[215] The Mohawk and Albany Railway was projected by George W. Featherstonehaugh, an Englishman of some eminence, who had married an American and settled near Albany. A friend of George Stephenson of England, Featherstonehaugh conceived the idea, as early as 1825, of uniting Albany and Schenectady by a railway. The next year a company was incorporated, whose president was Stephen Van Rensselaer. Delay was incident upon construction, and the line was not opened until August, 1831, when the locomotive "Detroit Clinton" drew a train of carriages from Albany to Schenectady. The Mohawk and Albany Railway was the progenitor of the present New York Central and Hudson River Railway. See G. S. Roberts, Old Schenectady (Schenectady, 1904), pp. 143-152.—Ed.
[216] For a biographical account of Dr. Edwin James, see our volume xiv, preface, pp. 13-25.—Ed.
[217] For sketches of these scientists, see our volume xxii, p. 29, note 3, and p. 64, note 27.—Ed.
[218] Samuel George Morton (1799-1851) was educated in medicine at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Edinburgh. In 1823, he settled in practice in Philadelphia, and interested himself in the development of natural science, being a member for many years and finally president (1850) of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. To this institution he bequeathed his collection of skulls, which he began in 1830, and which is the largest museum of comparative craniology in the United States, containing over fifteen hundred specimens, nearly two-thirds of which are human. For the origin of Peale's Museum, see our volume ix, p. 55, note 22. Titian Peale is noted in our volume xiv, p. 40, note 1.—Ed.
[219] For brief notice of John Jacob Astor, see Franchère's Narrative, in our volume vi, p. 186, note 8.—Ed.
[220] For Dr. Julius, see ante, p. [179], note 198. The riots of July 9-11, 1834, were occasioned by popular opposition to the abolition movement. The American Anti-Slavery Society held a meeting in New York on the fourth of July; immediately excitement arose, and the leaders were threatened. On the night of the ninth, the attempt to hold a meeting of the society resulted in an attack on the Chatham Street chapel—the place of meeting—and the house of Lewis Tappan, one of its prominent members. See Niles' Register, xlvi, pp. 332, 346, 357-360.—Ed.
[221] See p. [169], for illustration of harpoon for dolphins.—Ed.