618 



PISE, CHARLES C. 



PORTER, JOHN" A. 



the church in Boston, he became in 1845 the 

 first pastor of the Unitarian Church in Troy, 

 where he remained four years, and then ac- 

 cepted a call to the first Congregational Church 

 in Medford, Mass. When the war broke out 

 his whole soul was fired with patriotism, and, 

 although seventy-five years of age, he sought a 

 post of duty at once. Governor Andrew yielded 

 to his request, and appointed him chaplain of 

 the Twenty-second regiment. The exposure 

 of camp life and duties on the field, proved to 

 be beyond his strength, and he was soon com- 

 pelled to resign his place, much to his regret. 

 Secretary Chase then appointed him to a clerk- 

 ship in the Treasury Department, which he held 

 until his death. His clerical duties were al- 

 ways faithfully performed, and he proved a 

 valuable and efficient officer. Mr. Pierpont 

 was a thorough scholar, a graceful and facile 

 speaker, a poet of rare power and pathos, a 

 most earnest advocate of the temperance and 

 anti-slavery movements, and a man whose con- 

 victions, purposes, and impulses, were all upon 

 the side of truth and progress. His strong de- 

 sire for securing advancement and reform may 

 have led him sometimes into injudicious steps, 

 and diminished his influence for the causes he 

 sought to advance, but the heart was always 

 right, and temperance, freedom, and Chris- 

 tianity, had no firmer and more consistent 

 friend or advocate. He leaves an enviable rep- 

 utation as a poet, and his pathetic "Passing 

 Away," will live as long as our language is 

 spoken or written. In 1840 he published an 

 edition of his poetical works under the title of 

 "Airs of Palestine, and other Poems." 



PISE, CHARLES CONSTANTIXE, D. D., a Roman 

 Catholic clergyman and author, born in Anap- 

 olis, Md., in 1802 ; died in Brooklyn, May 26, 

 1866. His father was an Italian, and his mother 

 a native of Philadelphia. He graduated at 

 Georgetown College, and from thence went to 

 Rome for the completion of his studies. Upon 

 the death of his father two years after, he re- 

 turned home, and entered the seminary of 

 Mount St. Mary's, Emmettsburg, Md., where he 

 taught rhetoric and poetry. In 1825, he was 

 ordained priest, and began his labors in Fred- 

 eric, and soon after was called to the cathedral 

 in Baltimore. Among his other duties here, he 

 devoted some time to literary pursuits, and find- 

 ing his health failing, again visited Rome, where 

 he received the degree of LL. D., and the hon- 

 orary title of Knight of the Roman Empire. 

 Upon his return to the United States, he became 

 an associate pastor of St. Patrick's Cathedral 

 in Washington, D. 0., where he was the inti- 

 mate friend of Henry Clay, and through his 

 influence was chosen a chaplain in Congress. 

 Subsequently he removed to New York city, 

 and was settled over several chnrches succes- 

 sively. In 1849, he established the church of 

 St. Charles Borromeo in Brooklyn, of which 

 he was pastor at his death. Dr. Pise was a 

 man of fine literary attainments and held a 

 high rank among the Catholic clergy. Among 



his works may be mentioned "The Acts of 

 the Apostles," ' ; Aletheia, or Letters on the 

 Truth of the Catholic Doctrines," "Christianity 

 in the Church," ' Lives of St. Ignatius and hia 

 first companion^," "Notes on a Protestant Cat- 

 echism," "Father Rowland," and his irreatest 

 work, a " History of the Roman Catholic Church 

 from its Establishment to the Reformation.' 11 

 Besides these he published a large number of 

 religions poems. 



PORTER, JOHN ADDISON, adjunct professor 

 of chemistry in Yale College, born at Catskill, 

 N. Y., March 15, 1822 ; died at New Haven, 

 Conn., August 25, 1866. His parents were 

 both distinguished for fine intellectual qualities 

 and high culture. Receiving from" them a lib- 

 eral education at Catskill, New York, and Phil- 

 adelphia, he graduated at Yale Col'ego with 

 distinction in 1 842. His tastes led him to lit- 

 erary pursuits, and he soon obtained an eligible 

 position, first as tutor, and afterward as profes- 

 sor of rhetoric in Delaware College, near to the 

 residence of his parents at Philadelphia. He 

 remained in this situation, it is believed, till 

 about the year 1847. Soon after this both his 

 parents died. Mr. Porter, with a view of en- 

 larging the sphere of his studies and preparing 

 himself for more extensive usefulness, went 

 abroad, and connected himself with the Univer- 

 sity of Giessen, in Germany, where he remained 

 several years, enjoying the benefit of the in- 

 struction of the celebrated Liebig in agricul- 

 tural chemistry. Returning to this country, he 

 soon afterward, in 1850, was appointed to the 

 professorship of chemistry as applied to the 

 arts in Brown University, Rhode Island, which 

 position he filled with credit and usefulness, 

 and from which, upon the death of Prof. John 

 P. Norton, he was transferred to a nearly sim- 

 ilar professorship that of agricultural chem- 

 istry in Yale College, in 1852. This position 

 he continued to occupy, and to discharge, its 

 duties with ability and acceptance, for about 

 eleven years, until in 1864 the increasing in- 

 firmities consequent upon a settled state of ill 

 health, admonished him of the necessity and 

 duty of resigning his professorship, which he 

 did in the year last named. He soon after went 

 abroad, in the hope of reinstating his shattered 

 health, and with a view of consulting the emi- 

 nent surgeons of Paris and the Continent. 

 They afforded him temporary relief, but his 

 disease was too deeply seated for radical cure. 

 Satisfied of this fact, he returned home in 1865, 

 and applied himself to the task of making his 

 condition as comfortable as circumstances would 

 admit. From this time he became gradually, 

 but perceptibly worse, and was the victim of 

 intense suffering, endured with manly fortitude 

 and Christian resignation until his death. He 

 was particularly interestt-d in the Sheffield Sci- 

 entific School, and to him that institution owes 

 much of its success and present prosperity. 

 Upon the breaking out of the war his en- 

 thusiastic temperament and elevated patriot- 

 ism would not allow him to be * ; lent. He 



