Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/418

 SMITH

SMITH

Ogdensburg, N.Y. ; the author of several ama- teur comedies ami short stories ; regent of the Bellevue chapter of the D.A.R., and a cliarter member of the Society of Colonial Dames of Ver- mont. Mr. Smith served as tliird vice-president of the Central Vermont railroad, and upon his fatlier's death in the latter year succeeded liim as president of the road. He was a member of the state legislature, 1890, and governor of Vermont, 1898-1900. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Norwich uni- versity in 1901.

SMITH, Edwin, geodesist, was born in New York city, April 13, 1851 ; son of Edwin and Adelia Olivia (Mclntyre) Smith; grandson of

George B. and (Vermilye) Smith and of John

and Lucy Maria (Eaton) Mclntyre. He attended the public scliools and the College of tJie City of New York, 1868-69 ; applied himself to the study of astronomy and geodesy, 1869-70, and in the latter year entered the service of the U.S. coast and geodetic survey. He was married, Nov. 17, 1885. to Lucy Scott, daughter of William Cay- wood and Cornelia Augusta (Calmes) Black, of New Orleans, La. He was made an assistant of the survey, 1874. and was astronomer in charge of the transit of Venus expedition at Chatham Islands, South Pacific, Dec. 8, 1874, and also at Auckland, New Zealand, Dec. 8, 1882, where he also determined the force of gravity, as well as at Sydney, New South Wales, Singapore, Tokio, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., with the three Kater pendulums belonging to the Royal Society of England, used in the Great Indian sur^'ey. He was in charge of the instrument division of the U.S. coast and geodetic survey, 1879-94, during which time he also carried on observations for variation of latitudes at Rock- ville, Md., under the auspices of the International Geodetic association. He was with the left coast and geodetic survey, 1895, and with the New York state land survey. 1896-97 ; in the latter year was again appointed assistant of the U.S. coast and geodetic survey and established an In- ternational geodetic association latitude observa- tory at Gaithersburg, Md., where he made obser- vations for variations of latitude, October, 1899- January, 1901. After 1901. he engaged on the geo<Ietic, magnetic and astronomical work of the survey, and in 1903 had charge of the determi- nation of longitude across the Pacific ocean over the new cable of the Commercial Cable Comjiany, which work completed the circuit of the world. He was made a member of the Philosophical society of Washington, D.C., and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of

Science, and is the author of several papers pub- lished as appendices to the RejJorts of the U.S. coast and geodetic survey.

SMITH, Eli, missionary, was born in North- field, Conn., Sept. 13. 1801. He was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1821, A.M., 1824, and at Andover Tiieological seminary in 1826 ; was ordained at Springfield, ]Mass., May 10, 1826, and was mission- ary to Malta and superintendent of the printing house of the A. B.C.F.M., 1826-28 ; missionary at Beirut, Syria. 1829-57, traveling thiougli Greece in 1829, and in Armenia, Georgia and Persia, 1830- 31, establishing with Dr. H. G. O. Dwight, Ar- menian and Nestorian missions under the auspices of the American board. He was married in 1833, to Sarah Lanman, daughter of Jabez Hun- tington of Norwich. Conn.; settled to regular mis- sionaiy work in Beirut the same year ; and with Dr. Edward Robinson (q.v.), made extensive explorations in Palestine in 1838, and again in 1852. He went to Leipzig in 1839, and had a new and improved font of Arabic type cast under his direction, and used it in printing his translation of the Bible into Arabic in which he had been as- sisted by liis wife, who also taught a school for native girls in Beirut and who died in Boojah, near Smyrna, xlsia, Sept. 30, 1836. The work of translating the Bible was completed by Dr. C. V. Van Dyck, and it was published in New York, 1866-67. Dr. Smith received th'e honorary degree of D.D. from Williams college in 1850. He was co-author with Dr. H. G. O. Dwight ot Missionary Researches 171 Armenia (2 vols., 1833). He died in Beirut, Syria, Jan. 11, 1857.

SMITH, Elizabetli Cakes (Prince), author, was born in North Yarmouth. Maine, Aug. 12, 1806. She began to write verses when a mere child. She was married early in life to Seba Smith (q.v.) whom she assisted in his work as editor of the Eastern Argus, Family Recorder and Portland Daily Courier. She was editor of the Mayfloircr, an annual published in Boston, 1839-42. In 1842 she removed with her husband and family from Portland to Patchogue, Long Island, N.Y.. where she continued her literary work up to the time of her husband's death in 1868, when she removed to New York city. She was the first woman public lecturer and one of the first women preachers in America, liaving charge of an inde- pendent congregation at Canastota, N.Y. Her first book. Riches Without Wings (1838), attracted little attention. Her first literary success was a collection of poems, The Sinless Child (1841). The title poem had been originally contributed to the Southern Literary Messenger, and Charles Fenno Hoffman (q.v.) wrote of it : "We are half disposed to cry ' Eureka ' and declare that the American poem has been produced by our fair countrywoman." Edgar Allan Poe in 1846 placed