562 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (ASTOR BANKHEAD.) ' 



Convention which nominated Gen. McClellan for the 

 presidency, and since then he had not been active in 

 politics. In 1873-74 he was President of the New 

 York State Agricultural Society. 



Astor, Mary Paul, philanthropist, born in Phila- 

 delphia, Pa., July 4, 1858; died near London, Eng- 

 land, Dec. 22, 1894. She was a daughter of James W. 

 Paul, of Philadelphia, and a niece of the late Admiral 

 Dahlgren and of Abbott Lawrence, of Boston, and mar- 

 ried William Waldorf Astor on June 6, 1878. After 

 marriage she found her chief delight in domestic life 

 and the systematic but unostentatious dispensation of 

 charity. At her homes in New York city and New- 



port, R. 1., she was a genial and accomplished hostess, 

 but she took no part in the fashionable life of those 

 cities till after the birth of her three children and the 

 expiration of the period of mourning for her husband's 

 father. During her residence in Rome, while her 

 husband was United States minister to Italy, she be- 

 came a special favorite of Queen Marguerita, who 

 E renounced her to be the most beautiful woman in all 

 ;aly, and after Mr. Astor made his home in England 

 she made herself beloved by all with whom she be- 

 came intimate. One of her warmest English friends 

 was the Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lome. 



Austin, Mrs. Jane Goodwin, novelist, born in Worces- 

 ter, Mass., Feb. 25, 1831 ; died in Boston, March 30, 

 1894. She was the daughter of Isaac Goodwin, of 

 Worcester, and in 1850 married Loring II. Austin, of 

 Cambridge, a classmate of James Russell Lowell. She 

 lived for several years in Cambridge and afterward in 

 Concord, Mass., but her later life was spent mainly in 

 Boston. She was well known as a writer for maga- 

 zines in the earlier part of her career^but her literary 

 reputation will rest upon the series of historical tales 

 relating to the life of the Pilgrim Fathers and their 

 descendants. Neither novels nor romances, in the 

 stricter sense of the words, they reproduce with great 

 faithfulness of detail the life of the Plymouth colo- 

 nists, and as lifelike representations of the period with 

 which they are concerned they have no rivals. In 

 these chronicles, as they mav be called, Mrs. Austin 

 succeeded in putting before the present generation an 

 extremely interesting account of the daily life of the 

 Pilgrims and their immediate descendants, and has 

 realized for us as no other writer has done or is likely 

 to do the purely human side of those early founders 

 of the Commonwealth. Mr. and Mrs. Austin had 

 three children, all of whom are living, and with the 

 eldest of these, Mrs. Albert De Silva, they made their 

 home for many years. Mr. Austin's death preceded 

 that of his wife by two years. Mrs. Austin was small 

 in figure with abundant white hair which made her a 

 noticeable person in any assemblage ; her features 

 were pleasing, and her conversation always bright 

 and animated. Her published books include the fol- 

 lowing : " Fairy Dreams, or Wanderings in Elf Land " 

 (Boston, 1860); "Dora Darling " (1864) ; "Outpost: 

 A Novel " (1866) ; " Cipher : A Romance " (New York, 

 1869); "The Shadow of Moloch Mountain" (1870) ; 

 " Moonfolk : A True Account of the Home of the 

 Fairy Tales " (1874) ; " Mrs. Beauchamp Brown " (Bos- 

 ton, 1880) ; " A Nameless Nobleman (1881) ; " The 

 Desmond Hundred" (1882)- "Nantucket Scraps" 

 (1882); "Standish of'Standish" (1889); "Dr. Le 

 Baron and his Daughters " (1891) ; "Betty Alden" 

 (1891) ; " David Alden's Daughter, and Other Stories " 

 (1892). At the time of her death Mrs. Austin had 

 partially completed another colonial tale, upon which 

 she had expended her best energies and concerning 

 which she had high hopes. 



Bachelder, John B., historian, born in Gilmanton, 

 N. H., in September, 1825; died in Hyde Park, Mass., 

 Dec. 22, 1894. He spent the early part of his life in 

 his native place, and had resided in Hyde Park for 

 twenty years. He was most widely known as the 

 Government historian of the buttle of 'Gettysburg. Al- 

 most immediately after that battle he visited the field 

 and began collecting the facts and writing out the 

 history of that decisive conflict. lie worked steadily 

 on his history, but left it unfinished. By traversing 



the field thoroughly year after year, and by personal 

 interviews with the soldiers on both sides in the bat- 

 tle, he had become more familiar than any one else 

 with the topography of the field and the various posi- 

 tions held by the different corps, divisions, brigades, 

 and regiments. He thus was invaluable in planning 

 and locating the many State and regimental monu- 

 ments that nave been erected on the field, and in es- 

 corting to the chief points of interest the many bodies 

 of veterans and distinguished people who have since 

 visited it. He designed the historical paintings of the 

 battle, and the one depicting the last hours of Presi- 

 dent Lincoln, and besides his general history had 

 published " Gettysburg : What to see and how" to see 

 it," " Geometrical Drawing of the Gettysburg Battle- 

 field," " Descriptive Key to the Painting of Long- 

 street's Assault of Gettysburg," "The Illustrated 

 Tourist's Guide," and " Popular Resorts and how to 

 reach them." His title of colonel was conferred in 

 the militia service prior to the civil war. 



Bailey, James Montgomery, journalist, born in Al- 

 bany, N. Y., Sept. 25, 1841 ; died in D anbury, Conn., 

 March 4, 1894. He received a common-school educa- 

 tion ; was apprenticed to the carpenter's trade, which 

 he followed in Albany and Danbury till 1862; entered 

 the Union army and served in the 17th Connecticut 

 Infantry to the close of the war ; and returning to 

 Danbury bought "The Danbury Times "and con- 

 ducted it till 1870, when he bought " The Danbury 

 Jeffersonian," and consolidated the two papers unde'r 

 the name of "The Danbury News." A series of hu- 

 morous articles soon gave the paper and its editor a 

 wide reputation. He continued in the active manage- 

 ment of his newspaper till within a few years of his 

 death, soent some time in lecturing, and entered a 

 broader field of authorship, lie was one of the found- 

 ers of the Danbury Hospital, president of the Board of 

 Trade and of the Relief Society, and a member of the 

 Connecticut Humane Society, the Connecticut Histor- 

 ical Society, and other organizations. He bequeathed 

 his library to the Daubury Young Men's Christian 

 Association, $15,000 to be divided equally between 

 the Connecticut Humane Society and the Second 

 Baptist Church of Danbury, and all his personal 

 property to the Danbury Relief Society. Mr. Bailey's 

 book publications include " Life in Danbury " and 

 " The Danbury News Man's Almanac " (1873 ) ;' " They 

 all do it " (1877) ; " England from a Back Window " 

 (1878); "Mr. Philip's Goneness" (1879); and " The 

 Danbury Boom," (1880). 



Bankhead, Henry Gary, military officer, born in Pikes- 

 ville Arsenal, Baltimore, Md., Oct. 5, 1828 ; died in 

 Bayonne, N. J., Jan. 9, 1894. He was graduated at the 

 United States Military Academy in 1850 and ap- 

 pointed a brevet 2d lieutenant. 5th United States In- 

 fantry. In the regular army he was promoted 2d 

 lieutenant, Aug. 4, 1851 ; 1st lieutenant, July 19. 1855; 

 captain, June 25, 1861 ; transferred to the 8th United 

 States Cavalry, Dec. 15, 1870 ; major, 4th Cavalry, Jan. 

 15,1873; and was retired for disabilities incurred in 

 the line of duty, Nov. 12, 1879. In the volunteer 

 army he held the rank of lieutenant colonel and as- 

 sistant inspector general from Jan. 1, 1863, till Aug. 1. 

 1865. He was brevetted colonel of volunteers, for 

 efficient services in the battles and marches of the 

 campaign, Aug. 1, 1864; and brigadier general, for 

 Five Forks, April 1, 1865; and in the regular army 

 major, for Gettysburg, July 3, 1863; lieutenant col- 

 onel, for Spottsylvania, May 8, 1864; colonel, for 

 Petersburg, April 2, 1865 ; and brigadier general, for 

 energetic and meritorious services in oampaignsagainst 

 hostile Indians and particularly for the prompt relief 

 of Col. Forsythe's beleaguered party in September, 

 l.si'>8. Prior 'to the civil war he had served in Kansas. 

 Colorado, and New Mexico; during that war with 

 the Army of the Ohio in the battles of Shiloii and 

 Perryville, with the 1st and 5th Corps of the Army 

 of the Potomac in all its battles and marches from 

 Gettysburg till the surrender of Lee ; and subse- 

 quently in the principal Indian campaigns till his 

 retirement. 



