OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (SOUTHWORTH STILSON.) 



1860 was chairman of the Republican State Con- 

 vention; and in 1861 was anointed United States 

 Commissioner to the International Exhibition in 

 London (1862). In 1865 and 1866 he was elected 

 Governor of New Hampshire, and in the last 

 year was also appointed to the Board of Man- 

 agers of the National Homes for Disabled Sol- 

 diers. In 1878 he was appointed a United States 

 Commissioner to the Paris Exposition. He was 

 president of the Boston, Concord and Montreal 

 Railroad Company, and trustee and treasurer of 

 the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and 

 Mechanic Arts. See GIFTS AND BEQUESTS. 



Southworth, Mrs. Emma Dorothy Eliza 

 Nevitte, novelist, born in Washington, D. C., 

 Dec. 26, 1819; died there, June 30, 1899. In 1840 

 she married Frederick H. Southworth, of Utica, 

 N. Y., who three years later deserted her and 

 their children. From 1844 to 1849 she taught in 

 a public school in Washington, and to add to her 

 income began at this period to write stories for 

 weekly newspapers. Retribution, her first work 

 to appear in book form, was published in 1849, 

 and an incomplete list of its successors comprises 

 The Deserted Wife (1850); Shannondale and 

 The Mother-in-law (1851); Children of the Isle 

 and The Foster Sisters (1852); The Family 

 Doom; Prince of Darkness; The Bride's Fate; 

 The Changed Brides; How He Won Her; Fair 

 Play; Fallen Pride; Ishmael; The Widow's Son; 

 Bride of Llewellyn; The Fortune Seeker; All- 

 worth Abbey; The Bridal Eve; The Fatal Mar- 

 riage; Love's Labor Won; The Lost Heiress; 

 Gipsy's Prophecy; Discarded Daughter; The 

 Three Beauties; Vivia; The Two Sisters; The 

 Missing Bride; The Wife's Victory; Haunted 

 Homestead; Lady of the Isle; India; Curse of 

 Clifton; Hester Strong's Life Work (1869); 

 The Lost Heir of Linlithgow (1872); Unknown 

 (1874); Red Hill Tragedy (1877); The Trail of 

 the Serpent (1879); Sybil Brotherton (1879); 

 Nearest and Dearest (1881); The Mother's Se- 

 cret (1883) ; An Exile's Bride (1887) ; The Hidden 

 Hand (1888); Leap in the Dark; Lost Lady of 

 Lone (1889); Maiden Widow (1888); Self- 

 raised; Tried for her Life; Brandon Coyle's 

 Wife; The Specter Bridegroom; Broken Pledges 

 (1891); Cruel as the Grave; Gloria; David Lind- 

 say; Gertrude Haddon; Only a Girl's Heart; 

 Skeleton in the Closet; The Unloved Wife. Mrs. 

 Southworth's stories have been widely popular 

 among uncritical readers, and their sensational- 

 ism is not of a hurtful character. In The Wid- 

 ow's -Son and Ishmael there is considerable tragic 

 power, and in all the plots are ingeniously con- 

 trived. Translations of her books have appeared 

 in French, German, and Spanish. Soon after the 

 success of her early books Mrs. Southworth gave 

 up teaching and devoted herself entirely to writ- 

 ing, her novels usually making their first appear- 

 ance serially in the New York Ledger. Save for 

 a few years, when she resided at Yonkers, N. Y., 

 her life was spent in Washington. 



Steers, Edward Paulet, banker, born in 

 Cork, Ireland, Oct. 13, 1837; died in New York 

 city, April 22, 1899. In early childhood he ac- 

 companied his father, an agent for Crown lands, 

 to Canada; when about twelve years old went 

 to Buffalo, N. Y., and became a bank cashier; 

 and in 1862 removed to New York city, where he 

 was first engaged in the lumber business, and 

 from 1886 as president of the Twelfth Ward 

 Bank, which he had organized. He was consid- 

 ered an authority on conchology and numismat- 

 ics, had gathered an almost priceless collection 

 of shells and coins, and was compiling a Diction- 

 ary of Conchology. 



Stevens, Martha Bayard, philanthropist, 

 born in Princeton, N. .!.; died in Ilobokon, N. .1., 

 April 1, 1899. She was the (hi lighter of the late 

 Albert B. Dod, Professor of Mathematics at 

 Princeton, and the widow of. Edwin A. Stevens, 

 founder of Stevens Institute of Technology, in 

 Hoboken. When she became the wife ol .John 

 Stevens's son she came into possession of much 

 of the property that had once been owned by her 

 ancestors. Mrs. Stevens was noted for her works 

 of charity and her eil'orts to improve the condi- 

 tion of the poor. She built the Church of the 

 Holy Innocents; was largely instrumental in t he- 

 founding of the Hoboken School for Manual 

 Training, and in the erection of the building used 

 by this school and the Free Public Library; 

 opened the Martha Institution; endowed a ward 

 in St. Mary's Hospital; and made large dona- 

 tions to Christ Hospital, St. Catherine's Home, 

 and other benevolent institutions. Shortly be- 

 fore her death she decided to present to Hoboken 

 a recreation pier on the river walk for the benefit 

 of the poor, and her plans were carried out by 

 her sons. 



Stille, Charles Janeway, historian, born in 

 Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 23, 1819; died in Atlantic 

 City, N. J., Aug. 11, 1899. He was graduated at 

 Yale in 1839, and was admitted to the bar, but 

 devoted himself to literary pursuits. During the 

 civil war he was an active member of the United 

 States Sanitary Commission, of which he after- 

 ward became the historian. In May, 1866, he 

 was made Professor of History and English Lit- 

 erature in the University of Pennsylvania, and in 

 June, 1868, was chosen provost, which office he 

 held until 1880. Dr. Stille received the degree 

 of LL. D. from Yale in 1868. In addition to nu- 

 merous addresses and pamphlets, he published 

 How a Free People conduct a Long War (Phila- 

 delphia, 1862) ; Northern Interests and Southern 

 Independence: A Plea for United Action (1863); 

 Memorial of the Great Central Fair for the United 

 States Sanitary Commission (1864); Historical 

 Development of American Civilization (1864); 

 History of the United States Sanitary Commis- 

 sion (New York, 1866) ; Annals of the United 

 States Christian Commission (Philadelphia, 

 1868) ; Memoir of the Rev. William Smith, D. D. 

 (1869); Studies in Mediaeval History (1882); 

 Beaumarchais and the Lost Million (1886); The 

 Life and Times of John Dickinson (1891); and 

 Major-Gen. Anthony Wayne and the Pennsyl- 

 vania Line in the Continental Army (1893). His 

 work on mediaeval history has wide use as a col- 

 lege text-book. 



Stilson, Daniel Chapman, inventor, born in 

 Durham, N. H., March 25, 1830; died in Somer- 

 ville, Mass., Aug. 21, 1899. At the outbreak of 

 the civil war he was a machinist in the Charleston 

 Navy Yard, and in 1862 he was appointed third 

 assistant engineer in the navy, and assigned to 

 the steamer R. B. Forbes. The vessel sailed from 

 New York Feb. 22, and two days later was 

 wrecked off the coast of North Carolina. All 

 the officers and crew reached the shore, and Mr. 

 Stilson, with other members of the crew, was 

 transferred to the frigate Roanoke, and later 

 to the Somerset, which was engaged on blockade 

 duty off the Cuban coast. On Aug. 31, 1862, he 

 resigned on account of failing health; Aug. 14, 

 1863. he was reappointed to the navy as acting 

 second assistant engineer on the Queen, and Nov. 

 16, 1864, he was promoted acting first assistant 

 engineer. Jan. 25, 1865, he sailed with Farragut 

 on his first voyage as vice-admiral. After the 

 war Mr. Stilson resumed his trade of machinist, 

 and later he invented the wrench that has made 



