OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



707 



Survey. In February, 1861, he was enrolled 

 in a company that tendered its services to 

 Gen. Scott to protect the President-elect, Mr. 

 Lincoln, on his way to Washington. During 

 the following April he was made assistant 

 quartermaster-general on the staff of the Gov- 

 ernor of Ohio. Subsequently he was State 

 Military Engineer for the Ohio troops in West 

 Virginia, after which he became colonel of the 

 Twentieth Ohio Volunteers, and then Chief-En- 

 gineer of the Department of Ohio. He was 

 present at Fort Donelson, and commanded the 

 Third Brigade in Gen. Wallace's division at 

 Shiloh ; but failing health compelled him to 

 resign in April, 1862. Subsequently he re- 

 sumed his scientific and literary labors,' and 

 founded the Western Reserve Historical Society 

 of Cleveland, of which he was president for 

 many years. Besides his reports for the geo- 

 logical surveys, he published " Descriptions of 

 Ancient Works in Ohio" (Smithsonian Con- 

 tributions, 3, Washington, 1851); " On Fluc- 

 tuations of Level in the- North American 

 Lakes" (S. C. 6, 1860); "Ancient Mining on 

 the Shores of Lake Superior " (S. C. 13, 1863) ; 

 "On the Fresh -Water Glacial Drift in the 

 Northwestern States" (S. C. 15, 1866); "Life 

 of John Fitch," in Jared Sparks's series of 

 "American Biography" (Boston, 1845); and 

 " Early History of Cleveland and Vicinity " 

 (Cleveland, 186V). 



Wilder, Marshall P., an American merchant, 

 born in Rindge, N. IL, Sept. 22, 1798; died in 

 Boston, Mass., Dec. 16, 1886. In Boston, in 

 1825, he established a wholesale business in 

 West Indian goods, to which he devoted him- 

 self till 1837, when he became a partner in 

 the commission-house of Parker, Blanchard & 

 Wilder. In 1839 he was elected a member of 

 the State House of Representatives, ten years 

 later he served one term in the Executive 

 Council, and in 1850 was President of the State 

 Senate. He was active in the formation of 

 the " Constitutional Union party," and chair- 

 man of the Massachusetts delegation to the 

 convention that nominated Bell and Everett 

 in 1860. Throughout the civil war he was 

 a firm supporter of the national cause. For 

 sixty years he was an active director in one of 

 the Boston banks, and for nearly the same 

 period a director in one of the insurance com- 

 panies. He was the founder of the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural College and State Board of 

 Agriculture, and had been President of the 

 United States Agricultural Society ; was Presi- 

 dent of the Norfolk County Agricultural Soci- 

 ety for twenty years; President of the New 

 England Historical-Genealogical Society for 

 sixteen years ; and President of the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society for eight years. He 

 was also a leader in the movement that gave 

 to Boston the Natural History rooms and the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the 

 multitude of his trusts, he was most widely 

 known for his agricultural, pomological, and 

 genealogical labors. 



Willis, Benjamin A., an American lawyer, born in 

 Roslyn, Queens County, N. Y., March 24, 1840; 

 died in New York city, Oct. 15, 1886. He 

 was graduated at Union College in 1861, and 

 after studying law at the National Law School, 

 Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and with William M. In- 

 graham in Brooklyn, was admitted to the bar 

 the same year. He practiced till June, 1862, 

 when he raised a company at his own expense, 

 and with them was mustered into the national 

 service as a part of the One Hundred and Nine- 

 teenth New York Volunteers. Going to the 

 field as captain of this company, he became 

 major of the regiment and then colonel of the 

 Twelfth Regiment, taking part in the battles of 

 Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wanhatchie, and 

 Chattanooga, and being honorably discharged 

 in 1864. On his return he resumed the prac- 

 tice of law, and began to take an active inter- 

 est in politics. In 1872 he spoke in behalf of 

 the Liberal- Republican candidates, and in 1874 

 was elected a member of Congress from the 

 Eleventh New York or "millionaire" District 

 as a Liberal-Republican. In this Congress he 

 served as a member of the Committee on Na- 

 val Affairs. In 1876 he was re-elected, defeat- 

 ing Levi P. Morton, Republican, and becoming 

 chairman of the Committee on Expenditures 

 in the Navy Department, and in 1878 he was 

 defeated by Mr. Morton. He subsequently 

 devoted himself to the law and to real-estate 

 business. 



Wilmarth, Seth, an American machinist, born 

 in Brattleboro', Vt., Sept. 8, 1810 ; died in Mai- 

 den, Mass., Nov. 5, 1886. In early life he 

 was apprenticed to a machinist in Pawtucket, 

 R. I., and in 1855 became superintendent and 

 master-mechanic of the Charlestown Navy- 

 Yard. He occupied this post over twenty 

 years, and during that period he made many 

 permanent and valuable improvements in sev- 

 eral departments of the station, taking out 

 patents, among which were two for the hy- 

 draulic lift and his revolving turrets. For the 

 former he received from the Government the 

 sum of $50,000. 



Yulee, David Levy, an American lawyer, born 

 in the West Indies in 1811 ; died in New York 

 city, Oct. 10, 1886. His father's name was 

 Levy, and David went by it till 1845, when he 

 adopted that of Yulee, by which he was after- 

 ward known exclusively. He was taken to 

 Virginia when very young, and there received 

 the rudiments of a classical education and 

 studied law. In 1824 he removed to Florida, 

 where he engaged in the practice of his pro- 

 fession and in agriculture. From 1841 till 

 1845 he was a delegate to Congress from the 

 Territory of Florida, under the name of Levy, 

 and then under that of Yulee was a delegate 

 to the convention that formed the State Con- 

 stitution. In 1845 he was elected the first 

 representative of Florida in the United States 

 Senate, and was continued in the office by re- 

 elections till 1861, when he withdrew to give 

 his services to the Confederacy. While in the 



