O-Q: Ogden through Poland

See below for annotated biographies of Free Soil Party leaders, members and supporters. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography.

OGDEN, William Butler, 1805-1877, Chicago, former mayor of Chicago, entrepreneur, railroad president.  Anti-slavery member of the Free Soil Party. In 1860 he was  elected as a Republican to the Illinois State Senate. 

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, p. 644: A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago (3 volumes, 1884-86); I. N. Arnold, Wm. B. Ogden and Early Days in Chicago (Fergus History Series, no. 17, 1882); The Biographical Encyclopedia of Illinois of the Nineteenth Century (1875); D. W. Wood, ed., Chicago and its Distinguished Citizens (1881))

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, p. 644;

OGDEN, WILLIAM BUTLER (June 15, 1805-August 3, 1877), railroad executive, was born in Walton, Delaware County, New York, the son of Abraham and Abigail (Weed) Ogden and a descendant of John Ogden who settled in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, in 1664. He was educated in the public schools and planned to study law, but when he was only fifteen his father suffered a paralytic stroke and the boy was compelled to devote himself to the management of his father's interests, which consisted of property in what was then an undeveloped country. William devoted himself to the improvement and sale of this land, and in this work showed the executive and financial ability which marked his later career. In 1834 he was elected to the New York legislature on a platform advocating the construction of the New York & Erie Railroad by state aid, which was obtained in 1835. In that year, Charles Butler, a New York capitalist, who had married Ogden's sister, urged his brother- in-law to move to Chicago to take charge of his real-estate interests there. Accordingly, Ogden went to Chicago and laid out a tract for subdivision. With characteristic energy he held an auction at which he sold one-third of the property for more than one hundred thousand dollars or enough to cover the original cost. He then established a land and trust agency and made purchases of land on his own account; in 1843 he formed a partnership with William E. Jones. His success in business and the rise in the value of his real estate later created for him a large fortune.

When Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 Ogden was elected its first mayor on the Democratic ticket. The population of the town was only 4,179, and the first problem was the improvement of the streets, which were in a bad condition, and the building of bridges to connect the three parts of the city. After his term as mayor Ogden served many years on the city council and was instrumental in having bridges and many miles of improved streets built. Ogden avenue was named after him. He next devoted himself to the construction of railways east and west from Chicago. One of the first roads projected was the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad which was to run to the then important lead mines. A charter was obtained in 1836 but the panic of the following year prevented the continuation of work, though the charter was kept alive. In 1846 Ogden was elected president of the company. By 1849 the road was built with strap rails to the Des Plaines River, a distance of ten miles, and in April of that year the first locomotive started west from Chicago on the line. Thereafter Ogden devoted himself entirely to railroad development. In 1853 he was chosen one of the directors of the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railroad Company, and when the road was made insolvent by the panic of 1857 he was appointed general receiver in 1859 and restored it. He presided over the National Pacific Railway Convention of 1850, held to advocate the building of a transcontinental railroad. In 1857 he became president of the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond-du-Lac Railroad, which later became part of the Chicago & Northwestern. He logically became president of the latter road in 1859 and continued in that office until 1868. When the Union Pacific was organized Ogden was elected its first president in 1862 in order to give prestige to the project. But subscriptions to the needed $2,000,000 capital were not forthcoming until Congress doubled the land grant, when the military character of the road was emphasized by the election in 1863 of General J. A. Dix to the presidency. Ogden also served as president of the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad, of the Buffalo & Mississippi, and of the Wisconsin & Superior Land Grant Railroad.

Ogden's executive ability was called into service in many lines of civic enterprise. He was the first president of Rush Medical College, a charter member of the Chicago Historical Society, and president of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago. When the Merchants Loan & Trust Company was organized in 1857 he was one of its first directors when the slavery question arose he allied himself with the Free-Soil party and in 1860 was elected by the Republicans to the Illinois Senate, but he split with the party over the Emancipation Proclamation and retired from politics. In 1866 he purchased an estate at Fordham Heights, just outside of New York City, where he made his home until his death. Late in life, on February 9, 1875, he married Maryanne Arnot, daughter of John and Mary (Tuttle) Arnot, of Elmira, New York. He was a man of commanding presence, whose most striking characteristic was his self-reliance. He contributed liberally to educational and charitable institutions, and his name was given to the Ogden Graduate School of Science at the University of Chicago which a bequest from his estate helped to found.

[References to Ogden's life and services are found in a great many scattered references, of which the following are the best: A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago (3 volumes, 1884-86); I. N. Arnold, Wm. B. Ogden and Early Days in Chicago (Fergus History Series, no. 17, 1882); The Biographical Encyclopedia of Illinois of the Nineteenth Century (1875); D. W. Wood, ed., Chicago and its Distinguished Citizens (1881); Yesterday and Today: A History of the Chicago and North Western Railway System (3rd ed., 1910); T. W. Goodspeed, The University of Chicago Biographical Sketches, volume I (1922).]

E. L.B.


OPDYKE, George, mayor of New York city. He was a member of the Buffalo Free-Soil Convention in 1848, and was a candidate for Congress on the Free-Soil ticket in New Jersey,

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

OPDYKE, George, mayor of New York, born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in 1805; died in New York City, 12 June, 1880. His ancestor, Gysbert, was an early settler of New York State. George went to the west at eighteen years of age and settled in Cleveland, Ohio, but afterward moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, and, returning to the north in 1832, engaged in business in New York City, where he subsequently established the banking-house of George Opdyke and Company. He was a member of the Buffalo Free-Soil Convention in 1848, served on its committee on resolutions, and was a candidate for Congress on the Free-Soil ticket in New Jersey, and while in the legislature in 1858 he was zealous in protecting the franchises of New York City from spoliation. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1860, and was instrumental in the nomination of Abraham Lincoln. He was mayor of New York in 1862-'3, and was energetic in sustaining the National government, in raising and equipping troops, and did much to prevent commercial panics. He served in the New York Constitutional Convention in 1867-'8, in the New York Constitutional Commission in 1872-5, was a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce in 1858-80, and its vice-president in 1867-75. He published a "Treatise on Political Economy," in which he took advanced views against the economic evils of slavery, and in favor of inconvertible paper money and free trade (New York, 1851); "Report on the Currency " (1858; and " Official Documents. Addresses, etc." (1866).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 583.


PALFREY, John Gorham, 1796-1881, author, theologian, educator, opponent of slavery.  Member of Congress from Massachusetts from 1847-1849 (Whig Party).  Early anti-slavery activist.  Palfrey was known as a “Conscience Whig” who adamantly opposed slavery.  He freed 16 slaves whom he inherited from his father, who was a Louisiana plantation owner.  While in Congress, Palfrey was a member of a small group of anti-slavery Congressmen, which included Joshua Giddings, of Ohio, Amos Tuck, of New Hampshire, Daniel Gott, of New York, David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, and Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois.  In 1848, Palfrey failed to be reelected from his district because of his anti-slavery views.  In 1851, he was an unsuccessful Free Soil candidate for the office of Governor in Massachusetts. 

(Rayback, 1970, pp. 82, 95, 97, 245, 248; Sewell, 1976, pp. 139, 183, 185, 187-188, 219-221, 230, 241, 269, 271n; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 634; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 169; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 16, p. 932 Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); J. S. Loring, The Hundred Boston Orators (1853); Boston Transcript, April 27, 1881).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

PALFREY, John Gorham, author, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 2 May, 1796; died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 26 April, 1881, received his elementary education at a boarding-school kept by the father of John Howard Payne at Exeter, and was graduated at Harvard in 1815. He afterward studied theology, and was ordained pastor of the Brattle street Unitarian Church, Boston, 17 June, 1818, as successor to Edward Everett. His pastorate continued until 1830, when he resigned, and in 1831 he was appointed professor of sacred literature in Harvard, which chair he held till 1839. During the period of his professorship he was one of three preachers in the University chapel, and dean of the theological faculty. He was a member of the House of Representatives during 1842-'3, Secretary of State in 1844-'8, and was a member of Congress from Massachusetts, having been chosen as a Whig, from 6 December, 1847, till 3 March, 1849. In the election of 1848 he was a Free-Soil candidate, but was defeated. He was postmaster of Boston from 29 March, 1861, till May, 1867, and after his retirement went to Europe, where he represented the United States at the Anti-slavery Congress in Paris in the autumn of 1867. After his return he made his residence in Cambridge. He was an early anti-slavery advocate, and liberated and provided for numerous slaves in Louisiana that had been bequeathed to him. He was editor of the “North American Review” in 1835-'43, delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute in Boston in 1839 and 1842, contributed in 1846 a series of articles on “The Progress of the Slave Power” to the “Boston Whig,” and was in 1851 one of the editors of the “Commonwealth” newspaper. He was the author of two discourses on “The History of Brattle Street Church”; “Life of Colonel William Palfrey,” in Sparks's “American Biography”; “A Review of Lord Mahon's History of England,” in the “North American Review “; and also published, among other works, “Academical Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and Antiquities” (4 vols., Boston, 1833'52), “Elements of Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan, and Rabbinical Grammar” (1835); “Discourse at Barnstable, 3 September, 1839, at the Celebration of the Second Centennial Anniversary of the Settlement of Cape Cod” (1840); “Abstract of the Returns of Insurance Companies of Massachusetts, 1 December, 1846” ( 1847); “The Relation between Judaism and Christianity” (1854); and “History of New England to 1875” (4 vols., 1858-'64). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 634. [Grandson of William Palfry 1741-1780].

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 169;

PALFREY, JOHN GORHAM (May 2, 1796-April 26, 1881), Unitarian clergyman, editor, historian, was a grandson of Major William Palfrey who was paymaster of the American forces in the Revolution, and the son of John and Mary (Gorham) Palfrey of Boston, where John Gorham was born. He received his earliest education at a private school, and then went to Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, where he prepared for Harvard. He graduated from college with the degree of A.B. in 1815, having for a classmate Jared Sparks [q.v.]. After graduation he studied for the Unitarian ministry and in 1818 was ordained as minister of the Church in Brattie Square, Boston. He remained with that church until 1831, when he was appointed Dexter Professor of Sacred Literature in Harvard, a post which he filled until his resignation in 1839.

He had long before begun to write for the press, his earliest articles appearing in the North American Review, of which Sparks was editor. In 1825, during Sparks's temporary absence in Europe, Palfrey acted as his substitute. In 1835 he bought the Review and -conducted it with much success until he sold it to Francis Bowen [q.v.] in 1843. Between 1817 and 1859 he contributed thirty-one important articles to it. In 1842 and 1843 he was a member of the Massachusetts legislature. Meanwhile, he had become known as a lecturer, mainly on the evidences of Christianity, the Jewish Scriptures, and similar topics. He was interested in education, was chairman of the committee on education in the legislature, and cooperated with Horace Mann [q.v.] in his educational work. From 1844 to 1847 he was secretary of the Commonwealth and from 1847 to 1849 a member of Congress. In 1861 he was appointed postmaster at Boston, retaining that position until 1867. In politics he was at first a Whig and held his earlier offices as such; he was also an abolitionist, and himself freed a few slaves that he had inherited from his father, who had lived for a while in Louisiana.

Among his writings may be mentioned: Sermons on Duties Belonging to Some of the Conditions of Private Life (1834); Academical Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and Antiquities (4 Volumes, 1838-52); Lowell Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity (2 volumes, 1843); "Life of William Palfrey," in Sparks's Library of American Biography (volume XVII, 1848); and the History of New England (4 volumes, 1858-75). A fifth volume of the History, which he had almost finished but had not had time to prepare for the press before his death, was published in 1890. Palfrey's claim to fame rests on this work. He appears to have been esteemed by his contemporaries, but his curious career-minister, professor, politician, postmaster, editor, writer, lecturer, and historian-indicates a certain lack of definite purpose and aim, a weakness of some sort in his character. A s a recognition of his historical work, he was twice elected to the Massachusetts Historical Society and twice resigned, and the Society took no notice of his death in the usual form of memoir. The History of New England was the result of a vast amount of research, and he was both painstaking and usually accurate in detail. Although there are minor errors, some of which only subsequent research has corrected, the innumerable foot-notes, which are a feature of the volumes, are still a convenient and useful mine of information as to events and characters in the period he treated. (It may be noted that owing to his advancing age, the last two volumes are considerably inferior to the first three.) By frequently alternating his chapters on colonial affairs with chapters on contemporary events in England, thus attempting to provide the reader with a more adequate background, he introduced what at that time was rather an innovation. For this he deserves much praise. He probably tried to be fair in his judgments and when the volumes appeared they were much acclaimed for their impartiality; but from the standpoint of today, the whole work must be considered as biased in several respects. In the relations between England and the colonies, Palfrey could see little but tyranny on the one side and Godfearing patriotism on the other. Now here does he show any real understanding of motives and problems. The work is strongly biased, also, by his inability to admit any flaws in the Puritans. So far as respects them, the volumes are special pleading throughout. Furthermore, the work is called a History of New England, although Palfrey writes as a retained advocate for Massachusetts when dealing with any conflict between that colony and the others, a notable example of this being his treatment of the Massachusetts-Rhode Island dispute over the Quakers. It may also be noted that he wrote as a clergyman and his sympathies were all with the ecclesiastical organization rather than with the laymen throughout the early struggles. Although his work has now been superseded for the general reader, it still retains much value for the special student, and for nearly half a century was the one standard work on New England.

He received the degree of LL.D. from St. Andrew's College, Scotland, as well as honorary degrees from Harvard, and was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society. On March 11, 1823, he married Mary Ann, daughter of Samuel Hammond of Boston; they had six children, among whom were John Carver Palfrey [q. v.] and Sarah Hammond Palfrey. The latter, a woman of varied intellectual attainments, shared her father's interest in liberal theology and was prominent in the social and philanthropic movements of her day. Besides contributing to periodicals, she published poems and several novels.

[Proceedings American Antiquarian Society, n.s., volume I (1882); Report of the Proceedings of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia... 1881 (1882); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); J. S. Loring, The Hundred Boston Orators (1853); Boston Transcript, April 27, 1881.]

J. T.A.


PHILLIPS, Abner, Massachusetts, leader in Massachusetts, Free Soil Party.  (Rayback, 1970, p. 248)


PHILLIPS, Stephen Clarendon, 1801-1857, philanthropist.  U.S. Congressman, Whig Party.  Also organizer and leader of the Free-Soil Party. 

(Mabee, 1970, p. 161; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 437; Sewell, 1976, pp. 139, 156, 166, 219, Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 763; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

PHILLIPS, Stephen Clarendon, philanthropist, born in Salem, Massachusetts, 1 November, 1801; died  on St. Lawrence river, 26 June, 1857. He was graduated at Harvard in 1819, and began the study of law, but soon discontinued it to engage in business in Salem. He was in the lower house of the legislature in 1824-'30, was elected to the state senate in the latter year, and in 1832-'3 was again a member of the legislature. He was then chosen to congress as a whig to fill a vacancy, and served during three terms—from 1 Dec., 1834, until his resignation in 1838—when he became mayor of Salem, which place he then held until March, 1842. On his retirement from this office he devoted the whole of his salary as mayor to the public schools of Salem. He was the Free-soil candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 1848-'9, and a presidential elector in 1840. Mr. Phillips discharged several state and private trusts, and was many years a member of the state board of education. Retiring from public life in 1849, he engaged extensively in the lumber business in Canada, and met his death by the burning of the steamer “Montreal” while coming down the St. Lawrence river from Quebec. Mr. Phillips was president of the Boston Sunday-school society, and author of “The Sunday-School Service Book,” in several parts (Boston). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 763.


PICTON, Thomas, (May 16, 1822-February 20, 1891), soldier of fortune, journalist, he edited the "True National Democrat," the organ of the Free-Soilers.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, pp. 572-573; Obituaries in the New York Recorder, February 25, 1891; New York Tribune, February 22, 1891;

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

PICTON, Thomas, journalist, born in New York City, 9 May, 1822, entered Columbia, and subsequently the University of New York, where he was graduated in 1843. After studying law he was admitted to the bar in 1843. Several years later he visited Europe, and, after travelling over the continent, resided in the environs of Paris, participating in the Revolution of 1848 as an officer of the 2d Legion of the Banlien. Upon his return to New York he began the publication of "The Era" in 1850 in conjunction with Henry W. Herbert, and in 1851 he became one of the editors of "The Sachem," afterward entitled the " True American," a vigorous advocate of the Associated Order of United Americans. A little later he edited the "True National Democrat," the organ of the Free-Soilers. On the reorganization of the "Sunday Mercury" he became one of its editors, and contributed to the paper a series of popular stories under the name of "Paul Preston." These were subsequently published in book-form, and had an extensive sale. At the beginning of the Civil War he raised a battalion, which was consolidated with the 38th New York Regiment, with which he went to the field. During the reign of Maximilian in Mexico, Mr. Picton was employed in the service of the Liberals, and wrote a " Defence of Liberal Mexico," which was printed for distribution among the statesmen of (his country. General Rosecrans remarked that this publication had "done more for the cause of Mexico than all other external influences combined." He has translated some of the first modern romances from the French, and several of his light dramas are popular. He is the author of "Reminiscences of a Sporting Journalist," issued in serial form, and. besides the works mentioned, has edited "Frank Forester's Life and Writings" (New York, 1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 6.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, pp. 572-573;

PICTON, THOMAS (May 16, 1822-February 20, 1891), soldier of fortune, journalist, was Thomas Picton Milner, the son of Jane Milner (General Alumni Catalogue of New York University, 1906), who, shortly after his birth, was listed in New York City directories as "widow." Nothing is known of his father. He spent his youth in the home of his maternal grandmother, a woman of wealth, who provided him with a good education. Later in life he dropped his last name, becoming known to his contemporaries as Thomas Picton. After graduating in 1840 from New York University he spent several years abroad. While in France he became an officer in the French army under Louis Philippe, who is said to have made him a knight of the "Legion of the Stranger." With the fall of Louis Philippe in 1848 he returned to New York, but an adventurous spirit still dominated him, and probably toward the close of 1850 he joined the force which Narciso Lopez was collecting in the United States to lead against Cuba. Barely escaping capture when Lopez was taken prisoner, Picton sought refuge from his enemies in the steamer Palmero, which was pursued by a Spanish man-of-war. He finally succeeded in reaching New York and for a few years busied himself in journalistic pursuits. But the preparations which William Walker was making for the invasion of Nicaragua once more aroused his filibustering instincts, and he attached himself to Walker's force, becoming for a time paymaster in the General's army. After the shooting of Walker he returned to the United States and with the outbreak of the Civil War raised a company of soldiers which was later incorporated in the 38th New York Infantry, but Picton himself seems to have played no part in the war.

Picton's career as a journalist began as early as 1850 when for a short time he edited in conjunction with his teacher and friend, Henry William Herbert ("Frank Forester"), a periodical called the Era. He had already become associated with Edward Z. C. Judson ("Ned Buntline"), active in the organization of the Native American movement, and during the early fifties he became an editor of the Sachem, and on its discontinuance, the founder of the True American, both organs of the new movement. His love of sports also found expression through journalistic channels, and during his later years he contributed to the Clipper; Turf, Field, and Farm; and the Spirit of the Times. For the last-named periodical he wrote a series of articles, beginning with the issue of February 19, 1881, called "Reminiscences of a Sporting Journalist." These articles, which appeared intermittently until a short time before his death, dealt with sporting, social, and historical topics having reference to the New York of Picton's youth and early manhood. During his years as a journalist, he was also connected with the True National D emo crat, the Sunday Dispatch, and the Sunday Mercury. He frequently wrote under the pseudonym of "Paul Preston." Among his publications so designated were Paul Preston's Book of Gymnastics: 01, Sports for Youth (n.d.) and The Fireside Magician (1870). His interest in the history of old New York led to the publication in 1873 of a small pamphlet called Rose Street; its Past, Present, and Future. He also contributed a biographical sketch of Henry Herbert to the Life and Writings of Frank Forester (1882). Among his more creative efforts were two light dramas: A Tempest in a Teapot (copyright 1871), and There's No Smoke Without Fire (copyright 1872). A volume of poems, Acrostics from Across the Atlantic, published in London in 1869 and signed "A Gothamite," has also sometimes been ascribed to him.

Picton was familiarly known to his wide circle of New York acquaintance as Colonel "Tom" Picton. He was a distinguished Mason and frequently wrote articles of Masonic interest. At one time he was a member of a city engine company and at another was city paymaster. For some years, too, he acted as assistant cashier of the Nassau Bank. About 1860 he married a Miss Gardner; daughter of a Confederate officer of that name, but a few years later the couple separated. At the time of his death in New York City he was without immediate family connections, and he was buried in the lot of the Press Club in Cypress Hills Cemetery

[Obituaries in the New York Recorder, February 25, 1891; New York Tribune, February 22, 1891; Spirit of the Times, February 28, 1891; Masonic Chronicle and Official Bulletin, March 1891.]

N. F. A.


PIERCE, Henry Lillie (August 23, 1825- December 17, 1896), manufacturer of cocoa, mayor of Boston, congressman, worked “hard for the Free-Soil party in the national elections. This interest in freeing the slaves was for some time the dominant note in his outlook on public affairs.”

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p 12. Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, pp. 582-583; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe);J. M. Bugbee, "Memoir of Henry Lillie Pierce," Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, 2 series XI (1897);

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

PIERCE, Henry Lillie, member of Congress, born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, 23 August, 1825. He received a good education, engaged in manufacturing, and as early as 1848 took an active part in organizing the “Free-Soil” Party in Massachusetts. He was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1860–6, and in 1860 was instrumental in getting a bill passed by both branches of the legislature removing the statutory prohibition upon the formation of militia companies composed of colored men. He was elected to Congress as a Republican to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William Whiting, was re-elected for the next congressional term, and served from 1 December, 1873, till 3 March, 1877, when he declined a renomination. In the presidential election of 1884 he was prominent in organizing an independent movement in support of Cleveland, and has since taken a leading part in the effort to revise the tariff legislation and reduce the taxes on imports. He was mayor of Boston in 1873, and again in 1878. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 12.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, pp. 582-583;

PIERCE, HENRY LILLIE (August 23, 1825- December 17, 1896), manufacturer of cocoa, mayor of Boston, congressman, was born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, the son of Jesse Pierce and Elizabeth Lillie and a descendant of John Pers (or Peirce) who emigrated to New England in 1637. Edward Lillie Pierce [q.v.] was his younger brother. The father was ultra-conscientious and sensitive; the mother was more forceful, plain-spoken, and with strong prejudices. This environment was scarcely cheerful, but it was tempered with fair educational advantages at home and at Bridgewater and Milton academies. At seventeen, Pierce suffered an illness which ended his formal education and from which he never fully recovered. Even as early as this, however, his interest in public affairs showed itself in the form of contributions to the county paper. By 1848 he was serving as a member of the school committee of Stoughton and was working hard for the Free-Soil party in the national elections. This interest in freeing the slaves was for some time the dominant note in his outlook on public affairs. For a number of years he engaged in light farm work but in 1849 he moved to Dorchester and there worked in the cocoa factory of his uncle, Walter Baker. Save for one short period, this association continued till his death. In 1854, after the death of Baker and his partner, Sidney B. Williams, the trustees leased the plant to Pierce. From that time till his death he worked to make and then to keep his factory the leader in its field, and saw its business grow forty times over. In 1884 he became full owner of the plant. He was progressive in his methods and constantly alert to discover and introduce improved process es. In all the years he never had any trouble with his employees. He took particular pride in the fact that his products were a warded a gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1867.

Pierce 's political career included four years as representative to the General Court, where he served as chairman of its committee on finance in 1862; three years (1869-71) as alderman of Boston; two years (1872, 1877) as mayor of Boston, and two terms, from 1873 to 1877, as a member of Congress. He opposed the Know-Nothing movement at the height of its power. As mayor he set his face against the vested interests in administration which had been acquired by the city council. He was instrumental in furthering the movement, general throughout the country, which resulted in the transfer of administration from committees of the council to boards set up for special purposes. The health and fire departments were so reorganized during his first term and the police department during his second. These boards were made responsible to the mayor, and he restored to th at office its former prestige. In Congress his chief service was as a member of the committee on commerce and was directed toward relieving coastal vessels from state pilotage fees. In the Hayes-Tilden controversy, he and one other Massachusetts Representative were the only Republicans to vote to throw out the Louisiana electoral vote which the electoral commission had counted for Hayes. His voluntary retirement from Congress soon followed as he found himself in many ways out of harmony with his party. In the 1884 campaign he refused to support Blaine and from then till 1896, in presidential elections, he voted with the Democrats. In 1887 he became president of the Massachusetts Tariff Reform League, which was formed to secure general reductions in the tariff. His refreshing sincerity and independence made him a more than usually outstanding local personality at a time when public life generally throughout the country was at a low ebb.

Pierce was a man who acted upon impulses, often odd ones. He masked his keen judgment behind a kindly and innocent-appearing exterior. Wendell Phillips said of him that if Diogenes came to Boston he would find his honest man in the mayor's chair. Particularly in his later years, he became a liberal giver, especially to struggling colored schools in the South and to small Western colleges. He never married, and at his death more than had his large estate was carefully apportioned to various charitable, educational, and religious institutions. In the latter group, he left money to Catholic and Unitarian churches alike.

[J. M. Bugbee, "Memoir of Henry Lillie Pierce," Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, 2 series XI (1897); Justin Winsor, ed., The Memorial History of Boston, volume III (1881); T. T. Munger, "An American Citizen: The Late Henry L. Pierce," the Century, July 1897; "A Model Citizen," the Critic, January 9, 1897; Boston Transcript, December 18, 1896; Boston Herald, December 18, 19, 1896.)

E.S.G.


PIERPONT, John, 1785-1866, Massachusetts, poet, lawyer, Unitarian theologian, temperance reformer, abolitionist leader, member of the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Liberty Party candidate for Massachusetts.  Free Soil candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1850.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 14; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 586; Dumond, 1961, p. 301; A. A. Ford, John Pierpont, a Biographical Sketch (1909))

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

PIERPONT, John, poet, born in Litchfield, Conn., 6 April, 1785; died  in Medford, Massachusetts, 26 Aug., 1866. He was a great-grandson of James, who is noticed below. He was graduated at Yale in 1804, and after assisting for a short time in the academy at Bethlehem, Conn., in the autumn of 1805 went to South Carolina, and passed nearly four years as a private tutor in the family of Col. William Allston. After his return in 1809 he studied law at Litchfield, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and practised for a time in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The profession proving injurious to his health, he relinquished it, and engaged in business as a merchant, first in Boston, and afterward in Baltimore. In 1816 he abandoned commerce for theology, which he studied, first at Baltimore, and afterward at Cambridge divinity-school. In April, 1819, he was ordained pastor of the Hollis street church, Boston. In 1835 he made a tour through Europe and Asia Minor, and on his return he resumed his pastoral charge in Boston, where he continued till 10 May, 1845. The freedom with which he expressed his opinions, especially in regard to the temperance cause, had given rise to some feeling before his departure for Europe; and in 1838 there sprung up between himself and a part of his parish a controversy which lasted seven years, when, after triumphantly sustaining himself against the charges of his adversaries, he requested a dismissal. He then became for four years pastor of a Unitarian church in Troy, New York, on 1 Aug., 1849, was settled over the Congregational church in Medford, and resigned, 6 April, 1856. He was a zealous reformer, powerfully advocated the temperance and anti-slavery movements, was the candidate of the Liberty party for governor, and in 1850 of the Free-soil party for congress. After the civil war began, though seventy-six years of age, he went into the field as chaplain of a Massachusetts regiment, but, finding his strength unequal to the discharge of his duties, he soon afterward resigned, and was appointed to a clerkship in the treasury department at Washington, which he held till his death. Mr. Pierpont was a thorough scholar, a graceful and facile speaker, and ranked deservedly high as a poet. He published “Airs of Palestine” (Baltimore, 1816); re-issued, with additions, under the title “Airs of Palestine, and other Poems” (Boston, 1840). One of his best-known poems is “Warren's Address at the Battle of Bunker Bill.” His long poem that he read at the Litchfield county centennial in 1851 contains a description of the “Yankee boy” and his ingenuity, which has often been quoted. He also published several sermons and addresses. See Wilson's “Bryant and his Friends” (New York, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 14.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 586;

PIERPONT, JOHN (April 6, 1785-August 27, 1866), Unitarian clergyman, poet, reformer, great-grandson of James Pierpont and grandfather of John Pierpont Morgan [ qq.v.], was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the second of the ten children of James Pierpont, a clothier, by his wife, Elizabeth Collins. He graduated from Yale College in 1804, in the same class with John C. Calhoun, and, after assisting Azel Backus [q.v.] for a few months in an academy at Bethlehem, went to South Carolina as tutor, 1805-09, in the household of "William Alston, father of Joseph Alston [q.v.]. On his return he studied in the Litchfield Law School under Tapping Reeve and James Gould [qq.v.] and on September 23, 1810, married his fourth cousin, Mary Sheldon Lord, who bore him three sons and three daughters. Their eldest child was named for William Alston. Having been called to the bar in 1812, he opened a law office at Newburyport, Massachusetts, and, in the leisure afforded by a total absence of clients, composed The Portrait (1812), a poem surcharged with Federalist sentiment, which he declaimed October 27, 1812, before the Washington Benevolent Society of Newburyport. It brought him renown as a bard but no retainers, and in 1814 he and his brother-in-law, Joseph L. Lord, went into the retail dry-goods business in Boston and soon took John Neal [q.1 1.] into the firm. They started a branch in Baltimore and for a while the venture flourished, but the dizzy fluctuations of wartime prices were more than they could cope with, and in 1815 the business collapsed. Still in Baltimore, Pierpont published the next year his beautifully executed Airs of Palestine (Baltimore, 1816), which was reprinted twice in Boston in 1817, and which put him for the time being in the front rank of American poets. Two later volumes, Airs of Palestine and Other Poems (1840) and The Anti-Slavery Poems of John Pierpont (1843), comprise the bulk of his verse. He was an accomplished prosodist. In some of the temperance pieces he is unintentionally humorous, but as the expression of a vigorous, witty, noble mind his poetry has character and is continuously interesting.

Having graduated in October 1818 from the Harvard Divinity School, he was ordained April 14, 1819, as minister of the Hollis Street Church in Boston. He edited two school readers, The American First Class Book (1823) and The National Reader (1827), which went through many editions and were the first American readers to include selections from Shakespeare; visited Europe and Palestine in 1835-36; published various sermons and lectures; and grew steadily in reputation as an eloquent, thoughtful minister. His penchant for reform was also growing steadily. He worked for the abolition of the state militia and of imprisonment for debt; became an enthusiastic propagandist for phrenology and spiritualism; and pressed to the forefront of the peace, the anti-slavery, and the temperance movements. The pew-holders of the Hollis Street Church did not share these enthusiasms; their temper may be deduced from the fact that the church cellar was rented out to a rum merchant for a warehouse. Several rum merchants who did not attend Pierpont's preachings bought pews in the church; and in 1838 there began a concerted movement, known locally as the "Seven Years' War," to oust him. Pierpont resisted with wit, eloquence, pertinacity, and a fixed determination to maintain the freedom of the Unitarian pulpit. As the war proceeded it became an unscrupulous attempt to destroy his character. He was vindicated by an ecclesiastical council before which he was tried in July 1841, but his enemies continued their campaign against him. Finally, with his back salary paid in full and all the honors on his side, he resigned in 1845. Subsequently he was pastor of the newly organized First Unitarian Society of Troy, New York, 1845-49, and of the First Congregational (Unitarian) Church of West Medford, Massachusetts, 1849-58. His first wife having died on August 23, 1855, he married, on December 8, 1857, Harriet Louise (Campbell) Fowler of Pawling, New York, who survived him. For two weeks of 1861 he was chaplain of the 22nd Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, but the post was too strenuous for his seventy-six years. From then until his death, which took place at Medford, he was a clerk in the Treasury Department at Washington. He was known throughout the eastern United States as a lecturer, and by those who came into immediate contact with him he was remembered as a man with more than a touch of genius.

[F. B. Dexter, Biographical Sketches Graduates Yale College, volume V (1911), with list of sources and a bibliog. of Pierpont's writings; C. R. Eliot, sketch in S. A. Eliot, Heralds of a Liberal Faith, volume II (1910), with list of sources; O. B. Frothingham, Boston Unitarianism 1820-50 (1890), pp. 184-86; A. A. Ford, John Pierpont, a Biographical Sketch (1909); Henry Ware, A Sermon Delivered in Boston, April 14, 1819, at the Ordination of the Reverend John Pierpont (1819); Proceedings in the Controversy between a Part of the Proprietors and the Pastor of Hollis Street Church, Boston, 1838 and 1839 (Boston, n.d.); S. K. Lothrop, Proceedings of an Ecclesiastical Council in the Case of the Proprietors of Hollis-Street Meeting-House and the Reverend John Pierpont (1841); G. L. Chaney, Hollis Street Church from Mather Byles to Thomas Starr King (1877); H. W. Simon, The Reading of Shakespeare in American Schools and Colleges (1932), pp. 20-22; J. R. Dix, Pulpit Portraits (1854); Boston Transcript, August 27, 1866.]

G. H. G.


POLAND, Luke Potter, (November 1, 1815-July 2, 1887), jurist, U.S. senator, representative, “in 1848 he was elected by a Whig legislature to the supreme court, an unusual tribute to his strong character and professional standing in view of the fact that he was at the time the Free-Soil candidate for the lieutenant-governorship.”

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, pp. 33-34; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 50. ); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); C. E. Potter, Genealogies of the Potter Families and Their Descendants (1888), pt. ix; J. F. Rhodes, History of the U. S., volumes VI-VII (1906))

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

POLAND, Luke Potter, jurist, born in Westford. Vermont, 1 November. 1815: died in Waterville, Vermont, 2 July, 1887. He attended the common schools, was employed in a country store and on a farm, taught at Morristown, Vermont, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1836. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1843, and prosecuting attorney for the county in 1844-'5. In 1848 he was the Free-soil candidate for lieutenant-governor, and in the same year he was elected a judge of the Vermont Supreme Court. He was re-elected each successive year, becoming chief justice in 1860, until he was appointed in November, 1865, on the death of Jacob Collamer, to serve out his unexpired term in the U. S. Senate. On its conclusion he entered the house of representatives, and served from 1867 till 1875. While in the senate he secured the passage of the bankrupt law, besides originating a bill for the revision and consolidation of the statutes of the United States. As chairman of the committee on Revision in the House, he superintended the execution of his scheme of codification. He was chairman of the committee to investigate the outrages of the Ku-Klux Klan, and of the investigation committee on the Credit Mobilier Transactions; also of one on the reconstruction of the Arkansas State Government. Several times, while serving on the committee on elections, he came into conflict with other Republicans on questions regarding the admission of Democratic members from the south. He was chairman of the Vermont delegation to the Republican National Convention of 1876, and presented the name of William A. Wheeler for the vice-presidency, for which office he himself had been brought forward as a candidate. Mr. Poland was a representative in the state legislature in 1878. He was elected to Congress again in 1882. and served from 1883 till 3 March, 1885. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 50.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, 33-34;

POLAND, LUKE POTTER (November 1, 1815-July 2, 1887), jurist, senator, representative, was born in Westford; northwestern Vermont, the eldest son of Luther and Nancy (Potter) Poland. His parents were of good Puritan stock from Massachusetts and he began life with the advantages of a strong body, unusual intellectual power, and inborn qualities of industry, honesty, and faithfulness. These gifts were more than an offset to the handicap of irregular attendance at the public schools. He was obliged by frontier conditions and the straitened circumstances of his family to give a large part of his time in boyhood to labor on the farm and in his father's sawmill, and his formal education ended when he was seventeen with a five months' course at Jericho Academy. After teaching a village school for a brief period he began the study of law and was admitted to the Vermont bar at the age of twenty-one. Beginning his practice at Morrisville, he rose so rapidly in his profession that in 1848 he was elected by a Whig legislature to the supreme court, an unusual tribute to his strong character and professional standing in view of the fact that he was at the time the Free-Soil candidate for the lieutenant-governorship. Removing his residence to St. Johnsbury in 1850, he served continuously for fifteen years as a member of the highest court of the state, the last five years being· its chief justice. In 1865, although apparently assured a life tenure in his high office, he resigned to accept appointment and subsequent election as United States senator to fill the unexpired term caused by the death of Jacob Collamer.

Entering the Senate as a Republican at the beginning of the era of Reconstruction, he served in that body from November 1865 to March 1867. At once assigned to the committee on judiciary, he quickly won respect by his able arguments on constitutional questions, his resistance to extreme partisan demands, and his proposals for constructive legislation-especially for a new bankruptcy law and the compilation and revision of all the statute laws of the United States. Succeeded in the Senate after a term of only sixteen months by Justin S. Morrill [q.v.], author of the famous tariff of 1861, Poland was elected to succeed Morrill in the House, an exchange of position which he humorously explained by saying that the Vermont farmers seemed to think that the Senate needed more wool and the House more brains.

He entered the House in March 1867 and served continuously in that body till March 1875. -Assigned in the Fortieth Congress to the committee on elections, he was also made chairman of the committee on revision of the laws. The confidence of the House in his judicial-mindedness, independence, and courage led to his being made chairman in succession of three of its select committees whose reports made memorable contributions to Reconstruction history. The first of these committees was that appointed in 1871 to investigate the outrages of the Ku Klux Klan in the South, and its voluminous report greatly influenced Congressional legislation (House Report No. 22, 42 Congress, 2 Session). The second, appointed in 1872 to investigate the scandalous activities of the Credit Mobilier Company, submitted a unanimous report which resulted in relegating several high officials to private life and smirched the reputation of others (House Report No. 77, 42 Congress, 3 Session). The third was appointed in 1874 to investigate affairs in Arkansas and to inquire whether federal interference was advisable in the existing contest in that state between a corrupt and defeated Carpetbag government and the native white government which had supplanted it. The report of this committee (House Report No. 127, 43 Congress, 2 Session), declaring against any interference by any department of the federal government with the existing government of Arkansas and maintaining that such interference would be unconstitutional, was adopted by the House, 150-81, on March 2, 1875, despite the strenuous opposition of President Grant and his radical followers. The closing speech in the debate by the venerable chairman of the committee was a brief statement of the facts in the case and a strong argument based upon the Constitution and numerous precedents which denied the right of the Executive to interfere in any state government established in an orderly manner, generally supported by its people, and republican in form, as was that of Arkansas. The vote, taken amid great excitement, not only showed the confidence of the House in his wise judgments, but also disclosed the fact that "the tragic era of reconstruction," foisted upon the country mainly by one native of Vermont, Thaddeus Stevens, was soon to end through this patriotic action of another native of that state. Poland's independent course, however, which thwarted the policy of the Administration, cost him what, in his weariness of political strife, had become the goal of his ambition, a federal judgeship.

His most constructive work as a legislator was done as chairman of the House committee on revision of the laws, which position he held from December 1867 to March 1875. The purpose of this committee-which he himself had proposed when in the Senate-was to revise the whole of the statute law of the United States, which already filled seventeen large octavo volumes, and, omitting all obsolete matter, to arrange and consolidate for reenactment by Congress all the statute law which was general and permanent in its nature. The accomplishment of this difficult undertaking within eight years and under extraordinary conditions in both houses in the closing hours of the first se ss ion of the Forty-third Congress was universally recognized to be more largely due to Poland than to any of his able colleagues and assistants (Report ... of the American Bar Association, 1887, p. 433). Comprised now in a single volume, The Revised Statutes of the United States . .. in Force ... December 1, 1873, appeared in 1875.

After 1875 Poland resumed the practice of the law in the higher courts except while serving in the Forty-eighth Congress and later for two terms as representative of his fellow townsmen in the Vermont legislature (for St. Johnsbury, 1878; for Waterville, 1886). The interruptions in his political career were due to his conservative character, aristocratic bearing, unwillingness to sacrifice his self-respect in order to win popularity and, more than all, to his complete lack of the small arts of the politician. He married Martha Smith Page of Waterville, Vermont, January 12, 1838. She died in 1853, leaving a son and two daughters, and the following year he married her sister, Adelia H. Page. He died of apoplexy at his home in Waterville in his seventy-second year.

[Jonathan Ross, "A Memorial Sketch of Luke Potter Poland," Proceedings Vermont Bar Association, 1886 (1887); Report ... of the American Bar Association, 1887; W. H. Crockett, Vermont, volume V (1923); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); C. E. Potter, Genealogies of the Potter Families and Their Descendants (1888), pt. ix; J. F. Rhodes, History of the U. S., volumes VI-VII (1906); Burlington Daily Free Press, July 4, 1887; personal acquaintance.]

J.F.C.



Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.