OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (WILLIAMS-WILLIS.) 



047 



Williams, Edward H., manufacturer, born 

 in Woodstock, Vt., June 1, 1824; died in Santa 

 Barbara, Cal., Dec. 21, 1899. He was graduated 

 at the Vermont Medical College in 184(5, and 

 spent the following year at Ann Arbor, Mich., 

 where he engaged in civil engineering. From 

 1847 till 1851 he practiced medicine in Proctors- 

 ville and Northfield, Vt. In 1851 he became as- 

 sistant in constructing a railroad from Caugh- 

 nawaga to Plattsburg, N. Y. From 1851 till 1865 

 he was assistant superintendent and superintend- 

 ent of various railroads, becoming in 1865 gen- 

 eral superintendent of the Pennsylvania Rail- 

 road. On Jan. 1, 1870, he was admitted as a 

 partner in the Baldwin Locomotive Works. In 

 the interests of this firm he went three times to 

 South America and Australia, twice to China and 

 Japan, and several times to Europe, and intro- 

 duced American locomotives into Russia, Mex- 

 ico, Brazil, Argentine Republic, Australia, and 

 Japan. In 1876 he was decorated with the Swed- 

 ish Order of the North Star and was made a 

 member of the Swedish Royal Academy. In 1879, 

 while at the Sydney Exposition, he was made 

 United States commissioner, and had control of 

 the apportionment of the American exhibits. In 

 1881 he built Williams Hall for Caiieton (Minn.) 

 College, and in 1891 he presented that institu- 

 tion with a 16-inch telescope. In 1884 he built 

 and endowed at Woodstock a public library. He 

 also erected a building for the technical courses of 

 the University of Vermont. 



Williams, Henry Warren, jurist, born in 

 Hartford, Pa., in 1830; died in Philadelphia, Pa., 

 Jan. 25, 1899. He studied law and was admitted 

 to the bar in 1854. In 1865 Gov. Curtin ap- 

 pointed him law judge of the 4th Judicial Dis- 

 trict. He was subsequently elected and re-elected 

 by the voters of the district, and held the post for 

 more than twenty-two years. In 1887 he was 

 elected a justice of the State Supreme Court for 

 the term of twenty-one years. Judge Williams 

 was a representative of the Presbyterian Church 

 of the United States in the Pan-Presbyterian 

 Council in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1877, and a 

 vice-president of the International Sunday-school 

 Convention in Toronto, Canada, in 1881. He was 

 a strong temperance man throughout his life, 

 and was actively interested in Sunday schools 

 and Young Men's Christian Associations. 



Williams, John, clergyman, born in Deer- 

 field, Mass., Aug. 30, 1817; died in Hartford, 



Conn., Feb. 7, 

 1899. He was 

 graduated at 



Trinity College in 

 1835, and was or- 

 dained deacon in 

 the Episcopal 



Church in 1838. 

 After several 



years of foreign 

 travel he was ad- 

 vanced to the 

 priesthood in 



1841, and follow- 

 ing a year's duty 

 as assistant min- 

 ister of Christ 

 Church, Middle- 

 town, Conn., he 

 became rector of 



St. George's Church in Schenectady, N. Y., where he 

 remained six years. In the summer of 1848 he was 

 elected president of Trinity College, holding office 

 until 1853, but in the meantime he had been chosen 

 Assistant Bishop of Connecticut. He retained ac- 



tive connection with the college, serving as vice- 

 chancellor and chancellor, successively, and wan 

 lecturer on history at the institution for nearly 

 forty years prior to IH!)2. In lSf>4 the Berkeley 

 Divinity School was founded at Middletown, the 

 bishop becoming the first dean and remaining at 

 the head of the institution until his death. At 

 the death of the senior bishop of the diocese, in 

 J865, Bishop Williams became Bishop of Con- 

 necticut, and in 1887 he became senior bishop of 

 the American Church. A few years later, on the 

 death of the Bishop of British Guiana, he became 

 the senior bishop, having jurisdiction in the en- 

 tire Anglican communion, and on the death of 

 Bishop Southgate, in 1894, the senior in date of 

 consecration of all the bishops in the world ac- 

 knowledging the headship of the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury. His scholarship was as thorough as 

 it was wide, and in intellectual force he had few 

 superiors in his Church. He was conservative 

 without narrowness, and he commanded the gen- 

 eral esteem and reverence of the clergy of his 

 communion. His personal tastes were simple and 

 dignified both in the matter of ritual and in daily 

 life, and in these matters, as well as in his en- 

 tire devotion to his work and his wide charity 

 toward those who differed with him, he furnished 

 a noble example to clergy and laity alike. His 

 published writings include A Translation of An- 

 cient Hymns of the Holy Church (Hartford, 

 1845) ; Thoughts on the Gospel Miracles (New 

 York, 1848) ; Studies on the English Reforma- 

 tion, being the Paddock Lectures for 1881 (1881) ; 

 Studies in the Book of Acts (1888) ; The World's 

 Witness to Jesus Christ (Bedell Lectures, 1882). 

 His lecture notes on theological subjects and ec- 

 clesiastical history were printed for the use of his 

 students. 



Willie, Asa Hoyie, jurist; born in Wash- 

 ington, Ga., Oct. 11, 1829; died in Galveston, 

 Texas, March 16, 1899. He removed to Wash- 

 ington County, Texas, in 1846; and, on being re- 

 lieved of the disability of nonage by the Legis- 

 lature, was admitted to the bar when nineteen 

 years old. In 1852-'54 he was district attorney 

 for the 3d Judicial District of Texas, declining a 

 re-election that he might resume practice. He 

 served as a Confederate soldier through the civil 

 war. In 1866 he was elected a judge of the Su- 

 preme Court, and he held the office till October, 

 1867, when he and his associates were removed 

 by Gen. Griffin, commanding the military depart- 

 ment of Texas. He then resumed practice. In 

 1872 he was elected to Congress as a Democrat. 

 Declining a re-election, he returned to practice, 

 and soon became chief justice of the Supreme 

 Court of Texas, holding that office six years. 



Willis, Edmund Aylburton, landscape 

 painter, born in Bristol, England, Oct. 12, 1808; 

 died in Brooklyn, N. Y., Feb. 3, 1899. He was a 

 son of John Aylburton Willis, an artist, and a 

 brother of Henry Britton Willis, a fellow of the 

 Royal Society of Painters in Water Colors. He 

 studied art with his father, made an extended 

 tour of Europe, and first came to the United 

 States in 1851. After making a tour of this coun- 

 try he returned to England for a short time, and 

 then established himself in Brooklyn. He was a 

 member of the Brooklyn Art Society; painted 

 almost wholly for private galleries; and, follow- 

 ing a rule of an English society of painters to 

 which he belonged, signed all his canvases "A 

 Van Willis." His best-known paintings are The 

 Prairie Fire; The Long Sleep; a portrait of him- 

 self in his studio; a Russian winter scene, with 

 wolves attacking a sleigh ; and an English moor, 

 with cattle in the foreground. 



