G16 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (LAMSON LE GENDRE.) 



various works from the French and German, 

 and at the time of his death was employed as 

 a translator in the office of the Director of the 

 Mint in Washington. He edited A Cyclopaedia of 

 Political Science, Political Economy, and Political 

 History of the United States (3 vols., New York, 

 1881), and translated Roscher's Principles of Po- 

 litical Economy (1878); Jhering's Struggle for 

 Law (Chicago. 1879): Nohl's .Mozart (1880); 

 Nohl's Beethoven (1880) : and, with A. B. Mason, 

 Von Hoist's History of the United States (1876) 

 and Principles of Political Economy (1887). 



Lamson, Charles Marion, clergyman, born in 

 North Hadley, Mass., May 16, 1843; died in St. 

 Johnsbury, Vt., Aug. 8, 1899. He was graduated 

 at Ainherst College in 18(54, remained there as 

 instructor in Latin and English for two years, 

 and then took the theological course in Halle 

 University, Saxony. In 1868 he became pastor 

 of the Porter Congregational Church in Brock- 

 ton. Mass., and in 1871-*85 he was pastor of the 

 Salem Street Congregational Church in Worces- 

 ter, Mass. He went to the North Congregational 

 Church in St. Johnsbury, Vt., in 1885, and to 

 his last charge, Hartford, Conn., in 1893. On Oct. 

 14. 1897, he was elected president of the American 

 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. 

 He received the degree of D. D. in 1885. 



Lansdale, Philip Van Horn, naval officer, 

 born in Washington, D. C., Feb. 5, 1858; died near 

 Apia, Samoa, April 1, 1899. He was a son of 

 the late Philip Lansdale, medical director in the 

 United States navy, and was graduated at the 

 Naval Academy in 1879. He was promoted mas- 

 ter, June 1, 1881; lieutenant (junior grade), 

 March 31, 1888; lieutenant, May 15, 1893; and 

 was assigned to his last duty, June 15, 1896. For 

 several years he was attached to the Bureau of 

 Naval Intelligence, and during the Columbian 

 Exposition in Chicago was in charge of the Span- 

 ish caravels. In 1896 he was for a second time 

 attached to the Philadelphia. Early in 1899 Rear- 

 Admiral Albert Kautz, U. S. N., commandant of 

 the Pacific station, was ordered to proceed from 

 San Francisco to Samoa on his flagship, the 

 Philadelphia. On April 1 a joint American and 

 British naval expedition was sent from the ships 

 of the two nations, then lying in the harbor of 

 Apia, to suppress the uprising of the adherents 

 of Mataafa, one of the claimants of the king- 

 ship. This force was caught in an ambush, and 

 in the midst of a heroic defense in the face of 

 overwhelming numbers was put to a great dis- 

 advantage by the repeated breaking down of the 

 Colt automatic gun. The American and British 

 bluejackets fought nobly side by side under their 

 respective commanders till they ran short of am- 

 munition and darkness set in, when a retreat 

 was ordered. The expedition w r as led by Lieut. 

 Angel H. Freeman, of the British cruiser Tau- 

 rauga, who was shot dead in the fight, Lieut. 

 Lansdale, who was fatally wounded while en- 

 deavoring to relieve the " jammed " Colt gun, and 

 Ensign J. R. Monaghan, also of the Philadelphia, 

 uho was killed while trying to save Lieut. Lans- 

 dale. 



Lawrence, William, jurist, born in Mount 

 Pleasant, Ohio, June 26, 1819; died in Bellefon- 

 taine, Ohio, May 8, 1899. He was graduated at 

 Franklin College, Ohio, in 1838, was admitted to 

 the bar in 1840, and became commissioner in 

 bankruptcy for Logan County in 1842 and prose- 

 cuting attorney in 1845. He owned and edited 

 the Logan County Gazette in 1845-'47, and after- 

 ward edited the Western Law Journal. In 1846 

 he was elected a State Representative, in 1848 a 

 State Senator, in 1851 reporter for the Ohio Su- 



preme Court, and in 1853 was returned to the 

 Senate. He was elected judge of the Court of 

 Common Pleas in 1856 and 1861, served as colonel 

 of the 84th Ohio Volunteers in 1862, and resigned 

 from the Common Pleas bench in 1864. During 

 1865-71 and 1873-77 he was a Republican Repre- 

 sentative in Congress, and in 1880-'85 he was 

 Comptroller of the Currency. For several years 

 he was president of the National Association of 

 Wool Growers. He published Reports of Deci- 

 sions of the Supreme Court of Ohio (1852); The 

 Treaty Questions (1871); The Law of Religious 

 Societies and Church Corporations (1873); The 

 Law of Claims against the Government (1875); 

 The Organization of the Treasury Department of 

 the United States (1880); and Decisions of the 

 First Comptroller in the Department of the Treas- 

 ury of the United States (1881-'85). 



Lay, John Louis, inventor, born in Buffalo, 

 N. Y., Jan. 14, 1832; died in New York city, 

 April 17, 1899. He was appointed a second as- 

 sistant engineer in the United States navy in 

 July, 1862, and first distinguished himself by ac- 

 companying Lieut. William B. Gushing on the 

 expedition against the Confederate ram Albemarle 

 and by designing the torpedo with which that 

 vessel was destroyed. He was promoted first 

 assistant engineer in October, 1863, and in 1865, 

 after the occupation of Richmond by the National 

 army, he was sent up the James river in advance 

 of Admiral Porter's fleet to remove obstructions. 

 Soon after the war he resigned from the navy 

 and entered the service of Peru, where he spent 

 some time in preparing the harbor of Callao to 

 resist the entrance of a Spanish fleet by means 

 of fixed mines and suspended torpedoes. While 

 so engaged he conceived the idea of a moving 

 submarine torpedo. On his return to the United 

 States in 1867 he perfected the weapon that bears 

 his name, and afterward sold it to the Govern- 

 ment. The Lay submarine torpedo boat is a 

 cylindrical vessel with conical ends, operated by 

 an engine and screw propeller worked by carbon- 

 dioxide gas, and controlled from ship or shore 

 by an electric battery and keyboard. The boat is 

 fitted to carry a spar torpedo or a charge of some 

 high explosive, and has attained a speed of 9 

 miles an hour. Mr. Lay had received large sums 

 of money from the United States, South Ameri- 

 ca, and other governments, but unfortunate 

 speculations and the heavy expense of continual 

 experiments to keep his inventions up to the 

 requirements of the day had impoverished him. 



Le Brim, Nicholas, composer, born in France 

 in 1819; died in St. Louis, Mo., July 23, 1899. He 

 received his musical education in his native coun- 

 try, and came to the United States in 1842. For 

 thirty-five years he was a member of the orchestra 

 of the Olympic Theater, St. Louis. In 1865, in 

 a week's time, he completed the Lincoln Dead 

 March, w r hich was played by a band of 100 pieces, 

 with a chorus of 2,000 voices, under his personal 

 direction, at the funeral of the President. 



Le Gendre, Charles William, diplomatist, 

 born in Paris, France, about 1829; die'd in Seoul, 

 Korea, Sept. 2, 1899. He was educated at the 

 University of Paris, and came to the United 

 States in early manhood. At the beginning of 

 the civil war he entered the National army, and 

 was first placed in command of the post of Wil- 

 lett's Point, Long Island. Subsequently he be- 

 came major and colonel of the 51st New York 

 Volunteers, and brigadier general, serving to the 

 close of the war and receiving several wounds. 

 In 1865 he was appointed United States consul 

 at Amoy, China, with consular jurisdiction in 

 Formosa also. He induced the natives of For- 



