Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/381

 HOSMER

HOSMER

Poems (with William C. Gannett (q. v.), 1885 ; 26. ser., 1894); Unity Hymns and Chorals (edited with W. C. Gannett and J. Vila Blake, 18S0), and various poems, magazine articles and dis- courses.

HOSMER, George Washington, clergyman, was born in Concord, Mass., Nov. 27, 1803; son of Cyrus and Patty (Barrett) Hosmer, and grand- son of Joseph and Lucy (Barnes) Hosmer. His grandfather Joseph, an early " Son of Liberty," was lieutenant of a company of minutemen which he commanded at Concord Bridge, April 19, 1775 ; a member of the committee of safety ; served during the war in the commissary dejiart- ment ; was for many years a member of the state legislature, in which he was long chairman of the committee on ways and means ; and for four- teen years high sheriff of Middlesex. George Washington Hosmer was graduated at Harvard, A.B., 1826; A.M., 1829, and S.T.B., 1830. He was pastor of the First Congregational (L'nitarian) church, Northfield, Mass. , 1830-36 ; of the Church of Our Father, Buffalo, N.Y., 1836-66; president of Antioch college. Yellow Springs, Ohio, 1866- 73 ; non-resident professor of pastoral care in the Meadville Theological school, Pa., 1862, and pas- tor of the Channing Religious society, Newton, Mass., 1873-79. He received the honorary degree of S.T.D. from Harvard in 18.53. He published : Progressive Lessons for Sunday Schools (oth ed., 1861), and many sermons and addresses. He died in Canton, Mass., July 5, 1881.

HOSMER, Harriet Goodhue, sculptor, was born in Watertown, Mass., Oct. 9, 1830 ; daughter of Dr. Hiram and Sarah Watson (Grant) Hosmer, and granddaughter of Governor Grant, of Wal- pole, N.H. Being a delicate child she was early encouraged in a course of phj-si- cal training and she became an expert in rowing, skating and riding. She was edu- cated at Lenox, Mass., wliere she carried out

J." P -" '• an early propensity

^' ' ^ to model in clay. Af-

ter taking a course of anatomical in- struction in the St. Louis Medical col- lege, she travelled alone through the far west, visiting the Dakota Indians, and ascending a steep cliff on the Mississippi river, which was thereafter called "Mount Hosmer," and now forms part of the town of Lansing, Iowa. On returning to the east she took lessons in modelling in Boston, and prac-

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tised the art at home. She made a reduced copy of Canova's Napoleon and followed it with " Hesper," an ideal head, exhibited in Boston in 1852. With her father she visited Rome in November, 1852, and studied and worked in the studio of John Gibson, the English sculptor. Here she copied from the antique, and executed ideal busts of "Daphne" and " Medusa," which were well received hy art critics. In 1855 she completed " CEnone," her first life-size figure. Her stattie of "Puck," modelled in the summer of 1855, established her reputation at home, and she was favored with orders for at least thirty copies. She followed it with " Will-o'-the-Wisp," a companion figure. She completed •' Beatrice Cenci," a reclining statue, for the Public library, St. Louis, in 1857, and a monument placed in the Church of San Andrea del Frate, Rome, in 1858. She completed "Zenobia," a colossal statue, in 1859, after two years of assiduous labor. This was succeeded by her statue of Thomas H. Benton, that was cast in bronze, and placed in LafaN'ette Park, St. Louis, !Mo. Her " Sleeping Fawn," was exhibited at Dublin, Ireland, in 1865, and at Paris in 1807, and was eight times repeated. She also executed a companion piece, " The Waking Fawn," She executed two fountains: a Siren and Cupids, which were purchased by Earl Brown- low, of England, and twin fountains of a Triton and Mermaid's cradle for Louisa, Lady Ash bur- ton ; two statues for the Prince of Wales ; a statue of the Queen of Naples as the " Heroine of Gaeta ;" a monument to Abraham Lincoln, and a gateway to an art-gallery in England, She had a faculty for designing and constructing machinery and devised the expedient of coating a rough plaster cast with wax and working out the finer details in that substance. She did all her Avork in Rome. In 1894 she presented to the Art Insti- tute of Chicago, 111., a cast of tlie clasped liands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, made in 1858, and for which she had refused $5000 in England.

HOSMER, James Kendall, librarian, was born in Northfield, Mass., Jan. 29, 1834 ; son of George AVashington and Hannah Poor (Kendall) Hosmer and a direct descendant from James Hosmer, of Hawkhurst, Kent, England, who settled in Con- cord, Mass., in 1636. He was prepared for college at Buffalo, N.Y .; was graduated at Harvard, A.B., 1855, B.D., 1859, and was minister at Deerfield, Mass., 1860-66. He served as corporal in the 52d Massachusetts volunteers, 1862-63 ; was a teaclier at Antioch college, 1866-72 ; professor of English and history at the University of the State of JMis- souri, 1872-74 ; of English and German literature at Washington universitj', St. Louis, 1874-92 ; and became librarian of the Public libraiy. Min- neapolis, Minn., in 1892. He was married, Oct.