Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/37

 EWBANK

EWELL

EWBANK, Thomas, scientist, was born in Durham, England, Marcii 11, 1793. He served an indenture of seven years, 1805-13, as a tin and copper smith, glazier, sheet iron and wire worker, plumber, brass founder and caster of shot, and was employed bj- a London tin smith, 1813-19, using all his spare time and money in reading and collecting books. He immigrated to the, United States in 1819. and manufactured tin, lead and copper tubing in New York city, 1830-3G. After 1836 he devoted himself exclusivel3- to the study of the philosophy and history of inventions. He was U.S. commissioner of patents, 1849-53, and at the time of the extension of the capitol at Washington he was appointed on the committee to examine the strength of the variovis marbles. At his suggestion wood was substituted for the lead plates previously used between the stones, he having demonstrated that when lead was employed the stones would give way at half the pressui-e they would sustain without it. He was a founder and active member of the American ethnological society. He published: Descriptive and Historical Account of Hydraulic and other Machines, Ancient and Modern {1S42, 16th ed., 1863); The World a Work Shop, or, the rhysical Belation of Men to the Earth (1855); Life in Brazil (1857); Thoughts on Matter and Force (1858); and Eeminis- cences in the Patent Office (18.59). He died in New York city, N.Y., Sept. 16, 1870.

EWELL, Benjamin Stoddert, educator, was born in Washington. DC, June 10, ISIO; son of Dr. Thomas and Elizabetli (Stoddert) Ewell, and grandson of Benjamin Stoddert, the first secretary of the U.S. navy. He was instructed at George- town college, was graduated at the U.S. military academy in 1833, and continued at the acad- emy as assistant pro- fessor of mathemat- ics, 1833-35, and as assistant professor of natural and experi- mental philosophy, 1835-36. He then re- signed from the army and was an engineer on the construction of the Baltimore & Su.?- quehanna railroad, < r O /I 1836-39: professor of \j C^U/CCi mathematics at

^ Hampden-Sidney col- lege, 1840-46; the Cincinnati professor of mathe- matics and military science in Washington college, Lexington, Va., 1846-49; professor of mathematics and acting president of William and Mary college. 1849-54, and president of that institution, 1854^-61. He served in the Confed-

erate army, first as colonel of the 33d Virginia volunteers, 1861-63, afterward as adjutant -gen- eral to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in command of the department of Tennessee and Mississippi. In 1869, when William and Mary college was rebuilt, he again assumed the presidency and held the struggling institution together until 1881, when it suspended. The general assemblj' of Virginia in March, 1888, voted an appropriation of 810,000 annually for its support, and President Ewell was elected president emeritus. He re- ceived the degree of LL.D. from Hobart college in 1874 and was made an honorary member of the Royal historical society of Great Britain in 1880. He opposed secession in 1801, urged the election and reelection of President Grant in 1868 and

1873, and appeared before congress in 1874 and again in 1876 in behalf of an appropriation to reimburse William and Mary college for the de- struction of its buildings fired by Federal troops in 1863. He died in James City, Va., June 19, 1894.

EWELL, Marshall Davis, la<vyer, was born in Oxford. Mich., Aug. 18, 1844; .son of Edmund C. and Frances E. Ewell. He was graduated from the Michigan state normal school in 1864, from the law department of the University of Michigan in 1868, was admitted to the bar the same 3^ear and began practice in Detroit, Mich. He was married in 1870 to Abbie L. Walker. He was elected judge of probate of Mason county in

1874, ajid held the chair of common law in the Union college of law, Chicago, 1877-92. In 1884 he was graduated M. D. from the Chicago medical college. He became non-resident lecturer on med- ical jurispnidence in Cornell miiversity in 1888, and in the University of Michigan in 1890. In 1893 he organized the Kent college of law,Chicago, of which he was elected president and dean. He gave much attention to microscopy and metrol- ogy, was chosen fellow of the Royal micro- scopical society of London in 1886, and a member of several other similar societies. He established a I'eputation as a microscopical expert and exam- iner of questioned handwriting. He received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Michi- gan in 1879, and that of A.M. from Northwestern university in 1889. He is the author of works on Mi'diraJ Jnrisprudftu-c, Tlic Laio of Fixtures, etc.

EWELL, Richard Stoddert, soldier, was born in Georgetown, D.C, Feb. 8, 1817; son of Dr. Thomas and Elizabeth (Stoddert) Ewell; and grandson of the Hon. Benjamin Stoddert, first secretary of the U.I3. navy. He was graduated at the U.S. military academy in 1840 and served in the Mexican war as lieutenant. He was pro- moted captain in August, 1840, and won distinc- tion in 1857 in New Mexico where he dispersed a superior force of Apache Indians. Upon the secession of Virginia he resigned his commission