Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/208

 McMASTER

McMASTER

the sixth army corps, Army of the Potomac, 18G2. He participated in all the great battles of the Army of the Potomac up to the surrender of Gen. Robert £. Lee at Appomattox, after which he served as assistant adjutant-general, Depart- ment of the East; was brevetted brigadier- general and major-general of volunteers, March 13, 1865, and resigned from the army in 1866. He received from congress a medal of honor for distinguished bravery at the battle of White Oak Swamp, Va., June 30, 1862. He was cor- poration attorney of New York city, 186^-68; U.S. minister to Paraguay, 1868-69, and prac- tised law, 1869-72. He was married in April, 1872, to Louise Claire, daughter of Peter A. and Eugenia V. (Sarton) Hargous, of New York city. He was receiver of taxes for New York city, 1873-85; U.S. marshal for the southern district of New York, 1885-90; a member of the state assembly in 1891; a state senator, 1892-96, and in 1895 was elected judge of the court of general sessions of New York county for a term of four- teen years. He was manager and secretary of the National home for disabled volunteer soldiers, 1880-98, and president of the board of managers, 1899. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by St. John's college in 1866.

McMASTER, Erasmus Darwin, educator, was born in Mercer, Pa., Feb. 4, 1806; son of Gilbert and Jane (Brown) McMaster, He was graduated from Union college in 1827; studied theology with his father, and was licensed to preach by the Northern presbytery of the Re- formed Presbyterian church, June 16, 1829. Having changed liis church relations, he was in- stalie<l by the Albany presbytery as pastor of the Presbyterian church at Ballston, N.Y., where he served, 1831-38. He was president of Hanover college, Indiana, 1838-45; of Miami university, Ohio, 1845-49; professor of systematic theology in the Theological seminary at New Albany, Ind., 1850-66, and profesHor of theology at the Northwestern Theological seminary, Chic4igo, 111., from June 2, until his death. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on him by Union in 1841. and that of LL.D. by Miami in 1864. He died in Chicago. 111., Dec. 10, 1866.

McMASTER, Qllbcrt, clergyman, was born in Saintfield parish, Ireland, Feb. 13. 1778. Ho immi- grated with his parents to the United States in 1791, and settled near Mercer, Pa. He attended Jefferson academy and college, 1801-03, and studied medicine, 1803-04. He was married in 1803 to Jane Brown. He studied theology in 1805-07, and was licensed to preach in 1807. He was ordained pastor of the Reformed Presby- terian church at Duanesburg. N.Y., and held otfice there 1808-40, also servingat Gal way, N.Y.,

until 1833. He was pa.stor at Princeton, N.J., 1840-46, when failing health obliged him to re- sign. The honorary degrees of A.M. and D.D. were conferred on him by Union college in 1815 and 1828 respectively. He is the author of: An Essiiy in Defence of Some Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity (1815); TJie Shorter Catechism Analyzed (1815); An Apology for the Book of Psalms (1818), and The Moral Character of Civil Oovemment (1832). He died in New Albany, Ind., at the home of his son, Erasmus Darwin McMaster, March 15, 1854.

McMASTER, James Alphonsus, journalist, was born in Duanesburg, N.Y., April 1, 1820; son of the Rev. Gilbert and Jane (Brown) McMaster. He was graduated from Union college in 1839; studied law, was a private tutor, entered the ministry of the Reformed Presbyterian church, and in 1845 v/ent to Belgium, where he entered a Roman Catholic novitiate for the purpose of re- flection. He decided to become a Roman Catholic journalist, and returned to New York, where in 1848 he purchased the Freeman's Journal and Catholic Register. Early in the civil war he was bitter in his denunciation of the President's war measures, and his paper was suppressed and he was arrested and imprisoned in Fort Lafayette for eleven months. On his release, April 19, 1862, he resumed the publication of the Freeman's Journal. He opposed the candidacy of Samuel J. Tilden for President in 1876. He was consid- ered the foremost Roman Catholic journalist in the United States. He died in Brooklyn, N.Y., Dec. 29, 1886.

McMASTER, John Bach, historian, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.. June 29, 1852; son of James and Julia (Bach) McMaster; grandson of James and Elizabeth (Watrous) McMaster, and of Rob- ert and Margaret (Co wen) Bach, and a descendant of John McMaster, Williams- town, Mass., 1743. He attended the pub- lic schools and was graduated from the College of the City of New York, A.B., 1878, A.M. and C.E., 1875. He wjis a teacher of grammar and fellow in Eng-

lish at the College of JJ^^Jl^O^uOuZ:. the City of New York, ^ 1872-73; studied and

practised civil engineering 1873-77: was in- structor in civil engineering at Princeton, 1877-83, and was elected professor of American history at the University of Pennsylvania in 188"}.