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Biddle, Clement

(Encyclopedia)Biddle, Clement, 1740–1814, American Revolutionary soldier, b. Philadelphia. Early in the war, he helped organize the “Quaker Blues,” a company of volunteers. He later served as deputy quarterma...

Fort Washington

(Encyclopedia)Fort Washington, military post during the American Revolution, situated on the highest point of Manhattan island, New York City, overlooking the Hudson River opposite Fort Lee, N.J. It was a hastily b...

Whitney, Eli

(Encyclopedia)Whitney, Eli, 1765–1825, American inventor of the cotton gin, b. Westboro, Mass., grad. Yale, 1792. When he was staying as tutor at Mulberry Grove, the plantation of Mrs. Nathanael Greene, Whitney w...

Hazzard, Shirley

(Encyclopedia)Hazzard, Shirley, 1931–2016, Australian-American novelist and short-story writer, b. Sydney. Educated in Australia, she lived in Hong Kong, Italy, and New Zealand before settling in the United State...

Fairborn

(Encyclopedia)Fairborn, city (2020 pop. 34,240), Greene co., SW Ohio; settled 1799, inc. 1950 with the merging of Osborn and Fairborn. Major employers are Wright Stat...

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth

(Encyclopedia)Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1823–1911, American author, b. Cambridge, Mass. A Unitarian minister, he was a leader in the abolitionist movement and was a member of a group that backed John Brown's a...

Harvey, Gabriel

(Encyclopedia)Harvey, Gabriel, 1545?–1630?, English author. He studied at Cambridge and became a fellow of Pembroke Hall. There he became friends with Edmund Spenser, who later celebrated Harvey as Hobbinol in Th...

Peele, George

(Encyclopedia)Peele, George, 1558?–1597?, English playwright, educated at Oxford. He experimented in a variety of forms, including the pageant, history, pastoral, comedy, and melodrama, but his best-known work is...

Coventry, town, United States

(Encyclopedia)Coventry, town (2020 pop. 35,688), Kent co., W R.I.; settled 1643, set off from Warwick and inc. 1741. Formerly a noted lace center, it still has textil...

Paragould

(Encyclopedia)Paragould pârˈəgo͞old [key], city (1990 pop. 18,540), seat of Greene co., NE Ark.; inc. 1882. The growing processing and trade center of an agricultural region, Paragould also has a wide variety o...