Ingraham

him 1,400 skins in forty-nine days. The embargo
placed by the Chinese upon the importation of
furs caused him much trouble in disposing of his
cargo. He returned to the coast in July 1792,
but, owing to excessive competition and the
fickleness of the natives, that year's trade was not
a success. The net result was a loss of about
$40,000.

The Hope reached Boston in 1793. Ingraham
then disappears from view for five years. He
next appears in the United States navy, in which
on June 14, 1799, he was commissioned a lieu-
tenant. He was a lieutenant on the ill-fated
United States brig Pickering, which sailed from
Newcastle, Del., on Aug. 20,1800, and was never
heard of again. It is presumed that she was lost
in the terrible equinoctial gales of that year.

[Materials for the life of Joseph Ingraham are ex-
tremely scanty and care must be taken to distinguish
the numerous persons bearing that name. The follow-
ing volumes may be consulted: L. V. Briggs, Hist, and
Geneal of the Cabot Family (1927); G. S. Dickennan,
The House of Plant of Macon, Ga. (1900) ; New-Eng.
Hist, and Geneal. Reg., Oct. 1864, p. 344; Ingraham's
"Account of a Recent Discovery of Seven Islands in
the South Pacific Ocean" in Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls, i ser.
II (i793)» and his manuscript journal of the Hope in
Lib. of Cong.; Robert Greenhow, "Memoir Historical
and Political on the Northwest Coast of North America,"
Sen, Doc. No. 174, 26 Cong., i Sess., and Hist, of Ore.
andCal. (1844)-] F.W.H.

INGRAHAM, JOSEPH HOLT (Jan, 25 or
26, iSop-Dec. 18,1860), author, Protestant Epis-
copal clergyman, was born in Portland, Me., a
grandson of one of the city's chief benefactors,
for whom he was named, and the son of James
Milk and Elizabeth (Thurston) Ingraham. His
grandfather's shipping interests and his own love
of adventure were responsible for his becoming
a sailor in his youth. The Bowdoin College rec-
ords do not bear out the statement sometimes
made that he graduated there. He seems, how-
ever, to have become a teacher in Jefferson Col-
lege at Washington, Miss., now a military school,
which he described in The South-West, by a
Yankee (2 vols., 1835); and thereafter the title
"professor" was used frequently on his numer-
ous publications. His Lafitte (2 vols., 1836), the
most elaborate of the fictitious chronicles of the
Pirate of the Gulf, is typical of his work in that
it makes of an impossible series of events pegs on
which to hang a luxurious fabric of Spanish
treasure troves and Byronic ravings. His Bur-
ton; or the Sieges (2 vols., 1838), inscribed to
S. S. Prentiss [<?.#.], the famous Mississippi
lawyer for whom his son was named, is a sensa-
tional defamation of the early career of Aaron
Burr; The Quadroone; or, St. Michael's Day (2
vols., 1841), an even more absurd romanticiza-
tion of history. The American Lounger (1839)

Ingraham

shows the literary influence of Nathaniel Parker
Willis, and in the story "The Kelpie Rock," the
effect of Joseph Rodman Drake's and Washing-
ton Irving's pioneer work in putting the Hud-
son River into legend.

For a period after the publication of these
books Ingraham wrote so rapidly that it is no
longer possible to trace all of his works. Accord-
ing to the entry in Longfellow's journal for Apr.
6, 1846, "In the afternoon Ingraham the novel-
ist called. A young, dark man, with soft voice.
He says he has written eighty novels, and of these
twenty during the last year; till it has grown
to be merely mechanical with him. These novels
are published in the newspapers. They pay him
something more than three thousand dollars a
year." (Samuel Longfellow, Life of Henry Wads-
worth Longfellow, 1886-87, II, 35-) Typical
works of Ingraham at this period were Frank
Rivers; or, The Dangers of the Town (1843)J
Rafael; or, The Twice Condemned (1845) J Scar-
let Feather, or The Young Chief of the Abena~
quies (1845) J Ring old Griffitt; or, The Rafts-
man of the Susquehannah (1847). The tales were
short, running between fifty and a hundred pages
as a rule, and were chiefly of the blood-and-thun-
der school. While writing them Ingraham seems
to have lived alternately in the North and in the
South.

His marriage to Mary Brooks, daughter of a
wealthy Mississippi planter, apparently deter-
mined him to make his permanent home in the
South. About 1849 he established a school for
young ladies at Nashville, Tenn., and in addition
to his teaching, pursued theological studies. In
1847 he had been confirmed in the Protestant
Episcopal Church. He was ordained deacon on
Mar. 9, 1851, at Natchez, Miss., and priest the
following year, at Jackson. From 1852 to 1854
he was a missionary at Aberdeen, Miss.; in 1855
became rector of St. Johns, Mobile, Ala.; in
1858, was in Riverside, Tenn., and in 1859 be-
came rector of Christ Church, Holly Springs,
Miss., where the following year he died. Mean-
time through "midnight hours, stolen from paro-
chial labors," he produced three religious ro-
mances, all immensely popular. The Prince of
the House of David (1855) describes the advent
of Christ; The Pillar of Fire (1859), Israel in
Egyptian bondage; and The Throne of David
(1860), events in the Land of Canaan down to
the rebellion of Prince Absalom. These stories
are told in letters, a somewhat monotonous de-
vice, and are weakened by the author's fondness
for ornate description. Nevertheless they show
careful study and they aided in popularizing the
novel form in America and in liberalizing the

479