Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/158

 ORTON

ORION

president of that body. He was a candidate for elector on the Taylor and Fillmore ticket in 1848, and was appointed one of the live commissioners fr<»in Indiana to the Peace conference of 18G1. He entered tiie U.S. army in 180'3, as captain of llie 7Gtli Indiana volunteers, which he had re- cruited, and was placed in command of the U.S. ram Honier on the Ohio river. He was a Repub- lican representative from the ninth district of Indiana in the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st con- gresses, 1863-71, and served on important com- mittees, including that on foi'eign relations. He was a representiitive from the state-at-large in tiie -i^id congress, 1873-75 ; was instrumental in securing the right of expatriation ; active in be- half of the annexation of Santo Domingo, and in reorganizing the diplomatic and consular system. He was recommended by the entire senate and house as U.S. minister to Berlin, in 1871, but President Grant decided to make no change. He declined a commissionership of internal revenue antl accepted the appointment as U.S. minister to Austria in 1875, having previously declined the mission to Brazil. He resigned liis mission in 187G, upon his nomination as Republican candi- date for governor of Indiana, Feb. 22, 1876, and made the canvass for that office, but on Aug. 2, 1876, withdrew his name in favor of Benjamin Harrison, who was nominated and defeated. He receivt^d the votes of fifty-nine Republican legis. lators for U.S. senator, Jan. 24, 1879, when Daniel W. V(jorhees was elected. He was a Republican representative from the ninth district in the 46th and 47th congresses, 1879-82, and was defeated for the 48th congress in 1882. He w-as married first, in 1840, to Sarah Elizabeth Miller of Gettys- burg, Pa., and secondly, Aug. 28, 1850, to Mary A. Ayers of La Fayette, Ind. He died in La Fay- ette. Ind.. Dec. 16. 1882.

ORTON, Edward Francis Baxter, educator, was V>orn in Deposit, N.Y., March 9, 1829 ; son of the Rev. Dr. Samuel George and Clara (Gregory) Orton ; grandson of Miles Orton, a soldier in the war of 1812, and a descendant, through Samuel Orton, one of the fifty-one colonists who settled in Litchfield county. Conn., of Thomas and Mar- garet (Pratt) Orton. Thomas Orton came to Massachusetts Bay colony before 1641 ; settled in Windsor, Conn., and removed to Farmingcon, Conn., in 1655. Dr. Samuel G. Orton was gradu- ated at Hamilton college, 1822, and was a Pres- byterian minister in western New York for fifty years. Edward Orton was fitted for college by his father, and was giaduated at Hamilton college, A.B., 1848, A.M., 1851. He was assistant in the academy at Erie, N.Y., 1848-49 ; private tutor, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1849-.50 ; a student at Lane Theological seminary. 1849-50 : assistant at Delaware Literary institute, Franklin, N.Y".,

1851-54 ; student at Lawrence Scientific school, Harvai'd, 1852, and at Andover Theological sem- inary, 1854-55. He was ordained to the Presby- terian ministry, Jan. 2, 1856 ; was professor of natural science. State Normal school, Albany, N.Y\, 1856-59; princi- pal of the academy at Chester, N.Y., 1859- 65 ; principal of the preparatory depart- ment and professor of natural history, An- tioch college, Ohio, 1865-69 ; assistant state geologist, Ohio, 1869-75 ; president of Antioch college, 1872- 73, and of the Ohio State Agricultural college (Ohio State university) 1873-81 ; professor of geology

in Oliio State university, 1873-99, and state geologist of Ohio, 1882-99. Orton Hall, one of the chief buildings of the university, w^as named for him. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and its president, 1899, and corresponding and honorary member of various scientific associa- tions in the United States and Europe. He helped to organize and was president of the Ohio State Sanitary association, 1884-85, and of the Geological Society of America, 1896. The degree of Ph.D. was conferred on him by Hamilton in 1876, and that of LL.D. by Ohio State university in 1881. He served on the U.S. geological survey, and his report appears in the " Eighth Annual Report " ; on the Kentucky State survey, and his report on the petroleum and gas fields of western Kentucky was published in a separate volume. He was married first, in 1855, to Mary M. Jennings of Franklin, N.Y''., who died in 1873, leaving two sons and two daughters ; and sec- ondly, in 1875, to Anna Davenport Torrey of Millbury, Mass., and of the two children by this marriage the son was given the ancestral name of Samuel. He is the author of many scientific reports and addresses, and of : Economic Geology of 0/ijo( 1883-88) ; Petroleum and Injlammahle Gas (1887). He died in Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 16, 1899. ORTON, James, naturalist, was born in Seneca Falls, N.Y\. April 21, 1830 ; son of the Rev. Azar- iah Giles and Minerva (Squire) Orton ; grandson of Azariah and Abigail (Jackson) Orton, and a de- scendant of Thomas and Margaret (Pratt) Orton. Azariah G. Orton. Williams, 1813 ; Princeton The- ological seminary, 1820 ; D.D., University of New Y'ork, 1847 ; Union college, 1850, was a Presbj-- terian minister, 1822-60, and died in Lisle, N.Y''.,