Samuel Irenieus Prime, D.D., who died in 1885, was for many years the editor of the New York Observer, and known throughout the country as a graceful writer of travels and religious works, as well as for his able editorial management of the Observer. He was born at Ballston_ N. Y., November 4, 1812, graduated at Williams College in

1829, was ordained a Presbyterian minister and received the degree of D.D. from Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia. His brother, E. D. Prime, also of the Observer, and W. C. Prime, formerly of the New York Journal of Commerce, were also residents of Sing Sing in early life.

John Swinburne, A.M., the distinguished scholar and teacher, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., August 11, 1803. His father was a native of England, and came to this country when a young man. His mother was a native of Ireland, and was brought to the United States by her parents in early childhood. After their marriage his parents settled in Brooklyn, where they had three children, -- two sons and one daughter. John was the eldest of the three. When twelve years of age he lost his father by death. His education, from its earliest stages until he entered on the duties of active life, was directed by an English gentleman of rare attainments as a scholar and eminent skill as a teacher, and the successful results of his training were finely illustrated in the subsequent career of his gifted pupil. After leaving school he turned his attention far a short time to mercantile pursuits, and was engaged as book-keeper by a large commercial house in North Carolina. Not finding this sphere of effort congenial to his taste, he returned, after a year and a half, to Brooklyn, where he established, and successfully conducted for ten years, a select school.