OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (BROWN BUNCE.) 



637 



landing. He afterward claimed that the Federal 

 authorities had given him no notice of the intended 

 passage of the troops so that he could have provided 

 police protection, and that the fatalities occurred after 

 he had returned to his office, supposing that all the 

 troops had embarked. President Lincoln compliment- 

 ed him for his conduct. On Sept. 1 2 Mayor Brown and 

 seveial members of the State Legislature were arrested 

 by the Federal authorities, and were confined in 

 various forts till the expiration of his term of office. 

 In 1867 he was a member of the State Constitutional 

 Convention, and from 1873 till 1888 he was chief 

 justice of the Maryland Supreme Court. He was a 

 founder of the Maryland Historical Society, a trustee 

 of the Peabody Institute and of Johns Hopkins 

 University, a regent of the Maryland State University, 

 and a visitor at St. John's College. He was also one 

 of three compilers of the first '' Digest of the Decisions 

 of the Court of Appeals." 



Brown, James Muncaster, banker, born in Baltimore, 

 Md., Dec. 8, 1820 ; died in Manchester, Vt., July 19, 

 1890. He was educated in his native city, entered 

 the banking house of Alexander Brown & Son, the 

 Baltimore branch of the New York firm of Brown 

 Brothers & Co., in 1834, removed to New York city 

 and entered the main office in 1844, and became a 

 member of the firm in 1860. He was a cousin of 

 James Brown, who founded the firm in 1826. After 

 settling in New York city he began to take an active 

 interest in its religious, benevolent, and charitable in- 

 stitutions; and at the time of his death he was presi- 

 dent of the New York Hospital, the Bloomingdale 

 Asylum, and the American Society for the Prevention 

 of Cruelty to Animals, an ex-president of the Cham- 

 ber of Commerce, and a liberal supporter of the Sail- 

 ors' Snug Harbor, the Chambers Street Hospital, and 

 the Protestant Episcopal Church. He bequeathed 

 $5,000 each to the American Bible Society, the Amer- 

 ican Tract Society, the Society of St. Johnland, and 

 -St. Luke's Hospital, and $2,500 each to the Foreign 

 Committee of the Board of Missions of the Protestant 

 Episcopal Church and the Children's Aid Society. 



Bucknell, William, philanthropist, born in Delaware 

 ounty, Pa., April 1, 1811 ; died in Philadelphia, Pa., 

 March' 5, 1890. He was self-educated, and for many 

 years was successfully engaged in erecting gas and 

 water-work plants for cities and railroad corporations. 

 From the time he began acquiring wealth he made it 

 a rule to give at least one tenth of his income annual- 

 ly to religious and educational enterprises. He was a 

 strong adherent of the Baptist Church and made its 

 institutions the objects or his special benefactions. 

 He endowed the old University of Lewisburg, Pa., 

 with $268,000, and its name was changed to Bucknell 

 University. He contributed largely to the erection of 

 the Baptist Publication House in Philadelphia, estab- 

 lished the Baptist Rangoon Mission in India, and for 

 many years supported ten missionaries in that coun- 

 try, presented more than 200 libraries that cost him 

 $52,000 to as many churches and mission stations, 

 gave $50,000 and otherwise aided in extinguishing 

 nearly $200,000 of church debts in 1882, and was a 

 promoter of the Baptist Education Society. His bene- 

 factions are believed to have aggregated'$l,120,000. 



Buerger, Ernst M,, clergyman, born in Arnsfeld, 

 Germany, about 1805 ; dietl in Buffalo, N. Y., March 

 22, 1890. He was graduated at the University of 

 Leipsic in 1829, entered the Lutheran ministry soon 

 afterward, and removed to New Orleans with his en- 

 tire congregation in December, 1838, the year in 

 which about 800 Lutherans left their native country 

 tor the United States. With many of his Saxon co- 

 religionists, he settled in Perry County, Mo., and 

 after losing his wife and two of his children by death, 

 he removed to Buffalo in 1841, and was elected pastor- 

 of a Lutheran congregation there which had emigrated 

 from Prussia. His labors resulted in the incorpora- , 

 tion of the First Evangelical Lutheran Trinity con- 

 gregation in 1844, which has since acquired a hanrl- 

 Bome church edifice and a commodious school house. 

 He resigned this pastorate in 1851, and accepted one 



in West Seneca, where he remained till 1855 ; then 

 had charge of the Evangelical Lutheran Trinity 

 Church in Washington till 1870 and from 1870 till 

 1888 held pastorates in Hart and Rushford, Minn, re- 

 moving to Buffalo in the latter year. He was one of 

 the most distinguished men in the history of the Ger- 

 man Evangelical Church in America, not only as a 

 pioneer, but as a speaker, theological writer, hymn- 

 ologist, and poet. In 1879 the Lutherans of Missouri, 

 Wisconsin, Minnesota, and New York celebrated the 

 semi-centennial of his entering the ministry. 



Bunce, Oliver Bell, author, born in New York city, 

 Feb. 8, 1828; died there, May 15, 1890. He came of 

 good English stock on both sides. He did not have 

 the advantage of a university education, but his liter- 

 ary aptitudes showed themselves at an early age in a 

 great passion for books and hi contributions to news- 



papers. Compelled by family circumstances to enter 

 business when very young, h'e became a clerk in the 

 stationery house of Jansen & Bell, the latter of the 

 two partners being his uncle. Here he remained till 

 after his twentieth year, but in the mean time his 

 talent had shown itself in the form of dramatic com- 

 position, and two of his plays were accepted and pro- 

 duced on the stage with a considerable degree of suc- 

 cess. These were " Fate, or the Prophecy," a tragedy 

 in blank verse, played by James W. Wallack ; and 

 ''Love in '76," a comedy produced by Miss Laura 

 Keene, with herself in the leading woman role. An- 

 other play, an heroic tragedy, u Marco Bozzaris," 

 was shortly afterward accepted and acted by James 

 W. Wallack. Mr. Bunce now turned his attention to 

 authorship in a series of historic and legendary 

 sketches, collected in book form as " The Romance 

 of the Revolution," in which the leading episodes of 

 the colonial struggle for independence were depicted. 

 He became the principal member of the book-pub- 

 lishing firm of Bunce & Brother at the age of twenty- 

 six, and acted as editor as well as publisher of Mrs. 

 Ann S. Stephens's " Monthly," which in its time had 

 considerable vogue. Mrs. Stephens's novel " Fashion 

 and Famine," published by this firm, had one of the 

 great successes of its time among current novels. Aft- 

 er several years of struggle to do business on insuffi- 

 cient capital the firm was abandoned, and Mr. Bunce 

 became manager of the publishing house of James G. 

 Gregory, which he conducted very successfully for 

 the estate for a number of years after the death of the 



Srincipal. It was mainly through his instigation 

 fiat the fine edition of Cooper's novels, illustrated in 

 steel and wood by F. O. C. Darley, was planned and 

 published. Mr. Bunce about this time became the 

 pioneer in a kind of fine-art publishing now so widely 

 practiced, beautifully illustrated poems for holiday 

 sale and brought out " In the Woods with Bryant, 

 Longfellow, and Halleck," illustrated by John A. 

 Hows. This work was almost the first of its class. 



