Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/256

 KIDDER

KIDWELL

Samuel (1666-1724) married Sarah Griggs, and their sou Thomas, born, 1686, married Mrs. Lydia (Pren- tice) Cooper, and had eleven children. Henry Purkitt Kidder was educated in the English high school, Boston ; was clerk in a grocery store in Boston, 1838-39 ; was employed with the Boston and Worcester railroad, 1839-43, and in the bank- ing office of Nathaniel Thayer, 1843-58, and was in partnership with Mr. Thayer, 1858-65. In 1865 he established the banking-house of Kidder, Pea- body & Co. In 1886 the house became the agents of the Baring Brothers of London, England. Mr. Kidder was president of the Children's Mission and of the Adams Nervine asylum ; a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ; a founder of the Boston Art club ; chairman of the board of trustees of the Young Men's Christian Union ; state trustee of the Massachusetts Gen- eral hospital ; a trustee and treasurer of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts from its organiza- tion ; an overseer of Harvard, 1881-86, and pres- ident of the American Unitarian association. He was twice married : first to Caroline W. Archbald, of Hopkinton, Mass., and they had three sons : Henry T., Charles Archbald and Nathaniel Thayer ; and secondly, in 1883 to Elizabeth Huidekoper of Meadville, Pa., who survived him. He died in New York city, Jan. 28, 1886.

KIDDER, Wellington Parker, inventor, was born at Norridgewock, Maine, Feb. 19, 1853 ; son of Wellington and Annie (Winslow) Kidder, and grandson of Isaac Kidder and of the Rev. Howard Winslow. His father, a farmer, invented several improvements in farming implements. Wel- lington attended the district school, and for three years the Eaton preparatory school in Norridge- wock. In 1868, when but fifteen years old, he patented through Clifford, patent attorney, an improvement in rotary steam engines. A few years later the superintendent of the locomotive repair shops of Portland, Maine, sought to ob- tain a patent for the same invention. He studied applied mechanics and drawing in Boston, Mass., 1869-1874. In 1874 he became interested in print- ing presses and he invented a web automatic ad- justable printing press, which received a diploma from the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics association in 1878. The Kidder press came into general use, being especially adapted to job print- ing and to printing and consecutively numbering railroad and other tickets from a continuous roll. He made numerous improvements in printing presses, including intermittent web feeding, also a system of machinery for bending and finishing electro-plates. He was married, Sept. 4, 1878, to Emma Louise, daughter of Francis and Louisa (Axtel) Hinckley, of Maiden, Mass. In 1880 he incorporated the Kidder Press Manufacturing company and was its secretary, treasurer and

mechanical engineer till 1894. He invented the " Franklin " and " Wellington " typewriting machines and became president of the Welling- ton Typewriter company. The Wellington was patented and sold as the " Empire " in over twenty foreign countries, and was manufactured in the United States, Canada and Germany. He is the inventor of a noiseless writing machine called the " Silent," adapted to rapid manifold- ing work and substituting for the resounding blow, a quiet pressure by leverage, as in a print- ing press. In 1898, after several months spent in France, Germany and England, and a thorough investigation of the subject in the United States, he invented important improvements in automo- biles and in heavy motor trucking vehicles, manufactured by the Kidder Motor Vehicle com- pany, of New Haven, Conn., for which company Mr. Kidder became consulting engineer in Jan- uary, 1900. His invention covered the direct spring-mounted gear, eliminating the chain and sprocket wheel.

KIDDLE, Henry, educator, was born in Bath, England, in 1824. He was brought to America by his parents in 1833 and in 1837 began to teach in the public schools under the old public-school society. In 1841 he became principal of the first public school established by that society. He took up the study of law in the office of Samuel J. Tilden, in connection with his duties as prin- cipal, and was admitted to the bar in 1848, He was appointed assistant to the city superintendent Samuel Randall in 1849 and in 1870 left the prin- cipalship of the Saturday Normal school to be- come Mr. Randall's successor. In 1879 he em- braced the Spiritualistic faith and the same year, on May 22, offered his resignation to the board of education, which was accepted by a narrow majority in September. He afterward devoted himself to lecturing on Spiritualism and compiling school text-books. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Union in 1854, and %vas made an officer of the French Academy by the University of France. He is the author of : Spiritual Communications (1879); Kiddle's Ele- mentary Physics ; Outlines of Astronomy ; Brown's Grammar ; Dictionary of Edncatio7i ; a series of educational text-books, and a series of readers. He compiled, in conjunction with Pro- fessor Schem. Encyclopedia of Education (1876). He died in New York city, Sept. 25. 1891.

KIDWELL, Zedekiah, representative, was born in Fairfax county, Va., Jan. 4, 1814. His father was a surveyor. He was graduated at Jefferson Medical college, M.D., in 1839 and prac- tised medicine, 1839-49. He was admitted to the bar in 1849 and was a delegate to the state constitutional convention of that year. He was a representative in the state legislature for sev-