Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/471

 SPOFFORD

SPOFFORD

supervisor, three years; as a member of the New York assemblj-, six j-ears; as state senator, four years, and was a delegate to the Democratic national convention of 1860. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, Oct. 2, 1862, for recruiting and organizing the " Empire " brigade, composed of four regiments; was twice wounded at Wapping Heights, Va., July 23, 1863, and was honorably discharged from service, August, 1865, when lie resumed his business in New York city. He was alternate to Daniel Planning, delegate-at- large from the state of New York to the Demo- cratic national convention of 1884; was again state senator, and a Democratic representative from the tenth New York district in the 50th, 51st, and 52d congresses, serving from Dec. 5, 1887, until his death in 1891, when he was suc- ceeded by William Bourke Cockran. He died in Washington. D.C., April 14, 1891.

SPOFFORD, Ainsworth Rand, librarian, was born in Gilmanton, N.H., Sept. 12, 1825; son of the Rev. Luke Ainsworth and Grata (Rand); Spofford: grandson of Eleazar and Mary (Flint) Spoff ord, and of Daniel and Susanna (Hemenway) Rand, and a descend- dant of John Spof- ford, who emigrated from Yorkshire, Eng. (where Spoff orth cas- tle, an ancient ruin, still stands) to Amer- ica, and settled in Rowley, Essex county, Mass. He removed with his parents from East Bradford, Mass., in 1835, to Amherst, Mass., where he was educated under pri- vate tutors, but did not enter college on account of impaired health. In 18-44 he settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he be- came a book-seller and jmblisher. He was married Sept. 15, 1852, to Sarah, daughter of Phineas and Polly (Wheeler) Partridge, of Franklin, Mass., who died in 1892. He was associate editor of the Cincinnati Daily Commercial, 1859-61; first assistant librarian in the congressional library at Washington, D.C., 1861-64; librarian-in-chief, 1864-97, serving as register of copyrights from 1870, and chief-assistant librarian from 1897. He received the honorary degree of LL.D., from Amherst college in 1882, and was elected to mem- bership in several historical and philosophical societies. He edited Catalogues of Congressional Library (1864-1882); American Almanac and Treasury of Facts (1878-89); was associate editor of: Library of Choice Literature {\%%\-%%); Library

of Historic Characters and Famous Events (1894- 95); Library of Wit a7id Humor {188i); and is the author of: Practical Manual of Parliamentai'y Rules (1884); A Book for all Readers: An Aid to Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books, and the Formation of Libraries (\^Q0); and of numer- ous lectures and articles in reviews and cyclo- pedias.

SPOFFORD, Harriet Elizabeth Prescott, author and poet, was born in Calais, Me., April 3, 1835; daughter of Joseph N. and Sarah (Bridges) Prescott. She attended Putnam Free school, Newburyport, Mass., 1849-52, and was graduated from Pinkerton academy, Derry, N.H. She was obliged to employ her literary talent at an early age and first became known as a writer in 1859, through her serial story In a Cellar, pub- lished in the Atlantic Monthly. She was married in 1865 to Richard S. Spoflford (1832-88), a lawyer of Boston, and in 1867 removed to Deer Island, near Newburyport, Mass. She is the author of: Sir Ro- han's Ghost (1859); TJie Amber Gods, and Other Stories (1863); Azarian (1864); New England Legends (1871); The Thief in the Night (1872); Poems (1881); Art Decoration Applied to Furni- ture (1881); Marquis of Carabas (1882); Poems (1882): Hester Stanley at St. Mark's {\S9>^); The Ser- vant-Girl Question (1884); Ballads about Authors (1888); A Lost Jewel (1891); The Scarlet Pojijyy (1894); .4 Master Spirit (1896); Li Titian's Garden, poems (1897); Hester Stanley's Friends (1898); Priscilla's Love Story (1898); The Maid He Married (1898), and Old Madame and Other Tragedies (1900).

SPOFFORD, Henry Martyn, jurist, was born in Gilmanton, N.H., Sept. 8, 1821; son of the Rev. Luke Ainsworth and Grata (Rand) Spof- ford; and elder brother of Ainsworth Rand Spof- ford (q. V.;. He was graduated from Amherst college, Mass., A.B., 1840. A.M., 1843; was a tutor there, 1842-43; principal of an academy at Minden, Claiborne parish. La., and studied law, 1843-45; was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1845, and began practice in Shreveport, La., in partnersliip with Judge Olcott, brother-in-law of Rufus Choate, He was district judge, 1852-54; associate- justice of the supreme court of Louisiana, 1854-58, and then removed his practice to New Orleans, La., where, after 1861, he went into part- nership with John A. Campbell (q. v.). He was married about 1857, to Ophelia, daughter of Thomas Martin, of Pulaski, Tenn., and in 1870 retired from his profession and settled in Pulaski, Tenn., where he was administrator of the estate of his father-in-law. He was elected in 1876 as a Democrat by the " Nicholls " legislature, U.S. senator from Louisiana, but the seat was success- fully contested by William Pitt Kellogg, who had been elected by the "Packard" legislature.