Mundy, Johnson Marchant (CAB03)
MUNDY, Johnson Marchant, sculptor, was
born near New Brunswick, N.J., May 13, 1832;
son of Frederick and Mary (Marchant) Mundy;
grandson of Henry and Humy (Ayers) Mundy of
Metucben, N.J., and a descendant of Nicholas
Mundy who settled in Metuchen about 1665. His
parents removed to Geneva, N.Y., and be early
evinced a talent for art and began to study drawing in crayons in 1844. He later removed to New
York city, and engaged in marble cutting until
1854, when he entered the studio of Henry K.
Brown, the sculptor, to learn to model in clay.
He supported himself by making crayon portraits during his student days, and in 1858 received an order to model a bust in marble of
President Benjamin Hale of Hobart college. He
settled in Rochester, N.Y., in. 1863, and there established the first drawing school and life class.
He made his home in Rochester until 1883, and
during that time modeled many busts, statuettes
and medallions. He became almost blind in 1883,
and removed to Tarrytown, where he accomplished his most important works. These consisted of the statue placed on the Soldiers' monument in Sleepy Hollow cemetery, Tarrytown, by
the Grand Army veterans in 1890, for which he
offered his service free, and the heroic statue of
Washington Irving, completed in 1891, which
represented the author seated in an arm-chair.
This latter was executed almost wholly through
his sense of touch. Among his more notable
busts are those of Bishop William H. De Lancey;
President Martin B. Anderson; Dr. Chester
Dewey; Frederick Douglas, and Dr. W. W. Ely.
He died in Tarrytown, N.Y., Aug. 16, 1897.