420 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (DICKINSON DONAHOE.) 



that office about twenty-five years. He was edi- 

 tor of the Daily Christian Advocate during the 

 quadrennial General Conferences from I860 to 



1888, one of the managers of the Methodist Sun- 

 day-School Union for more than thirty years, and 

 editor of the Methodist Year-Book from 180(> to 



1889. In New York he served as pastor of the 

 old John Street Methodist Episcopal Church four 

 years. He received the degree of M. A. from Gen- 

 esee College, that of D. D. from Union College, and 

 that of LL. D. from Mount Union College, Alli- 

 ance, Ohio. Dr. De Puy was author or editor 

 of the following books:' Three-score Years and 

 Beyond (1877): Compendium of Useful Informa- 

 tion (1878): The People's Cyclopaedia of Univer- 

 sal Knowledge (1879): Home and Health and 

 Home Economics (1880): The People's Atlas 

 (1882): Methodist Centennial Year-Book (1889); 

 American Revisions and Additions to Encyclopae- 

 dia Britannica (1891); and University of Litera- 

 ture (1 81)15). 



Dickinson, Leonard A., soldier, born in New 

 Haven, Conn., Nov. 5, 1826; died in Hartford, 

 Conn., Jan. 27, 1901. He was left an orphan at 

 an early age, and earned the greater part of his 

 livelihood after he was nine years old. While a 

 young man he was a member and an officer of 

 various military companies in New Haven and 

 Hartford, and in October, 1861, he enlisted in the 

 12th Connecticut Volunteers. He w T as commis- 

 sioned captain in that regiment, mustered into 

 service in January, 1862, and served with it in 

 the engagements about New Orleans under Gen. 

 Butler, and later in the Shenandoah valley. In 

 1864 he was made assistant acting adjutant-gen- 

 eral of the 19th Army Corps, and in that capacity 

 he was in the campaigns of Gen. Sheridan. He 

 was mustered out of service Nov. 21, 1864. After 

 1869 he engaged in the insurance business, and for 

 many years he was president of the Hartford 

 Board of Underwriters. Throughout his life after 

 the war he w r as intimately connected with the 

 political life of the State. He served for three 

 years as quartermaster on the staff of Gov. Jewell. 

 He was appointed postmaster of Hartford by 

 President Garfield, and held the office through 

 President Arthur's administration. He had served 

 continuously on the Soldiers' Hospital Board after 

 1886, and was a trustee and treasurer of the 

 Fitch Soldiers' Home, in Noroton, Conn., and as 

 the executive officer representing the State he was 

 largely instrumental in putting the institution on 

 a sound basis. 



Dillingham, Annie (Mrs. William Dawes), 

 actress, born in New England; died in Brooklyn, 

 N. Y., March 15, 1901. She made her first appear- 

 ance at the Boston Museum, playing the leading 

 role in The Love Chase, supported by the veteran 

 actor, William Warren. She afterward acted in 

 various stock companies throughout the country, 

 and once, during the civil war, when she and her 

 company were in a town that had been captured 

 by Morgan's guerrillas, the entire wardrobe and 

 properties of the actors w^ere saved by her inter- 

 cession with Morgan himself. While Miss Dilling- 

 ham was playing in the West Indies she met 

 William Dawes, a merchant of British Guiana, 

 and shortly afterward married him, retiring per- 

 manently from theatrical life. 



Dimitry, John (Bull Smith), author, born in 

 Washington, D. C., Dec. 27, 1835; died in New 

 Orleans, Sept. 7, 1901. He was the son of Prof. 

 Alexander Dimitry. He was graduated at George- 

 town College, and from 1859 to 1861 was secre- 

 tary of legation to his father, who was United 

 States minister to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. 

 He was connected editorially with newspapers in 



New Orleans, Washington, New 7 York, and Phila- 

 delphia, and while on the New York Mail and 

 Express his story Le Tombeau Blanc won the 

 prize of $500 offered by The Storyteller for the 

 best short story. He \vas Professor of Languages 

 and Belles-Lettres,Colegio Caldas, South America, 

 from 1873 to 1876, and he held the same chair in 

 Montgomery College, Virginia, in 1894-'95. He 

 gained considerable reputation as a writer of 

 epitaphs, and was the author of The Life of Jeffer- 

 son Davis, written, with John C. Ridpath, in col- 

 laboration with Mrs. Jefferson Davis; School His- 

 tory and Geography of Louisiana (1877); Three 

 Good Giants (1887); Atahualpa's Curtain (1889); 

 and the Confederate Military History of Louisi- 

 ana (1900). 



Donahoe, Patrick, publisher, born in Mun- 

 nery, County Cavan, Ireland, March 17, 1811; 

 died in Boston, Mass., March 18, 1901. He at- 

 tended the public schools of Boston, whither he 

 had come with his parents when ten years old, 

 and afterward worked as a compositor in the 

 office of the Columbian Centinel, and later on the 

 Boston Transcript. In- 1836 he founded The Pilot, 

 in the interest of the Catholics of the United 

 States, which, through his personal canvass, at- 

 tained a w 7 ide circulation. In addition to his 

 newspaper he established a large book-publishing 

 house, and subsequently added a bookstore and 

 an emporium of organs and church furniture. 

 During the civil war he actively interested himself 

 in the organization of Irish regiments. He was 

 treasurer of the fund for the equipment of the 

 Irish 9th, and when the regiment w r as depart- 

 ing for the field he presented Col. Cass with 

 $1,000 in gold for distribution among the men. 

 He assisted in the formation of the 28th Massa- 

 chusetts Regiment, and generously aided the sol- 

 diers at Camp Cameron, Cambridge, during the 

 early days of the war. In 1872, when his chapter 

 of misfortune began, Mr. Donahoe was the richest 

 Catholic in New England, and his large fortune 

 was drawn on freely for churches and philanthrop- 

 ic interests. The great fire of 1872 destroyed his 

 buildings, stereotype plates, book stock, and other 

 property to the value of $350,000. He at once 

 resumed business, but was burned out again in 

 May, 1873. He built again, and a third time was 

 burned out. The insurance companies had nearly 

 all collapsed through the losses incurred in the 

 great fire, and in consequence his losses were al- 

 most total. In addition, he had indorsed heavily ' 

 for friends, and through his generosity in this di- 

 rection he lost more than $250,000. Then the 

 panic of 1876 came, and friends that had advanced 

 money to carry on the business withdrew their 

 assistance. His bank was obliged to suspend pay- 

 ment, and Mr. Donahoe, to repay the $73,000 due 

 depositors, put everything he possessed at the dis- 

 posal of his creditors. The Pilot was purchased 

 by Archbishop Williams and John Boyle O'Reilly. 

 The latter, who for some years had been in edi- 

 torial charge of the paper, now assumed the addi- 

 tional duties of business manager. Meantime,* 

 Mr. Donahoe was beginning business life anew. 

 He resumed his foreign exchange and passenger 

 agency, and in 1878 established Donahoe's Maga- 

 zine. To gain a circulation for it, he went over 

 the same ground that he had traversed in young 

 manhood in the interests of The Pilot. Success 

 came to him, and in 1890, after the death of 

 John Boyle O'Reilly, Mr. Donahoe, then nearly 

 eighty years old, bought back The Pilot. In 

 1894 he sold Donahbe's Magazine. On March 17, 

 1893, he was awarded the Laetare medal by Notre 

 Dame University, given each year to some Cath- 

 olic " especially distinguished for his services to 



