OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



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OBITUARIES, AMERICAS. Abbott, Horace, an 



American manufacturer, born in Worcester 

 County, Mass., July 29, 1806; died in Balti- 

 more, Md., Aug. 8, 1887. He learned the black- 

 smith's trade, and in 1836 removed to Balti- 

 more, secured the Canton Iron Works, owned 

 by Peter Cooper, and began manufacturing 

 wrought-iron shafts, cranks, and other similar 

 material in iron for steam-vessels. He made 

 the first large steamship shaft of wronght-iron 

 (weighing 26,000 pounds) in this country, for a 

 Russian frigate. In 1860 he added three roll- 

 ing-mills to his plant, from which he turned 

 out the largest rolled-plate then made in the 

 United States. During the civil war he exe- 

 cuted many large contracts with the Govern- 

 ment, furnishing among other work the plates 

 for the first monitor, and subsequently the ar- 

 mor-plate for nearly all the vessels of that class 

 built on the Atlantic coast. After the war the 

 plant was sold to a joint stock company, of 

 which he became president, lie was identi- 

 fied with many charitable institutions, and was 

 a liberal promoter of religious interests. 



Abeel, Gostavns, an American clergyman, born 

 in .New York city, June 6, 1801 ; died in Stam- 

 ford, N. Y., Sept. 4, 1887. He was a son of 

 the Rev. John Neilson Abeel, for many years 

 pastor of the Collegiate Church in New York 

 city, and a grandson of Col. James S. Abeel, of 

 the Revolutionary army. He was ordained a 

 minister of the Reformed Church in 1824, and 

 after having charges in English Neighborhood 

 and Belleville, N. J., was settled in Geneva, N. 

 Y., for fifteen years. In 1844 he became the 

 first settled pastor of the Second Reformed 

 Church, in Newark, N. J., and remained there 

 till 1864, when his health compelled him to 

 withdraw from active work. He filled many 

 responsible offices in his church organization, 

 and was a member of the New Jersey Histori- 

 cal Society, and the oldest minister of the Re- 

 formed classis of Newark. 



Adams, James Osgood, an American journalist, 

 born in East Concord, N. H., June 5, 1818; 

 died on his farm in Boscawen, N. H., Feb. 7, 

 1887. He learned the printing-trade, fitted for 

 college under his brother, Rev. Ezra Eastman 

 Adams, at Lyndon (Vt.) Academy, and was 

 graduated at Dartmouth in 1843. For a time 

 he was principal of Lyndon Academy ; after- 

 ward at Manchester, N. H., teaching and read- 

 ing law. Mr. Adams was nine years publisher 

 and editor of the " American." During this 

 time he established and published for six years 

 the " Granite State Farmer." At a later date 

 he was editor of the " Mirror and American." 

 lie was clerk of his ward six years, moderator 

 nine years, member of the common council in 

 1847-'48, and president the last year. He was 

 a member of the Manchester School Board four 

 years, and Superintendent of its schools from 



1855 till 1859, and from 1861 till 1867. He 

 became a member of the Legislature in 1852, 

 and was re-elected to the House for nine years, 

 and was the Republican candidate for Speaker 

 of the House in 1871, a year when his party 

 was in a minority. He was five years Secre- 

 tary of the New Hampshire Agricultural So- 

 ciety, and edited the first five volumes of its 

 reports, and was delegate from that body to 

 the World's Fair, London, in 1851. He was 

 Secretary of the Board of Agriculture from 

 Aug. 23, 1870 till 1887. At his death he was 

 a member of the school board of Boscawen. 

 The fifteen annual reports of the Board of Ag- 

 riculture which he edited are a valuable con- 

 tribution to the agricultural literature of the 

 State, and a testimonial to his great interest 

 and labor in that department. 



Aiken, David Wyatt, an American agricultur- 

 ist, born in Winnsboro, Fairfield County, S. C., 

 March 17, 1828; died in Cokesbury, S. 0., 

 April 6, 1887. He was educated at the Mt. 

 Zion Collegiate Institute and the South Caro- 

 lina College, being graduated at the latter in 

 1849, and directly afterward was appointed 

 Professor of Mathematics in the former. In 

 1851 he visited Europe, and gave much atten- 

 tion to the study of agricultural science. On 

 his return he established himself on an impov- 

 erished farm, where his successful application 

 of science to exhausted nature developed a 

 fondness for agricultural pursuits which was 

 maintained to the close of his life. He con- 

 ducted costly experiments, and spoke and wrote 

 upon almost every subject connected with farm- 

 life and stock husbandry. In 1860, when his 

 State seceded, he volunteered as a private sol- 

 dier, but was soon afterward appointed adju- 

 tant of the Seventh Regiment of South Carolina 

 Infantry, and a year later was elected its colo- 

 nel. At the battle of Antietam he was shot 

 through the lungs and left for dead on the 

 field. On recovering he resumed command of 

 his regiment, serving till the close of the Gettys- 

 burg campaign, when, his health failing, he 

 was assigned to less laborious duty. He was 

 elected a member of the State Legislature in 

 1864-'66, and a member of Congress in 1876, 

 1878, 1880, 1882, and 1884, serving in the latter 

 body on the committees on agriculture and pat- 

 ents, and as chairman of the committee on 

 education. Mr. Aiken was an early and en- 

 thusiastic member of the Order of Patrons of 

 Husbandry. He served two years as Master of 

 the State Grange, and fourteen as a member of 

 the executive council of the National Grange. 



Aiken, William, an American legislator, born 

 in Charleston, S. C., in 1806; died in Flat 

 Rock, N. C., Sept. 7, 1887. He was graduated 

 at the College of South Carolina, in Columbia, 

 in 1825, and, after spending several years in 

 traveling, became a rice-planter on Jehosse Isl- 



