674 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



of his State. He was President of the State 

 Society of the Cincinnati, the Charleston Libra- 

 ry Society, and the South Carolina Huguenot 

 Society. He published numerous historical ad- 

 dresses, including u The Stamp- Act of Great 

 Britain, and the Resistance of the Colonies," 

 showing that South Carolina, on March 26, 

 1776, adopted a Constitution by which the 

 royal government ceased to exist there ; " The 

 Causes which led to the Surrender of Corn- 

 wallis at Yorktown " ; " Memoir of Gen. Will- 

 iam Moultrie " ; and " Muster-Roll of the South 

 Carolina Soldiers of the Continental Line and 

 Militia who served during the Revolution." 

 He also prepared an address on the celebra- 

 tion by the Huguenot Society of America of 

 the bi-centennial anniversary of the revocation 

 of the Edict of Nantes (New York, 1885). 



DeYerenx, John Henry, an American railroad 

 manager, born in Boston, Mass., April 5, 1832 ; 

 died in Cleveland, Ohio, March 17, 1886. His 

 ancestors were among those who purchased 

 the site of Marblehead, Mass., from the Indians 

 in 1684, and his father was Capt. John Deve- 

 renx, of the merchant marine. He was edu- 

 cated at Portsmouth (N. H.) Academy, and in 

 1848 removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where he 

 was construction engineer on several railway 

 lines. In 1852 he went to Tennessee and be- 

 came prominent in railroad matters there, be- 

 ing resident engineer of the Tennessee and 

 Alabama Railway for eight years, and serving 

 for a time as city engineer of Nashville. At 

 the beginning of the civil war he closed up his 

 affairs and offered his services to the Govern- 

 ment, and in the early part of 1862 was directed 

 to make a reconnoissance for a military road 

 in the Shenandoah Valley. On its completion 

 he was made superintendent of military rail- 

 roads in Virginia, with the rank of colonel, 

 and soon succeeded in bringing order out of 

 the confusion into which they had fallen, not- 

 withstanding the constant assaults of the ene- 

 my, the demand for the conveyance of large 

 bodies of troops, batteries, pontoons, and sick 

 and wounded soldiers, and the swarms of ped- 

 dlers, thieves, and spies that infested the roads. 

 Under his control Alexandria became the cen- 

 ter of a system that worked with precision and 

 energy. He was repeatedly complimented for 

 bravery and distinguished services by Gen. 

 Meade and other officers, and on his resigna- 

 tion, in March, 1864, received a letter of thanks 

 from Secretary Stanton. He then returned to 

 Cleveland, where he became Superintendent, 

 and afterward Vice-President of the Cleve- 

 land and Pittsburg, and in 1868 Vice-Presi- 

 dent of the Lake Shore road. He subsequently 

 became its president, and when all the lines 

 between Buffalo and Chicago were united he 

 was made general manager of the entire sys- 

 tem. From 1873 until his dsath he was presi- 

 dent of many important lines. He was a man 

 of great courage, and during the riots of 1871 

 prevented eight hundred of his men, by his 

 personal influence, in the face of great danger, 



from joining the mob. He was an incorpo- 

 rator of the Case School of Applied Science in 

 Cleveland, and a member of many charitable 

 and scientific associations. He was also promi- 

 nent in the councils of the Protestant Epis- 

 copal Church. In June, 1885, he read before 

 the Cullom Interstate Commerce Committee of 

 Congress, in St. Louis, a paper on the railroad 

 interests of the country. 



Don, Laura, an American actress, born in 

 Glens Falls, N. Y., in 1850; died in Troy, 

 N. Y., Feb. 10, 1886. At the age of eighteen 

 she went upon the stage, her first appearance 

 being in company with the late John E. Owens. 

 In 1879 she wrote and produced at the Stand- 

 ard Theatre, New York, " A Daughter of the 

 Nile," in which she played a leading part. The 

 piece was well received by the newspaper crit- 

 ics, but failed in popular appreciation. She 

 was a bright, intellectual woman ; a pleasing 

 conversationalist, an observant traveler, and a 

 creditable landscape-painter ; she had appeared 

 but little on the stage in the past few years, her 

 health not permitting her to play continuously. 

 She was twice married. 



Doton, Hosea, an American educator, born in 

 Pomfret, Vt,, Nov. 29, 1809 ; died in Wood- 

 stock, Vt., Jan. 17, 1886. He spent his boy- 

 hood on his father's farm, and after leaving the 

 common school studied by himself, becoming 

 especially proficient in mathematics. He read- 

 ily took up his father's work of land-survey- 

 ing, and taught school in the winter during the 

 years from 1828 to 1846. Shortly after this, 

 he began the work of his life, the training of 

 teachers, which he carried on from 1850 to 

 1866, adopting the plan of keeping a private 

 school in the spring, and teaching the public 

 school in the winter, with the right to take pu- 

 pils of his own. In this unpretentious way, 

 Mr. Doton trained about 150 successful teach- 

 ers, and had great influence on common-school 

 education in his State. In 1867 he left this 

 work to become engineer of the Woodstock 

 Railroad, upon which work had just begun, 

 and held that post until his death. He found 

 time during his teaching to do much survey- 

 ing, and also made astronomical calculations, 

 first for a register published in Woodstock in 

 1843-'56, then for Walton's " Vermont Regis- 

 ter " from 1858 until his death, and also for 

 the "New Hampshire Register" since about 

 1876. He kept a meteorological record for 

 eighteen years, making full monthly reports to 

 the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. 

 Mr. Doton was elected to the State Senate in 

 1865 and 1866, and in the latter year the Gen- 

 eral Assembly established by law his method of 

 computing annual interest, known as the "Ver- 

 mont Rule." Mr. Doton was a man of quiet 

 and retiring disposition, but had wonderful 

 success in teaching, and attracted all by the 

 charm of his manner. Norwich University gave 

 him the honorary degree of A. M. in 1845. 



Dongall, John, an American editor, born in 

 Scotland, in 1809; died in Flushing, L. I., 



