Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/46

 RANTOUL

RAPHALL

cester in the state legislature, 1834-38; was a member of the judiciary committee, and in 1836 of a special committee to revise the statute laws of Massachusetts; represented the state in the first board of directors of the Western railroad, 1836-38, and in 1837 was appointed by Governor Everett a member of the first ^Massachusetts board of education, resigning in 1844. He re- moved to Boston, Mass., in 1839, and soon became prominent as an advocate and lawyer. He was U.S. district attorney for Massaclmsetts, 1845- 1849. On the resignation of DanielWebster from the U.S. senate in ISoO, Governor Briggs of Massachusetts appointed Robert C. Winthrop to fill the vacancy, but upon the meeting of the state legislature in 1851, Mr. Rantoul was elected and served until the 4th of Marcli, when the term ended. He was elected by the coalition a repre- sentative in the 33d congress, 1851-52. In 1851 he was counsel for Thomas Simms, the first fugitive slave surrendered by Massachusetts. He published a weekly journal in Gloucester in the interest of the Jacksonian Democracy, 1832-88; was editor of a "Workingmen's Library " and two series of a " Common Scliool Library '" and carried the "Journej-men Bootmakers' Case" through the courts, establishing the right of laborers to combine for business purposes. He died in Wash- ington, D.C., and rests at Beverly, under a stone which bears an epitaph from the pen of Sumner. On his sudden death at the age of 47, Whittier wrote elegiac verses which have been much ad- mired. The date of his death is Aug. 7, 1852. RANTOUL, Robert Samuel, educator, was born in Beverly, Mass., June 2, 1832; son of Robert, Jr. (q.v.) and Jane E. (Woodbury) Ran- toul. He was graduated from Harvard college, A.B., 1853, A.M. and LL.B., 1856; was admitted to the Essex bar in 1856, and at once began prac- tice in Beverly and Salem. He was married. May 13, 1858, to Harriet Cliarlotte, daughter of David Augustus and Harriet Charlotte (Price) Neal of Salem, Mass. Captain Neal was a well known merchant, and later president of the Eastern and Illinois Central railroads. Mrs. Rantoul died, May 20, 1899, leaving six sons and three daughters. Mr. Rantoul was a representative from Beverly in the state legislature of 1858, and in 1884-85, from Salem, where he had resided since 1858. He was collector of the port of Salem and Beverly by appointment of Preisdeut Lincoln, 1865-69; mayor of Salem, 1890-93; a candidate for presidential elector on the Palmer and Buckner ticket, 1896, and in 1896 became president of the Essex Institute. He is the author of: Centennial of American Independence, an oration delivered in Stuttgart. Germany, July 4, 1^76; and of an address to the English .speaking residents of Stuttgart on the anniversary of the

death of Freiligrath in 1877; The Two Hundred and. Fiftieth Anniversary of the Landing of John WintJirop at Salem, an oration delivered before the Essex Institute in 1880; of historical papers in the Institute Collections, and of other contri- butions to local history and antiquarian research.

RAPALLO, Charles Antonio, jurist, was born in New York city, Sept. 15, 1823; son of Antonio and Elizabeth (Gould) Rapallo; grandson of Ben- jamin Gould of Newbury port, Mass., a captain in the Revolutionary armj' at Lexington, and elected to the first congress from Massachusetts. Antonio Rapallo came from Rapallo, Italy, to the United States early in the nineteenth century, his republican tendencies having brought him into disfavor with his family and the Vatican, and became a practising attorney and counselor at law in New York city, having offices for manj- years with John Anthon. Charles was brought up under the personal direction of his father, who supervised Ins education, teaching him the class- ics, the modern languages and the law. He was admitted to the bar in 1844; practised in part- nership with Joseph Blunt, 184.5-48; with Horace F. Clark, 1848-68, and with James C. Spencer, 1868-70. He was married in 1852 to Helen, daughter of Bradford Sumner of Boston, Mass. He was elected an associate judge of the New York court of appeals as a Democrat, serving 1870-84; was defeated as chief justice in 1880, and re-elected associate judge for a second term of fourteen years by both political parties in 1884. He received the degree LL.D., Columbia, 1887. He died in New York city, Dec. 28, 1887.

RAPHALL, Morris Jacob, clergyman, was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in September, 1798. He was educated in a Jewish college at Copen- hagen, Denmark; learned the English language in England, and made a tour through France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. He attended the University of Giessen, Germany, 1821-24, and in 1825 returned to England, where he mar- ried and made his home. In 1832 he entered public life as a lecturer, delivering a course on post-Biblical history at Sussex Hall, London, and elsewhere; and established the weekly Hebrew Review and Magazine of Rabbinical Literature. the first Jewish periodical in England, which was discontinued after seventy-eight numbers. He acted for a time as secretary- to the Rev. Dr. Solomon Hirschel, chief rabbi of the German congregations of the British Isles; inyestigated the persecutions of the Jews in Syria in 1840, and was rabbi of the synagogue at Birmingham, England, 1841-49. He was one of the founders of the Hebrew National school; immigrated to the United States in 1849; was rabbi of the fiist Anglo-German Jewish synagogue in New Yoi 1< city, and subsequently of the congregation Bnai