434: 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (HAZEN HERNE.) 



Hazen, Abraham D., Third Assistant Post- 

 master-General, born in Northampton County, 

 Pennsylvania, Feb. 24, 1841 ; died in Washington, 

 D. C., Dec. 3, 1901. He was graduated at Lafay- 

 ette College in 1863, and received an appointment 

 in the United States Department of Agriculture. 

 Nearly his entire life after that time was spent 

 in the Government service, although he was a 

 graduate of the law department of the Columbian 

 University, in Washington, and during a short 

 term of retirement from public life practised law 

 in that city. In 1800 he was transferred to the 

 Post-Office Department, and rose by gradual pro- 

 motion to be the principal clerk of the stamp 

 division, and in 1874. when Congress, on the rec- 

 ommendation of the Postmaster-General, created 

 the office of Chief of the Stamp Division, he was 

 immediately appointed to the place. He was in- 

 strumental" in systematizing the postal-card sys- 

 tem and in the introduction of official stamps for 

 the executive departments. He also served as a 

 member of the Civil-Service Examining Board for 

 the Post-Office Department. President Hayes 

 made him Third Assistant Postmaster-General. 

 In 1884 he issued, with the aid of clerks in his 

 department, a pamphlet entitled The Post-Office 

 Before and Since 1860, under Democratic and Re- 

 publican Administrations, on nearly every page 

 of which the Democratic party was charged with 

 incompetency and dishonesty. He tendered his 

 resignation upon the advent of the Cleveland ad- 

 ministration, but was retained more than two 

 years because of his knowledge of the business 

 of his office, and then it was accepted only upon 

 his personal solicitation. He was reappointed by 

 President Harrison in March, 1889. At the Co- 

 lumbian Exposition in 1893 he was the representa- 

 tive of the Post-Office Department on the Board 

 of Management and Control of Department Ex- 

 hibits. 



Henderson, Alexander, naval officer, born in 

 Washington, D. C., July 12, 1832; died in Yon- 

 kers, N. Y., Jan. 12, 1901. He entered the navy 

 as a third assistant engineer in February, 1851. 

 He was in Commodore Perry's fleet that visited 

 the Orient in 1852-'55, served in the Mediterra- 

 nean in 1856-'57, and took part in the Paraguay 

 expedition in 1858. He again served in the Med- 

 iterranean in 1859 and 1860, and in 1861 he re- 

 turned to the United States and served in the 

 National fleet through the civil war. Afterward 

 he was successively the fleet engineer of the Asiat- 

 ic and the European stations. In 1882 Mr. Hen- 

 derson was made engineering head of the Naval 

 Advisory Board, and the engines of the first ves- 

 sels of the new navy were designed by him and 

 built under his supervision. When the work of 

 the Advisory Board was finished, in 1889, he be- 

 came chief engineer of the Boston Navy- Yard. 

 He was retired with the rank of commodore in 

 July, 1894. At the outbreak of the Spanish-Amer- 

 ican War he volunteered, and served till its close 

 as fleet engineer of the auxiliary navy. 



Henry, Benjamin C., clergyman, born near 

 Pittsburg, Pa., in 1850; died in Sharpsburg, Pa., 

 June 21, 1901. He was graduated at Princeton 

 in 1870, and at the Theological Seminary there 

 in 1873. Soon after leaving the seminary he went 

 to China, where for twenty-six years he labored 

 as a missionary, retiring in 1899 on account of 

 failing health. While on a visit to the United 

 States, in 1884, he advocated the establishment of 

 a Christian college in southern China, and he was 

 subsequently honorary president of one that was 

 founded as the result of his efforts. Dr. Henry was 

 the author of The Cross and the Dragon, and 

 Ling-Nan; or, Interior Views of Southern China. 



Henschel, Mrs. Georg (Lillian June Bailey), 

 singer, born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1860; died in 

 London, England, Nov. 7, 1901. She went to Bos- 

 ton in 1876, and studied there with Mine. Ruders- 

 doff and her uncle, Charles Hayden. She made 

 her first public appearance in March, 1877, at a 

 concert in Boston, and afterward she sang in 

 Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. In 1878 

 she studied in Paris with Mine. Viardot-Garcia, 

 and the following year went to London to become 

 a pupil of Georg Henschel. In April, 1879, she 

 made her appearance in London at one of the 

 Philharmonic Society's concerts. She immediately 

 became a great favorite, singing at the Monday 

 popular concerts, the famous Richter concerts, the 

 Crystal Palace concerts, and the great festivals 

 in Germany, Holland, Scotland, and England. She 

 returned to the United States in 1880, and sang at 

 the Worcester festival in September. In 1881 she 

 married Georg Henschel, the composer, singer, and 

 conductor, with whom she gave in Boston during 

 the following winter a series of recitals. 



Herne, James A., actor, manager, and play- 

 wright, born in Troy, N. Y., Feb. 1, 1840; died in 

 New York city, June 2, 1901. He was educated 

 in the public schools, and made his first appear- 

 ance as an actor with a small traveling company, 

 with which he remained for a few weeks. For 

 two seasons following 1859 he played with the 

 Adelphi Theater stock company, Troy, N. Y., ap- 

 pearing first as George Shelby in Uncle Tom's 

 Cabin, and afterw r ard in Shakespearian and other 

 roles; then for three seasons he was at the Holli- 

 day Street Theater, in Baltimore. When Ford's 

 Theater was opened in Washington, Mr. Herne 

 was chosen to deliver the opening address. He 

 \vas next leading man for Susan Dennin, and with 

 her went to California, where in July, 1866, he 

 married Helen Western, and for three seasons fol- 

 lowing traveled with her, playing leading roles 

 in support of Lucille Western. During James 

 Fisk's career as theatrical manager, Mr. Herne 

 held under him the place of producer at the Grand 

 Opera-House, New York, at a salary of $10,000 

 a year. After Fisk's death Mr. Herne returned 

 to California, and in San Francisco met with 

 success as an actor-manager. In 1878 he married 

 Katherine Corcoran, and soon afterward deter- 

 mined to make his first venture as a star. David 

 Belasco suggested that he write his own play, and 

 acting upon this suggestion Mr. Herne produced 

 his Hearts of Oak, which achieved immediate 

 success. Within the three years following he 

 wrote Drifting Apart, The Minutemen of '76, 

 and Margaret Fleming. All were well received, 

 but none reached the popular success of Hearts of 

 Oak. Margaret Fleming is considered one of the 

 greatest plays written by an American. In 1883 

 and 1884 he wrote his most successful play, Shore 

 Acres. It was first performed under the title of 

 The Hawthornes, in Chicago, in 1892, and was 

 not a success; later it was produced at the Bos- 

 ton Museum under its better-known title. Mr. 

 Herne played it almost continuously till 1899. 

 when he brought out The Rev. Griffith Davenport, 

 his dramatization of Helen Gardner's novel An 

 Unofficial Patriot. The play was not a pecuniary 

 success. In 1900 Mr. Herne wrote and produced 

 Sag Harbor, which was w T ell received in New York 

 and the smaller cities of the country. During the 

 later years of his life he was greatly interested 

 in sociological studies, and was often called upon 

 to address important meetings. His plays and 

 his speeches were characterized by a gentle atti- 

 tude toward humanity, and his influence for a 

 kindlier sympathy with its mistakes and its mis- 

 fortunes. 



