588 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



forcibly, and lie was correspondent of several 

 journals in the country. 



Coan, Titus, an American missionary, born in 

 Killingworth, Conn., Feb. 1, 1801 ; died at Hilo, 

 Hawaii, Dec. 1, 1882. He was a cousin and 

 townsman of Asahel Nettleton ; but, though 

 influenced by the great revivals that followed 

 the preaching of Mr. Finney, he did not unite 

 with the church until 1828. He entered the 

 second class of Auburn Theological Seminary 

 in 1831, and in 1833 was graduated and li- 

 censed to preach. On the 16th of August he 

 sailed for Patagonia with one companion, the 

 Rev. Mr. Arms, to explore the country, with 

 a view to the possible establishment of a mis- 

 sion. In the straits of Magellan they sighted 

 the Beagle, in which Charles Darwin was 

 making his famous voyage of scientific explo- 

 ration. The savages sought to detain the ven- 

 turesome missionaries among them, and they 

 barely escaped with their lives, after three 

 months of exploration among the Patagonian 

 tribes in the region of Gregory's Bay. A pass- 

 ing ship took them off and landed them at 

 New London in May, 1834. On the 3d of 

 November following, Mr. Coan married Miss 

 Fidelia Church, of Church ville, N. Y., and on 

 Dec. 24, 1834, the young missionaries sailed, 

 with six others, in the ship Hellespont from 

 Boston for the Hawaiian islands, ma Cape 

 Horn. They arrived at Honolulu June 6, 1835, 

 and at Hilo, which was to be their mission- 

 station and their home for life, July 21st. For 

 two years Mr. Coan gave himself chiefly to the 

 study of the Hawaiian language, and he at- 

 tained great power as a speaker. His district 

 comprised the entire provinces of Hilo and 

 Puna, extending 100 miles along the eastern 

 coast of Hawaii. Throughout this wild and 

 beautiful country he made frequent tours on 

 foot ; an era of revivals soon began, and, from 

 1838 to 1840, 7,000 of the natives were con- 

 verted. He organized churches and schools 

 throughout his district, and Mrs. Coan carried 

 on for some years a school for native girls at 

 Hilo. During his forty-six years of missionary 

 work, he received 14,000 Hawaiians into the 

 Hilo and Puna church. He was for many years 

 President of the Hawaiian Evangelical Associa- 

 tion. His great success was largely owing to 

 the aid and wisdom of Mrs. Coan, who died 

 exhausted by overwork in 1872. (For a sketch 

 of Mrs. Coan's life, see the " Annual Cyclopae- 

 dia" for 1872, p. 629.) In 1860, and again in 

 1867, Mr. Coan made a tour of the missions in 

 the Marquesas islands. In 1870 Mr. and Mrs. 

 Coan visited the United States. Mr. Coan was 

 for forty years the chief source of information 

 respecting the great volcanic eruptions of Ki- 

 lauea and Mauna Loa, of which he was an 

 ardent and constant student. His descriptions 

 of volcanic phenomena were published in many 

 different journals from 1841 to the year of his 

 death. From 1851 to 1880 he was a frequent 

 contributor to the " American Journal of Sci- 

 ence." His published books are autobiograph- 



ical ; they are, "Adventures in Patagonia" 

 (New York, 1880), and " Life in Hawaii " (New 

 York, 1882). Four children survive him. 



Davidson, Thomas G., an American lawyer, 

 born in Jefferson co., Miss., in 1805; died on 

 his farm in Livingston parish, La., Sept. 11, 

 1883. He was admitted to the bar in Louisi- 

 ana, in 1827, and was elected to the Legislature 

 in 1832! He was re-elected successively until 

 1853, when he was sent to Congress. He 

 served in Congress till 1861, when with other 

 secessionists he withdrew. After the civil war, 

 he served again in the Legislature of Louisi- 

 ana; but during the latter years of his life he 

 was permanently disabled. 



Ewer, Ferdinand ., an American clergyman, 

 born in Nantucket, Mass., May 22, 1826 ; died 

 in Montreal, Canada, Oct. 10, 1883. He was 

 graduated at Harvard College in 1848. His 

 parents were Unitarians, but he was baptized 

 by the rector of the Episcopal Church in Nan- 

 tucket. This gentleman was one of the ear- 

 liest of the so-called "ritualists," and young 

 Ewer entered zealously into the novelties in 

 worship of that day in the Episcopal Church. 

 It was Mr. Ewer's purpose to enter the minis- 

 try, but for a time he was involved in " deep 

 waters," and doubted whether there was any 

 truth at all in Christianity. Instead of the 

 ministry, he chose as his profession civil engi- 

 neering, and in 1849 sailed for California by 

 way of Cape Horn. There being no demand 

 for engineering services, he engaged in jour- 

 nalism, and for eight years was busily occupied 

 in this kind of work. He was ordained deacon 

 in 1857, and priest in 1858. He soon after be- 

 came rector of Grace Church, San Francisco, 

 where he labored diligently for two years. His 

 health having become impaired, he returned to 

 the East in 1860, was for a while assistant 

 minister in St. Ann's Church, New York, and 

 in 1862 was chosen rector of Christ Church. 

 Here he began the introduction of practices 

 not usual in Episcopal churches, which after a 

 time created disturbance among the people, 

 and the rector felt it best to resign his charge. 

 This was in 1871, when some friends organized 

 a new parish for him by the name of St. Igna- 

 tius. Here he was at liberty to carry out fully 

 his views as to doctrine and ritual, and he be- 

 came the foremost champion of what he called 

 "catholic" principles. Dr. Ewer was a man 

 of genial spirit and temper, and was an able 

 writer on theological and controverted points. 

 While preaching in St. John's Church, Mont- 

 real, Sunday, October 7th, he was stricken 

 down with paralysis, and he died the third day 

 after. 



Ewing, Charles, an American general, died in 

 Washington, D. C., June 20, 1883. He was 

 brother-in-law to Gen. W. T. Sherman, on 

 whose staff he served. At the outbreak of 

 the civil war, he took a position in the regular 

 army as captain of the" Thirteenth Infantry. 

 He was brevetted major in 1863 for services at 

 the siege of Vicksburg ; brevetted lieutenant- 



