Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/385

 METCALFE

MEYER

hibit and served as executive officer of the board on behjilf of the executive departments of our government, 1875-77. He was assistant ordnance officer at Frankford arsenal, Pa., 1877-78 ; mem- ber of the examining board for transfer of officers to ordnance corps in May, 1878, and was insi)ector of contract for small arms ammunition and assistant ordnance officer at Frankford arsenal, Pa., 1878-81. He was promoted captain, March 4, 1879 ; was assistant ordnance officer at Benicia arsenal, Cal., 1881-84; at Watervliet arsenal, N.Y., 1884-86, and instructor in ordnance and gunnery and in command of the ordnance depart- ment in the U.S. Military academy, 1886-91. He was on sick leave, 1891-93, and was retired for disability in line of duty, Oct. 26, 1893. He in- vented, in 1873, the fii-st detachable magazine for small arms used by troops ; also the stacking swivel for small arms. He received the order of the Osmanieh of the second class from the Sultan of Turkey in 1876. He is the author of : Hie Cost of Manufactures and the Administration of Worksliops, Public and Private (1885), and Course of Ordnance and Ounnery for the Instruc- tion of the Cadets of the U.S. Military Academy (1890).

METCALFE, John T., physician, was born in Natchez, Miss., July 10. 1818 ; son of Dr. James and Sarah (Baker) Metcalfe, and grandson of John Metcalfe. He was graduated at the U.S. Military academy and promoted 2d lieutenant in the 3d artillery, July 1, 1838. He was transferred to the ordnance department, July 9, 1838 ; served in command of the Augusta arsenal, Ga., in 1838, and commanded Garey's Ferry ordnance depot during the Florida war, 1838-39. He resigned from the U.S. Army, May 31, 1840, and was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, M.D., 1843. He was married, Aug. 14, 1845, to Augasta, daughter of James Colles of Morristown, N.J. He settled in practice near Natchez, Miss., in 1845, removing to New York city in 1846. He was professor of the institutes and practice of medicine in the University of the City of New York, 1855-66, and of clinical medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York city, in 1866.

METCALFE, Thomas, governor of Kentucky, was born in Famjuier county, Va., March 20, 1780. His parents removed to Fayette county, Ky., during his early boyhood and he was appren- ticed to an older brother, a stonemason, 1796-99. On the death of his father in 1799 he was released that he might be able to support his mother and her children. He engaged in stone-cutting, devoted his leisure hours tq study, and in 1809 made his first public speech in favor of proclaim- ing war with Spain and calling on the states for volunteers. In 1813 he raised a company of

volunteers and fought in the battle of Fort Meigs under Boswell, his gallantry being recognized by General Harrison. He was a representative from Nicholas county in the state legislature, 1813-16, and a Clay representative from Kentucky in the 16th-20th congresses, serving 1819-28. He re- signed, June 1, 1828, upon receiving the nomi- nation of the national Republican party for governor. He was governor of Kentucky, 1829- 33, retired to his farm in Nichohis county in 1833, and was a state senator, 1834. He was president of the board of internal improvements in 1840, and was elected U.S. senator, July 3, 1848, to fill out the unexpired term of John J. Crittenden, who resigned to become governor of Kentucky, and at the close of the term, March 3, 1849, he retired to his farm, " Forest Retreat." He was known as " Old Stone Hammer," a title bestowed by his admirers, who were proud of his early struggles with poverty. He died at *' Forest Retreat," Nicholas county, Ky., Aug. 18, 1855.

MEYER, Adolph, representative, was born Oct. 19, 1842. He was a student in the Univer- sity of Virginia and left in 1862 to enter the Confederate army, serving on the staff of Gen. John S. Williams of Kentucky until the close of the war, rising to the rank of assistant adjutant- general. He settled in Louisiana in 1865, and engaged in cultivating cotton and sugar, and in commercial and financial pursuits in New Orleans. He was elected colonel of the Ist regiment of the Louisiana state national guard in 1879, and was appointed brigadier-general to command the 1st brigade, embracing all the UTiiformed corps of the state of Louisiana, in 1881. He was a Demo- cratic representative from the first Louisiana district in the 52d, 53d, 54th, 55th, 56th, 57tli and 58th congresses, 1891-1905.

MEYER, Annie Nathan, educationist, was born in New York city, Feb. 19, 1867 ; daughter of Robert Weeks and Annie (Florance) Nathan ; granddaughter of Seixas and Sarah (Seixas) Nathan and of William J. and Matilda (Seixas) Florance. Her paternal great-grandfather, born in England, fought on the American side in the Revolution, and her maternal great-grandfather, Gershom Seixas, a rabbi in New Y'ork, also sided with the colonists, and was a trustee of Columbia college, 1784-1815. Her father's sister was the mother of Emma Lazarus (q. v.). She made a special study of the education of women and was one of the first to take the entrance examinations for the women's course at CJolumbia in 1885. She was married, Feb. 15, 1887, to Dr. Alfred Meyer. In February, 1888, an article by her on •' Woman's Education in New York " appeared in the Nation, making a plea for the establish- ment of a college affiliated with Columbia. This was the first call that gathered together the