Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/385

 SIKES

SILL

and naval construction at the naval academy, and was chief In-drographer of the navy depart- ment, 1898-97. He was commissioned captain, March 21, 1897, and was given command of the battleship Maine, April 10, 1897. On Feb. 15, 1898, while anchored in Havana liarbor, the Maine was blown up by a mine and 258 lives were lost. He took part in the war with Spain as commander with the auxiliary cruiser St. Paul, called the Harxxtrd, and on May 24, 1898, he cap- tured the Spanisli collier Restormel, and cut off the coal supply for the Spanish fleet. He com- manded the battleship Texas. 1898-1900; in 1900 was appointed chief officer of naval intelligence, and in May, 1903, he assumed command of the League Island navy j'ard, being succeeded as chief intelligence officer by Commander Seaton Schroeder (q.v. ). He was a member of the naval construction board and of the naval general board, and is the author of: Deep Sea Souuding and Dredging (1880); Personal Narrative of the Battleship " Maine " (1899).

SIKES, William Wirt, author, was born in Watertown, N.Y., in 1§36; son of Dr. William Eaton and Meroe Sikes. His health not permit- ting regular school attendance, he studied at home, learned the printer's trade in 1850. and Avas subsequently engaged in journalism. He wrote for several newspapers in Utica, N.Y., while fill- ing a position as type-setter; was connected with the Times and Evening Journal, in Chicago, 111., for several years, and became canal inspector for that state in 1860. He resumed newspaper work in New York city in 1867; published and edited City and Country, at Nyack, N.Y., 1868-70, and was married, Dec. 19, 1872, to Olive Logan (q.v.). He was the U.S. consul at Cardiff. Wales, 1876- 83. He contributed verses and stories to leading American periodicals; figured prominently as an art critic, and was also a student of the social condition of the slums of Chicago, New York, and Paris, and subsequently of the same question in Wales. He is the author of: A Book for the Winter Evening Fireside (1858); One Poor Girl: the Story of Thousands (1869); Rambles and Studies in Old South Wales (1881); British Gob- lins: Welsh Fairy Mythology (1880); and Studies of Assassination (1881). He died in London, England, Aug. 19. 1883.

SILL, Edward Roland, poet and prose-writer, was born in Windsor, Conn., April 29, 1841; son of Dr. Tlieodore (M.D. Yale, 1831) and Elizabeth N. (Rowland) Sill; grandson of Dr. Elisha Noyes and Chloe (Allyn) Sill; and a descendant of John Sill, who emigrated from Lyme, England, to Cambridge, Mass., about 1637. Dr. Elisha Sill served in the Revolutionary war; was town clerk of Windsor. 1803-13, and a member of the general assembly, 1816-17 and 1824. Left an orphan in

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1853. Edward R. Sill removed to the home of his uncle, Elislia Noyes Sill, Jr. (Yale, 1820), in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; was fitted for college at Phillips academy, Exeter, N.H., and graduated from Yale, poet of his class, A.B., 1861. At the close of his col- lege career, being in poor health, he made a voyage round Cape Horn to California, with his classmate, Sextus Shearer, and remained in Califor- nia, variously em- ployed, at one time in a post-office, and later in a bank, until 1866, when he returned east to enter the Harvard Divinity

school, where he studied theology less than a year. He was married, Feb. 7, 1867, to his cousin, Elizabeth Newberry, daughter of Elisha Noyes, Jr., and Fanny (Newberry) Sill of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; removed to Brooklyn, N.Y., where he taught in a boys' school and engaged in journalism, being temporarily connected as critic with the New York Evening Mail; taught school at Wadsworth, Medina county, Ohio, 1868-69, and was principal of the high school and superintendent of schools at Cuyahoga Falls, 1869-70. He taught Gi'eek, Latin and rhetoric in the high schools at Oakland, Cal., 1871-74, and was professor of the English language and literature in the University of California. 1874- 82, resigning in the latter year and again taking up his residence at Cuyahoga Falls. The rest of his life was devoted to literary pursuits. Many of his prose compositions appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, The Century, The Overland Montldy, the Calif ornian, and the Berkeley Quarterly. His contribution to literature was fragmentary, but vital, and his claim to a permanent place in American poetry rests mainly upon the spon- taneous and inspirational quality of his thought and the delicate finish of his style. He translated Rau's "Mozart" (1868), and is the author of: Field Notes, The Hermitage ajid Later Poems {ISGS); The Venus of Milo and other Poems (printed privately, 1883); Poems (1887): and Hervnone and other Poems (1889). The Prose of Edu-ard Roicland Sill; ivith an Introduction Comprising Some Familiar Letters was published in 1900, and a memorial tribute by his friends in California contains material selected from his private corre- spondence. His portrait by Keith is in the library of the University of California. He died in Cleveland, Ohio, Feb. 27, 1887.