OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (CouciLio COOKE.) 



531 



duced by inhaling the gas, one of his subjects, who 

 had bruised himself while under the influence of 

 the gas, declared after the effects had passed off, 

 that he had felt no pain whatever while under its 

 influence. The late Dr. Horace Wells, a dentist, 

 who was present, was greatly interested in the cir- 

 cumstance, and suggested the possibility of extract- 

 ing teeth without pain by the use of the gas. The 

 next day Dr. Wells inhaled the gas and had a tooth 

 drawn by Dr. Riggs, a fellow-dentist, without any 

 pain. This is said to have been the birth of the 

 practical knowledge of anaesthetics. Dr. Wells in- 

 duced Dr. Colton to teach him the method of mak- 

 ing and administering the gas, and began using it 

 in his own practice. At this point a controversy 

 arose which excited much bitterness for many years. 

 Dr. Colton claimed that Dr. Wells had tried with- 

 out success to induce several dentists in Boston to 

 try the gas ; that one of them, Dr. William T. G. 

 Morton, conceived the idea from Dr. Wells's experi- 

 ment of using sulphuric ether as an anaesthetic and 

 tried it with success ; and that Dr. Charles T. Jack- 

 son, a physician with whom Drs. Wells and Morton 

 had studied, claimed the discovery of anaesthesia 

 on the ground that he had suggested Dr. Morton's 

 experiments. In Dr. Colton's judgment, Dr. Wells 

 was the accidental discoverer. In 1847 Dr. Colton 

 devised and had made from his plans the first elec- 

 trical locomotive on record, a toy construction oper- 

 ated by an ordinary cell battery, and exhibited by 

 him in his lectures, but not deemed of sufficient 

 importance to be patented. Since 1863 he had been 

 interested in large dental establishments in New 

 York and elsewhere. 



Concilio, Jannariiis de, clergyman, born in 

 Naples, Italy, Jan. 7, 1835 ; died in Jersey City, N. J., 

 March 23, J 898. He was educated at 'the college 

 Brignoli Sali, Rome, and ordained a priest in Ge- 

 neva in 1860. He came to the United States the 

 same year, and was assistant in the Church of Our 

 Lady of Grace, in Hoboken, N. J., from April till 

 September. He was appointed Professor of Theol- 

 ogy in Seton Hall College, but resigned the chair 

 because of failing health. He was assistant rector 

 of St. Mary's Church, Jersey City, from 1861 till 

 1867. When the parish of St. Michael's was estab- 

 lished, in 1867, he was appointed its curate, and he 

 was in charge of it till his death. The title of Mon- 

 signor was conferred upon him by the Pope in 1886. 

 He contributed frequently to Catholic periodicals, 

 and published " Catholicity and Pantheism " (1874) ; 

 " The Knowledge of Mary " (1878) ; " Intellectual 

 Philosophy " (1878) ; and "Harmony between Sci- 

 ence and Revelation " (1890). 



Conger, Oinar Dwig'ht, lawyer, born in Coopers- 

 iown, N. Y., in 1818 ; died in Ocean City, Md., July 

 11, 1898. When six years old he removed with his 

 father to Huron County, Ohio. He was graduated at 

 Western Reserve College in 1842 ; was appointed to 

 the United States Geological Survey, and spent two 

 years in surveying work in the Lake Superior iron 

 ind copper region ; and began practicing law in 

 Port Huron, Mich., in 1848. In 1850 he was elected 

 judge of the St. Glair County court for a term of 

 Bve years, and on its expiration was three times 

 elected to the State Senate, serving till 1861, and 

 acting as president pro tern, during the last term. 

 He was a delegate to the National Republican Con- 

 vention and a presidential elector in 1864, a mem- 

 ber of the State Constitutional Convention in 1866, 

 a representative in Congress in 1869-'81, and a 

 United States Senator in 1881-'87. After retiring 

 from the Senate he practiced law in Washington. 



Conover, (Teorge S., historian, born in Brooklyn, 

 I. Y., Nov. 7. 1824 ; died in Geneva, N. Y., July 5, 

 tN. During his early manhood he was engaged 

 in mercantile business in New York. He removed 





to Varick, Seneca County, N. Y., in 1850, and since 

 1870 had lived in Geneva. Soon after settling in 

 Seneca County he began studying the early history 

 of the region, and from this he became widely 

 known as an authority on the Indian occupation 

 and pioneer settlement of western New York. In 

 1877 he began a history .of the Indian village of 

 Kanadesaga, which occupied the site of the present 

 city of Geneva. This work rapidly broadened till 

 it reached four large volumes and became really a 

 history of western New York. This history was 

 never published, but Mr. Conover made four copies 

 of it, which were presented to the State Library 

 and the Buffalo, Rochester, and Waterloo Historical 

 Societies. In 1855, under the authority of a legis- 

 tive act, he began compiling the journals of the 

 officers of Gen. Sullivan s army that invaded west- 

 ern New York in 1779 to chastise the Indians. 

 This work was published in 1887. Mr. Conover 

 also wrote many pamphlets, those on Red Jacket 

 and Sayengueraghta, or " Old Smoke, the King of 

 the Senecas," being particularly valuable. About 

 ten years ago he was adopted into the Seneca tribe 

 on their reservation at Brantford, Canada, and re- 

 ceived the name of Hy-we-Saus, meaning " The In- 

 vestigator." 



Conrad, Frederick William, author and jour- 

 nalist, born in Pine Grove, Pa., Jan. 3, 1816 ; died 

 in Philadelphia, April 10, 1898. He received his 

 preparatory training in Mount Airy College, Ger- 

 mantown, Pa., 1828-'31, his theological training in 

 the seminary at Gettysburg, 1837-'39, was licensed 

 as a minister in the Lutheran Church in 1839, and 

 became pastor of St. Peter's Church, Pinegrove, and 

 of several other congregations in the vicinity. Sub- 

 sequently he was pastor at Waynesboro and vicinity. 

 1841-'44; Hagerstown, Md., 1844-'50; Prof essor of 

 Modern Languages in Wittenberg College, Spring- 

 field, Ohio, and of Homiletics and Church History in 

 the same institution ; pastor of the College Church 

 and associate editor of the " Evangelical Lutheran," 

 1850-'55 ; pastor of the First Lutheran Church at 

 Dayton, Ohio, 1855-62 ; Trinity Church, Lancaster, 

 Pa,, 1862-'64 ; and at Chambersburg, Pa., 1864-'66. 

 During his pastorate at Lancaster, in 1862, he be- 

 came joint owner and editor of the " Lutheran Ob- 

 server," and on the removal of the publication 

 office to Philadelphia, he resigned his pastorate, re- 

 moved to that city in 1866, and became the editor 

 in chief, which place he held until his death. He 

 received the degree of D. D. from Wittenberg College, 

 and that of LL. D. from Roanoke College, Virginia. 

 Dr. Conrad participated in all the general move- 

 ments of the Church in this country in connection 

 with the General Synod. He was a gifted speaker 

 and a ready writer. As editor of the most exten- 

 sively circulated periodical of the -General Synod, 

 he helped to shape its policy for many years. He 

 was a frequent contributor to the "Lutheran Quar- 

 terly," as well as to other periodicals. He published 

 numerous pamphlets and several books, among the 

 most important of which are " Baptism," " The 

 Call to the Ministry," " Worship and its Forms," 

 and "Luther's Small Cathechism Explained and 

 Amplified" (Philadelphia, 1886), of which more 

 than 30,000 copies have been sold. 



Cooke, Martin Warren, lawyer, born in White- 

 hall, N. Y., March 2, 1840 ; died in Rochester, N. Y., 

 Feb. 25, 1898. He was graduated at the University 

 of Rochester in 1860 ; was admitted to the bar there 

 in 1863; and was actively engaged in his profession 

 till within a few weeks of his death. For many 

 years he was a Supreme Court examiner of appli- 

 cants for admission to the bar, and lie was several 

 times chairman of the board. He was a member 

 of the executive committee of the New York State 

 Bar Association from its organization, was its 



