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OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (RYER SAMPSON.) 



Byer, George W., playwright, born in New 

 York about 1845; died in Brooklyn, N. Y., Nov. 

 20, 1902. He was joint author with his partner, 

 Deninan Thompson, of The Old Homestead, and 

 afterward wrote The Sunshine of Paradise Alley, 

 Our New Minister, and The Two Sisters. 



Sabin, Dwight May, Senator, born in Man- 

 lius, 111., April 25, 1845; died in Chicago, 111., Dec. 

 23, 1902. He was brought up on a farm; accom- 

 panied his parents to Connecticut in 1857; en- 

 tered Phillips Andover Academy, but left in 1863 

 to enter the National army; and resigned after 

 three months' service, owing to impaired health; 

 and received a clerkship in Washington, D. C. 

 In 1869 he settled in Still water, Minn., where he 

 became identified with the lumber and railroad 

 interests of that section. He was a member of 

 the State Legislature in 1871-'83; of the United 

 States Senate in 1883-'89; of the National Re- 

 publican Committee in 1878-'84, serving as chair- 

 man in 1882-'84; and was a delegate to the Na- 

 tional Republican conventions of 1872, 1876, and 

 1880. 



Salsbury, Nathan, actor and manager, born 

 in Rockport, 111., in 1845; died in Long Branch, 

 N. J., Dec. 24, 1902. He joined the 15th Illinois 

 Regiment in 1861, and served throughout the 

 war. He then returned to the West, and, having 

 a fine voice and pleasing presence, he decided to 

 become an actor. His first appearance was at 

 Grand Rapids, Mich., in the old burlesque Poca- 

 hontas. After further experience with small com- 

 panies, he joined the Boston Museum stock com- 

 pany, with which he remained four years. He 

 then became a member of Hooley's stock com- 

 pany in Chicago, and while there, in partnership 

 with the late John Webster, he devised the plan 

 that brough't him prominently before the public 

 and gained him a fortune. This was the organ- 

 izing of the company known as Salsbury's Trou- 

 badours, playing a musical farce-comedy called 

 Patchwork, the first production of its kind in 

 this country. He afterward produced several 

 similar plays, and traveled for fifteen years, vis- 

 iting nearly every English-speaking country in 

 the world. After the disbanding of this com- 

 pany, Mr. Salsbury became a manager of the 

 Barnum and Bailey Circus, and later of the 

 Forepaugh and Sells Circus. In 1883 he met Wil- 

 liam F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), and with him organ- 

 ized the unique and successful entertainment 

 known as Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, with 

 which he was thereafter associated as manager 

 until his death. 



Sampson, William Thomas, naval officer, 

 born in Palmyra, N. Y., Feb. 9, 1840; died in 

 Washington, D. C., May 6, 1902. He was the 

 eldest son of James Sampson and Hannah Walk- 

 er, who came to this country from the north of 

 Ireland and settled in Palmyra, where they met 

 and were married. It was from his mother that 

 young Sampson inherited his beauty of face, and 

 from her he first learned to spell out the words 

 in the few books that the humble home afforded. 

 As he grew older he attended the district school 

 whenever he had opportunity, and during vaca- 

 tions aided his father in his daily labor digging 

 ditches, making drains, spading gardens, and 

 doing odd chores for the more prosperous vil- 

 lagers. During one summer, it is said, he earned 

 a dollar and a half a week by working in a brick- 

 yard from six o'clock in the morning until six 

 at night. Meanwhile, his evenings were occupied 

 in reading, and he borrowed as many books as 

 he could, especially those relating to natural sci- 

 ence, history, mechanics, and mathematics. While 

 at school he was distinguished by his intense ap- 



plication, a trait that followed him throughout 

 life. Through the interest of William H. South- 

 wick, of Palmyra, Congressman Edwin B. Mor- 

 gan appointed the young man to the Naval 

 Academy, which he entered in 1857. Among his 

 contemporaries at that institution were George 

 Dewey, who was three classes ahead of him, 

 Alfred T. Mahan, who was two classes ahead, and 

 Winfield S. Schley, who was one class ahead; 

 and among his own classmates were Bartlett J. 

 Cromwell, John W. Philip, Henry F. Picking, and 

 Frederick Rogers. At the academy he devoted 

 his attention ex- 

 clusively to rou- 

 tine duties and 

 studies, and be- 

 came adjutant of 

 the battalion in 

 his senior year, 

 the highest hon- 

 or possible for a 

 cadet. Admiral 

 Philip is quoted 

 as saying, " No 

 matter what the 

 subject of study 

 was mathemat- 

 ics, French, mor- 

 al science, or sea- 

 manship Samp- 

 son, with invari- 

 able regularity, had the perfect marking in his 

 class standing. I remember well the struggle 

 of the three S's Sampson, Stewart, and Snell. 

 They fought for first place throughout the 

 course, but Sampson came in ahead. He was 

 graduated number one." Mahan describes his 

 personal appearance at that time as follows: 

 " I should not call him handsome, as I remem- 

 ber him then, though the elements of the sin- 

 gular good looks that he possessed in early man- 

 hood were all there an unusually fine com- 

 plexion, delicate, regular features, and brown eyes 

 remarkable both in shape and color. The 

 smooth, round face struck me as oversmall, and 

 the beauty which in his prime was thoroughly 

 masculine seemed then wanting in strength a 

 singular misreading. He had just about as much 

 or as little carriage and bearing as the ordi- 

 nary country lad of his age, emphasi/ed by a 

 loose mixed suit, ready-made and ill-fitting. He 

 owed, therefore, nothing to adventitious external 

 circumstances. The figure, which soon afterward 

 broadened and gathered erectness and finnm . 

 gave then an impression of slightness amounting 

 to fragility. I remember also that his manner in 

 questioning was not only interested, but eager, 

 affecting the play of the face; in this diflVring 

 from the impression usually conveyed by him in 

 mature life, which was one of too great quies- 

 cence." On graduating he was assigned as mid- 

 shipman to the frigate Potomac, and in July. 

 1862, he was made lieutenant, after which he was 

 appointed to the sailing ship John Adams, then 

 used as a practise vessel for cadets. An oilicer 

 who was then a cadet says of him at that time: 

 " He was never excited and never hurried, and 

 he never seemed to raise his voice, and yet his 

 orders could be heard distinctly by the men at 

 the weather-earing when reefing topsails." In 

 1864 he returned to the Naval Academy, where 

 he became instructor, but in June of that year 

 was assigned to the ironclad Patapsco and or- 

 dered to Charleston to join Dupont's fleet, block- 

 ading that city. He participated in the attack 

 on Sumter, and later, with the rest of Dupont's 

 fleet, was driven out of the harbor by the fire 



