Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/87

 HANDY

HANDY

son college ; studied law, was admitted to the bar and removed to Mississippi in 1836, where he practised his profession. He was a judge of the high court of errors of the state, 1853-67. He was a secession commissioner sent by the gov- ernor of Mississippi in 1860 to the state of Mary- land, but failed to obtain a liearing before the legislature. He made a speech in Baltimore, Dec. 19, 1860, in which he claimed secession to be a temporary expedient " not intended to break up the present government but to perpetuate it."' In 1867 he located in Baltimore, where he prac- tised law and was professor in the University of Maryland, 1867-71. He returned to Mississippi in 1871. He published Secession Considered as a Bight (1862) ; and A Parallel between the Reign of James the Second of England and that of Abraham Lin- coln. He died in Canton, Miss., Sept. 12. 1883.

HANDY, James A., A.M.E. bishop, was born in Marvland, Dec. 22, 1826. He became a mem- ber of the A.M.E. church in Baltimore in 1853, was licensed to preach in 1860; was a member of the territorial legislature of the District of Columbia ; recording and corresponding secretary of the Home and Foreign missionary societj' of his church, 1868-72; a member of the financial board, 1880, 1884 and 1888; presiding elder. 1873- 86; chairman of the Episcopal committee of General conferences, 1884, and in 1892 was or dained a bishop, his district comprising Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah and New Mexico. He received the honor- ary degree of D. D. from Wilberforce in 1884, and was made a trustee of tlie university.

HANDY, Levin Irving, representative, was born at Berlin, Md, Dec. 24, 1861 ; son of the Rev. William C. and Marie (Breckinridge) Handy; grandson of William W. and Sally B. (Upshur) Handy, and of the Rev. Dr. Robert J. and Soph- onisba (Preston) Breckinridge and a descendant in the seventh generation of Samuel Handy and Mary Sewell his wife, both of whom (although not married at the time) came to America fi"om London in 1664, in the barque Assurance, landing at Annapolis, Md. Samuel Handy settled in Somerset county, Md., and died thei-e. May 15, 1727, leaving thirteen children. Levin Irving Handy taught school in Somerset count}*, Md., and in Smyrna, Del., 1881-87; was superin- tendent of free schools in Kent county, Del., 1887-90; was chairman of the Democratic state central committee of Delaware in 1892 and 1894; and was an editorial writer on the W^ilmington Every Evening, 1894-95. He was admitted to the bar in 1899 and practised in W^ilmington, Del. He was a Democratic representative in the 55th congress, 1897-99. He was unanimously renom- inated by his party but was defeated in the elec- tion.

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HANDY, Moses Purnell, journalist, was born in Warsaw, Mo., April 14, 1847; son of the Rev. Isaac William Ker and Mary G. R. (Purnell) Handy. His father was born Dec. 14, 1815; grad- uated at Jefferson college. Pa., in 1835, and at Princeton theological seminary in 1838; was a Presbyterian min- ister in Delaware, 1838-44; at Warsaw, Mo., 1844-47, and in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, 1848- 75; was a political prisoner at Fort Delaware, 1861-62, and died in Pliil- adelphia. Pa., June

14, 1878. Moses Pur- ^ ^ /

nell was educated at the Virginia colle- giate institute. Ports- ; ./' mouth, Va. ; declined '^I't.^t^.^rai^ iP, a position in the Bal- timore post office, as well as a college course proffered by an uncle in 1864, and made his way to Richmond, Va., where he joined his father and brother and was conscripted into the Con- federate army and assigned to the staff of Gen- eral Stevens, chief of engineers in the army of Northern Virginia. After the war he worked on the Christian Observer in Richmond, and then on the Dispatch, where he became a A'aluable reporter and subsequently an editor. He was for a time general manager for the southern states of the American Press association. As correspondent of the New York Tribune he visited Cuba, wit- nessed the surrender of the Virginins by the Spanish government to the U.S. authorities, and was the only newspaper man possessed of the government secret. This journalistic exploit secured him a position on the editorial staff of the Tribune. He reported the W^omen's temperance crusade in Oliio, and the centennial celebration of Bunker Hill, 1876. He was editor-in chief of the Richmond E-nquirer, 1875-76; commissioner to the centennial exposition, Philadelpliia, 1876; assistant editor of the Philadelphia Times, 1876- 80; managing editor of the Pliiladelphia Press, 1880-84; founder of the Daily Xei'-s, Philadelphia, and its editor, 1884-88; Washington correspond- ent of the New York World, 1888-89; editor of the Times-Herald, Chicago, 111., 1889-90; editor- in-chief of the Columbian exposition, 1891-94; chief of the bureau of promotion and publicity of the World's Columbian exposition. Chicago, 1892- 93, and special commissioner of the United States for the Paris exposition of 1900. by appointment of President McKinley in July, 1897. In Paris he secured for America a large additional grant of