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Charles Nicholas Arnould Hentz (5 June 1753, Metz -- after 1829, Pennsylvania) was a French politician. After fleeing France in 1815, he assumed the name Charles Arnould.

Biography

Charles Nicholas Arnould Hentz was born in Metz, France. He was a deputy for Moselle to the Revolutionary National Convention of 1789. Hentz belonged to the party of the Mountain in the National Assembly of France during the Revolution of 1792. He became known for his work on the legislative committee specifically in compiling the "Code Napoleon". He voted for the death of Louis XVI. Upon the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1815 and death of Robespierre, Hentz was ordered to leave France within thirty days otherwise he would be imprisoned for life in the castle of Ham. Consequently, Hentz fled France and set sail for the United States with his family on the day Louis XVI was beheaded. He assumed the name Charles Arnould and settled in Wilkes-Barre. Hentz spent the rest of his life in the tobacco expedition. A letter by him dated 1829 is the last surviving evidence of him.

Family

Hentz married Therese d'Aubree. They had two sons, Nicholas Richard Hentz (1786-1850) and Nicholas Marcellus Hentz (1797-1856). Nicholas Richard Hentz served as captain for the French Imperial Army from 1806 to 1815 before he fled with his father to the United States. He settled with his father in Wilkes-Barre and became a tobacconist. Nicholas M. Hentz was a painter, professor, and arachnologist.

Nicholas Marcellus Hentz (July 25, 1797- November 4, 1856) was a French American educator and arachnologist.

Biography

Hentz was born in Versailles, France. He learned the art of miniature painting and studied medicine in Paris. An active Republican and participant in the French Revolution, he was banished from France upon the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815. He immigrated to the United States in 1816, and taught French and miniature painting in Boston, Philadelphia, and other places. Hentz became a member of ANSP in 1819. His illustrations were published in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Among these illustrations, are three well known watercolors, two of which are of freshwater fish from Alabama (painted in 1847) and one is a miniature of Hentz's father-in-law (painted 1824-1850). In 1820, Hentz enrolled as a medical student at Harvard but soon after abandoned his studies to teach. In 1824, he was associated with George Bancroft in the Round Hill School for Boys at Northampton, Massachusetts. From 1826 to 1830, he was professor of modern languages and belles lettres in the University of North Carolina. In 1830, Hentz conducted a female academy for two years. Following, he conducted various schools in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1832-1834; Florence, Alabama, 1834-1843; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1843-1845; Tuskeegee, Alabama, 1845-1848; and Columbia, Georgia, 1848-1849. In 1851, Hentz relocated to Marianna, Florida, and eventually succumbed to his illness.

Family

He married Caroline Lee Whiting in 1824, and moved with his wife to Covington, Kentucky in 1831. Caroline was an author and daughter of General John Whiting. She wrote numerous poems, tales, novels, and tragedies published in periodicals and newspapers. Her works focused on southern social life and the prejudices surrounding their lifestyle. It is also said that although not a revolutionary, her female characters exhibited strong qualities for assertiveness and independence as consequence of an oppressive relationship with Hentz. Professor Hentz and Caroline had two daughters and one son. The oldest, Julia, was born in 1829 at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She was educated by both of her parents and married in 1846 to Dr. J. W. Keyes in Tuskegee. Julia wrote several short poems, most of which, however, were never published. Her most well known work was a prize poem called "A Dream of Locust Dell". The younger daughter, Caroline Therese, was born in 1833 at Cincinnati, Ohio. She was also educated by her parents and married Rev. James O. Branch. She went on to publish tales and sketches in magazines. Finally, Hentz had a son by the name of Charles. Hentz died in his son's home in Florida in 1856.

Spiders

Hentz became a pioneering zoologist in the field of arachnology.

Hentz developed a long lasting friendship with Thomas Say (1787-1834) in France. Originally, Hentz and Say were going to collaborate and illustrate "American Entomology" but the idea was abandoned once Hentz moved and settled in Massachusetts.

In the United States, Hentz took to collecting insects. He told his collection to the Boston Society of Natural History in the 1840s. Hentz is best known for describing 141 spider species and these descriptions were published in the society's journal between 1842 and 1850. He was one of the first to collect and document North American spiders. As is custom in binomial naming, each species was noted with his name and the year Hentz classified them. A few spiders of note Hentz classified are the Yellow sac spider, the Southern house spider, a common tarantula, and a genus of jumping spider.

Hentz went on to publish a collection of his writings in arachnology. His collection was republished in 1875. This collection is entitled "The Spiders of the United Staes: A Collection of the Arachnological Writings of Nicholas Marcellus Hentz, M.D.".