640 



OBITUARIES, UNITED STATES. 



the subject. He was a genial, courteous gen- 

 tleman, and Ms death, from the bite of a dog 

 which he had but recently undertaken to treat, 

 was a great loss to the community. 



June 17. STEVENSON, Major , a Confed- 

 erate officer, General Forrest's chief quarter- 

 master during the war, and since, collector of 

 Internal Eevenue for Northern Mississippi ; 

 died at Holly Springs, Miss. 



June 17. WATEOTTS, JOHST CHAKLES, late 

 U. S. District Judge for the Eastern District 

 of Texas ; died at Baltimore, aged 68 years. 

 Judge "Watrous was born at Colchester, Conn., 

 in 1806. He was the son of Dr. John Watrous, 

 an eminent physician, State Senator, and Lieu- 

 tenant-Governor of Connecticut. The son was 

 fitted for college at Bacon Academy, Colches- 

 ter, and graduated from Union College in 1828. 

 He afterward studied law, and settled in Ten- 

 nessee, and subsequently in Alabama, where he 

 attained a high reputation for his legal knowl- 

 edge and his judicial ability. He emigrated 

 to Texas about 1842, and was Attorney-Gen- 

 eral of the Eepublic of Texas. In 1849 or 

 1850 he was appointed, by President Taylor, 

 District Judge of the Eastern District of Tex- 

 as. During the next ten years he had become 

 known as one of the ablest judges in the South; 

 but an effort was made by some of his enemies, 

 and among the number the late General Sam 

 Houston, to procure his impeachment before the 

 U. S. Senate. He was tried on their charges 

 of impeachment, and triumphantly acquitted. 

 During the war he was not suffered to act as a 

 judge, as he was a strong Unionist ; but on the 

 proclamation of peace he resumed his seat, 

 and presided with great ability over the Dis- 

 trict Court until the close of 1869, when he 

 was disabled by paralysis, and resigned, re- 

 moving to Baltimore, and, so far as his infirm 

 health would permit, resuming the practice of 

 his profession. During the war he lost heavily 

 by his fidelity to the national cause. 



June 18. BABCOOK, JAMES F., a Connecticut 

 journalist and political leader; died in New Ha- 

 ven, Conn., aged 65 years. He was a native of 

 Southeastern Connecticut, or Rhode Island, but 

 entered the journalistic ranks at an early age, 

 and in 1830, at the age of twenty-one years, be- 

 came editor of the New Haven Palladium, at 

 that time a weekly paper, but which very soon 

 began to issue a daily edition also. He contin- 

 ued to be the editor of that paper for thirty-one 

 years, and being an active Whig, and an ener- 

 getic speaker and manager as well as a vigor- 

 ous writer, he soon became the Warwick of 

 his party in the State. Apparently not de- 

 sirous of office for himself, he controlled the 

 party nominations for many years, and, though 

 hostile to the Free-Soil party at its inception, 

 he finally gave it a hearty welcome in 1854, 

 in his brilliant and long-remembered leader, 

 headed, "Give us your hand, Honest John 

 Boyd." He retained his prestige with the Re- 

 publican party for some years, took an active 

 part in furthering the national cause during 



the war, and, shortly after his resignation as 

 editor of the Palladium, was appointed, by 

 President Lincoln, Collector of the Port of 

 New Haven. He retained that office under 

 President Johnson, whose policy he support- 

 ed ; but, after the rupture between the Presi- 

 dent and the Republicans, Mr. Babcock acted 

 with the Democratic party, and was nominated 

 by them for Congress, in the second district, 

 after an angry and excited contest, but was 

 defeated by Mr. S. W. Kellogg, the Republican 

 nominee. He was nominated and elected by 

 the Democrats to the State Legislature in 

 1873, and was appointed, by Governor Inger- 

 soll, chairman of the Labor Commission while 

 a member of that body. The Legislature of 

 1874 elected him Judge of the Police Court of 

 New Haven, and he had entered upon his du- 

 ties a few days before his death. 



June 19. AUDUBON, Mrs. LUCY BAKEWELL, 

 widow of the late John J. Audubon ; died at 

 the residence of her sister-in-law, in Kelly - 

 ville, Ky,, aged 88 years. She was born in 

 England, of an excellent family, and came to 

 America with her father when not more than 

 twelve -years of age. They settled on the 

 Schuylkill River, near Philadelphia, Mr. Bake- 

 well's estate joining that of young Audu- 

 bon. A friendship sprang up between the two 

 families, and in April, 1808, Lucy Bake well, 

 then, twenty-two years of age, became the wife 

 of John J. Audubon. She left her father's 

 house at once with her husband, and began a 

 remarkable and eventful career, by a journey 

 through Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, and down 

 the Ohio River in a flat-boat to Louisville. 

 From that time onward, for more than thirty 

 years, she had no permanent home, yet her 

 spirits never flagged, weariness never produced 

 discontent, isolation from friends never chilled 

 the warmth of her affections, nor did the inde- 

 pendent life to which she was compelled pro- 

 duce selfishness and misanthropy. She had 

 given her heart with her hand to her husband, 

 and she identified herself entirely with his 

 pursuits, his interests, and his hopes. She ac- 

 companied him in his wanderings, encouraged 

 him in trials, and, when misfortune overtook 

 him, she bent to the task of relieving him with 

 an active intellect and a strong will. In order 

 to obtain money to educate their children and 

 leave him free to pursue his studies in natural 

 history, she took a place as governess in a fami- 

 ly in New Orleans, and' afterward in Natchez. 

 When her husband was anxious to go to Eu- 

 rope, in order to perfect himself in the use of 

 oil-colors, and could not for lack of funds, she 

 established a family-school at Bayou Sara, and 

 earned the needful money while she also edu- 

 cated her own children. When, in the face of 

 many obstacles, and contrary to the advice of 

 his friends who regarded him as a madman, 

 Audubon decided to pursue ornithology as a 

 profession, his wife determined that his genius 

 should have the opportunity which it craved. 

 She gave him not only words of encourage- 



