610 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



to take an active interest in politics, being a 

 warm friend and earnest supporter of Gen. 

 Logan, through whose influence be was ap- 

 pointed canal commissioner, and in 1871 a 

 member of the Board of Penitentiary Commis- 

 sioners. In 1876 he was elected a member of 

 the State Legislature, and in the early part of 

 President Arthur's administration was ap- 

 pointed collector of internal revenue at Quin- 

 cy, 111., retaining the office till the consolida- 

 tion of that district with another under the 

 administration of Pre?ident Cleveland. Gen. 

 Rowett dropped dead on the Washington Park 

 race-track with heart-disease. 



Ryle, John, an American manufacturer, born 

 in Bollington, England, Oct. 22, 1817; died 

 there Nov. 6, 1887. At the age of five years 

 he was set to work in a silk-mill in Maccles- 

 field, near his home, and when his two broth- 

 ers engaged largely in silk manufacturing he 

 served them for several years as superintend- 

 ent. He came to the United States in 1839, 

 beginning business as an importer of silk goods 

 in New York city. While so employed he 

 made the acquaintance of George W. Murray, 

 who was seeking an investment in the silk in- 

 dustry, and the two bought the old Colt fire- 

 arms factory in Paterson, N. J., put in it a 

 few looms, and began weaving silk. In 1846 

 Mr. Ryle bought out his partner's interest, 

 continuing the business alone for some years, 

 and accumulating a handsome fortune. In 

 1864 he organized the firm of John Ryle & 

 Co., which built the large mill near the depot, 

 and on March 10, 1869, was left nearly penni- 

 less by the destruction of the uninsured works 

 by fire. He rebuilt the mill on credit, organ- 

 ized the Ryle Silk Manufacturing Company, 

 which in 1878 was renamed the Pioneer Silk 

 Company, and, though holding the majority 

 of stock and the office of president, gradually 

 withdrew from the active management of the 

 works. He was a strong protection Democrat, 

 a member of the various silk associations of 

 this country, and their stanch representative 

 in Washington during the sessions of Congress. 

 He wove the silk flag which floated over the 

 Crystal Palace in New York city, was one of 

 the originators of the Paterson water-works 

 system, Mayor of the city in 1870-'7l, and the 

 beautifier of the grounds about the Passaic 

 Falls. He was visiting his old home at the 

 time of his death. 



Rnmsey, Henry Barlow, an American naval 

 officer, born in Fort Wayne, Ind., Nov. 22, 

 1841; died in Buffalo, N. Y., March 19, 1887. 

 lie was appointed from Indiana an acting 

 midshipman in the navy Oct. 25, 1859; trans- 

 ferred to the "St. Lawrence " from the Naval 

 Academy in 1861; ordered to the "Clifton" 

 in 1862; Feb. 24, 1863, appointed ensign; 

 April 27, 1864, commissioned a lieutenant; 

 Aug. 9, 1866, a lieutenant-commander; and 

 resigned from the navy in March, 1871. In 

 his nine years and nine months of naval serv- 

 ice Mr. Rumsey was eight years and six 



months on sea-service, his last sea-service be- 

 ing on the " Quinnebaug," of which he was 

 executive officer. He served on that ship, 

 and on the flag-ship " Guerriere," in the 

 South Atlantic squadron, from July 22, 1867, 

 till July 18, 1870. He served throughout the 

 civil war, being present at the bombardment 

 of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, Mississippi 

 river, April, 1861 ; at Vicksburg, June 29, 

 1862; capture of Galveston, Oct. 4, 1862; 

 recapture of Galveston, Jan. 1, 1863; Mata- 

 gorda, Texas, November, 1862 ; and at both 

 attacks on Fort Fisher. After resigning he 

 was engaged in business at Laramie City, Wy- 

 oming Territory, and at Sidney and Omaha, 

 Neb. On the night of March 18, 1887, he was 

 a guest of the Richmond Hotel in Buffalo 

 when it was burned. Waked from sleep by 

 the flames, he found a way for escape, but as 

 he was about to leap from the burning build- 

 ing he heard the appealing cry of a child who 

 had become separated from her parents. He 

 went back to save her, following her even to 

 the room into which in her fright she had 

 rushed and closed the door. Seizing the child, 

 and sheltering her in his arms as best he could, 

 he ran back to the window through which he 

 had planned his escape, but the flames envel- 

 oped him and his little charge before he could 

 again reach it. He jumped with her to a roof 

 below, from which both were soon rescued, 

 but they were so badly burned that he died 

 the next morning, and the child a day or two 

 later. Mr. Rumsey was a man of superior 

 mental ability, of extensive reading and varied 

 knowledge. 



Sargent, Aaron A., an American legislator, 

 born in Newburyport, Mass., Sept. 28, 1827; 

 died in San Francisco, Cal., Aug. 14, 1887. 

 He learned the printer's trade in early life, and 

 when twenty years old was a newspaper re- 

 porter in Washington, D. C. In 1849 he re- 

 moved to California, where he engaged in min- 

 ing, and established the "Nevada Journal." 

 While editing his paper he studied law, was 

 admitted to the bar in 1854, and elected dis- 

 trict attorney of Nevada County two years 

 later. In 1860 he was vice-president of the 

 Republican National Convention ; in 1861 was 

 elected Representative in Congress, and in 

 that session was the author of the first Pacific 

 Railroad act passed by that body; in 1869 

 was returned to Congress, and on the expira- 

 tion of the term re-elected; and in 1872 elected 

 United States Senator for the term of six years, 

 serving on the committees on Naval Affairs, 

 Mines and Mining, and Appropriations. In 

 March, 1882, he was appointed United States 

 Minister to Germany by President Garfield, 

 and held the office till the action of the German 

 authorities in excluding American pork from 

 the empire made his incumbency personally 

 distasteful. President Arthur offered him the 

 Russian mission, but he declined it. 



Scott, Robert N., an American soldier, born in 

 Winchester, Tenn., in 1836 ; died in Waging- 



