Cogswell, Joseph G. 1786 1871 11 Cogswell Cogswell who had accompa- Cong., 3 Sess., 232-35 and 32I. For the burial of Cog- professor of mineralogy and geology. He re- geshall and his daughter at Columbus, see Ohio State ates and served as Jour., Oct. 19, 1870.] classified the library, following Göttingen as a R.L.R. yas practically in model, and was eager to introduce further im- (COGSWELL, JOSEPH GREEN (Sept. 27, Aug. 2, 1867, he 1786-Nov. 26, 1871), teacher and librarian, was provements (Life as Sketched in Letters, pp. Quito. His body the son of Francis and Anstis (Manning) Cogs- 133-35), but, discouraged by lack of support and rated ground, but understanding on the part of the College gov- well and was born in Ipswich, Mass., where his ccurred soon after- immigrant ancestor, John Cogswell, had settled ernment, he resigned in 1823, and with George placed in a public Bancroft [q.v.] established the Round Hill soon after having been wrecked off Pemaquid in of both Cogge- School in Northampton, Mass., a school well died at Guaya- 1635. His father died in 1793. Cogswell was educated at the grammar school in Ipswich and known for its strict but kindly discipline, its returned to the thorough instruction on the plan of the German spense, and buried at Phillips Exeter Academy. He entered Har- gymnasium, and the vigorous outdoor life and vard College at sixteen and graduated in 1806. manly spirit it fostered. Financial difficulties From 1807 to 1809 he studied law under Fisher essed himself gen- Ames and Judge Prescott, but a restless disposi- brought the school to an end in 1834.) Hoping to naturally into a tion and a love of travel led him to engage in a free himself from debt, Cogswell took charge of hg In his contro- succession of mercantile ventures in Southern a boys' school in Raleigh, N. C., but ill health however, he was and lack of sympathy with Southern habits and Europe, 1809-II, in which he experienced dan- ectively in support standards turned him again to the North after gers from bandits and pirates and from the con- amphlets and ap- two years. fiscation of ships and cargoes in Naples. terest in his tract, On Apr. I7, 1812 he married Mary F. Gilman, From 1836 to 1838 he lived in the family of his Writing and Spell- friend Samuel Ward in New York and tutored orks; like his Lin- daughter of Gov. John T. Gilman, of New Hamp- compilations. shire, and began the practise of law in Belfast, his children. At the former's suggestion he Me. His wife dying in July 1813, he gave up the bought an interest in the quarterly New York 55 - was awkward Review to which he had already contributed a law and for two years was tutor in Latin at Har- made some at- long anonymous article on "National Education" blood and tears vard, but resigned on account of ill health. The (July 1838). He partly edited the number for ncerned to a con- next five years (1815-20) were spent for the The Protective most part in travel and study in Europe. At Göt- January 1839, soon after became sole proprietor, and conducted the Review until it was discon- plea for section- tingen (1817), Cogswell with Edward Everett tinued with the number for April 1842. While terature, was, in and George Ticknor [qq.v.] constituted the first group of American scholars to resort to a Ger- with the Wards he formed an acquaintance with was by far his and Poetry of man university (T. W. Higginson in Harvard John Jacob Astor [q.v.], and, gaining his respect Graduates' Magazine, VI, 1897, 6-18) At this and confidence, became his adviser with regard anthology for biographical time he became somewhat intimate with Goethe, to the public library which Astor proposed to establish in New York. Until Astor's death in writers with whom he corresponded for several years. 1848 Cogswell continued in close association evertheless a It was evidently due to his high regard for Cogs- with the old man, who kept him occupied in buy- the first of well that Goethe presented a set of his works to Harvard in 1819 (Mackall, post). During the ing books and making plans but never succeeded inned, which following years (1817-20) in Italy, Switzer- in arriving at final decisions and in establishing literature the library. In 1848, the trustees having organ- thought, the land, France, and England, Cogswell was in close ized, Cogswell was appointed superintendent and Griswold and touch with the best society and with literary devoted himself to the purchase of books (in- The Pro- men. Having intimate relations with Israel disciple of Thorndike, a wealthy Boston merchant, whose volving four visits to Europe), to the erection of with James son was under his care, he was instrumental in the building (opened in January 1854, with a a pioneer purchasing for the Harvard Library in 1818 the stock of 90,000 volumes), and to the preparation valuable American library of C. D. Ebeling, the of printed catalogues, the latter a task which he literature for librarian of Hamburg. In 1819 (February, performed almost entirely by himself. The pre- ailed, notice March) he contributed to Blackwood's Edin- liminary Alphabetical Index to the Astor Li- literary Cul- burgh Magazine two anonymous essays: "On brary and of the Proposed Accessions considerable shall's wid- the Means of Education and the State of Learn- (1851), was not only compiled entirely by Cogs- and Hist. ing in the United States of America," and "On well, but was also printed privately at his per- and dia- to Cogge- the State of Learning in the United States of sonal expense. He occupied rooms in the Li- America." (These were reviewed, in the North brary and his labors were unceasing. In De- on-in-law, has sup- American Review for September 1819 by Sidney cember 1861, at the age of seventy-five, he re- events of 1867; Willard, who considered them a gross exaggera- signed, being unable longer to perform his duties Reposi- tion of American deficiencies. Returning to to his own satisfaction, yet within a year he un- Cong., Globe, America in the fall of 1820, Cogswell was ap- dertook the compilation of a supplement to the pointed librarian of the Harvard Library and catalogue, which demanded long days of persis- 273 Cogswell Cogswell tent work and was not completed until October ied civil engineering at the Rensselaer Polytech- 1866. On his trips abroad in the interests of the nic Institute for three years, but left in 1852 library he had gratified a taste for art by accu- without a degree. In 1884, however, the Insti- mulating for himself a collection of drawings of tute conferred upon him the degree of C.E. After the old masters (see Original Drawings by the his work at Rensselaer he spent three years as an Old Masters: The Collection formed by Joseph apprentice in machine-shops at Lawrence, Mass., Green Cogswell 1786-1871 ; with Introduction and from then until 1860 he was actively en- and notes by George S. Hellman, 1915). gaged in responsible positions in foundries or Having built a house in Cambridge for a be- machine-shops where his mechanical engineer- loved niece of his wife (Mrs. David G. Haskins), ing abilities were marked. During the Civil War he made his home there when not visiting his he held an appointment as civil engineer in the friends. In June 1871 he went for the last time United States navy, He fitted out five repair to New York to advise the trustees of the Astor shops for stations on the Atlantic seaboard, as- Library on the selection of a new librarian. He sembled equipment, and then converted an old died in Cambridge, in November of that year, whaler into a floating machine-shop, of which and was buried in Ipswich, his birthplace. His he took command. This enabled warships to be later years were made happy by the loyalty and repaired without leaving the spots where they affection of his former Round Hill pupils and were participating in blockades of Southern other old-time friends, who appreciated his in- ports. In 1862 Cogswell was transferred to the tellectual hospitality, his quick and keen percep- Brooklyn Navy Yard where he remained until tions, his wide attainments in literature and bibli- 1866. After the war, supervisior of the construc- ography, and his firm principles of duty. tion and operation of the blast furnáces of the [An intimate view of Cogswell is given in the private- Franklin Iron Works in Oneida County and ly printed volume, Life of Jos. Green Cogswell as Sketched in His Letters (1874), ed. by Anna Eliot Tick- the completion of the Clifton Suspension Bridge nor; the earlier portion of his life is well told in T. at Niagara Falls occupied him until 1873. Waters, "Augustine Heard and His Friends" (i.e., G. It is because of his share in the introduction Cogswell and Daniel Treadwell), Ipswich Hist. Soc. Pubs., No. 21 (1916) and the later portion in H. M. Ly- into this country of the Solvay Process of manu- denberg, Hist. of the N. Y. Pub. Lib. (1923), pp. I-55. facturing soda, however, that Cogswell is best For an account of the Round Hill School, see the Pro- spectus of a School to Be Established at Round Hill, known. His interest in "things under the earth" Northampton (1823) ; Some Account of the School for was awakened in 1874, when he was placed in the Liberal Education of Boys Established on Round charge of some lead mines at Mine La Motte, Hill (1826), by Cogswell and Bancroft ; and Cogswell's Outline of the System of Education at the Round Hill Mo. In 1879, at a meeting of the American In- School (1831) also J. S. Bassett in Proc. Am. Antiq. stitute of Mining Engineers, he heard a paper Soc., n.s., XXVII (1917), 18-62 and F. C. Shattuck by Oswald J. Heinrich/or "The Manufacture of in Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., LVII (1924), 205-09. Glimpses of Cogswell's life are found in Geo. Ticknor's Soda by the Ammonia Process" (Transactions, Life, Letters and Journals (1876). His relations with VII, 294 ff.). He conceived the idea of applying Goethe are treated by Leonard L. Mackall in Goethe- Jahrbuch, 1904, and in Essays Offered to Herbert Put- the process patented by the Solvay brothers of nam by His Colleagues and Friends (1929), ed. by Wm. Brussels to the exploitation of the salt lands of Warner Bishop and Andrew Keogh ; see also Goethes Onondaga County, N. Y. Going to Europe, he Gespräche, ed. by von Biedermann (5 vols., 1909-11), with further notes by Mackall. Other references are succeeded in persuading Ernest and Alfred Sol- noted in A. C. Potter and C. K. Bolton, "The Librarians vay of the soundness of his plan, and became of Harvard College," Harv. Univ. Bibliog. Contribu- tions, no. 52 (1897), p. 36, and in H. M. Lydenberg, "A treasurer and general manager of the Solvay Forgotten Trail Blazer," in Essays Offered to Herbert Process Company formed in 1881. Later he be- Putnam.] W.C.L. came its vice-president and managing director. COGSWELL, WILLIAM BROWNE (Sept. His company became the largest manufacturer 22, 1834-June 7, 1921), mining engineer, was in the United States of soda ash and its deriva- born at Oswego, N. Y., the son of David and tives, and the production of soda became one of Mary (Barnes) Cogswell. His parents moved the major industries of Onondaga County. It to Syracuse when he was four years old. His was largely due to Cogswell's personal effort early education was acquired in private schools (and/ in the face of much opposition) that the at Syracuse and Seneca Falls and at Hamilton vein/ of rock salt, fifty to a hundred feet in thick- Academy. When he was about twelve years old he ness, and 1,200 feet below the surface, was located took some lessons in architecture under Luther twenty-two miles south of Syracuse at Tully. Gifford of Syracuse and plans drawn by Cogs- He was interested also in other local enterprises, well were used for the Globe Hotel, erected in especially in the development of the Hannawa Syracuse in 1846-47. His fourteenth year was Falls Power Company. spent with a railroad surveyor's party. He stud- Cogswell built the Hospital of the Good Shep- 274