English
English names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
English WILLIAM HAYDEN, an American capitalist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM HAYDEN, an American capitalist; born in Lexington, Ind., Aug. 27, 1822; received a college education and became a lawyer; was elected to Congress in 1852 and served there through four consecutive terms. As a member of the Committee on Territories, in opposition to his own party, he worked against the admission of Kansas to the Union. He reported from the Committee of Conference what was known as the "English bill," in which it was urged that the question of admission be referred back to the people of Kansas according to the provision of the Lecompton constitution. This bill was adopted and the people voted against admission. He strongly opposed secession. In 1861 he retired to private life; was president of the First National bank of Indianapolis, in 1863-1877, and was also interested in railroads. In 1880 he was the Democratic nominee for Vice- President on the ticket with General Hancock. He published a historical and biographical work on the constitution and lawmakers of his State. He died in Indianapolis, Ind., Feb. 7, 1896.
English THOMAS DUNN, an American author
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THOMAS DUNN, an American author; born in Philadelphia, Pa., June 29, 1819; was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1839; admitted to the bar in 1842; engaged in journalism in New York in 1844-1859; then resumed medical practice in Newark, N. J. He was a member of the state assembly in 1863- 1864, and of Congress in 1891-1895. He was the author of "Ben Bolt," an exceed ingly popular ballad (1843); "Walter Woolfe" (1842): "Ambrose Fecit, or the Peer and the Painter" (1869); "American Ballads" (1882); "Book of Battle Lyrics" (1886); "Jacob Schuyler's Millions" (1886); "Old Glory" song (1898); etc. He died in 1902.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both men were already dead when Collier's compiled these notes in 1921, and the facts stand as given. What has shifted is what they are remembered for: Thomas Dunn English's "Ben Bolt," called "exceedingly popular" in 1843, is now largely forgotten except by scholars, who tend to know him instead as the antagonist Edgar Allan Poe sued for libel in 1846 and lampooned in print. William Hayden English is likewise remembered less for the 1858 "English bill" — Kansas entered the Union in 1861 regardless — than as the losing Democratic vice-presidential candidate of 1880 and as the builder of the English Hotel and Opera House on Indianapolis's Monument Circle, a landmark torn down in the mid-20th century.
Written for this edition, 2026.