decent SDcart)si. Judge John W. North, who died at Fresno, Cal., February 22, at the age of seventy-five years, was born in eastern New York, was edu cated at Middletown, and early in life became an anti-slavery lecturer in New England. . He studied and practised law at Syracuse until fail ing health led him to migrate to the then Terri tory of Minnesota. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and in 1860 a dele gate to the Chicago Convention which nominated .Mr. Lincoln, and one of the selected delegates who went to Springfield to announce to him his nomination. The financial crash of 1857 had been disastrous to him, and in (861 he accepted the surveyor-generalship of the then Territory of Nevada. When Nevada became a State, he became a member of its Supreme Court. At the close of the war he removed with his family to Knoxville, Tenn., where he soon became con spicuous for his advocacy of common schools. His health obliged him after some years to re turn West, and he went to southern California. Here he became interested in the immigration question, and in 1871 founded the colony of Riverside in San Bernardino County. When the Riverside Colony, of which he was president, became an incorporated city, he, still ani mated by a roving and enterprising spirit, went 'to the San Joaquin Valley, and was one of the founders of the Fresno City colony. Mr. Samuel D. Lord, a well-known lawyer of Manchester, N. H., died February 23, aged sixtythree years. He had served at different times in the State Legislature, and had been clerk of National House and Senate committees. Hon. Benjamin Franklin Thurston, one of the brightest lights of the Rhode Island Bar, well known throughout New England and the country, died suddenly, on March 12. at the rooms of the University Club. Twenty-sixth Street and Madison Avenue, New York. He was in the sixty-first year of his age. He was the son of the Hon. Benjamin Babcock Thurs ton and Harriet E. (Deshon) Thurston, of Hopkinton, R. I. He received his early education in the public schools of the State and of Provi dence. He graduated at Brown University in ^4
1849, and studied law with the late Thomas F. Carpenter. After his admission to the bar, he soon made a brilliant record in his profe?sion, making a specialty of patent cases. He was also largely interested in the conduct of the celebrated Sprague cases. Soon after admission to the bar, he was retained in what was known as the "Corliss steam-engine cut-off case." His great ability as a lawyer and his perseverance were demonstrated in one of his earliest cases, — that of Mary Hannity against the administrator of the estate of the late Bishop O'Reilly, which was a suit brought to recover money which the plain tiff alleged she had loaned to the bishop. Mr. Thurston appeared for the defence, and the case was tried before the late Chief-Justice Ames, ending with a verdict for the plaintiff. He was satisfied that this verdict had been obtained on perjured testimony, but it was not generally thought that the verdict could ever be disturbed; but Mr. Thurston devoted his entire energies to a careful examination of the case, and occupied the greater part of the next summer in person ally looking up testimony on a motion for a new trial. The result was that the plaintiff's princi pal witness, who lived in New York, and whose name was Astor. was brought on from New York on a requisition on the charge of perjury, tried, convicted, and sent to the Rhode Island State Prison. The Supreme Court promptly set the verdict aside. Mr. Thurston was appointed trus tee of Brown University in 1888. In 1888 he received the degree of doctor of laws from his Alma Mater. In that same year he founded the Thurston scholarship of $1,000. He was to have delivered the next lecture in the law course of the University on "Patent Law," on the 17th of the month. Mr. Thurston was to have delivered his third course of lectures on law at Cornell University this spring. He was considered one of the ablest lecturers on that subject the institution ever had. He also lec tured at Brown University on legal subjects. He was a member of the legal firm of Thurston & Ripley, of Providence. Major Lucien Eaton, one of the editors and principal owners of the " American Law Review," died at Boerne, Texas, on the 7th of March, 1890. He was a prominent citizen of St. Louis. He was born in Massachusetts in 183 1, and gradu
