OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (BEATTY BENTON.) 



633 



moved to Bridgeport in 1850, was a State Senator in 

 1858, and practiced till 1874, when he was appointed 

 a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. In 

 1887 he succeeded to the bench of the Supreme Court 

 of Errors, which he occupied till constrained by fail- 

 ing: health to resign on Nov. 1, 1889. 



Beatty, Ormond, educator, born in Mason County, 

 Ky., Aug. 13, 1815; died in Danville. Ky., June 24, 

 1890. He was graduated at Center College, Danville, 

 took part of the course at Yale College, and returning 

 to Center College was appointed Professor of Chem- 

 istry, Natural Philosophy, and Mathematics there. 

 In 1872 he was chosen president of the college and 

 Professor of Metaphysics and Political Science, and he 

 held these offices till his resignation in 1886. He re- 

 ceived the degree of LL. D. from the College of New 

 Jersey in 1868. 



Beck, James Burnie, legislator, born in Dumfries- 

 shire, Scotland, Feb. 13, 1822 ; died in Washington, 

 D. C., May 3, 1890. He received an academic educa- 

 tion in his native country, came to the United States 

 with his parents while a youth, settled in Lexington,* 

 Ky., and was graduated at the Law School of Transyl- 

 vania University in 1846. He began to practice in 

 Lexington, and for twenty years applied himself 

 closely to his profession, in which he achieved excep- 

 tional success. In 1866 he was elected Representative 

 in Congress from the Seventh Kentucky District as a 

 Democrat, and in 1868, 1870, and 1872 was re-elected, 

 declining a renomination in 1874 and resuming prac- 

 tice. In May, 1876, he was appointed a member of 

 the commission to define the boundary between 

 Maryland and Virginia, and in the following winter 

 was elected United States Senator. He was re-elected 

 in 1882 and 1888, and his third term would have ex- 



S'red March 4, 1895. As Representative and Senator 

 r. Beck had served on several important committees, 

 including those on ways and means, civil servics and 

 retrenchment, appropriations, finance, expenditure of 

 public money, inquiry into the claims of citizens of 

 the United States against Nicaragua, transportation 

 routes to the seaboard, and (.joint select) on the insur- 

 rectionary States. He was the most rapid speaker in 

 the national Legislature, a tireless worker in his com- 

 mittees, an able debater, and an earnest advocate of 

 tariff reform. His last official act was the preparation 

 of the minority report on the tariff in 1889. 



Beckwith, Corydon, lawyer born in Caledonia County, 

 Vt,,in 1823; died in Hinsdale, 111., Aug. 18, 1890. 

 He was educated at Wrenthara, Mass., and at the 

 University of Vermont; was admitted to the bars of 

 Vermont and Maryland ; removed to Chicago early 

 in his professional career; and became an associate 

 iustice of the Supreme Court of Illinois, general so- 

 licitor of the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company, 

 and attorney of the Chicago Board of Trade. 

 Beckwith. ' John Watrus, clergyman, born in Raleigh, 

 N. C.. Feb. 9, 

 1831; died in At- 

 lanta, Ga., Nov. 

 23, 1890. He. 

 was graduated at 

 Trinity College, 

 Hartford, Con- 

 necticut, in 1852: 

 was ordained 

 deacon in the 

 Protestant Epis- 

 copal Church in 

 1854, and priest 

 in 1855 : was sta- 

 ^ tioned in Wades- 

 borough, N. C., 

 and in Anne 

 Arundel County, 

 Md., till the be- 

 ginning of the 

 civil war ; was 



rector of Trinity Church, Demopolis, Ala., during the 

 greater part of the war ; and after its close was rector 

 of Trinity Church, New Orleans, till elected bishop 



of the diocese of Georgia. He was consecrated in St. 

 John's Church, Savannah, April 2, 1868. 



Belknap, William Worth, lawyer, born in Newbunr, 

 N. Y., Sept. 22, 1829; died in Washington, D. C. 

 Oct. 11-13, 1890. He was graduated at the College of 

 New Jersey in 1848; studied law in Georgetown, 

 D. C., and was admitted to the bar in 1851 ; and set- 

 tled in Keokuk, Iowa. He rose rapidly in his profes- 

 sion, became active in politics as a Douglas Democrat, 

 and served in the State Legislature in 1857-' 58. In 

 November, 1861, he was commissioned major of the 

 Fifteenth Iowa Volunteers, with which he served in 

 the Army of the Tennessee, and took part in the bat- 

 tle of Shiloh, the siege and battle of Corinth, the 

 sieges of Vicksburg and Atlanta, and the battles 

 around Atlanta, in July, 1864. For his services in 

 the latter campaign he was promoted brigadier-general. 

 On March 13, 1865, he was brevetted major-general of 

 volunteers, and on Aug. 24 was mustered out of the 

 service. He declined an appointment in the regular 

 army ; was collector of internal revenue for the First 

 Iowa District from 1865 till Oct. 13, 1869 ; and was 

 then called to President Grant's Cabinet as Secretary 

 of War. He held this office till March 7, 1876, when 

 he resigned in consequence of charges of official cor- 

 ruption, in that, with his knowledge, a member of his 

 family had received $24,450 between Oct. 10, 1870, 

 and March 2, 1876, in consideration of his appoint- 

 ment of Caleb B. Marsh to be post-trader at Fort 

 Sill, Indian Territory. On the charges he was im- 

 peached and tried by the United States Senate, and 

 was acquitted on the ground of lack of jurisdiction. 

 He passed the remainder of his life in practicing his 

 profession in Washington. His friends claimed that 

 he was wholly ignorant of the payment of the money till 

 the charges were preferred, and that he afterward re- 

 fused to admit or deny the allegations, in order to 

 screen the culpable member of his family. He was 

 found dead in his bed on the morning of Oct. 13, hav- 

 ing been seen alive last on the evening of the llth. 



Belmont, August, banker, born in Alzey, Germany, 

 Dec. 6. 1816 ; died in New York city, Nov. 24, 1890. 

 He was educated iu Frankfort, and when fourteen 

 years old was apprenticed to the Rothschild banking 

 house in that city. In 1833 he was sent to Naples to 

 attend to the firm's interests ; in 1837 went to Havana 

 for a similar purpose ; and soon afterward to New 

 York city, where the business of the firm was seriously 

 threatened by the financial panic. He soon deter- 

 mined to make the latter city his permanent home, 

 and established himself in the banking business and 

 as the American representative of the Rothschilds. 

 In 1844-'50 he was the consul-general of Austria in 

 New York city, resigning on account of disapproval 

 of Austria's treatment of Hungary ; in 1853 was ap- 

 pointed United States charge d'affaires at the Hague ; 

 and in 1854-'5S was minister resident there. While 

 holding this appointment, he negotiated an im- 

 portant consular convention and rendered other diplo- 

 matic service, for which he received the special thanks 

 of the United States State Department. In 1860 he 

 was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention 

 where he supported Stephen A. Douglas ; and when 

 a portion of the delegates withdrew and organized the 

 convention in Baltimore, he became active in that 

 body, and was by it made chairman of the National 

 Democratic Committee, which place he held without 

 interruption till 1872. He remained an influential 

 worker in his party till after the presidental election 

 of 1876, and then closed his active political career. 

 Mr. Belmont was widely known as a liberal patron 

 of fine arts and of the turf. He gathered one of the 

 most noted collections of paintings in the United 

 States ; was President of the American Jockey Club 

 for twenty years, and owned several stables of racing 

 and breeding horses. 



Benton, John Dean, model-maker, born in Fort Inde- 

 pendence, Boston Harbor, in 1823; died in East 

 Providence, R. I., Oct. 18, 1890. He learned and fol- 

 lowed the jeweler's trade till the beginning of the 

 civil war, when he enlisted in the Second Rhode Isl- 



