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OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (LYMAN McCoMB.) 



part in the defense of Washington in the early 

 part of the civil war. He afterward established 

 mills for the manufacture of cotton and jute 

 goods and of milling machinery, and manufac- 

 tured the first machine-made corsets in the world, 

 designing much of the machinery. In 18(53 he in- 

 vented a varnish for waterproofing the cloth of 

 knapsacks, which was approved by the Govern- 

 ment, and led to his receiving large contracts for 

 knapsacks and haversacks. In 1868 he invented 

 the Lyall positive-motion loom, which revolution- 

 ized the manufacture of cotton goods. He also 

 invented a cap press for compressing the cotton 

 on the shuttles, and many other attachments and 

 devices that are largely used in cotton-goods 

 manufacturing. He received the gold medal of 

 honor from the American Institute in 1869, and 

 other medals and decorations. 



Lyman, Henry Harrison, New York State 

 commissioner of excise, born in Lorrain, N. Y., 

 April 15, 1841: died in Oswego, N. Y., May 4, 

 1901. He was graduated at Pulaski Academy, 

 studied civil engineering, and practised about 

 three years. In 1862 he enlisted as a private in 

 the 14^7th New York Volunteers. He served with 

 distinction during the war, and when captured, 

 in May, 1864, was adjutant of his regiment. He 

 was in Confederate prisons ten months. When 

 mustered out at the close of the war he was made 

 a lieutenant-colonel of militia. Returning to Os- 

 wego at the close of the war, he engaged in bank- 

 ing. He held various town offices, and in 1872 

 .was elected sheriff of Oswego County, serving 

 three years. In 1889 he was made collector of 

 the port of Oswego, which office he held till 1895, 

 when he was appointed a member of the Forest, 

 Fish, and Game Commission. The financial abil- 

 ity that he displayed in reorganizing the accounts 

 of the Fish Commission, which were greatly dis- 

 ordered, led to his appointment as State commis- 

 sioner of excise, March 30, 1896. 



Lynch, James C., soldier, born in Waterbury, 

 Conn., in 1840; died in Philadelphia, Pa., April 12, 

 1901. In August, 1861, he became 2d lieutenant 

 in the 106th Pennsylvania Regiment. He was 

 appointed 1st lieutenant in January, 1862, and 

 became a captain one year later. In June, 1863, 

 Capt. Lynch, at that time inspector-general of 

 the division, was assigned to the command of the 

 183d Pennsylvania. He was mustered out in Oc- 

 tober, 1864, and at the close of the war was 

 brevetted brigadier-general. 



Lyon, Appleton Park, botanist, born in Erie, 

 Pa., June 12, 1840; died in Mount Vernon, N. Y., 

 Nov. 27, 1901. At the age of sixteen he became 

 a tutor in a normal school in Lebanon, Ohio, and 

 later Professor of Mathematics in the same 

 school. He also studied at Brown, at Amherst, 

 and at Union Theological Seminary. He was 

 an ardent student of nature from his boyhood, 

 and was the friend and adviser of students and 

 botanists in all parts of the country. His library, 

 which for many years was in Fifth Avenue, New 

 York, just off Madison Square, was one of the 

 best botanical libraries in the United States and 

 was much used for reference. At his dfeath, be- 

 sides containing 22,000 books and pamphlets, it 

 had a collection of 265,000 classified pictures of 

 plants, with the texts, which it took Prof. Lyon 

 and his wife twelve years to compile. 



McAdam, David, jurist, born in New York 

 city, Oct. 6, 1838; died there, Dec. 22, 1901. He 

 attended the public schools, studied law, and in 

 1859 was admitted to the bar. He practised till 

 1873, when he was elected to the bench of the 

 Marine Court, his term beginning in 1874. In 

 1879 he was renominated, and was the only Tam- 



many nominee elected, running more than 15,000 

 votes ahead of his ticket. In 1885 he was re- 

 turned to this tribunal, its name having been 

 changed in 1882 to the City Court. He was 

 elected by his associates chief justice of the court, 

 and sat till 1890, when he was elected to the 

 Superior Court. He filled this post till Dec. 31, 

 1895, when, by the new State Constitution, the 

 Superior Court judges were made justices of the 

 Supreme Court. His term would have expired 

 Dec. 31, 1904. His decisions were noted for their 

 conservatism and broad common sense rather 

 than brilliance. For thirty years Justice Mc- 

 Adam, in good and ill health, did not miss a day 

 and was not late in attendance on his courts. 

 He w r as the author of law works, among them 

 Marine Court Practise (1868, 1872) ; Landlord and 

 Tenant (1875, 1882, 1900) ; The Stillwell Act; and 

 McAdam on Names. A short time previously to 

 his death he had completed, but had not yet 

 published, an exhaustive work on The Law of 

 Negligence, as Applied to the Relations of Land- 

 lord and Tenant. He was also popular as a lec- 

 turer, his best-known lectures being on Character, 

 George Washington, Lincoln and Grant, Robert 

 Burns, Legal Chestnuts, and Lawyers, Wise and 

 Otherwise. 



McClurg, Alexander Caldwell, publisher, 

 born in Philadelphia, Pa., about 1834; died in 

 St. Augustine, Fla., April 15, 1901. He was gradu- 

 ated at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1853; 

 studied law in Pittsburg; and finally went to 

 Chicago, where he became a clerk in the book- 

 selling house of S. C. Griggs & Co. Aug. 15, 

 1862, he enlisted as a private, and soon afterward 

 was made a captain in the 88th Illinois Infantry. 

 Later he was made lieutenant-colonel in the ad- 

 jutant-general's department, and chief-of -staff of 

 the 14th Army Corps, and was brevetted colonel 

 and brigadier-general. He participated in the 

 battles of Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, 

 Missionary Ridge, and Atlanta, and in the march 

 to the sea. After the war he became a partner 

 in the firm of S. C. Griggs & Co., afterward 

 Jansen, McClurg & Co., and finally succeeded by 

 A. C. McClurg & Co., of which he was the head, 

 and which he made one of the largest book-dis- 

 tributing houses in the United States. On Feb. 

 12, 1899, the building and the entire stock, includ- 

 ing many rare and valuable books and manu- 

 scripts, were destroyed by fire. Gen. McClurg 

 then wished to retire, but he was persuaded to 

 reorganize the house on cooperative lines, with 

 a capital stock of $600,000, mostly subscribed by 

 its old employees, and to become president of the 

 new concern. He w r as a frequent contributor to 

 magazines, and he received the degree of A. M. 

 from Yale in 1893. 



McComb, James Jennings, business man, 

 born in Mansfield, Ohio, Jan. 22, 1829; died in 

 Dobbs Ferry, N. Y., March 31, 1901. He went 

 to California in 1849, and, though successful 

 there, not liking the life of the gold-fields, he 

 returned to the East, where he became identified 

 with the cotton business. He was the inventor 

 of the arrow cotton tie, a simple device for use 

 in the baling of cotton, which became immediately 

 popular in the Southern States and brought him 

 a large fortune. From 1861 till 1876 he resided 

 in England. He afterward resided in New York 

 city, and after 1881 at Dobbs Ferry. After his 

 return to the United States he was engaged in 

 many large business enterprises in New York 

 city, and he was the owner of the Navarro apart- 

 ment houses, Central Park South, having ob- 

 tained the title upon the failure of the persons 

 who were interested in their erection. Mr. Me- 



