EMMONS, George Foster, naval officer, born in Clarendon, Rutland County, Vermont, 23 August 1811; died in Princeton, New Jersey, 2 July 1884. He entered the navy as midshipman, 1 April 1828, was promoted to pass midshipman in 1831, and was attached to Captain Charles Wilkes's exploring expedition in 1838'42. He was made lieutenant on 25 February 1841, and after the loss of his vessel, the "Peacock," off Columbia River, Oregon, in July of that year, had charge of a party that explored the country south of the Columbia to the headwaters of the Sacramento, and went thence to San Francisco. He then served in various vessels, taking part in several engagements on shore in California, during the Mexican war. He became commander on. 28 January 1856, commanded the " Hatteras," of the western gulf squadron, in 1862, and in that year captured Cedar Keys, Fla., and Pass Christian, Miss., and about twenty prizes. He afterward commanded the "R. R. Cuyler," of the same squadron, and after being commissioned captain, 7 February 1863, was fleet captain under Admiral Dahlgren off Charleston. He commanded the "Lackawanna," and a division of from five to fifteen vessels in the Gulf of Mexico in 1864'5, and while at New Orleans assisted in destroying the ram " Webb," and preventing the destruction of the City and shipping. In 1866'8 he commanded the "OssiFee," carrying the U. S. commissioners to Alaska, and hoisting the American flag over that country.

He was made commodore, 20 September 1868, appointed senior member of the ordnance board in Washington in 1869, and given charge of the hydrographic office in 1870. He was promoted to rear admiral, 25 November 1872, and retired from active service on 23 August 1873. He published " The Navy of the United States from 1775 to 1853" (Washington, 1853).

His cousin, Halmer Hull, lawyer, born in Glens Falls, New York, in 1815; died in Detroit, Michigan; [4 May 1877, was educated in Rutland, Vermont. After assisting his father, a journalist, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar, but soon removed to Detroit, whither his father had already gone, and the two formed a law partnership about 1840. Halmer acquired distinction by defending the right of a Protestant clergyman to preach against whatever he believed injurious to the welfare of his fellow citizens. He partially retired from practice in 1853, on account of failing health, but in 1870 was appointed U. S. circuit judge for the sixth district; including Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.