572 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



purpose of pursuing graduate studies in history 

 and literature. But before he had completed 

 the course for the degree, he was induced to 

 resume the practice of law with his brother's 

 firm, then Whitney & Betts. In October, 1875, 

 upon the appointment of Mr. Whitney to be 

 Corporation Counsel of New York city, the firm 

 was changed to F. H. and C. W. Betts, and 

 subsequently to Betts, Atterbury & Betts. The 

 specialty of the firm was patent-cases in the 

 United States courts, and in that branch of 

 practice Mr. Betts developed a promising abil- 

 ity. He was a member of the Union, Knicker- 

 bocker, and Century Clubs, the New York Bar 

 Association, and the Seawanhaka Yacht Club. 

 At an early age he became interested in the 

 study of numismatics, and during his residence 

 in New Haven gave much time to the arrange- 

 ment and description of the college coin col- 

 lection. He bequeathed to the college his own 

 rich collection of coins as well as some valu- 

 able specimens of early oak carving. 



Blackburn, Luke Pryor, an American physician, 

 born in Fayette County, Ky., June 16, 1816; 

 died in Frankfort, Ky., Sept. 14, 1887. He 

 was graduated in medicine at Transylvania 

 University, Lexington, Ky., in 1834, and began 

 practice in that city. In 1835, when cholera 

 broke out in the town of Versailles, he went 

 there and remained during the prevalence of 

 the plague, giving gratuitous service to the 

 sufferers. He afterward made that town his 

 home, and in 1843 was sent to the Legislature 

 as representative of Woodford County. In 

 1846 he removed to Natchez, Miss. Two years 

 later, on the outbreak of yellow fever in New 

 Orleans, as health officer of Natchez, he estab- 

 lished the first effective quarantine against 

 New Orleans that had ever been known in 

 the Mississippi valley. At the same time he 

 founded at his own expense a hospital for river- 

 men. He also served through the epidemic of 

 1854, and after its extinction obtained the pas- 

 sage of an act of Congress establishing the 

 quarantine station below New Orleans. Dur- 

 ing the civil war he served on the staff of the 

 Confederate General Sterling Price as surgeon, 

 and afterward visited the Bermuda Islands for 

 the relief of sufferers there, at the request of 

 the Governor-General of Canada. In 1807 he 

 retired to his plantation in Arkansas, where he 

 remained till 1873, when he returned to his 

 native State. In 1875, when yellow fever was 

 raging at Memphis and threatened the entire 

 Mississippi valley, he hastened to the city, and 

 organized and directed a corps of physicians 

 and nurses. Again, in 1878, he gave his entire 

 services and time for the relief of yellow-fever 

 sufferers at Hickman, Ky. In 1879 he was 

 elected Governor of the State as a Democrat, 

 and in that office distinguished himself by the 

 large number of pardons issued to convict?, 

 for humane and sanitary reasons. 



Blake, Samuel H., an American banker, born 

 in Hartford, Oxford County, Me., in 1807; 

 died in Boston, Mass., April 25, 1887. He was 



educated in the local schools and at Bowdoin 

 College, and, after being graduated at the lat- 

 ter, studied law, and in 1831 was admitted to 

 the bar. He was a member of the State Sen- 

 ate in 1840-'42, being president during the 

 latter year, and Attorney-General of the State 

 in 1848. In 1854 he unsuccessfully opposed 

 the late Israel Washburn for Congress. Pre- 

 vious to the civil war he acted with the Demo- 

 cratic party, but then became a strong Union 

 man and remained an energetic Republican. 

 Mr. Blake had been president of the Merchants' 

 Bank of Bangor since 1863, when he gave up 

 his law practice to succeed his brother William 

 as the head of the bank. He was very wealthy. 



Bodwell, Joseph R., Governor of Maine, born 

 in Methuen, Mass., June 18, 1818; died in 

 Hallowell, Me., Dec. 15, 1887. He worked 

 upon a farm till his seventeenth year, and then 

 learned the shoemaker's trade, which he fol- 

 lowed for several years, educating himself in 

 evenings and spare hours. In 1852 he becamo 

 associated with Moses Webster in quarrying 

 granite at Fox Island, near the mouth of Pe- 

 nobscot river, Me., working an abandoned 

 property, and this venture proved the founda- 

 tion of his large fortune. At first he drove the 

 single yoke of oxen owned by the firm, but the 

 business soon began to increase, and a joint- 

 stock company was organized with Mr. Bodwell 

 as president. He obtained the contract for 

 furnishing the stone for the building of the 

 War, Navy, and State Departments at Wash- 

 ington, D. C., and, removing in 1866 to Hallo- 

 well, organized a second granite company 

 there. From his quarries was taken the stone 

 used in the Yorktown Monument, the Boston 

 Soldiers' Monument, the new Capitol at Albany, 

 N. Y., the public buildings in Chicago, Brook- 

 lyn, and New York, and the carved sphinx in 

 Mount Auburn cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. 

 He was an ardent Republican, was twice 

 elected Mayor of Hallowell, and represented 

 for two terms his district in the lower branch 

 of the State Legislature. In 1880 he was a dele- 

 gate-at-large to the National Republican Con- 

 vention that nominated Gen. Garfield, in 1884 

 headed the Maine delegation in the convention 

 that nominated Mr. Elaine, and in 1886 was 

 elected Governor of Maine by a plurality of 

 12,000. Besides his quarry interests he was 

 largely engaged in lumbering, shipping, and 

 cattle-raising. He was always proud of his 

 early struggles, and made a generous distribu- 

 tion from his fortune among the poor. 



Bolingsoff, Catherine, an American philanthro- 

 pist, born in Dublin, Ireland, in April, 1816; 

 died near Emmettsburg. Md., March 18, 1887. 

 She came to the United States when a young 

 girl, became a nun in 1831, entering the novi- 

 tiate at St. Joseph's Academy, near Emmetts- 

 burg, and rose rapidly to the rank of principal 

 teacher in that institution. For several years 

 she was attached to St. Mary's Asylum, Balti- 

 more, but subsequently returned to St. Joseph's 

 Academy, where she was engaged in works of 



