Page:Stryker's American Register and Magazine, Volume 6, 1851.djvu/214

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American Register and Magazine.

lawyer, and for several years a member of the Legislature of Kentucky.

18th. In Talbot County, Md., Samuel Hambleton, aged 73, senior Purser of the U. S. Navy. Mr. Hambleton was purser on board the brig Lawrence, which bore the pennant of Commodore Perry in his memorable battle on the Lakes. He served with the Commodore at the last gun fired from the brig, and was desperately wounded by a discharge from the enemy, which dismantled the gun, and left the vessel powerless.

20th. At Mayville, N. Y., Donald McKenzie, aged 68, formerly a partner with John Jacob Astor in the fur trade. In 1825 he was appointed Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. He left it in 1832, and returned to Mayville, where he lived till his death.

21st. Near Minden, in Germany, Mr. John B. Arden, of New York, late attaché of the U. S. Embassy at Berlin. Mr. Arden was travelling on the Railroad from Berlin to Cologne, and met his death by the cars running off the track. Of two hundred passengers, he was the only one who was killed; and it is supposed that he attempted to leap from the cars. He received a mortal blow on the head and died instantly. His body was taken to the little town of Gutersloh, where the people showed the utmost sympathy for his unhappy fate.

22d. At Philadelphia, Rev. Walter Colton, aged 51,. Mr. Colton was a native of Vermont, and studied at Yale College and the Theological Seminary at Andover. After having been ordained a Congregational minister he accepted a Professorship in the Middletown Military Academy, and while holding that office wrote several articles for periodicals. In 1828, he became editor of the "American Spectator" at Washington; and two years afterwards he was appointed a chaplain in the Navy by Gen. Jackson, who had a very high opinion of Mr. Colton. He edited the Philadelphia "North American" for some time, and continued to contribute extensively to Magazines and Reviews.

Having gone to California during the Mexican war, in his capacity of Navy chaplain, he was appointed by Commodore Stockton Alcalde or chief civil magistrate of Monterey, in that State. He was afterwards repeatedly elected to the same office by the people, and discharged its duties with great ability and fidelity. He also officiated at Monterey, daring the war, as a judge of admiralty, and his decisions are considered very accurate. A letter written by him from Monterey, which appeared in the Philadelphia "North American," was the first public announcement of the great gold discovery in California.