688 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



lished a business. At the breaking out of the 

 war, Colonel Race was chosen captain of the 

 City Guard, and went out with the Confed- 

 erates when the city was captured by the 

 Union forces. He served on General Hardee's 

 staff, and only at the close of the war returned 

 to New Orleans to resume his practice. In 

 1866 the firm of Race & Foster was joined 

 by Judge Merrick, who had been Chief -Justice 

 of the State of Louisiana. Although Mr. Race 

 was before the public for thirty-four years, he 

 never mingled in politics, and held no office 

 except the position on Governor Wickliffe'a 

 staff, with the rank of colonel. He was a 

 prominent Odd-Fellow and Mason, holding im- 

 portant commissions of trust in each of these 

 organizations. 



SAULSBURY, ELI, ex-Governor of Delaware, 

 died August, 1881. He was probably the most 

 able and accomplished Governor that Delaware 

 had had for several generations, and his admin- 

 istration was such as might have been expect- 

 ed from one actively engaged in public affairs 

 from his early manhood. He was considered 

 a model American citizen, equally faithful in 

 the discharge of political duty, from a primary 

 election in his own neighborhood to active 

 participation in the National Convention of 

 his party. As a private individual his charac- 

 ter for honor, integrity, and Christian benevo- 

 lence was without blemish. He was a warm 

 friend of education, and was largely instru- 

 mental in establishing the Wilmington Confer- 

 ence Academy at Dover, which institution was 

 actively supported by him to the end of his 

 life. 



SHELDON, Rev. GEORGE, D. D., born at North- 

 ampton, Massachusetts; died at Princeton, New 

 Jersey, June 16, 1881. Dr. Sheldon graduated 

 at Williams College in 1835, and afterward at 

 Andover Theological Seminary. Previous to 

 1848 he was eight years pastor of a Presbyterian 

 church in South Carolina. After that time he 

 devoted himself to the circulation of the Bible, 

 and was Superintendent of the American Bible 

 Society in New Jersey and Delaware. In 1862 

 he received the degree of D. D. from Jefferson 

 College, Pennsylvania. He was an active mem- 

 ber of the New Jersey Historical Society, and 

 published an historical sketch of the colony 

 which left Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1796, 

 for South Carolina and Georgia. 



SMITH, DAVID M., was born in Hartland, Ver- 

 mont, 1809 ; died at Springfield, Vermont, No- 

 vember, 1881. When about twelve years old 

 he began to learn the carpenter's trade, in Gil- 

 sum, New Hampshire. At nineteen he was 

 teaching school in Gilsum, and later on he com- 

 menced the manufacture of " awls on the haft," 

 of which he had granted him, October 25, 1832, 

 letters-patent that were signed by Andrew 

 Jackson. The awl-haft manufactured under 

 this patent was nearly, if not quite, identical 

 with the one now known as the Aiken awl. 

 He represented the town of Gilsum in the New 

 Hampshire Legislature for 1840-'41, when he 



moved to Springfield. In April, 1849, he pat- 

 ented a " combination lock," of which Hobbs, 

 after having picked all the locks brought to him 

 in London, said, "It can not be picked." This 

 lock was also patented in England. At about 

 this time he invented an improvement on the 

 first iron lathe dog, which can now be seen in 

 any machine-shop. A peg-splitting machine 

 and two sewing-machines were also invented 

 by him. Next he invented the patent clothes- 

 pin. In 1860 he commenced the manufacture 

 of a spring hook-and-eye, for which he also in- 

 vented the machinery. The blanket-hook was 

 also his invention. Not least among the inven- 

 tions of Mr. Smith was the machinery by which 

 his patent machines were made. Besides per- 

 fecting the ideas of other parties who secured 

 patents, he had taken out about sixty, among 

 which was that for the machinery now used in 

 folding newspapers. Although his inventive 

 genius was so comprehensive, his talents were 

 not, as is sometimes the case, confined to inven- 

 tions. 



SNEAD, J. TIMBEELAKE, born near Ashland, 

 Kentucky, June 10, 1820 ; died in New York, 

 December 17, 1881. The paternal plantation 

 of Colonel Snead adjoined that of Henry Clay, 

 who was the early instructor and partner of 

 Snead. In politics he was a Henry Clay Whig, 

 and he retired from public affairs when his 

 chief was defeated for the presidency. In 

 1850 he went, among the Indian tribes on 

 the Plains, and spent four years studying their 

 character and customs. Subsequently he vis- 

 ited the Mormon territory, and there remained 

 for one year. At the outbreak of the war he 

 left Washington and joined the Confederate 

 ranks. He was wounded three times in one 

 battle. At one time he was attached to Gen- 

 eral Joe Johnston's command, and at another 

 in charge of an independent command. At 

 the close of the war he returned to Washing- 

 ton. Colonel Snead originated and was for a 

 time at the head of the Fort St. Philip Canal 

 enterprise ; after that, various railroad schemes 

 engaged his attention, and later still he organ- 

 ized the Combination Trust Company of Phila- 

 delphia. In connection with English capital- 

 ists, two years ago, he bought the controlling 

 interest in the Continental Railroad Company, 

 of which he was president at the time of his 

 death. 



SPOONEB, ALDEN J., born in Brooklyn, New 

 York; died in Hempstead, Long Island, Au- 

 gust 2, 1881, aged seventy-three. He was the 

 oldest son of Alden Spooner, the founder of 

 the "Long Island City Star," and, after his 

 father's death, he with his brother carried on 

 the paper for many years. He was educated for 

 the law, studying in the office of Silas Wood, 

 at Huntington; but that profession was not 

 congenial to his taste, although he practiced it 

 in the Brooklyn courts for thirty years. His 

 tastes were early turned to local history, and 

 he wrote many articles on the Indians of Long 

 Island. He was also a writer on literary sub- 



