Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/483

 WOOLSEY

WOOLSON

of the Rhode Island Society for the Collegiate Education of Women ; Brown Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa society ; American Institute of Social Service ; Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, and of the American Association for Maintaining a Woman's Table at Naples. She is the author of : Early History of the Colonial Post- Office (189-1) ; and Development of the Love of Romantic Scenery in America (1896).

WOOLSEY, Melanchton Taylor, naval of- ficer, was born in New York city, June 5, 1780 ; son of Gen. Melanchton Lloyd and Alida (Living- ston) Woolsey, and grandson of Henry and Susan (Conklin) Livingston. He abandoned the study of law to enter the U.S. navy, being warranted midshipman, April 9, 1800 ; was attached to the sloop Adams, 1800-01 ; commissioned lieutenant, Feb. 14, 1807, and served during the Tripolitan war. He prepared a code of signals for the U.S. navy ; was ordered to superintend the building of three naval vessels at Lake Ontario, and laid the keel of the Oneida in 1808, which vessel he com- manded during the first year of the war of 1812, taking part in the engagement with a British squadron at Sacket Harbor, July 19, 1812. He was promoted master-commandant, July 24, 1813 ; participated in the assaults on York, and Fort George ; was given command of the schooner Sylph, of Commodore Chauncey's squadron, Aug. 28, 1813, and on Oct. 5, 1813 ; captured the cutter Drummond and three British sloops off False Ducks. He was ordered to transport guns and tackle to Sacket Harbor in May, 1814, and al- though the British fleet appeared during his stay at Oswego, under cover of darkness he landed the guns and stores at Sandy Creek, where he was attacked, but repulsed the enemy, and captured 186 men, three gun boats, two barges and six guns. He commanded the brig Jones, 1814-16 ; the station at Sacket Harbor, 1816-24 ; and was promoted captain, April 27, 1816. He was mar- ried, Nov. 3, 1817, to Susan Cornelia Tredwell, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He commanded the fri- gate Constellation in the West Indies, 1824-27 ; the Pensacola navy yard, 1827-31 ; the Brazilian station, 1832-34, and had charge of the surveys of Chesapeake Bay, 1836-37. He died in Utica,N. Y. , May 19, 1838.

WOOLSEY, Theodore Dwight, educator, was born in New York city, Oct. 31, 1801 ; son of William Walton and Elizabeth (Dwight) Wool- sey, and nephew of Timothy Dwight (q.v.), presi- dent of Yale ; grandson of Benjamin and Ann (Muirson) Woolsey, and of Maj. Timothy and Mary (Edwards) Dwight, and a descendant of President Jonathan Edwards, Col. William Smith (chief-justice of New York, d. 170.")) ; the Rev. Thomas Hooker, and other prominent colo- nists. He was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1820,

A.M., 1823, studied law in Philadelphia, 1820-21, and theology at Princeton, 1821-23. He was a tutor at Yale, 1823-25 ; was licensed to preach in 1825, and studied abroad, 1827-30. He was mar- ried, Sept. 5, 1833, to Elizabeth Martha, daughter of Josiah and Abigail (Breese)Salisbury of Boston, Mass., and secondly, Sept. 6, 1854. to Sarah Sears, daughter of Oilman and Mary (Briggs) Prichard. He was professor of Greek language and liter- ature at Yale, 1831-61, and was president of Yale Oct. 21, 1846, to Oct. 11, 1871, when he resigned. He was lecturer on international law. 1873-77, and was a fellow of Yale, 1871-85. He was a member of the American companj- of revisers of the New Testament ; was president of the Orien- tal society, and a regent of the Smithsonian In- stitution. He received from Wesleyan univer- sity the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1845, and from Harvard, that of D.D. in 1847. and LL.D. in 1886. The name, Theodore D. Woolsey (1801- 1889), in " Class C, Educators," received 21 votes for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Amer- icans, October, 1800. Besides editing many Greek dramas, he wrote: Introduction to the Study of International Laio (1860); Essays on Divorce and Divorce Legislation (1869); Religion of the Present and of the Future (1871); Political Sci- ence (2 vols., 1877) Communism and Socialism in their History and Tlieory (1880). and Helpful Thoughts for Young 3Ien (1882). He died in New Haven. Conn., July 1. 1889.

WOOLSON, Constance Fenimore, author, was born in Claremont, N.H., March 5,1838; daughter of Charles Jarvis and Hannah Cooper (Pomroy) Woolson ; granddaughter of Thomas and (Peabody) Woolson, and great-granddaugh- ter of Judge William Cooper, founder of Coopers- town, N.Y. Thomas Woolson (1777-1837) settled in Claremont, N.H., about 1813 ; invented and patented the first successful cooking stove in America, 1818 ; was a representative in the state legislature, 1825-26 ;statesenator,1828,anda pres- idential elector on tlie Adams and Rush ticket, 1828. Her mother was a niece of James Fenimore Cooper (q.v.). Charles Jarvis Woolson, at one time proprietor and editor of Tlie yeic England Palladium, assisted in the management of his father's iron foundry, established on Sugar river, N.H., and was established in a similar enterprise in Cleveland, Ohio, 1837-69. Constance Fenimore Woolson attended the Young Ladies' seminary at Cleveland, completing her studies at Madame Chegaray's school in New York city. Upon lier father's death in 1869 she was obliged to use her literary talent to maintain her independence, and publishing her first story, " The Happy Valley." in Harper's Monthly in 1870, and also contributing to Appleton's Journal. She resided winters in St. Augustine, Fla., 1873-79, and after her