Ad; 



OBITUARIES, UNITED STATES. 



625 



Adam Eckfeldt, long filled one of its most re- 

 sponsible offices that of chief coiner, to which 

 he was appointed by General Washington in 

 1794. His own education, if not having a di- 

 rect reference to the station he was to occupy, 

 certainly enabled him to make a remarkable 

 proficiency in those branches of science which 

 most eminently fitted him for it. This, added 

 to his integrity of character, secured for him 

 as rapid an advance to the head of the depart- 

 ment as the occurrence of vacancies would al- 

 low. A few years later, when great quantities 

 of English sovereigns came to the United States 

 Mint to be recoined, he reported them below 

 the standard claimed. This was confidently 

 denied at the London Mint, which had always 

 prided itself on the accuracy of its assays. 

 They said, " It is impossible ; the London Mint 

 makes no mistakes." Mr. Eckfeldt still insist- 

 ed that he was right, and when, not long after, 

 there was a change of directorship in London, 

 a closer investigation followed, and the case 

 was found as stated by him. The excitement 

 in monetary circles that followed, gave rise to 

 a parliamentary law ordering the closest pos- 

 sible examination of the weight and fineness 

 of all the coins in the world. The result was, 

 that the coins of the United States were found 

 to be more uniform than those of any other 

 country, and from that time onward Mr. Eck- 

 feldt' s reputation as an assayer has been world- 

 wide. The result, as regarded his continuance 

 in the important trust, involving the purity 

 of all our metallic currency, was what it should 

 have been. Advanced to it under the Admin- 

 istration of President Jackson, he held it un- 

 disturbed through all the changes of party, 

 and left it only as he left the world. 



Aug. 9. MAYO, JOSEPH, a prominent citi- 

 zen, lawyer, and for many years Mayor of 

 Eichmond, Va. ; died there, aged 77 years. He 

 was born at Fins Creek Mills, Powhatan 

 County, Va. ; in 1795, studied law in Rich- 



City, aged 50 years. He was born in Phila- 

 delphia, in 1822, finished his musical education 

 at the Paris Conservatoire, and soon afterward 

 was engaged as prime lasso in the Italian 

 Opera at Antwerp. Subsequently he was as- 

 sociated with an English opera company in 

 London, where he played for many years with 

 great success, excelling in such character parts 

 as Devilshoof in "The Bohemian Girl," and 

 making a reputation by his Bertram^in " Ro- 

 bert," and Petej* the Great in "L'Etoile du 

 Nord" He came to the United States with 

 his wife in 1859, and gave a series of popular 

 entertainments, which he styled parlor ope- 

 ras, but in 1861 returned to England. In 1869 

 he was engaged by the Richings English Opera 

 Company, and sang with them for two seasons 

 in New York and other cities. Mr. Drayton 

 was not only a good musician, but an actor 

 of ability and earnestness, and the author of 

 several plays and operas. 



Aug. 11. TEAOY, Rev. THOMAS, a Unitarian 

 clergyman; died in Newburyport, Mass., aged 

 91 years. He was born at Haverhill, Mass., 

 March 26, 1781 ; graduated at Harvard College 

 in 1806, and was settled at Biddeford, Me., 

 preaching there and at Saco for about eight 

 years. In 1828 he returned to Newburyport, 

 and had resided in the same house up to the 

 time of his death. He was a man of fine 

 scholarly attainments. 



Aug. 12. RAY, MARTIN- M., a Democratic 

 politician and political leader in Indiana; died in 

 Shelby ville, Ind., aged about 52 years. He was 

 born in Butler County, Ohio, studied law for a 

 time in the Law School of Harvard University, 

 and also with his uncle, Governor Ray, of In- 

 dianapolis, and entered upon the practice of 

 his profession in Shelbyville. In 1861 he had 

 a seat in the Senate of the State, and at first, 

 favored a compromise between the North and 

 South ; but when the war began, and it be- 

 came perfectly clear that the questions must 



mond with Abel P. Upshur, and, after his be fought out, he, like Mr. Douglas, took bold 



admission to the practice of his profession, 

 formed a copartnership with him. He was 

 attorney to the Commonwealth in the Hust- 

 ings Court of Richmond for twenty -nine years; 

 was a member of the House of Delegates. 

 Mayor of Richmond for fifteen years, from the 

 llth day of April, 1853, till removed by the 

 Federal authorities; author of "Mayo's Guide 

 to Magistrates," and was, at the time of his 

 death, Commonwealth's Attorney for New 

 Kent County. As a lawyer he ranked high. 

 He had a vast store of practical information, 

 his mind being of an elevated judicial order, 



ground for the Government against the seced- 

 ers, and made some of the ablest speeches of 

 his life in support of the war. He was a true 

 and devoted patriot, and regretted with all his 

 heart whatever tended to the injury of the 

 caus^e of the country. Mr. Ray was an able 

 lawyer, and a speaker of decided eloquence. 



Aug. 14. BROUGHTO^, Rev. PETER, a Pres- 

 byterian clergyman, and for many years sec- 

 retary of the Western and American Sea- 

 men's Friend Societies ; died in Titusville, Pa., 

 aged 69 years. In 1834 he engaged himself as 

 lay missionary of the New Ybrk City Tract 



and he would have worthily filled any bench Society, and subsequently entered the Th co- 

 in the State. His "Mayo's Guide" has been logical Seminary connected with Western Re- 



the vade mecum of the lawyers and magistrates 

 of Virginia for twenty years, and is still held 

 in high repute, though the condition of things 

 under which it was written has so greatly 

 changed. 



' Aug. 11. DRAYTOX, HESTRI, a celebrated op- 

 era-singer, actor, and author ; died in New York 

 VOL. xn. 40 A 



serve College, Ohio. Having preached eleven 

 years in Niles and Port Huron, Mich., he en- 

 tered the service of the Western Seamen's 

 Friend Society, in which he continued fourteen 

 years as chaplain, agent, and secretary. He 

 was then called to the American Seaman's 

 Friend Society of New York, as travelling 



