OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (TAYLOR VILLARD.) 



503 



ton. He was for several years a useful member 

 of stock companies in the United States and Can- 

 ada, and finally he became one of William E. 

 Burton's players in the Chambers Street Theater. 

 During the civil war he was a member of Harry 

 Crisp's company in the South. In 1870 he went 

 to London, where he played at Sadler's Wells 

 Theater. During this engagement he resumed the 

 use of his real name, From London he went to 

 Australia, where for twelve years he was a very 

 successful actor and manager. His last appear- 

 ance was in Kingston, where a few months before 

 his death he played Shylock. 



Taylor, George Yardley, a missionary of the 

 Presbyterian Board, born in Taylorsville, Pa., May 

 18, 1862; killed in Paoting-Fu, Chi-Li province, 

 China, June 30, 1900. Dr. Taylor was graduated 

 at Princeton in 1882, and at the University of 

 Pennsylvania, medical department, in 1885. He 

 was sent to China, Nov. 15, 1886. 



Thompson, Richard Wigginton, lawyer, born 

 in Culpeper County, Virginia, June 9, 1809; died 

 in Terre Haute, Ind., Feb. 9, 1900. In 1831 he 

 removed to Louisville, Ky., where he became a 

 clerk in a store. Later he went to Lawrence 

 County, Indiana, where he was admitted to the 

 bar in 1834. The same year he was elected to the 

 Legislature, serving two terms. In 1836 he was 

 elected to the State Senate. In 1840 he was an 

 elector on the Harrison and Tyler ticket, and in 

 1841 was elected to Congress. In 1843 he began 

 the practice of law in Terre Haute. In 1847 he 

 was again elected to Congress. He was appointed 

 minister to Austria in 1849, and later President 

 Fillmore appointed him general solicitor of the 

 Land Office, but he declined both places. During 

 the civil war he was in charge of a recruiting 

 post 7iear Terre Haute, and was provost marshal 

 of the district. In 1867 he was appointed judge 

 of the Fifth Indiana Circuit, serving two years. 

 He was also for one term collector of internal 

 revenue. In 1877 he became Secretary of the 

 Xavy, but he retired in 1881, before the expiration 

 of his term of office, to become chairman of the 

 American committee of the Panama Canal Com- 

 pany. He published The Papacy and the Civil 

 Power (New York, 1877) ; The History of the 

 Protective Tariff (Chicago, 1888) ; Footprints of 

 the Jesuits (New York and Boston, 1894) ; and 

 Recollections of Sixteen Presidents, from Washing- 

 ton to Lincoln (2 vols., Indianapolis, 1894). 



Tower, Zealous Bates, soldier, born in Cohas- 

 set, Mass., Jan. 12, 1819; died there, March 21, 

 1900. He was graduated at West Point in 1841, 

 and entered the engineer corps as second lieuten- 

 ant; was promoted first lieutenant, April 24, 1847; 

 captain, July 1, 1855; major, Aug. 6, 1861; lieu- 

 tenant colonel, Nov. 11, 1865; colonel, Jan. 13, 

 1S74: and retired, Jan. 10, 1883. In the volunteer 

 service he was commissioned brigadier general, 



ov. 23, 1861 ; brevetted major general, June 12, 

 18C >; and mustered out, Jan. 15, 1866. From 1843 

 till 1846 he was engaged in the construction of the 

 defenses about Hampton Roads. As lieutenant 

 he served with a battalion of engineers in the Mex- 

 ican War, and was recommended for gallantry at 

 Cerro Gordo, Contreras, and Chapultepec. From 

 1848 till 1861 he was employed in the construction 

 of defenses on the Pacific coast. During the civil 

 war he conducted the defense of Fort Pickens, 



^ Florida, Nov. 23, 1861, took part in the first battle 

 of Bull Run, and also participated in the cam- 

 paigns of Gens. Banks and Pope in northern Vir- 

 ginia. At the second battle of Bull Run he re- 

 ceived a wound that incapacitated him for duty 

 at the front, and he was brevetted major general 

 for gallantry in that action. For a while in 1864 



he was superintendent at West Point. He again 

 went to the front, and took part in the battle 

 of Nashville. After the war he was on duty in 

 the regular army, for a time in the West and 

 later in New York. 



Tyler, Moses Coit, author and clergyman, born 

 in Griswold, Conn., Aug. 2, 1835; died in Ithaca, 

 N. Y., Dec. 28, 19BO. He was graduated at Yale 

 University in 1857, and studied theology at Yale 

 and at Andover. He was pastor of the First Con- 

 gregational Society, in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in 

 1860-'62, and Professor of English in the Univer- 

 sity of Michigan in 1867-'81. In 1881 he was 

 ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church, and two 

 years later was admitted to priest's orders. He, 

 however, never took up parochial duties, his time 

 being devoted to teaching and to literary work. 

 On leaving the University of Michigan he became 

 Professor of American History at Cornell Univer- 

 sity, and he occupied that chair at the time of 

 his death. The character of his work closely al- 

 lied him to the best type of English clerical schol- 

 ars. He had planned a complete history of Amer- 

 ican literary development on a very broad scale, 

 but had published only four volumes of the work. 

 His writing displays great charm of style, his 

 admirable English being adorned with botli wit 

 and humor. His literary judgments are well 

 weighed, while his fine sense of literary perspective 

 is almost never at fault. His published books in- 

 clude The Brawnville Papers (Boston, 1867) ; His- 

 tory of American Literature during the Colonial 

 Period (1878; revised, 1890); Manual of English 

 Literature (1879) ; Life of Patrick Henry (1887) ; 

 Three Men of Letters (1895) ; The Literary History 

 of the American Revolution (1897) ; and Glimpses 

 of England: Social, Political, and Literary (1898). 



Van Lew, Elizabeth, postmistress and depart- 

 ment clerk, born in Richmond, Va., in 1827 ; died 

 there, Sept. 25, 1900. She was the daughter of 

 John Van Lew, a wealthy New Yorker, who for 

 many years was a hardware merchant in Rich- 

 mond. She was a Union woman all through the 

 civil war, and made use of her intimacy with the 

 family of Jefferson Davis to secure much valuable 

 information relative to the Confederate army, 

 which she sent through the lines to the Federal 

 authorities. March 19, 1869, she was appointed 

 postmistress of Richmond by President Grant, and 

 she was reappointed four years later, and held the 

 office till May 19, 1877. In 1883 she was appointed 

 to a clerkship in the third assistant postmaster 

 general's department, which she held till 1887, 

 when she resigned rather than accept a reduction 

 to an inferior clerkship. 



Villard, Henry, financier, born in Speyer, 

 Rhenish Bavaria, April 11, 1835; died in Dobbs 

 Ferry, N. Y., Nov. 11, 1900. He came to the 

 United States in 1853, after studying in the schools 

 in Zweibrucken, Speyer, and Phalsburg. His 

 name was Heinrich Hilgard, his father being Gus- 

 tav Hilgard, a judge of the Supreme Court in 

 Munich. The father's opposition to his son's de- 

 parture caused the latter to adopt the surname of 

 a French schoolmate, and he became Henry Vil- 

 lard. He spent the winter of 1854-'55 on an 

 uncle's farm in Belleville, 111., where he contributed 

 to the local papers. He next read law in Peoria. 

 and then went to Chicago, where he became a 

 newspaper correspondent. In 1858 he reported the 

 Lincoln-Douglas debate for Eastern newspapers. 

 In 1860 he attended the convention that nomi- 

 nated Abraham Lincoln, and in the campaign that 

 followed was a correspondent of the New York 

 Hevald. During the civil war he achieved a wide 

 reputation as a war correspondent, and for a time 

 he conducted a correspondent's bureau in Wash- 





