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COCHRAN, John, surgeon, born in Sudsbury, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1 September, 1730; died in Palatine, Montgomery County, New York, 6 April, 1807. He was the son of James, an emigrant to Chester county, Pennsylvania, in the early part of the 18th century. He was instructed at the grammar- school of Dr. Francis Allison, and acquired a knowledge of surgery and medicine from his preceptor, Dr. Thompson, at Lancaster. Pennsylvania At the beginning of the French and Indian war in 1755 he entered the British service as a surgeon's mate in the hospital department. When General Bradstreet marched against Fort Frontenac m the summer of 1758, he joined him, together with Maj. (afterward General) Philip Schuyler. At the close of the war his reputation as a surgeon was fully established. He first settled in Albany, and married Gertrude, a sister of General Schuyler, but soon afterward he removed to New Branswick, New Jersey, where he practiced his profession and was president of the Medical society of New Jersey, and, late in 1776, offered his services as a volunteer in the hospital department of the Revolutionary army. On the recommendation of Washington he was appointed physician and surgeon-general in the middle department, and on 17 January, 1781, congress appointed him director-general of hospitals, and his experience enabled him to make great improvements in the hospital service. Soon after peace had been declared he removed with his family to New York, and on the adoption of the Federal constitution Washington made him commissioner of loans for that state. --His grandson, John, lawyer, born in Palatine, Montgomery County, New York, 27 August, 1813, studied first at Union, but was graduated at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, in 1831. He studied law and was admitted to the bar of New York in 1834. From 1853 till 1857 he was surveyor of the port of New York, and from 1857 till 1861 a representative from that City in congress. On 4 July, 1858, he was deputed by the common council of the City of New York to convey to his native state of Virginia the remains of President James Monroe, who had died in New York and been buried there. On 11 June, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 1st United States chasseurs, which he commanded at Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, and other battles of the peninsular campaign. He became brigadier-general of volunteers on 17 July, 1862, and was assigned a brigade in Couch's division of the Army of the Potomac. He was with the reserve at the battle of Antietam, and afterward pursued the retreating enemy, resigning from the army on 27 February, 1862, in consequence of serious physical disability. In 1864 he was nominated at Cleveland, Ohio, by the convention of independent republicans, for vice-president of the United States on the ticket with General John C. Fremont for president.In 1863-'5 he was attorney general of the state of New York, and in 1869 tendered the mission to Paraguay and Uraguay, which he declined. In 1872 he was one of the New York delegation to the convention of the liberal Republican Party that met at Cincinnati, and was chiefly instrumental in securing the nomination of Horace Greeley for the presidency. In 1872 he was a member of the common council of the City of New York and president of the board, and was acting mayor during the temporary retirement of Mayor Hall in the midst of the Tweed ring disclosures, and again a member of the council in 1883. General Cochran is a member of the Society of the Cincinnati.C0CHRAN, John Webster, inventor, born in Enfield, New Hampshire, 16 May, 1814. In 1832, with a cash capital of $1.25, he walked 110 miles to Boston, and in 1833 patented a steam-heating apparatus. In 1834 he invented a revolving, breech-loading rifled cannon, in which the cylinder was automatically rotated by the cocking of the hammer--the same principle that afterward secured the success of the revolving pistol. He visited France in 1835, showed his model to the Turkish ambassador, and went to Constantinople on the invitation of Sultan Mahmoud, who rewarded him liberally. He lived in France in 1839-'47, and afterward in England, where he invented machinery for the curvilinear sawing of timber, which was adopted by the British government. After his return to this country he engaged in the manufacture of fire-arms and projectiles and in perfecting various inventions.
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