Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/69

 REEDER

REESE

land, who settled at Newtown, Long Island, about 1650. He attended the academy at Lawrence- ville, N.J., and practised law in Easton from 1828, attaining a high position at the Pennsyh'ania bar, and as a campaign orator in Democratic political meetings. He was married, Sept. 13, 1831, to Fredericka Amalia, daughter of Chris- tian J. and Charlotte (Bauer) Hutter of Easton. He was appointed by President Pierce, governor of Kansas Territory in 1854, and although in sympathy with the policy of the administration regarding slavery, he expressed himself as satis- lied that the admission of the institution in Kansas would result in lawlessness, and be was removed from office in July, 1855. He claimed to have been elected a Free State delegate from Kansas to the 34th congress in 1855, but his elec- tion was successfully contested by John W. Whitfield, the incumbent delegate; and after his election as U.S. senator under the Topeka •constitution, which congress refused to ratify, Mr. Reeder returned to Easton. where he sup- ported John C. Fremont, the Republican candidate for President. He was ciiairman of the Republi- can state delegation to the national convention at Ciiicago in 1800; a candidate for Vice-President before the convention, receiving the third highest vote, and in 1861, after having secured the ap- pointment of Simon Cameron as secretary of war. declined a commission as brigadier-general in the U.S. army from President Lincoln on the ground that he had no military educatitm except that gained by liis service as captain in the state militia at Easton. He, however, sent three sons to the Union army. He was chairman of the Republican state delegation to the Republican national convention of 1864, which re-nominated Lincoln for President, and served as chairman of the commission to investigate the charges against Surgeon-General Hammond in 1864. On Sept. 23, 1901, his portrait was presented to the county of Northampton, by his surviving sou and daughter. He died m Easton, Pa., July 5, 1864.

REEDER, William Augustus, representative, -was born in Cumberland county, Pa., Aug. 28, 1849. He removed with his parents to Ipava, Fulton county. 111., in 1853, attended the public schools, and taught school in Illinois, 1863-71, and in Beloit, Kan., 1871-79. He was married, Aug. 18, 1876, to Eunice H. Andrews of Beloit, and removed to Logan, Kan., where he engaged in banking. In 1890, in partnership with A. H. Ellis and J. J. Wiltrout, he purchased an exten- sive tract of land on the Solomon river, and established the largest irrigation farm in the state of Kansas. He was a Republican repre- .sentative from the sixth congressional district of Kansas in the 56th, 57th and 58th congresses, 1899-1905.

REES, John Krotn, astronomer, was born in New York city, Oct. 27. 1851; son of Hans and Lucinda (Krom) Rees; grandson of Iver Jensen and Lena Maria Rees and of Reuben and Mary (Dubois) Krom, and a descendant of Louis Dii- Bois (1660). He was graduated from Columbia college, A.B., 1872, A.M., 1875, and from the Columbia School of Mines, E.M.. 1875. He was assistant in mathematics at the School of Mines, 1873-76; was married Sept. 7. 1876, to Louise E., daughter of Nathaniel and Emma (Chambers) Sands of New York city; was professor of math- ematics and astronomy at Washington universit}', St. Louis, Mo., 1876-81; was recalled to Columbia as director of the observatory in 1881, and also served as adjunct professor of geodesy and prac- tical astronomy, 1882-84; and professor, 1884-92, being transferred to the chair of astronomy in 1892. He was chau-man of the board of editors of the School of 31ines Quarterly, 1883-90. He prepared with Prof. Harold Jacoby (q.v.) and Dr. Herman S. Davis as assistants, an account of the seven years' campaign (1893-1900) with the Royal Observatory of Naples (M. Fergola, direc- tor), for the purpose of determining the varia- tions of latitude, and the constant of aberration, the result of this work being published by the ■ New York Academy of Sciences as a volume of the Annals of the Academy (1903): and under his general direction the measurements and re- duction of the C. M. Rutherfurd star plates were carried out by Professor Jacoby and the Observa- tory computing staff, and also publi^^hed by the Academy (1892-1903). In 1900 he completed ar- rangements for the mounting of a fixed telescope at Helsingfors, Finland, adapted for photograph- ing star plates about the North Pole, according to a plan suggested by Professor Jacoby. For astronomical work done, the degree of Ph.D. was conferred on him by Columbia in 1895. He was president of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1894-96; secretary of the American Metrological society, 1882-96, being made vice-president in 1896; vice-president of the American Mathemati- cal society, 1890-91; secretary of the University Council of Columbia university, 1892-98; a fellow of the Royal Astronomical society of London and a member of the Astronomische Gesellschaft. He received from the French government in January, 1901, the decoration of the Legion of Honor.

REESE, William Brown, jurist and educator, was born in Jefferson county, Tenn., Nov. 19, 1793; son of James Reese, a pioneer settler of East Tennessee (then Washington county, N.C.) and a representative in the legislature of the proposed state of Franklin, 1785-87. William B. Reese attended the preparatory school of the Rev. Dr. Henderson, and Blount college, and was