OBITUARIES, UNITED STATES. 



509 



May 12. SHERWOOD, LORENZO, an eminent 

 political leader, editor, and railway manager, 

 of New York and Texas ; died in Brooklyn, 

 N. Y., aged 59 years. He was born in Hoo- 

 sick, Rensselaer County, N. Y., graduated at 

 Burlington, Vt., and was principal of the 

 academy there while pursuing his law studies. 

 Removing to Madison County, N. Y., he was 

 for a while editor of a paper at Hamilton, and 

 subsequently for several years partner of Gen- 

 eral (now United States Senator) Nye. In 1843 

 he was a member of the New York Legisla- 

 ture, and aided materially in preparing the 

 way for the constitutional reforms introduced 

 in the Convention of 1846. In 1849 he settled 

 in Galveston, Texas, and a few years later was 

 elected to the Texas Legislature, where his in- 

 dependence and freedom of speech drew down 

 upon him the wrath of the supporters of 

 slavery. His life threatened, and his expulsion 

 from the State urged solely on account of his 

 Union sentiments and his opposition to slavery, 

 he withdrew from all connection with politics, 

 and turned his attention to railroads and other 

 public improvements ; and with such success, 

 that he became the leading railway authority 

 in that region. During the war he was at the 

 North, and, true to his convictions, labored 

 earnestly with pen and voice in sustaining the 

 Union cause. Since the close of the war he 

 had been occupied in promoting the reduction 

 of railway freights, through the organization 

 and publications of the "National Cheap- 

 Freight Railway League," of which he was 

 president. 



May 13. PHELPS, JOHN JAY, an enterprising 

 and public-spirited citizen of New York ; died 

 there, in the 59th year of his age. He was 

 born in Simsbury, Conn., in 1810, and at the age 

 of thirteen went to Hartford, Conn., as an ap- 

 prentice to the printing business. Seven years 

 later, he, in partnership with George D. Pren- 

 tice, who has since become famous as a wit, 

 started a paper in Hartford, and met with very 

 encouraging success. Leaving his newspaper, 

 he began the manufacture of glass in Susque- 

 hanna, Pa., and afterward entered the dry- 

 goods trade, by which he realized his fortune. 

 At the age of forty he retired from busi- 

 ness, and subsequently devoted himself entire- 

 ly to public enterprises. He .was the founder 

 of the Lackawanna and Western Railway, 

 which brought Pennsylvania coal to the New 

 York market, and acted as its president, with- 

 out salary, until it was completed and a suc- 

 cess. He was the first man in this city that 

 used freestone as a building-material. He was 

 director of the Erie Railway until it was com- 

 pleted, and received the thanks of the Common 

 Council for his services in that great enter- 

 prise. He was at various times a director in 

 the Manhattan Gaslight Company, the Camden 

 and Amboy Railroad, the Mercantile, City, and 

 Second National Banks, and the Bleecker- 

 street Savings-bank. He was also a prominent 

 member of the Citizens' Association. 



May 15. LORD, RUFUS L., a wealthy and 

 patriotic banker of New York City, died there, 

 aged 83 years. Mr. Lord possessed real and 

 personal property of the value of about 

 $5,000,000. He was very liberal during the 

 war, responding to every call for material aid, 

 and subscribing to or bidding for every public 

 loan of the United States. About a year be- 

 fore his death his office was robbed of about 

 $1,100,000 of bonds and certificates of stock, 

 but he ultimately recovered nearly the whole, 

 though by the payment of heavy rewards. He 

 was a bachelor, and his large estate was divided 

 among his relatives. 



May 17. DIMMOCK, ASA G., an Ohio jour- 

 nalist ; died at Montrose, Pa., in the 56th year 

 of his age. He was born in New Jersey, and, 

 having received a good academical education, 

 commenced his editorial career there while yet 

 in his minority. In 1837 he removed to Ohio, 

 and soon became the editor of the Cadiz Senti- 

 nel. In 1839-'40 he was elected clerk of the 

 Ohio House of Representatives, but resigned be- 

 fore the close of the session. He then removed 

 to Millersburg, where he edited the Holmes 

 County Farmer for a number of years, with 

 great ability, being elected,' during the time, 

 State Senator, and subsequently chosen as 

 warden of the Ohio Penitentiary. He next 

 edited, for a brief period, the Sandusky Daily 

 Mirror, but, this proving unprofitable, he took 

 charge of the Coshocton Democrat, which he 

 edited until compelled by disease to retire from 

 journalistic life. 



May 18. DANA, EDMUND TROWBRIDGE, a 

 lawyer and legal writer, of remarkable abili- 

 ties, but prevented by protracted disease from 

 accomplishing the great results of which his 

 fine intellect gave promise ; died in Boston, in 

 the 51st year of his age. He was born in Cam- 

 bridge, educated at the University of Vermont 

 and at the Cambridge Law School, and, after 

 struggling, with a body enfeebled by disease, to 

 do his fall share of a general practice in part- 

 nership with his brother, R. H. Dana, Jr., he 

 went to Germany, and remained there eight 

 years, studying, so far as his health would per- 

 mit, the Roman civil law, and history and 

 philosophy in their bearings upon law. He 

 wrote occasionally for the higher class of 

 American periodicals, and, after his return in 

 1856, attempted the translation of the works 

 of Von Mohl and other eminent German ju- 

 rists. Compelled by the constant encroach- 

 ment of his malady, to abandon all continuous 

 or concentrated mental action, he yet retained 

 to the last the mental scope and comprehen- 

 siveness of his well-trained intellect. 



May 18. SCOTT, Rev. EDWARD PAYSON, a 

 Baptist clergyman, for seven years a missionary 

 at Nowgong, Assam ; died there, of cholera, 

 aged 37 years. He was born in Greensboro', Vt., 

 in 1832 ; was educated at Knox College, Gales- 

 burg, 111., and the Theological Seminary of 

 Madison University, Hamilton, N". Y. He was 

 appointed in May, 1860, to the Assam mission, 



