476 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (WITHERS YOUMANS.) 



the Army of the Potomac during the operations 

 against Richmond. He was brevetted colonel of 

 volunteers Aug. 1, 1864, and brigadier-general of 

 volunteers March 13, 1805, for faithful and meri- 

 torious service. After the war he served as depot 

 commissary at Baltimore till 1872, at Omaha and 

 other places in the West till Nov. 8,. 1887, when 

 he became purchasing and department commis- 

 sary at Chicago. 



Withers, Frederick Clarke, architect, born 

 in Shepton Mallet. England, Feb. 4, 1828; died 

 in Yonkers, N. Y., Jan. 7, 1901. He studied 

 architecture in London and other places eight 

 years. In 1852 he began to practise his profession 

 in Newburg, X. Y. At the outbreak of the civil 

 war he joined the National army as 1st lieuten- 

 ant, New York Engineers; he was injured in the 

 service in 1862 and returned to New York city, 

 where he resumed the practise of architecture. 

 Among the buildings designed by him are the 

 Jefferson Market Court-House, New York city; 

 the Hudson River State Hospital, Poughkeepsie; 

 the Deaf-Mute College, Washington; and the 

 New York City Asylum for the Insane, in Central 

 Islip, Long Island. He published Church Archi- 

 tecture (1874). 



Woods, Eliza, educator, born in Belfast, Ire- 

 land, about 1850; died in New York city, March 

 8, 1901. She was brought to the United States 

 by her parents, and received her education in 

 the public schools of New York city and in the 

 Saturday normal classes. When the Normal 

 College of the City of New York was founded, 

 in 1870, Miss Woods was chosen to be the first 

 assistant in the department of mathematics. 

 Later she was transferred to the department of 

 psychology. Upon the death of Miss Lydia T. 

 Wadleigh, in 1888, she was appointed woman 

 superintendent, and she held that place, also oc- 

 cupying the chair of Ethics, till her death. 



Woods, William Allan, jurist, born in Mar- 

 shall County, Tennessee, May 16, 1837 ; died in 

 Indianapolis, Ind., June 28, 1901. He was gradu- 

 ated at Wabash College in 1855, and in 1860 

 removed to Marion, Ind., where he studied law 

 and was admitted to the bar in 1861. He began 

 the practise of his profession in Goshen, Ind., in 

 1862. In 1866 he was elected to the Legislature. 

 In 1873 he was elected judge of the 34th judicial 

 circuit, and he served by reelection till 1881, when 

 he was elected judge of the State Supreme Court; 

 subsequently he was made Chief Justice. In 1883 

 he was appointed United States district judge 

 for the district of Indiana, and removed to In- 

 dianapolis. In 1892 he was reappointed judge, 

 and was confirmed by a bare majority of the Sen- 

 ate. He issued the injunction against interfer- 

 ence with the mails by railroad strikers in 1894, 

 and sentenced Eugene V. Debs and other officers 

 of the American Railway Union to prison for 

 violating the injunction. 



Woolf, Benjamin E., playwright, musician, 

 and dramatic critic, born in London, England, in 

 1836; died in Boston, Mass., Feb. 7, 1901. He 

 came to America in early youth, and in 1856 

 became the first violinist in the Boston Museum 

 orchestra. After a time he took up the work of 

 a playwright, and wrote altogether more than a 

 hundred plays and librettos, his most successful 

 dramatic wprk being The Mighty Dollar, in which 

 the late William J. Florence acted for many years. 

 His most important musical work was the comic 

 opera Westward Ho. Mr. Woolf was director of 

 music in many of the leading theaters of the 

 country at different times during his career. In 

 1871 he became dramatic critic for the Boston 

 Saturday Evening Gazette, holding that place un- 



til 1893, when he left the Gazette to occupy a 

 similar place on the staff of the Boston Herald. 

 During his long experience as a critic of music 

 and the drama he won considerable distinction 

 by reason of his frank, intelligent criticism, al- 

 ways expressed with justice and clearness, and 

 often brightened with flashes of keen wit. In 

 1867 he married Josephine Orton, of the Boston 

 Museum stock company. 



Wright, Elias, civil engineer, born in Durham, 

 N. Y., June 22, 1830; died in Atlantic City, N. J., 

 Jan. 2, 1901. He was educated in a district school, 

 of which he subsequently became the teacher. He 

 removed to Atlantic City in 1852, where he taught 

 for several years. He then studied civil engineer- 

 ing. In the civil war he was commissioned 2d 

 lieutenant in the 4th New Jersey Infantry, Aug. 

 17, 1861; he was promoted 1st lieutenant Jan. 3, 

 1862; captain, December, 1862; major, June, 

 1863; lieutenant-colonel, April, 1864; colonel, 

 August, 1864; and brevetted brigadier-general of 

 volunteers in January, 1865. He took part in all 

 the battles in which his regiment was engaged, 

 but at the battle of Gaines Mill, June 27, 1862, 

 was captured and confined in Libby Prison seven 

 weeks. After the war he returned to civil en- 

 gineering at Weymouth and Atlantic City, N. J. 



Xavier, Henry, horticulturist, born near 

 Lyons, France, March 26, 1826; died in Mount 

 Vernon, N. Y., June 19, 1901. He came to the 

 United States when young, and for a time was in 

 business in Fort Hamilton, N. Y.; in 1853 he 

 removed to Mount Vernon. He made many trips 

 to Europe in connection with the introduction of 

 wine-producing grape-vines into this country. 

 He brought practically every known species from 

 Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and Hungary. 



Yeatman, James Erwin, philanthropist, born 

 in Bedford County, Tennessee, Aug. 23, 1818; died 

 in St. Louis, Mo., July 7, 1901. He removed to 

 St. Louis in 1842, and was the owner of an iron- 

 foundry there for many years. During the civil 

 war he was a Union sympathizer, and was one 

 of a commission sent to Washington to explain 

 the status of local affairs to President Lincoln. 

 In 1864 he was appointed president of the West- 

 ern Sanitary Commission, which established hos- 

 pital steamers, soldiers' homes, and relief bureaus. 

 Although a slaveholder before the war, he devised 

 the organization of the Freedmen's Bureau, and 

 made an official report to Washington in which 

 he advised the leasing of abandoned cotton plan- 

 tations to the freedmen. After the war he en- 

 gaged in the banking business, and was president 

 of the Merchants' National Bank for several 

 years. He was identified with numerous charita- 

 ble movements. 



Youmans, William Jay, author and journal- 

 ist, born in Milton, Saratoga County, N. Y., Oct. 

 14, 1838; died in Mount Vernon, N. Y., April 10, 

 1901. He spent his early years on his father's 

 farm, going to the district school and studying 

 chemistry and other scientific subjects under the 

 direction" of his brother, Prof. Edward L. You- 

 mans. He next attended the Fort Edward- Acad- 

 emy, and in 1858 went to New York city, where 

 he took a special course in chemistry at Colum- 

 bia College under Prof. Joy, subsequently going 

 to the Sheffield Scientific School, New Haven, 

 where he studied physiology and chemistry. He 

 was graduated in the medical department of the 

 New York University in 1865. He then spent a 

 year abroad, devoting most of his time to special 

 scientific work under the direction of Prof. Hux- 

 ley. He settled in Winona, Minn., where he be- 

 gan the practise of medicine. In 1871 his brother 

 planned the Popular Science Monthly, and Dr. 



