OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (HULL KEEGAN.) 



651 



Hull, Joseph Bartine, naval officer, born in Westches- 

 ter, N. Y., April 26, 1802 : died in Philadelphia, Pa.. 

 Jan. 17, 1890. He studied in Cheshire Academy, and 

 was appointed a midshipman in the United States 

 navy from Connecticut, Nov. 9, 1813. His first serv- 

 ice was on the frigate " Congress," attached to the 

 fleet commanded by his famous uncle. He was com- 

 missioned a lieutenant, Jan. 3, 1825 ; commander, 

 Sept. 8, 1841 ; captain, Sept. 14, 1855 ; retired, Dec. 21, 

 1861; and promoted commodore, July 16, 1862. Dur- 

 ing his naval career he was engaged in sea service 

 twenty-two years and three months ; on shore or other 

 duty /fifteen years and three months ; and was unem- 

 ployed thirty-eight years and eight months. He 

 commanded the sloop ' Warren " on the Pacific 

 coast in 1845-' 47: the northern district of California 

 for a short period before the close of the Mexican War ; 

 the receiving ship at Philadelphia in 1S50-'51 ; the 

 frigate " St. Lawrence " on the Brazilian station and 

 in the Paraguay expedition in 1857-'59 ; and the 

 "Savannah," of the blockading squadron off the 

 coast of South Carolina in 1861. After his retirement, 

 he was on special duty, superintending the building 

 of gunboats on Mississippi river, in 1862-'64; com- 

 manded the navy yard at Philadelphia in 1865 ; was 

 President of the Examining Board in Philadelphia in 

 1866-' 67; and was light-house inspector for the 1st 

 District, with headquarters at Portland, Me., from 

 1869 till 1873, when he wholly retired from duty and 

 made his home in Philadelphia. 



Jameson, John A,, lawyer, born in Vermont, in 1824 ; 

 died in Hyde Park, 111., June 16, 1890. He was 

 graduated at the University of Vermont in 1846 ; re- 

 moved to Chicago, 111. ; served two terms as circuit 

 j udge of Cook County ; and was Professor of Consti- 

 tutional Law, Equity, and Jurisprudence in the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago in 1867-' 68. Judge Jameson was 

 also for many years assistant editor of the " American 

 Law Register " and had written legal works. 



Joachimson, Philip J,, lawyer, born in Breslau, Ger- 

 many, in November, 1817'; died in New York city, 

 Jan. 6, 1890. He came to the United States in 1827 ; 

 studied law in New York city, was admitted to the 

 bar, and was appointed assistant corporation attorney 

 in 1840. In 1855 he became assistant United States 

 district attorney, and, under special provision of an 

 act of Congress, substitute United States attorney. 

 For securing the first conviction for smuggling, the 

 first capital conviction for slave trading, and the con- 

 viction of the Nicaragua filibusters, he received, 

 through Attorney-General Caleb Cushing and by 

 direction of President Pierce, the thanks of the Gov- 

 ernment for his successful prosecutions. He resigned 

 at the time of the Kansas-Nebraska troubles, and 

 was engaged in private practice till 1870, when he 

 was elected a judge of the Marine Court of the City of 

 New York, and on the expiration of his term, in De- 

 cember, 1876, resumed practice. At the beginning of 

 the civil war he organized the 59th Regiment, New 

 York Volunteers, went to the front as its lieutenant- 

 colonel, was appointed United States paymaster, and 

 stationed at Fort Monroe and in New Orleans ; and 

 after being discharged from the army was commis- 

 sioned a brevet brigadier-general by Gov. Fenton. 

 He was elected President of the Hebrevy Benevolent 

 Society in 1855, and first President of the Hebrew 

 Orphan Asylum in 1859. 



Johnson, Albert L., inventor, born in New Orleans, 

 La., in 1828 ; died in New York City, Feb. 18, 1890. 

 He lived in his native city till about 1870, and pre- 

 vious to the civil war was a sucessful planter. Losing 

 much of his property, he removed to New York city 

 and applied himself to mechanical study and inven- 

 tions, particularly in the line of street-railroad trac- 

 tion. His most important invention was the automatic 

 switch, now used by nearly every horse-car company 

 in the country, and' operated by one of the horses step- 

 ping upon it. On the expiration of his patent some 

 time asro, many companies began using his invention 

 without compensation, and he had many lawsuits on 

 hand against such companies and others, who he 



claimed had infringed on his patent before its expira- 

 tion. He had received a decision of the courts that his 

 claim for profits and damages was good, and was visit- 

 ing his lawyers when he dropped dead. 



Johnson, William, architect, born in Kingston-on- 

 Hull, England, May 8, 1815 ; died in Brooklyn. N. Y., 

 Sept. 26, 1890. He was educated in his fath'er's busi- 

 ness, that of architect and builder ; removed to New 

 York city early in life: and was engaged for many 

 years in the erection of costly residences, churches, 

 and other buildings, including the brick and marble 

 row on Washington Square, near University Place. 

 Soon alter coming to the United States he became in- 

 terested in the anti-slavery movement, and for a long 

 time his office was known by the friends and objects 

 of the movement as an important "station" on the 

 " underground railroad." His convictions on the slav- 

 ery question led him to withdraw from the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church and connect himself with the Wes- 

 leyan Methodist organization. He had scholarly tastes, 

 and collected a large library of modern and classical 

 works and of early 15th and 16th century books. 

 - Kay, Sidney de, military officer, born at Guttenberg, 

 N. J., March 7, 1845; died in New Brighton, Staten 

 Island, Aug. 30, 1890. His father was George Cole- 

 man de Kay, of New York, a commodore in the navy 

 of the Argentine Republic, and his mother was the 

 only daughter of the poet Joseph Rodman Drake. His 

 family, originally French, came from Haarlem to New 

 Amsterdam in 1630. After residing several years in 

 Europe, he entered Sheffield Scientific School of Yale 

 College shortly before the civil war. Early in 1862 

 he left school, enlisted as a private in the 71st New 

 York Volunteers, and for distinguishing himself on 

 the field was appointed a lieutenant in the 8th Con- 

 necticut Volunteers. Subsequently he served on the 

 staffs of Gens. Butler, Devens, and Terry, and for 

 bravery at the first attack on Fort Fisher and in other 

 battles was brevetted captain and major. He was 

 mustered out of service in December, 1865. In 1867 

 he joined the uprising of the Cretans against Turkey. 

 The last undertaking in which he was there concerned 

 was an attempt to blow up the Turkish flagship "Ib- 

 rahim Pacha," which was on blockading duty off the 

 coast. The vessel had gone off on some temporary 

 duty, leaving her anchors buoyed, to be used again 

 on her return. During her absence De Kay, in a 

 small boat, affixed a torpedo to the anchor chain and 

 returned to shore, paying out wires to connect with 

 an electric battery there. Upon the return of the 

 vessel to her anchorage, De Kay attempted to fire the 

 torpedo, but for some reason the wires refused to work 

 and the attempt ended in failure. The torpedo was 

 discovered by the Turks, and the warning they thus 

 received induced them to remove the ship and raise 

 the blockade from the north shore of the island. Soon 

 after this Major De Kay was seriously wounded in the 

 shoulder by a musket ball. In an attempt to reach 

 the mainland, where proper surgical aid could be had, 

 he was in a small boat, with scant food and water, for 

 ten days. On his return to the United States he 

 studied' law, was admitted to the bar. held an appoint- 

 ment on the staff of Gov. John A. Dix, and became a 

 United States district attorney. 



Zeegan, William, clergyman, born in King's County, 

 Ireland, April 22, 1824; died in Brooklyn, N. Y., 

 May 10, 1890. He accompanied his parents to the 

 United States in 1842 ; was graduated at St. John's 

 College, Fordham, N. Y., in 1853 ; was ordained a 

 Roman Catholic priest in October of the same year, 

 and was appointed assistant to the Rev. David W. 

 Bacon in the Church of the Assumption, Brooklyn. 

 In 1855, on the consecration of Father Bacon as first 

 Bishop of the Diocese of Portland, Me., Father Keegan 

 succeeded him as rector of the Brooklyn church, and 

 in 1880 he was appointed vicar-general of the diocese 

 of Long Island and a member of Bishop Loughlin's 

 council. He also was chaplain of the St. Patrick's 

 Society for many years. An unusual evidence of the 

 esteem in which he was held was the placing at half- 

 mast of flags on the public buildings in Brooklyn. 



