigation and vexatious delays due to the ojiposition of the horse-car companies, slowl}' grew in public favor. The Sixth Avenue roadway which he built in 1877, resulted in the JIanhattan elevated railway sj'stems. Dr. Gilbert lost his holdings in the road through the greed of capitalists anxious to secure the control of the elevated roads to build up a monopoly of rapid transit. The expenses of litigation and disap- pointment and anxiety hastened his death, which occurred in New York citj', July 10, 1885.

GILBERT, Samuel Augustus, soldier, was born in Zanes\ ille, Oliio, Aug. io, 1S25. He attended Ohio uni%eisit}' at Athens and entered the service of the U.S. coast survey, being promoted assistant superintendent. In June, 1861, he was commis- sioned lieutenant-colonel of the 2-lth Ohio vol- unteers, and became colonel of the 44th Ohio volunteers in October of the same year. In the battle of Lewisburg, "W. Va., in Ma}-, 1862, he captured a Confederate batter j-; was with the arm}' under Gen. Johu Pope in Virginia in 1863 and in 1863 commanded a brigade in Kentuckj-. At the siege of Nashville in November, 1863, he was engineer on the staff of Gen. John G. Foster, commanding the department of the Ohio, and (in Longstreefs retreat on the 29th he resumed the command of his brigade. On April 20, 1864, he resigned from the army. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, March 13, 1865. He died in St. Paul, Minn., June 9, 1868.

GILBREATH, Sidney Qordon, educator, was born in Monroe county, Tenn., April 13, 1869; son of Francis Asbury and Elizabeth (Bruner) Gilbreath; and gi'andson of John and Isabella (Edington) Gilbreath. He was teacher and stu- dent in the public schools, 1886-91; was graduated at Hiwassee college, B.S., 1891, and at Hartford college, Ph.B.. 1S94; was county superintendent of schools, 1891-95: state superintendent of schools, 1895-97 ; president of the State teachers association, 1897-98 ; and was elected president of Hiwassee college in 1893. He was married, Feb. 9, 1893, to Norma Lavinia Henly. He published lieport of State Superintendent of Schools (1896-97).

GILCHRIST, John James, jurist, was born in Medford, Mass., Feb. 16, 18U9; son of Capt. James and Susan (Wyman) Gilchrist. He was gradu- ated from Harvard in 1828, was subsequently admitted to the bar in Massachusetts and settled to practice in Charleston, N.H. He was a repre- sentative in tlie state legislature; register of probate for Sullivan county; justice of the su- preme court of New Hampshire, 1840-48; chief justice, 1S48-.55; and one of the justices of the U.S. court of claims, 1855-58. He was married to Sarah Dean, daughter of Gov. Henrj' Hubbard of New Hampshire. Harvard gave him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1856. He died in Washington, D.C., April 29, 18.58.

GILCHRIST, Robert, lawyer, was born in Jersey City, N.J., Aug. 21, 1825. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1847 and was afterward made a counsellor of the U.S. supreme court. He was a member of the New Jersey assembly in 1859 ; entered the service as captain in the 3d New Jerse%' volunteers and served, 1861-65. In 1866 he was a Democratic candidate for represent- ative in the 40th congress. He was appointed attorney-general of New Jersey in 1869 by Gov- ernor Randolph to fill the unexpired term of George M. Robeson, appointed to President Grant's cabinet, and was reappointed for a full term in 1873 by Governor Parker. In 1875 he was the Democratic candidate for U.S. senator. He was an authority on constitutional law and by his Interpretation of the fifteenth amendment to the Federal constitution, secured the right of suffrage to the negroes of New Jersey. In 1873 he was appointed one of the commissioners to revise the state constitution, but resigned before the work was completed. He declined an appoint- ment as justice of the supreme court of the state and the office of chief justice of New Jersey. He was instrumental in securing to the United States the smn of half a million dollars bequeathed by Joseph L. Lewis for partial liquidation of the national debt. He was the author of the ripa- rian-rights act o^ New Jersey, from whici; is derived a large part of the state public school fund, and was the counsel for the state in the suit that tested the constitutionality of that act. He was married to Fredericka, daughter of Gen. Samuel R. Beardsley of Oswego, N.Y., and the author of Tlie True Story of Hamlet and Ophelia (1889). He died in Jersey City, N.J., July 6, 1888.

GILCHRIST, William Wallace, musician, was born in Jersey City, N.J., Jan. 8, 1846; son of William Wallace and Redelia A. (Cox) Gilchrist. In 1853 he removed with his parents to Phila- delphia, where he subsequently studied music under Prof. Hugh A. Clarke of the University of Pennsylvania. In his early work he won three prizes offered by the Mendelssohn club of New