[Henry Honeychurch]. American naval officer, born in Barbadoes, West Indies, on the 11th of August 1841; died in New York City, on the 7th of July 1885. He went to the United States as a lad, and entered the United States navy as a sailor; in July 1862, rose to the rank of commander, and when, in 1879, the Khedive of Egypt offered to the United States one of the noted Alexandrian obelisks, he was commissioned to bring it to this country. He arrived at Alexandria, October 16, 1879, and with the assistance of one hundred natives entered on his labors. On December 6, 1879, the stone was moved from its pedestal and placed in a horizontal position, an iron steamer was purchased at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars, and the obelisk introduced through an opening made in the side of the vessel. It was safely transported to New York City, arriving July 20, 1880, and was conveyed from the Hudson River to Central Park. The shaft is 69 feet high, was erected at Heliopolis about 1600 B.C., and removed to Alexandria in the year 22 B.C. The total expense of its removal and erection in the park amounted to over one hundred thousand dollars. Gorringe published a History of Egyptian Obelisks (1885).
