OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (SHEARMAN SICARD.) 



499 



of the 120th New York Regiment. He took part 

 in all the battles from Fredericksburg to Appo- 

 inattox. He was brevetted brigadier general in 

 18U4, and major general in 1865. At the close of 

 the war he was designated by Gen. Grant to parole 

 the Army of Northern Virginia. In 18(57 he was 

 sent abroad as a special agent for the Department 

 of State. In 1870 he was appointed United States 

 marshal for the southern district of New York, 

 and against the most violent opposition he took 

 the census that demonstrated the great election 

 frauds of 1868 in New York city, which led to the 

 overthrow of the Tweed ring. He was surveyor 

 of customs at New York from 1873 till 1878. From 

 1879 till 1882 he was a member of the State As- 

 sembly, and in 1880 and 1881 he was the Speaker 

 of that body during the famous deadlock over the 

 re-election of Senators Conkling and Platt. For a 

 short time in 1883 he was at the head of the com- 

 mission to Central and South America for pro- 

 moting commercial relations with the United 

 States. In 1890 he was appointed a member of 

 the Board of United States General Appraisers, 

 created to exercise judicial and administrative 

 powers on appeals in customs cases; he resigned 

 this office March 1, 1899. 



Shearman, John Adams, naval officer, born in 

 Jamestown, N. Y., in 1854; died in Chelsea, Mass., 

 Aug. 29, 1900. He was graduated at the United 

 States Naval Academy, June 21, 1875; entered 

 the service as ensign, Sept. 8, 1876; promoted 

 master, Nov. 28, 1882; lieutenant (junior grade), 

 March 3, 1883; lieutenant, May 4, 1889; and 

 "ieutenant commander, March 3, 1899. He 

 rved. on the Hartford, of the North At- 

 antic station, from 1875 till 1877; on the Pas- 

 ic from 1877 till 1879. In 1880 he was trans- 

 rred to the Pensacola, of the Pacific station, 

 here he served till 1885. He was on duty at a 

 rpedo station from 1885 till 1887, when he was 

 laced on the Nipsic, of the Pacific station. The 

 ost notable incident in his career was his heroic 

 nduct in the hurricane at Samoa, March 16, 1889, 

 hich resulted in the wrecking of the Trenton, 

 he Vandalia, and the Nipsic. In 1894 he was 

 ttached to the coast survey steamer Blake. In 

 member, 1899, he was at the treatment hospital 

 in Yokohama. 



Shearman, Thomas Gaskell, lawyer, born in 

 Birmingham, England, Nov. 25, 1834; died in 

 Brooklyn, N. Y., Sept. 29, 1900. When nine years 

 old he came to New York with his parents; he 

 attended school for a time, and then became clerk 

 in a dry-goods store. In 1857 he removed to Brook- 

 lyn, where, after a course under private tutors, 

 he was admitted to the bar in 1859. For six years 

 " e devoted himself almost entirely to the litera- 

 re of the law, and for some time he was secre- 

 ry to the Code Commission of New York. He 

 Iso edited a law journal. In 1868 he entered 

 he law firm of which David Dudley Field was the 

 head. At its dissolution in 1873 he became the 

 senior partner in the firm of Shearman & Ster- 

 ling. In 1874 he undertook the defense of his 

 personal friend and pastor, Henry Ward Beecher, 

 in the celebrated case brought against the famous 

 preacher by Theodore Tilton. The trial, with its 

 preparation and entire proceedings, occupied two 

 yciivs. and although the expenses amounted to 

 $100,000, the firm refused to accept any pay for 

 its services. Of late years the business of the firm 

 drifted toward the management of large estates 

 and the conduct of the affairs of railroad corpora- 

 tions. Mr. Shearman devoted a great deal of his 

 time to public questions and social and political 

 economy. He was a Republican from the organiza- 

 tion of that party till 1884, when he supported 





Mr. Cleveland for the presidency. In 1896 he re- 

 turned to the Republican party. He was an en- 

 thusiastic supporter of free trade and single-tax 

 theories. His writings are voluminous, and in- 

 clude Taxation and Revenue (New York, 1892) ; 

 Natural Taxation (1895) ; Taxation of Personal 

 Property (1895); and, with Mr. Tillinghast, Prac- 

 tice, Pleadings, and Forms, and, with A. A. Red- 

 field, Treatise on the Law of Negligence. 



Sheeleigh, Matthias, author, born in Mont- 

 gomery County, Pennsylvania, in 1820; died in 

 Fort Washington, Pa., July 15, 1900. His an- 

 cestors were among the Palatinate refugees who 

 settled in Montgomery County in 1732. He re- 

 ceived his training at Pennsylvania College and 

 Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pa., and was 

 ordained in the Lutheran Church in 1852. He was 

 pastor of Lutheran congregations in New York, 

 New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He was secretary 

 of the General Synod, for more than a quarter of 

 a century a member of the Lutheran Board of Pub- 

 lication, acting as president of it a few years, and 

 twelve years as reader and reviser of works offered 

 for publication, and for thirty-four years a member 

 of the Board of Directors of the Theological Semi- 

 nary at Gettysburg. He was editor of the Lu- 

 theran Sunday-school Herald from the time of its 

 establishment in 1860 until his death, and editor 

 of the Lutheran Almanac and Yearbook from 

 1871. He was the author of a thousand poems, 

 including hymns that have found their way into 

 the hymnals. He was also an enthusiastic student 

 of local history, and was an authority in the Mont- 

 gomery County Historical Society. 



Sicard, Montgomery, naval officer, born in 

 Utica, N. Y., Sept. 30, 1836; died in Westernville, 

 N. Y., Sept. 14, 1900. He was appointed acting 

 midshipman, Oct. 1, 1851 ; promoted passed mid- 

 shipman, April 15, 1858; master, Nov. 4, 1858; 

 lieutenant, May 31, 1860; lieutenant commander, 

 July 16, 1862; commander, March 2, 1870; cap- 

 tain, Aug. 7, 1881; commodore, July 10, 1894; 

 rear admiral, April 6, 1897; and retired on reach- 

 ing the age limit, Sept. 30, 1898. At the begin- 

 ning of the civil war he was on duty on various 

 vessels in the blockading squadron. As executive 

 officer of the Oneida he was present at the bom- 

 bardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and 

 took an active part in the destruction of the Con- 

 federate flotilla in April, 1862, in the passage of 

 the Vicksburg batteries in June, and in the en- 

 gagement with the ram Arkansas in July of the 

 same year. He commanded the Seneca in both 

 attacks on Fort Fisher, and had charge of the left 

 wing, 2d Division, in the naval land assault on 

 that fort, Jan. 15, 1865. After the war he spent 

 two years at the Naval Academy, and after two 

 years more of service on the Pensacola was as- 

 signed to the Saginaw on the Pacific coast. In 

 1876 he was in command of the Swatara. In 1880 

 he was appointed inspector of ordnance at the 

 Boston Navy Yard. From 1882 till 1890 he served 

 as chief of the Bureau of Ordnance. To him is 

 given the credit for the introduction of steel high- 

 power ordnance into the navy about this time. 

 In January, 1894, he was placed in charge of the 

 Portsmouth Navy Yard, and in November of that 

 year was transferred to the Brooklyn Navy Yard 

 as commandant. April 20, 1 897, he was made com- 

 mander in chief of the North Atlantic squadron, 

 but at the outbreak of the Spanish-American Wai- 

 was placed on sick leave, having contracted ma- 

 laria. After partial recovery he applied for active 

 duty, and was made president of the Board of 

 Strategy. After his retirement he continued to 

 serve, acting as chairman of the board for reward- 

 ing officers for gallant and meritorious service. 



