Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-07-06
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FRIDAY MORNING, JULY 6. 1877.


Local.
DEATH OF SENATOR COCHRAN.
HIS LAST MOMENTS-MEETING OF THE
BAR-HIs FUN OF HIS
LIFE.
&C., &C., &C.
On Monday, the ID of April, the COM
munity of Staunton WAS startled by tel
egram to the effect that Senator A. Is.
Cochran had been paralyzed that morning,
In the Senate. while making a speech on
the Buchanan d Clifton Forge Railroad
Bill. Other advces received later, said
that he had recovered his speech, and there
was hope for his final recovery. Some six
weeks afterwards, he was brought to Staun-
ton in a very helpless condition. and took
apartfn eDts at the American Hotel. Here
he has received the attention of his family,
the medical aid of DR.. A. M. Fauntleroy,
and the kind attention Of MI. VIM. Whit
ted, a devoted young protege of his, who
had been clerk of one Of his committees
i'll the Legislature, and who came with him
home. There has hardly been much hope
in the last few weeks of Senator Cochran
recovery, and 1t may be said that he has
been steadily declining. When he first re-
turned he hadlopes of returning to public
life, but of late he had given up such hope
ia
never be able to be of service to his people
again. Last Saturday afternoon, Judge
John H McCue, one of his most in
innate friends, visited him, and he did not
recognize him. He was in condition of
semi stupor from Saturday afternoon until
about O'Clock ON Monday, when he ex-
perienced q stroke of paralysis on the right
side. From that time up to 1880 PM,
when he died, he remained nsensible.
When it was rumored around the city,
that Senator Cochran was dying, the Office
of the hotel was besieged with all classes
of people, the lofty and the humble, in
curing us to the truth of the report.
Alexander Boys Cochran was born
in Staunton, and was just forty-one
years OF age. He was the son of Geo.
Moffett Cochran, Esq, and the grandson
of DR.. Boys, the first physician of the
Western Lunatic Asylum. In early life
he went to the preparatory schools Of Lit
Teton Waddell and Pike Powers in Staun-
ton, thence to Washington College, Lex
ington, and finished his education at the
University Of Virginia in 1878, in which
year lie won the Debater's medal of the
Washington Society. He graduated in
law and returned to Staunton. When the
var broke out he was elected a Lieuten-
ant il Carrington's battery of Char
lottesville and served with it until the
18th of May at Spottsylvania when
a larger portion Of this company was cap
tured, and the organization broken up.
The remaining men were transferred, and
Lit. Cochran with them, to the Staunton
Artillery, with which company he served
for some months, when he was transferred
to the ordinance department. At the close
of the war he returned to Staunton, and
i'll 1863 was chosen a delegate to the Legis-
lature, and the next session chosen the
senator from Augusta county, Which posi-
ton he filed at the time Of his death. He
WAS elected to the Staunton city judgeship
but declined the office.
III pablo life his advance was astonish-
ingly rapid, and On two occasions he came
within a few. we think five OF six, votes of
being elected to the United States Senate.
Iu the last few weeks, though Frustrated
on a bed of illness, his name was promi
nent before the State as d fit candidate for
tue post of 1t. Governor.
Senator Cochran was in many respects a
remarkable man. Fond of public life, he
yet went little among the people. and it
was rarely that he was ever seen on court
days, at public gatherings, Or on our
streets, but when the question Of serving
ii constituent, even in the smallest way, he
was as attentive and punctual as ii he had
been elected by that one man. His services
were at the disposal of the humblest man
among them, whether he had ever seen
him OF rot. We have often thought he
put his constituents first and the State
next. He was a man of very strong at
fections, as we'll as dislikes, and for his
friends made great sacrifices. He had set
his mark high in public life, and was pur-
suing it with persistence, industry and
courage, and with what was a bright star
III his political crown-clean hands. His
integrity was above suspicion. His quail
ties of heart were best known, to his in
innate friends, and from them we hear IL
record that is well worth preserving. He
was ever the free handed friend of the
poor, and there are many in Staunton to-
day, who have lost a generous benefactor.
He was one of those men so rarely found
in political life-a man of pure heart and
tongue AS an orator he was very effective
before the people, and always commanded
attention in either House Of the General
Assembly, of which he was member. That
lie would have advanced Still higher in
Lublc life there is not a question, nor is
there any that he would have fifty filled
any place TO which he might have been
called.
MEETING OF THE BAR.
A meeting of members of the bar was
held in the Court House, Tuesday at noon,
over Which Gen. Jno. Echols was called to
preside. He said they had come together
to give expression to their feelings. regard
lug an event that had brought sorrow to a
whole community. Senator Cochran had
moved in the public gaze for the last ten
years, doing honor to himself and adding
fame to a community of which he was a
true representative. Some present had been
more intimate with him, but none more
ready to speak in praise of his manly quail
ties and the vigor of his intellect. In
closing his eulogy, of some minutes, on the