OBITUARIES, AMERICAN". 



653 



mand of the iron-clad " Passaic " in 1863, took part in 

 the attacks on Fort Wagner. Fort Sumtcr, and Fort 

 Moultrie. He was fleet-captain of the blockading 

 squadron before Mobile when that city capitulated. 



.s promoted commander in 16*5. and captain in 

 .^ as detailed at the Brooklyn Navy- 

 Yard as captain, and having been promoted in '. 

 commodore, he was placed in charge of the New Lon- 

 don Naval -Station, where he remained till 1881, when 

 he took command of League Island Navy - Yard. 

 There he remained till his promotion to rear-admiral 

 in January. 1>>4, when he was appointed president of 

 the Gun-Foundry Board. From this service he was 

 transferred to th'e advisory hoard, and from this to 

 the board of inspection, on which duty he was en- 

 gased when he was re-tired. March 3. 



Sliver, William A., playwright, born in Baltimore, 



Md., April ;0. 1;43; died m New York city. May li, 



He was graduated at Dickinson College in 



- r udied law, and was admitted to the bar in 

 Philadelphia, Pa., in 1865. He practiced tor several 

 -.vrote a successful comedy in 1S71. followed it 

 with an adaptation from one" of Ouida's novels, 

 " Alma," adopted the name of Frederick Marsden, 

 and thereafter applied himself wholly to dramatic 

 work. His most ambitious play was'" Clouds," an 

 American society drama, for which he received $8,000. 

 At the time of "his death he was under contract to 

 write plays for which he was to receive $3S,oOO, and 

 it was estimated that he had made over 100. COO by 

 his dramatic compositions and adaptations. A tier 

 'Clouds," his be,-t known nieces are "Zip." " Mu- 

 Bob," u Humbus,-' u Cheek," " Quack," 



ujjumuu, Eichard 8., lawyer, born in Newburyport, 

 lied on Deer Island, Amesbury, 

 Dec. 11. 1668. He was graduated at Dummer 

 Academy, studied law, and opened an office in Boston. 

 During the administration of President Pierce, he was 

 sent to Mexico on a diplomatic service for the Govern- 

 ment. In 185S he was a member of the Massachusetts 

 .rare. He was on several occasions a delegate 

 to national and State conventions, and was president 

 of the Democratic Stete Convention that nominated 

 Gen. Butler the last time. In 16S4 he was tho Demo- 

 cratic candidate for <'on_rr;->s from his district. In 

 married Harriet Prescott. the well-known au- 

 thor, who survives him. 



Bonier, Ephraim George, author, born in Bethlehem, 

 N. Y.. June 17. 1621 ; died in Brooklyn, N. Y.. April 

 17, 1888. He was the son of a Methodist clenryman, 

 and was brought up to work on a farm. He became 



connected with the 

 village newspaper, 

 and studied engi- 

 neering. In 1841 

 he was associated in 

 the publication of 

 the " New York 

 State Mechanic." in 

 Albany, and in 1643 

 served on the Hart- 

 ford "Journal." He 

 then went to Chilli- 

 cothe, Ohio, where 

 he was employed 

 on the " Scioto Ga- 

 zette," and also 

 served as clerk of 

 the Ohio Legislat- 

 ure. In the mean 



time he became associated with Dr. Edwin H. Davis, 

 who was engaged in exploring the mounds in the vicin- 

 ity, and for several years he investigated these pre- 

 historic remains under the direction of Dr. Davis. The 



to Knowledge." During 1848 Mr. Squier examined 

 the ancient deposits of New York State, under the 

 auspices of the New York Historical Society, publl-h- 

 ing his report through the Smithsonian Ins'titution.as 

 "Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York " 

 (1850). He was appointed special charge cTafuireg to 

 all the Central American States in 1849, ana ;. 

 ated treaties with Nicaragua, Honduras, and San Sal- 

 vador. In 1853 he returned to Central America as 

 secretary of the Honduras Intercceanic Railway Com- 

 pany, and he subsequently visited Europe in behalf 

 of that enterprise. He was appointed I nited States 

 commissioner to settle claims in Peru, where for two 

 years (1863-' 65) he made exhaustive researches con- 

 cerning the remains of the Incas, and took numerous 

 photographs. On his return to New York he was 

 for a_ time chief editor of Frank Leslie's publications : 

 but in 1674 his mind became so seriously impaired 

 that he was obliged to relinquish all original work. 

 Subsequently he recovered sufficiently to' direct the 

 final preparation and revision of his work on Peru, 

 but he never entirely regained his strength. The 

 medal of the French Geographical Society was given 

 him in 1856. He was a member of vario'us scientific 

 and historical societies, and in 1671 was chosen first 

 president of the American Anthropological Institute 

 of New York. Besides official reports^ scientific pa- 

 pers, maarazine articles, and contributions to the " En- 

 cyclopedia liritannica " and foreign periodicals, he 

 published " The Serpent Symbol, or Worship of Re- 

 ciprocal Principles of Nature in America" i N\-w 

 York. 165.'): "Nicaragua: its People, Scenery, An- 

 cient Monuments, and Proposed Interoceanic Ca- 



:6o:.') : " Notes on Central America" (1854); 

 Waikua, or Adventures on the Mosquito Shore" 

 .-ti"n Anglo-Americaine " (Paris, 1856) ; 

 "The States of Central America " (New York. 

 " Report of the Survey of the Honduras Interoceanic 

 Railway " (London, 18*59) ; " Translation, with Notes, 

 of the Letter of Don Diego de Palacio (1571) to the 

 Crown of Spain, on the Provinces of Guatemala and 

 San Salvador" (New York. 1^60 ; " Monographs of 

 Authors who have written on the Aboriginal Lan- 

 guages of Central America " (1861) ; " Tropical Fi- 

 bers, and their Economic Extraction" (1861): " Is 

 Cotton King? Sources of Cotton Supply" (1861); 

 " Honduras, Descriptive. Historical, and Statistical " 

 (1870) ; and " Peru : Incidents of Travel and Explo- 

 ration in the Land of the Incas" (1676). Many of 

 his works were translated into German, French, "and 

 Spanish. 



Stearns, Silas, ichthyologist, born in Bath, Me., May 

 "y; died in Asheville, N. C.. AUT. ~2. 1688. In 

 engaged in business in Pensacola, Fla., and 

 began to stuay the fauna of the surrounding waters, 

 becoming fam'iliar with the coast from Pensacola to 

 Key \Ve>t. In 1^76' he visited the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, and by his thorough and exact knowledge 

 with reifard to the fishes of the Gulf of Mexico, he 

 attracted the special attention of Spencer F. Baird 

 and others. He then spent a year at Waterville, 

 Me., where he engaged in classical studies, in order 

 to acquire a knowledge of scientific nomenclature. 

 Failing health compelled his return to Florida, but in 

 1880 he became a special assent of the Uniteu - 

 Fish Commission and also of the United States Cen- 

 sus Bureau in charge of investigations of the marine 

 industries of the Gulf of Mexico. From this time 

 his contributions to the Fish Commission were nu- 

 merous and lar^e. Upward of fifty new species of 

 fishes were discovered by him, or through his aid, 

 embracing many of what are known as the deep-sea 

 fishes of those waters : and four species of the genera 

 Lutjanus, Scorpxna, Bknniug, and Prionotus, bear 

 his name. 



Stevenson, James, ethnologist, born in Maysville, 

 Ky.. Dec. ^4. 1640; died in New York city. July -Jo, 



He showed great fondness for ethnology when 

 he was a boy, and as early as 1855 went beyond the 

 frontiers in' pursuit of information concerning the 



