OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



639 



and inspector of ordnance in 1861, and commodore 

 and commander of the steam-sloo. 

 on Jui Mior officer 



that blockaded Mobile. In : m appointed 



commandant of the navy-yard at Norfolk. Y 

 Sept. 2.3 of that year was' retired, and in '. 

 on duty in the Ordnance Department at Wash:: 

 Hoffman, John Thompson, lawyer, bom in Sin- 

 N. Y.. ,l;.n. . : .ed iii Wiesbaden, Germany, 



March Stated at Union College 



in 1846, removed to New York city, and was admitted 

 to the bar in January. 1849. Soon afterward lie be- 

 came a member of the law firm of Woodruff, Leonard 

 and Hoffman. He was chosen a member of the Dem- 

 ocratic State Central Committee when only twenty 

 vears old, and gave an active "stump" support to 

 Lewis Cuss in the presidential canvass. By 1854 he 

 had firmly established himself in practice, and attained 

 a reputation as an orator. He then joined Tammany 

 Half, took sides against Fernando Wood in the con- 

 test for the control of that organization, applied to 

 President Buchanan for the office of United States Dis- 

 trict Attorney of New York, and was refused on the 

 ground that 'he was too young. In 1860, after for- 

 mally declining to become the candidate of Tammany 

 Hall' for the office of recorder of New York, he was 

 put in nomination and elected, receiving twice the 

 number of votes for Abraham D. RusselK the Mozart 

 Hall candidate, and four thousand more than Thomas 

 B. Van Buren, Republican. During his first term 

 three event* irave him a high reputation: his charge 

 to the jury in' the Jafford murder case, his charge to 

 the grand' jury on the occasion of the riots of July, 

 1863, and his imposition of sentences on the convicted 

 rioters. His fearles.-ness in the two last acts led to 

 his unanimous re-election, the Republican judiciary 

 ition warmly approving both nis official conduct 

 and his re-nomination. He was elected Mayor in 1865 

 and 1867, and defeated for Governor by Eeuben E. 

 Fenton in 1866. He was elected Governor over John 

 A. Griswold in 1868 (though the opposing party 

 claimed that the State was carried for him by frauds 

 iii New York citv), and re-elected over Gen. Stewart 

 L. Woodford in'lSTO. In 1871 the exposures of the 

 Tweed ring were made, and the charges against the 

 political organization that had been the means of his 

 rapid official advancement, reacted against him per- 

 sonally. On Feb. 7. 1-70. he delivered a lecture on 

 " Liberty and Order the Limits ot Government." 

 under th'e auspices of the New York Association for 

 the Advancement of Science and Art, before a large 

 audience in New York city. 



Holder, Joseph Bassett, 'naturalist, born in Lynn, 

 Mass., Oct. 28, 1S-4 : died in New York city, Feb. 23. 

 He studied at the Friends' School m Provi- 

 dence, R. I., and at the Harvard Medical College. 

 After practicing medicine for several years in Lynn, 

 he was sent to the Dry Tortugas in the capacity of 

 physician and naturalist, and there began his study 

 of invertebrate zoolo/v. From 1*00 till 1867 he was 

 surgeon in charge of the United States military prison 

 in Tortugas. Fla., and then was assistant post-surgeon 

 at Fort Monroe, Va. He came to New \ ork 

 1-70. and was appointed curator of invertebrate zo- 

 ology, ichthyology, and herpetology in the American 

 n of Natural History, which post he held until 

 his death. Dr. Holder was a fellow of the New York 

 Academv of Sciences, a member of the American Or- 

 nithological Union, and of various other scientific 

 societies. Besides papers on his specialty, contrib- 

 uted to technical journals, he wrote for the popular 

 magazines, and published ' Ili-t^ry of the North 

 American Fauna" (New York. It^ii'i; ''History of 

 the Atlantic Right \N hales " (16-3) ; and " The living 

 World" C 



Hnnn, David Lathrop, clergyman, born in Colerain, 

 .1 in Buffalo, N. Y T ., Jan. 29, 



1888. He entered Yale University in 1809, and after 

 being graduated took the theological course at An- 

 dover, and was ordained a Congregational clergyman. 



He held pastorates at Greenfield, Mass., Sandwich, on 

 Cape Cod. Yernon, Conn., and Ea.-t Wmd.-or and 

 North Hudley. Ma>s.. and on removing from the lat- 

 ter place to 1; N. Y.. left the Congregational 

 Church and was received into the Pre.-by ttrian! Alter 

 a l"i!_' re.-i-lence in Rochester, where lie was an editor 

 of the *' Genesee Evantr- > ttled in Buffalo, 

 and preached at irregular intervals until his ninetieth 

 year. He was a member of the local Y; 

 tion, and spoke at it.- meetinirs till within a short time 

 of his death. He was the oldest graduate of Yale, and 

 the oldest clergyman in the Un 



Ibach, Lawrence J., astronomer, born in Allentown, 

 Pa., Jan. 17, 1S10 ; died in Nowmanstown. Lebanon 

 County. Pa., Oct. 9. 1>SS. His father was a blacksmith, 

 who brought him up to the same trade, and through- 

 out his lite he stuck to his forge, making horse-shoes, 

 iron barrel-hoops, wheel-tires, smoothing-irons, shov- 

 els, and a variety of kitchen utensils. He received his 

 first instructions in mathematics and astronomy from 

 a French gentleman, and when nineteen years'old lie 

 accompanied the familv to Sheridan. Lebanon Cov.nty , 

 Pa., where his father died three years atterward. He 

 carried on the blacksmithing business there till 1849, 

 when he rented a forge near Reading. While working 

 there lie became acquainted with Charles F. Engle- 

 man, the astronomer, and with him l>egan studying 

 astronomy systematically. In 1-52 he returned to 

 Sheridan,' and in 1S60. on the death of Mr. Engleman, 

 found himself heir to all his friend's books, charts, 

 and instruments. About the same time he was called 

 upon to make several series of astronomical calcula- 

 tions for almanacs that had been promised by his 

 benefactor. He filled this first order in 18C3. and 

 from that time till his death the " blacksmith-astrono- 

 mer" made annual calculations for almanacs pub- 

 lished in the United States, Canada, Cuba, and South 

 America. In 1-75 he translated his calculations into 

 four different languages. He was a member of a.-tro- 

 nomical and scientific societies, and after working at 

 the forge all day was accustomed to spend a part of 

 the night in studying the heavens. 



Irving, Eoland Dner, geologist, born in New York 

 city. April 27, 1847 ; died in Madison, Wis.. May 30, 

 1888. He was a son of the Rev. Pierre P. In ing", and 

 a grand-nephew of Washington Irving. In 1-69 he 

 was graduated at the Columbia College School of 

 Mines, and ten years later he received the degree of 

 Ph. D. from that institution. Soon after graduating 

 he became assi>tant to John S. Newberry, on the 

 Ohio State Geological Survey, and in 1870 was elected 

 Professor of Geology, Mining, and Metallurgy in the 

 University of Wisconsin, which chair in 1879 became 

 that of G'eology and Mineralogy and was filled by 

 him until his death. Prof. Irving became an amst- 

 ant ireologist on the survey of Wisconsin authorized 

 by the State in 1873 and continued so until 1879. 

 During 18SO-'S2 he was one of the experts engaged 

 on the work of the United States census, and : 

 was appointed by the United States Geological Sur- 

 vey geologist in 'charge of the Lake Superior Divis- 

 ion. He made a specialty of the micro- petrography 

 of the fragmental rocks and crystalline schists, and 

 his best work was accomplished in the direction of 

 the pre-Cambrian stratigraphy and the genesis of 

 some of the so-called crystalline rocks, particularly of 

 the quartzites and ferruginous rocks of the Lake Su- 

 perior region. He was a Fellow of the American 

 ition for the Advancement of Science, a mem- 

 ber of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 

 and of other scientific bpdie.-. :gs he 



enriched with contributions on 1:'- His 



publications under the auspices of the Wisconsin 

 Geological Survey include " Geology of Western Wis- 

 consin'' i Madison, 1S77 > : " Geology of the Lake Su- 

 perior Region" (If :-ystallin- Rocks of the 

 vsiri Valley" (l^iii'and "Mineralogy and 

 Lithology of Wisconsin ' ile contributed to 

 the reports of the United States Geological Survey 

 "The Copper- Bearing Rocks of Lake Superior 1 ' 



