Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/319

 SERVISS

SETON

Army of the James in Virginia, Serrell went with it, and had charge of the right of the defenses at Bermuda Hundred, directed the siege of Fort Harrison, rebuilt Fort Powhatan and built Fort Pocahontas. He was offered promotion, but de- clined it, preferring to remain in the engineer department. He accompanied General Butler to New York ; was made chief of staff and of en- gineers, and was detailed upon special scientific duty. During the civil war he devised ingenious methods for removing river obstructions and for transporting heavy and light artillery tliat wei'e of great practical use, but his greatest mechanical achievement was making counterbalanced found- ations for batteries in marshy places. He was brevetted brigadier-general, U.S.A., which com- mission had not been vacated in 1903. General Serrell said that the best work he did for the country during the civil war was in constituting a new arm of the service, volunteer engineers, never before a part of any arnl3^ After the war he returned to his civil engineering and built, among other things, the bridge over the Con- necticut river at Middletown, where he laid the foundations in open caissons in deep water ; the Lyman viaduct ; the Rapello viaduct, and the elevated railways in Brooklyn. He was married a second time, Sept. 6, 1900, to Marion Seaton, born in Charleston, S.C, daughter of Orville Augustus, Sr. (compiler of Bibliotheca Americana) and Ann Eliza Roorbach of New York. He projected (1902-03) an Isthmian canal from a magnificent harbor on the Atlantic to another on the Pacific ocean, over a geometrical straight line from sea to sea, less than thirty miles long, and nearer to New York than either the Panama or Nicaragua route and with a capacity for business six times as great as both the Panama and Nicaragua routes combined, it being at sea level and without locks. He estimated the cost would be less than either of the other proposed routes and the time con- sumed in building only three years. His many useful inventions include sand boxes for locomo- tives, long wire for telegraphs and bridges, and test boxes for underground telegraph wires.

SERVISS, Garrett Putman, author, was born in Sharon Springs, N.Y., March 24, 1851 ; son of Garrett Putman and Katharine (Shelp) Serviss ; grandson of John C. and Anna (Putman) Serviss and of Henry and Lydia (Parkes) Shelp, and a descendant of Cliristian Serviss of Montgomery county, N.Y. He was graduated from Cornell university, B.S., 1872, and from Columbia Law school, LL.B., 1874; was a reporter and corre- spondent for the New York Tribune, 1874-76, and associated with the New York Sun as reporter, 1876 ; assistant-editor, 1877-82, and night-editor, 1882-92. After 1892 he engaged in lecturing on travel, history and astronomy. He was married,

June 19, 1875, to Eleanore, daughter of King D., and Julia A. (Birchard) Betts of Ithaca, N.Y. He is the author of : Astronomy loith an Opera G/ass (1888); The Conquest of Mars (1898); The Moon Metal (1900); Pleasures of the Telescope (1901); Other Worlds (1902), and contributions on astronomy to leading publications.

SESSIONS, Walter Looniis, representative, was born in Brandon, Vt., in 1824. He received a common sciiool education and became a prac- tising lawyer in Jamestown, N.Y., serving as a county oflficial for several years, as a member of the state assembly, 1853-54, and later as a school commissioner. He was a member of the state senate in 1859 and again in 1865 ; and a Repub- lican representative from the thirty-fourth New York district in the 42d and 43d congresses. 1871- 75, and in the 49th congress, 1885-87, serving as a member of the committee on Indian affairs. In 1893 he was a state commissioner to the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago. He died in Panama, N.Y., Mav 27, 1896.

SESSUMS, Davis, fourth bishop of Louisiana, and 157th in the succession of the American episcopate, was born in Houston, Texas, July 7. 1858 ; son of Alexander and Mary (Runnels) Sessums. He was graduated from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., A.B., A.M., 1878; ordered deacon, 1882, and ordained priest later in the same year. He was curate of Grace church, Galveston, Tex., 1883 ; assistant rector and rector of Calvary church, Memphis, Tenn., 1883-87, and rector of Christ church. New Orleans, La., 1887- 91. He was married, Dec. 18, 1890, to Alice C, daughter of the Rt.-Rev. John Nicholas (q.v.) and Lottie (Barber) Galleher of New Orleans, La. He was consecrated bishop of Louis- iana, June 24, 1891, by Bishops Quin- tard, Tuttle, Garrett, assisted by Bishops Galleher, Thompson and Watson. He served as assistant to Bishop Galleher until the latter's death, when he succeeded him as bishop of Louisiana, Dec. 7, 1891. Bishop Sessums received the honorary de- gree of D.D. from the University of the South in 1891.

SETON, Elizabeth Ann, philanthropist, was born in New York city, Aug. 28, 1774 ; daughter of Dr. Richard and Catherine (Charlton) Baylej-. She was liberally educated under the direction of her father, and on Jan. 25, 1794, was married to William Seton, wliose father, William Seton, was a member of a noble Scotch family, and came to New York in 1758, and engaged in iron man- ufacturing in Ringwood, N.J. She accompanied her husband to Italy, hoping that he might re- cover his health, but he died at Pisa, Dec. 27, 1803. She became a convert to the Roman