Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/357

 MELCIIER

MELL

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mitted to tl>e bar in ls»u ami settled in practice at FuUertou, Neb. He was county attorney of Nance county. Neb., t881-84; a menil)er of the state senate. 1H84-88, and president of tliat botly, lb50-6b. lie WU8 chairmuu of the Republican

state convention of 1887-88, lieutenant- governor of Nebraska, 1889-91 ; a Republi- can representative from the third Ne- braska district in the 63d and 54th con- gresses, 1893-97, and distant secretary of ir, 1897-1901, which otitice he resigned in March, 1901, and gave his attention to extensive mining oj)- erations in the Uni- ted States and Mexi- co. He wjiH appointed a Knight of the Royal Order of the Sword by the King of Sweden, Feb. 27, 1899.

MELCHER, Joseph, R. C. bishop, was born in Vienna, Austria, March 19, 1800. He received his preparatory education in Vienna ; was fitted for the priesthood at the ecclesiastical college at Modena, Italy, and was ordained priest at Mo- dena, March 27, 1830. He served as chaplain to the Austrian court, 1830-43, and in 1843 came to the United States at the solicitation of Bishop Joseph Rosati, of St. Louis. He was pastor at Little Rock, Ark., 1843-44, and vicar-general of the diocese of St. Louis, Mo., and rector of St. Mary's cliurch, 1844-68. He declined the ap- pointment of bishop of the diocese of Quincy, 111., erected July 29, 1853, and was appointed bishop of the newly created diocese of Green Bay, Wis., established March 3, 1868, He was consecrated at the Cathedral of St. Louis, July 12, 1868, by Archbishop P. R. Kenrick, assisted by Bishops Henni, and Juncker. He died at Green Bay. Wis., Dec. 20, 1873.

MELDEN, Charles A., educator, was born in Salem, Mass., July J 8, 1853 ; son of George and Margaret Elizabeth (Garrett) Melden. He at- tended the public 8chx)l8 of Salem, and a private preparatory school ac ijynn, was graduated from the College of Liberal Arts, Boston university, in

1880, and from tl>e Boston University Theolog- ical seminary in 1892. He was married, Aug. 1,

1881, toMelinda A. Lewis, and on Sept. 26, 1892, to Addie L. (Croxford) Smith. As a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church he served several important charges in Massachusetts, 1882-97. He was elected president of Clark university, Atlanta, Ga., in 1897. The degree of Ph.D. wa'p

conferred on him on examination by Boston university in 1892, and he received the honorary degree of D.D. from Rust university in Holly Springs. Miss., in 1900.

MELINE, James Florant, author, was born in the U.S. garrison at Sacket Harbor, N.Y., April 25, 1813 : son of Lieut. Floraut and Cath- erine (Butler) Meline. His father came from France early in 1800 and served in the war of 1812. He was educated at Mount St. Mary's col- lege, Emmittsburg, Md., but was not gratluated owing to his jmrents' death, and he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he engaged as a music teacher and as professor of languages, history and literature in the Athenajuni. He studied law in the meantime, was admitted to the Cincinnati bar, and studied in France, Germany and Italy three years, 1835-38. On his return to the United States in 1838, he became assistant to the Rev. Josue M. Young, editor of the Catholic Telegraph. He was married in 1846 to Mary E., daughter of John Rogers, of Cincinnati, and engaged in the foreign banking business in that city, for the governments of France, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Sardinia, Papal States, and several German principalities. He also served as consular agent in Cincinnati, 1851- 54, and as vice-consul to 1862, and in June, 1862, he entered the Union army as judge advocate on the staff of Gen. John Pope with the rank of major. He served throughout the war and was promoted colonel. He accompanied General Pope on an official tour through Colorado and New Mexico, 1865-66 ; was chief of the bureau of civil affairs in the third military district, which comprised Georgia, Alabama and Florida, 1866- 68; was employed by the government in con- nection with the Freedmen's bureau in Atlanta, Georgia, and at the same time acted as the reg- ular correspondent of 4;he Cincinnati Commercial and the New York Tribune. He settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1869, and engaged in literary work chiefly on disputed Catholic subjects of history. He delivered a course of lectures on English literature at Seton Hall college, the Col- lege of the Christian Brothers and the Academy of the Sacred Heart, New York. He was literary critic of the Nation ; contributed to the Galaxy, Catholic World and New York newspapers, and is the author of : Tioo Thousand Miles on Horse- back (1867); Commercial Travelling (1869); Mary Queen of Scots and her Latest English Historian, a criticism of the work of Froude (1871); and a Life of Sixtus the Fifth (1871). He died in Brooklyn. N.Y., \ug. 14, 1873.

MELL, Patrick Hues, educator, was born at Walthourville, Liberty county, Ga., July 19, 1814 ; son of Maj. Benjamin and Cynthia (Sum- ner) Meil ; grandson of William and Sarah (Hues)