

OBITUARIES, UNITED STATES. 



623 



establishments which had sprung up, Mr. 

 Dexter and his brother Henry being large pro- 

 prietors of the stock. At the time of his death 

 Mr. Dexter was travelling in Europe, in the 

 hope of regaining his enfeebled health. 



July 16. FLAKE, FERDINAND, a Texas jour- 

 nalist, editor and proprietor of Flake's Bulletin, 

 of Galveston ; died at New London, Conn. 

 He was a native of Germany, and, emigrating 

 to this country, went to Galveston, where he 

 continued to reside, until, upon the failure of 

 his health, he started for his home in Germany, 

 but, his disease progressing rapidly, he died 

 upon the way. Mr. Flake was a man of un- 

 flinching courage, and as editor and proprietor 

 of the Bulletin was conspicuous prior to and 

 during the late war, from his determined op- 

 position to secession. Since the war, he has 

 been identified with the Republican party, and 

 was an advocate of its principles. 



July 16. STEWART, ANDREW, formerly mem- 

 ber of Congress from Pennsylvania; died at 

 Uniontown, Pa., aged 80 years. He was born 

 in Fayette County, Pa., in June, 1792, studied 

 law, and was admitted to the bar in 1815, soon 

 after which he was elected to the State Legis- 

 lature, and served three years. He was ap- 

 pointed, by President Monroe, District Attor- 

 ney for Western Pennsylvania, and was a 

 Representative in Congress from 1821 to 1829, 

 from 1831 to 1835, and from 1843 to 1847. 

 Both in Congress and out of it, he was a warm 

 advocate of what is known as the " American 

 protective system." The latter portion of his 

 life was devoted chiefly to the (to him) con- 

 genial pursuit of agriculture, though paying 

 some attention to the business of manufacturing. 



July 17. BOCOOK, Rev. JOHN HOLMES, D. D., 

 an eminent Presbyterian clergyman, of Lex- 

 ington, Va. ; died there, aged 60 years. 

 He was a native of Virginia, graduated from 

 Amherst College in 1835, pursued his theologi- 

 cal studies in the Hampden Sydney Theological 

 Seminary, and settled soon after his ordination 

 at Lexington, where he early achieved distinc- 

 tion for his intellectual ability and eloquence. 

 He received the Masters degree from Hamp- 

 den Sydney College in 1847, and that of D. D. 

 from Washington (now Washington and Lee) 

 College, Lexington, Va. 



July 19. THATCHER, SAMUEL, formerly mem- 

 ber of Congress, from Massachusetts ; died in 

 Bangor, Me., aged 96 years. He was born in 

 Cambridge, Mass., in 1776, graduated at Har- 

 vard University in 1793, adopted the profes- 

 sion of law, and was a Representative in Con- 

 gress from 1802 to 1805. He also served eleven 

 years in the Massachusetts Legislature, and 

 was Sheriff of Lincoln County from 1814 to 

 1821. In 1866 he was a resident of Bangor, 

 and was the oldest Mason in the United States. 



July 19. WEST, W. H. G., First-Assistant 

 Engineer, U. S. N. ; was drowned at Cape May. 

 He was born in Cornwall, England, but came 

 to this country with his parents when a mere 

 child. He educated himself as an engineer, 



and entered the navy, May 13, 1861. The 

 department records show that he served on 

 the following vessels during the war : Paul 

 Jones, Wabash, Keokuk, Nahant, and Brook- 

 lyn. He participated in the attacks on Roanoke 

 Island and Fort Fisher, and was on the Keokuk, 

 at the time she was destroyed in battle off 

 Charleston. For three years immediately after 

 the war, he was on duty at the Naval Academy 

 as instructor in the department of Steam En- 

 gineering, after which he made a cruise as 

 acting chief-engineer of the flag-ships Pensa- 

 cola and Saranac in the Pacific. At the end 

 of this cruise, in July, 1871, he was again or- 

 dered to duty at the Naval Academy, where 

 he was attached at the time of his death, as 

 assistant Professor of Mathematics. Mr. West 

 was spending a few days of his summer leave 

 at Cape May, and while bathing off the beach 

 near Congress Hall, in a sea almost calm, he 

 was suddenly swept off by the strong under- 

 tow of the ebb-tide and drowned before assist- 

 ance could reach him. 



July 23. MOTT, SAMUEL R., an old inhab- 

 itant of Syracuse, N. Y. ; died in that city, 

 aged 115 years. His father lived to be one 

 hundred and twenty-nine years of age. 



July 24. POTTS, JOHN, Chief Clerk of the 

 War Department for tbirteen years, and con- 

 nected with it for twenty-six years ; died in 

 Washington, D. C. He was a native of Cen- 

 tral Pennsylvania. His long official life, con- 

 ducted with faithfulness and honor, gave evi- 

 dence of the highest integrity, and most thor- 

 ough devotion to duty. He disbursed millions 

 without an error, and thousands of those who 

 were brought into contact with him officially 

 bear witness to the promptness of his action, 

 and his uniform courtesy. During the late 

 war, in addition to his other duties, he per- 

 formed delicate and important services, in re- 

 gard to which the late Secretary Stanton spoke 

 of him to the present Secretary of War as " a 

 perfectly incorruptible man." 



July 26. STANLEY, EDWARD, a lawyer and 

 statesman of North Carolina; died in San Fran- 

 cisco, Cal. He was a son of Hon. John Stan- 

 ley, M. C., and was born in Newbern, N. C. ; 

 received a part of his education at the Mili- 

 tary Academy at Middletown, Conn. ; studied 

 law ; represented Beaufort in the State Legis- 

 lature three years, during one of which he was 

 Speaker, and in 1847 was Attorney-General of 

 the State. He was a member of Congress in 

 the Whig interest in 1836-'42, and 1849-'53, 

 serving on the Committee of Ways and Means, 

 and as a leader of his party in debate ; voted 

 for the compromise measures of 1850, but was 

 not thought in the South to be sufficiently de- 

 voted to the defence and preservation of slave- 

 ry. In 1853 he went to San Francisco, where 

 he practised law, but in 1862 was recalled 

 thence by President Lincoln to assume the 

 position of Military Governor of North Caro- 

 lina, which he held for some months, and, re- 

 signing, returned to California. 



