

OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (BEIDLER-BELLAMY.) 



523 



Delaware in the United States Senate. He was 

 educated mainly at Dr. Hawk's school, Flushing, 

 N. Y., and, after studying there two years, began a 

 business training in New York city and Phila- 

 delphia. In 1848 he began to study law with his 

 father in Wilmington. He was admitted to the 

 bar in 1851, and immediately began practice. He 

 was appointed United States district attorney for 

 Delaware in 1853, but resigned the next year. In 

 1855 he went to Philadelphia, where he formed a 

 u legal partnership with William Shippen, which 

 continued till the latter's death, two years later. 

 He then returned to Wilmington. In January, 

 1864, the elder Bayard, after taking the oath of 

 allegiance, resigned his seat in the Senate. His 

 successor died March 29, 1867, and he was pre- 

 vailed upon to serve out the unexpired term of two 

 years. At the session of the Legislature which 

 elected the father to the unexpired term the son 

 was chosen as his successor. Mr. Bayard, the 

 younger, was twice re-elected, serving continuously 

 till March 4, 1885. He took his seat March 4, 



1869, and almost im- 

 mediately became 

 the leader of the 

 Democratic minori- 

 ty. He served on 

 the Committees on 

 Finance, Judiciary, 

 PrivateLandClaims, 

 Library, and Revi- 

 sion of Laws. He 

 was a member of 

 the Electoral Com- 

 mission of 1876. In 

 1872 and 1876 he re- 

 ceived some votes 

 for the Democratic 

 nomination for Presi- 

 dent, and in 1880 and 

 1884 was the most 

 formidable rival of the successful candidates. In 

 October, 1881, he was elected president pro tempore 

 of the Senate. His senatorial career ended in 1885, 

 when he was appointed Secretary of State by Presi- 

 dent Cleveland. During his administration of this 

 office he was called upon to deal with some difficult 

 problems, including the Bering Sea controversy, the 

 British and Russian treaties, and the Sackville-West 

 trouble. In 1889 he returned to his legal practice 

 in Wilmington, remaining in private life four years. 

 On March 30, 1893, he was appointed ambassador 

 to Great Britain. He addressed many audiences in 

 Great Britain, and his open manner of expressing 

 pro-English sentiments at the Boston, Lincolnshire, 

 Grammar School, Aug. 2, 1895, and at a meeting of 

 the Edinburgh Philosophical Society, Nov. 7 follow- 

 ing, caused a vote of censure to be passed on him 

 in the House of Representatives. His term of 

 office expired March 4, 1897. He returned to the 

 United States in May following, bringing with him 

 the " log of the Mayflower," intrusted to him for 

 presentation to the State of Massachusetts. He 

 received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 

 1877, and from the University of Michigan in 1891 ; 

 and both Oxford and Cambridge gave him the 

 degree of D. C. L. in 1896. 



Beidler, Jacob, merchant, born in Bedminster, 

 Pa., Dec. 20, 1815 ; died in Chicago, 111., March 15, 

 1898. He acquired a district-school education, 

 learned the carpentry and cabinetmaking trades, 

 and removed to Springfield, 111., in 1842. After 

 working at the bench and engaging in the grocery 

 business for two years, he went to Chicago, where 

 he followed his trade for three years and then 

 established a lumber yard. In the parent business 

 and the various branch .interests he started or be- 



came connected with he attained large financial 

 success. His benefactions were large and frequent, 

 but so quietly bestowed that none beyond his own 

 family Knew their extent. Among the most im- 

 portant of his public charities were the gift of one 

 third of the cost of the West Side Young Men's 

 Christian Association building, and large endow- 

 ments to Lake Forest University, the Presbyterian 

 Hospital, and other Presbyterian and local benevo- 

 lent institutions. 



Bell, Peter Hansbrough, jurist, born in Vir- 

 ginia about 1820 ; died in Littleton, N. C., March 

 11, 1898. In 1836 he went to Texas, arriving there 

 just in time to join Sam Houston's army and fight 

 against Santa Anna in the battle of San Jacinto as a 

 volunteer private. Three years afterward he was 

 appointed inspector general of Texas, and subse- 

 quently as captain of a company of rangers he dis- 

 tinguished himself by his reckless and successful 

 fights with Indians. After the annexation of Texas, 

 to the United States he was appointed a colonel of 

 volunteers. In 1848 he was elected Governor of the 

 State, and he served till 1853. In this office he op- 

 posed the attempts of the Federal Government to 

 curtail the territory claimed by Texas, even to the 

 extent of threatening armed resistance, a course 

 enthusiastically supported by his people. Trouble 

 was averted by compromise in 1850. On the ex- 

 piration of his term as Governor he was elected a 

 Representative in Congress, serving from 1853 till 

 1857, and after this he further served his State as a 

 judge of its Supreme Court. For many years he 

 resided in North Carolina. 



Bellamy, Edward, journalist, novelist, and so- 

 cial philosopher, born in Chicopee Falls, Mass., 

 March 26, 1850 ; died there. May 22, 1898. He was 

 the third son of the Rev. Rufus K. Bellamy and 

 Maria K. Putnam. His ancestors, who originally 

 came from England, had been New Englanders for 

 two hundred years. One of these ancestors was the 

 celebrated theologian. Joseph Bellamy. Edward 

 Bellamy went to Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., 

 and afterward spent a year or more in study in Ger- 

 many. Returning to America, he read law and 

 was admitted to the bar. His taste, however, was 

 for literature, and 

 instead of under- 

 taking legal prac- 

 tice he entered 

 journalism. For 

 two years he was 

 associate editor of 

 "The Union," of 

 Springfield, Mass., 

 where his writings 

 were marked by 

 fineness and virili- 

 ty. He then went ~; 

 to New York as 

 an editorial writer 

 on "The Evening 

 Post." Here the 

 purity, the inci- 

 siveness, and the 

 concealed irony of 

 his style indicated 

 his literary degree. 



After a year he returned to his home near Springfield, 

 and with his brother, Charles J. Bellamy, established 

 the Springfield " Daily News." But he soon retired 

 wholly from journalism to devote himself to the 

 writing of fiction. On May 30, 1881, he married 

 Emma A. Sanderson, of Chicopee Falls. Two chil- 

 dren were born of this marriage. Edward Bella- 

 my's short stories soon began to appear in the more 

 important periodicals. These tales showed impres- 

 sive characteristics ; with ingenuity of plot and dis- 



