Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/280

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PENDLETON


PENDLETON


1863, and iu the Marylaiid eainpiiign in Jackson's command. At Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 18G2, he was praised for the steadiness of his brigade. He opened the battle at Cliancellors- ville. May 3, 1803, and, although wounded, com- manded the division until relieved by Gen. R. E. Colston. He was promoted major-general, May 27, 1863, and his division, composed of the brig- ades of Generals Scales, Lane, Thomas and McGowan in A. P. Hills 3d army corps, was conspicuous at Gettysburg when he drove the Federals from the woods on Seminary Ridge, July 2, 1863, and was wounded by a fragment of shell. It was found necessary to amputate his leg and he did not survive tlie operation. He died at Staunton, Va.. July 18, 1863.

PENDLETON, Edmund, jurist, was born in Caroline county, Va., Sept. 9, 1731 ; son of Henry Pendleton, and grandson of Philip and Isabella (Hurt) Pendleton. Piiilip Pendleton emigrated from Norwich, England, in 1674, settled iu Vir- ginia and was buried in King and Queen countj'. Edmund Pendleton received no school training, but early in life became assistant to the clerk of Caroline county, under whom he had an oppor- tunity to read law. He was licensed to practise law in 1744, became justice of the peace in 1751, and was a member of the Virginia house of bur- gesses, 1753-74. He declared tiie stamp act un- constitutional, and that it did not bind the in- habitants of Virginia ; was a member of the committee of correspondence in 1773, a member of the colonial convention of 1774, called by reason of the Boston port-bill, and of which he was elected president. He was chosen by that body a delegate to the 1st continental congress, serving from Sept. 5. 1774, to Oct. 26, 1774, and accompanied George Washington, Peyton Ran- dolph, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison and Patrick Henry to Philadelphia in September, 1774. As president of the Virginia convention of 1774, he was the governor of the embryo colony until the state constitution was framed and adopted in May, 1776, when he again served as president and was also appointed president of the committee of safety. He drew up the instruc- tions of tiie Virginia convention to the delegates in congress, proposing a declaration of independ- ence, in wiiich document he expressed the sen- timents of Virginia in the words used almost verbatim in the declaration itself as written by Jefferson. He belonged to the planter class, and his position as head of the committee of safety gave him the control of the militia and of the foreign correspondence of Virginia. Wlien the state government was organized under the con- stitution he was elected speaker of the house of burgesses, and with George Wythe and Thomas Jefferson revised the colonial laws. He was re-


elected speaker in 1777, and upon the organiza- tion of the court of cliancery was made its presi- dent by a unanimous vote, and was transferred to the head of tiie court of appeals on its forma- tion in 1779, holding tlie office up to the time of his death. He was president of the state conven- tion that ratified the Federal constitution and was its most eloquent advocate before the conven- tion. In 1789 President Washington appointed him judge of the U.S. district court of Virginia, but he declined the office. He wrote a protest against waging war against France in 1789, claim- ing that government to be a " sister republic." He died in Richmond. Va.. Oct. 23, 1803.

PENDLETON, George Hunt, senator, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 25, 1825 ; son of Na- thaniel Greene (q.v.) and (Hunt) Pen- dleton. He attended the University of Heidel- berg, and was admitted to the bar at Cincinnati, Ohio. He was married in 1846 to Alice, daugh- ter of Francis Scott and Mary Tayloe (Lloyd) Key. He was .state senator, 1854-56, and a Demo- cratic representative in the 35th-38th congresses, 1856-65. He was one of the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination for President in 1860, and was nominated for Vice-President on the ticket with George B. McClellan for Presi- dent in 1864. He was a member of the Philadel- phia Loyalist convention in 1866, and was de- feated in the election for governor of the state of Ohio by Rutherford B. Hayes in 18G9. He was chosen president of the Kentucky railroad com- pany in 1869, and in 1879 was elected to the U.S. senate, serving until March 4, 1885. He was chairman of the committee on civil service re- form, and was instrumental in securing the pas- sage of the civil service law, June 26, 1882. He was appointed U.S. minister to Germany by Pres- ident Cleveland in 1885, serving 1885-89. He died in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 24, 1889,

PENDLETON, John Overton, representative, was born in Wellsburgh, Brooke county, Vir- ginia, July 4, 1851 ; son of Maj. Joseph H. (C.S. A.) and Margaret (Ewing) Pendleton ; grandson of Dr. Joseph Winston and Elizabeth (Goodwin) Pend- leton and of Albert G. and Jane (Campbell) Ewing, and a descendant of Philip Pendleton, New Kent, Va., 1674 ; of Maj. James Goodwin, York, Va., 1648 ; of William Ewin, Rockingham, Va., 1761, and of Alexander Campbell, Bethanj', Va., 1810. He removed with his parents to Wheeling and attended Aspen Hill academy, Louisa county, Va., 1865-69, and Bethany college, West Va. , 1869-70. He established a law practice in Wheeling in April, 1874, and became active in politics. He was the Democratic nominee for state senator in 1886, but was defeated ; was given a certificate of election as representative from the first congressional district of West Virginia in