The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Appleton, Samuel

APPLETON, Samuel, an American merchant and philanthropist, brother and partner of the preceding, born in New Ipswich, N. H., June 22, 1766, died in Boston, July 12, 1853. His opportunities for study were confined to the district schools, and at the age of 17 he became himself a teacher. In 1794 he established himself in trade in Boston. He was for many years a heavy importer of English goods, and at a later period largely engaged in the cotton manufacture. At his death his fortune amounted to nearly $1,000,000, and he had given away nearly as much as that during his lifetime. He endowed the academy at New Ipswich with a fund which secured its permanence, and founded the professorship of natural philosophy of Dartmouth college, with a gift of $10,000. In his old age he became more and more absorbed with a desire to relieve the sufferings of the poor, and intrusted physicians and others with large sums for that purpose. By his will he placed property to the amount of $200,000 in the hands of his executors, &ldquo;to be by them applied, disposed of, and distributed, for scientific, literary, religious, and charitable purposes.&rdquo;