548 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (BRIMMER BUNNER.) 



in the United State?, in 1839, Morse became deeply 

 interested in the discovery and induced Mr. Brady 

 first to investigate, and then to adopt the new method 

 of portraiture. Mr. Brady soon abandoned portrait 

 painting wholly, opened a small gallery, and began 

 making daguerreotypes, seeking his early sitters 

 among the best-known men and women of the city. 

 His success was encouraging from the start, people 

 willingly paying him from $3 to $5 each for por- 

 traits. In 1851 he took a collection of his daguerre- 

 otypes to the London Inhibition, where he took the 

 first prize, and afterward he made a tour of the art 



falleries of Europe. About 1855 he discarded the 

 aguerreotype and began to make photographs. At 

 the beginning of the civil war Mr. Brady estab- 

 lished a gallery in Washington, I). C., and per- 

 fected an elaborate plan for securing photographs 

 of the principal scenes and actors in the struggle ; 

 and by the close of the war he had a collection of 

 plates that had cost him over $100,000 and com- 

 prised historical points, battle scenes, and portraits 

 of military, naval, and other public men. After 

 the war several ineffectual attempts were made to 

 induce Congress to purchase the collection, which 

 Mr. Brady had kept intact. The War Department 

 bought a considerable number, and Mr. Brady either 

 gave away or sold privately the remainder. Several 

 years ago he lost most of his property, became nearly 

 blind, and was incapacitated by an accident. 

 ' Brimmer, Martin, philanthropist, born in Bos- 

 ton, Mass., Dec. 9. 1829: died there Jan. 14, 1896. 

 He was graduated at Harvard in 1849 ; spent several 

 years in foreign travel ; and on his return read law 

 and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced. 

 His business life was almost wholly occupied with 

 the care of a large estate left by his father, from 

 whom he inherited the oldest building on Washing- 

 ton Street, the Old Corner Bookstore, at the corner 

 of School Street. He was a member of the Massa- 

 chusetts House of Representatives in 1859-'61 ; a 

 State Senator in 1864 ; and a presidential elector in 

 1876. As President of the Boston Museum of Fine 

 Arts and a member of the board created by statute 

 to pass on the artistic suitability of public monu- 

 ments to be erected hereafter in the city, he became 

 distinguished as a connoisseur. He spent much 

 time and money in archaeological researches, was 

 author of a work on " Egyptian Archaeology," and 

 had gathered an extensive collection of paintings 

 and works of art. He bequeathed to the Boston 

 Museum of Fine Arts, after the death of his wife, 

 half of his interest in the Old Corner Bookstore 

 property ; the Massachusetts General Hospital, $25,- 

 000 ; Harvard College, $50,000 ; Boston Children's 

 Aid Society, $10,000; and the Museum of Fine 

 Arts, the surplus of the half interest in the Book- 

 store property placed in trust for his wife. 



Bristow, Benjamin Helm, lawyer, born in Elk- 

 tou, Ky., June 20, 1832 ; died in New York city, June 

 22. 1896. He was graduated at Jefferson College, 

 Pennsylvania, in 1851 ; was admitted to the bar of 

 Kentucky in 1853 ; practiced with his father at Elk- 

 ton till J857 ; and then removed to Hopkinsville. 

 At the beginning of the civil war he aided in rais- 

 ing the 25th Kentucky Regiment of National troops, 

 which he accompanied to the field as lieutenant 

 colonel. He took part in the capture of Fort 

 Donelson ; was wounded at Shiloh : and, returning 

 home, helped to raise the 8th Kentucky Cavalry, of 

 which he was commissioned lieutenant colonel and 

 soon afterward colonel. In 1863, while in the field 

 and without his knowledge, he was elected to the 

 Kentucky Senate, and, resigning his commission in 

 the army, served in that body for two years. He 

 then resumed law practice in Louisville. In 1865 

 he was appointed United States district attorney for 

 Kentucky, and during his five-years' tenure of that 



office he gained a thorough familiarity with the 

 operations of the whisky producers in that State. 

 After vacating this office he formed a partnership 

 with John M. Harlan, now a justice of the United 

 States Supreme Court; but within a few months lie 

 was appointed Solicitor-General of the United 

 States. He resigned this office in 1872 ; was attor- 

 ney of the Texas- Pacific Railroad for a short time, 

 and then resumed practice in Louisville. In 1873 

 he was nominated by President Grant for Attorney- 

 General of the United States, when the President 

 desired that Attorney-General Williams should suc- 

 ceed the late Chief-Justice Chase : but neither nom- 

 ination was confirmed. In June, 1874, the Presi- 

 dent appointed him Secretary of the Treasury, and 

 during the ensuing two years he was actively em- 

 ployed in disclosing and prosecuting the great 

 Western whisky combination, which had its head- 

 quarters in St. Louis. This prosecution was made 

 memorable because of the large number of persons 

 high in office or influence connected with the com- 

 bination, and because of President Grant's official 

 injunction, " Let no guilty man escape." Secretary 

 Bristow held the office for two years. His fearless 

 asMiiilts on the whisky ring gave him a wide reputa- 

 tion as a reformer, and he received 113 votes on the 

 first ballot for the presidential nomination at the 

 Republican National Convention in Cincinnati in 

 1876. The same year he removed to New York city 

 to practice. Mr. Bristow became general counsel 

 of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Rail- 

 road ; President of the American Bar Association ; 

 Vice-President of the Bar Association of New York 

 city ; a founder of the Society of the Army of the 

 Cumberland; and counsel for the Westinghouse 

 Electric Company in its many patent suits. 



Bromley, Henry, missionary, born in Norwich, 

 Conn., Dec. 5, 1812 : died in New York city, April 

 20, 1896. He was graduated at Madison (now Col- 

 gate) University in 1838; was ordained pastor of 

 the Spring Hill Baptist Church, in Mansfield, Conn., 

 soon afterward ; and, after a pastorate of six years, 

 was sent to Wisconsin by the Baptist Home' Mis- 

 sionary Society. In 1847 he returned to Connecticut, 

 in 1849 made a tour as a revivalist, and in 1851 vis- 

 ited Baptist churches throughout the State in be- 

 half of the Literary Institute, in Suffolk. On the 

 establishment of the Long Island Baptist Mission, 

 in 1852, he was appointed to preach and organize 

 mission stations in the central part of the island. 

 He then founded the Colgate Mission in New York 

 city ; put the struggling Hamilton Avenue Mission 

 in Brooklyn in a self-sustaining position; established 

 a mission in the Gowanus district, which became 

 the Greenwood Baptist Church and from which two 

 churches and two flourishing missions have sprung; 

 and founded missions at Fourth Avenue and Thirty- 

 fifth Street and at, Windsor Terrace, New York. In 

 1857-'60 he founded three missions in New York 

 city, two of which became churches, and the other 

 the Howard Mission for Little Wanderers. Between 

 1861 and 1881 he labored with corresponding suc- 

 cess in Jersey City, Orange, Montclair, Dover Plains, 

 and elsewhere in New Jersey and in New York and 

 Brooklyn, and in Philadelphia. In late years he 

 was assistant pastor of the Greenwood Church. 



Bnnner, Henry Cnyler, editor, born in Oswe- 

 go, N. Y., Aug. 3, 1855 ; died in Nutley. N. J., May 

 11, 1896. He received a public-school education in 

 New York city, and took a clerkship in a commer- 

 cial importing house. This occupation proved dis- 

 tasteful, and about 1873 he began writing for news- 

 papers and became a member of the editorial staff 

 of " The Arcadian." In 1877 the first number of 

 the English edition of " Puck" was issued, with Mr. 

 Banner as assistant editor. Soon afterward he be- 

 came editor, and he held the place till his death. 





