oUriT. Ml IKS. AM KICK 'AN. (HKi.i, HI.ATCIIKORD.) 



54 1 



.li-nt. Al'ti-r his n-*ii:natioii tin- hoard of directors 

 wu> ivoivani/cd ; John A. Mi-Call, formerly MUpcriii 

 ti-tnl" lit of tin- Slate In.-urancc l)i-|.iirtinriit. was 

 cli-i-ti-cl president, iiinl the jii-iisinii voted Mi 

 on hi> retirement was iiroii..iiMi-i-.l invuliil by the 

 Stnti- Supreme Court. 



Bell, Charles H.. la\vy<-r, l'rn in Cluster, N. II., 

 Nov. l.s, is:.';?; ilii-il in' Kxi-ti-r, N. II.. Nov. 1!. 

 Hi- was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1M1; 

 studied anil jirai-tit-i-tl law in Sdint-rswortli aiul KM 

 tcr; was .-oheitor for Bookingbuo County in ls.V> 



'65; eli-<-trl to tin- state HOII.-M- of EtoprawntatlvM in 

 1868, 1859, uiul isi'.* 1 . and speaker in the last term ; State 

 Senator in lM'>-V64; and again representative in 

 l->7- '7:f. In Man-h, 1*79, he waa appointed by Gov. 

 Prescott l'nite.1 States Senator to Jill the vacancy 

 made by the expiration of Senator Wadleigli's term 

 before the convening of the Legislature. From June, 

 1881, till June, 1883, he was Governor of New Hamp- 

 shire, and in 1889 was President of the State Con.>ti- 

 tutional Convention. He had been 1'n-sident of the 

 State Historical Society for many years, and editor of 

 the " Exeter News-Letter;" and had published " The 

 History of Exeter," "The Bench acd Bar of New 

 Hampshire," and " Memoirs of John Wheelwright." 



Berdan, Hiram, inventor, born in Plymouth, Mich., 

 about 1823; died in Washington. D. C., March 31, 

 1893. He was brought up on his father's agricultural 

 and stock-breeding farm near Rochester, N. Y., and 

 displayed a strong taste for mechanical investigation 

 from early youth. He was educated at Hobart Col- 

 lege, where he made unusual progress in mathematics, 

 and spent all his leisure in fashioning original me- 

 chanical contrivances. Beyond his skill as a marks- 

 man there was nothing to distinguish him till the 

 outbreak of the civil war, when his proposition to 

 organize a regiment of personally selected marksmen 

 was approved by the War Department. He was ap- 

 pointed colonel of the 1st Regiment of United States 

 Sharpshooters in April, 1861, and armed it with a 

 rifle of his own invention, fed by metallic cartridges, 

 also invented by him. At Chancellorsville he won 

 the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers, and at 

 Gettysburg that of major-general. The Berdan 

 sharpshooter was the first repeating rifle put into 

 actual and effective service. After the war no went 

 to Russia, and spent several years superintending the 

 manufacture of his rifle for the re-equipment of the 

 army. He returned home about 1888 to apply himself 

 to other inventions, and to prosecute his suit against 

 the Federal Government for infringing his patents by 

 incorporating the principal features of his repeating 

 rifle in the Springfield arm. He sued for nearly 

 $500,000 damages, and a year before his death the 

 United States Court of Claims gave him a judgment 

 against the Government for $100,000. His latest in- 

 ventions were a twin-screw, armored, semisubmarine 

 gunboat; a long-range finder; several forms of tor- 

 pcdoe-, ; a torpedo boat designed to evade projected 

 nets : and a distance fuse for shrapnel shells. 



Billings. Edward Coke, jurist, born in 1 1 at field. Mass., 

 Dec. 8, 1829 ; died in New Haven, Conn., Dec. 1, 1893. 

 He was graduated at Yale in 1853, and at Harvard 

 Law School in 1855, and practiced in New York city 

 till 1865, when failing health led him to seek a South- 

 ern home, and he settled in New Orleans. There, as 

 a member of the firm of Sullivan, Billings & 

 Hughes, he had a large practice in the settlement of 

 claims growing out of the civil war. He also became 

 active m public matters during the reconstruction 

 period, an<l in the presidential controversy of 1876, 

 acting as counsel in the Republican interest in the 

 latter. In 1876 he was appointed judge of the United 

 States district ourt for the Eastern District of 

 Louisiana, and he held this office till his death. See 

 also his name in GIFTS AND BEQUESTS. 



Bingham, George B., military officer, born in Rochester, 

 N. Y., April 2'.'. 1--J1 :dicd in' West borough. Muss., Aiitr. 

 7, 1893. He removed t<> Milwaukee in 1*41 ; was one 

 <>f the first men in Wisconsin to volunteer for tin- 

 Union army in 1861 ; was commissioned captain of 



Company A, lt Wisconsin Infantry; and was miu- 



if of the M-rxici- lit the clow; of the War with 



the I. n-vct rank of brigadier-general. In 1*7* In- re- 

 moved to KaiiMis. and in |:-M made im home in 

 WcMtborouL'h. 



Bishop, Richard Moore, m< -reliant, 1-orn in Fleming 

 CounM, Ky., .Nov. 4, 1M-J; died in .Jacksonville. 

 Fla., March" _', l^iu. He wan educated for men-untile 

 businc.vs; followed it for several years in hi.- native 

 State, and since IMS had been i-ntuljlishcd in Cin- 

 cinnati. In 1 >.">'.i he was elected Mayor of Cincinnati, 

 and in 1877 Governor of Ohio, both times a* a Demo 

 crat. As mavor he received and entertained with 

 much pomp the Prince of Wales and his suite, and 

 enforced the Sunday ordinances with greater vigor 

 than any of his pVWMOMMCB, He was a promoter <.i 

 important state and municipal enterprises ; succeeded 

 Alexander Campbell as President of the General 

 Christian Missionary Convention ; and was President 

 of the great National Commercial Convention in Bal- 

 timore in ]71. 



Bissell, William Henry Augustus, clergyman, born in 

 Randolph,Vt, Nov. 10,1814; died in Burlington. Vt., 

 May 14, 1893. He was graduated at the University of 

 Vermont in 1836; studied theology while teaching in 

 the Episcopalian institutes in Burlington, Vt, ami 

 Troy, N. Y. ; was ordained deacon Sept. 29, 1839, and 

 priest Aug. 2, 1840; and was rector of Trinity Church, 

 West Troy, N. Y., 1841-'45, Grace Church, Lyons, 

 N. Y., 1845-'48, and Trinity Church, Geneva, N. Y., 

 1848-'68. On June 3, 1868, he was consecrated sec- 

 ond Protestant Episcopal bishop of the diocese of 

 Vermont, and continued in that office till his death. 



Black, Henry M., military officer, born in Pennsyl- 

 vania, Jan. 15, 1887; died in Chicago, 111., Aug. 5, 

 1893. He was graduated at the United States Mili- 

 tary Academy, and appointed brevet 2d lieutenant 

 4th United States Infantry in 1847 ; was promoted 

 2d lieutenant 7th Infantry the same year, 1st lieu- 

 tenant 9th Infantry in 1855, captain m 1856, major 

 7th Infantry in 1863, lieutenant-colonel 4th Infan- 

 try in 1868, and colonel 23d Infantry in 1882; and 

 was retired Jan. 15, 1891. He served in the volun- 

 teer army as colonel of the 6th California Infantry 

 from 1863 till Oct. 27. 1865, and received brevets of 

 lieutenant-colonel and colonel March 13, 1865, for 

 faithful and meritorious services during the civil 

 war. His army service comprised duty in the Mex- 

 ican War in 1846-'48 ; on the frontier in 1848-'61 ; on 

 the Pacific coast in 1861-'64; as commandant of 

 cadets at the Military Academy in 1864-'68 ; and with 

 his regiment till his retirement. 



Blankingship, James Alexander, sculptor, born in 

 Frozen Island, Prince George Countv, Va,, in 1859; 

 died in New York city, July 1,1893. lie was brought 

 up on his father's plantation, and exhibited a talent 

 for modeling in clay at an early age. When thirteen 

 years old he completed his first important figure a 

 negro boy resting on a hoe which was purchased by 

 William Corcoran for his art gallery in Washington. 

 This was followed by the widely known figure of a 

 negro boy pulling a thorn from his foot. His work 

 attracted the attention of Edward Valentine and 

 Moses Ezekiel, the sculptors, who invited him to New 

 York city, where he studied with Mr. Valentine till 

 he was sixteen years old. Subsequently he took a 

 course with Chapu, in Paris. In 1800 he returned to 

 New York city, and was appointed Professor of Sculp- 

 ture in the New York Institute of Artiste and Arti- 

 sans. His last works were the designs of the alle- 

 gorical statues of "Patriotism," " Tradition," and 

 ''Theology," on the Administration Building, and the 

 allegorical -rroup on the Electricity Building, both at 

 the Columbian Exposition, and an incomplete study 

 for a statue to Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, to be erected in 

 Richmond. Just before his death ho received a medal 

 from the World's Fair Commissioners. 



Blatchford, Samuel, jurist, lxrn in New York city, 

 March '.', lv_>o ; died 'in Newport, R. I.. July 7, 1893. 

 He was graduated at Columbia College in 1887, 

 studied law with his father and uncle, comprising the 



