Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/206

 HEAKST

HEATHCOTE

several contributions to medical journals, includ- ing papers on The Epidemics, Topography ami Cli- matology of Texas (186b); and Epidemics and Climatology (1869); contributed to the Transac- tions of the American medical association. He died in Galveston, Texas, March H, 1899.

HEARST, George, senator, was born in Frank- lin count}', Mo., Sept. 3, 1820. His father was a native of South Carolina, who had removed to Missouri in 1819. George worked on the farm during liis boyhood and was graduated from Franklin County mining school in 1888. In 1850 he went to California and engaged in mining, but was unsuccessful until 18r)9 wiien, witii a party of friends, he went to the famous Comstock lode. There he obtained an interest in the Ophir mine and became very wealthy. He also engaged extensively in the real estate business and in fancy stock raising and farming. In I860 he was a representative in the California legislature. He was the unsuccessful candidate for governor of California in 1883, and in 1886, on the death of U.S. Senator John F. Miller, was elected to fill the vacancy. In 1887 he was elected for the full term and held the office until his death. He was an authority on mines and mining, and was the proprietor of the San Francisco Examiner, edited by his son, William R. Hearst, who became owner and editor-in-chief of that paper as well as of the Journal and Advertiser of New York city. He was married to Phebe Apperson and after his death she was the chief patron of the University of California and devoted to that institution not only the bulk of her vast fortune, but by making her home in Berkeley, gave to the faculty and pupils the benefit of social communion that fos- tered a spirit of fraternity hitherto unknown in university life. Senator Hearst died in Wash- ington, D.C., Feb. 28, 1891.

HEATH, William, .soldier, was born in Rox- bury, Mass., March 7, 1737. He lived on the farm originally settled upon by his first ancestor in America in 1636. He was a student of military science and joined the militia, in which he served as captain and then as colonel of the Suffolk regi- ment. In 1770 he commanded the Ancient and Honorable artillery of Boston. He considered himself "fully anquainted with the theory of war in all its V)ranches and duties, fron^ the private soldier to the c-ommander-in-chief. '' He was a meml^er of the General asseml/iy in 1701 and again in 1771-74; was a member of the committee of correspondence and sfifety; and a member of the provincial congress of Mas.sachusetts. 1774-75. On Dec. 8, 1774, ne was commi.ssioned provincial brigadier-general and was the only general officer on the field at the battle of Lexington. April 19, 1775. and as such dire r-ted the pursuit of Percy from Cuncord. He tlien engaged ii drilling and

disciplining the provincial army at Cambridge, and on June 20, 1775, was promoted major-general of the provincial troops. On the organization of the Continental army he was on June 22, 1775, commissioned brigadier-general, and on Aug. 9, 1776, was made major-general. He was ordered to New York and op- posed the evacuation of that city, and af- ter the disaster at White Plains com- manded the defences of the highlands. In 1777 he succeeded General Ward in command of the east- ern department, with headquarters in the house of Thomas Russell on Summer street, Boston. He -'^1^2/^ j y

had charge of Bur- //(/Le^dPrA^^ • goyne and his army

at Cambridge, Ma.ss., where they were held as prisoners of war from Nov. 6, 1777, to Oct. 15, 1778, when they were removed to the center of the state, and in November were luarched to Vir- ginia. On Nov. 6, 1778, General Gates succeeded to the command in Boston and General Heath, with four regiments, commanded the posts of the Hudson river at West Point in 1779. after Arnold's treason, and several times was in temporary com- mand of the entire American army. He returned to his farm after the war and was a member of the convention of Massachusetts that ratified the Federal constitution; was a state senator, 1791- 92; probate judge of Norfolk county in 1793; and declined to serve as lieutenant-governor of the commonwealth in 1806. He outlived all the other major-generals of the war. He is the author of: Memoirs of Major- (ieneral William Heath, containing Anecdotes, Details of Skirmishes, Battles, etc., during the American Tla/- (1798). He died in Roxbury, Mass.. Jan. 24, 1814.

HEATHCOTE, Caleb, merchant, was born in Derbyshire, England, March 6, 1665. He came to America in 1691 and became a prosperous mer- chant. William III. made him a councillor of the province in 1692. and he held the office at the time of his death. He organized the town of West- chester, was its first mayor, the first judge of Westchester county and colonel of the militia. He formed in 1695 " The Managers of the Church of England " and was made chairman of the body, which in May, 1697, petitioned Governor Fletcher and the council for a charter forTriiiity church, which was granted and lie was the first vestryman r-lio'^en. He was receiver-general of the province, 1697, and again in 1702. His estate