668 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (STOKES THORNBURGH.) 



Stokes, James Hughes, military officer, born in Balti- 

 more, Md., in 1814; died in New York city, Dec. 27, 

 1890. He was graduated at the United States Military 

 Academy in 1835 ; served in the Seminole War in 

 Florida, and after its close resigned his commission. 

 From 1845 till 1858 he was engaged in manufacturing 

 and in railroad business. At the beginning of the 

 civil war he volunteered his services to the Governor 

 of Illinois ; received a captain's commission, served a 

 year in Tennessee, was then appointed an assistant 

 adjutant-general, and on July '20, 1865, was promoted 

 brigadier -general. After the war he was engaged in 

 business in Chicago till 1880, and then in New York. 



Strawbridge, James D,, physician, born in Montour 

 County, Pa., in 1824; died in Danville, Pa., July 19, 

 1890. He received an academic education, was grad- 

 uated at Princeton in 1844, and in medicine at the 

 University of Pennsylvania in 1847, and settled in 

 Danville. At the beginning of the civil war he en- 

 tered the national army as brigade surgeon of volun- 

 teers. He was captured while acting as medical 

 director of the 18th Army Corps before Richmond, 

 and was confined for three months in Libby Prison. 

 He served till the close of the war, and then resumed 

 practice in Danville till 1872, when he was elected to 

 Congress as a Eepublican from the 13th Pennsylvania 

 District. He served as a member of the committees on 

 invalid pensions and on reform in the civil service. 



Stuart, George Hay, philanthropist, born in Rose 

 Hill, County Down, Ireland, April 2, 1816: died in 

 Philadelphia, Pa., April 11, 1890. He was educated 

 at Ban bridge, Ireland, removed to Philadelphia in 

 1831, engaged in business there, and became President 

 of the Mechanics' National Bank, and, in 1880, of the 

 Merchants' National Bank, which was organized for 

 him, and from which he retired in May, 1888. In 

 1842 he was ordained a ruling elder in the First Re- 

 formed Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, which 

 was built principally through his munificence, arid of 

 whose Sunday-school he was superintendent for more 

 than twenty-five years. For many years he was 

 Treasurer of the Theological Seminary of the Re- 

 formed Presbyterian Church, and of the Board of 

 Foreign Missions of that denomination. He was the 

 first President of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 

 tion of Philadelphia, president of three international 

 conventions of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 

 tion, president of the Philadelphia ' branch . of the 

 United States Evangelical Alliance, President of the 

 United States Christian Commission during the civil 

 war, and President of the Presbyterian National Con- 

 vention in Philadelphia in 1867, at which the two 

 " schools " of the Church were united. He established 

 the Missionary Refuge at Landour, northern India, 

 and was a liberal promoter of the Saharunpur Mis- 

 sion. He was also chairman of the first executive com- 

 mittee of the Board of Indian Commissioners ap- 

 pointed by President Grant, vice-president and 

 manager of the American Sunday-School Union, and 

 an active official in the American Bible and the 

 American Tract Societies. In 1868 he was suspended 

 from his office of ruling elder by the synod of his 

 denomination for participating in the devotions of 

 other evangelical Christians, but half of the presby- 

 teries refused to approve the act. 



Sturtevant, Benjamin Franklin, inventor, born in 

 Norridgewock, Me., Jan. 18, 1838; died in Boston, 

 Mass., April 17, 1890. His inventions include the 

 blowers and exhausting fans that bear his name, a 

 shoe-pegging machine, the machinery for manufactur- 

 ing ribbon peg- wood, the first machine to make 

 wooden tooth-picks, and a projectile that was used 

 with effect in the siege of Charleston, S. C., during 

 the civil war. He was the Prohibition candidate for 

 Lieutenant- Govern or of Massachusetts in 1889. Mr. 

 Sturtevant gave to philanthropic enterprises an ag- 

 gregate of $250,000, built and presented Sturtevant 

 Hall to Newton Theological Institute, of which he 

 was a trustee, and aided liberally Vermont Academy 

 and Colby University, of both of which he was also 

 a trustee. 



Taulbee, William Preston, lawyer, born in Morgan 

 County, Ky., Oct. 22, 1851 ; died in Washington, 

 D. C., March 11, 1890. He studied for the ministry 

 in 1875-'78, and for the law in 1878-'81 ; was elected 

 clerk of the Magoffin County Court in 1878 and 1882 : 

 and was admitted to the bar in 1881. In 1884 and 

 1886 he was elected to Congress from the 10th Ken- 

 tucky District as a Democrat. While in Congress he 

 served as chairman of the committee on real-estate 

 purchases by district commissioners, and as member 

 of the committees on invalid pensions, alcoholic 

 liquor traffic, claims, and Territories. He declined a 

 second renomination for Congress, and engaged in the 

 real-estate business in Washington. Two weeks be- 

 fore his death he was shot in the Capitol building by 

 Charles E. Kincaid, Washington correspondent of the 

 "Louisville Times." 



Taylor, John Orville, educator, born in Charlton, 

 Saratoga County, N. Y., in 1808 ; died in New Bruns- 

 wick, N. J., Jan. 18, 1890. He was graduated at 

 Union College, and, after studying theology a short 

 time in Princeton Seminary, settled in Philadelphia, 

 and began teaching and writing and lecturing in the 

 cause of educational reform. His first publication, 

 " The Public School : or Popular Education" (1835) 

 attracted wide attention in the United States and 

 Great Britain. In 1837 he induced the Legislature of 

 New York to pass an act for the establishment of 

 public-school and district libraries ; and in 1838, on 

 the invitation of Congress, he lectured in the Hall 

 of Representatives on the need for educational re- 

 form. He wrote and lectured on his favorite topic for 

 fifteen years, was for some years Professor of Popu- 

 lar Education in the University of the City of New 

 York, and, after engaging unsuccessfully in mer- 

 cantile business, retired to New Brunswick, N. J., in 

 1879, and spent the remainder of his life in literary 

 work. He conducted for many years " The Common 



County, Md.,Sept. 12, 1810; cfied in Baltimore, Md., 

 Oct. 2, 1890. He was educated at Dickinson College, 

 studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1831, and 

 began his political career in 1836, when he was elect- 

 ed to the State Constitutional Convention. In 1838 

 he was elected to the Legislature; in 1839-' 41 was a 

 Representative in Congress ; subsequently was iudge 

 of the Land Office Court of the Eastern Shore of 

 Maryland ; in 1843 and 1845 was elected to the State 

 House of Delegates ; and in 1847 was elected Govern- 

 or of the State. At the close of his three years' term 

 he was_ elected first Comptroller of the State Treasury. 

 Early in 1860 ho was appointed Commissioner of the 

 United States Patent Office, and on the resignation of 

 Howell Cobb as Secretary ot the Treasury in Decem- 

 ber following, the President induced him to accept 

 that office. He resigned it in January, 1861. In 

 1866 he was again elected to the Legislature, and by 

 it was chosenllnited States Senator, but was exclud- 

 ed from the seat on the ground of disloyalty. 



Thompson, John, lawyer, born in Rhinebe'ck, N. Y., 

 July 4, 1809 ; disd in New Hamburg, N. Y., June 1, 

 1890. He was educated in Union and Yale Colleges, 

 was admitted to the bar in 1830, and practiced in his 

 native county till within a few years of his death. 

 In 1856 he consented to the use of his name as can- 

 didate for Congress, and on his election he was ap- 

 pointed a member of the Committee on Roads and 

 Canals, and was active in the legislation concerning 

 the admission of Kansas and Nebraska into the Union. 



Thornburgh, Jacob M,, lawyer, born in Newmarket, 

 Tenn., July 3, 1837 : died in Knoxville, Tenn., Sept. 

 19, 1890. He was educated at Holston College, New- 

 market, was admitted to the bar in 1861, entered the 

 national army as a private in May, 1862, became 

 colonel of the 4th Tennessee Cavalry in June, 1863, 

 and served with Generals Morgan, Rosecrans, Sher- 

 man, Thomas, and Ca_nby till the close of the war. 

 He then resumed practice in Jefferson County, Tenn., 

 and in 1867 removed to Knoxville. Soon afterward 



