Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/322

 OILMAN

OILMAN

John's church and parsonage, Clifton, Staten Island, N.Y., and the greater part of the capitol at Albany. He was a member of the American institute of arcliitects and contributed to archi- tectural ijeriodicals. He died in Syracuse, N.Y., July 11, 1883.

OILMAN, Arthur, educator, was born in Alton, 111., June 22, 1837; son of Winthrop Sar- gent and Abia Swift (Lippincott), grandson of Benjamin Ives and Hannah (Robbing), great- grandson of Joseph and Rebecca (Ives), great- grandson of Nicholas and Mary (Thing), great^ grandson of royal councillor Nicholas and Sarah (Clark), great* grandson of Jolm and Elizabeth (Trewor- gie), and great^ grandson of Edward and Mary ( Clark ) Oilman, of an ancient Welsh family, who emigrated from Nor- folk, England, to Hingham, Massachu- setts colony, in 1638. He was edu- cateil in the schools of St. Louis, Mo., 1843-49, and in New York city, 1849-53. He established the bankmg house of Halsted & Oilman in 1857. Subsequently the firm name was changed to Oilman, Son & Co. In 1862 he was obliged to seek respite from business cares in consequence of iU. health and he removed to Lee, Mass., where he purchased an estate near Lenox, named it " Glynllyn " and engaged in literary studies, occupying part of his time with agriculture and work for the cause of education in Berkshire county. In 186.j he visited England and made a study of the genealogy of the Oilman family. He also visited Paris and Rome. In 1870 he removed to Cambridge, Mass., where he was connected with the Riverside press for some years, and in 1871 he became treasurer of and editor for the American tract society in Boston. In 1876, with his wife, he formulated a plan by which the courses of study at Harvard college should be systematically repeated to young women. This led to the incorporation of the society for the collegiate instruction of women, familiarly called the ' ' Harvard annex. ' ' He was the executive officer of the annex from the be- ginning, and when it became Radcliffe college in 1894 he was made its regent and retained that office till 1896. In 1880 he founded and became director of the Cambridge school for girls. "When he resigned his position as regent of Radcliffe college, the students and other friends imited in

founding the " Arthur Oilman book fund of the Radclirt'e college library,'' the income of which was to purchase books on history and literature, tho.se being the subjects In which he was espe- cially interested. On Aj)ril 13, 1860, he was mar- ried to Amy Cooke, daughter of Samuel Ball, of Lee, Mass., by whom he had four children, and on July 11, 1876, to Stella, daughter of David Scott of Tuscaloosa, Ala., by whom he had three children. Mrs. Oilman is the author of " Mothers in Council " (1884) and " The Mother's Record " (1883). Mr. Oilman was elected to membership in a number of historical and literary societies. He was made a life member of the American his- torical association. He was for years secretary of the Humane society of Cambridge. Upon the death of the poet Longfellow, he was one of those who formed the Longfellow memorial associa- tion, of which he was secretary from the begin- ning. He was one of the original members of the St. Botolph club of Boston; was elected corre- sponding member of the New York biographical and genealogical society, and of the Wisconsin historical society, and was a member of the Lowell memorial society. He received the de- gree of M. A. from Williams college in 1867. He wrote much for periodicals; edited and contrib- uted to Boston, I'ast and Present (1873), Lihranj of Erligions Poetry (1880), The Kingdom of Home (1881), andiVai/JW Charta Stories (1882);also edited the Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (3 vols., 1879); compiled an Index to the Complete Edition of the Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1884): and is the author of The Gilman Family, Traced in the Line of the Hon. John Gilman of Exeter, N.H. (1869); First Steps in English Literature (1870): Kings, Queens and Barbarians (1870); First Steps in General History (1874); The Camhridge of 1776 (1876); Shakespeare's Morals (1879); History of the American People (1883); Tales of the Pathfinders (1884); The Story of Pome (188.5); Short Stories from the Dictionary (1886); Story of the Saracens (1886); The Story of Boston (1889, new ed., 1895): The Camhridge of 1896 (1896); Palemon and Arcite fov the Riverside literature series (1898). He was also associated with Baring-Oould, Church, Stanley, Lane-Poole, Mahaffy and Raw- linson in preparing for the Stoi-y of the Nation series the volumes on Oermany, Carthage, the Moors in Spain, the Turks, the empire of Alexan- der, and Egypt.

QILMAN, Benjamin Ives, psychologist, was born in New York city, Feb. 19, 18.52; son of Winthrop Sargent and Abia Swift (Lippincott). grandson of Benjamin Ives and Hannah (Rob- bins), great-grandson of Judge Joseph and Re becca (Ives), great- grandson of the Rev. Nicholas and Mary f Tiling), great'grand.son of Jud.cje Nicholas and Sarah (Clark), and great'