OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (DONNOHUK DURGIN.) 



.VJ T 



tional Committee in 1884. He was famous as a 

 collector of antiquities, and his collections of works 

 of art, books, relics, historical documents, etc., was 

 not excelled by any private collection in the United 

 States. He wrote and compiled for the Govern- 

 ment a mammoth volume, " Public Domain," which 

 is the standard reference history of the national 

 public lands, and he also wrote " The George Catlin 

 Indian Gallery in the United States National Mu- 

 seum " (1888) and "Walt Whitman, the Man" 

 (1896). 



Donnohue, Dillard C., lawyer, born in Mont- 

 gomery County, Ky., Nov. 20, 1814; died in Green- 

 castle, Ind., April 2, 1898. He removed to Indiana 

 in early life, settled in Greencastle, was a member 

 of the State Legislature from 1848 till 1852, and as 

 a delegate to the National Republican Convention 

 of I860 had much to do with shaping the action of 

 the Indiana delegation in favor of the nomination 

 of Abraham Lincoln. Although beyond the aver- 

 age age. he served as a soldier during part of the 

 civil war. In 1863 he was appointed by President 

 Lincoln a special commissioner to the republic of 

 Hayti for the purpose of inquiring into the prac- 

 ticability of colonizing all the slaves of the Southern 

 States there after their freedom had been secured. 

 This was a project highly favored at the time by 

 both President Lincoln and Secretary Se ward, but 

 Mr. Donnohue was obliged to make an adverse 

 report. For details of this mission the. reader is 

 referred to Nicolay and Hay's "History of the 

 Administration of Abraham Lincoln." Mr. Don- 

 nohue was a law partner of John P. Usher and an 

 early and active abolitionist. 



Dorsey, Henry . L., prisoner's friend, born in 

 Kentucky, in 1823 ; died in Pawtucket, R. I., June 

 8, 1898. In early life he was once unjustly arrested 

 and had much difficulty in procuring bail. This 

 experience caused him to make a vow that he 

 would aid any man in a similar situation, and till 

 within a few years he was widely known as the 



man who would furnish bail for any one who could 

 convince him that he was innocent of the crime 

 charged, whether he knew the person or not. About 

 twenty-five years ago he offered to give to several 

 States a fund of $1,500 with which to provide an 

 annual turkey dinner for convicts. Connecticut 

 was the only State that accepted his offer, and the 

 Dorsey Thanksgiving dinner has been a feature of 



; its prison ever since. It is believed that he was 

 j formerly a man of large means, for he spent freely 

 I and gave away considerable sums for many years. 



He died poor, and penologists say that his peculiar 

 1 benefactions wrought more harm than good. 



Dos Passes, Benjamin Franklin, lawyer, born 

 in Philadelphia, March 28, 1856 ; died in New York 

 city, June 17, 1898. He was admitted to the bar 

 of New York in 1879, and in 1883 he formed a 

 partnership with his brother, John R. Dos Passes, 

 tn 1888 he was appointed an assistant to the dis- 

 .rict attorney of New York County. While in that 

 )fnce he had charge of many important criminal 

 ?ases, in the prosecution of which he showed marked 

 ibility. At the close of his term of office he resumed 

 -he partnership with his brother. He was appointed 

 I special counsel for the State of New York in impor- 

 I .ant litigations arising under the tax laws, notably 

 .he one against the estate of Jay Gould. He pub- 

 ished " The Law of Collateral and Direct Inherit- 

 ing, Legacy and Succession Taxes " (1890). 



Downs, Morse S., musician, born in Haverhill, 

 Mass., in 1880; died in Brooklyn, N. Y., June 12, 

 ! 898. He developed a strong taste for music at an 

 -arly age, and when nine years old was able to play 

 j he organ in a church, though he was so short that 

 ie had to stand before the instrument. Severe ap- 

 : ~~tion to the study of music greatly injured his 



health before he was twenty years old, and he spent 

 some time in California. On his return he took a 

 course in vocal instruction in Boston, and in 1860 

 became the tenor in the quartet of the Old South 

 Church. His health again failing, lie removed to 

 Memphis, Tenn., where he was appointed director 

 of the Mozart Conservatory, and later gave the first 

 musical festival ever held in the South, aided by 

 Theodore Thomas and his orcheslra. Nilsson, Ma"- 

 terna, Scaria, and Winterman. About this time 

 also he published songs and other musical works. 

 During the past fifteen years he was prevented by 

 illness from following a professional career. 



Dreher, Virginia, actress, born Louisville, Kv., 

 in 1858 ; died in Phoenix, Ariz.. Nov. 11, 1898. She 

 was the daughter of a family named Murphy, and 

 married when quite young a music professor of 

 Louisville named Dreher. On the death of her 

 husband she sought a means of supporting herself 

 and two children by going upon the stage. She 

 studied under John Norton, an actor and manager 

 of St. Louis, and made her debut as Julia, in "The 

 Hunchback," at the Grand Opera House in that 

 city in 1888. Her success was such that she was 

 immediately engaged by Augustin Daly for his 

 theater in New York. She made her first appear- 

 ance in New York in 1883 in "7-20-8." She became 

 immediately a favorite with the public, and remained 

 a member of Daly's Theatre until 1889, when she mar- 

 ried George Frederick Postlethwaite, a wealthy Eng- 

 lish gentleman, and retired from the stage. 



Duncan, Charles C., seaman, born in Bath, Me., 

 in 1821 ; died in Northfield, Mass., March 25, 1898. 

 He adopted a seafaring career' in early life, and 

 when twenty years old was given command of a 

 ship. Subsequently he was engaged in business in 

 New York city. In 1867 he embarked on a cruise 

 to the Mediterranean, the idea of which he had 

 conceived, commanding the steamer " Quaker City," 

 which furnished the subject of Mark Twain's " In- 

 nocents Abroad," Mr. Clemens being a member of 

 the excursion party. On returning from the voy- 

 age Capt. Duncan became actively identified with 

 the American Seamen's Friend Society, and labored 

 with much zeal to promote the shipping act that 

 Congress passed in 1872. For many years he was 

 a conspicuous church worker in Brooklyn, N. Y., 

 being at times a deacon of Plymouth Church and 

 superintendent of its Sunday school and superin- 

 tendent of the Sunday school of the Rev. Dr. 

 George F. Pentecost's church. After the passage 

 of the shipping act he was appointed shipping com- 

 missioner of the port of New York, and he held the 

 office till 1885, when he removed with his family to 

 Northfield. In 1894 he was licensed to preach by 

 the conference of Franklin County, Mass. 



Duncan, Samuel White, clergyman and educa- 

 tor, born in Haverhill, Mass., Dec. 19, 1838 : died in 

 Boston, Oct. 30, 1898. He was graduated at Brown 

 University in 1860. He raised a company in Ha- 

 verhill for the 50th Massachusetts Volunteers in 

 1862, and served as its captain through a part of 

 the civil war. He was graduated at the Theolog- 

 ical Seminary in Rochester, N. Y., iu 1866, and then 

 held pastorates of Baptist churches, successively, 

 in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Rochester. In 1885 

 he was offered the presidency of Vassar College, 

 but declined it. He became in 1892, and continued 

 to his death, foreign secretary of the American 

 Baptist Missionary Union. He was a trustee of 

 Rochester University, Denison University, and 

 Rochester Theological Seminary, and a fellow of 

 Brown University. In 1878 the degree of 1). D. 

 was conferred upon him by the University of Chi- 

 cago. 



Durgin, Dorothy, Shaker, born in Sanbornton, 

 N. H.. Nov. 23, 1825 ; died in Canterbury. N. H., 



