566 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (PETTIS POLLARD.) 



he wrote numerous letters to London and Paris news- 

 papers in opposition to the political interests of 

 Alfonso; and when Alfonso became. King, Dec. 29, 

 1874, Mr. Perkins was promptly banished from Spain 

 by royal command. His wife removed to Madrid, 

 while 'lie went to Paris, and after awhile she suc- 

 ceeded in inducing her cousin, the King, to allow her 

 husband to re-enter Spain, but he was there sub- 

 jected to such general annoyance that he returned 

 to the United States, where for three years he was 

 Professor of Languages in Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity. Two children were born of his marriage, 

 both sons, one of whom is now studying law at 

 Madrid, and the other is in the Koyal Military School 

 there. 



Pettis, George William, journalist, born in Provi- 

 dence, K. I., about 1822 ; died in Brookline, Mass., 

 March 18, 1892. He was a graduate of Brown Uni- 

 versity, and for many years was insurance editor and 

 stock-market reporter on the Boston " Advertiser." 

 He was probably best known as an expert whist 

 player, and as an authority on the rules and intrica- 

 cies of the game. The last few years of his life were 

 devoted almost exclusively to writing on matters per- 

 taining to whist. At the Whist Congress held in 

 Milwaukee in April, 1891, he was regarded as one of 

 the three authorities of the world, the others being 

 Nicholas B. Trist, of New Orleans, and Henry Jones, 

 of London. These players were all agreed on the 

 principles on which a system of play should be 

 based. Mr. Pettis was author of " Wliist Universal," 

 "American Whist illustrated," and "Whist in Dia- 

 grams." 



Pierrepont, Edwards, diplomat, born in North Haven, 

 Conn., march 4, 1817 ; died in New York city, 

 March 6, 1892. He was graduated at Yale in the same 

 class with William M. Evarts and Morrison E. Wa_ite, 

 in 1837, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He im- 

 mediately went to Columbus, Ohio, where he formed 

 a partnership with P. B. Wilcox, then Ohio State re- 

 porter, and rose rapidly in his profession. In 1846 he 

 removed to New York city, where he resided till his 

 death. He entered political life with the Democratic 

 party, but declined all offers of public office till 1857, 

 when he gave up a lucrative practice and accepted 

 election to the office of judge of the Superior Court 

 of New York, to fill a 

 vacancy. He resigned 

 this office in 1860. At 

 the outbreak of the 

 civil war, although an 

 opponent of Mr. Lin- 

 coln in the presiden- 

 tial campaign, he be- 

 came a stanch Unionist, 

 and declared in favor 

 of coercive measures 

 toward the States in 

 rebellion. On the or- 

 ganization of the Union 

 Defense Committee he 

 promptly accepted a 

 place on it, and person- 

 ally assisted in equip- 

 . ping several of the first 



regiments that left New York city for the field. In 

 1862 he and Gen. John A. Dix were appointed by 

 President Lincoln to conduct the trials of the pris- 

 oners of state, then confined in various forts and 

 prisons. In 1864 he was conspicuous in organizing 

 the war Democrats and in urging the re-election of 

 President Lincoln ; and after the assassination of the 

 President he was appointed the prosecutor of John H. 

 Surratt, one of the conspirators. He was a member 

 of the convention for forming the new Constitution of 

 the State of New York, and was one of its judiciary 

 committee in 1867 ; was active in the support of Gen. 

 Grant for President in 1868; was appointed United 

 States attorney for the Southern District of New 

 York in 1869 ; and was a member of the famous Com- 

 mittee of Seventy which fought the Tweed ring in 



3. Three years afterward he was appointed United 

 ;es minister to Kussia, but declined the office. In 



1870. 

 States 



April, 1875, he was appointed Attorney-General of the 

 United States, and in 1876 he resigned to become 

 United States minister to England. He retired from 

 this mission and resumed law practice in 1878, and 

 was retained by the United States Government as 

 special counsel in several important actions. Judge 

 Pierrepont was a founder and for many years a gov- 

 ernor of the Manhattan Club, but withdrew from it at 

 the beginning of the civil war. 



Pike, Maria Louisa, naturalist, born in England ; 

 died in Brooklyn, N. Y., March 23, 1892. She was u 

 daughter of Benjamin Hadley ; accompanied him as 

 British commissioner to South Africa, where she was 

 his official secretary for several years, and employed 

 her leisure in studying, sketching, and painting the 

 flora of that region. In 1870 she went to the island 

 of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, and there became 

 acquainted with Nicholas Pike, United States consul, 

 who was studying the scientific features of the island 

 and making collections of natural -history specimens, 

 especially of the fish of the Indian Ocean, for Prof. 

 Agassiz's museum at Cambridge, Mass. Miss Iladley 

 assisted Mr. Pike in classifying more than 800 differ- 

 ent species, and made colored drawings of them rep- 

 resenting the peculiar hues of the fish of that locality. 

 About 1875 she came to the United States and was 

 married to Mr. Pike j and since then she had written 

 voluminously on various subjects in science and nat- 

 ural history for the "Scientific American," "Amer- 

 ican Agriculturist," " American Garden," and other 

 publications. Among her most notable works, be- 

 sides her drawings and descriptions of the Indian 

 Ocean fish, were colored illustrations of a very com- 

 plete collection of spiders which her husband had 

 made, and pen-and-ink drawings of nearly every 

 snake found in the United States. She was a mem- 

 ber of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 

 and, while an enthusiastic student in many depart- 

 ments of science, in the last few years she took spe- 

 cial interest in the department of botany. 



Pitcher, John, jurist, t>orn in Watertown, Conn., Aug. 

 22, 1794; died in Mount Vernon, Ind., Aug. 2, 1892. 

 He was brought up in his native State and admitted 

 to the bar in 1815; went West in the following year 

 and settled in St. Louis, after walking nearly the en- 

 tire distance ; and removed to Indiana in 1820. In 

 1835 he went to Posey County, where he practiced 

 for more than forty years. He had represented 

 Spencer and Perry Counties in the Legislature, and 

 was also for many years judge of the Court of Com- 

 mon Pleas in Gibson, Posey, Vanderburg, and War- 

 rick Counties. One of his sons was Gen. Thomas 

 Pitcher, of Washington, D. C. 



Polk, Leonidas Li, agriculturist, born in Anson Coun- 

 ty, N. C., in 1837 ; died in Washington, D. C., June 

 11, 1892. He was brought up on a farm, and con- 

 tinued in association with agricultural life till his 

 death. When twenty-two years old he was elected 

 to the State Legislature. During the civil war he 

 served in the Confederate army, and after the war he 

 was for several years Commissioner of Agriculture in 

 North Carolina. In 1886 he began publishing " The 

 Progressive Farmer," and he was one of the first 

 practical farmers to engage in organizing farmers' 

 clubs for political purposes. In the following year, 

 when he joined the Farmers' Alliance, he had organ- 

 ized nearly 500 clubs in his State. He was soon 

 afterward elected State secretary o_f the Alliance, and 

 was twice re-elected. In the National Alliance Con- 

 vention of the same year he was unanimously elected 

 vice-president of the organization- in 1890 and 1891 

 he was elected its president, and he held the office 

 till his death. He, with other members of reform or- 

 ganizations, formed the Confederation of Industrial 

 Organizations, which met in conference at St. Louis, 

 Mo., in February, 1892, and formally launched the 

 national People's party. 



Pollard, Josephine, author, born in New York city 

 about 1842; died there, Aug. 15, -1892. She engaged 



