644 OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. 



Mrs. Smith was the eldest daughter of the late 

 Horace Greeley. She was educated at the 

 Academy of the Sacred Heart, at Manhattan- 

 ville, and at the age of eighteen graduated 

 with high honors. During the campaign of 

 1872 she presided over her father's establish- 

 ment with superior grace and dignity, enter- 

 taining many of his most intimate friends. 

 When Mr. Greeley's will was contested in De- 

 cember, 1872, his daughter attended each sit- 

 ting of the court, exciting much admiration by 

 her refined manner and modest bearing. In 

 May, 1875, she was married to Colonel Nicho- 

 las Smith. It was to her that the late Corne- 

 lius J. Vanderbilt paid the $50,000 borrowed 

 of Mr. Greeley during the lifetime of Commo- 

 dore Vanderbilt. 



SPOTTS, JAMES H., born at Fort Johnson, 

 N. C., March 11, 1822; died, 1882, at Stanley, 

 Falkland Islands. Rear-Admiral Spotts en- 

 tered the naval service August 3, 1837, was 

 promoted from midshipman to passed-midship- 

 man in 1843, lieutenant in 1851, commander in 

 1862, and captain in 1866. His total sea-ser- 

 vice was more than twenty-two years, and un- 

 til the breaking out of the war the greater part 

 of it was spent in the South Pacific squadron. 

 He commanded the steamer Powhatan in both 

 engagements with Fort Fisher, November, 1864, 

 and January, 1865 ; in the engagement with 

 Fort Anderson; and engagements along the 

 banks of the Cape Fear River in the following 

 month ; also, at the bombardment of the bat- 

 teries above Dutch Gap, James River, in April 

 of the same year. The late admiral's father 

 was Major Spotts, the gallant officer who com- 

 manded the Fourth Artillery in the battle of 

 New Orleans in the War of 1812. 



WEBSTER, CAROLINE LE ROY, died in New 

 York city, February 28, 1882, aged eighty-five 

 years. Mrs. Webster's father, Jacob Le Roy, 

 was a wealthy New-Yorker, well known in 

 the city when its limits were less extended. 

 She was in her youth a beautiful girl, intelli- 

 gent and very attractive. In 1829 she was 

 married to the distinguished Daniel Webster. 

 Their nuptials were celebrated at a time ot 

 great excitement, and full of special interest to 

 Mr. Webster. Mrs. Webster was then in the 

 prime of life, well informed and acquainted 

 with national affairs, and was the confidante, 

 companion, and honored counsel of her hus- 

 band's most guarded thoughts. In his Wash- 

 ington life, the wife of Daniel Webster par- 

 ticipated to a marked degree, and, until the 

 time of his death, she was the queen of society. 

 Elegant in appearance, and blessed with a brill- 

 iant mind, Mrs. Webster numbered among her 

 visitors all the contemporaneous statesmen and 

 diplomats of her husband's time. Her recep- 

 tions were the most elegantly appointed events 

 of^the national capital. Among the distin- 

 guished guests who were always welcomed at 

 her residence were Clay, Calhoun, Bulwer, 

 Lord Ashburton, and Benton. During her 

 travels in Europe, a few years after her mar- 



riage, she was received by nearly all the crowned 

 heads, at one time being the specially invited 

 guest of Queen Victoria. After the death of 

 Daniel Webster, October 24, 1852, Mrs. Webster 

 left Marshfield, Mass., where her husband 

 breathed his last, and came to New York and 

 resided. The loss of her husband was a severe 

 blow to Mrs. Webster. She was a devoted wife, 

 and had a deep appreciation of his superior in- 

 tellectual qualifications. With the competence 

 which she had in her own right, and the in- 

 come from the annuity given her by the city 

 of Boston, she was enabled to live in the mod- 

 est and comfortable style that became the 

 widow of an American statesman. She led a 

 most secluded life, seldom appearing in public, 

 but took great interest in everything pertain- 

 ing to the memory of Mr. Webster. About 

 twenty-five years before her death she was 

 thrown from a carriage and received a serious 

 injury, which at times seemed to obscure her 

 memory of events, yet she would often relate 

 lengthy incidents of her husband's life. Her 

 last appearance in public was at the unveiling 

 of the Webster statue in 1872, when she occu- 

 pied a place of honor on the platform. 



OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. AINSWORTH, 

 WILLIAM HARRISON, English novelist, died in 

 London, January 3d, at the age of seventy- 

 seven. His first book, " Sir John Cheverton," 

 written in his youth while engaged to a law- 

 yer, received the praise of Walter Scott, which 

 incited him to adopt the profession of litera- 

 ture. "Rookwood" (1834) and "Jack Shep- 

 pard" (1839) enjoyed unbounded popularity. 

 The latter was illustrated by Cruikshank in his 

 finest vein, and was dramatized in eight differ- 

 ent versions. The deeds of famous law-break- 

 ers, which furnished the subject of these tales, 

 did not afterward occupy Ainsworth's pen, 

 because the robber school of romance, as it 

 was called, was thought to have an immoral 

 influence. Equally vivid pictures of old Eng- 

 land, replete with antiquarian knowledge, were 

 the later products of his industrious pen. 



AUERBACH, BERTHOLD, German novelist, died 

 at Cannes, February 8th. That genial and 

 prolific author was born, February 28, 1812, 

 at Nordstetten, in Wurtemberg, and studied 

 theology, history, and philosophy, becoming 

 involved in the Burschenschaft movement, 

 which led to his incarceration in 1836. While 

 in prison he wrote "The Jews and Recent 

 Literature," and soon afterward a philosoph- 

 ical novel, " Spinoza " (1837). The finest prod- 

 ucts of Auerbach's genius were objective pic- 

 tures of the peasant-life of his native Black 

 Forest, full of humor and pathos, as found in 

 the " Dorf geschichten " and "Die Frau Pro- 

 fesserin." His later works, " On the Heights " 

 (1860), "DasLandhaus am Rhein," and " Wald- 

 fried" were again more speculative and philo 

 sopbical. Auerbach was an intensely patri- 

 otic German, with a deep ethnic attachment 

 to the Israelitish race from which he sprang; 

 and the sudden wasting of his energy, in the 





