Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/98

 McALPINE

MacARTHUR

and meritorious conduct throughout the war. He engaged in railroad business and in mining and smelting iron ore in the Lehigh valley, resid- ing at Allentown, Pa., 1S65-82, and in 1883 he re- moved to Belvidere. N.J. He was married, Nov. 9, 1841, to Ellen Jane Wilson of Mercersburg, Pa. He is the author of: McAllister's Brigade at the Bloody Angle in " Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," Vol. IV. p. 176. Gen. J. Watts de Peyster wrote a sketch of his life. He died at Belvidere, N.J., Feb. 23, 1891.

McALPINE, William Jarvis, civil engineer, was born in New York city, April 30, 1812; son of John and Elizabeth (Jarvis) Mc Alpine; grand- son of Capt. Donald and Elizabeth (Storer) McAlpine, and a descendant of Bishop Jarvis, of Connecticut, and of the Scottish Kings of Clan Alpine. He attended school at Newburgh, N.Y., and at Rome, N.Y., and studied civil engineering with John B. Jarvis on the Carbondale railway in Pennsylvania, 1827-30. He was assistant to Mr. Jarvis on the Mohawk and Hudson River railroad and on the Schenectady and Saratoga railroad, 1830-31; resident engineer on the Che- nango canal, 1832-34; in charge of surveys for the enlargement of the Erie canal from Little Falls to Albany, 1835-36; and chief engineer of the eastern division, 1836-44. In June, 1845, he left the employ of the state to accept the position of chief engineer in the construction of a dry dock at the U.S. navy yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., a work of great magnitude and extraordinary difficulty which he successfully accomplished. He de- signed and superintended the construction of the original water works at Albany* N.Y., and at Chicago, III., 1850-54. He was state engineer and surveyor, 1852-54; state railroad commis- sioner, 1855-57; acting president and chief engi- neer of the Erie railway, 1856-57, and chief en- gineer and vice-prasident of the Galena and Chi- cago railroad, 1857. He was chief engineer of the Third Avenue bridge across the Harlem river, 1860-61; general superintendent of the eastern division, Ohio and Mississippi railroad, 1861-64; and chief engineer of the Pacific railway, 1864- 65. He visited Europe, 1866-67; wa.«» consulting engineer for the Clifton suspension bridge, Nia- gara Falls, 1868, and of the water works of vari- ous cities, including New Bedford, Maas., 1868-75. He superintended the construction of the capitol at Albany, 1873, and constructed its founda- tion. The Danube Navigation company adopted his plans for the improvement of the rapids of the Danube river, Austria, at and about the " Iron Gate." He was engineer of the depart- ment of parks. New York city, 1879-60; chief and consulting engineer of the Washington Bridge, New York, 1885-88; and prominently connected with the water supply and rapid tran-

sit improvements in New Y'ork city, 1888-90. He was elected a member of the American So- ciety of Civil Engineers, Feb. 3, 1853, being the seventeenth on its list of membership; was its president, 1868-69, and an honorary member, 1888-

WASHI/M<iTO/^

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90. He was the first American citizen to receive honorary membership in the Institution of Civil Engineers (London) in 1867, and he received from that institution the Telford medal in 1868. He was a member of the Australian Society of Engineers and Architects, and of the prominent scientific societies of the United States; and of the New York cliamber of commerce. Among his forty-three printed papers are reports of his various works as mentioned above, and of: Oalveston Harbor, The Foundations of Washing- ton Monument, and The Purification of the Basin of the Harbor of Baltimore. His last book was a treatise on Modern Engineering. He died at New Brighton. Staten Island, N.Y., Feb. 16, 1890.

riacARTHUR, Arthur, jurist, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, Jan. 26, 1815. He came to America with his parents, who settled in Spring- field, Mass. He was prepared for college at Ux- bridge and Amherst academies, matriculated at Wesleyan university in the class of 1840. but left during his freshman year. He studied law in New York city, 1837-41, and practised in Spring- field, Mass., 1841-43, where he was public admin- istrator for Hampden county and judge advocate for the western division of the state militia. He practised law in New York city, 1845-49, and in Milwaukee, Wis., 1850-67. He was coriK)ration counsel, 1851-52: lieutenant-governor of the state, 1856-58; and upon the resignation of Gov. W. A. Barstow, March 21, 1856, he served as governor until the inauguration of Coles Bashford, March 25, 1856. He was judge of the 2d judicial cir- cuit, 1856-69; was U.S. commissioner to the Paris exposition of 1807, and was associate justice of the supreme court of the district of Columbia, 1870-87. He was president of the Washington Humane society; president of the Associated . Charities for the District of Columbia, and presi- dent of the board of regents of the National uni- versity. He delivered lectures on historical and literary subjects and published three volumes of reports containing the important decisions