Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/319

 PHELPS

PHELPS

1858-61, and lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the 7th Maryland Volunteers, 1862-6-4. At the battle of the Wilderness his horse was killed and his clothing riddled, and at Spottsj'lvania, May 8, 1864, his horse was killed, and he was wounded and taken prisoner while leading the 2d division, 5th army corps, in the charge on the works. He was recaptured by Sheridan's cavahy, brevetted brigadier-general for gallant conduct, and awarded the congressional medal of honor. He was elected on the National Union ticket as a representative from the third district of Maryland in the 39th congress, 1865-67, where he opposed the radical measures and policj^ of reconstruction, and was re-elected on the Conservative ticket to the 40th congress, 1867-69. He declined an exe- cutive appointment as judge of the court of appeals in 1867; was married, Dec. 29, 1868, to Martha Woodward of Baltimore, Md., and resumed his practice in Baltimore. He was president of the Baltimore school board, 1876; commander of the 8th Maryland regiment during the strike riots in 1877; president of the Maryland Associa- tion of Union Veterans, and a member of various scientific, historical, military and social organiza- tions. In 1882 he was elected on the Independent ticket judge of the supreme bench of Baltimore, and in 1897 was nominated by all parties and re- elected without opposition, the legislature, in 1902, upon the application of the Baltimore Bar association, unanimously extending his term be- yond the constitutional age limit. In 1884 he was chosen a law professor in the University of Maryland. He is the author of: Juridical Equity (1894), and Falstaff and Equity (1901).

PHELPS, Edward John, diplomatist, was born in Middlebury, Vt., July 11, 1822; son of the Hon. Samuel Shethar Phelps (q. v. ). He was, graduated at Middlebury, college, A.B., 1840, A.M., 184.3; practised law in Middlebury, 1843-45, and removed to Burlington in 1845, where he was married in August. 1846, to Mary, daughter of the Hon. Stephen Haight. He was second comptroller of the U.S. treasury, 1851-53. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1870; pre- sided over the centennial ceremonies commem- orating the battle of Bennington in 1877; lectured on medical jurisprudence in the University of Vermont in 1880, and the same year was made president of the ALUierican Bar association. He was defeated as the Democratic candidate for governor of Vermont in 1880; was Kent professor of law at Yale, 1881-1900, and lectured on consti- tutional law at Boston university in 1882. He was U.S. minister to Great Britain, 1885-89: was the defeated Democratic candidate for U.S. .sen- ator in 1890; was a member of the council of the U.S. government before the court of arbitration on the Bering Sea controversy in 1893, and

in 1896 supported William McKinley for the presidency, although, being an anti-expansionist, he strongly disapproved of his policy in regard to Cuba and the Philippines. He received the de- gree of LL.D. from Middlebury in 1870. He publislied an address on Chief Justice 3IarsJiaU and the Constitutional Lato of his Time (1879). and articles on The Constitution of the United States in the Nineteenth Century in 1888. He died at New Haven, Conn., March 9, 1900.

PHELPS, Elisha, representative, was born in Simsbury, Conn., Nov. 7, 1779; son of Noah and Lydia (Griswold) Phelps; grandson of David and Abigail (Petibone) Phelps and of Edward and Abigail (Gaylord) Griswold, and a descendant of William Phelps, who settled in Wind.sor, Conn., in 1635. His father (born in Simsbury, Jan. 22. 1740), a large landholder and captain of militia, planned and took part with Gen. Samuel H. Par- sons in the expedition to Fort Ticonderoga in April, 1775, entering the fort the day before as a spy and reporting its condition to Ethan Allen, which enabled them to capture it; served as captain in AVards' Connecticut regiment, 1776-77, and sub- sequently as lieutenant-colonel and colonel, and in 1780 transferred cannon from Salisbury, Conn., to Boston, for the ship Defense; was judge of probate twenty-two years, a representative in the state legislature twenty seasons, and a major- general of state militia, and died in Simsbury, Conn., March 4, 1809. Elisha was graduated at Yale in 1800; practised law at Simsbury, 1803-05, and at Hartford, Conn., 1805-47, and was a mem- ber of each house of the state legislature for several years, serving as speaker in 1821 and 1829. He was a Democratic representative from Con- necticut in the 16th, 19th and 20th congresses, 1819-21 and 1825-29; state comptroller, 1830-34; a commissioner to revise and codify the state laws in 1835, and judge of the county court for years. He died in Simsbury, Conn., April 18, 1847.

PHELPS, Elizabeth (Stuart), author, was born at Andover, Mass., Aug. 13, 1815; daughter of the Rev. Moses and Abigail (Clark) Stuart and a descendant of Robert and Bertha (Rumball) Stuart. Robert Stuart came to Massachusetts in 1650, resided in Boston and at Milford, Conn., and settled in Norwalk, Conn., in 1660. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps was educated at Andover, Mass., and in September, 1842, married the Rev. Austin Phelps. They resided in Boston, Mass., 1842-48, and tlien removed to her native place, where she spent the remainder of lier life. She began to write short stories of New England life at an early age, many being published under the pen name " H.Trusta." Her works include: the Kitty Broum series(1850); Sunnyside (1851); A Peep at Number Five (1851); The Angel over the Right Shoulder (1851); The Tell- Tale (1852), and The Last Leaf