a story was published to the effect that a visitor to the inner tomb had discovered that the dust of several generations had vanished, and that literally nothing remained. This was a mistake. The real tomb is a large room containing nearly forty coffins, all of which, so far as can be learned, are as well preserved as could reasonably be expected. Chief among Mather's works is his "Magnalia Christi Americana," a mass of chaotic material for an ecclesiastical history of New England (London, folio, 1702; 2 vols., Hartford, 1820; 2d American ed., with introduction and notes by Thomas Robbins, D. D., translations of the quotations by Lucius F. Robinson, and a memoir by Samuel T. Drake, 2 vols., Boston, 1855). His “Psalterium Americanum” (1718) is an exact unrhymed metrical translation of the Psalms, printed as prose, and was an attempt to improve the careless current versions. He left several large works in manuscript, the chief of which was the “Biblia Americana, or Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, Illustrated.” The list of his publications, appended to his life by his son, Samuel Mather, numbers 382, and a list recently compiled by John Langdon Sibley, in his work on the early graduates of Harvard, is even larger. A sum-total of 242 volumes was all that had been gathered down to the year 1879 by the American antiquarian society, the Massachusetts historical society, the Boston athenæum, and the Prince collection in the Boston public library. The number in the possession of each ranged from eighty to one hundred and thirty; but of 114 there was only a single copy in all of the libraries named. The British museum and the Bodleian library at Oxford have made a specialty in collecting the works of Increase and Cotton Mather. The Brinley collection of the works of Cotton Mather was the best in the United States. It was gathered in Hartford, Conn., and sold in New York city in 1879. Book hunters have paid enormous prices for some of these rare books, and others, heretofore unknown, are frequently found. Although the earliest book thus far discovered was printed when Cotton Mather was twenty-two years old, yet it is known that he had, at that time, written many poems, and compiled several almanacs, one of the latter being published without his name, as a “happy snare” to give information and to “warn sinners.” It is thought that some of these stray volumes may yet be found and identified. Cotton Mather's life was written by his son, Samuel Mather (Boston, 1729), and by W. B. O. Peabody in Sparks's “American Biography.” See also Charles W. Upham's “History of the Delusions in Salem in 1692” (1831); “The Mather Family,” by Rev. Enoch Pond (1844); and Chandler Robbins's “History of the Second Church, or Old North, in Boston” (1852). — Increase's second son, Nathaniel, b. in Boston, 6 July, 1669; d. in Salem, Mass., 17 Oct., 1688, was noted for his precocity. His mental powers exhausted his vitality, and he died at the age of nineteen. At sixteen he was a graduate of Harvard, and he was also a thorough scholar in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. His cast of mind was highly religious. His epitaph in the Charter street cemetery in Salem reads thus: “Memento Mori. Mr. Nathaniel Mather. Died October ye 17th, 1688. An aged person who had seen but nineteen winters in the world. He was the youngest brother of the famous Cotton Mather, who came to Salem during Nathaniel's illness, and closed his dying eyes. . . . He was possessed of wonderful attainments, was a prodigy of learning, and his first published work appeared in print when he was only fifteen years of age.” He prepared “ The Boston Ephemeris, an Almanack for 1686.” — Increase's youngest son, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Boston, 28 Aug., 1674; d. in Witney, Oxfordshire, England. He was graduated at Harvard in 1690, and established a Congregational church at Witney, where he died and was buried in the church-yard of St. Mary. He wrote several religious works, including “The God-head of the Holy Ghost” (London, 1719), and “A Vindication of the Holy Bible” (1723). — Cotton's son, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Boston, 30 Oct., 1706; d. there, 27 June, 1785, was graduated at Harvard in 1723, and received the degree of D. D. from the same institution in 1773. In 1732, four years after his father's death, he was ordained as colleague pastor over the same church to which his father and his grandfather, Increase, had so long ministered. Differences arose in the congregation in 1742 relative to the subject of revivals, and a separate church was established under Mr. Mather in North Bennett street. He published “Life of Cotton Mather” (1729); “Essay on Gratitude” (1732); “Apology for the Liberties of the Churches in New England” (1738); “America Known to the Ancients” (1773); “The Sacred Minister,” a poem in blank verse (1773); and occasional sermons. He is buried, with his father and grandfather, in Copp's Hill cemetery, Boston.
MATHER, Richard Henry, educator, b. in
Binghamton, N. Y., 12 Feb., 1835; d. in Amherst,
Mass., 17 April, 1890. He graduated at Amherst,
was tutor of Greek, assistant professor of that
branch, professor of Greek and German in 1864, and
professor of Greek and lecturer on sculpture in
1878. He has secured for Amherst college the finest
collection of plaster casts in the United States,
excepting only the one in Boston, and he has
assisted in the growth and development of the college
in many other ways. He received the degree of
D. D. from Bowdoin in 1879. Although never the
pastor of a church, he often supplied the pulpits of
New York, Boston, and other cities. He has edited
Greek text-books for use in colleges, which have
passed through several editions. The principal
ones are Herodotus (1872); selections from Thucydides,
the “Electra” of Sophocles (1873); abstract
of lectures upon sculpture (1882); and the
“Prometheus Bound” of Æschylus (1883). He spent
the winter of 1887-'8 in Athens in connection with
the work of his professorships.
MATHER, Samuel Holmes, financier, b. in
Washington, N. H., 20 March, 1813. He was graduated
at Dartmouth in 1834, studied law in Geneva,
N. Y., and was admitted to the bar at Columbus,
Ohio, in 1837. After practising twelve years
in Cleveland, he organized the Society for savings
in that city. The middle western states were then
overrun with “wild-cat” banks, and the experiment
of a conservative savings-bank on the plan
of similar institutions in Massachusetts was not
promising. His faith in the sober judgment of
the western people was not shaken, and the bank
grew stronger every year, constantly maintaining
its place as a large institution, both as to deposits
and surplus, equalled only by a few in New York
and the New England states. He has been president
of the bank for many years, and his judgment
upon financial ventures and investments is
considered of great value.
MATHER, William Williams, geologist, b. in
Brooklyn, Conn., 24 May, 1804; d. in Columbus,
Ohio, 26 Feb., 1859. He was a lineal descendant
of Richard Mather's son Timothy. He was
admitted to the U. S. military academy in 1823. In
1826 and 1827 he led his class in the newly estab-
