THE INCORPORATORS 171 
meteors, and many other topics, and published many papers 
relating to them. His last contributions to science were a series 
of eight propositions in cosmical physics, and his ‘‘ Lectures on 
Ideality in Science.” 
Besides his additions to the literature of science, Professor 
Peirce assisted in the organization, in 1855, of the Dudley Observ- 
atory at Albany, and was instrumental in the establishment of 
the observatory at Harvard University. He died at Cambridge 
October 6, 1880. 
(From Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., new series, vol. 8, 1881, pp. 443-454.) 
JOHN RODGERS 
Born, August 8, 1812; died, May 5, 1882 
Admiral John Rodgers, the third of that name, was the grand- 
son of John Rodgers, who came from Glasgow, and settled in 
Harford County, Maryland. The elder Rodgers was a colonel 
of the Maryland line in the Revolutionary War, and among 
his descendants were several sailors and soldiers who rendered 
valiant service to their country. 
John Rodgers, third, was born at Sion Hill, near Havre de 
Grace, Maryland, on August 8, 1812. His mother was the 
daughter of Gideon Denison, who was a native of Connecticut 
and noted as an Indian fighter. With such an ancestry it is not 
strange that we find John Rodgers a midshipman in his sixteenth 
year. He served three and a half years at sea, spent one year 
at the Naval School at Norfolk, and another at the University 
of Virginia, then, three years on the South American Station. 
While he was on the Florida coast, Lopez, the Cuban insurgent, 
was pursued by the Pizarro, a Spanish sloop-of-war, but Rodgers 
with the Petre/, a small schooner of one gun, prevented his cap- 
ture. The charts of the Florida coast prepared by Rodgers at 
this period have been of great service. 
In 1852 Rodgers joined the North Pacific Exploring and 
Surveying Expedition in command of the steamer John Han- 
cock, and on the retirement of Commander Ringgold, owing to 
