Tenney, William Jewett

William Jewett Tenney

An author, editor, born at Newport, Rhode Island, 1814; died at Newark, New Jersey, 20 Sept., 1883. Graduating from Yale in 1832 he studied medicine, but abandoned it for the law and, on being admitted to the bar, opened an office in New York. He then tried journalism on the editorial staff of the "Journal of Commerce," and contributed editorially to the "Evening Post", during 1841-43 and 1847-48. In 1853 he entered the service of D. Appleton and Co., publishers, as editor, and, in addition to a large amount of literary and critical work, began for them, in 1861, the compilation of the "Annual Cyclopædia" which he continued till his death. He indexed T. H. Benton's "Abridgment of the Debates of Congress" and added a sixteenth volume to the series (New York 1857-60). He edited the "Queens of England" (1852); and wrote a "Military and Naval History of the Rebellion in the U. S." (1865), and a "Grammatical Analysis" (1866). During a long residence at Elizabeth, N. J., he held several local public offices including that of collector of the port during President Buchanan's administration. He became a convert to the Catholic Faith and married, as his second wife, Sarah, daughter of Orestes H. Brownson (q. v.).

Appleton's Cyclopœdia of American Biog. (New York, 1900), s. v.; LAMB, Biog. Dict, of U. S. (Boston, 1903); Freeman's Journal (New York), files.

THOMAS F. MEEHAN.