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 1 855, 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. Jmcr. Acad. Arts and Sci., new series, vol. 8, 1881, pp. 443-454.) 



JOHN RODGERS 

 Born, August 8, 1812; died, May 5, i88'i 



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, 18 12. 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 Petrel, 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 



