Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/160

 OSBORN

OSBORN

mander Jolin L. "Worden on the monitor Montauk in the engagements before Fort McAllister and in the destruction of the privateer Xashville. He was made adnairal in the Mexican navj' at the close of the civil war, and received a letter of marque giving him one half the prize monej' accruing from his captures and conferring upon lum the power to issue " letters of marque '' and to commission ships under the Mexican flag. He sailed from Pliiladelphia for Brazos de Santiago in the steamer General Slieridan with a full complement of officers and men. The steamer, fitted out in New York, and carrj-ing his guns and tori>edo outfit, was lost off Hatteras, thereby obliging him to confine his opeiations to the Rio Grande, Texas. He married in Liverpool, England. Feb. U, 1868, Eliza Balfour, one of the Balfours of Burleigh. In the war with Spain, wliile acting as a volunteer naval scout, he was the first to discover Cervera's fleet off the island of Cura(joa. May 14, 18'J8. and after reporting to the department of state received a letter of thanks from that of the navy for his services. He was the first commander of the Farragut Naval Veteran Association of Philadelphia; a charter member of the Farragut Naval Association of New York; captain, commodore and twice rear- admiral of the National Association of Naval Veterans, U.S.A.; twice commander of Naval Post 51G, G.A.K.; chairman of the Associated Commanders and Quartermasters of the City of New York; colonel of the Osbon cadets, composed of Sunday-School boys, and founder and flag- officer commanding the U.S. Veteran Navy with the rank of commodore. In 1902 he had been for several years interested in mining asphalt and sul- phur in the eastern part of Venezuela. He was de- corated with the Venezuelan order of '• del Busto del Liberator " in 1889 in recognition of services rendered in coast surveying in that republic. Tiie United States hydrographic office published his survey of the harbor of Carupano, Venez- uela.

OSBORN, Henry Fairfield, educator, was born in Fairfield, Cuun., Aug. 8, 1857; son of William H. and Virginia R. (Sturges) Osborn; grand- son of Jonathan Sturges of Fairfield, Conn., and New York, and a descendant of Nathan Gold. He was graduated at the College of New Jersey, A.B., 1877, Sc. D., 1881; was assistant profe.s.sor of natural science in the College of New Jersey, 1882-83; professor of comparative anatomy there, 188-3-91, when he resigned and became Da Costa professor of biology in the newly established department at Columbia college. New York city. He was also dean of the faculty of pure science at Columbia, 1892-9.T; curator of vertebrate pale- ontology in the American Mtiseum of Natural History in New York. 1^01-1902: was active in

the organization of the New York Zoological societ}', serving from its foundation as chairman of its executive committee, and helping to plan the zoological park in the Bronx. lie was ap- pointed vertebrate paleontologist to the geological survey of Canada, and paleontologist to the U.S. survey in 1900. He was vice-president of the Academy of Science, 1894-98, president, 1898-1900, and elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1900. He was married, Sept. 29, 1881, to Lucretia, daughter of Gen. Alexander J. Perry, U.S.A. He is the author of: From the Greeks to Darwin (1894), and contributed exten- sively to educational and scientific periodicals.

OSBORN, Henry Stafford, educator and author, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 17, 1823; son of Truman and Eliza (Paget) Osborn. He was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, A.B., 1841, A.M., 1844, and from Union Theological seminary, New York city, 1845. He was stated supply of the Presbyterian church, Coventry, R.I., 1845 -i6; traveled and studied abroad, and while in London, England, attended the Father Mathew Temperance con- vention as a delegate. He studied at the University of Bonn, Germany, and at the Polytechnic insti- tution of London, and was ordained by the presbytery of Hanover, Va., April 9, 1846. He was pastor at Hanover Court House, Va., 1846-49; at Richmond, Va., 1849-53; at Liberty, Va., 1853-58; stated supply at Salem, Va., while serving as professor of natural science at Roanoke college, 1858-59, and was pastor at Belvi- dere, N.J., 1859-66. He was professor of mining and metallurgy at Lafayette college, Easton, Pa., 1866-70; professor of chemistr\- at Miami univer- sity, Oxford, Ohio, 1870-73, and pastor at Ox- ford, 1870-71. He was stated supply at Millville, Ohio, 1871-74, but resigned on account of failing health and subsequently devoted himself to literature. He was married to Susan Paulina, daughter of G. Hampton Coursen of New York. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Lafayette college in 1865. He was a member of the Pennsylvania and Virginia histori- cal societies and of the Victoria Philosophical society of London. He is the author of: Pales- tine, Past and Present (1855); Fncits and Floirers of the Holy Land (18.56); Pilgrims in the Holy Land (1857); Scientific Metallurgy of Iron and Steel in the United States (1870); The New Descriptive Geography of Palest i7ie (1877); Manual of Bible Geography and Ancient Egypt in the Light of Recent Discoveries (1885): Chart of Books of the Bible (1886); The Useful Miiierals and Mining Architecture (1887); Biblical History and Geography (1888), and with the Rev. Lyman Coleman published a large map of Palestine. He died in New York city, Feb. 2, 1894.