HENRY YATES SATTERLEE
SATTERLEE, HENRY YATES, first Protestant Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, District of Columbia, like the brilliant English preacher Frederick W. Robertson, while a boy was strongly drawn to the profession of a soldier. His life-work in his later-chosen vocation, while it has made evident qualities of courage and leadership which would have fitted him for a military career, has abundantly demonstrated the wisdom of the choice which led him to the nobler calling.
He was born in New York city, January 11, 1843. His father, Edward Satterlee, was a man of leisure, who held various public offices connected with the city government of Albany, New York. He was artistic in temperament and was the founder of the "Gallery of Fine Arts," and of the Musical Society of the "Concordia" in Albany. His mother was a devout Christian woman, with literary gifts, a great reader; and she insisted on his mastering the classics. His earliest ancestor in America was Benedict, son of Reverend William Satterlee, Vicar of Ide, Devonshire, England, a royalist clergyman, who came to New London, Connecticut, in 1685; he is descended from Sir Edmund de Sotterly, who was made a baronet under Edward III., for services in the wars in Wales.
Until his thirteenth year he lived in Albany, New York. As a boy he showed a decided taste for the natural sciences. He had a chemical laboratory of his own, had built a steam engine when he was thirteen years old, and spent his leisure hours out of school in such pursuits.
The family removed again to New York city, where they spent their winters, passing their summers at West Point. Young Satterlee had instruction under tutors up to the year 1858, when the family went to Europe. On their return from Europe, being strong and vigorous in health, he earnestly desired to enter West Point military academy. His father would not consent unless he first went to college. As this necessitated his graduation before he was twenty-one years old, he was pressed for time, and sometimes had to study
