OBITUARIES, UNITED STATES. 



505 



tic steamships ; and upon his death, in 1865, 

 his son Edward succeeded to his title. 



April 7. NESBITT, GEORGE F., .an eminent 

 printer, as well as a publisher, and author; died 

 in New York, aged 61 years. For upward of 

 forty years he had been engaged in the business 

 of printing, engraving, and lithographing, by 

 which he acquired a handsome fortune. He was 

 an honorary member of the Typographical So- 

 ciety, for the interests of which he manifested 

 an earnest sympathy. He had been for some 

 years, also, a publisher of ocasional pamphlets 

 and books, as well as of the Printer, a journal 

 devoted to the interests of the printing profes- 

 sion. He edited this periodical, and occasion- 

 ally contributed to the press other essays and 

 treatises, all marked by great ability, clearness, 

 and precision of thought. Under the new 

 laws for the reduction of postage, twelve or 

 fifteen years since, he furnished for several 

 years the postage-stamps and stamped envelopes 

 to the Post-Office Department. 



April 8. NICHOLS, G-eneral WILLIAM A., U. 

 S. A., adjutant-general Military Department of 

 the Missouri ; died at St. Louis, Mo., aged about 

 51 years. He was a native of Pennsylvania, 

 from which State he was appointed to the 

 Military Academy at West Point, in 1834; 

 graduated in 1838, as brevet second lieutenant 

 in the Second Artillery, and was appointed 

 assistant commissary of subsistence in Novem- 

 ber following. In 1844, he was promoted to be 

 first lieutenant. During the Mexican War he . 

 served with distinction, first as an aide-de-camp 

 on the staff of General Quitman, and after- 

 ward as acting assistant adjutant-general on 

 that of General Garland. He participated in 

 the battle of Monterey, September 23, 1846, 

 and was brevetted captain for gallant and meri- 

 torious conduct in that action. In the battle of 

 Churubusco, he also distinguished himself, and 

 was brevetted major for gallantry at Molino del 

 Rey. He was appointed assistant adjutant-gen- 

 eral, with the rank of captain, July 29, 1852. He 

 received the rank of lieutenant-colonel, August 

 3, 1861, and served throughout the War for the 

 Union in the Adjutant-General's Department, 

 being promoted to be colonel, June 1, 1864, 

 and brevetted brigadier-general, September 24, 

 1864. The additional distinction of major- 

 general by brevet was bestowed upon him 

 March 13, 1865. Attached to the army head- 

 quarters throughout the late war, his services, 

 though important, were not of a character 

 to enable him to gain much popular distinc- 

 tion, and, as he sought no volunteer command, 

 but was content with the military duties of the 

 staff of the army, his fame never kept pace 

 with his rank. 



April 12. BREED, Rev. WILLIAM JAMES, a 

 Oongregationalist clergyman, for some years 

 financial agent of Yale College ; died at West 

 Taunton, Mass., aged 60 years. He was born 

 in Lynn, Mass., June 10, 1809 ; graduated at 

 Yale College in the class of 1831, and at An- 

 dover Theological Seminary in 1834. He was 



ordained June 10, 1835, over the Congrega- 

 tional Church in Nantucket, Mass., where he 

 remained until 1839, when the state of his 

 health led him to resign, and he undertook 

 for a year the agency for the American 

 Board of Commissioners of Foreign Mis- 

 sions in the Western States. From December 9, 

 1841, to November 5, 1845, he was pastor of the 

 Congregational Church in Bucksport, Me. After 

 a brief ministry to the First Congregational 

 Church in Cincinnati, he was installed in 1846 

 as pastor of the High Street Congregational 

 Church, Providence, R. I., where he continued 

 until May, 1852. From 1853 to 1858, Mr. 

 Breed was Financial Agent of Yale College, 

 and for the next five years pastor at Southboro', 

 Mass. For nearly all the remainder of his life 

 he was acting pastor of the Congregational 

 Church in Raynham, Mass. 



April 12. JOHNSON, BENJAMIN P., a distin- 

 guished agriculturist and agricultural writer; 

 died in Albany, N. Y., in the 76th year of his 

 age. He was born in Canaan, Columbia Coun- 

 ty, N. Y., November 30, 1793, graduated at 

 Union College, in 1813, studied law at Hudson, 

 N. Y., and practised at Rome, N. Y., for many 

 years. He was a member of the New York 

 Assembly from 1827-'30, President of the State 

 Agricultural Society in 1845, and Correspond- 

 ing Secretary of the same from 1847 to 1869. 

 He was a Commissioner to the International 

 Exhibition at London, in 1851 and 1862, and 

 through life was actively interested in the pro- 

 motion of agriculture. He had written, besides 

 his very able reports, many excellent essays 

 and papers on agricultural subjects. 



April 13. AIKEN, Rev. SILAS, D. D., a Con- 

 regationalist clergyman of marked ability; 

 ied at Rutland, Vt., aged 70 years. He 

 was a graduate of Dartmouth College in the 

 class of 1825 ; a tutor in the same college" from 

 1825 to 1828; was ordained and settled at 

 Amherst, N. H., in 1829, and remained there 

 until 1836, when he was called to the pastorate 

 of the Park Street Church, Boston, in which 

 he continued till 1849, when he accepted a 

 call from the First Congregational Church in 

 Rutland, Vt., and remained in charge of that 

 church till 1866, when, from failing health, he 

 resigned, but continued to reside in Rutland 

 till his death. In 1852 the University of Ver- 

 mont conferred upon him the honorary degree 

 of D. D. He published several occasional ser- 

 mons and addresses, but, we believe, no work 

 of considerable magnitude. 



April 14. CLARK, Rev. ICHABOD, D. D., a 

 Baptist clergyman of great energy and execu- 

 tive talent; died in Lockport, Illinois, aged 

 about 65 years. He commenced his ministry 

 in the State of New York, where he was a pas- 

 tor for nearly twenty years in the important 

 towns of Lockport, Batavia, Le Roy, Brock- 

 port, etc., in the western part of the State; 

 but, about 1850, removed to Illinois, where he 

 was pastor at Galena, Rockford (for eleven 

 years), and Springfield, and was for two years 



g 

 di 



