Pla-Put: Platt through Pitkin

See below for annotated biographies of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography.


PLATT, Zephaniah, Jackson County, Michigan, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-1850. 


PLUMB, Preston B. (October 12, 1837-December 20, 1891), journalist, soldier, United States senator. In the summer of 1856 he visited Kansas and the following autumn he formed a company and escorted arms and ammunition into the Territory. He found employment on the Lawrence Herald of Freedom. In June 1857 he established the Kanzas News at Emporia. His paper immediately became a vigorous advocate of the Free-State cause, and residents of Emporia constantly looked to him for leadership. He attended numerous Free-State meetings and served in the Leavenworth constitutional convention.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, pp. 10-11:

PLUMB, PRESTON B. (October 12, 1837-December 20, 1891), journalist, soldier, United States senator, was born at Berkshire, Delaware County, Ohio, the eldest child of David and Hannah Maria (Bierce) Plumb. Named simply Preston Plumb, he adopted the middle initial to improve the appearance of his signature. An ancestor, John Plume, settled at Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1635, and another, Ichabod Plumb, grandfather of Preston, migrated to Ohio in 1804. Preston attended a preparatory school for three years, learned the printer's trade, acquired experience on the Marysville Tribune, and in 1854, with a partner, established the Xenia News.

In the summer of 1856 he visited Kansas and the following autumn he formed a company and escorted arms and ammunition into the Territory. He soon disposed of his interest in the Xenia News and found employment on the Lawrence Herald of Freedom. In June 1857 he established the Kanzas News at Emporia. Although he was only twenty, his paper immediately became a vigorous advocate of the Free-State cause, and residents of Emporia constantly looked to him for leadership. He attended numerous Free-State meetings and served in the Leavenworth constitutional convention. During the winter of 1858 he acquired his first military experience in southern Kansas as aide-de-camp to General James H. Lane. Near the close of the territorial period he studied law at Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1861 was admitted to the bar. He was the first reporter of the Kansas supreme court, and in 1862 served in the lower house of the second state legislature. On September 25, 1862, Plumb was mustered into the Federal service as major of the nth Kansas Cavalry which operated as part of the Army of the Frontier in northwestern Arkansas. He was appointed chief-of-staff and provost marshal by General Thomas Ewing in 1863, and partially cleared the District of the Border of guerrillas, although he failed to capture Quantrill after the Lawrence massacre. Plumb was promoted lieutenant-colonel, May 17, 1864, and early in 1865 his regiment was assigned the duty of guarding three hundred miles of the Oregon Trail.

He returned to Kansas in September 1865, resumed the practice of law, established the Emporia National Bank, and invested in Texas cattle and Colorado mines. On March 8, 1867, he married Caroline A. Southwick of Ashtabula, Ohio, and to them six children were born. Plumb served in the state House of Representatives in 1867-68, the first year as speaker. Always independent in politics, he supported Greeley for the presidency in 1872. In spite of this defection from the regular Republican party he was elected to the United States Senate in 1877, and reelected in 1883 and 1889, the third time unanimously. In 1880 and again in 1884 he headed the Kansas delegation to the Republican National Convention. In the latter year he placed John A. Logan in nomination for vice-president.

In the Senate, Plumb was assigned to the committee on public lands and became its chairman in 1881. Perhaps his greatest contribution was the land law of 1891 which repealed the timber culture and preemption acts and inaugurated reclamation and conservation projects. He favored free coinage of silver, advocated a moderate tariff, and opposed the McKinley bill. In the civil service he preferred rotation to permanency; in foreign affairs he wished to emphasize the consular rather than the diplomatic service. He was a useful member of the Senate and performed more than his share of the routine business. His whole career was marked by strenuous effort, untiring industry, and wholesome enthusiasm. He was so typically western that William H. Crane selected him as a model for make-up and manner in the drama, The Senator. He died in Washington during his third senatorial term.

[W. E. Connelley, The Life of Preston B. Plumb (1913), is neither critical nor well-organized. For Plumb's military career see War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), 1 series XXII, XXXIV, XLI, XLVIII; for his senatorial career, Congress Record, 1877-91. A broken file of the Kanzas News is available in the Kansas State Historical Library See also: D. W. Wilder, The Annals of Kansas (1886); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Preston B. Plumb (1892); H.B. Plumb, The Plumbs I635-1800 (1893); Evening Standard (Leavenworth, Kansas), December 21, 1891.]

W. H. S.


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, Volume 8, Pt. 1, pp. 33-34; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume 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, Volume V, p. 50.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 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.


POMEROY, Samuel Clarke, 1816-1891, Republican U.S. Senator from Kansas.  Appointed financial agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company in 1854, he accompanied the second party of settlers to Kansas Territory in the fall of that year. Active in Kansas “Free State” convention of 1859.  U.S. Senator 1861-1873.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 60; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 54; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 17, p. 649; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 54:

POMEROY, SAMUEL CLARKE (January 3, 1816-August 27, 1891), Kansas Free-State advocate and United States senator, was born at Southampton, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel and Dorcas (Burt) Pomeroy, and a descendant of Eltweed Pomeroy who emigrated from England to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630. Samuel entered Amherst College in 1836 but withdrew shortly afterward. Later he spent four years in Onondaga County, New York, where he taught school and engaged in business. Returning to Southampton in 1842, he joined the Liberty party, filled several local offices, and served in the General Court in 1852. Appointed financial agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company in 1854, he accompanied the second party of settlers to Kansas Territory in the fall of that year. During the Wakarusa War of November-December 1855 he started for Boston to secure aid, but was captured and detained until the crisis was over. When Sheriff Jones assembled "border ruffians" before Lawrence in May 1856, Pomeroy was chosen chairman of a committee of public safety, but he failed to prevent the destruction of the town. He was a delegate to the first Republican National Convention and received eight votes for vice-president. In a sensational speech he declared that freedom for Kansas must be accompanied by reparation and atonement by the South for depredations committed and lives destroyed. The following year he settled at Atchison, where he served as mayor, 1858-59. During the drought and famine in Kansas, 1860-61, he headed a relief committee which distributed eight million pounds of provisions and seeds, besides clothing and medicine.

When Kansas was admitted into the Union, Pomeroy was elected to the United States Senate. He joined the radicals in opposition to Lincoln's administration, and in 1864 became chairman of a committee to promote the candidacy of Salmon P. Chase [q.v.] for president. The "Pomeroy Circular," a campaign document widely distributed, asserted that the reelection of Lincoln was neither possible nor desirable, and that Chase was an able administrator who possessed just those qualifications which would be needed by a president during the next four years. In a speech before the Senate he declared that old political alignments were dead and recommended the creation of a new party with a vigorous program (Congressional Globe, 38 Congress, l Session, pt. 2, pp. 1025-27). The movement, however, met with little popular response. Pomeroy's unexpected election to the Senate in 1861 was not free from charges of bargain; his reelection in 1867 was investigated by a committee· of the legislature which reported unanimously that he had bribed members of the General Assembly. He was slated for a third term in 1873, but when the legislature convened in joint session Senator A. M. York announced dramatically that Pomeroy had bargained for his vote for $8,000. The belief in Kansas was almost unanimous that he was guilty, and both houses demanded his resignation. Pomeroy asserted before a select committee of the United States Senate that the money was intended to assist in establishing a bank, and the committee concluded after hearing voluminous testimony that the affair was a plot to defeat him for reelection. Nevertheless, the incident ended his political career, although he was nominated for president in 1884 by the American Prohibition National Convention. After his failure to secure reelection in 1873, he continued to live in Washington for several years, hut eventually returned to Massachusetts, making his home at Whitinsville, where he died. He was married three times. His first wife was Annie Pomeroy, who died in 1843. On April 23, 1846, he married Lucy Ann Gaylord, who died July 30, 1863. His third wife was Mrs. Martha Whitin of Whitinsville.

[Pamphlets relating to Pomeroy in the Kansas State Historical Library, Topeka, include Political Affairs in Kansas, a Review of the Official Acts of Our Delegates in Congress (1870); E. H. Grant, Twelve Years in the U.S. Senate: A Brief Sketch of the Senatorial Record of Hon. S. C. Pomeroy of Kansas . . . from Official Records (1872); S. C. Knight, The Truth at Last: or What I Know About Pomeroy ... Thrilling Disclosures Concerning A. H. Horton and S. C. Pomeroy (1874); several letters of Pomeroy are preserved by the Massachusetts Historical Society; for bribery testimony see Senate Report, No. 523, 42 Congress, 3 Session; consult also D. W. Wilder, The Annals of Kansas (1886); Trans. Kansas State Historical Society, esp. volumes IV (1890), VIII (1904), IX (1906); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); A. A. Pomeroy, History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family (1912); Springfield Daily Republican, August 28, 1891.]

W. H. S.


POMEROY, Theodore Medad, b. 1824, lawyer.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York.  Re-elected Congressman from March 1861-March 1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 61; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe). 


PORTER, ALBERT GALLATIN (April 20, 1824-May 3, 1897), governor, congressman from Indiana. The proslavery attitude of the Democratic party caused him to join the newly formed Republican party. By it he was twice elected to the federal House of Representatives; he served from 1859 to 1863

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, pp. 80-81:

PORTER, ALBERT GALLATIN (April 20, 1824-May 3, 1897), governor, congressman from Indiana, was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, the descendant of John Porter, possibly an emigrant from Ireland, who was living in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the eighteenth century. He was the son of Thomas and Miranda (Tousey) Porter. The family soon moved to a farm in Kentucky just across the Ohio River, where the boy grew up. He attended Hanover College and Asbury College, now De Pauw University, and was graduated from Asbury in 1843. He read law in Lawrenceburg with the father of John C. Spooner [q.v.] and in 1845 began practice in Indianapolis. On November 30, 1846, he was married to Minerva Virginia Brown of Indianapolis, who died in 1875. They had five children. He supplemented his slender income as a lawyer by writing digests of the state supreme court opinions for the Indianapolis Journal. So creditably were these written that, when the court's reporter died, the judges unanimously recommended him for the vacancy, and he was appointed by the governor on January 21, 1853. In the next election the Democrats elected him to this office, and he served till 1856 (3-7 Indiana Reports, 1853-56). He had been city attorney from 1851 to 1853 and was elected city councilman for the years 1857 to 1859.

Meanwhile, the proslavery attitude of the Democratic party caused him to join the newly formed Republican party. By it he was twice elected to the federal House of Representatives; he served from 1859 to 1863 and declined a third term because of the small salary. In Congress he favored the vigorous prosecution of the war and the abolition of the franking privilege, and he gave much time to judicial matters. Resuming the practice of law in 1863, he became the head of one of the most successful legal firms in Indiana. From 1863 to 1865 his partner was W. P. Fishback; at the close of the Civil War, Benjamin Harrison, later president of the United States, joined the firm. From 1863 to 1877 Porter gave his undivided attention to law. The large clientele that was built up by his firm enabled him to amass a comfortable fortune. In 1878, President Hayes, at the suggestion of John Sherman, appointed him first comptroller of the treasury. As comptroller, he settled numerous claims against the government, many of which grew out of the Civil War. He resigned in 1880, after he had been nominated as governor of Indiana. Nominated against his will in order to carry the important October election in a doubtful state, he brought to bear all his great political skill and charm. The campaign of 1880 was one of the most intense and memorable in the state. The Republicans, well financed by local and eastern contributions and led by Porter and Harrison, won. On January 5, 1881, he was married to his second wife, Cornelia Stone, in New York City. As governor, from 1881 to 1885, he did much to make possible the drainage of 800,000 acres of swamp land in the state, and he improved the administration of state institutions.

In 1888, as delegate-at-large to the Republican National Convention at Chicago, he made the leading speech nominating his former partner, Benjamin Harrison, for president. On March 13, 1889, he was appointed minister to Italy. Residence in Rome appealed to him, for he loved classical literature and art. His natural tact, culture, and geniality enabled him to fill his position successfully. He assisted in the delicate negotiations that followed the killing of several Italians during the Mafia riots in New Orleans in 1891, though the major principles maintained by the United States were determined in Washington by Harrison and Blaine. Fortunately, before this incident occurred he had applied to the department of state for his annual leave, and by granting it and extending it until the question was settled, the department avoided the necessity of recalling him, when the Italian government recalled Baron Fava. After his return home he devoted the remainder of his life to the gathering of material and writing a history of Indiana. He died in Indianapolis.

[Diaries and papers in the Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, and in the possession of his grand-daughters, Mrs. Frank R. Jelleff, Washington, D. C., and Mrs. Gordon Varney, Bradenton, Fla.; Benjamin Harrison Papers in Library of Congress; C. W. Taylor, Biographical Sketches .. of the Bench and Bar of Indiana (1895); G. I. Reed, Encyclopedia of Biography of Indiana, volume II (1899); T. C. Rose, The Tousey Family in America (1916); Indianapolis News, May 3, 1897; Indianapolis Journal, May 4, 1897.]

A.T.V.


PORTER, James, 1808-1888, clergyman, abolitionist.  Member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 77)


POST, Amy Kirby, 1802-1889, Rochester, New York, reformer, American Society of Friends, Radical Hicksite, Quaker, abolitionist leader.  Active participant in the Underground Railroad.  Women’s rights activist.  Co-founder of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society (WNYASS).  Helped form the Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends (YMCF). 

(Drake, 1950; Sernett, 2002, pp. xiv, 60, 61, 181, 340n50; Yellin, 1994, pp. 27-30, 149)


POST, Isaac, 1798-1872, Rochester, New York, philanthropist, abolitionist leader, reformer, American Society of Friends, Radical Hicksite, Quaker, women’s rights activist.  Co-founder of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society (WNYASS).  Helped form the Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends (YMCF), which opposed slavery.  Helped establish African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 84; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 117; Sernett, 2002, pp. 60, 180-181, 266, 340n50). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 117:

POST, ISAAC (February 26, 1798-May 9, 1872), abolitionist and spiritualist, was born in Westbury, Long Island, New York, the son of Edmund and Catherine (Willets) Post and the descendant of Richard Post who removed to Southampton on Long Island from Lynn, Massachusetts, about the middle of the seventeenth century. He removed in 1823 to the town of Scipio, Cayuga County, New York, and about this time married Hannah Kirby. She died in 1827, leaving two children who survived her only a few years. On September 18, 1828, he married Amy Kirby, a sister of his first wife. He removed in 1836 from Cayuga County to Rochester, New York, where he lived until his death. Besides his widow he left four children. At first a successful farmer, he later went into the drug business, in which he remained for thirty years. He was a pioneer in antislavery reform, taking a leading part in all the efforts to aid the colored race. He was a friend of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. When the Fugitive-slave Law was passed, his house became a well-known station on the "Underground Railroad." Hundreds of negroes owed their liberation to him and to his wife, who in this, as in all his other reforms, supported him valiantly. She herself was a friend of Susan B. Anthony and an ardent supporter of the woman's suffrage and the friends of human progress movements. Their "house ... has ever been the hottest place in our reputed 'hot-house for isms -so many reforms, agitations, and new questions have been furthered in its parlors'' (Parker; post, P 258).  He was born and educated in the Hicksite branch of the Society of Friend’s, but in 1845 he and his wife, also a Quaker, felt that membership in the society interfered with their activity as abolitionists, and they resigned. Both always maintained the dignified and plain simplicity of language and life characteristic of the Friends.

In 1848 he was converted to spiritualism by Margaret Fox [q.v.] and her sister. He and his wife and three others were among the earliest converts and the first to meet regularly at the Fox home. These five, and especially Post, did more, perhaps, than any other single group toward furthering the spiritualist movement, giving the sisters advice. and encouragement and even protecting them from bodily harm, when the first public investigations were held. A spirit message from his mother is supposed to have played some part in directing the course of the movement: "Isaac, my son, thy feeling is -not exactly right towards low spirits, as thee calls them. A reformation is going on in the spirit world, and these spirits seek the company of honest men like you. It will do them great good and thee no harm" (Parker, post, pp. 268-69). He became noted as a writing medium and in 1852 published a volume entitled Voices from the  spirit World, being Communications from Many Spirits, by the hand of Isaac Post, Medium. This contained an introduction purporting to be from the spirit of Benjamin Franklin and about forty "communications" from spirits of distinguished people including Washington, Jefferson, Elias Hicks, Calhoun, Margaret Fuller, Swedenborg, Daniel O'Connell, Voltaire, William Penn, and George Fox, a group that indicates the type and range of Post's interests. He had a mind quick and vigorous in the perception and acceptance of new ideas and ready to acknowledge them regardless of consequences. That he was widely known in his community and was respected-for his convictions, even by his enemies, is a tribute to his personal qualities in view' of the unpopular ideas and reforms for which he stood. Frederick Douglass in a letter read at the funeral (Democrat and Chronicle, post, May 13) said of him that he never knew a man more just, simplehearted, charitable, unselfish, and full of good works.

[J.M. Parker, Rochester: A Story Historical (1884); Emma Hardinge, Modern American Spiritualism (1870); Adelbert Cronise, "The Beginnings of Moderate Spiritualism," Rochester Historical Society Pubs., volume 1 (1926); William Lloyd Garrison: The Story of His Life Told by His Children (1885), volume III; M. C. de T. Post, The Post Family (1905); Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester), May 9, 10, 13, 1872; Rochester Evening Express, May 9, 1872; "Memorandum on Isaac Post" submitted by Edward R. Foreman, Rochester, and other material deposited by writer in Library of Columbia University.

J G.L.


POST, Joseph, 1803-1880, abolitionist, Society of Friends (Quaker).  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 84)


POULSON, Zachariah, 1761-1844, abolitionist, publisher, “American Daily Advertise, Reformer,” Active in the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 92-93; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 139; Basker, 2005, p. 239n1). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 139:

POULSON, ZACHARIAH (September 5, 1761- July 31, 1844), publisher and philanthropist, was born and died in Philadelphia. His mother, Anna Barbara Stollenberger, had come to America from Germany with her parents eight years before her marriage to Zachariah Poulson, Sr. The latter, born in Copenhagen, Denmark, had been brought by his father to Philadelphia, where he learned printing in the office of the second Christopher Sower [q.v.]. Later he became one of the leaders among the Moravian Brethren.

The younger Poulson spent his formative years in the atmosphere of the printing house at a time when the press of Philadelphia was reflecting every phase of the struggle of the colonies for independence. He wrote later, "James Humphreys [q.v.] was to have taught me printing. Before I was bound he was necessitated to fly on account of the troubles which then agitated our country. After his materials were pack ed up and secreted, I went with my Father to Hall and Seller's office, where we remained until the fir s t rumor of the approach of the British army. We then worked with Joseph Crukshank until they [the British] took possession of the city, when we returned to James Humphreys and remained with him until it was evacuated. After its evacuation, we went again to Joseph Crukshank. While here we experienced all the hardships which malicious neighbors and unfeeling fine-collectors could occasion. As my father could not, from religious motives, p ay militia fine s, his property was sacrificed in the most wanton manner." (Letter to William  Rawle, 1791, American-Scandinavian Review, July 1920, p. 513.) Among the conscientious objectors who suffered most was Sower, whose wife's sister, Susanna Knorr, Poulson married April 23, 1780.

Not until 1785 did the young printer meet with even a modicum of success. Then began his connection with the Philadelphia Library Company which was to continue for nearly fifty-nine years. For twenty-one years he was its librarian, for six years its treasurer, and for thirty-two years a director, Meanwhile he began to prosper in the printing business. Among the many valuable works he published were Paulson's Town and Country Almanac, 1788-1801 (continued by J. Bioren); Robert Proud's History of Pennsylvania (2 volumes, 1797-98); The American Tutor's Assistant (1797); the curious mystical works of John Gerar William De Brahm; and the Journals of the General Conventions of Delegates from the Abolition Societies of the United States, from 1794 to 1801. He printed in folio the Minutes of the convention which was appointed to revise and amend the constitution of the state in 1789, and was for many years printer to the Senate of Pennsylvania.

In 1800 he purchased Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser, successor of the Pennsylvania Packet, the first daily newspaper in the United States. For some time it had been the official organ of the government. Poulson moved its office to his residence, No. 106 Chestnut St., opposite the Bank of North America, changed its name to Paulson's American Daily Advertiser, and continued its editor and publisher until December 28, 1839, when it was sold to the owners of the North American and passed out of existence. During all th ese years it remained essentially an "Advertiser," with about twenty-two columns of advertisements to six of reading matter. It seemed, however, "to suit the family hearth and fi reside comforts of good and sober citizens" and like the good old times from which it descended carried with it "something grave, discriminative, useful, and considerate" (Watson, post, II, 397-98). It was a Whig journal and the last number proclaimed support for Harrison and Tyler as "Candidates of the People and of the Whig National Conv en tion."

Throughout his long life Poulson gave earnest and untiring support to many philanthropic organizations. He was a founder and president of the Philadelphia Society for Ameliorating the Miseries of Public Prisons, was a manager of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and was interested in the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. For thirty-five years he served as a director of the Philadelphia Contribution ship for the Insurance of Homes from Loss by Fire, the first fire-insurance company in America. Unassuming and unostentatious, he had to a rare degree the gift of inspiring affection and veneration in those who knew him, The year before his death the Library Company had a portrait of him painted by Thomas Sully that still hangs on its walls and impresses the passerby with the beauty and serenity of his expression.

[J. T. Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia (1884), volumes II, III; J. F. Watson, Annals of Phila. (1844), volume II; Minutes (MSS.) of the proceedings of the Directors of the Library Company of Philadelphia, volume III; Henry Simpson, The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians Now Deceased (1859); Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America (2nd ed., 1874), volume II; M.A. Leach, in American Scandinavian Review, July 1920; Public Ledger (Philadelphia), August 2, 1844; further information furnished by Agnes Poulson Opie.]

A. L. L.


POWELL, William Peter, 1807-c. 1879, African American, abolitionist leader, activist, born a slave, Garrisonian abolitionist.  Active member of the American Anti-Slavery Society and the New England Anti-Slavery Society since early 1830s.  Helped Committee of Thirteen in New York City to oppose Fugitive Slave Act.

(Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Volume 9, p. 207). 


PREETORIUS, Emil (March 15, 1827-November 19, 1905), journalist, publicist, strongly opposed to the extension of slavery he joined the Republican party in 1856 and labored unceasingly with voice and pen for the election of Lincoln. During the early and critical months of the war he and other German leaders joined with F. B. Blair, Jr., in the successful effort to prevent the secession of Missouri.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 185:

PREETORIUS, EMIL (March 15, 1827-November 19, 1905), journalist, publicist, was born in Alzey, Rhenish Hesse, Germany, the son of William and Louise Preetorius, a leading family of the community. Educated first by private tutors he prepared for college at Mainz and in 1848 was awarded the degree of doctor of laws at the University of Giessen, after which he continued the study of law at Heidelberg. At the threshold of a promising legal career he espoused with enthusiasm the movement for constitutionalism in Germany; the repressive politics of the existing government repelled him. His participation in the revolutionary activities forced his withdrawal from the country, and in 1853 he joined the large German colony at St. Louis. The year following he married Magdalena Schmidt of Frankfort He entered the mercantile business but public affairs were his chief interest, and he shortly assumed a prominent position among the Germans in Missouri. Strongly opposed to the extension of slavery he joined the Republican party in 1856 and labored unceasingly with voice and pen for the election of Lincoln. During the early and critical months of the war he and other German leaders joined with F. B. Blair, Jr., in the successful effort to prevent the secession of Missouri. He raised funds for German regiments, and, as a humanitarian, supported hospitals for 18 soldiers of both armies. In the years 1862-64, as a member of the legislature, he advocated immediate and uncompensated emancipation of Missouri slaves.

His ability and inclination brought him actively into journalism in 1862 when he founded Die Neue Zeit, which two years later was merged with the Westliche Post with Preetorius as editor-in-chief. He opposed Johnson but was singularly free from the bitter and proscriptive spirit of the Radicals. In 1867 his intimate friend, Carl Schurz, became his partner, and the Post entered upon a long era of prosperity and of power. It supported effectively the Liberal Republicans in Missouri in 1870 and reluctantly indorsed the Greeley ticket in 1872 (Westliche Post, May 6, 1872). He was one of the notable group of scholarly editors who were keenly aware of the economic and political ills of the nation, and, although Republican, always opposed party abuses and sought reforms, particularly tariff and civil-service reform and the elimination of corruption in government. During his editorship of forty years, the journal was an important political and cultural force in the city and state, reflecting accurately the opinions and personality of its chief. In national politics he remained a mildly partisan Republican, although not seeking political preferment himself. In state and in local affairs he was independent and courageous. He believed whole-heartedly in democracy but was inclined occasionally to mistake the form for the substance, and to place too great emphasis upon mere mechanical change. He was in the best sense a public-spirited citizen, sharing his prosperity with worthy civic enterprises and dispensing charity lavishly. His range of scholarship and breadth of view were unusual; he was an eloquent speaker, with a remarkable memory and a deep interest in politics, history, and philosophy. It was his policy both to assist his readers in understanding American institutions and to uphold the German language, culture, and civilization. At times impractical and intolerant, he lacked the spirit of compromise, but he never lo st his early enthusiasm for progress and for personal liberty. As the Nestor of the German~ American journalists, with great and pervasive influence, he passed into the best tradition of the foreign-language press in America.

[J. T. Scharf, History of St. Louis (2 volumes, 1883); A, B. Faust, The German Element in the U. S. (2 volumes, 1909); The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (3 volumes, 1907-08); Intimate Letters of Carl Schurz (1928), ed. by Joseph Schafer; W. B. Stevens, St. Louis, the Fourth City (2 volumes, 1911); William Hyde and H. L. Conard, Encyclopedia of the Hist. of St. Louis, volume III (1899); Who's Who in America, 1903-05; St. Louis Republic and St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 26, 21, 1905; Westliche Post, Nov. 20, 21, 22, 1905. ]

T.S.B.


PRESTON, ANN (December 1, 1813-April 18, 1872), physician. She was a member of the Clarkson Anti-Slavery Society and as secretary wrote reports for that society which were models of clearness, strength, and simplicity. On one occasion she aided a slave in escaping along the Underground Railway.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 201-202:

PRESTON, ANN (December 1, 1813-April 18, 1872), physician, was born of Quaker parents, Amos and Margaret (Smith) Preston, in Westgrove, Chester County, Pennsylvania, where she spent the greater part of her life and received her early education. When she was still a young girl her mother fell ill and Ann was faced with the responsibility of managing the home for the invalid, the father, and six active brothers. This duty she performed capably and cheerfully and found time and enthusiasm also to take part in various community activities. She was a member of the Clarkson Anti-Slavery Society and as secretary wrote reports for that society which were models of clearness, strength, and simplicity. On one occasion she aided a slave in escaping along the Underground Railway. She was also secretary of a temperance convention of women in Chester County in 1848, and was one of three delegates sent to Harrisburg to present to the legislature a memorial urging the prohibition of th e sale of intoxicating liquors. Her literary ability in another direction was demonstrated by her poems and a volume of stories published in 1848 under the title of Cousin Ann's Stories for Children.

Feeling keenly her lack of higher education she studied Latin at home for its rigid mental discipline, and also read physiology and hygiene with the hope of fitting herself to be a popular lecturer. When she learned in 1850 that the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania was being opened in Philadelphia (the first of its kind in the world to be chartered for the education of women in medicine), it seemed the perfect answer to her desire for a career that would combine scholarship and service. She was one of the first applicants for entrance and was graduated at its first Commencement in 1852. Desiring further training she continued to attend lectures all the following winter,  and in the spring of 1853, accepted the chair of physiology and hygiene in the College: About this time she began giving lectures in Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, and neighboring towns, and these served to introduce her to the public and aided her in securing a practice. She realized the need for clinical instruction for her students, and since at this time women physicians were forbidden the use of hospitals, she turned her energies to establishing an institution primarily for them. She interviewed and importuned everyone she thought could give her money or influence. So great was her success that the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia was opened in 1861 and she was appointed a member of the board of managers, consulting physician, and corresponding secretary. In 1866 she was chosen the first dean of the college in addition to her professorship, and in 1867 was elected to the board of corporators.

One of her most memorable works was the article she wrote in reply to a resolution adopted by the Philadelphia County Medical Society in 1867 expressing its disapproval of women in the medical profession (see the Medical and Surgical Reporter, Philadelphia, March 30, May 4, 1864). So aptly and thoroughly did she answer their objections that no rebuttal could be made and the matter was dropped. She was a small, frail person. For years she suffered from articular rheumatism and was forced to limit her private practice to office consultations, and in 187i she suffered an acute attack from which she never wholly recovered. The exertion of writing the annual announcement for the college session overtaxed her strength and brought on the complete nervous exhaustion which caused her death. Her published writings, other than those mentioned above, consist of addresses to the stu4ents of the Woman's Medical College.

[E. E. Judson, Address in Memory of Ann Preston, M.D. (1873); sketch by Frances Preston in H. A. Kelly, W. L. Burrage, American Med. Biography (1920); F . E. Willard, M. A. Livermore; A Woman of the Century (1893); Eminent Women of the Age (1869); Cara Marshall, The Woman's Med. College of Pennsylvania (1897); J. S. Futhey and Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (1881); Press (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), April 19, 1872.]

F.E.W.


PRESTON, Jonas, 1764-1836, Pennsylvania, philanthropist.  Vice president and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Volume I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 113; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 203). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 203:

PRESTON, JONAS (January 25, 1764-April 4, 1836), physician, was born at Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of his father's fourth marriage and of his mother's third. His parents were Jonas Preston, a physician who had come to America from Yorkshire, England, some time before 1732, and Mary Pennell Lea Preston, nee Yarnall. His boyhood was spent chiefly in Chester until the outbreak of the Revolution, when, his father having died some time previously, his mother settled in Wilmington, Del. Here he studied medicine with a Dr. Way and in 1783 and 1784 attended lectures at the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, being graduated there in the latter year. He then went to Europe and attended hospital lectures in Edinburgh, London, and Paris. Upon returning to America he bought a farm near Chester, but soon sold it and spent some time in Georgia with General Wayne. He finally returned to Chester and built up a large medical practice being particularly noted as an obstetrician. In 1794 he married Orpah (?) Reese, a woman with a considerable fortune, and moved to Newtown, Delaware County. Here he took an active interest in public affairs. At the time of the Whiskey Insurrection he volunteered his medical services and served in the field. For so doing he was disowned by the Society of Friends, of which he was a member, but he was later taken back into Meeting. From 1794 to 1800 he was a member of the lower house of the Pennsylvania legislature and from 1808 to 1811 sat in the state Senate where, as chairman of the committee on education, he prepared the bill which provided for the free education of the poor children of the state.

After the death of his first wife, he married Jane Thomas, August 19, 1812, and four years later moved to Philadelphia. Here he was soon elected to the City Council and heartily supported the building of the municipal water works. In his later years he gave but little attention to his profession, devoting considerable time to the management of the fortune left him by his first wife. He was a director of the Bank of Pennsylvania and of the Schuylkill Navigation Company and took an active interest in the affairs of a number of benevolent institutions. At his death, which occurred in Philadelphia, he bequeathed a large portion of his estate for the support of "a lying-in hospital for indigent married women of good character." By the act of June 16, 1836, the Pennsylvania legislature incorporated The Preston Retreat, but financial difficulties resulting from the panic of 1837 delayed its opening for nearly thirty years, and not till January 1, 1866, was it opened according to his wishes.

[Henry Simpson, The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians Now Deceased (1859); J. T. Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Phila. (1884), volumes I, II; H. A. Kelly and W. L. Burrage, American Medical Biographies (1920); J. S. Futhey and Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (1881); Founders' Week Memorial Volume (1909), ed. by F. P. Henry; J. H. and G. H. Lea, The Ancestry and Posterity of John Lea (1906); Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, August 21, 1812, April 5, 1836.]

J.H.F.


PRICE, Hiram, 1814-1901.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa.  Congressman 1863-1869, 1876-1881.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, pp. 117-118; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 212; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 17, p. 860; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, p. 212:

PRICE, HIRAM (January 10, 1814-May 30, 1901), congressman from Iowa, banker, was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, the son of a farmer of English, Welsh, and Irish descent When he was five he was taken to Mifflin County and later to Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania He was educated in local schools taught by old-fashioned traveling country school teachers and developed a love of reading that gave him most of his limited education. In April 1834 he married Susan Betts, the daughter of prosperous Quaker parents. Of their five children, the eldest became the wife of John F. Dillon [q.v.]. In 1844 the family removed to Davenport, Iowa, where he opened a small store: which he conducted successfully. In 1847 he was elected school fund commissioner and the following year recorder and treasurer of Scott County. Early in the fifties he was active in the building of a railroad from Davenport to Council Bluffs, a pioneer railroad in Iowa. He also had an important part in the construction of other railroad enterprises of local and state importance. A determined opponent of the use and sale of intoxicating liquors, he helped to draft the Iowa prohibitory liquor law passed in 1855 and was active in its enforcement. He was a Democrat until the formation of the Republican party in Iowa in 1856. He had become known as a financier, and, when in 1858 the state bank of Iowa was established, he represented the Davenport branch. In 1860 he became president and retained the office until the end of 1865, when the state system was superseded by the federal banking system. Many of the features of that system were suggested by the Iowa law and were successfully tested during its existence. His admirable management of the state bank of Iowa in times when the West was flooded with worthless paper money is deserving of great praise. His part in furnishing funds for the raising, arming, and equipment of volunteers in 1861, before they were mustered into the service of the United States, was another noteworthy example of public service.

He represented Iowa in Congress from 1863 to 1869 and from 1877 to 1881. During his second term he advocated the resumption of specie payments and also favored the remonetization of silver. From 1881 to 1885 he was commissioner of Indian affairs. After his retirement he resided in Washington. He was a life-long Methodist and was both an active supporter and a liberal contributor. He never compromised with any opposition, and he was aggressive in sustaining and disseminating his radical views. He contributed to the Annals of Iowa two articles that are perhaps more valuable for what they tell of their author rather than for the historical information they contain, "Recollections of Iowa Men and Affairs" (April 1893) and "The State Bank of Iowa" (January 1894).

[B. F. Gue, "The Public Services of Hiram Price," Annals of Iowa, January 1895; S. S. Howe, "Biographical Sketch of Hiram Price," Ibid., Jan. 1864; John F . Dillon, Anna Price Dillon: Memoirs and Memorials (1900); E. H. Stiles, Recollections and Sketches of Notable Lawyers and Public Men of Early Iowa (1916); H. H. Preston, History of Banking in Iowa (1922).]

E.E.H.


PROUDFIT, Alexander Montcrief, 1770-1843, clergyman 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 128)


PUGH, Sarah, abolitionist.  Delegate to the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, Eastern Branch, Philadelphia.  Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.

(Dumond, 1961, p. 286; Yellin, 1994, pp. 11, 74-76, 78, 80, 82, 84-85, 163, 163n, 175, 301-302, 307, 326)


PURVIS, Harriet Davy Forten, 1810-1884, African American, abolitionist leader, social reformer, active in Philadelphia area.  Daughter of James Forten. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Volume 9, p. 279)


PURVIS, Joseph, abolitionist, brother of Robert Purvis. Founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833 (Abolitionist, Volume I, No. XII, December, 1833; Winch, 2002)


PURVIS, Robert, 1810-1898, Philadelphia, African American, benefactor, abolitionist leader, reformer, women’s rights activist, temperance activist.  Vice president and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  President, Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, 1845-1850.  Chairman of the General Vigilance Committee, 1852-1857.  Associated with William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips.  Active in the Underground Railroad, 1831-1861.  Aided thousands of escaped slaves.  His home was a station on the Underground Railroad.  Friend and supporter of Lucretia Mott and the women’s rights movement.  Author, wrote Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens with Disenfranchisement to the People of Pennsylvania.  Brother of Joseph Purvis.  Husband of Harriet Davy Forten.  

(Dumond, 1961, p. 333; Mabee, 1970, pp. 21, 57, 58, 99, 106, 109, 111, 121, 181, 191, 265, 276, 294, 305, 321, 338, 414n11, 422n27; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 45, 161, 162, 464; Winch, 2002; Abolitionist, Volume I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume V, p. 137; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume I. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 413; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Volume 9, p. 281)


PURVIS, Sarah Louisa Forten, 1814-1883, African American, poet, abolitionist leader. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Volume 9, p. 283). 


PUTNAM, James Osborne (July 4, 1818-April 24, 1903), lawyer, diplomat. He was a consistent Whig and sorrowed over the dissolution of the party, then joined new American party. He was influential in bringing many who had joined it into the Republicans. In 1860 he was one of the two Republican presidential electors-at-large, and was active in the campaign

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 8, Pt. 1, pp. 283-284:

PUTNAM, JAMES OSBORNE (July 4, 1818-April 24, 1903), lawyer, diplomat, was the son of Harvey and Myra (Osborne) Putnam, and a descendant of John Putnam who emigrated to Salem, Massachusetts, before 1641. James was born in the village of Attica, New York, a few miles east of Buffalo, with the interests of which city he was connected almost all his long life. Entering Hamilton College in 1836, he transferred to Yale two years later, but was compelled by ill health to leave college at the end of his junior year, Yale awarding him the honorary degree of M.A. in 1865. On January 5, 1842, he married Harriet Palmer, who died in 1853; and on March 15, 1855, he married Kate Wright, who died in 1895. By his first wife he had three children, and by his second, four. He was admitted to the bar in 1842, and nine years later, at the age of thirty-three, was appointed by President Fillmore, his fellow townsman, postmaster at Buffalo, in which office he served until May 1853. In that year he was elected to the state Senate, where he served 1854-55 and became noted as an orator. "As a speaker he was polished, smooth, and refined, and even when impassioned kept his passion well within conventional bounds" (Alexander, post, II, 156). A volume of his utterances, entitled Addresses, Speeches and Miscellanies appeared in 1880. He was a consistent Whig and sorrowed so intensely over the dissolution of the party that for a time he was attracted to the new American party; but it did not take him long to realize its ephemeral character, and he was influential in bringing many who had joined it into union with the Republicans. In 1860 he was one of the two Republican presidential electors-at-large, and was active in the campaign. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him consul at Havre, France, where he remained until 1866. Returning to Buffalo, he resumed the practice of law, but was agd.in for a brief time drawn into the public service as minister to Belgium, which position he held from 1880 to 1882.

His chief influence, however, was in his community. He loved Buffalo with almost a fanatic devotion and chose to remain in that city. At the beginning of his career it was sadly lacking in educational and cultural institutions, and Putnam exerted a considerable influence in changing this condition. He took an essential part in establishing, in the early sixties, the Buffalo Historical Society and the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, with both of which he was officially connected. Especially noteworthy was his service to education. He was one of the group which in 1846 founded the University of Buffalo, and he served for thirty-two years on its board of trustees. In 1895 he accepted the chancellorship, which was then an unpaid office. Old age and weakened physique were upon him, yet during his term the university saw considerable enlargement. In 1902, a few months before his death, he resigned the chancellorship.

[Eben Putnam, The Putnam Lineage (1907); Obit. Records Graduates Yale University (1910); J. N. Larned and L. G. Sellstedt., in Buffalo Historical Society Pub., volume VI, (1903); D.S. Alexander, A Political History of the State of New York, volume II (1906); H. W. Hill, Municipality of Buffalo, New York, A History. (1923); Who's Who in America, 1901-02; New York Tribune, April 25, 1903; information supplied by the family.]

J.P.



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