OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



569 



1860 be went to California with Josiah D. 

 Whitney, to engage on the geological survey 

 of that State. His services were then retained 

 as mining expert by the Bank of California, 

 and ultimately he devoted his attention exclu- 

 sively to that branch of work, traveling exten- 

 sively through the mining districts of the 

 United States, British Columbia, and Mexico, 

 and also in the more distant regions of South 

 America and Asia. He was appointed one of 

 the commissioners of the Yosemite Valley and 

 of the Mariposa Big-tree Grove in 1864, and 

 held that office until 1880. In 1874 he was 

 elected Professor of Mining in the University 

 of California, and after organizing the School 

 of Mines of that institution, was made honorary 

 occupant of the chair, also in 1880 he was ap- 

 pointed one of the Board of Regents of the 

 university. He was chosen by James Lick to 

 be one of the trustees of the California School 

 of Mechanical Arts, and likewise was a trustee 

 of the Leland Stanford Jr., University. Prof. 

 Ashburner was an active member, and for 

 some time a trustee of the California Academy 

 of Sciences, also President of the Microscopical 

 and member of historical and geographical 

 societies of California, and one of the founders 

 of the Harvard Club of San Francisco. 



Ashe, Thomas Samuel, an American lawyer, 

 born in Orange County, N. C., July 21, 1812 ; 

 died in Wadesboro, N. C., Feb. 4, 1887. He 

 received an academic education at the Bingham 

 School, Hillsboro, N. C., and was graduated at 

 the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 

 in 1832. Studying law in the office of the late 

 Chief-Justice Ruffin, he was admitted to the 

 bar, and took up his residence in Wadesboro 

 in 1836. In 1842 he was elected a member of 

 the House of Commons of the Legislature, in 

 1847 was elected by the Legislature Solicitor 

 of the Fifth Judicial District of the State, in 1854 

 was elected to the State Senate, and in 1861 

 was elected a delegate to the StateConstitutional 

 Convention, which, however, was not called at 

 that time on account of an adverse popular 

 vote. He was a member of the Confederate 

 House of Representatives, and, while serving 

 his term was elected a member of the Con- 

 federate Senate in 1864. Two years later he 

 became a Councilor of State, serving during 

 the administration of Gov. Worth. In 1872 

 he was elected a member of Congress, and in 

 1874 was re-elected. At the expiration of his 

 second term, while* arranging to resume the 

 practice of law, he was elected an Associate 

 Justice of the Supreme Court of North Caro- 

 lina, and in 1886 was re-elected. 



Astor, Charlotte Augusta, born in New York 

 city, Feb. 27, 1825 ; died there, Dec. 12, 1887. 

 She was a daughter of Thomas S. Gibbs, an 

 educated man of business and wealth, who had 

 removed from the South to New York, and 

 Miss Vanden Heuval, of an old and rich family. 

 With her two sisters she received all the educa- 

 tional advantages of the day. including thorough 

 instruction in the French, German, and Italian 



languages, music, and painting. Miss Augusta, 

 as she was usually called in the family, mar- 

 ried John Jacob Astor on Dec. 9, 1846, and 

 had one child, William Waldorf, recently U. S. 

 Minister to Italy. To the great fortune of 

 her husband she brought a large personal one 

 derived from her parents, and this, together 

 with her husband's allowances, enabled her 

 to gratify her philanthropic desires. While 

 the range of her benefactions showed a noble 

 catholicity of spirit, she made herself the spe- 

 cial promoter of some of the best-known 

 movements in charity. She was particularly 

 interested in the Children's Aid Society, and 

 besides spending a large sum of money an- 

 nually in gathering little waifs from the streets, 

 and placing them in good homes in the West, 

 she provided, for many years, a grand dinner 

 at the various branches of the society in the 

 holiday season. When her sister, Mrs. Cul- 

 lone, provided for the founding of the New 

 York Cancer Hospital she gave $225,000 for 

 the erection of the buildings, which were form- 

 ally opened a few days before her death. For 

 twenty years she supported and personally 

 labored in an industrial school founded by her- 

 self, where poor children of German parentage 

 were fed, clothed, and educated. She was also 

 a warm friend of the homeless newsboys, fre- 

 quently visiting their lodging-house, and caring 

 for their wants. During the past ten years 

 she gave them their Thanksgiving-dinners, and 

 at an expense of $20,000 provided homes in the 

 country for 1,413 of them. From 1872 till her 

 death she was a manager of the Woman's Hos- 

 pital, giving it liberally of her means and time. 

 Besides these interests, she was actively iden- 

 tified with the Five Points' Mission, St. Barna- 

 bas Home, St. Luke's Hospital, and foreign 

 and domestic missionary societies, including 

 the work among the Indians of Dakota and 

 other Territories. She bequeathed $25,000 

 to the Woman's Hospital, $25,000 to the 

 Young Women's Christian Association, $35,- 

 000 to the Children's Aid Society, $25,000 

 to the Hampton Normal and Agricultural In- 

 stitute of Virginia, $25,000 to the Domestic and 

 Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant 

 Episcopal Church, $1,000 to the New York 

 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chil- 

 dren, $1,000 to the Orphan's Home and Asylum 

 of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New 

 York, and $1,000 to the Society for the Relief 

 of the Destitute Blind. 



Ajres, William Orvllle, an American physician, 

 born in New Canaan, Conn., Sept. 11, 1817; 

 died in Brooklyn, N. Y M April 30, 1887. Ho 

 was graduated at Yale University with the- 

 class of 1837, and during the ensuing fifteen 

 years was employed as a teacher, his last en- 

 gagement as such being in Boston, Mass., from 

 1845 till 1852. In the latter part of this service 

 he began the study of medicine in Bo-tun, 

 finishing his course at Yale and receiving his 

 degree in 1854. Removing directly thereafter 

 to San Francisco, Cal., ho was engaged in pruc- 



