Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/361

 MENDENHALL

MENOCAL

Thomas Bennett and tie was graduated at South Carolina college in 1820. He was admitted to the bar in lb25, and settled in practice in Charles* ton. He was a Federalist and opposed the nulllA* cation act ; represented Charleston in the state legislature, 1836-52 ; was chairman of the com- mittee on ways and means, and influential in directing the financial affairs of the state, oppos- ing the suspension of 8i)ecie payments by the banks in 1839. He took on active interest in the educa- tional progress of the state from 1834, and with W. J. Bennett reorganized the public school sys- tem. He was returned to the state legislature in 1854, and succeeded in further advancing the educational interests of the state. He was a commissioner from South Carolina to Virginia to secure co-operation against the Abolitionists in 1859. and was a deputy from South Carolina to the convention held at Montgomery, Ala., Feb. 4, 1861, where he was chairman of the committee to frame the constitution for the provisional gov- ernment of the Confederate States of America, adopted Feb. 8, 1861, by the deputies from Ala- bama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina. He was api)ointed secretary of the Confederate States treasury by President Davis, Feb. 21, 1861, resigned in June, 1864, and was succeeded by George A. Trenholm. He re- tirt'd from politics at the close of the war and devoted himself to educational work. He died in Charleston. S.C., March 7, 1888.

MENDENHALL, Thomas Corwin, physicist, was born near Hanoverton, Columbiana county, Ohio, Oct. 4, 1841 ; son of Stephen and Mary (Thomas) Mendenhall ; grandson of James Men- deuhall, and a descendant of Benjamin Menden- hall, who came to Philadelphia, Pa., from the village of Mildenhall, Wilt- shire, England, about 1684. He taught mathematics and phy- sics in tliehigh school at Columbus, Ohio, 1868-78 ; and was professor of physics and mechanics in the Ohio State uni- vei-sity, 1873-78, from which institution he received the degree of Ph.D. in 1878. He was professor of experimental physics in the Imperial University of Japan at Tokio, 1878-81, and there established a physical laboratory and a meteoro- logical observatory, the latter being merged into tlie general tneteorological system, organized by the Japanese government. He was again pro-

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feasor of physics in the Ohio State university, 1881-83 ; organized and directed the Ohio Sbate weather bureau in 1883-84, and invented a system of weather signals from railroad trains. He was professor in the U.S. signal corps at Washington, D.C., where he organized and equipped a physical laboratory in connection with the office of the chief signal officer and carried on systematic observations of atmospheric electricity. He also gathered data in relation to earthquakes, in which phenomena he became interested while in Japan, and after the earthquake in Charleston, S.C., in August, 1886, visited the city and made a report with a co-seismic chart of the disturl>ed area. He was president of the Roee Polytechnic institute at Terre Haute, Ind., 1886-89 : su|)erin- tendent of the U.S. coast and geodetic sur\*ey, 1889-94, and president of the Worcester Poly- technic institute, Mass., 1894-1901. He resigned and in July, 1901, was succeeded by Edmund Arthur Engler. He lectured throughout the United States, and while in Japan established the first public lecture hall in that country. He was chairman of the U.S. board of geographic names from 1890 ; a member of the first Bering Sea com- mission in 1891 ; of the U.S. and Great Britain boundary line survey commission, 1892-94, and of the U.S. Lighthouse board, 1889-94. He was vice-president of the physical section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1882, and president of the association in 1888 ; president of the American Meteorolo- gical society, 1898 ; chairman of the Massachu- setts highway commission, 1896-1900, and was one of the founders of the Seismological society of Tokio in 1879. He was made a member of the National Academy of Science, 1887 ; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1890; the Amer- ican Antiquarian society, 1895 ; the Massachusetts Historical society, 1896, and the American Philo- sophical society in 1900. He rereivetl the degree of LL.D. from the University of Michigan in 1887 and that of D.Sc. from the Rose Polytechnic in- stitute in 1895. He received the Cullum medal from the American Geographical society in 1901 for his researches in the Alaska boundary com- mission. He contributed to scientific periodicals and is the author of monographs, rejwrts and A Centuri/ of Electricity (1887).

MENOCAL, Aniceto Qarcla, naval engineer, was born in Havana, Cul>a, Sept. 1, 1836. He was graduated at the Rensselaer Polytechnic institute, C.E., 1862, and returned to Cuba, where he was connected with the Vento water works at Havana. 1863-69. He removed to the United States in 1870, and was engineer of the depart- ment of public works in New York, 1870-72 ; chief engineer of the U S. Nicaragua canal sur- veying expedition, 1872-74, and of the Panama