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OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (HEKNDON HILL.) 



cation ; studied and practiced law ; removed to Cali- 

 fornia, and was district-attorney of Sacramento County 

 from October, 1855, till October, 1857 ; and, settling in 

 Union, W. Va., was elected to Congress from the 3d 

 West Virginia District, us a Democrat, in 1870, 1872, 

 and 1874, and was elected United States Senator to 

 fill the vacancy caused by the death of Allen T. Ca- 

 perton, in 1870. In the House he was chairman of 

 the Committee on Claims and a member of that on 

 Militia, end in the Senate he was chairman of the 

 Committee on Mines and Mining and a member of 

 that on Claims. 



Herndon, William Henry, lawyer, born in Greensburg, 

 Ky., Dec. 28, 1818 ; died near Springfield, 111., March 

 18, 1891. In 1820 his parents removed to Illinois, 

 where he was educated and admitted to the bar. On 

 Sept. 20, 1843, he formed a law partnership with 

 Abraham Lincoln, which continued in fact till Mr. 

 Lincoln's election to the presidency, and in form till 

 his death, for when the President-elect was about 

 leaving Springfield to be inaugurated he entreated 

 his partner to let his name remain on the office sign 

 till he returned from Washington. So strong was the 

 personal friendship and confidence of the two men 

 that to the day of the assassination Mr. Herndon 

 transacted all the business of the firm in the name of 

 Lincoln & Herndon. After Mr. Lincoln's death, Mr. 

 Herndon gradually withdrew from law practice and 

 public life. He published a " Life of Abraham Lin- 

 coln," a revised and enlarged edition of which with 

 an introduction by Horace White is in press. 



Hilgard, Julius Erasmus, physicist, born in Zwei- 

 briicken, Bavaria, Jan. 7, 1825; died in Washington, 

 D. C., May 8, 1891. He was the eldest son of Theo- 

 dore E. Hilgard, an eminent German jurist and writer, 

 and came to the United States with his father in 1835, 



settling in St. Clair County, 111. His education was ob- 

 tained direct from his father until he was eighteen, 

 when he removed to Philadelphia in order to follow 

 special studies in civil engineering. While so engaged 

 he attracted the notice of Alexander D.Bache, who in 

 1845 became Superintendent of the United States Coast 

 Survey, and at once invited young Hilgard to become 

 one of his assistants. His enthusiasm and interest in 

 the work led to his recognition as one of the leading 

 spirits in the survey, and he gradually rose until he 

 became assistant in charge of the bureau in Washing- 

 ton. This place he held until 1881, when, upon the 

 death of Carlile P. Patterson, he was appointed su- 

 perintendent, which post '-he then held until 1885, 

 when, on the advent of a new administration, after a 

 faithful service of forty years, he was suspended, and 



then allowed to resign. His ago and failing health 

 led to charges of incapacity, which a committee of 

 investigation were unable to sustain. Alexander 

 Agassiz, who declined to succeed him, in comment- 

 ing on the behavior of the committee of investiga- 

 tion said : " Their dictum upon the late superin- 

 tendent (Mr. Hilgard), at least as far as his pro- 

 fessional career is concerned, is answered by his 

 position as an investigator in the scientific world." 

 While holding the place of assistant he had charge 

 of the construction and verification of the standards 

 of weights and measures, and was for some time en- 

 gaged in preparing metric standards of great precis- 

 ion for distribution to the several States. In this 

 connection he was appointed a delegate to the Inter- 

 national Metric Commission, which met in Paris in 

 1872, and a member of the executive committee of the 

 International Bureau of Weights and Measures. At 

 the time of its organization, Mr. Hilgard was invited 

 to become director of this bureau with its headquar- 

 ters in Paris, but he declined. Mr. Hilgard's scien- 

 tific work was chiefly in connection with his practi- 

 cal labors, consisting of researches and the discussion 

 of results in geodesy and terrestrial physics, and in 

 perfecting methods and instrumental means con- 

 nected with the same. In 1872 he executed a tele- 

 graphic communication of the longitude between 

 Paris and Greenwich, which superseded the value pre- 

 viously admitted, correcting it by nearly half a sec- 

 ond of time. The magnetic survey of the United 

 States, prosecuted at the expense of the Bache fund, 

 derived from a bequest of Alexander D. Bache to the 

 National Academy of Sciences, was placed by the 

 Academy under the direction of Mr. Hilgard, and he 

 also rendered great service to scientists throughout 

 the United States by lending to them valuable in- 

 struments for original research. He was one of the 

 original members of the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences and long its home secretary. Mr. Hilgard 

 joined the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science in 1850, and in 1874 was elected to be 

 its presiding officer. He was a member of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society, an associate fellow of the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as 

 a member of other scientific bodies in this country 

 and abroad. His publications include papers, lectures, 

 and addresses, which have appeared principally in 

 the annual reports of the United States Coast Survey. 

 His lecture on " Tides and Tidal Action in Harbors," 

 delivered before the American Institute, in New York, 

 was regarded as remarkable for its lucid and terse 

 exposition of principles without the aid of mathemat- 

 ical symbols. Of the value of his life-work in connec- 

 tion with the United States Coast Survey it is said : 

 "He brought into that branch of the public service 

 a rare combination of culture, zeal, knowledge of the 

 world, and executive ability, and no man living will 

 claim to have done more than he did for the char- 

 acter and efficiency of the survey." 



Hill, Joshua, lawyer, born in Abbeville District, 

 S. C., Jan. 10, 1812; died in Madison, Ga., March 6, 

 1891. He received a liberal education and was ad- 

 mitted to the bar in South Carolina, and removed to 

 Madison, Ga., in 1840. In 1844 he was a delegate to 

 the Whig National Convention, and in 1857 arid 1859 

 was elected to Congress, where he served as a mem- 

 ber of the committees on Public Lands and on Foreign 

 Affairs. While he was serving his second term his 

 State adopted the ordinance of secession, and, being 

 a strong Union man, and believing that he therefore 

 could not properly represent his constituents, he re- 

 signed his seat, and lived quietly at home till the 

 close of the war. He then allied himself with the 

 Kepublican party, and used all his influence to secure 

 the speedy political rehabilitation of the State. In 

 18.66 he was appointed collector of the port of Savan- 

 nah, and in the following year register in bankruptcy 

 at the same place, but declined both offices. In July, 

 1868, he was elected United States Senator as a Union 

 Eepublican, but he was not permitted to take his 

 seat till Jan. 30, 1871, when he was appointed a mem- 



