Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/254

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PEABODY
PECKHAM


army in November, 1864. His brigade was com- posed of the 5th, 6th, 8th, l0th, and 36th regiments of Virginia cavalry in Fitzhugh Lee's division. Gen. Payne was three times seriously wounded in battle. He is at present (1899) counsel for the Southern railroad in Washington city.

PEABODY, Charles Augustus, jurist, b. in Sandwich, N. H., 10 July, 1814. He was educated privately and at Harvard law-school, settled in New York city in 1839, and has since resided there. He was a member of the convention that organized the Republican party in his state in 1855, was chosen a justice of the supreme court in the same year, served till the end of 1857, and in 1858 became commissioner of quarantine. In 1862 he was apiiointed by President Lincoln judge of the U. S. provisional court of Louisiana, hold- ing office till 1865, " with authority to hear, try, and determine all causes, civil and criminal, including causes in law, equity, revenue, and ad- miralty, . . . his judgment to be final and con- clusive." He was also sole judge of another court of unlimited criminal jurisdiction during a part of that time. In 1863 he became chief justice of the supreme court of Louisiana, and in 1865 he was appointed U. S. attorney for the eastern dis- trict of Louisiana, but declined that post, and re- sumed practice in New York city. Judge Peabody was one of the vice-presidents of the A.ssociation for the reform and codification of the laws of nations, and ha-s very frequently attended its an- nual meetings in various cities of Europe.

PEACOCK, Thomas Brower, poet, b. in Cam- bridge, Ohio. 16 April. 1853. He was educated in Zanesville, Ohio, and for aliout ten years was asso- ciate editor of tlie Topeka (Kan.) " Democrat." He has made and patented several inventions, the most important of which is a tire-escape specially adapt- ed to large hotels. He has published "Poems" (Kansas City, 1872); " The Vendetta, and other Poems" (Topeka, 1876); "The Hhvme of the Bor- der War" (New York, 1880); and " Poems of the Plains and Songs of the Solitudes" (1888). The last volume reached a 3d edition in a year, and has been translated into German by Karl Knortz.

PEARY, Robert Edward (pe-ry), explorer, b. in Cresson, Pa., 6 May, 1856. lie was educated in various private schools in Maine, and graduated at Bowdoin, in the class of 1877. He adopted the pro- fession of a civil engineer, and on 26 Oct., 1881, en- tered the U. S. navy as a civil en- gineer. Li 1884- '5 he was appoint- ed assistant engi- neer of the survey for the Nicaragua ship canal under government or- ders, and in 1886 he made a recon- noissanee of the Greenland inland ice-cap east of Disco bav, 70° N. lat. In 1887 he became assistant

chief engineer of

the Nicaragua canal construction company, and was placed in charge of the final location of the line of the Nicaragua ship canal. Lieut. Peary was in command of the North Greenland expedi- tion of 1891-'2, the results of that important ex- pedition being the determination of the insularity of Greenland and the northern extension of the great inland ice-caj) ; the discovery of a large in- deiitatiou (Independence bay) on the east coast of Greenland, five degrees farther north than any previous authentic discoveries on that coast; the accomplishment of the longest sledge journey over the Greenland ice-cap; the survey of Inglefield gulf, on the west side of Greenland ; the discov- ery of a great number of large northern glaciers; and the first accurate ethnological record of the isolated and peculiarly interesting tribe of Whale Sound Eskimos, usually known as the "Arctic Highlanders." In July, 1893, Peary set out in the "Falcon" on a third expedition, accompanied by his wife, who was also with him during his second journey. He and liis companions returned in a relief ex|jedition in September, 1895 His exjieili- tion, apart from its general scientific import as to geography and geology, authentically established the northern limits of Greenland, discovered eleven hitherto unknown islands, and resulted in an accu- rate chart of 1.000 miles of the west coast. Lieut. Peary made still another expedition in 1896, for the purpose of bringing home a 40-ton meteorite discovered by him at Cape York. Few geograph- ical discoveries resulted from this expedition. He published "Northward" (New Y'ork, 1898), in which he tells the story of his entire arctic work. For his fifth expedition of 1898 the polar steamer " Windward " was placed at Peary's disposal by Alfred Ilarmsworth, of London. Favorable news was heard from the explorer in September, 1899, and he is hopeful of reaching the north pole in 1900. Lieut. Peary has the medals of the Royal geographical society of London, the Scottish geo- graphical society, and the American geographical society. He is the only American who has received all these very highly valued medals.

PECK, Clarissa Clark, philanthropist, b. in Marathon, Cortland co., N. Y., in 1817; d. in Chi- cago, 32 Dec, 1884. ller maiden name was Brink. She married Philander Peck in 1837 and removed to Little Rock. II!., in the same year, to White Water, Wis., in 1841, and to Chicago in 1851. Mrs. Peck was left with a large fortune, and be- queathed $65,000 to various religious and chari- table institutions, and the residue of her estate, about .f 535,000, to found the Chicago home for in- curables, which was opened in March, 1890, and has since been in successful operation, with an in- come of about $35,000 per annum.

PECK, Harry Thurston, educator, b. in Stam- ford, Conn., 34 Nov., 1856. He was graduated at Columbia in 1881. and at the University of Berlin in 1888. He was instructor in Columbia from 1883-'8, and since the latter year has been pro- fessor of Latin in the same institution. He has been editor of the "International Cyclopiedia " since 1890, of " The Bookman " since 1895. and literary editor of the New York "Commercial Ad- vertiser" since 1897. Prof. Peck is the author of "Semitic Theory of Creation" (New York. 1886); "Latin Pronunciation" (1890); "The Personal Equation" and "The Adventures of Mabel" (1897); "Trimalchio's Dinner" and "Frivola" (1898); and "What is Good English, and other Kssavs" (1899); and lie is the editor of an edition of " Suetonius " (New York, 1889) ; " Roman Life" (1806); and a " Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities" (1897).

PECKHAM, Rufus William, jurist, b. in Al- bany, N. Y.. 8 Nov., 1838. He was educated in his native city and in Philadelphia, studing law with his father, who was then in partnership with