418 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (CROCKER DAVIS.) 



of the war he resumed his banking business in 

 Hornellsville and conducted it till 1893. He was 

 an original trustee of the Soldiers' Home in Bath, 

 N. Y., and was its first treasurer. 



Crocker, Margaret Eleanor, philanthropist, 

 born in Stark County, Ohio.. Feb. 25, 1823; died 

 in New York city, Dec. 1, 1901. She was the 

 daughter of John Rhodes, a pioneer of Stark 

 County, and the youngest of twelve children. 

 While Margaret Rhodes was a babe, the father 

 died, leaving the mother, with the aid of the 

 older children, to wring a livelihood from the half- 

 cleared land. The mother died in 1848, and the 

 family was broken up. While visiting her sister 

 in South Bend, Ind., in 1850, Margaret met Edwin 

 B. Crocker, then a young lawyer, who had studied 

 for his profession while working in a foundry. 

 The couple were married by Henry Ward Beecher, 

 July 8, 1852, and a few days afterward they set 

 out by the long isthmus route for California. 

 Here Mr. Crocker struggled through the deepest 

 poverty and many privations to a high place in 

 his profession, a justice of the Supreme Court of 

 California, and became one of the wealthiest men 

 in the country. Judge Crocker and his wife de- 

 voted much of their wealth to charities and to 

 beautifying the city of Sacramento. After the 

 death of her husband, in 1875, Mrs. Crocker in- 

 creased her charities. She gave to Sacramento 

 land for a cemetery, a great school building, and 

 a magnificent art gallery, the contents of which, 

 carefully collected in Europe, were valued at more 

 than $500,000. She also founded and endowed 

 an old ladies' home in that city. During her later 

 years she resided in New York city, and there 

 gave liberally in public and private benefactions. 



Croly, Jennie Cunningham, editor, born in 

 Market Harborough, England, See. 19, 1829; died 

 in New York city, Dec. 23, 1901. At the age of 

 ten she removed to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and in 

 1856 she married David G. Croly, a journalist, 

 who died in 1889. She was one of the first women 

 to enter the profession of journalism, and in a 

 career of forty years was connected editorially 

 with various newspapers and periodicals. Her 

 longest service was as editor of Demorest's Maga- 

 zine (1860-1887). She founded Sorosis, a wom- 

 an's club, in 1868, and was its president in 1868- 

 70, and in 1876-'86. She also founded the Wom- 

 en's Press Club and was its first president, and 

 in 1899 a publication entitled The New Cycle, and 

 she was the first president of the New York State 

 Federation of Women's Clubs. Her publications 

 in book form include Talks on Women's Topics 

 (1869); For Better or Worse (1875); a cookery 

 book ; and a History of the Woman's Club Move- 

 ment in America. Much of her work was pub- 

 lished under the pen-name of Jennie June. 



Cro well, Floy (Mrs. Edwin Dudley), actress, 

 born in Cleveland, Ohio; died in Los Angeles, 

 Cal., Jan. 31, 1901. She made her first appear- 

 ance in a small western stock company, and 

 played, during a period of ten months, more than 

 30 leading roles, ranging from Marjorie, in the 

 Rough Diamond, to Lady Audley, in Lady Aud- 

 ley's Secret, and Lady Isabel, in East Lynne. 

 Soon after the termination of this engagement 

 she traveled through the New England States 

 with her own company. She played chiefly in 

 that territory during the rest of her stage career, 

 appearing most successfully in The Ironmaster, 

 Queen of the Night, and The Wages of Sin. 



Curry, Robert, educator, born in Murrays- 

 burg, Pa., June 8, 1821; died in Allegheny, Pa., 

 Dec. 13, 1901. He taught in the public schools 

 before entering the academy at Frankfort Springs, 

 Pa., and was graduated at Washington and Jef- 



ferson College in 1848. He became principal of 

 West Newton Academy, and of a school at Can- 

 onsburg, Pa.; in 1855 established the first normal 

 school in western Pennsylvania, in Mansfield, and 

 in 1859 became principal of New Brighton Female 

 Seminary. In 1860 he founded, in Pittsburg, 

 Curry University, with three departments clas- 

 sical, normal,, and chemical. In 1873 Prof. Curry 

 was appointed Deputy Superintendent of Public 

 Instruction of Pennsylvania, and after his term 

 in that office he removed to the West, where he 

 was engaged in active educational work till his 

 retirement in 1900. During these last years he 

 w r as for a time principal of the Nebraska State 

 Normal School, and for several years he served 

 as president of the State Teachers' Association of 

 Nebraska. He received the degree of Ph. D. from 

 Washington and Jefferson College in 1873. 



Curtiss, James Edward, soldier, born in Mo- 

 hawk, N. Y., Oct. 1, 1840; died in Buffalo, N. Y., 

 July 23, 1901. He was educated in the common 

 schools of his native country, and when the civil 

 war broke out he became a captain in the 152d 

 New York Volunteers. The following year he 

 was made major, and soon afterward lieutenant- 

 colonel. He received his commission as colonel, 

 June 1, 1865. In the previous March he was bre- 

 vetted brigadier-general for faithful and meritori- 

 ous services during the war. He was police com- 

 missioner of Buffalo from. Jan. 1, 1895, till March 

 1, 1899. He was connected with many business en- 

 terprises. 



Cushing, Samuel T., soldier, born in Rhode 

 Island in 1839; died in Washington, D. C., July 

 21, 1901. He was educated at West Point, and 

 was commissioned 2d lieutenant in the 2d United 

 States Infantry, Jan. 19, 1861; 1st lieutenant, 

 May 14; and captain, Feb. 15, 1862. He was 

 made commissary of subsistence, Feb. 9, 1863, and 

 thereafter served in the commissary and signal 

 branches of the service. He was the first regular 

 officer detailed for duty with the signal corps of 

 the army at the outbreak of the civil war, and at 

 Fredericksburg, Va., established the first line of 

 military telegraph ever used in actual warfare and 

 exposed to the enemy's fire. He was brevetted 

 major, March 13, 1865, for gallant and meritorious 

 conduct in the field. He was commissioned major 

 of the volunteer signal corps, May 29, 1863, but de- 

 clined the commission. In the regular establish- 

 ment he was major and commissary of subsistence, 

 Aug. 28, 1888; lieutenant-colonel and assistant 

 commissary-general, Nov. 11, 1895; colonel and 

 assistant commissary-general, Jan. 26, 1897 ; and 

 brigadier-general and commissary -general, Jan. 28,. 

 1898. He was retired for disability, April 21, 1898. 



Daggett, Mrs. Lydia (Hill), missionary, died 

 in Wyoming, Oct. 2, 1901. At the time of the 

 civil war she spent two years in the South, chiefly 

 in New Orleans, where her work was personally 

 furthered by Gen. Butler, laboring for the relief 

 and education of the colored people. From 1871 

 to 1882 she w r as the publisher of the Heathen 

 Woman's Friend (now the Woman's Missionary 

 Friend), the organ of the Woman's Foreign Mis- 

 sionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church. She afterward engaged actively in the 

 home missionary work of her Church until 1895. 

 She was made district secretary, and founded the- 

 Jesse Lee Home in Alaska, to which she gave 

 personal supervision. She also aided in establish- 

 ing the Lyndon Home for Indians in Washington. 



Davis, Kate, actress, born in Boston, Mass., in 

 1863; died in Washington, D. C., Jan. 12, 1901. 

 She was a graduate of the Boston School of Ora- 

 tory, and her first appearance was as a public 

 reader, after which she began her career as an 



