OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



653 



education. At the age of fourteen he was 

 apprenticed to a tinsmith, and at twenty-one 

 he opened a tin-shop in Middletown, and in a 

 few years made money enough to go into busi- 

 ness with Mr. E. P. Wheeler in establishing 

 the Orange County Foundry and Machine-Shop. 

 This proved very remunerative, and in 1853, 

 in company with others, he established the 

 Monhagen Saw Works, one of the largest es- 

 tablishments of the kind in the United States. 

 Four years later he organized the Madden and 

 Cockayne File Works, and in 1866 the Middle- 

 town Horse-Nail Company, of which latter he 

 was president and general manager. Originally 

 he was a Democrat in politics, but he broke 

 with the party on the Kansas-Nebraska issue. 

 In 1855 he was the Free-Soil candidate for 

 State Senator, and was elected. He was ac- 

 tively concerned in founding the Republican 

 party. In 1871 he was nominated by the 

 Republicans for Senator, in a district largely 

 Democratic, and was elected by an immense 

 majority. He was elected to this office for 

 four successive terms, and originated and car- 

 ried through several very important measures, 

 in regard to the prisons, canals, and other in- 

 stitutions of the State, election returns, etc. 



Marston, John, an American naval officer, born 

 in Boston, Mass., June 12, 1795 ; died in Phil- 

 adelphia, April 7, 1885. He was appointed 

 midshipman in the navy, April 15, 1813, and 

 was on duty during the second war with Eng- 

 land. He was appointed lieutenant in 1825, 

 and served in the Pacific squadron in 1827-'29, 

 and again in 1833-'34. In 1841 he received his 

 commission as commander, and in 1850 was 

 assigned to duty on the coast of Africa. Capt. 

 Marston was in charge of the Philadelphia 

 Navy- Yard in 1853-'55. He commanded the 

 " Cumberland," of the Brazil squadron, in 1861, 

 was made commodore the next year, and was in 

 command of the "Roanoke " in Hampton Roads 

 when the " Merriraac " made its destructive raid 

 there. After the war was over, he was in 

 command at the navy-yards of Portsmouth, 

 Philadelphia, and Key West, and was for many 

 years one of the lighthouse inspectors. 



Merrick, Richard T., an American lawyer, born 

 in Charles County, Md., Sept. 18, 1828; died in 

 Washington, D. 0., June 23, 1885. He went to 

 the Mexican War. On his return he began the 

 practice of law, and also became a member of 

 the Maryland Legislature. He next went to Chi- 

 cago, in 1864 removed to Washington, D. C., 

 and during the twenty years following he held 

 a commanding position in his profession, and 

 was engaged as counsel in some of the most 

 important cases before the bench of the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia, as well as the Supreme Court 

 of the United States. He was one of the 

 counsel before the Electoral Commission, and 

 was engaged in prosecution of the "Star- 

 Route " cases. He was lecturer on constitution- 

 al law in Georgetown University Law School. 



Mnlford, Elisha, an American author, born in 

 Montrose, Pa., Nov. 19, 1833 ; died in Cam- 



bridge, Mass., Dec. 9, 1885. He was graduated 

 at Yule College in 1855, and afterward studied 

 in Germany, became a presbyter in the Epis- 

 copal Church, and for a few years was a pastor 

 at Darien, Conn., and at Orange, N. J. In 

 1880 he became a professor in the Episcopal 

 Theological Seminary at Cambridge, Mass. He 

 published in 1870 an able and learned treatise 

 entitled u The Nation : the Foundations of Civil 

 Order and Political Life in the United States," 

 the object of which was " to ascertain and de- 

 fine the being of the nation in its unity and 

 continuity." This work has slowly won its way 

 to a recognition of its high importance and 

 value. In 1881 he published " The Republic 

 of God." 



Niehols, George Ward, an American author, 

 born in Boston in 1834; died in Cincinnati, 

 Sept. 15, 1885. For several years he resided 

 in New York, engaged in painting and in writ- 

 ing art criticisms for the daily press. He was 

 one of Gen. Sherman's staff -officers in the 

 march to the sea. He married a daughter of 

 Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati, and for 

 sixteen years resided in that city, where he 

 founded the College of Music. He published 

 " The Story of the Great March," " The Sanct- 

 uary," and "Art Education." 



Parsons, Henry Betts, an American chemist, 

 born in Sivas, Asia Minor, Nov. 20, 1855 ; died 

 in Tucson, Arizona, Aug. 21, 1885. He was the 

 son of a missionary. He was graduated at the 

 School of Pharmacy of the University of Michi 

 gan in 1876, and for two years he had charge of 

 the pharmaceutical laboratories, and delivered 

 lectures at Ann Arbor. In 1878 he was appoint- 

 ed special assistant in the chemical division of 

 the Agricultural Department under Prof. Peter 

 Collier at Washington. While he was engaged 

 in this department, his " Method for the Proxi- 

 mate Analysis of Plants " was published, and 

 it at once received the commendation of lead- 

 ing chemists. It appeared in all of the promi- 

 nent chemical journals of the world, and was 

 universally adopted, and is incorporated in the 

 text-books treating on that subject. The pro- 

 fessorship of Materia Medica and Botany in 

 the National College of Pharmacy was accept- 

 ed by him, and his various occupations at Wash- 

 ington continued until late in 1881, when he 

 removed to New York, and became the chem 

 ist-in-chief of a large drug house, whose entire 

 laboratory was built and equipped under his 

 personal supervision. Failing health, largely 

 caused by overwork, compelled his resignation 

 in May, 1884, and he then became editor of the 

 " Druggists' Circular." But his vitality gradu- 

 ally gave out until his death. His published pa- 

 pers are many and valuable. They include anal- 

 yses of various plants, reports on sorghum, with 

 thousands of analyses, exhaustive communica- 

 tions on berberina, opium, quinine, nitrous 

 ether, the oleates, etc. He was also one of the 

 Committee of Revision of the " United States 

 Pharmacopeia," and a trustee of the New 

 York College of Pharmacy. 



