OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (Cone COURTNEY.) 



467 



dent judge of the courts of Delaware County, 

 after a bitter campaign, and he was twice re- 

 elected (in 1884 and 1894), holding the office at 

 the time of his death. 



Cobb, Silas B., merchant, born in Montpelier, 

 Vt., Jan. 23, 1812; died in Chicago, 111., April 5, 

 1900. In 1833 he settled at Fort Dearborn (now 

 Chicago), having worked his way on the Erie 

 Canal to BuH'alo, and thence on a schooner. He 

 began work as a carpenter; with his earnings 

 he bought trinkets and traded with the Indians. 

 Later he opened a harness shop and built up a 

 good business, which he sold in 1848. In 1848-'52 

 he carried on a general leather, boot, and shoe 

 trade. After 1852 he devoted his attention to real 

 estate and local enterprises. In 1855 he became a 

 director in the Chicago Gas Light and Coke Com- 

 pany, and later an officer. He was president of 

 Chicago City Railway, and was. largely instru- 

 mental in. the establishment of the cable rail- 

 way system in Chicago. He was connected with 

 the Chicago and Galena (now the Chicago and 

 Northwestern) Railroad and the Beloit and 

 Madison Railroad. Cobb Lecture Hall, in con- 

 nection with the University of Chicago, was 

 erected from a fund of $150,000 given by him. 



Codman, John, sailor, author, born in Dor- 

 chester, Mass., Oct. 16, 1814; died in Boston, 

 Mass., April 0, 1900. He entered Amherst College, 

 and was a classmate and life-long friend of Henry 

 Ward Beecher, but left in his junior year, 1833. In 

 1834 he made his first voyage as ship's clerk aboard 

 an East Indiaman. He passed through all grades 

 from apprentice to master, receiving his first com- 

 mand in 1841. He afterward made many voyages 

 to all parts of the world, and commanded many 

 vessels. He commanded the Indiaman on which 

 Adoniram Judson and his second wife were re- 

 turning to the United States in 1845 because of 

 Mrs. Judson's health, and detained his ship some 

 time at St. Helena that she might die on land 

 instead of at sea. During the Crimean War he 

 was in command of the transport William Penn, 

 carrying troops from Constantinople to the 

 Crimea. During the civil war he commanded the 

 steamer Quaker City, which was engaged in car- 

 rying stores to Port Royal. He left the sea in 

 1864. In later years he was chiefly known 

 through his advocacy of free trade and free ships. 

 He contributed many articles on these subjects 

 to papers and magazines, wrote on the Mormon 

 question, and was the author of several books of 

 travel. His best known books are Sailors' Life 

 and Sailors' Yarns; An American Transport in 

 the Crimean War; Winter Sketches in the Sad- 

 dle; Ten Months in Brazil; The Round Trip; 

 Free Ships; Restoration of the American Carry- 

 ing Trade; and The Mormon Country. 



Conklin, Jennie Maria Drinkwater, author, 

 born in Portland, Me., April 14, 1841 ; died in 

 New Vernon, N. J., April 28, 1900. She was edu- 

 cated at the public schools of her native place, 

 and at Greenleaf's Institute, Brooklyn. March 

 17, 1880, she married the Rev. Nathaniel Conklin, 

 for many years pastor of the Presbyterian Church 

 of New Vernon. She was the originator of the 

 " Shut-In " Society, a bureau of correspondence 

 for invalids, which has a large membership and 

 publishes The Open Window. As a writer of 

 books for girls and for the religious press Mrs. 

 Conklin was most widely known. She published 

 the following books: Marion's Little Sister; 

 Penny Saved and Penny Earned; Only Ned (New 

 York, 1S72); Not Bread Alone (1873); Fred and 

 Jeanie (1875); Tessa Wadsworth's Discipline 

 MX7!)); Rue's Helps (1880); Electa (1881); Bek's 

 First Corner (1883); Fifteen (1883); Keenie's To- 





morrow (Boston, 1883) ; Miss Prudence (New 

 York, 1883); Wildwood (Philadelphia, 1884); 

 David Strong's Errand (1884); Story of Hannah 

 (New York, 1885); Fairfax Girls (Philadelphia, 

 1880); That Quisset House (New York, 1880); 

 Uncle Seth's Will (Philadelphia, 1886); Isobol's 

 Between Times (New York, 1887) ; Rizpah's Heri- 

 tage (1887); From Flax to Linen (1888); Four- 

 fold (1889) ; Marigold (1889) ; Other Folk (1890) ; 

 Second Best (Boston, 1891); Dorothy's Islands 

 (1892); My Lady (1892); Looking Seaward 

 (1893); Growing Up (1894); Three Women 

 (1894) ; Three and Twenty (1895) ; Dolly French's 

 Household (Philadelphia, 1896) ; Paul French's 

 Way (Boston, 1896); and, with Ella Drinkwater, 

 Set Free (1891). 



Conrad. Victor Lafayette, journalist, born in 

 Pine Grove, Pa., Oct. 7, 1824; died in Philadelphia, 

 Jan. 7, 1900. He was graduated at Gettysburg 

 in 1851, was licensed to preach by the East Penn- 

 sylvania Synod in the same year, and subse- 

 quently was ordained. In 1852 he assumed edi- 

 torial charge of the Evangelical Lutheran at 

 Springfield, Ohio. In 1856 he became principal of 

 a public school at Pittsburg, Pa.; in 1857 he took 

 charge of Cooper Seminary for young ladies at 

 Dayton, Ohio; from 1867 to 1870 he was Pro- 

 fessor of Natural Sciences in Pennsylvania Col- 

 lege, Gettysburg, Pa.; and in 1870 he removed to 

 Philadelphia to assume the duties of associate 

 editor, with his brother, Frederick W. Conrad, 

 of the Lutheran Observer, which he held to the 

 end of his life. The degree of D. D. was conferred 

 on him by Wittenberg College. Springfield, Ohio. 

 He was a ready writer and an able editor. 



Cook, Clarence (Chatham), author and critic, 

 born in Dorchester, Mass., Sept. 8, 1828; died in 

 Fishkill Landing, N. Y., June 2, 1900. He was 

 graduated at Harvard in 1849; studied architec- 

 ture, and for a time was a teacher. He first drew 

 public attention by the publication in the New 

 York Tribune, in 1863, of a series of criticisms 

 on American art. He was the Paris correspond- 

 ent of that paper from 1869 till the breaking out 

 of Hie Franco-Prussian War, when, after a short 

 period of travel in Italy, he returned home. He 

 renewed his connection with the Tribune, and 

 soon created excitement in art circles through his 

 vigorous attack on the genuineness of the Cypri- 

 ote statues in the Cesnola collection in the Met- 

 ropolitan Museum of Art, characterizing them as 

 " a fortuitous connection of unrelated parts." 

 The controversy led to legal proceedings, and was 

 the cause of a great deal of bitter feeling. He 

 published a monograph on the Central Park of 

 New York (1868); The House Beautiful (1878); 

 supplied the text to accompany a heliotype re- 

 production of Diirer's Life of the Virgin (1874); 

 edited and furnished notes to a translation of the 

 seventh edition of William Liibke's History of 

 Art (1878) ; and for a time he was editor of The 

 Studio. 



Courtney. Edna (Mrs. James H. Caldwell), 

 actress, born in Washington, D. C., Feb. 26, 1866; 

 died in New York city, March 16, 1900. She mn.le 

 her first appearance at Trenton, N. J., June 1, 

 1882, in The Passing Regiment, as a member of 

 Augustin Daly's company. In the following sea- 

 son she played in various traveling companies 

 the parts of Pauline in The Lady of Lyons, Grace 

 Roseberry in The New Magdalen, Dolly Dutton 

 and Clara in Hazel Kirke, Nora in Esmeralda, 

 Edith in Young Mrs. Winthrop, Daphne in The 

 White Slave, and Nakehira in Around the World 

 in Eighty Days. The season of 1883-'84 she 

 played with success the part of Olive Skinner in 

 H. C. Miner's Silver King company. In May, 



