OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



649 



and afterward of light machinery. Soon after Samuel 

 B. F. Morse had demonstrated the practicability of 

 the magnetic telegraph, Mr. Phelps engaged in the 

 manutacture of telegraphic instruments and the in- 

 vention of new apparatus, as the service was devel- 

 oped. On the organization of the American Tele- 

 graph Company he sold out his manufacturing busi- 

 ness and entered the employ of that corporation. He 

 had charge of the factory till the company was merged 

 with the "Western L'nion, and then remained in the 

 latter' s service till 1884, when he was retired. His 

 inventions include the electro-magnetic speed gov- 

 ernor (1858); printing telegraphs ^1869-' 78); elec- 

 trical railroad-signal (1869); magnetic motor (1874); 

 printing telegraph-transmitter 1>77) : polarized elec- 

 tro-ma. : speaking telephone (1878 : switch 

 for electric speaking telephones (1879) ; carbon tele- 

 phone (1879) ; signal-box for district and alarm tele- 

 graphs (188-2) ; rotating type-wheels of printing tele- 

 graph ilS-4' : and microphone transmitter il v 



Pickering, Charles W., naval officer, born in New 

 Hampshire in l8i.'6; died in St. Augustine, Fla., Feb. 

 J88. lie was appointed a midshipman in the 

 United States Navy, May 1, 1822, was commissioned 

 lieutenant, Dec. 8. 1838. commander, Sept. 14, 1^55, 

 captain, July li>. 1S32, placed on the retired list. Feb. 

 1, 1867, and promoted commodore, Dec. 8j 1867. 

 During his naval service he was on sea duty eighteen 

 years and seven months, on shore and other duty 

 eleven years and six mouths, and was unemployed 

 nearly thirty-seven years. He was the executive 

 officer of the " (."vane," which took out the Darien 

 Exploring Expedition in 1854, and immediately after- 

 ward sailed to Greytown, Nicaragua, and bombarded 

 the place in consequence of outrages committed on 

 American citizens, and was the first commander of 

 the " Keanuge," but before her fight with the " Ala- 

 bama" was transferred to the " Housatonic." 



Pierrepont, Henry Evelyn, philanthropist, bom in 

 yn. N. Y.. Aug. 8, 1808; died there, March 28. 

 1888. He received an academic education, assisted 

 his father in managing his vast estate in Brooklyn, 

 went abroad in 1833, and in his absence was appoint- 

 ed one of the commissioners to prepare plans tor lay- 

 in.' out the public grounds and streets of the newly 

 chartered city of Brooklyn, and prepared the plans, 

 after a personal inspection of all the large cities in 

 Europe, that were in substance adopted in 1835. 

 While abroad he also studied the principal rural 

 cemeteries, and ou his return drew plans for convert- 

 in;? the Gowanus hills into a city of the dead. He 

 employed Maj. David B. Douglas to elaborate his 

 scheme, and in 1838 obtained a charter for the Green- 

 wood Cemetery Company. In that year, on the death 

 of his father, he inherited the sreater part of the 

 Brooklyn estate and a portion of that in the northern 

 counties, and his subsequent life was occupied with 

 the improvement of his property and the promotion 

 of benevolent and ecclesiastical enterprises. 



Pinkney, Howard, surgeon, born in New York city, 

 Jan. 9, 1837 ; died near London, England, May 14. 

 1888. He was graduated at the New York Free Acad- 

 emy in 1856, and at the College of Physicians and 

 Surgeons in 18t)0, and immediately went on duty as 

 house-surgeon in Bellevue Hospital. At the begin- 

 ning of the civil war he went to the field as surtreon 

 of the Ninth Militia Reiriment (the Eighty-third New 

 York Volunteers^, tookpart in the battles of Ball's 

 Bluff, Harper's Ferry, South Mountain, and Antie- 

 tam, was several times assigned to special hospital 

 duty, and was forced by an attack of typhoid fever to 

 resign in 1863. On his recovery he was appointed an 

 assistant surgeon, United States' Army, with the rank 

 of major, and placed in charge of the hospital in Fred- 

 erick City, Md. After the war, he returned to New 

 York city, and practiced. He was one of the first 

 physicians in the United States to make a specialty 

 of the studv of the ear, was senior surgeon of the 

 New York Eye and Ear Infirmary for twenty years, 

 founded and conducted an unsectarian dispensary in 



connection with the Church of the Holy Trinity for 

 nine years, discovered the method of discolori/.ing 

 iodine, was a delegate to the International Medical 

 Congress in London in 1881, and published many 

 articles and pamphlets on the treatment of the ear. 



Porter, Eloert B., clenrvman, born in Hillshorough, 

 N. J., Oct. 23, 1820; died in Claverack, Columbia 

 County, N. Y.. Feb. *',. 1^88. He was graduated at 

 Princeton in 1839, studied law, but gave it up to pre- 

 pare for the ministry, and was graduated at the Theo- 

 logical Seminary in New Brunswick, N. J.. \\. 

 Tiie same year lie entered the New Brunswick Classis 

 of the Ketbrmed Church. In 1843 he was called by 

 a missionary congregation in Chatham, N. Y., with 

 whom he remained seven years ; in 1849 lie went to 

 the First Reformed Dutch Church of Williamsburgh 

 (now a part of Brooklyn), and held its pastorate 

 thirty-four years, resigning in 1883 on account of 

 impaired health. In 1852 he became editor of the 

 " Christian Intelligencer," the organ of his denomi- 

 nation, and remained in charge of it sixteen years. 

 Though he retired from editorial work to give his 

 whole time to his church in 1868, he continued to 

 write for the " Intelligencer." and al.-o contributed to 

 the "Christian at Work." the "Christian Weekly," 

 and other periodicals. He was president of the first 

 General Synod held after the name of the denomination 

 was changed to Reformed Church of North America, 

 and published " A History of the Reformed Dutch 

 Church in the United States," " The Pastor's Guide," 

 and tracts and hymns. 



Porter, James, 'clenryman, born in Middleborough, 

 Mass.. March 21. 1808*; died in Brooklyn, N. Y., April 

 58. He was prepared at Kent's Hill Seminary. 

 Readfield, Me, and received into the New England 

 Conference ; was president of the board of trustees 

 of the Conference ; a delegate to the General Confer- 

 ence from 1844 till 1872 ; an overseer of Harvard Uni- 

 versity (the first Methodist clergyman chosen to that 

 office)", from 1852 till 1855; a trustee of Wesleyan 

 Univer-itv from 1855 till 1871 : a trustee for several 

 years of the Concordj N. H., Biblical Institute ; Man- 

 ager of the Methodist Book Concern in New York 

 city from 1856 till 1868 : and secretary of the National 

 Temperance Society from 1868 till 1882. Dr. Porter 

 was a contributer to numerous periodicals, and pub- 

 lished "Camp-Meetings considered" ^~ew \ork, 

 1849); " Chart of Lite " (1855); "The True Evan- 



Religion" (1877); 

 ters" '1879); " Christianity demonstrated by Expe- 

 rience" (18821 ; "History of Spirit Rappings;" and 

 " Common-Place Book." 



Potts, Frederick A., financier, born in Pottsville, Pa., 

 April 4. 1836 ; died in New York city, Nov. 9, 1888. 

 He was a son of George H. Potts, for many vears 

 president of the National Park Bank of New York 

 city, and one of the first shippers of coal by canal to 

 the seaboard. He became a clerk in the coal firm of 

 Louis Audenried & Co. in 1855, was admitted to 

 the firm in 1865. and formed the coal firm of F. A. 

 Potts <fc Co. in 1^70. In 1872 he was defeated as 

 Republican candidate for Congress in the Fourth Dis- 

 trict of New Jersey ; but in 1874 was elected to the 

 New Jersey State Senate. He served for several 

 years as chairman of the Republican State Commit- 

 tee, and in 1880 was defeated as candidate for Gov- 

 ernor. In 1877 he was elected a director of the Cen- 

 tral Railroad of New Jersey ; and in June, 1881, on 

 the consolidation of the New Jersey Midland and 

 other smaller lines, and the formation of the New 

 York. Susquehanna and Western Railroad Company, 

 he was elected president. He was one of the largest 

 shipper* of coal in the world. 



Pulsifer, Royal Mackintosh, publisher, bom in New- 

 t <n. Mass., June 2, 1843; died in Islington. Mas*., 

 Oct. 18, 1888. He received a common-school educa- 

 tion, and at the a^e of eighteen entered the counting- 

 room of the Boston " Herald," where at the end of 



