OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



trustee of Yate College from 1872 till 1881, 

 first president of the Connecticut Valley Con- 

 gregational Club, 1882, trustee of the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College, and member of 

 the board of overseers of Amherst College. 

 He built a free library for his townspeople, 

 and received the degree of LL. D. from Har- 

 vard College in 1872. 



Wassou, David Atwood, an American author, 

 born in Brooksville, Me., May 14, 1823 ; died 

 in West Medford, Mass., Jan. 21, 1887. In 

 1845 he entered Bowdoin College, but with- 

 drew before completing tlie course, and began 

 studying law in Sedgwick, Me. This course 

 proving uncongenial was abandoned in 1849, 

 when he entered the Bangor Theological Semi- 

 nary with a view of preparing for the ministry, 

 completed the course, and accepted a pastorate 

 in Groveland, Mass. While attending the 

 seminary he gave much offense to the faculty 

 by his extremely liberal views, and he had 

 been settled over his church but a short time 

 when his ideas caused the congregation to dis- 

 miss him. He then devoted himself to litera- 

 ture, and became widely known as a poet and 

 essayist, contributing to the " Atlantic Month- 

 ly," the " Radical," the " North American 

 Review," among other publications. In 18f>5 

 he resumed pastoral work in Boston, preaching 

 to the Parker congregation, but within a year 

 his health failed, and he was obliged to cease 

 from all work. 



Watkins, Alice, an American actress, born in 

 Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 22, 1849 ; died in Phila- 

 delphia, Pa., Jan. 10, 1887. About 1865 she 

 married James A. Gates, who put her upon the 

 stage in Cincinnati'when she was twenty years 

 of ag3. Her first appearance was in the part 

 of " Earl Darnley " in the burlesque of " The 

 Field of the Cloth of Gold," in which she 

 achieved such a success that after the first 

 week she was billed as a star. She played an 

 entire year in Chicago without a change of 

 bill, and then produced the piece for over 200 

 nights in Philadelphia. After this she ap- 

 peared in comic opera wholly, her most dis- 

 tinguished performance being the dual role of 

 the two sisters in ' % Girofla-Girofle." Her hus- 

 band died in 186*, and in November, 1872, she 

 married Tracey W. Titns, from whom she was 

 divorced in 1875. On May 17, 1879, she 

 married Samuel P. Watkins, anon-professional, 

 at whose father's house she passed away. 



Weaver, Archibald .)., an American lawyer, 

 born in Dundaff, Susquehanna County, Pa., 

 April 15, 1844; died in Falls City, Neb., April 

 18, 1887. He worked on a farm from his 

 ninth till his seventeenth year, and was then 

 educated in Wyoming Seminary, Pennsylva- 

 nia, of which institution he served as a mem- 

 ber of the faculty from 1864 till 1867. He 

 then studied law at Harvard University, was 

 admitted to the bar in Boston, Mass., in Janu- 

 ary, 1869, and, removing at once to Falls City, 

 Neb., soon established himself in practice and 

 took an active part in political affairs. In 



1871 he was elected a member of the Nebraska 

 Constitutional Convention; in 1872, district- 

 nttorney for the Firat District of the State ; in 

 1875. a member of the new State Constitu- 

 tional Convention ; and the same year judge 

 of the First Judicial District of Nebraska. He 

 was re-elected in 1879, and held the office till 

 1883, when he was elected a representative in 

 Congress from the First District, and resigned 

 from the bench. He was re-elected to Con- 

 gress in 1885, serving on the Committee on 

 Commerce. At the expiration of his second 

 term he resumed the practice of law. 



Webb, George .lames, an American composer, 

 born in Wiltshire, England, June 24, 1803; 

 died in Orange, N. J., Oct. 7, 1887. He came 

 to the United States in 1830, settled in Boston, 

 Mass., and was one of the founders of the 

 Academy of Music in that city in 1836. Short- 

 ly afterward he was elected president of the 

 Handel and Haydn Society. He was one of 

 the earliest conductors of symphony and ora- 

 torio concerts in New England, and for many 

 years one of the most popular teachers of vocal 

 and instrumental music in Boston. In 1871 he 

 removed to New York city and wtis organist 

 of the Swedenborgian Church for a long time. 

 He compiled hymnals and wrote popular hymns 

 and secular songs, of which "The Morning 

 Light is Breaking" is the best known. 



Weld, Mason Cogswell, an American agricultur- 

 ist, born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1829; died 

 near Closter, N. J., Sept. 25, 1887. He was 

 graduated at Yale College in 1852, with the 

 degree of Ph. B., and then spent two years 

 studying chemistry under Prof. Silliman in 

 New Haven. He afterward studied at Munich 

 and Leipsic under Professors Liebigand Bunsen, 

 principally the chemistry of agriculture, and 

 on his return to the United States became con- 

 nected with "The American Agriculturist." 

 In 1863 he followed his two brothers into the 

 army, going out as captain in the Twenty-fifth 

 Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers, and re- 

 turning with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, 

 gained by meritorious services in the south- 

 west under 'Gen. Banks. Alter the war he 

 devoted himself to scientific agriculture, re- 

 sumed his connection with the agricultural 

 press, and became noted as a breeder and ex- 

 pert judge of fine cattle, particularly Jerseys 

 and Guernseys. 



Whitall, Henry, an American astronomer, born 

 near Thoroughfare, Gloucester County, N. J., 

 April 28, 1819; died in London, England, 

 June 3, 1857. He was educated at the Friends' 

 boarding-school at Westtown, N. J., and began 

 studying astronomy at an early age. He taught 

 school for some time near Paulsboro', and then 

 came before the public as a lecturer on astro- 

 nomical phenomena and an inventor of charts 

 and mechanical apparatus to illustrate the 

 movements, positions, and laws governing the 

 heavenly bodies. His movable planispheres 

 and valuable improvements of the heliotellus, 

 as well a the extent of his researches and cal- 



