646 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



tain in 1870. In 1873 and 1874 he command- 

 ed a monitor in the Gulf squadron. He was 

 promoted to the rank of commodore in 1877, 

 and at the time of his death was Commandant 

 of the Charlestown Navy Yard. 



IS PR AGUE, General JOHN J., died in New 

 York City, September 6th, aged 68 years. In 

 1834 he became second lieutenant in the Ma- 

 rine Corps, and in 1838 was appointed adju- 

 tant of the Eighth Infantry, with which lie 

 served through the Florida war, being twice 

 promoted for meritorious conduct. He pub- 

 lished a volume on the " Origin, Progress, and 

 Conclusion of the Florida War." At the out- 

 break of the civil war, being a major, and sta- 

 tioned with his regiment, the First Infantry, 

 in Texas, he was taken prisoner by General 

 Twiggs. He was put on parole, and became a 

 mustering and disbursing officer at Albany, 

 N. Y. Governor Seymour appointed him adju- 

 tant-general, with the rank of brigadier-gen- 

 eral. In the spring of 1865 he went to Flori- 

 da as colonel of the Seventh Infantry U. S. A., 

 and was appointed Military Governor of that 

 State. When a reduction was made in the 

 regular army, Colonel Sprague was put on the 

 retired list. 



STEARNS, ONSLOW, ex-Governor of New 

 Hampshire, died December 28th. He was 

 born in Billerica, Mass., August 30, 1811, was 

 engaged in the construction of railroads in 

 several States, and settled in New Hampshire 

 in 1838. In 1862 he was elected to the New 

 Hampshire State Senate ; in 1863 was member 

 and President of the same body, and in 1864 

 was one of the vice-presidents of the National 

 Republican Convention at Baltimore. He de- 

 clined the Republican nomination for Govern- 

 or of New Hampshire in 1867, but was elected 

 in 1869 and reflected in 1870, after which he 

 retired to private life. 



STURGEON, DANIEL, died at Uniontown, Pa., 

 July 2d. He was born in 1789, was a member 

 of the Pennsylvania Senate in 1828, and in 

 1836 was elected State Treasurer, holding the 

 office for four years. From 1840 to 1851 he 

 was United States Senator from Pennsylvania, 

 and in 1853 was appointed by President Pierce 

 Treasurer in Philadelphia. 



SWEETSER, SETH, died at Worcester, Mass., 

 March 24th, aged 71 years. He was born in 

 Newburyport, graduated at Harvard College 

 and Andover Theological Seminary, and had 

 been pastor of the Central Congregational 

 Church in Worcester since 1838. He received 

 the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Am- 

 College, and was known as one of the 

 most learned theologians in the State. 



TAYLER, ROBERT WALKER, died in Washing- 

 ton, p. C., February 25th. He was born in 

 Harmbnrg, Pa., in 1812. He was admitted 

 to the bar at Youngstown, Ohio, in 1834, and 

 was Prosecuting Attorney of Trurabull Coun- 

 ty from 1839 to 1841. He was elected Mayor 

 of ^ ounpstown in 1851, and State Senator in 

 I8oo and 1857. He was State Auditor from 



1860 to 1863, when he was appointed First 

 Comptroller of the United States Treasury, in 

 which office he continued till the time of his 

 death. 



THOMAS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, died in Sa- 

 lem, Mass., September 27th. He was born in 

 Boston in 1813, graduated at Brown Univer- 

 sity in 1830, and began to practice law in 

 1833. He was a member of the Massachusetts 

 Legislature in 1842, and Probate Judge for 

 Worcester County from 1844 to 1848. In the 

 latter year he was a Presidential elector on the 

 Whig ticket. He was a Judge of the Supreme 

 Court of Massachusetts from 1853 to 1859, 

 when he resigned, to resume his professional 

 practice. In 1861 he was elected to Congress, 

 where he served on the Judiciary Committee 

 and the Special Committee on the Bankrupt 

 Law. In 1868 he was nominated by Governor 

 Bullock for Chief Justice of Massachusetts, 

 but the nomination was not confirmed by the 

 Council. He was President of the American 

 Antiquarian Society, and had been made a 

 Doctor of Laws by both Harvard and Brown 

 Universities. 



THORNTON, JOHN WINGATE, died at Oak 

 Hill, Me., June 6th. He was born at Saco, 

 Me., in 1818. After a course of study at the 

 Harvard Law School, he began practice in 

 Boston in 1840. He was the founder of the 

 New England Historic-Genealogical Society, 

 and at the time of his death was Vice-Presi- 

 dent of the American Statistical Association. 

 He was the author of numerous publications, 

 among which are " Lives of Isaac Heath, John 

 Bowles, and Rev. John Eliot, Jr." (1850); 

 "Landing at Cape May" (1854); " Ancient 

 Pemaquia" (1857); "Peter Oliver's Puritan 

 Commonwealth Reviewed" (1857); "First 

 Records of Anglo-American Colonization" 

 (1859) ; " The Pulpit of the American Revo- 

 lution" (1860); and "The Colonial Schemes 

 of Popham and Gorges" (1863). 



TREMAIN, LYMAN, died in New York City, No- 

 vember 30th. He was born in Durham, Greene 

 County, N. Y., June 14, 1819. He began the 

 practice of law in his native county in 1840, and 

 became District Attorney in 1844, and County 

 Judge and Surrogate in 1846. In 1858 he 

 was elected Attorney-General of the State. In 

 1866, having removed to Albany, he was elected 

 to the State Assembly, of which he was made 

 Speaker in 1867, and again in 1868. In 1872 

 he was elected Congressman at large from the 

 State of New York, his opponent being the 

 Hon. S. S. Cox. His son, Grenville Tremain, 

 a promising lawyer, who was the unsuccessful 

 Republican candidate for Attorney-General of 

 New York in 1877, died in Albany, March 17, 

 1878, aged 33 years. 



TWIGGLE, JAMES W., died at McElhattan, 

 Pa., in November, aged 58 years. He had been 

 Deputy Attorney-General of Pennsylvania and 

 a member of the State Senate, and during Presi- 

 dent Buchanan's administration was Consul at 

 Antwerp. 



