OBITUARIES, UNITED STATES. 



563 



thor of an "Historical Account of Northbor- 

 ough," 1826 ; " Memoir of Rev. Dr. Lathrop, 

 of Springfield," 1823; "History of the Wor- 

 cester Association," 1868; "Allen Genealogy," 

 1869 ; a number of text-books for day and Sun- 

 day schools, and several published sermons. 



Feb. 24. BIGELOW, UEIAH 0., M. D., an emi- 

 nent physician of Albany, N. Y. ; died there, 

 aged 52 years. He was born in Worcester, 

 Otsego County, N. Y. He graduated at the 

 Albany Medical College, and, having practised 

 four years in Berne, Albany County, he re- 

 moved to Albany, and rapidly rose to a high 

 rank in his profession. At the time of his 

 death, he was one of the curators of the Medi- 

 ical College in that city, and a consulting phy- 

 sician to. the Albany Hospital. 



Feb. 24. FRANKENSTEIN, GODFREY N., an 

 eminent landscape and historical painter; died 

 at Springfield, Ohio, aged about 42 years. He 

 had been thoroughly trained in his profession, 

 and possessed the ability to place upon canvas 

 his conception of a great event of history with 

 such completeness and clearness as to com- 

 municate his thought even to the dullest mind. 

 His great picture of the "Battle of Gettys- 

 burg " was his masterpiece. It came near be- 

 ing destroyed at the great fire in Chicago, and 

 was only saved by being cut from its frame. 

 Though a very successful landscape-painter, 

 he preferred historical, and especially battle- 

 scenes, for his subjects. 



Feb. 24. PHELPS, ABNER, M. D., an eminent 

 physician, politician, and author ; died in Bos- 

 ton, aged 94 years. He was born in Belcher- 

 town, Mass., September 5, 1779 ; graduated 

 from Williams College in 1806, and com- 

 menced the study of theology, but, his health 

 failing him, lie turned his attention to med- 

 icine, receiving the degree of M. D. from 

 Brown University in 1813, and from Yale in 

 1814. After practising his profession for some 

 years in Reading, he removed to Boston in 

 1816. While in college, he read an account 

 of the use of railways in the quarries of Wales, 

 which led him to believe that railroads were 

 practicable for common travel. In 1808, his 

 lather being a member of the Legislature from 

 Belchertown, he wrote, urging him to propose 

 a railroad from Boston to Albany. The sug- 

 gestion, however, was not then acted upon, 

 but, in 1826, Dr. Phelps himself, being a mem- 

 ber of the House from Boston, made the first 

 proposition for building a railroad ever of- 

 fered before any 'legislative body in this 

 country. Having prepared an able report, 

 commissioners were appointed, and the sur- 

 veys made, much of the work being done 

 under his own supervision, and at his own 

 expense. He was for many years active in 

 political life, and was an intimate friend and 

 correspondent of William Wirt. He was the 

 author of an interesting paper on " The Cruci- 

 fixion of Christ." 



Feb. 25. GILLES, Commodore Jons P., U. S. 

 Navy, forty-eight years in the service ; died in 



Wilmington, Del., aged 70 years. He was a 

 native of Wilmington, but during his youth, 

 upon the death of his father, his mother re- 

 moved her residence to Illinois, and he was 

 appointed from that State to the United States 

 Navy, December 12, 1825. During the late war 

 he was actively engaged in command of the 

 sloop Ossipee, of the Western Gulf Squadron, 

 in 1863-'64, and contracted during this service 

 a severe illness, which for some time unfitted 

 him for duty. Since the war Commodore 

 Gilles had been on duty at the navy-yard in 

 Philadelphia, in the Lighthouse Board, and 

 recently, up to his death, at the Naval Asy- 

 lum. 



Feb. 28. McCALi-A, General JOHN M., one 

 of the Auditors of the U. S. Treasury; died in 

 Washington, D. C. 



March 1. BOTCE, HENRY, Judge of the Su- 

 preme Court of Louisiana; died at Cotile, La., 

 aged 75 years. 



March 1. RICE, CALEB, a prominent citizen 

 of Springfield, Mass., former mayor ; died there, 

 aged 81 years. Mr. Rice was born in Conway, 

 Mass., fittted for college in Westfield, Mass., 

 and graduated from Williams College in 1814. 

 He was admitted to the Hampshire County 

 bar in 1817, and practised his profession in 

 West Springfield from 1818 to 1831. In the 

 latter year he was chosen High-Sheriff of 

 Hampden County, and continued in that office 

 for twenty years, residing in Springfield after 

 1842. He was Mayor of Springfield from 

 1852 to 1854, and for more than twenty years 

 was largely concerned in life and fire insur- 

 ance. 



March 2. DUEANT, CHARLES S., a veteran 

 aeronaut ; died in Jersey City, aged 68 years. 

 He made the first balloon ascension in Amer- 

 ica, in 1833, from the Battery, at New York. 

 Subsequently he made fourteen aerial voyages, 

 on one occasion descending into the Atlantic 

 Ocean. He was the author of several books 

 of a scientific character, one of which was a 

 " Treatise on Shells and Sea-weeds." 



March 2. JOHNSON, Major - General ED- 

 WABD, Confederate Army; died in Richmond, 

 Va. He was born in Kentucky, and appointed 

 a cadet from that State in 1832 ; graduated from 

 the Military Academy at West Point in July, 

 1838, and entered the army as second-lieutenant, 

 Sixth Infantry. He served in the Florida War, 

 on frontier duty ; in the war with Mexico, re- 

 ceiving the reward of brevet-major for gallant 

 conduct at Chapultepec ; served again on the 

 frontier, and in garrison at Fort Columbus, N. 

 Y. ; became captain in 1851, and resigned in 

 1861, joining in the war against the United 

 States. He became a major-general in the Con- 

 federate army in 1863, commanded a division 

 in Ewell's corps at Gettysburg, with which 

 he was captured at Spottsylvania, May, 1864, 

 and was captured again at the head of a 

 division in General S. D. Lee's corps, in 1864, 

 near Nashville. 



March 2. WATERS, ANDREW, an educator; 



