572 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (STOCKTON SUTRO.) 



her place as a stock actress. In 1849 she married 

 a New York politician named Wingart, with whom, 

 on the news of the discovery of gold in California, 

 she joined the members of the Argonauts. Upon 

 her arrival in San Francisco she was immediately 

 engaged by Thomas Maguire, the pioneer California 

 manager, as leading lady of the Jenny Lind Thea- 

 ter, the first permanent playhouse of San Francisco. 

 While waiting for the completion of the theater in 

 S.ui Francisco she played a short engagement at 

 the Eagle Theater, in Sacramento, and on Nov. 4, 

 1850, began at the Jenny Lind Theater a prosper- 

 ous career as the principal actress of " Early Days 

 in California." There were many New Yorkers in 

 San Francisco and Sacramento who had known 

 and admired her as an actress at home, and from 

 the opening night her place as a favorite was as- 

 sured. On Nov. 17, 1850, Mr. Wingart was killed 

 by an accident, and on June 4, 1851, the actress 

 married James Stark, an actor of high reputation, 

 the leading man of Maguire's company. On her 

 marriage to Mr. Stark she ceased to use the name 

 of her first husband (Kirby), by which she had been 

 professionally known up to that time, and was al- 

 ways known thereafter as Mrs. James Stark. In 

 1852-'53 Mr. and Mrs. Stark, who had gained great 

 favor in the theaters of San Francisco and Sacra- 

 mento, began to play as stars. They traveled to 

 all the interior towns and mining camps of the 

 State, taking with them a company of capable 

 actors and playing the Shakesperean and standard 



Slays in the public halls, courthouses, and hotel 

 ining-rooms. In the summer of 1854 Mr. and 

 Mrs. Stark went to Australia, where they were so 

 successful as tragic stars that they remained in 

 that country three years and returned to California 

 with a comfortable fortune, most of which was in- 

 vested in real estate in San Francisco and carefully 

 improved. On April 5, 1858, Mrs. Stark and her 

 husband began an engagement at Wallack's Thea- 

 ter, New York city, which lasted several weeks 

 with great success. The opening play was " The 

 Gamester," and this was followed with " The Lady 

 of Lyons," " Richelieu," " Othello," " Hamlet," 

 and " The Stranger." After a few short engage- 

 ments in other cities they returned to the Pacific 

 coast, and for about ten years occupied the thea- 

 ters of its new cities. Mr. Stark died in San Fran- 

 cisco, Oct. 12, 1875, both he and his wife having 

 been for some years retired and living in that city. 

 Mrs. Stark was again married. Sept. 18, 1883. to the 

 well-known actor Charles Thome, Sr. 



Stockton, Robert Field, lawyer, born in Prince- 

 ton, N. J., Jan. 22, 1832 ; died in Trenton, N. J., May 

 5, 1898. He was the great-grandson of Richard 

 Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independ- 

 ence, and a son of Commodore Robert F. Stockton. 

 He was graduated in 1851, and admitted to the bar 

 in 1854. He was made brigadier general, Jan. 30, 

 1858, and became adjutant general of New Jersey, 

 which office he held during the civil war. In 1867 

 he resigned, and was brevetted major general. He 

 was elected Comptroller of New Jersey in 1877, and 

 held the office three years. He was president of 

 the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company from 

 1806 till 1872, when it was merged into the 'United 

 New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, of which 

 he was president till his death. He was an incor- 

 porator of the Mercer and Somerset Railway Com- 

 pany. 



Stranahan, James Sainnel Thomas. " first cii i- 

 zen of Brooklyn," born in Peterborough, N. Y., 

 April 25,1808; died in Saratoga. N. Y., Sept, 3, 

 1898. He spent his early years on his father's farm, 

 studied in winter,' and at the age of seventeen taught 

 in the village school, at the same time studying civil 

 engineering. In 1827-'28 he visited the upper lake 



region of the Northwest, with a view of opening 

 trade with the Indians. Unable to enlist others in 

 his scheme, he abandoned it, to embark in the wool 

 business in Albany. In 1832 he was induced to take 

 charge of a township of land in Oneida County for 

 the purpose of founding a manufacturing village ; 

 and developed the town of Florence, which he rep- 

 resented in the State Assembly in 1838-'40. He re- 

 moved in 1840 to Newark, N. J., where he engaged in 

 the building of railroads, and in February, 1845, 

 went to Brooklyn, where he remained the rest of his 

 life. At first he undertook the business of a rail- 

 road contractor, and later began a scheme for de- 

 veloping the water front of Brooklyn, and succeeded 

 in making one of the most perfect and systematic 

 basins in the world, the Atlantic dock. He was 

 elected alderman in 1848, defeated for mayor in 

 1851, and elected to Congress in 1854. He was ap- 

 pointed a member of the newly organized Metro- 

 politan Police Board in 1857, and was reappointed 

 in 1858. He became a Republican in 1860, was a 

 delegate to the national conventions of 1860 and 

 1864, and was president of the War Fund Commit- 

 tee of Brooklyn during the civil war. He was presi- 

 dent of the Park Board from 1860 till 1882, during 

 which time Prospect Park was developed into t In- 

 second in size in the country. A bronze statue of. 

 .Mr. Stranahan was erected in Prospect Park, anil 

 unveiled June 6, 1891. Mr. Stranahan was at tht 

 head of a company of capitalists organized in 1861; 

 to build the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, and 

 presided at its opening ceremonies May 24, 1883. 

 He was one of the earliest advocates of the Greater 

 New York, his first public utterance in favor of it 

 being made at a dinner of the Chamber of Com- 

 merce May 8, 1883, and he was a member of the, 

 original commission appointed to bring about the 

 consolidation. He was at different times a member 

 of the Board of Directors of the Polytechnic Insti- 

 tute, the Academy of Music, and the Brooklyn In- 

 stitute. 



Sturtevant. Edward Lewis, agriculturist, born 

 in Boston, Mass., Jan. 23, 1842; died in Framing- 

 ham, Mass., July 30, 1898. He was graduated at 

 Bowdoin College in 1863, and at the medical de- 

 partment of Harvard in 1866, spending one of the 

 intervening years as captain in the 24th Maine Vol- 

 unteers. On leaving Harvard he engaged in scien- 

 tific agriculture and the breeding of choice dairy 

 cattle at South Framingham. During 1881-'8? he 

 was director of the New York State Agricultural 

 Experiment Station at Geneva. He was once presi- 

 dent of the Society for the Promotion of Agricul- 

 tural Science, and a fellow of the American Associ- 

 ation for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Sturte- 

 vant was a frequent contributor to the periodical 

 press and a lecturer on subjects relating to his life 

 work. He edited the " Scientific Farmer" in l.^Tii- 

 '79 ; the " North American Ayrshire Kegister " ; and 

 the annual "Reports of the New York Agricultural 

 Experiment Station " (1882-'87) ; and. with Joseph 

 N. Sturtevant, published a monograph on the Ayr- 

 shire breed of cattle under the title "The Dairy 

 Cow" (Boston, 1875). 



Sntro, Adolph Heinrich Joseph, mining engi- 

 neer, born in Aix-la-Chapelle, Prussia, April 'J!>. 

 1830; died in San Francisco, Cal., Aug. N. 1 ;".'*. 

 He came with his mother, six brothers, and four si" 

 ters to New York city in 1850; went to Baltimore: 

 and, having established the family in that place. 

 went to San Francisco, arriving there Nov. 21, 1S")H. 

 For nine years he conducted a small business there, 

 till in 1860 he saw his great opportunity in the 

 condition of the Comstock and other mines. I!< 

 visited Nevada, learned of the unfavorable state^of 

 the mines, and conceived the plan of the great Su- 

 tro Tunnel, through the mountains where lay the 



