578 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



amusement for workingwomen. This effort 

 led to the establishment of the famous " Bof- 

 fin's Bower" on July 25, 1870, through the 

 means cheerfully granted her hy the large em- 

 ployers of female labor and the wealthy mer- 

 chants. She provided food, clothing, and 

 lodging Iwhen necessary, and found employ- 

 ment for hundreds of needy women every 

 year. At the time of the great fire the utility 

 of the "Bower" was so thoroughly demon- 

 strated, that thereafter she had no difficulty in 

 obtaining all the money necessary to carry on 

 her humane work. 



Conner, James Madison, an American manu- 

 facturer, born in New York city in 1825 ; died 

 there, July 14, 1887. At an early age he 

 entered his father's type-foundry, and, display- 

 ing a marked aptitude for the business, was 

 rapidly advanced till he occupied a place of 

 much responsibility in the mechanical depart- 

 ment. At the death of his father, the founder 

 of the establishment, his elder brother, William, 

 assumed charge, while James remained at the 

 bench, where from time to time he devised a 

 number of the most important inventions now 

 known to the trade. He succeeded to the 

 charge of the business on the death of his 

 brother William, but clung to bis bench and 

 inventive study to the last. His excellence as 

 a designer of new faces for type was well 

 known throughout this country and in Europe. 

 Among his most noted inventions is what is 

 known in the trade as dropped type. For 

 many years he was a popular member of the 

 old Volunteer Fire Department, being con- 

 nected with " Honey Bee " engine, No. 5. 



Conway, Thomas William, an American clergy- 

 man, born in County Clare, Ireland, March 25, 

 1840; died in Brooklyn, N. Y., April 6, 1887. 

 He was brought to the United States when a 

 child, and paid for his education by his own 

 labor, being graduated at Madison University, 

 and ordained a minister of the Baptist Church 

 when only twenty-one years of age. His first 

 pastorate was in Tottenville, Stateu Island, 

 where he remained till the war broke out, 

 when he accompanied the Ninth Regiment of 

 New York Volunteers to the front as chaplain. 

 He remained with this regiment two years, 

 and was then commissioned as chaplain of the 

 Seventy-Ninth Regiment United States Colored 

 Infantry, and in this capacity -served under 

 Gen. Butler in New Orleans. For his gallant 

 action in leading a brigade to victory, he was 

 promoted to the rank of brigadier -general, 

 and appointed Assistant Commissioner of 

 Freedmen for Louisiana, subsequently becom- 

 ing State Superintendent of Education. He 

 remained in Louisiana nearly eleven years, 

 during which time he established 1,500 schools 

 for the education of the freedmen. While on 

 Roanoke Island he administered the rites of 

 Christian burial to the first contraband of the 

 war, and in the interests of civilization and 

 morality, instituted and insisted upon the per- 

 formance of the marriage ceremony among the 



colored people. Gen. Conway returned North 

 in 1873, and, after a brief pastorate in Vine- 

 land, N. J., became assistant to Rev. Justin D. 

 Fulton, D. D., in the Centennial Baptist Church, 

 Brooklyn, N. Y. He served there for two 

 years, and then devoted himself almost wholly 

 to labor in the cause of temperance, organizing 

 the New York Anti-Saloon League, and work- 

 ing and speaking vigorously for the establish- 

 ment of high license. At the time of his death 

 he was secretary of the State Temperance Re- 

 publican League, and had just organized a tem- 

 perance insurance company. 



Cooke, Pliineas Baldwin, an American pioneer, 

 born in Litchfield, Conn., Nov. 24, 1803; died 

 in New York city, Feb. 7, 1887. On attaining 

 his majority he removed to Rochester, N. Y., 

 and was a resident of that city till 1856. He 

 was actively employed in the temperance and 

 anti-slavery movements in Western New York 

 for many years. In 1825 he was one of the 

 party that went through the Erie Canal with 

 De Witt Clinton on its completion, carrying 

 the waters of Lake Erie to mingle with those 

 of the Atlantic Ocean. In 1857 he removed to 

 New York city, and entered the employ of 

 the post-office department, retaining his place 

 till within a year of his death. He survived 

 the celebration of his golden wedding six 

 years. To his last days he felt great pride in 

 having been one of the early settlers of Roches- 

 ter, and his interest in the prosperity of that 

 city never abated. 



Cornell, John Black, an American manufact- 

 urer, born in Far Rockaway, Long Island, 

 N. Y., Feb. 7, 1821 ; died in Lakewoocl. N. J., 

 Oct. 26, 1887. He was brought up on his 

 father's farm, but at the age of fifteen left 

 home under an apprenticeship to learn the 

 foundry trade. In 1847 he opened a factory 

 in New York, in connection with his brother, 

 for the general manufacture of articles in iron, 

 and their success was such that within a few 

 years the iron-works of J. B. and W. W. Cor- 

 nell were among the largest in the country. 

 As their business increased, the brothers con- 

 stantly sought methods of doing good with 

 their large means. Both had united in boy- 

 hood with the Methodist Episcopal Church, 

 and in prosperous days found a large but not 

 exclusive field for benevolent effort in the 

 many societies of that denomination. They 

 devoted a fixed percentage of their annual 

 income to religious and charitable purposes, 

 and the annual contribution of John to the 

 interests of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 

 exclusive of schools and missions, frequently 

 amounted to $50,000. The brothers founded 

 the New York City Mission and Sunday-School 

 Society, and each in turn held the presidency 

 of it, while the Cornell Memorial Church, 

 though named in honor of W. W. Cornell, was 

 practically erected by his brother John. At 

 the time of his death John was erecting a fire- 

 proof library building for Drew Theological 

 Seminary in Madison, N. J., at an expense of 



