OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



G23 



chosen a judge of the Supreme Court, and was re- 

 elected in*1884. Judge Beldcn was a l)cm<pt-:-at until 

 the civil war, and then _ Union man. 



Hi- was an enthusiastic meteorologist, established an 

 experimental horticultural garden on his estate, and 

 contracted an instrument that registered automati- 

 cally all the details of an earthquake, 



Bellew, Francis Henry Temple, artist, born in C awn- 

 pore, Hindostan. April IS. 1^2-> ; died on Long Island, 

 N. Y.. J:.!i He was the son of a British 



officer, studied art in France-, and in 1>50 came to this 

 country, where his immediate success as a caricaturist 

 in John Brougham's "Lantern" led him to devote 

 himself entirely to drawing. When this venture failed, 

 he joined Thomas Strong in founding " Yank 



and later joined William Levison in the 

 " Picayune." He also wrote and drew for " Harper* s 

 Magazine" and "Harper's Weekly." and afterward 

 founded various papers, among which were " John 

 Donkey" and "Vanity Fair." In It60 he returned 

 to England, where, with George Augustus Sala and 

 Blanehard Jerrold, he founded " Temple Bar,'' and 

 also drew sketches for " Punch " and American scenes 

 for the " Illustrated London News." He returned to 

 New York in 1861, resumed work for publishers, and 

 [respondent for the New York ' Tribune" and 

 the "Illustrated London News" at the battle of 

 Gettysburg. His later sketches and writings ap- 

 peared in "Harper's Magazine," " Harper's Young 

 People," "St. Nicholas/' "Texas Sittings," and 

 similar publications. He established a daily called 

 "Dawn" in 1S85, but it failed. His forte was writ- 

 ing and sketching stories for children. He published 

 " The Characteristics of the Three Kingdoms " (1850) 

 and ' The Art of Amusing" t New York, 1865). 



Bergh, Henry, born in New York city in 18-23 ; died 

 there, March 12, 18s8. He was of German and Eng- 

 lish Puritan Unease, and the son of Christian Bergh, 

 a ship-builder. Henry received a collegiate educa- 

 tion, and began studying law in Columbia College, 

 but before completing the course went to Europe. He 

 married Matilda, daughter of Thomas Taylor, in 1848, 

 and then traveled in'almost even- part of the Conti- 

 nent and in the East. In 1^51 President Lincoln ap- 

 pointed him Secretary of the American Legation in 

 Russia, and soon afterward United States consul at 

 St. Petersburg. The failing health of his wife led 

 him to resign in 1S64 and return to New York. In 

 London he made the acquaintance of the Earl of Har- 

 rowby, president of the Royal Society for the Preven- 

 tion of Cruelty to Animals, became intensely inter- 

 ested in the work of that organization, studied its 

 details thoroughly, and formulated a plan for a simi- 

 lar society in New York. In 1865 he founded the 

 American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Animals, was chosen its president, and in 1 866 secured 

 the passage of an act giving the society, through its 

 officers, the power of making arrests and carrying on 

 prosecutions for violations of the statute on which the 

 organization was instituted. From the day the society 

 was formed until his death he remained its president 

 and guiding spirit, living wholly in its work, and 

 serving without salary. Through its efforts dog- 

 fighting, cock-fighting, and rat-baitinsr were almost 

 entire';. 1. and branch societies were organ- 



ized in thirty -six States. Mr. Bergh was an enthusi- 

 astic student of geology, and author of a drama, 

 "Love's Alternative," ]iy>. iuced at the Union League 

 Theatre, Baltimore, in 1SS1. and several poems. 



Bessels, Timil, naturalist, born in Heidelberg. Ger- 

 many, June 2. 1^47: died in Stuttgart. Germany, 

 March 30. 1S8S. He was educated at the university 

 of his native place, where he received the degree of 

 M. I). He was made an assistant at the Koyal Museum 

 in Stuttgart, and there became interested in Arctic 

 discovery. In 1S'>9 he made the voyage into sea be- 

 tween Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. By his obser- 

 vations on this journey he traced the influence of the 

 gulf stream oast of S'pitzbergen. and added much to 

 the scanty knowledge of that region. He was called 



to the field as a military surgeon in 1870, and for his 

 services in hospitals received public commendation 

 from the Grand 'Duke of Baden, (n 1871 lie 

 this country at August Petermam.' .n. and 



was made naturalist and surgeon to the expedition 

 sent to the polar regions under Capt. Charles F. Hall. 

 M. -t "f the scientific results of thi.- re the 



fruit of his personal efforts, and, after 'the rescue of 

 the survivors, he was occupied for several years at the 

 Smithsonian Institution preparing for publication the 

 scientific results of the voyage, one of which was the 

 proof, just advanced by him, of the insula- 

 Greenland, which he deduced from the tidal observa- 

 tions secured on the expedition. This work he is-ued 

 as " Report on the Scientific Results of the Polaris 

 Expedition" (Washington, 1876). In 1879 he pub- 

 lished a German narrative of the expedition, illus- 

 trated with bis own sketches. Subsequently he under- 

 took an ethnological voyage to the northwest i 

 America, but it was terminated prematurelv by the 

 wreck of the vessel in Seymour Narrows. Britisn Co- 

 lumbia. He returned to Washington, where he pre- 

 pared several contributions to Arctic and zoological 

 literature and projected a work on the Eskimo, but 

 his material was destroyed by a fire at his residence in 

 1885. Dr. Eessels then went to Germany and settled 

 in Stuttgart, where he was engaged in literary pur- 

 suits, the study of art, and geographical instruction 

 until his death. 



Birge, Henry Warner, soldier, born in Hartford, Conn., 

 Auir. 25, 1825; died in New York city. June 1. 

 He received a classical education, and at the begin- 

 ning of the civil war organized the Fourth Regiment 

 of Connecticut Volunteers, and was commissioned 

 its major on May 23, 1861. Alter service in Mary- 

 land and Virginia, he was recalled by his uncle Gov. 

 Buckingham and appointed colonel of the Thirteenth 

 Regiment in November. In March, 1662. he took 

 this regiment by sea to join Gen. Butler's army in 

 New Orleans, and on reaching that city was placed in 

 command of its defenses. In December he accom- 

 panied the army up the Mississippi to co-operate with 

 Gen. Grant in the siege of Vicksburg, was appointed 

 to the command of a brigade, which he held through 

 the first Red River campaign and the siege of Port 

 Hudson, and volunteered to lead a storming party 

 against the works of the latter stronghold. He was 

 promoted brigadier-general in September, 1863. Dur- 

 ing Gen. Grant's Virginia campaign he was assigned 

 to the command of a division in the Nineteenth ' 

 and was with Gen. Sheridan in his most brilliant 

 movements in the Shenandoah valley. In February, 

 1865, he was placed in command of the defenses of 

 Savannah, and held that post until the following No- 

 vember, when he resigned with the rank of brevet 

 major-general. After the war he traveled considera- 

 blv in the Southwest and on the Pacific coast. 



Bittinger, William, merchant, born near Hanover, 

 Pa.. ^\ov. 21. 1820; died in Abbottstown, Adams 

 County, Pa., March 3, 1888. He became a clerk in a 

 store in Abbottstown when fifteen years old, and, 

 with the exception of one year spent in teachin. 

 in mercantile business all his life. His will d> 

 of an estate value< .1 . of which a farm worth 



$45,000 was given to Pennsylvania College, in Gett\ s- 

 burg. which also was made 'residuary legatee to found 

 the WiJliam Birtinger professorshfp of Intellectual 

 and Moral Science ; another farm, valued at |4 

 to Lebanon Valley College, in Annville, to endow the 

 Josephine Bittinger-Eberly professorship in that in- 

 stitution ; and $3.000 to the Lutheran congregation in 

 Abbottstown for a new church-building. 



Bobbett, Albert, wood-engraver, born in London, 

 England, in 1813 ; died in New York city. .'. 

 1888. He learned to engrave on wood in London, re- 

 moved to New York city about 1843, and was con- 

 nected with nearly every effort to establish illustrated 

 periodicals in this' country. He engraved illustrations 

 for P. T. Barnum. in Boston, for Gleason's -'Picto- 

 rial," for Frank Leslie's early publications, for the 



