Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/140

 HART

HART

COAKJRESS HALL.

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He then executed a colossal bronze statue of Clay, wliich is in New Orleans, and a marble statue of the s;iiue subject for the court house, Lexington, Ky. He invented a device by which he obtiiined the exact dimensions of the head and bust of liv- ing subjects and thus secured a degree of accuracy that g:ive his portrait busts great favor. His best exam{)les are Woman Triumphant, in the Court House, Louisville, Ky.; H reuscroao; and Charity. He died in Florence, Italy, March 1, 1877.

HART, John, signer of the Declaration of In- dependence, was l)orn in Hopewell, \.J., in 1707; son of Capt. Edward Hart, commander of the New Jersey Blues in the French and Canadian wars. He was a farmer, was a member of the provincial legislature for several terms, and a public- spirited citizen; an advocate of better schools and roads, and of the enforce- ment of law and order. In his neighborhood he was known as " Honest John Hart." He opposed the stamp act of 1765 and suggested the delegates to the New York con- gress of October in that year. He was a delegate to the Continental congress, 1774^76, and signed the Declaration of Independence when he was in his seventieth year. He was chairman of the committee of safety, 1777-78. His farm and stock were destroyed by the Hessians, his family exiled and his wife died from privation and anxiety as to his safety, a price having been placed on his head by the British commander. His two sons, Edward and Daniel, served in the Revolutionary war. He retired to his desolated farm after the battles of Trenton and Princeton, 1777, and died there, probably. May 9-10, 1779. As his will was prol)ated May 26, 1779, the date of his death as 1780 on his monument is evidently an error.

HART, John Seely, educator and author, was bfjrn at .Stockl)ridge, Mass., Jan. 28, 1810; son of Lsiiac and Abigail (Stone) Hart; grandson of Job and Rachel (Tyrrell) Ball Hart, and of the Rev. John S. Stone, D.D., and a descendant in the eighth generation of Deacon Stephen Hart, who was born in Braintree, Essex, England, in 1605, and came to ^Ias.sachu.setts Bay about 1632. In 1812 his parents removed to Luzerne county, Pa., near Scranton. and in 1823 to Wilkes- Barre, where Jolin attended the academy. He was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1830, taught for a year in Natchez, Miss., and was graduated from Princeton theological semi- narj- in 1834. He was a tutor at the College of New Jersey, 1832-34, and adjunct professor of

ancient languages, 1834-36. He was licensed by the presbytery of New Brunswick, Aug. 4, 1835, but subsequently returned his license to the pres- bytery, by whom it was cancelled. He was married April 21, 1836, to Amelia Caroline, daughter of Edmund Morford of Princeton, N.J. He was principal of the Edgehill school at Prince- ton, 1836-42, and of the Philadelphia high school, 1842-59. Meanwhile he edited the Pennsylvania Common School Jounud in 1844, and Snrlain's Mafjazine, 1849-5L He edited the })ublications of the American Sunday School union in Philadel- phia, 1859-62. He established the Sunday School Times and to secure gi-eater independence for this paper he separated from the union in 1861 and continued the periodical on his own account till 1871. He was principal of the model department of the New Jersey state normal scliool. Trenton, 1862-63, and jDrincipal of the entire institution, 1863-71. He was lecturer on the English lan- guage in the College of New Jersey, 1864-71, and professor of rhetoric and English language there, 1872-74. He resigned and removed to Philadelphia, where he devoted his time to literary work. He received the degree of LL.D. from Miami university in 1850. Among his publica- tions are: Reports of the Philadelphia JJu/h School (1842-59); Class-Book of Poetry and Class- Book of Prose (1844); Essay on the Life and Writings of Edmund Spenser (1847); Female Prose Writers of America (1851); In the School Poom (1868); Manual of Composition and Phetoric (1870); Manual of English Literature (1872); Manual of American Literature (1873); Short Course in Literature, Eng- lish and American {19)14:); Language Lessons and English Grammar Analysis (1876); 3Iistakes of Ed- ucated Men; and Greek and Poman Mythology. At the time of his death he was engaged upon a Grammar of Grammars. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., March 26, 1877.

HART, Jonathan, soldier, was born in Ken- sington, Conn., in 1744; son of Deacon Ebenezer and Elizabeth Lawrence Hart; grandson of Deacon Thomas and Mary (Thompson) Hart; great-grand.son of Capt. Thomas and Ruth (Haw- kins) Hart; and great ^ grandson of Thomas Hart, born in 1644, freeman of Cambridge, Mass., and Hartford and Farmington, Conn He wasgradu ated at Yale in 1768. taught school in New Jersey, 1768-73, and was a merchant in Kensington, 1773-75. He served in the American army throughout the Revolution as a member of the l.st Connecticut regiment, and at the close of the war held the rank of cajitain. He then became a public surveyor and in 1785 was appointed a captain in the 1st U.S. infantry He was sent with his regiment to the Indiana territory and was in the Indian campaign under Gen. Charles Scott and Gen, Josiah Harmer. He was promoted