

OBITUARIES, 'AMERICAN. (RICHMOND ROBEETSON.) 



565 



steel "for the existing emergency" in the 26th sioned a colonel in the 3d Artillery of Pennsyl- 



Pennsylvania Militia, and shared all its campaign : " 1u -"- v - 10 1t " !-J - l -".-j i 



experiences until mustered out. He was ordained 

 in 1864, and supplied various pulpits. In 1865 he 

 became pastor of a congregation at South Easton, 

 Pa., and in January, 1866. he took charge of a con- 



vania, March 19, 1863 ; was brevetted brigadier 

 general of volunteers. April 9, 1865; and mustered 

 out of the service Nov 13, 1865. He served at 

 Fort Hamilton, N. Y., in 1835-'36; took part in 

 the operations against the Creek Indians; and 



gregation at Greenwich, N. J.. where he remained served in the Florida war of 1836-'37 as captain of 



11 ri i~i 1 "\Tr unurl VOV 1 Sifi'/' Tr 1 ft ftM \\a -\rro a alfkSttswl n i*/*rv>i in *irf /-vf fvi mi n t A*1 i,'^-l 1 1 - ts*n*c* T 1 O*)O **JI1 U. . 



until Noveinber, 1867. In 1868 he was elected 

 Professor of English and Latin in Muhlenberg Col- 

 lege, and removed to Allentown. lie held this 

 chair until the spring of 1874, when he became 

 pastor of a Lutheran congregation in Indianapolis, 

 Ind., where he remained until January. 1877, when 

 he was recalled to his former chair in Muhlenberg 

 College. As professor, while nominally of the 

 English language and literature, he taught, at one 

 time or another, everything in the college course 

 except the natural sciences. His place in college 

 he retained until his death. Besides his college 

 work he was connected with the schools of Allen- 

 town from 1879 as director, member of the Board 

 of Control, and secretary of the board. He was 

 editor of the " Church Lesson Leaves" and "The 

 Helper," 1880-'96 ; editorial writer for "The 

 Lutheran," 1884-'98 ; editor of the " Church Mes- 

 senger " for several years ; a regular contributor to 

 the '' Gettysburg Quarterly " and the " Lutheran 

 Church Review " ; and from 1896 was associate 

 editor of " The Lutheran " and a contributor to the 

 General Council's new series of Sunday-school 

 publications. He was in demand as a lecturer, 

 preacher, and teacher, especially at the Pennsyl- 

 vania Chautauqua. In June, 1889. he received the 

 degree of D. D. from Pennsylvania College. 



Richmond, George Borden, inventor, born in 

 Chardon, Ohio, in 1849 ; died in Lansing, Mich., 

 Aug. 3, 1898. He was left an orphan in early life, 

 and went to live with relatives in Watertown, Mich., 

 where he worked on a farm till eighteen years old. 

 Then he studied dentistry, and settled in North 

 Lansing to practice. He was an earnest student, 

 an accomplished chemist, and a genius in mechan- 

 ics. His undisputed inventions included an electric 

 motor. He claimed the invention of the telephone, 

 and old residents of Lansing testified to his experi- 

 ments and to the successful working of his device. 

 On applying for a patent he was informed that one 

 had just been granted to Alexander Graham Bell. 

 He accumulated much evidence to substantiate his 

 claims, but allowed them to go by default. 



Roberts, Charles W., military officer, born in 

 Oldtown, Me., in 1829 ; died in Bangor, Me., March 

 23, 1898. At the outbreak of the civil war he 

 entered the national army as lieutenant colonel of 

 the 2d Maine Volunteers, and was promoted to the 

 command of the regiment. Subsequently he was 

 brevetted brigadier general for meritorious conduct 

 on the field. After the battle of Antietam. in 

 September, 18G2, he was forced by illness to take a 

 furlough, but he retained command of his regiment 

 till January, 1863, when his condition led him to 

 resign. He was for a short time collector of the 

 port of Bangor by appointment of President John- 

 son, but failed of confirmation by the Senate, and 

 he held the office under confirmation from 1887 till 

 1891. In 1870 and 1875 he was the unsuccessful 

 Democratic candidate for Governor of Maine. 



Roberts. Joseph, soldier, born near Middletown, 

 Del., Dec. 30, 1814 ; died in Philadelphia, Oct. 19, 

 1898. He was graduated at the United States 

 Military Academy and entered the army as brevet 

 2d lieutenant in the 4th Artillery. July 1, 1835 ; 

 promoted 2d lieutenant, June 10, 1836; 1st lieuten- 

 ant, July 7, 1838 ; captain, Aug. 20. 1848 ; major, 

 Sept. 3/1861; lieutenant colonel, Aug. 11, 1863; 

 colonel, Jan. 10, 1877; and was retired July 2, 

 1877. In the volunteer service he was commis- 



a regiment of mounted volunteers. In 1838-'39 he 

 was Assistant Professor of Natural and Experiment- 

 al Philosophy at the Military Academy. He was 

 again sent to Florida, and took part in the Indian 

 war of 1849. In 1853 he commanded Fort Mifflin, 

 in 1857 was transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., 

 and later assumed charge of Fort Monroe. He 

 served through the civil war, was in command of 

 Fort Monroe in 1861, in October of that year was 

 made chief of artillery in the 7th Army Corps, 

 and in 1863 was in charge of the 4th Artillery 

 Corps. After the war he held the office of assist- 

 ant inspector general of the department in Wash- 

 ington and superintendent of the Artillery School, 

 at Fort Monroe. At the time of his retirement, in 

 1877, he was on duty at the Presidio, in San Fran- 

 cisco. He published "A Handbook of Artillery" 

 (1860). 



Robertson, William H.. lawyer and politician, 

 born in Bedford, N. Y.. Oct. 10, 1823; died in 

 Katonah, N. Y., Dec. 6, 1898. After preliminary 

 studies in Union Academy, Bedford, he was ad"- 

 mitted to the bar in 1847. He practiced in New 

 York city a few years, beginning with 1861 ; but 

 his life practice was in the adjoining county of 

 Westchester, of which he served as county judge 

 twelve years. Beginning life as a Whig, he after- 

 ward became a Republican, and was a delegate to 

 numerous conventions of that party. Between 1848 

 and 1891'he was three times a member of the State 

 Assembly and eight times a member of the State 

 Senate, of which he was uniformly the chairman of 

 the Judiciary Committee and often the president 

 pro tern. He was chairman of the Military Com- 

 mittee of his senatorial district in 1862. In 1876 

 he was sent to Florida by President Grant to wit- 

 ness the count of the electoral vote. He was a Rep- 

 resentative in the 40th Congress. Williams Col- 

 lege conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. in 

 1876. Three incidents in his later life made him a 

 most important factor in the politics of the United 

 States. The first was in May, 1880, when, two 

 months before the Republican National Convention, 

 to which he was a delegate, he announced himself 

 for Blaine as against Grant, thus breaking over tho 

 time-honored custom of the " unit rule " that re- 

 quired the votes of all the delegates from a State to 

 be cast for one candidate. He thus became the 

 leader in the movement that resulted in nominat- 

 ing Garfield. The second was in March, 1881, when 

 President Garfield had nominated him for collector 

 of customs of the port of Is'ew York. The State 

 Senate, of which he was a member at the time, ap- 

 proved his nomination, but it was not approved by 

 Roscoe Conkling and Thomas C. Platt, who were 

 the United States Senators from New York, and 

 who claimed the privilege of nominating appointees 

 to Federal offices in that State. They thereupon 

 resigned and appealed to the Legislature for a re- 

 election. During the long struggle that followed 

 President Garfield was assassinated. The Legisla- 

 ture refused to return the two Senators, and elected 

 others in their places. Judge Robertson, in the 

 meantime, had been confirmed by the United States 

 Senate, and he held his office four years, ending in 

 1885. Upon his retirement his conduct of the of- 

 fice was commended even by men of other polit- 

 ical parties. The third and most far-reaching inci- 

 dent arose out of a trivial proxy in the Republican 

 State Convention of 1882. The delegates were 



