Decker, Robert M
artist, was born June 8, 1847, in Troy, N. Y. He has attained prominence as a landscape painter. DE COSTA, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, clergyman, author, was born July 10, 1831, in Charlestown, Mass. He is a prominent episcopal clergyman of New York city, well known as an historical writer.
He is the author of The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America, illustrated by translations from the Icelandic Sagas; The Northmen in Maine; The Moabite Stone; Verrazano, the Explorer; The Rector of Roxburgh, a novel; and a number of historical monographs. DE COURSEY, SAMUEL GERALD, railroad president, was born Sept. 28, 1839, in Queenstown, Md. In 1895 he became president of the Western New York and Pennsylvania railroad.