OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



645 



colonel for Gettysburg, colonel for Ashland, and 

 brigadioHzenenl for Winchester; brevetted major- 

 general of volunteers for bravery and skill at <>pe- 

 quaii. and promoted to the full rank tor services dur- 

 ing the war. He was commissioned colonel of the 

 Forty-second United States Infantry in ls'5'5, and re- 

 tired with the rank of brigadier-general. United 

 Army, in 1 S 7''. 



Markland, Absalom Hanks, postal executive, born in 

 Clarke County, Ky., Feb. 18,1825; died in Wash- 

 ington, D. (,'., -M 1 He was educated at 

 ;;nd first went to Washington with 

 Henry (.'lay in ls49. tie served as a clerk in the In- 

 dian Office', and then in the Post-Office Department, 

 and at the beginning of the civil war was in bu>incss 

 for himself. In 1861 Gen. Grant, who knew of his 

 large experience in the Western steamboat service, se- 

 lected him to take charge of the mails of his army, 



and appointed him a member of his staff, with the 

 rank of colonel. This office he held until the general 

 disbanding of the army in 1885. He was invested 

 with full authority, aiid by Gen. Grant's express 

 command had the entire army co-operating with him 

 in his difficult and important duty. Though nom- 

 inally under the orders of the Post-Office Department 

 and reporting regularly and directly to it, he was 

 without a superior officer in his service in the field, 

 and was appropriately called the postmaster-general 

 of the army. Under the system that he organized, 

 every regiment and every isolated command had its 

 postmaster ; all these reported to brigade postmasters ; 

 thev in turn to division postmasters, and they, again, 

 to Col. Markland. The advantage, if not the neces- 

 sity, of maintaining a< regular communication be- 

 tween the field and the home as the exigencies of the 

 service would permit, was apparent ; but few, even 

 to-day, can appreciate the immense amount of de- 

 tailed work, the executive abilitv, and the personal 

 dangers involved in the task. The effort to keep 

 track of every regiment and every detached company, 

 officer, and man amid the intricacies of army move- 

 ments seemed almost beyond possibility ; yet, under 

 the direction of Col. Markland, the soldiers' letters 

 were handled with surprising promptness, regularity, 

 and care. At the close of the war among the earliest 

 appointmentments made by President Grant was that 

 of Col. Markland to be third Assistant Postmaster- 

 General and special agent for Ohio, Indiana, and Ken- 

 tucky, which office he held from 1869 till 1*70. 



Matthews, James Newson, journali>t, born in Bungav, 

 Suffolk, England. Nov. -21. 1838: died in Buffalo, 5,". 

 Y., Dec. 20, 1888. He learned the printer's trade in 

 England, came to the United States in 1840, and set- 

 tling in Buffalo obtained work as foreman in the 

 printing-office of Jewett, Thomas & Co. In 1650 

 ne established the " Journal of Commerce," and on 

 its suspension within a few months became foreman 

 of the job office connected with the " Express," then 

 owned by A. M. Clapp and Rufus Wheeler. After a 

 year's service, he was admitted to partnership in 

 the job-printing business, and the new firm of Clapp, 

 Matthews & Co. soon became known throughout 

 the country as railroad printers. In I860 he joined 

 Eufus Wheeler and James D. Warren to acquire and 

 conduct the "Commercial Advertiser" ; in 18 ( i2 Mr. 

 Wheeler retired, and thence till 1877 M essrs. Matthews 

 and Warren were the sole proprietors of the estab- 

 lishment, and Mr. Matthews the editor. On Oct. 29, 

 1877j Mr. Matthews announced his retirement from 

 the farm and paper as a result of a disagreement with 

 his partner on local political matters, and early in 

 1878 he bought the Buffalo '"Express" and estab- 

 lished the art-printing firm of Matthews, Northrup 

 & Co., both ot which interests grew rapidly under 

 his management. In 1883 he added a Sunday edi- 

 tion to h;s paper, which was prosperous from the 

 start. He supported the Republican party editorially 

 till 1S2, then supported Mr. Cleveland's candidacy 

 for Governor, but opposed him in the presidential 

 canvass of Is34, and afterward adhered to the Repub- 



lican party. He was a delegate-at-large from New 

 Y'irk to the Republican National Conventions of 1872 

 and 1*7' ; . 



Mauran, James Eddy, book-collector, born in New 

 York chv in 1*17: died in Newport. R. L, Nov. 28, 

 18b8. His father was a merchant, owning a large 

 number of shins and doing business with aU parte of 

 the world. The son was well educated, ana spent 

 several years in foreign travel. By the time he was 

 twenty-two years old he had formed an ambition to 

 collect all available books illustrating and relating to 

 the literature of the fourteenth century. For fifty 

 years he collected, illuminated, and annotated rare 

 and costly books, beginning with Froissarr s " Chron- 

 icles." and extending his researches both to earlier 

 and later periods. In 1866 he built an attractive home 

 and a storehouse for his treasures in Newport, and 

 resided there till his death, though conducting a book 

 business in New York city. He restored and became 

 pre>ident of Redwood library in Newport, was a 

 founder of the Newport Historical Society, was a 

 voluminous writer on the history of Rhode Island 

 affairs and people, had collected a large quantity of 

 manuscript DOCKS and pamphlets relating to the bis- 

 tprv of Newport, and in his travels had gathered a 

 neat museum 01 Indian relics, articles of colonial 

 ornamentj and implement, and a great variety 

 of curious Americana. 



Maverick, Augustus, journalist, born in New York 

 city in 1828: died in Brooklyn. N. Y.. June 1. 

 He' began his newspaper career as a reporter on the 

 New "i ork '' Tribune, under Horace Greeley, and 

 was subsequently connected as reporter and editor 

 with the "Times," "Evening Post." "Commercial 

 Advertiser." ' Brooklyn Argus," and u Brooklyn 

 Eagle." His last engagement was on "Munsey's 

 Weekly," where, as welt as on the rostrum, he was 

 an enthusiastic worker for the Republican presidential 

 candidates in 1884. 



May, Abby Williams, philanthropist, born in Boston, 

 Mass., in 1829; died there. Nov. 30, 1888. She was 

 a daughter of the Rev. Samuel May, of the old Hollis 

 Street Church, and an early abolitionist, and from an 

 early age was engaged in philanthropic and educa- 

 tional work. She was one of tne organizers, and be- 

 came president of the woman's branch of the United 

 States Sanitary Commission in Boston, and discharged 

 the duties of that office with great zeal till the close 

 of the civil war. Subsequently she was elected presi- 

 dent of the Woman's Auxiliary of the American Uni- 

 tarian Association, and one of the founders of the 

 New England Hospital for Women and Children, 

 vice-president of the Societv for the Advancement of 

 Women and of the New England Woman Suffrage 

 Association, and treasurer of the Improved Dwelling- 

 House Society, and was a founder of the New England 

 Woman's Club and of the Horticultural School for 

 Women. In 1873 she was one of the four women 

 elected for the first time to membership in the Boston 

 School Board. A dispute as to the eligibility of the 

 woman members led the Legislature in 1874 to pass 

 a law giving women the right to vote for members of 

 the school board, and, alter a second election, she 

 was one of the three women to serve on the board. 

 In 1875 she was appointed a commissioner of the 

 State Board of Education, and she served as such till 

 within a few months of her death. 



Meany, Stephen Joseph, journalist, bom in Ennis, 

 County Clare, Ireland, in December. 1825; died in 

 Water'bury, Conn., Feb. 8. 1888. He received a col- 

 legiate and classical education, studied stenography, 

 became a member of the Dublin police force before 

 he was eighteen years old, and for some time was 

 employed by the Government to follow Daniel O'Con- 

 nell and report his speeches. Unwilling to act the 

 part of a spy, he resigned from the force, and was 

 continued as O'Connell's reporter by the ' Freeman's 

 Journal"; and on one occasion, when the London 

 ' Times " sent a reporter tn Dublin to report a speech 

 at a monster meeting, and O'Connell spoke wholly in 



