Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/195

 KARSTEN

KASSON

liead of a prominent classical school there. At the first call for troops in 18G1 he offered his serv- ices, and in August, 1862, he was made acting colonel, without commission, of the 1st New Jersey cavalr\'. He was commissioned lieutenant- colonel of the regiment in February, 1862, and took part in nearly all the battles in Virginia. He was wounded at Rappahannock Bridge, but joined his regiment again in time to participate in the battle of Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 18G2. In 1863 he organized the 2d New Jersey cavalry and was assigned to the army of the Tennessee. His command was constantly in service until the close of the war and he gained distinction as a commander. He was brevetted brigadier-general for gallant and meritorious services, April 9, 1868, and was mustered out of the volunteer service in November, 1865. He accepted a commission in the regular army, spent three years on the fron- tier, resigned his commission in 1870 to accept the professorship of Continental languages and literature at the College of New Jersey, Prince- ton, and held the chair until his death, which occurred in New York city, Dec. 27, 1892.

KARSTEN, Qustaf Friedrich, educator, was born at Petershagenfeld bei Tiegenhof, West Prussia, Germany, May 2, 1859 ; son of Michael and Henrietta (Glodde) Karsten. He received his early education at Tiegenhof high school and at the Marienburg gvmnasium and subsequently pursued courses at the universities of Leipzig, Konigsberg, Heidelberg, Geneva, Freiburg and Tiibingen. He was privat-docent of Germanic and Romance philology at Geneva university, Switzerland, 188.5-86, and in the latter year be- came professor of Romance philology and in 1889 professor of Germanic languages at the Univer- sity of Indiana. He was elected secretary of the phonetic section of the Modern Language Asso- ciation of America in 1887. In 1896 he founded and became editor-in-chief of the Journal of Germanic Philology. He received the degree of Ph.D. from Freiburg university, Germany, in 1883. He is the author of many lectures and contributions to the leading American and Euro- pean periodicals.

KASSON, John Adam, diplomatist, was born at Charlotte, Vt., Jan. 11, 1822; son of John Steele and Nancy (Blackman) Kasson ; grandson of Adam and Honor (Steele) Kasson, and a de- scendant of Adam and Jane (Hall) Kasson, who sailed from Belfast, Ireland, in 1722, landing in Boston, Mass., with seven sons and two daughters. He prepared for college in the public schools and a country academj', and was graduated from the University of Vermont in 1842. He then entered as a student the law office of his brother, tutored for some months in 1843 in Virginia, and on his return renewed the study of law in the office of

Judge Emery Washburn, at Worcester, Mass., and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1844. He practised at New Bedford. Mass., 1844- 49 ; removed to St. Louis, Mo., and there practised law successfully for six years, and in 1857 settled in practice at Des Moines, Iowa. He was chairman of the Republican state com- mittee, 18.58-60, and a delegate to the Re- publican national convention at Chi- cago in 1860, where he was a member of the committee and sub-committee on res- olutions. He was first assistant postmaster- general of the United States by appoint- ment of President Lin- coln, 1861-62 ; revised and codified the postal law of the United States, and prepared the scheme and invitation to foreign governments to partici- pate in the " International Postal Conference" at Paris, which was initiated by the U.S. post office department, and which laid the foundation of the present " Postal Union " embracing the civilized world. In 1863 he was the U.S. special commis- sioner to that conference, which gave him a vote of thanks, and in 1867 he was again sent to Europe to make postal treaties with various countries. He was a Republican representative from the fifth Iowa district in the 38th and 39th con- gresses, 1863-67, the 43d and 44th congresses, 1873- 77, and the 48th and 49th congresses. 1881-84, serving on the ways and means committee, as chairman of the committee on coinage, weights and measures, and on the committee of foreign affairs. He secured the passage of the laws re- ported by his committee establishing the metric decimal system in the United States. He was a member of the Iowa state legislature for three terms, 1868-73, elected especially to secure the erection of the state capitol building at Des Moines ; was U.S. minister to Austria, 1877-81, and left his .seat in congress in 1884 to accept the office of U.S. minister to Germany, serving 1884- 85 ; and was special envoy to the Congo interna- tional conference at Berlin, 1885 ; but on the ac- cession of Grover Cleveland to the Presidency, he resigned his diplomatic post, though Prince Bismarck had privately requested his retention b}' the new administration. He was president of the interstate constitutional centennial commission at Piiiladelphia, 1887 ; and was commissioned as U.S. special envoj' to the Samoa international conference at Berlin, 1889, where he secured an