OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (VAUOHAN WELLS.) 



500,000 each. Upon the reading of the will, Al- 

 fred offered to his eldest brother from his por- 

 tion an amount sufficient to make his share equal 

 to that received by the other brother and sis- 

 ters, and this proposition was accepted by Cor- 

 nelius. (See GIFTS AND BEQUESTS.) 



Vaug-han, Alfred Jefferson, soldier, born in 

 Dinwiddie County, Virginia, May 10, 1830; died 

 in Indianapolis, Ind., Oct. 1, 1891). He was grad- 

 uated at the Virginia Military Institute in 1851, 

 and began practice as a civil engineer. He made 

 a survey of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Rail- 

 road, and later was United States surveyor for 

 the district of California. He entered the Con- 

 federate army in 1861, and rose to the rank of 

 major general. He was wounded at Columbus, 

 Ky., and in the Chickamauga campaign he lost 

 a leg. After the war he farmed in Mississippi 

 till 1872, and was master of the State Grange. 

 He entered into business in Memphis in 1873, 

 and served as clerk of the criminal court of Shel- 

 by County, Tenn., from 1878 till 1886. 



Walsh, Patrick, journalist, born in Ballin- 

 garry, County Limerick, Ireland, Jan. 1, 1840; 

 died in Augusta, Ga., March 19, 1899. In 1848 

 his parents removed to Charleston, S. C., where 

 he was apprenticed to the printer's trade. In 

 1859 he entered Georgetown (D. C.) College, 

 where he remained, till South Carolina seceded, 

 when he returned to Charleston and entered the 

 military service of the State. He removed to 

 Augusta, Ga., in 1862, and obtained employment 

 on the Daily Constitution, of which he became 

 local editor in 1863. In 1864 he became asso- 

 ciated also in the publication of the Pacificator, 

 a weekly paper. In 1866 he was appointed South- 

 ern agent of the New York Associated Press, and 

 in 1867 became business manager of the Chron- 

 icle and Sentinel, which in 1877 was consoli- 

 dated with the Constitution under the name of 

 the Augusta Chronicle. He was elected to the 

 city council in 1870, to the Legislature in 1872, 

 to the State and National Democratic Conven- 

 tions in 1880, and in 1884 was a delegate to the 

 National Convention in Chicago. On April 2, 

 1894, Gov. Northern appointed him United States 

 Senator to fill the vacancy caused by the death 

 of Senator Alfred H. Colquitt, and he served 

 till March 4, 1895. At the time of his death he 

 was mayor of Augusta. 



Waterston, Mrs. Anne Cabot Lowell 

 (Quincy), author, born in Boston, Mass., June 

 27, 1812; died there, Oct. 14, 1899. She was the 

 last surviving daughter of Josiah Quincy, the 

 second mayor of Boston and the president of Har- 

 vard College. She married the Rev. Robert C. 

 Waterston, a Unitarian clergyman, with whom 

 she subsequently traveled abroad extensively, 

 and after his death, in 1893, her life was passed 

 in retirement. She contributed to magazines and 

 newspapers, but her onlv published books are 

 Verses (Boston, 1863) and Adelaide Phillips: A 

 Record (1883). 



Watterson, John Ambrose, clergyman, born 

 in Blairsville, Pa., May 27, 1844; died in Colum- 

 bus, Ohio, April 17, 1899. He was graduated 

 at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmittsburg, Md., 

 in 1865; was ordained in the Roman Catholic 

 Church, Aug. 8, 1868; became a member of the 

 faculty of Mount St. Mary's immediately after 

 ordination, and succeeded the Rev. -John McClos- 

 ky, D. D., as president of the college in 1877. In 

 1878 he received the degree of D. D. from George- 

 town College. In 1880 Dr. Watterson was chosen 

 Bishop of Columbus, Ohio. He applied himself 

 especially to advancing the educational interests 

 of his diocese, and by the end of 1884 he had 



established a college in the city and also had 

 3 academies and 32 parochial schools under hi* 

 supervision. In September, ],ss,H, the pontifical 

 college Josephinum was established in the city 

 for the education of pious arid talented boys with- 

 out means for the priesthood. This institution 

 is immediately subject to the Holy See; was pro- 

 moted to a pontifical college by l,co XIII in 

 1892, and was incorporated by the State of Ohio 

 with all the rights and privileges accorded to 

 American universities in 1894. 



Webb, William Henry, shipbuilder, born in 

 New York city, June 19, 1816; died there, Oct. 

 30, 1899. He began to learn the trade of ship- 

 building in the yard of his father, Isaac Webb, 

 in 183(5. Soon afterward, under a subcontract 

 with his father, he built the Oxford, a packet 

 ship of the Black Ball Line. He became a partner 

 in the firm of W^ebb & Allen in 1840 and from 

 1843 until his retirement, in 1808, he carried on 

 the work at the shipyard on the East river, 

 Brooklyn. His was the largest private establish- 

 ment of its kind in the world at that date. More 

 vessels, and many of the largest tonnage, were 

 built at his yard from 1840 to 1868 than were 

 built by any other one firm. He launched at 

 one tide 3 large vessels in twenty minutes. He 

 had built more than 150 large ships at the date 

 of his retirement. He devised a new model for 

 naval vessels, which .was rejected by both the 

 United States and France, but was accepted by 

 Russia, and upon its lines the screw frigate Gen- 

 eral Admiral was built for that Government in 

 1858. He built 2 frigates for Italy, for which 

 the order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus was 

 conferred upon him by King Victor Emmanuel, 

 For France he built the Dunderberg, afterward 

 the Rochambeau, the fastest war vessel of her 

 time. He conducted several steamship lines after 

 his retirement from shipbuilding. For fourteen 

 years he was president of the New York city 

 Council of Municipal Reform. In his declining 

 years he prepared a work on Practical Shipbuild- 

 ing. He also built and endowed Webb's Free 

 Academy and Home for Shipbuilders on Ford- 

 ham Heights. 



Webster, George Parmelee, legislator, born 

 in Watertown, Conn., in 1828: died in New York 

 city, Jan. 11, 1899. When fifteen years old he 

 went to Newport, Ky., where he began studying 

 law. He spent three years mining in California, 

 and after his return and admission to the bar 

 served two terms as city solicitor, one term as 

 district attorney of Campbell County, and two 

 terms in the Legislature. When the "Legislature 

 came to vote on the question of secession, the 

 votes were a tie when his name, the last on the 

 roll, was reached. He voted " No," and thus kept 

 Kentucky in the Union. Soon afterward he re- 

 signed his seat, and was appointed a captain and 

 assistant quartermaster in the National army. 

 Subsequently he was promoted major, and had 

 charge of the fitting out of Gen. Burnside's ex- 

 pedition to North Carolina. In 1867 he removed 

 to New York city and engaged in law practice. 

 In 1889 he was elected to the Legislature, where 

 he served six consecutive terms, during which he 

 introduced the first bill providing for the creation 

 of the Greater New York city, and the bills to 

 organize the Aquarium in old Castle Garden, to 

 construct the Park Avenue viaduct, and to build 

 three large bridges in the city. In 1893 he retired 

 from active life. 



Wells, James Madison, politician, born near 

 Donaldsonville, La., in 1808; died there, Feb. 28, 

 1899. He held various political offices. In 1864 

 he first attracted national attention by his elec- 



