642 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



Chicago, where he had given a series of highly 

 successful concerts; he stopped in St. Louis 

 with an acquaintance until June 5, 1882, when 

 he suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, and 

 offers of large rewards by his friends, and 

 the employment of private detectives, availed 

 nothing in the search for the unfortunate man. 

 His last dissipation began several days before 

 his disappearance. He was identified, after 

 death, as ODe who had registered at an hotel 

 under the name of John C. Doehn, and his 

 body was not recognized until after it had been 

 conveyed to the morgue. 



PKUYN, ROBERT H., died at Albany, N. Y., 

 1882. Mr. Pruyn was Minister to Japan un- 

 der President Lincoln; was a candidate for 

 Governor in 1865 ; and was President of the 

 National Commercial Bank of Albany, and of 

 the Dudley Observatory, besides being trustee 

 and director in several institutions. 



PUTNAM, JOHN PHELPS, born March 21, 181 Y, 

 in Hartford, Conn.; died January 4, 1882. 

 Judge Putnam's father was also a native of 

 Hartford, and in his day one of its most promi- 

 nent citizens a merchant, a director of sev- 

 eral insurance and banking institutions, and an 

 alderman and mayor of the city successively. 

 His grandfather came to the United States 

 from the north of England and settled in Hart- 

 ford in 1789. From what is known of the 

 genealogy of the family, it is supposed to have 

 been connected in England with the family of 

 John Putnam who came over in 1634, and who 

 was one of the oldest settlers of Salem Village, 

 now Danvers, and also the ancestor of General 

 Israel Putnam, of Revolutionary fame. Judge 

 Putnam was a graduate of Yale College in 1837. 

 Immediately after, he entered the office of the 

 late Hon. William W. Ellsworth. He received 

 a two years' course of instruction in the Har- 

 vard Law School, where was also conferred on 

 him the degree of LL. B. After that he en- 

 tered the office of Sidney Bartlett, one of the 

 oldest as well as one of the ablest members of 

 the Suffolk Bar. Judge Putnam was admitted 

 to the bar in 1840, when he immediately be- 

 gan an independent practice in Boston, and for 

 many years prosecuted it with excellent success. 

 In addition to the exacting duties of profes- 

 sional life from 1847 to 1858, he edited no less 

 than fifteen volumes of the "Annual Digest" 

 of the decisions of all the courts of the United 

 States. Judge Putnam was for two years Judge 

 of Probate of Suffolk County ; prior to that, 

 he held for a number of years the office of 

 Commissioner of Insolvency for the same coun- 

 ty. He was one of the original Judges of the 

 Superior Court, appointed on its organization 

 in 1859. He was passionately fond of music, 

 was President of the Apollo Club, and long 

 identified with musical undertakings. It was 

 mainly through his exertions that the great or- 

 gan of Music Hall was procured. 



ROBBINS, CHANDLEE, Rev. Dr., born Feb- 

 ruary 14, 1810; died September 11, 1882. A 

 native of Massachusetts and a graduate from 



Harvard University in 1829, after passing 

 through Cambridge Divinity School he was 

 ordained pastor of the Second Unitarian Church 

 in 1833, his predecessor being Ralph Waldo 

 Emerson. He remained in charge there for 

 forty-one years, and at the time of his resigna- 

 tion he was the oldest settled pastor in Boston. 

 In 1855 Harvard University bestowed upon 

 him the degree of D. D. Dr. Robbins was a 

 frequent contributor to literary and religious 

 periodicals; he was also the author of "A His- 

 tory of the Second Church" (1852), of "Mem- 

 oirs of Maria E. Clapp " (1858), of " Memoirs 

 of William Appleton " (1863). He was a mem- 

 ber of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and 

 editor of its " Proceedings." 



ROBERTS, SOLOMON W., born in Philadel- 

 phia, Pa., August 3, 1811; died in Atlan- 

 tic City, N. J., May 22, 1882. His ancestors 

 were among the families of Welsh members 

 of the Society of Friends who came over with 

 William Penn. At the age of sixteen he went 

 to Mauch Chunk as the assistant of his uncle 

 Josiah White, the acting manager and superin- 

 tendent of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 

 Company, and under his direction constructed 

 the Summit-Hill Railroad, the first one com- 

 pleted in Pennsylvania. He remained with the 

 Lehigh Company until 1829, when he entered 

 the service of the State as one of the engineers 

 of the canal to be constructed on the Cone- 

 maugh River. In 1831 he received the ap- 

 pointment of principal assistant engineer in the 

 construction of the Alleghany Portage Rail- 

 road, and afterward held the position of resi- 

 dent engineer and superintendent of transpor- 

 tation. In 1836 he resigned in order to visit 

 Europe in behalf of the Philadelphia and Read- 

 ing Railroad. He remained abroad for two 

 years, superintending the manufacture of rails 

 for the Reading Company, in South Wales. 

 While there he visited the works of George 

 Crane, who had then just succeeded in his in- 

 vention for smelting iron-ore in large quantities 

 by the use of anthracite coal and the hot blast. 

 Upon his return home, Mr. Roberts called the 

 attention of the Franklin Institute to the new 

 invention, and interested his uncle, Josiah 

 White, to the extent of founding, with others 

 of his associates, the Crane Iron- Works on the 

 Lehigh, which were the successful beginning 

 of Pennsylvania's immense iron-trade. From 

 1838 to 1841 he was the chief engineer of the 

 Catawissa Railway. On its completion he ac- 

 cepted the place of president and acting super- 

 intendent of the Philadelphia, Germantown, 

 and Norristown Railway. He was also Presi- 

 dent of the Schuylkill Navigation Company 

 from 1843 to 1845, and devised the plan by 

 which navigation on that river was made fea- 

 sible for boats of large tonnage. When the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad was chartered, in 1847, 

 Mr. Roberts declined an official position, but 

 was elected for the purpose of representing its 

 interest to the membership of the Lower House 

 of the Legislature, where his experience in 



