594 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (POTTER PRICE.) 



Potter, Orlando B., capitalist, born in Charlemont, 

 Mass., March 10, 123; died in New York city, Jan. 

 2, 1S'J4. He was educated at Williams College and 

 at the Cambridge Law School, and was admitted to 

 the bar in Boston in 1848 ; but, after five years' prac- 

 tice, abandoned the profession and engaged in the 

 manufacture of sewing machines. He removed to 

 New York city in 1853, and continued in the manu- 

 facturing business till 1876, when he withdrew from 

 it to manage the large real-estate interests he had ac- 

 quired. In the early part of the civil war he found 

 that the company of which he was president, in com- 

 mon with large manufacturing concerns at the North 

 which had extensive dealings with the South, was 

 paying a very heavy rate of exchange in currency 

 for drafts upon New York at Southern money centers. 

 He attempted to provide a remedy for the unequal 

 and changeable values of the currency of the differ- 

 ent States, and on Aug. 14, 1861, he lafd before Secre- 

 tary Chase a plan for a national banking system, 

 which, with slight modifications, became the basis of 

 the present system. In 1883 he was elected to Con- 

 gress from the llth New York District as a Union 

 Democrat, and served on the Committees on Banking 

 and Currency and on Expenditures in the Treasury 

 Department. Mr. Potter was a member of the first 

 Rapid Transit Commission of New York city, a trus- 

 tee of Cornell University, and President of the State 

 Agricultural Society, lie left an estate valued at 

 $7,000,000. 



Prescott, George Bartlett, electrician, born in Kings- 

 ton, N. H., Sept. 16, 1830; died in New York city, 

 Jan. 18, 1894. He received a public-school education, 

 began studying electricity and telegraphy in 1846, and 

 was manager of various telegraph offices in Connecti- 

 cut and Massachusetts from 1847 till 1858. In 1858 

 he was appointed superintendent of the American 

 Telegraph Company in Philadelphia, subsequently 

 became superintendent of the Western Union Com- 

 pany in New York city, and in 1869 was made its 

 chief electrician. From 1873 till 1883 he was electri- 

 cian of the International Ocean Telegraph Company. 

 He was also a vice-president of the Gold and Stock 

 Company, and an incorporator of the Metropolitan 

 Telegraph and Telephone Company. Mr. Prescott 

 was interested with Thomas A. Edison in the inven- 

 tion and ownership of all the duplex and quadruplex 

 telegraph apparatus, and was the practical man who 

 successfully introduced the systems. He also made 

 many useful improvements in' both the telegraph and 

 telephone services. His publications include " The 

 History, Theory, and Practice of the Electric Tele- 

 graph" (Boston, 1860); "Electricity and the Elec- 

 tric Telegraph" (1877); "The Speaking Telephone" 

 (1878); "Dynamo Electricity" (1884)"; Bell's Elec- 

 tric-speaking Telephone : Its Invention, Construction, 

 Application, Modification, and History " (1884) ; " The 

 Klectric Telephone" (1890); and an account of his 

 discovery that the Aurora Borealis was of electrical 

 origin, and of his experiments thereon. 



Preuss, Herman Amberg, clergyman, born in Chris- 

 tianssand, Norway, June 16, 1825; died in Lee, 111., 

 July 2, 1894. In 1848 he was graduated at the theo- 

 logical department of Christiama University, Norway, 

 and in 1851 he emigrated to America, where he had 

 accepted a call from Lutheran congregations in Wis- 

 consin. For more than forty years he labored among 

 his countrymen in the same parish. He was elected 

 President of the Norwegian Synod in 1862, and held 

 this place for thirty years. For several years he 

 was also the editor of the official organ of his synod, 

 " Evangelisk Luthersk Kirketidende." 



Price, Eodman McOamley, pioneer, born in Sussex 

 County, N. J., May 5, Lsli); died in Oakland, Bergen 

 County, N. J., June 7, 1894. He entered Princeton 

 College, but was compelled by ill health to leave 

 without graduation ; subsequently studied law ; and 

 in 1840 was appointed a purser in the United States 

 navy. His first service was on the steamer " Fulton," 

 then engaged in gun practice at Sandy Hook, N. J. 

 A year afterward lie was transferred to the fri irate 



"Missouri," which was built at the Brooklyn Navy 

 Yard under the supervision of Com. Matthew C. Perry. 

 The vessel made an exhibition cruise to Europe, and 

 while coaling at Gibraltar was destroyed by fire. 

 Capt. Newton and Mr. Price were permitted by the 

 Government to visit 

 France, Spain,, and 

 Portugal. On his re- 

 turn to the United 

 States, Mr. Price was 

 ordered to the sloop 

 of war " Cyane," 

 bound for the Pacific 

 coast. While he was 

 on the voyage hostili- 

 ties broke out be- 

 tween Mexico and the 

 United States, and by 

 the time the ves- 

 sel reached Monterey 

 news was received 

 there of the battles of 

 Palo Alto and Kesaca 



de la Palma, and of the intentions of the British Gov- 

 ernment, backed by a frigate, to negotiate a grant of 

 13,500,000 acres in California. John C. Fremont, with a 

 small party of frontiersmen and Indians, had reached 

 a point near Monterey ; an American squadron, under 

 Com. Sloat, was making its way up the west coast of 

 Mexico ; and a strong English squadron had gathered 

 at Mazatlan. In this emergency, which would not 

 permit inaction till the arrival of instructions from 

 Washington, Mr. Price called on Com. Sloat and 

 urged ttie immediate occupation of the California ter- 

 ritory in the name of the United States. At 10 o'clock 

 in the following morning a force of marines and 

 sailors was landed from the "Cyane," the United 

 States flag was raised and saluted, and Mr. Price 

 read Com. Sloat's proclamation of occupation, in 

 Spanish and English, to a mixed gathering in front 

 of the customhouse. Mr. Price was at once appointed 

 <il<-<il<le, and thus was the first citizen of the United 

 States to exercise judicial functions in California. 

 Subsequently he was sent with secret dispatches to 

 Gen. Scott in Mexico city, and with a full report on 

 the military and naval operations to the President in 

 Washington. He returned to San Francisco in March, 

 1849, as naval agent for the Pacific coast, built the 

 first wharf in the harbor, was a member of the first 

 constitutional convention, and acquired considerable 

 wealth by real-estate investments. In 1850 he returned 

 to New Jersey ; in 1851-'53 was a member of Con- 

 gress; and in 1854-'57 was Governor of the State. 

 From the time of his return from California till his 

 death Gov. Price was engaged in a curious litigation 

 against the United States Government. He claimed 

 that while purser in the navy he had advanced $75,- 

 000 to his successor to enable him to meet current ex- 

 penses till necessarv Government funds arrived. The 

 Treasury officials alleged that the appointment of his 

 successor had not received official approval, and de- 

 clined either to reimburse him for the amount ad- 

 vanced or to credit him for all the Government money 

 he turned over to his successor. In 1856 the Govern- 

 ment began suit against him to recover money alleged 

 to have been withheld by him, and was defeated. 1 1 e 

 then sued the Government for the return of the $75,- 

 000 advanced from his private funds. The matter 

 drairged till 1890, when Congress passed a bill recog- 

 nizing the claim and ordering its payment. Then 

 the Treasury officials deducted $30,000 because of 

 certain disallowed vouchers, and another $30,000, the 

 amount of the bond of his successor, who absconded 

 with Government funds, because Gov. Price was one 

 of his sureties. In 1892 the United States Court of 

 Claims awarded him $45,704, and almost immediately 

 the heirs of Samuel Forrest, an associate naval officer, 

 secured an injunction restraining him from collecting 

 the money, on the ground that he had misappro- 

 priated money received from the sale of property be- 

 longing to Forrest. Subsequently Gov. Price was 



