Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/356

 MEIGS

MEIKLEJOHN

prisoners and secured a large quantity of forage and arms without losing a single man. For his exploit congress voted him a sword. He served under Gen. Anthony Wayne during the attack on Stony Point, and was in active service until

MARlETTA-lzaa the close of the war. He joined the Ohio com- pany under General Putnam, and in July, 1788, reached Marietta and helped to establish the northwestern Territory. Marietta, however, was never formally recognized as the seat of govern- ment. In 1801 he was appointed Indian agent for the Cherokees and removed to Georgia. He was twice married, first on Feb. 14, 1764, to Joanna Winborn, and secondly on Dec. 28, 1774, to Grace Starr. He is the author, of : A Journal of the Expedition to Quebec (1864). He died at Cherokee agency, Hiawassee Ga., Jan. 28, 1823. MEIGS, Return Jonathan, cabinet officer, was born in Middletown, Conn., Nov. 16, 1764; son of Return Jonathan and Joanna (Winborn) Meigs. He was graduated from Yale college in 1785, studied law, and in 1788 he accompanied his fatlier to the lands of the Ohio company and located at Marietta, where he engaged in the practice of law and aided in the formation of the first territorial government. He was a territorial judge in 1803-03 ; and when the state govern- ment was formed, Feb. 19, 1808, he was ap- pointed chief-justice of the supreme court, serv- ing 1803-04. He was brevetted colonel in the U.S. army and commanded the St. Charles dis- trict in Louisiana, 1804-06. He was judge of the supreme court of Louisiana, 1805-06, and judge of the U.S. district court of the newly formed territory of Michigan, 1807-08. He was elected governor of Ohio in 1807, but declared ineligible ; was elected to the U.S. senate to fill the unex- pired term of John Smith, who resigned in 1809, and was re-elected for a full senatorial term, but resigned in 1810, in order to accept the governor- ship of Ohio, to which he had been a second time elected. He filled the office, 1810-14, and during the war of 1812-15 he aided materially in

organizing and recruiting troops and in garri- soning the exix)sed outposts of Ohio. He was appointed postmaster-general by President Mad- ison in 1814, and re-appointed by President Monroe, serving until December, 1823, when he resigned and withdrew from public life. He was an original corporator of the Columbian college, Washington, D.C., Feb. 9, 1821, and a trnstee. 1821-24. He married Sophia Wright. He died at Marietta, Ohio. March 20, 1824.

MEIGS, Return Jonathan, lawyer, was born in Clark county, Ky., April 14, 1801; son of John and Parthenia (Clendenin) Meigs, and grantlson of Col. Return Jonatlian and Joanna (Winborn) Meigs. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1822. He visited his grandfatlier at Hia- wassee garrison, Ga., in 1822, a short time before his death, and remained there to administer his estate. He married Nov. 1, 1825, Sally Keyes, daughter of John Love. He was agent to the Cherokee and Creek Indians, 1834-41 ; was ap- Ijointed U.S. district attorney for the middle dis- trict of Tennessee in 1841, and served as state senator one term. He was elected clerk of the supreme court of the District of Columbia in 1863. He is the author of : Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of Tennessee (1839), and Digest of all the Decisions of the Former Superior Courts of Law and Equity and of the Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals in the State of Ten- nessee (1848). He also published in conjunction with W.F. Cooper : TJie Code of Tennessee (1858). He died in Washington, D.C., Oct. 19, 1891.

MEIGS, William Montgomery, author, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 12, 1852 ; son of Dr. John Forsyth and Ann Wilcocks (Ingersoll) Meigs ; and grandson of Charles Delucena and Elizabeth (Learning) Meigs, and of Charles Jared Ingersoll, of Philadelphia. He was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, A.B., 1872, A.M., 1875, and M.D., with honors, 1875. He was admitted to the bar and practised in Philadelphia. He is the author of : Lifeof Josiah Meigs (1887); Life of Charles Jared Ingersoll (1897) ; The Growth of tlie Constitution (1900) and contribu- tions to periodicals.

MEIKLEJOHN, George De Rue, assistant sec- retary of war, was bornat Weyauwega, Waupaca county, Wis., Aug. 27, 1857; son of Peter and Hannah Meiklejohn, and grandson of Andrew Meiklejohn, who was born in Stirlingshire, Scot- land, in 1798and immigrated to America in 1815, locating at Orwell, Vt. His father, a native of Putnam, N.Y., located on a farm in Wisconsin in 1854. George attended the State Normal school, Oshkosh, Wis., 1873-75, was principal of high schools at Weyauwega, Wis., 1876, and Liscomb, Iowa, 1877-78, and was graduated at the Uni- versity of Michigan, LL.B., 1880. He was ad-