USA > Washington DC > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 26
USA > Virginia > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 26
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neer, thus separating the functions
Mr. Pelz is a large, well built man, of completely, which are in most cases com- erect carriage, five feet ten and a half bined under one head. The building is inches high; he weighs about 210 pounds; at present (January, 1892) well enough
his blonde hair is turning gray and he advanced, to show that the favorable prog- wears a mustache. Being near-sighted, nostications will in most respects be ful- he uses eye-glasses. The chief char-
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acteristic in his manner is a dignified | he was appointed by President Harrison bonhommie. He has many friends in the a member of the Rock Creek Park district and there seems to be but one commission, and is still engaged in the voice as to his merits as a professional performance of his duties as such com- missioner. man; in fact, his reputation is not merely local, but extends all over the United States in professional circles, and bids fair DANIEL WEBSTER PRENTISS, M. D., to go beyond, if his library building should prove a success.
RICHARD ROSS PERRY
is a member of the bar of the supreme court of the United States and also of the bar of the supreme court of the Dis- trict of Columbia. He was born in the city of Washington in February, 1846, and came of a family who were among the first settlers in Montgomery county, Md. Mr. Perry was graduated at Georgetown college in 1864, and pursued there further studies for the degree of master of arts in course, which was con- ferred upon him in 1865. The next year was passed by him abroad, principally in study at the university of Paris of the principles of the civil law; he traveled in England, France, Switzerland and Italy. Upon his return to this country he began the study of the common law under the tuition of the late Richard T. Merrick, whose untimely death cut short a brilliant and useful career. Mr. Perry was ad- mitted to the bar of the supreme court of this district in May, 1868, and in 1876, upon the motion of the late Conway Robinson, he was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the United States. During the years 1879 and 1880 Mr. Perry was charged with the prosecution of all offenses against the laws of the United States within this district, but both before and since that time he has devoted his entire attention to civil business. In 1890 United States national museum; Eunice,
was born in Washington, District of Columbia, May 21, 1843. His father, William Henry Prentiss, was born in Washington in 1796. The father of Will- iam Henry Prentiss was William Prentiss, a son of Caleb Prentiss, of Cambridge, Mass. William Prentiss was a merchant, and was associated with Joseph Green- leaf in building a row of brick houses on Greenleaf's Point about the year 1793, in one of which houses William Henry Pren- tiss was born. William Henry Prentiss married Miss Sarah A. Cooper. daughter of Isaac Cooper, a merchant of Washing- ton. Dr. D. W. Prentiss' grandmother on the father's side was Eunice Payne (Greenleaf) Prentiss, a niece of Robert Treat Payne, and a cousin of John How- ard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home," so that William Henry Prentiss was grand-nephew to Robert Treat Payne, and second cousin to John How- ard Payne. The general education of Dr. Prentiss was obtained in the schools of Washington and at Columbian univer- sity, from which institution he received, in 1861, the degree of bachelor of philoso- phy, and the degree of master of arts in 1864. He received the degree of doctor of medicine from the university of Penn- sylvania in 1864. He was married to Emilie A. Schmidt, daughter of Freder- ick Schmidt, of Rhenish Bavaria, Octo- ber 12, 1864. Their children are: Louise, married to Frederick W. True, of the
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R. Ross Pery
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who died at the age of seventeen, and a popular course at the National museum, three sons -Spencer Baird, Daniel Web- appeared in the American Naturalist, ster, Jr., and Elliott. From 1861 to 1864 September, 1882. By invitation of Spen- cer F. Baird he delivered a course of lectures on materia medica at the National museum in 1883. Some of the leading papers which Dr. Prentiss has contributed to medical literature are the following: he was medical assistant at the quarter- master's hospital, District of Columbia; and during 1864 and 1865 was acting as- sistant surgeon, U. S. A., in United States hospitals in and around Washington. In 1864 he became engaged in the general practice of medicine in Washington, and " Report on Disinfectants to the Board of Health of the District of Columbia," in 1867, in the Journal of American Medi- cal Science; "G. S. W. through the Pel- vis," October, 1865; "Case of Morphine Poisoning," 1867; " Diphtheria and Trach- eotomy," " Membranous Croup and Oper- ations for Radical Cure of Hernia," 1868; "Case of Inflammation of Fibrous Capsule of Eyeball," 1868; "Case of Spurious Labor Pains at Fifth Month;" "Convul- sions after Profuse Hemorrhage from Abortion at the Sixth Week;" "Obstruc- tion of Bowels in an Infant, with Au- topsy," 1870; " Hysterical Tetanus," 1879; "Case of Mastoid Abscess Opening into Lateral Sinus, and Death from Pyæmia," 1882; "Is Croupous Pneumonia a Zymotic Disease?" "Chorea in Pregnancy, and Abscess of the Liver," 1874; "Case of Double Hydronephrosis, with Specimen, and Remarkable Case of Hysteria with Paralysis and Aphasia," 1883; "Cases of Poisoning by Atropia, by Opium, and by Quinine," 1890; "On Revision of Phar- macopia in 1880;" " Death from Diph- theretic Paralysis;" "Remarkable Change in the Color of the Hair from Light Blonde to Almost Black in a Patient While Under Treatment by Hypodermic Injections of Pilocarpine;" "Case of Pro- longed Aneuria," 1881; “Membran- ous Croup Treated with Pilocarpine;" "Change in the Color of the Hair," 1881; has since then continuously held a prom- inent position in the profession. Since 1879 he has been professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the medical department of Columbian university. He was a member of the board of health in 1864; lecturer on dietetics and adminis- tration of medicines in the training school for nurses, and dean of the medical fac- ulty of the training school in 1880-84, and president of the board in 1884; physician in charge of the eye and ear service of Columbian dispensary, 1874-78; visiting physician to Providence hospital in 1882, and a commissioner of pharmacy of the District of Columbia since the organi- zation of the board, and its president since 1888. Dr. Prentiss is a member of the Medical society. Medical association, Ob- stetrical and Gynecological society, Clinico-Pathological society, the Philo- sophical, the Biological, Geographical and Anthropological societies of the District of Columbia; is a member of the American Medical association, the American asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science, the association of American Physicians, and was a delegate to the international medical congress at Copenhagen in 1884, and to Berlin in 1890, and was president of the Medical society, District of Columbia, in 1891. He has delivered numerous lec- tures under various auspices in his native city. "Hypnotism in Animals," given in "Overdose of Podophyllin," 1882;" Mater
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nal Impressions - Effect on Fœtus," 1882; until, at twenty-two years of age, he en- " Answer to a Protest Against the Use of tered Lima seminary, to prepare for col- the Metric System in Prescribing," 1883; lege, with the purpose of studying for the "Croupous Pneumonia;" report of eleven ministry. During that summer, financial cases occurring in private practice from February to June, 1878, read before the Medical society of the District of Colum- bia; a "Report of the Pharmacopoeia Convention of 1880," as a delegate from the National Medical college, 1880; a " Review of the Sixth Decennial Revision of the Pharmacopoeia of 1880;" "Avi- Fauna Columbiana," being a list of the birds of the District of Columbia, revised and re-written by Dr. Elliott Cones and Dr. D. W. Prentiss, 1883; "Gall Stones or Soap," 1889; a " Report of Five Hun- dred Consecutive Cases of Labor in Private Practice," 1888; "Case of Change of Color of Hair of Old Age to Black, Produced by Jaborandi," 1889; "Three Cases of Poisoning by Japanese Lacquer, by Pellets Labeled ' Rhus,' and by Cashew Nuts," 1889; " Report of a Remark- able Case of Slow Pulse," 1889; "Puer- pura Hemorrhage Rheumatica," 1890; "Apoplexy following La Grippe," in the Philadelphia Medical News, August 29, 1891.
O. F. PRESBREY.
Dr. Otis Fletcher Presbrey was born in the town of York, Livingston Co., N. Y., December 3, 1820. His parents removed from the state of Massachusetts in the year 1819, and he was left a motherless boy in 1822. His youth up to his majority was spent on a farm and his educational advantages were the usual three months
embarrassments overtook the father, which unlooked for event, together with the responsibility imposed, entirely changed the plans and purposes hereto- fore made. Several years were then de- voted to teaching, in which profession he took high rank. In the meantime he en- gaged in the study of medicine, and graduated at Berkshire Medical college, in December, 1846. February 3d, 1847, he was married in Clarkson, N. Y., to Sarah A. Johnson. He at once began the practice of medicine in the same town where he had been both pupil and teacher. After two years of successful practice, he took a post-graduate course at the medical college in Buffalo, N. Y., and in the fall of 1850 removed to that city for the purpose of devoting his life to the practice of his profession. In 1853 he purchased a block of five acres of land, which was a part of a farm lying outside of, but adjacent to, the city. This and other lands he purchased and plat- ted. About this time the firm of "Crit- tenden & Presbrey" was organized, and during the next six years nearly 100 acres of what is now the residence and business portion of the city of Buffalo was bought by this firm, platted and sold to actual residents.
In the year 1852, Dr. Presbrey was prominent in establishing, and was vice president of, the Y. M. C. A., in Buffalo, which, as a matter of history, was the winter school. In 1839 he attended for a third organized in the world. In 1854 he short time, a select school, where he had, was elected chairman of the International as a fellow-pupil, the late president, Ches- bridge committee at Buffalo, and for three years devoted his time to its inter- ter A. Arthur. At nineteen he began teaching, which he followed each winter ests in Albany, Toronto and Canada, dur-
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ing which period he secured the charters the District of Columbia, a position which from the state of New York and Canada he filled with such entire satisfaction to for bridging the Niagara river. He was the department that President Grant per- sonally asked him to accept the same appointment for the state of New York, with headquarters at New York city. This he declined, and in August, 1872, after ten years of service under the gov- ernment, he became a prominent resident of Washington city, and showed his faith in its future by investing largely in real estate. The Presbrey subdivision in "Widow's Mite," although at the time thought by many shrewd business men to be too far from the business center of the city, is now acknowledged to be the very best residence portion of the city. This subdivision has been a potent factor in the transformation of the entire outlying surroundings of the nation's capital. a director in both the New York and Can- ada bridge companies. He was also a director and stockholder, and promotor of the scheme for building the railroad known as the Niagara and Detroit rivers road, which was merged finally into the Canadian Southern railway. In 1858 he organized the Niagara street railroad company, was a stockholder and secre- tary, and prominent in its construction. This was then the only street railroad in the city of Buffalo. August 28th, 1862, he was appointed, by Abraham Lincoln, as assessor of the internal revenue for the 30th district, including the city of Buffalo. After holding this office for four years, he was removed, for political reasons, by Andrew Johnson. He was so In February, 1874, Dr. Presbrey was elected a member of the board of trus- tees of Howard's university, and has been an active member of this board up to the present time. He has been a mem. ber of the executive committee for fifteen years, and has been greatly interested in the institution from its inception. efficient in the management of his dis- trict as assessor that he was commissioned as special agent of the treasury depart- ment, and was sent to various parts of the country, becoming one of the most ex- pert agents of the treasury department in the detection of frauds upon the reve- nue. For three years he was on special Dr. Presbrey united with the Presby- terian church when sixteen years of age, and has been actively engaged in christian work ever since. He was for seventeen years trustee of the Lafayette street church of Buffalo, and has ever been ac- tive in Sabbath school work. He was prominent in the Chautauqua movement, duty under the department, during which time he traveled and visited nearly every collection district in the country. His experience was of such value in the ex- amination of collectors' accounts and in the trial of cases in the United States courts, for the violations of the internal revenue law, that he was admitted in the attended its first meeting, and was instru- U. S. circuit court, and district courts of Illinois, the northern and southern dis- tricts of New York, and in other sections of the country.
In March, 1869, he was appointed, by President Grant, supervisor of internal revenue for Virginia, West Virginia and
mental in bringing about the action which has made a permanent meeting place of this great summer convocation at Chau- tauqua, N. Y. Later he was for several years the first president of the Chautau- qua alumni. In 1871 he and his wife united with the first Congregational
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church of this city, and he has been prom- inently interested as a member and officer in all its activities.
In 1877 he was elected president of the Public Opinion company, which had been organized the previous year by his son, Frank S. Presbrey. For the last five years he has devoted all his time and tal- ents in aiding to establish the reputation of this journal, which is now well and få- vorably known in the most intelligent circles of the entire country.
JOHN ALBERT PRESCOTT,
an extensive real estate dealer in Wash- ington, D. C., is a descendant of an old New Hampshire family, and was born in Pittsfield, that state, May 24, 1839. He was educated at Concord, N. H., and in 1855 entered a drug store in Lawrence, Mass., as a clerk, but about a year later returned to Concord and clerked in the drug store of Hon. E. H. Rollins until 1862, when he was taken to Washington by Mr. Rollins, who had been elected to congress. From March 14, 1862, until June 19, 1862, Mr. Prescott was a clerk in the dead letter office and was then trans- ferred to the second comptroller's in the treasury department, where he remained JEREMIAH EAMES RANKIN, D.D., LL. D., until April 27, 1881, when he resigned and president of Howard university, of Wash- ington, D. C., was born in Thornton, Grafton county, N. H., January 2, 1828. His father, Rev. Andrew Rankin, widely known in that state for his early advocacy of total abstinence and other christian effort, was of Scotch descent, the family having settled in Littletown, N. H. His mother, Lois Eames, was the daughter of Jeremiah Eames, Esq., of Stewartstown. She was of English descent, and a woman of rare christian excellence. The early went into the real estate business, which he has continued in ever since, being now looked upon as one of the shrewdest and most far-seeing dealers engaged in that traffic. Since 1872, Mr. Prescott has been much interested in building and loan as- sociations, as secretary, and treasurer and secretary of six companies. He was pres- ident of one company of this class, and is now president of the Beltsville Land and Improvement company and treasurer of the Berwyn Improvement company, and childhood of Dr. Rankin was spent in has altogether led a very busy life. He Salisbury, N. H., South Berwick, Maine,
was married, January 19, 1862, to Georgia W. Goodrich, daughter of George K. Goodrich, of Hopkinton, N. H., four chil- dren being the result of this union, and of these there are three that still survive, viz .: Charles Chase, Frederica Alice and Edward Rollins. The father of John Albert Prescott was born in Northfield, N. H., in 1795, and was named Jonathan Chase Prescott. He was a graduate of medicine from Dartmouth college, and practiced principally in Concord and vi- cir.ity until his death in 1844. He was married, in 1825, to Mary Hoyt Hodgdon, da ghter of Charles and Betsy (Adams) Hodgdon, the latter being a descendant of John Adams, the patriot, statesman, and president of the United States. Of the six children born to them three grew to maturity, as follows: Charles; Hodgdon, who died in 1854, and William Henry of Washington, who married Elizabeth Sy- monds. The mother of this family was called away in 1886. William Prescott, the grandfather of John Albert, was born in Northfield, N. H., was a captain in the state militia and a farmer by vocation, and son of William, Sr.
Yours truly, JeRan Kin
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and Concord, N. H. He early evinced a clined, though in December, 1854, he was fondness for books, and at nine years of age began the study of Latin under
ordained as an evangelist, at Stockholm, N. Y., by the St. Lawrence association, at Stephen Chase, LL. D., afterward pro- the same time with Fayette Pettibone, fessor of mathematics at Dartmouth
under appointment of the American board college. His successive teachers were J. of commissioners for foreign missions for D. Berry, D. D., at South Berwick, Maine, Turkey. After five years' labor in Pots- William Cowper Foster, A. M., Concord, dam, he was called to the First Congrega- N. H., and Lafayette Ranney, M. D., tional church at St. Albans, Vermont, Chester, Vermont. He entered Middle- bury college at sixteen and graduated with honor from that institution. Two years later, having spent the first year teaching the languages in the Bartlett grammar school, New London, Connecti- cut, and the second as private teacher in Warren county, Kentucky, he was invited to the tutor's chair in his alma mater. At the end of one year's tutorship, he deliv- ered the master's oration, and that autumn went to Andover Theological seminary. At the time he was a regular contributor to several religious periodicals, and had published articles in Simmons' National Magazine and one article of unusual brilliance, entitled "Byron and Shake- spear," in the Parlor Magazine. During his seminary course, he taught one term at Sanbornton Square, N. H., where he was actively engaged in promoting a revival of religion in his school and in the Congregational church. Upon
where he was installed as pastor on June 24, 1857. There the longest revival ever known in the history of that church took place under his ministry. After five years' service at St. Albans he was called to Appleton street church, in Lowell, Mass., where his people were devotedly attached to him and his ministry was very successful. After a pastorate of two years in Lowell, he received two almost simul- taneous calls from the First church at Lynn and the Winthrop church in Charlestown, now Boston, Mass. The latter he accepted and had for five years a large congregation and a prosperous ministry. During his pastorate in Charles- town he was one of the editors of the Congregational Review. In 1869 the de- gree of D. D. was conferred upon him by his alma mater. In October of the same year he received a unanimous call to the First Congregational church of Washing- ton, D. C., and was installed on March 20, graduating at Andover, in 1854, he had 1870, though he began his labors the Au- the first literary honors of the societies and gust previous, the Rev. R. S. Storrs, D. D., third honor of his class. He was invited LL. D., preaching the installation sermon to remain as resident licentiate, which he and the Rev. Dr. J. P. Thompson, D. D., declined. The same year he delivered LL. D., preaching the sermon of dedica- the poem before the associated alumni of tion. The church at that time had about his alma mater. He declined a call from 130 members, the church having been the Congregational church in East Wilton, organized, the previous May, with 103 N. H., and began his ministerial labors at members and the pastor. In the church Potsdam, N. Y., with the Presbyterian there had been serious differences as to church, being twice invited to become the wisdom of receiving colored people their pastor. This pastoral call he de- to the communion upon an equality with
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the whites, and one-half withdrew with | dialect, and caught the true spirit -the their pastor and joined a Presbyterian church; those who remained as members of Dr. Rankin's church, with Gen. O. O. Howard at their head, maintained that no distinction should be made on account of race or color. During the fifteen years of Dr. Rankin's ministry of this church the membership increased to 760; the debt of $70,000 was reduced to less than $10,000, and an organ worth $15,000 was purchased.
On Thanksgiving and other public days Mr. Rankin often preached on public topics, two of his sermons, one on "The Bible, the Security of American Institu- tions," and the other, "The Divinity of the Ballot," have been largely distributed over the country. For many years he was a special contributor to the Independ- ent, the Congregationalist and the Advance. He also published literary articles in Sab- bath at Home and Dr. Deems' Sunday Magazine, and was a frequent contributor to several of these periodicals. He has printed many sermons, especially on pub- lic affairs, several translations from Adolph Monod, and one original treatise, published by the American Tract society. He also edited a gospel temperance hymnal for the especial use of Francis Murphy, the great temperance advocate, many of the hymns and melodies being original. He has also published a volume of Scottish poems entitled the "Auld Scotch Mither and Other Poems, in the Dialect of Burns," which was spoken of in the highest terms of praise by George MacDonald, LL. D., of London, P. Hately Waddell, LL. D., of Glasgow, Dr. Ray Palmer, and other distinguished men, who expressed their surprise at one born two removes from Scotland should have written with such ease in the Scotch |poet." Dr. Rankin was married, Novem-
naiveté and pathos-of the Northern Muse. Dr. Rankin, indeed, has given much attentionto Scotch literature. A poetical tribute to the poet Burns is em- braced in the last edition of Bryant's "Library of Poetry and Song." This was delivered at a Burns festival in Washing- ton. The doctor's style of preaching is simple and direct with very little orna- ment, and this of the briefest and most pertinent kind. His funeral oration in the senate chamber, on the death of vice-President Wilson, was pronounced by the Boston Herald as one of the most complete discourses of the kind ever de- livered, and Senator Sumner's private secretary said the comparison drawn be- tween the two statesmen was remarkable for its aptness and accuracy. Dr. Rankin was open in his hostility to slavery and always acted consistently and with decis- ion. A Washington paper, The Capital, a conservative and democratic sheet, thus speaks of his lecture on Burns: "Dr. Rankin maintained his high reputation as an elegant writer in his sympathetic and appreciative discourse on the plow-boy poet, Burns. All the phases of Burns' wonderful career, his genius and even his failures, were sketched with grace and with the strong hand of a master. Mr. Rankin is himself a poet; a poet-preacher with the liveliest interest in the advance- ment of the whole human race. His lecture on Robert Burns abundantly proved this, had demonstration been a necessity." Of the same lecture Freder- ick Douglass said: "Dr. Rankin's lecture on Robert Burns was eminently just, keenly discriminating, eloquent and masterly, and altogether the best lecture I have ever heard upon this, my favorite
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ber 28, 1854, to Mary Howell Birge, enlargement of Howard university, the daughter of Cyrus Birge, Esq., and Ada- students in two years having gone up from line Frink, formerly of Middleburg, Ver- 340 to 560. mont. Their eldest son, E. B. Rankin, M. D., graduated in medicine at Colum- ROBERT REYBURN, M. D. bia Medical college, District of Columbia, and is a physician of considerable note in the school of homeopathy. The second son, Walter N., died in 1877 at the age of nineteen. He was a member of Princeton college, a generous and gifted boy, who exhibited rare talent as a musical com- poser and was also gifted with the pencil. The third child, Mary Farnham, grad- uated with first honors at the Mt. Vernon Female seminary, Washington, D. C., and on November 11, 1878, was married to Harvey D. Gowlder, Esq., a lawyer of Cleveland, Ohio. The fourth, Andrew Wyman, died an infant in Lowell, Mass. The fifth child is Edith Hadcomb.
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