698 



OBITUARIES, UNITED STATES. 



his professional studies in Europe. In 1860, he- 

 was appointed professor of hygiene and phys- 

 ical education in Amherst College, which 

 position lie was compelled by ill health to 

 resign. 



Jan. 27. ABERT, Col. Jonu J., late chief 

 of the U. S. corps of engineers, died at Wash- 

 ington, D. C., aged about 73 years. He en- 

 tered as a cadet of the Military Academy, in 

 1808, only six years after its first establishment 

 by law. Leaving the academy in 1811, he was 

 from then until November, 1814, employed in 

 the War Office. While thus engaged, he volun- 

 teered as a private soldier for the defence of 

 the capital, and his services on that occasion 

 were acknowledged by conferring upon him a 

 land warrant under the existing laws. He was 

 appointed topographical engineer, with the 

 rank of major, November 22d, 1814. At that 

 time there was no organized corps of those 

 officers, but they formed a part of the general 

 staff, and served with generals in the field. Af- 

 ter the close of the war they were employed in 

 surveys of the seacoast and inland frontiers, , 

 reporting to the chief of engineers, and the 

 results of their labors were collected in a topo- 

 graphical bureau, established in the War De- 

 partment, May 5th, 1820, as a part of the engi- 

 neer department, under the charge of Major 

 Roberdeau. On the reorganization of the army, 

 in 1816, Major Abert was retained. In 1824, 

 he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for ten 

 years' faithful service in one grade ; and at the 

 death of Col. Roberdeau, February 12th, 1829, 

 ho was appointed to the charge of the Topo- 

 graphical Bureau. As the duties of his bureau 

 increased in magnitude and importance, Col. 

 Abert exerted himself to cause it to be made a 

 distinct branch of the War Department, which 

 he effected June 22d, 1821. At this time his 

 corps consisted of six majors and four captains 

 by brevet, and six civil engineers; besides 

 which some twenty subalterns of the line of 

 the army were detailed on topograhical duty 

 under his orders. At length, by act of Con- 

 gress, approved July 7th, 1838, the present corps 

 of topographical engineers was organized, and 

 created one of the staff corps of the army, with 

 the officer, to whose fostering care and judicious 

 management it mainly owed its existence, for 

 its colonel and chief. Col. Abert was, in fact, 

 at the head of his corps for upward of thirty- 

 two years, until he was honorably discharged 

 from active duty the llth of September, 1861, 

 having become incapacitated by long and faith- 

 ful service from further attendance at his office. 

 As a citizen and a man, Col. Abert was re- 

 markable for the steadiness of his friendship, 

 for his candor and unostentatious hospitality. 

 Equally unostentatious, but no less sincere, 

 was the simple piety which supported his de- 

 clining years, and left behind an example which 

 the proudest soldier may not bo ashamed to 

 follow. 



Jan. 27. ROBINSON, EDWABP, D.D., LL.D. 

 (See ROBINSON.) 



Jan. 29. TEBBETS, Rev. THEODORE, died in 

 New York city, aged 31 years. He was born 

 in Parsonsfield, Me., graduated at Harvard Col- 

 lege in 1851, after which he spent several 

 months in the Divinity School at Cambridge. 

 From March, 1852, to July, 1853, he was teacher 

 of the Ancient Languages in Exeter Academy. 

 In 1855 he entered the ministry, but after 

 preaching two Sabbaths, was attacked with ty- 

 phoid fever, from which he did not fully recover 

 for a year. Pulmonary symptoms soon mode 

 their appearance, and he was obliged to resort 

 for a time to a southern climate ; recovering 

 in a measure, he resumed preaching, but was 

 again prostrated, and obliged to quit the min- 

 istry altogether. His printed works were : sev- 

 eral articles in the " Monthly Religious Maga- 

 zine ; " also a sermon in the same mngazin 

 for May, 1858, on " The Revival ; " " A Memoi 

 of the late Judge Tebbets of New Hampshire ; 

 and " A Memoir of William Gibbons." 



Jan. . DUDLEY, Mrs. BLANDINA, died 

 her residence in Albany, aged 80 years. Shi 

 was the widow of the Hon. Charles E. Dudley, 

 and daughter of Rutgers Bleecker, one of the 

 most eminent of the Dutch families of that city. 

 She was a lady of high social qualities and 

 truly womanly virtues. In her later years she 

 has been profuse in the expenditure of her 

 great wealth upon religious, scientific, and be- 

 nevolent objects. She contributed over $100,- 

 000 toward the founding of the Dudley Ob- 

 servatory. 



Jan. 31. SIBLET, Major GEORGE CHAMPLAIN, 

 an officer in the U. S. regular service, died at 

 his country seat in Elma, St. Charles county, 

 Missouri, aged nearly eighty-one years. He was 

 born in Great Barrington, Berkshire county, 

 Mass., and was a son of Dr. John Sibley, a sur- 

 geon in the Revolutionary war, and grandson, 

 on the maternal side, of Dr. Samuel Hopkins, 

 of Newport, Rhode Island. His childhood and 

 youth were spent in North Carolina, from 

 whence he was appointed by President Jeffer- 

 son to an office in the Indian Department, and 

 sent to St. Louis, and subsequently was sent 

 among the Indians as agent and factor. In 

 this capacity he went out with a hundred Osage 

 warriors, and explored the Grand Saline and 

 Salt Mountain, a report of which expedition 

 was published. Soon after he retired from the 

 Indian Department he was appointed one of 

 three commissioners to survey and mark out a 

 road from Missouri to New Mexico an under- 

 taking requiring some treaties with the Indians, 

 which were managed with his usual judgment 

 and tact. He was an ardent friend of African 

 colonization and of the slave, and the day be- 

 fore his death wrote and forwarded an article 

 on slavery to the "Philadelphia Presbyterian." 

 He was a friend and advocate of the Bible cause, 

 having been for many years, and imtil his death, 

 president of the St. Charles County Bible So- 

 ciety of Missouri. He was one of the trustees 

 of the "Lindenwood College," and donated the 

 tract of land upon which it is erected, amount- 



