Benjamin Silliman
(1779-1864)
Father a French naval officer who owns a sugar plantation in Haiti, illegitimate, raised in France, to US ’03 to avoid Napoleonic Wars, settles on family farm near Valley Forge, gift for drawing birds, import-export business, taxidermy, explores South for new species, paints one bird a day, publishes Birds of America in UK ’41, 500 species, lectures at Royal Society, Darwin attends, back to US, exploring, painting, dies in NYC.
Robert Grier (1794-1870)
John McLean
(1785-1861)
Mountain Man Bison
Seth Kinman (1815-1888)
David Davis (1815-1886)
Famous New York physician who co-founds the NY Academy of Medicine.
Photography Book
Kit Carson (1809-1868)
MD from U. Pennsylvania in 1826, “treated” President W.H. Harrison as he dies, family physician to Franklin Pierce
Justice Samuel Nelson
(1820-1857)
Born in Paris, to US ’03, mother cares for Thomas Paine & inherits, West Point, Indian territory postings, leave from army to explore Oregon Territory ’31-33, JJ Astor funds, opens the California Trail, explores Great Salt Lake, his travels recounted by Washington Irving (Adventures of Capt. Bonneville) ’37, with Scott at Mexico City ’47, commander of Missouri Benton Barracks in CW.
Judiciary
Lemuel Shaw (Mass) (1781-1861)
Dr Herbert M Nash
Physicians
Associate Justice on the Marshall and Taney Courts over 33+ years and the most famous legal figure in America by the end of his career.
Dr J Kingsley
Phrenologist Le Grand B. Cushman
Charles Henningsen (1815-1887)
Yale class of 1827, lawyer, then Justice on New York Supreme Court from 1855 to death.
Dr JS Hadley
Aaron Burr (1756-1836)
Daniel Boone (1734-1820)
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 1800-35. He defined the role of the Court, established its authority to interpet the words and clauses of the Constitution, and to strike down any laws passed by federal or state legislatures that conflicted with it. Bete noir of his second cousin, Thomas. Jefferson.
Born in Tennessee, Summa cum laude at 14 (U. Nashville), MD degree from U Penn at 19, briefly practices medicine, into the law & then edits the New Orleans Crescent, moves to SF in ’49, fights 3 duels (twice wounded), commitment to expanding slavery leads to “filibustering” strategy to conquer land in Latin America, recruits 45 troops to take Baja California & set up the Republic of Sonora, arrested and tried and acquitted, joined by Henningsen to invade and conquer Nicaragua in ‘55, elects himself president & reinstates slavery, Pierce recognizes his republic in ’56,a fearful Costa Rica attacks him, Honduras & Guatemala join in, driven out & returns to U.S. ’57, returns to region in ’60, captured by British who turn him over to Honduras who execute him by firing squad.
Supreme Court Members
Elisha Kane (1820-1857)
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) French biologist, discovers principles of germ theory and prevention. vaccinations, microbial fermentation and “pasteurization/sterilization” of packaged goods. Rabies and anthrax vaccines save countless lives.
Explorers/Frontiersmen
John C Fremont (1813-1890)
Benjamin Bonneville (1798-1878)
Self-educated, bar, soon a leading lawyer, Chief Justice of Pa Supreme Court ’51-54, Buchanan’s Attorney General ’57-60 and Sec of State ’60-61, says secession is illegal, supports defending Ft. Sumter, most influential in Buchanan cabinet.
Louis Pasteur
(1822-1895)
John Lapete with rifle/dog
A New Yorker by birth, he studies law, becomes a judge and runs for Senate as a Democrat before being named to the US Supreme Court by John Tyler. He serves there from 1845 to 1872, and sides with the 7-2 majority in the famous Dred Scott ruling, although his concurrence calls the case a matter for the States and not the Federal bench.
Philip Syng Physick (1768-1837) (surgeon pioneer)
Chief Justice John Jay 1745-1829)
James Kent (NY) (1763-1847)
Judge Williams Brooks (Ala)
(1814-1894)
Graduates from U. Pennsylvania medical school before joining the navy as an assistant surgeon. His travels soon take him to the Arctic as part of expeditions financed by the American merchant, Henry Grinnell, to discover the fate of the British explorer, Sir John Franklin, whose fleet vanishes in 1845. While Kane never locates Franklin remains, he travels beyond Greenland toward the Humboldt glacier before being trapped in the ice for two bitter winters. Kane’s health never recovers, but his scientific maps help future explorers and his book on the adventure captures the imaginations of the American public.
John Marshall (1755-1835)
Dr. J. W. Francis
(1789-1861)
Filibusterers
Other Prominent Judges
Prominent Men Outside Politics
Joseph Story (1779-1845)
Jeremiah Black (Pa) (1810-1883)
Roger Taney (1777-1864)
Born in S.C., studies law, practices in Alabama, becomes a planter and judge, opposes Black Republicans, elected President of Alabama Succession Convention in ’61, serves in war.
John James Audebon (1785-1851)
Dr. Thomas Miller
English intellectual philosopher who applied Darwin’s theory of evolution to social outcomes, coining the phrase “survival of the fittest.”
Professor of Science at Yale, important early work on petroleum
Samuel Miller (1816-1890)
William Walker (1824-1860)
Doctor and skull
George Gould (1807-1868)
Herbert Spencer
(1820-1903)
Harvard, evangelical, journalist, lawyer, politician (across 7 different parties), cabinet member under Monroe, and then Supreme Court Justice, McLean is often under consideration for a presidential nomination.
Miller is named to the Supreme Court by Lincoln and serves as Associate Justice for 28 years writing over 600 opinions. A Unitarian with an MD degree before turning to the law.