630 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 





pleted the outline drawings to Judd's " Margaret," 

 which was published in 1856. On the completion of 

 the Irving series of illustrations, he received nattering 

 offers from publishers to go to London, but declined 

 on account of his many home engagements. His next 

 great work was the series of five hundred sketches 

 drawn to illustrate James Fenimore Cooper's novels, 

 a series noted for originality, power or expression, 

 and quaint humor. During the civil war he designed 

 historical sketches in water-color, which were repro- 

 duced by the Government on the greenback bills, and 

 at the close of the war went to Europe. On his re- 

 turn in 1868 he published "Sketches Abroad with 

 Pen and Pencil.'' For several years thereafter he 

 executed orders for book illustrations, but gave the 



larger part of 

 his time to work 

 in water-color, 

 and in 1879 pro- 

 duced what his 

 admirers claim 

 to be the crown- 

 ing achieve- 

 ment of his ca- 

 reera series of 

 twelve ''Compo- 

 sitions in Out- 

 line from Haw- 

 thorne's ' Scar- 

 let Letter.' " 

 These were fol- 

 lowed by simi- 

 lar series illus- 

 trating Longfel- 

 low's " Evan- 



geline" (1883), and Shakespeare's plays (1886). He 

 was a member of the National Academy of Design. 

 the American Water-Color Society, and 'the Artists' 

 Fund Society. 



Davidge, William Pleater, actor ? born in London, 

 England, April 17, 1814 ; died in Cheyenne, Wyo- 

 ming Territory, Aug. 7, 1888. He appeared on the 

 stage, when sixteen years old, at Drury-Lane Thea- 

 tre, London, as James in " The Miller's Maid," and 

 his first professional appearance was at Nottingham, 

 on June 'M, 1836, as Adam Winterton in "The Iron 

 Chest." In September following he achieved success 

 at the Queen's Theatre, London, as Baron Oakland in 

 '' The Haunted Tower," and afterward played in the 

 chief theatres in London and in the provinces. In 

 1850 he made his first American appearance at the old 

 Broadway Theatre, New York, on August 19, as Sir 

 Peter Teazle. He followed that with the performance 

 of Caliban in " The Tempest," and then for five years 

 supported Edwin Forrest, Gustavus V. Brooke, Julia 

 Dean, Mme. Celeste, Lola Montez, and other star 

 actors. In 1855 he was attached to the Cleveland 

 Athenaeum, and at the close of his engagement made 

 a professional tour of the country. His next engage- 

 ment was with the Wallack company in 1861. From 

 that he went to Mrs. John Wood's company, and 

 played at the Olympic Theatre in 1863-'64, and in 

 1869 he began an engagement with Augustin Daly at 

 the Fifth Avenue Theatre, which continued eight 

 years. He traveled with Fanny Davenport and 

 Margaret Mather ; in 1879 became the American origi- 

 nator of the part of Dick Dead-Eye in " Pinafore " ; 

 and in 1885 began an engagement with the Madison 

 Square company, which lasted till his death. He had 

 played more than one thousand parts, and was a 

 founder of the American Dramatic fund. 



Davis, Edwin Hamilton, archaeologist, born in Boss 

 County, Ohio, Jan. 22, 1811 ; died in New York city, 

 May 15, 188S. He was educated at Kenyon College, 

 and was graduated at Cincinnati Medical College in 

 1838. While at Kenyon, he conducted a scries of ex- 

 plorations among the mounds of the Scioto valley, 

 and his work coming to the notice of Daniel Webster 

 then traveling through the West he was urged to 

 continue his researches". Mr. Webster, who regretted 



the rapid disappearance of these antiquities, suggested 

 the formation of a society to purchase and preserve 

 some of the most remarkable works of the mound- 

 builders. In 1830 he aided Charles Whittlesey in his 

 explorations, and from 1845 till 1847, assisted by 

 Ephraim G. Squier, he surveyed nearly one hundred 

 groups of works, and opened two hundred mounds 

 at his own expense. He gathered the largest collec- 

 tion of mound- relics ever made in this country, which, 

 failing an American purchaser, was taken to England, 

 where it now forms part of Blackmore's Museum in 

 Saulsburv. A second collection, consisting of dupli- 

 cates and the results of subsequent collections, is 

 at the American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York city. The fruits of his extensive explorations 

 are embodied in " Ancient Monuments of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley" (Washington, 1848), which formed the 

 first volume of the ' Smithsonian Contributions to 

 Knowledge." This work was characterized by A. 

 Morlot, the distinguished Swiss archaeologist, in a 

 paper before the American Philosophical Society, in 

 1862, as being as " glorious a monument to American 

 science as Bunker Hill is of American bravery." Dr. 

 Davis followed the practice of medicine in Cbilli- 

 cothe, Ohio, until 1850, when he was called to the 

 chair of Matcria Medica and Therapeutics in the New 

 York Medical College, and continued there for ten 

 years. During the spring of 1854 he delivered a 

 course of lectures on archaeology before the Lowell 

 Institute, Boston, and subsequently repeated them in 

 Brooklyn and New York. He was for a time one of 

 the conductors of the " American Medical Monthly." 



Davis, George Turnbull Moore, lawyer, born in the 

 island of Malta, May 24, 1810 ; died in New York 

 city, Dec. 20, 1888. He was a son of George Davis, a 

 surgeon and naval officer, who was United States Con- 

 sul-Gcneral to the Barbary States, at the time of his 

 son's birth ; came to the United States when a boy ; 

 was admitted to the bar in Syracuse, N. Y., in 1831 ; 

 and settled in Alton, 111., where he practiced until the 

 opening of the Mexican War. He became intimate 

 with Lincoln. Douglas, Trumbull, Baker, Singleton, 

 and other well-known men of the State, and gainea 

 a wide reputation by his spirited prosecution of the 

 murderers of Lovejoy, the abolitionist, in 1837. At 

 the beginning of the Mexican War he entered the 

 army as a private, rose to the rank of colonel, served 

 on the staffs of Generals Shields and Quitman, and 

 while Gen. Scott remained in command of the city of 

 Mexico he was his secretary. At the close of the war 

 he was appointed chief clerk in the War Department 

 at Washington, and introduced woman clerks into the 

 department. On resigning the office he removed to 

 New York city, became an iron merchant, engaged in 

 importing iron and building locomotives, and was 

 elected to the directory of several railroads. He com- 

 pleted an autobiography a few months before his 

 death for posthumous publication. 



Dawson, Benjamin Frederick, physician, born in New 

 York city, June 28, 1847 ; died there, April 3, 1888. 

 He began studying medicine in the early part of the 

 civil war, served as. acting assistant surgeon in the 

 national army during 1865, and was graduated at the 

 New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1866. 

 He settled in New York, and made a specialty of sur- 

 gery, gynaecology and the diseases of children ; estab- 

 lished the " American Journal of Obstetrics," in 1868, 

 and edited it till 1874; invented a galvanic battery 

 for galvano-caustic surgery ; held the offices of assist- 

 ant surgeon of the Woman's Hospital, attending phy- 

 sician of the New York Foundling Asylum, and Pro- 

 fessor of Gynaecology in the New York Post-Graduate 

 Medical School ; and was a member of the New York 

 Obstetric Society. 



Ditson, Oliver, publisher, born in Boston, Mass., Oct. 

 20,1811; died there, Dec. 21, 1888. He received _a 

 grammar-school education, served an apprenticeship 

 at the printer's trade, entered the employ of Col. Sam- 

 uel Parker, the music publisher, ana on attaining his 

 majority formed a partnership first with Mr. Morri- 



