January 18.—Death of the Rev. Jacob Hood, at his residence in Lynnfield. He passed his ninety-fourth birthday on Christmas-day last. He was born in Lynnfield, December 25, 1791, and moved to Salem in 1820, where he was master of the old East School in 1822, remaining until 1835, at a salary of $600 per year. He taught an old-fashioned singing-school in Salem from 1835 to 1850, and hundreds of his old pupils in Essex county delight to speak of him as "Master Hood." He returned to Lynnfield in May, 1865, where he had quietly resided since, respected and beloved by all around him.
Sudden death, in Boston, of Francis Edward Parker. He was the only son of the Rev. Dr. Nathan Parker, minister of the Unitarian Church at Portsmouth, N.H., and was born in that city, July 23, 1821. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, and from thence came to Harvard College, where he graduated in 1841 with the highest honors of his class. He studied his profession in the law-school at Cambridge, and in the office of the late Mr. Richard H. Dana, and on his admission to the bar, about 1846, he formed a professional connection with that gentleman which continued until Mr. Dana's appointment to the office of United States District Attorney, in 1861. He early gained a good position as a lawyer, but his tastes led him more to chamber practice and to the management of trust estates than to the conflicts of the court-room, although he never entirely gave up the latter. As a trust lawyer he stood in the front rank of the profession, and no one was intrusted with greater and more momentous interests, and no one's judgment was relied on with more implicit confidence on difficult and delicate questions. In 1865 he was a member of the State Senate. For many years he was a member of the School Committee and an Overseer of the Poor, and rendered efficient services in those positions. He was long an active officer of the Boston Provident Association, and at the time of his death had been for many years one of the most influential members of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University.
January 19.—Death, at Springfield, Mass., of Benjamin Weaver, one of the founders of the Springfield Union. He was the most active and influential Democrat in that city.
January 21.—The Hon. Samuel Metcalf Wheeler, a prominent citizen of Dover, N.H., died after a protracted illness. He was born in Newport, N.H., May 11, 1823; educated in the seminary at Claremont, N.H., the military academy at Windsor, Vt., and the Newbury Seminary; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1847; soon after moved to Dover, and became a partner with ex-Congressman Hall. In 1858 the partnership was dissolved. He represented Dover in the Legislature for five years; was a member of the Constitutional Convention, Speaker of the House; was a candidate for Congress in the Republican Convention in the First District, twice being defeated by only one vote, and he received the honorary degree of M.A. from Dartmouth. He was at one time president of the Dover National Bank.
January 23.—Death at Chester, Vt., of Deacon A. B. Martin, well-known and much respected through that region. He was aged sixty-three. He was formerly a member of the State Legislature, and had held a number of offices of trust.