Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/327

 HOLCOMBE

HOLDEN

HOLCOMBE, Reuben, clergyman and educa- tor, was burn in Simsbury, Conn., Feb. 11, 1752; son of Reuben and Susannah (Hayes) Holcombe, of the fifth generation from Tliomas Holcombe, the Puritan, who came to Boston in 1630. He was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1774; A.M., 1778, and studied divinity under the Rev. Dr. Joseph Strong, of Simsbury, Conn., whose daughter Jane he married. He was ordained, June 15, 1779, and was pastor of the First Congregational church in the West Parish of Lancaster (now Sterling) Mass., 1779-1814. AVith the Rev. Dr. Aaron Ban- croft and six others, he founded the " Worcester Association," which compiled the Worcester cat- echism. He owned the best farm in Worcester county, raised hemp, cultivated the silk-worm, and his wife wove silk from the cocoons. He received from the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agi'iculture a silver tankard valued at £13 sterling, for an essay on " The Best Method of Raising Wheat " (1790). He opjjosed war with Great Britain in 1812, and published two sermons on the subject. He educated over a score of young men for the ministry, prepared many for college, and advocated the higher education of women. He adopted Capt. Augustine Hol- combe, son of his brother Xahum, and working together they were pioneers in improved methods ■of agriculture and horticulture in Massachusetts. He died in Sterling, Mass., Oct. 18. 1824.

HOLCOMBE, William Frederic, physician, was born in Sterling, Mass., April 2, 1827; son of Capt. Augustine and Lucy (Busli) Holcombe; grandson of Nahum and Rebecca (Moore) Hol- combe, sixtli in de- scent from Nathaniel and Mary Bliss) Hol- combe of Springfield, Mass., and seventliin descent from Thomas and Elizabetli Hol- combe, the immi- grants who came to Boston in 1630, re- moving to Windsor, Conn., in 1635, and to Poquonnock, Conn., in 1639. This Thomas Holcombe was a dele- gate to Hartford to form the first con- stitution of the state of Connecticut. AVilliani Frederic was graduated at the Albany Medical college in 1850, and then studied several years in Europe. He was apjjointed professor of dis- eases of the e\-e and ear in the Xew York Medi- cal college in 1862, the first in America to hold such a position, and he also liekl similar pro- fessorships in other New York medical schools.

He was eye and ear surgeon to the Demilt dis- pensary for seventeen years. He accompanied Senator Charles Sumner when he went to Paris in 1858 to be treated by Dr. Brown-Sequard. He was a delegate to the International medical conventions in Paris, 1881 and 1888, and a mem- ber of the New York Academy of Medicine, and of various medical societies in New York and Paris. In June. 1881, he delivered the Centennial address in his native town. He was one of the seven founders of the New York Genealogical and Biographical society in 1869, and prepai-ed in manuscript: The Genealogy and History of the Holcombes of America and England; The Bush Family of Watertown and Boijhton, Mass.-; The Value and Importance of Family Records; ■ Our Record-Duties to Our Ancestors, to Ourselves and to Our Descendants, and The Advantages Derived from Genealogical Investigations.

HOLCOriBE, William Henry, physician, was born in Lynchburg, Va., Ma}- 25, 1825; son of the Rev. William James and Eliza (Clopton) Hol- combe. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, M.D., in 1^(47, and was a practising physician in Lynchburg. Ya., Cincinnati, Ohio, and New Orleans, La. He was president of the American Institute of Homeopath}^, 1874-75, and a prominent disciple of Swedenborg. He pub- lislied: Scientific Basis of Homeopathy (1852); Poems (1860); Our Children in Heaven (1868); Tlie Sexes Here and Hereafter (1869); In Both Worlds (1870); The Other Life (1871); Southern Voices (1872); The Lost Truths of Christianity (1879); Tlte End of the World (1881); The Keio Life (1884); Letters on Spiritual Subjects '(1885). He died in New Orleans, La., Nov. 28, 1893.

HOLDEN, Edward Singleton, astronomer, was born in St. Louis, Mo.. Nov. 5, 1846; son of Ed- ward and Sarah F. (Singleton) Holden, grand- son of Edward and Anne (Pay son) Holden, and a descendant of Justinian Holden, of Watertown, who came to Boston in the ship Frances in the summer of 1634. He was graduated at AVashing- ton university, B.S., in 1866, and received the honorary degree of A.M. in 1875. He was grad- uated at the U.S. Military academy in 1870; was commissioned 2d lieutenant in the 4th artillery, and 2d lieutenant in the corps of engi- neers in 1871. He was on dutj' at Fort Johnston, N.C., 1870-71; was assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy at the U.S. Militarv academy, 1871-72, and instructor of engineering there, 1872-73. He resigned his commission in the army in 1873 to become professor of mathe- matics in the L^.S. naval service. He was an as- sistant in the work of the transit-circle at the observatory in AA'ashington, D.C., and assisted Professor Simon Newcomb in charge of the 26- inch equatorial telescope. He went to London