OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (TURNER VANDERBILT.) 



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on an heroic statue of John Paul Jones for the 

 l)e\vev arch. Among his other works are the 

 .rroup Angelica and Medoro, the bust of rope 

 Loo XIII in the Vatican, the statue ot Garibaldi 

 in Washington Square, and the colossal bust < 

 Maxxini in Central lark. 



Turner, John Wesley, military officer, born 

 in Saratoga Countv, New York, July 19 1S33; 

 .lied in St. Louis, *Mo., April 8, 18<)9. He was 

 graduated at West Point in 1855; entered the army 

 as a brevet second lieutenant in the 3d Artillery; 

 was promoted second lieutenant in the 1st Ar- 

 tillery the same year, and first lieutenant April 

 \ 1861. and resigned while captain and com- 

 missarv of subsistence Sept. 4, 1871. His services 

 in the* regular army prior to the civil war com- 

 prised chiefly participation in the Semmole In- 

 dian War in Florida and garrison duty. At the 

 reduction of Fort Pulaski he commanded one ot 

 the principal breaching batteries. in Septem- 

 ber, 18113, he was brevetted a major in the regu- 

 lar army and commissioned a brigadier general 

 of volunteers for gallantry at Fort Wagner. He 

 was transferred to the Army of the James, and 

 received command of a division of the 10th Corps. 

 He rendered effective service in the campaign be- 

 fore Richmond, and was brevetted a lieutenant 

 colonel in the regular army. From August, 1864, 

 till March, 1865, he was chief of staff in North 

 Carolina and Virginia, and then, as commander 

 of an independent division of the 24th Corps, he 

 took part in the operations culminating in the 

 surrender at Appomattox. Under date of March 

 13, 18(55, he was brevetted colonel, United States 

 army, for the capture of Fort Gregg; major gen- 

 eral'of volunteers for meritorious services on sev- 

 eral occasions; and brigadier general and major 

 general, United States army, for services during 

 the war. He was mustered out of the volunteer 

 service in September, 1866, and thence till his 

 resignation served as depot commissary in St. 

 Louis and in the Indian Department. After leav- 

 ing the army he became a civil engineer in St. 

 Louis, and for several years was a member of 

 the Hoard of Public Works. 



Valentin!, Philip J. J., archaeologist, born in 

 Berlin, Germany, in 1828; died in New York 

 city, March 16, 1899. His father was an Italian, 

 a teacher of languages. The son received a care- 

 ful training in philology, spent some time at the 

 Gymnasium of Targau, and afterward studied 

 jurisprudence at the University of Berlin. In 

 1H54 he founded the seaport of Puerto Limon, in 

 Costa Rica, under Government auspices, and 

 there learned that the people could give no ac- 

 count of their ancestors. On his return to Ger- 

 many he made diligent search for historical in- 

 formation regarding early Spanish colonization in 

 Central America. He then spent eleven years in 

 further research, which resulted in the preparation 

 of numerous manuscripts that the Government 

 desired to publish but political disturbances pre- 

 vented. These studies induced Dr. Valentini to 

 investigate the prehistoric remains of Guatemala 

 and neighboring regions. He made such progress 

 in deciphering the hieroglyphics on monuments 

 and pre-Columbian manuscripts that in thirty 

 years his work brought him to the front rank 

 of American archaeologists. His interpretation of 

 the famous Mexican calendar stone added greatly 

 to his reputation. His last work was A Study 

 of the Voyage of Pinzon to America (Berlin, 

 1898). 



Vance, Robert Brank, soldier, born in North 

 Carolina in 1828; died in Asheville, N.C., Nov. 28, 

 1899. He was a brother of Zebulon B. Vance, en- 

 tered the Confederate service as a captain, and in 



1863 was appointed a brigadier general. Near the 

 close of the war he was captured, and was re- 

 leased on parole by President Lincoln that he 

 might obtain clothes for the Confederate pris- 

 oners. He made a trip through the North and 

 secured a large amount of clothing and money. 

 He was elected to Congress in 1872, and re-elected 

 for the five succeeding terms. In 1885 he was 

 appointed assistant commissioner of patents. 



Vanderbilt, Cornelius, capitalist, born in 

 New Dorp, Staten Island, N. Y., Nov. 27, 1843: 

 died in New York city, Sept. 12, 1899. He was 

 the eldest son of William Henry Vanderbilt, and 

 the favorite grandson of Commodore Cornelius 

 Vanderbilt. He w T as educated in the common 

 schools of Staten Island and in a private academy 

 in New York city. When he left school he be- 

 came a clerk in the Shoe and Leather Bank, and 

 ' subsequently in the banking house of Kissam 

 Brothers. In 1865 he w r as made assistant treas- 

 urer of the Harlem Railroad, and began his prac- 

 tical study of railroad management and finance- 

 In 1867 he was made treasurer of the company, 

 which office he filled ten years. In 1877, after 

 the death of his grandfather, he was made first 

 vice-president of the New York Central Railroad, 

 with entire control of the finances of the com- 

 pany. Upon his father's death, Dec. 8, 1885, he 

 became the head of the Vanderbilt family, and 

 for ten years was the chief director of the Van- 

 derbilt system of railroads. On July 14, 1896, he 

 was stricken with paralysis, from which he never 

 fully recovered, the three last years of his life 

 being spent mainly at health resorts. At the 

 time of his death he was associated as director, 

 or in other official capacity, with 54 railroad 

 companies. During his busy life he devoted a 

 set portion of every day to the charitable organ- 

 izations with which he w^as connected and to 

 the consideration of his ow r n private beneficences, 

 which were numerous. In April, 1886, he united 

 with his brothers in a gift of $250,000 for the j 

 erection of the Vanderbilt Clinic of the College of 

 Physicians and Surgeons. In 1897 he presented to 

 St." Bartholomew's Home, in East Forty-second 

 Street, an addition costing $250,000. He was 

 much interested in the railroad branches of the 

 Young Men's Christian Association, and was per- 

 sonally active in establishing them. His gifts 

 to Yale College amounted to about $1,500,000, 

 among them Vanderbilt Hall, a dormitory in- 

 tended as a memorial to his son William H., who 

 died there while a student. He presented Rosa 

 Bonheur's Painting The Horse Fair to the Metro- 

 politan Museum of Art, having paid $53,000 for j 

 it at the sale of the Stewart collection. He gave 

 $100,000 to the fund for the new Episcopal Cathe- 

 dral of St. John the Divine. He was a member . 

 of the Finance Committee of the Episcopal Board 

 of Foreign Missions, and of the Executive Com- 

 mittee of the International Young Men's Chris- 

 tian Association; a trustee of the Seamen's Mis- 

 sion of the Episcopal Church, the Hospital for 

 the Ruptured and Crippled, the Museum of Nat- 

 ural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 

 the General Theological Seminary of the Epis- 

 copal Church, and of the American Bible Society ; ' 

 a vestryman of St. Bartholomew's Church; vice- 

 president, of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 

 tion; and chairman of the Grand Central Station 

 Branch. He left an estate valued at about $70,- 

 000,000, the bulk of which he devised to his 

 youngest son, Alfred Gwynne. His eldest son, 

 Cornelius, with whom he" had quarreled, was prac- 

 tically cut off, receiving only the income of $1,- 

 000,000, placed in trust. The other son and two 

 daughters received equal shares about $7,-. 



