Obituary (Thursday, March 31, 1825, Charleston Courier).

DIED, in Lansingburgh, (N. Y.) on the 14th, Master TOBIAS CAMBRIDGE DAVIDSON, in his fifteenth year; only child of Mrs. Margaret Davidson, of this city. The particulars of the death of this very promising young man are of so unusual a nature, and so much calculated to impress upon parents and children with habitual caution. The faithful description of them seems required by the cause of humanity itself.

Master Davidson was a pupil of the Lansingburgh Academy, and the exercises of that institution being accidentally suspended, the deceased, in company with two other fellow students, went out to spend the day in the fields and woods near the village where they found and ate a quantity of a plant they supposed to be wintergreen, but which presumed to be water hemlock, a deadly poison. They were absent several hours, and on returning, about five o'clock in the afternoon, to the village, young Davidson and another of his companions, were suddenly seized with spasms, which terminated their existence in less than two hours. The following account given by the attending Physician: "When I saw Cambridge, he was apparently in a fainting fit, although he doubtless had been previously in convulsion, and they returned violently within five minutes, and continued to return, at short intervals, for about half an hour; at this time one of his companions came in, who still survives, and told of their having eaten some unknown root. I concluded this must have been poisonous, and used every possible means of procuring an evacuation from the stomach, by means of sulphate of ipecac, craton oil, & c.; the stomach, however was so torpid from the paralyzing effects of the poison that no emetics would act upon it -- he was unable to speak during the whole paroxysm, which lasted an hour and twenty minutes; and during this time, I confidently state, that no human power could save him. One of these lads recovered, in consequence of eating but a small quantity of this poisonous root; the other unfortunate victim was taken precisely in the same manner with young Davidson, and survived the same length of time, and then expired. This sad event is represented to have occasioned unparalleled excitement of feeling in the town and vicinity where it happened; the funeral was attended with every token of affectionate regard to the memory of the deceased -- the whole population wept over the fate of this lovely stranger, and an unusual sympathy was expressed in affection of his distant bereaved mother. He died in an unusual manner, endeared himself to every individual of his acquaintance -- in the family where he resided, he was considered in the light of a son and brother.

Under the impression that it will be no less gratifying to the citizens of Charleston, than soothing to his immediate friends, to find so much youthful and impressive excellence proceeding from the bosom of our city, we have a melancholy pleasure in extracting the following description of his character from the letter of two Rev. Clergymen, of different denominations, in the town of Lansingburgh, whence are entitled to the most grateful recognition for the truly Christian efforts in soothing the anguish of parental desolation.

"He was indeed" says one letter, "a lovely youth, and had endeared himself to all who knew him, by the amiableness of his disposition, and the manliness of his deportment. He was the favorite of his instructor, and the very pride of the institution of which he was a member." "Never has a youth," says another letter, "died more beloved and more lamented. I can truly say he was the finest little fellow I ever knew -- so manly, so intelligent, so amiable -- a perfect little gentleman. His conduct has been uniformly correct and exemplary. Teachers, school-mates, all, all, admired and loved him -- he was indeed a comely great youth; full of rich promise of future excellence. May Heaven pour its oil into the deep wound it made, and may the mysteries of Providence be acquiesced in and adored.