Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/739

Rh returned to Georgia and established there a liter- ary quarto, entitled " The Georgia Weekly," which was a failure. In 18G0 he became president of the Masonic female college in Greenville, Ga., where he revived the " Weekly." In 1864-'5 he was pro- fessor of languages in Le Vert female college, Ga., removing his newspaper there. He has contrib- uted many tales and romances to periodicals, and is the author of " The McDonalds, or the Ashes of a Southern Plome " (New York, 1867) and " The Confederate Flag on the Ocean " (1867).

PECKHAM, Rufus Wheeler, jurist, b. in Rensselaerville, Albany co., N. Y., 20 Dec, 1809 ; d. at sea, 22 Nov., 1873. Pie studied law, was ad- mitted to the bar, and in 1830 settled in Albany, where he attained note at the bar. In 1838 he was appointed district attorney of Albany county, and he served in congress, having been chosen as a Democrat, from 5 Dec, 1853, till 3 March, 1855, after which he resumed his law practice in partner- ship with Judge Lyman Tremain. In 1859 he was elected justice of the supreme court, and after serving eight years he was re-elected. In 1870 he was chosen to the court of appeals, of which he was a member at the time of his death. Owing to impaired health, he sought the climate of southern France, and was lost at sea in the " Ville de Havre." — His son, Wheeler Hazard, lawyer, b. in Albany, N. Y., 1 Jan., 1833, was educated at Albany academy, and at Union, which he left owing to im- paired health. He was appointed district attorney of New York in 1884, which office he resigned in the same year. For many years he has practised law successfully in New York city.

PECKHAM, Stephen Farnum, chemist, b. near Providence, R. I., 26 March, 1839. After a special course in the chemical laboratory of Brown he was two years in a pharmaceutical laboratory in Providence, after which he completed his studies in 1861 by a further course in chemistry at Brown. Subsequently, in association with Nathaniel P. Hill {q. V.) and others, he began the manufacture of illuminating oils from petroleum. The works were planned and successfully constructed by him, but their operation was unremunerative. and he became in 1862 hospital steward of the 7th Rhode Island regiment. He continued in the military service until near the close of the civil war,Jiaving at that time charge of the chemical department of the U. S. army laboratory in Philadelphia. His next engagement was as expert for the California pe- troleum company, for which corporation he spent a year in southern California studying the occur- rence of petroleum in that region. He subsequently prepared for the geological survey of that state several reports on similar subjects, including a technological examination of Californian bitumen, which he made on his return to the east in 1867. In that year he also began to teach chemistry in Brown, and he afterward held chairs on that subject successively in Washington and Jefferson college, the state agricultural college, Orono, Me., Buchtel college, Akron, Ohio, and in the University of Minnesota, where he was also chemist to the geo- logical survey of that state. In 1880 he returned to Providence, and he has since been engaged in various chemical industries. Prof. Peckham has contributed many articles to current scientific lite- rature, both in the United States and abroad, chiefly on his specialty of petroleum, its manufac- ture and applications. He served in 1880 as special agent on the United States census, and con- tributed to the reports a valuable monograph on the subject, including a full bibliography. In addition to his reports he wrote the article on " Petroleum " for the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," and he has published an "Elementary Treatise on Chemistry " (Louisville, 1876).

PEDDER, James, agriculturist, b. in Newport, Isle of Wight, England, 29 July, 1775; d. in Rox- bury, Mass., 30 Aug.. 1859. He came to this coun- try about 1832 and engaged in the manufacture of sugar in Philadelphia. F'or seven years he con- ducted the " Farmers' Cabinet," an ' agricultural journal of great merit, and from 1844 until his death he edited the " Boston Cultivator." Sev- eral editions of his famous conversations, entitled " Frank," have been published, and " The Yellow Shoestrings " went through seventeen editions in London and several in this country. He published a " Report made to the Beet-Sugar Society of Phila- delphia on the Culture in France of the Beet Root " (Philadelphia, 1836), and also wrote " The Farmer's Land Measure " (New York, 1854).

PEDLEY, Charles, clergyman. b. in Hanlev, Staffordshire, England, 6 Aug., 1821 ; d. in Cold- springs, Canada, 17 Feb., 1872. He was educated at Rotherdam, Yorkshire, and, after holding Con- gregational pastorates in Durham, came to Canada, where he held charges in Coburg and Coldsprings. He wrote a " History of Newfoundland " from the earliest times to 1860 (London, 1863).

PEDRARIAS-DAYILA (pay-drah'-re-as-dah-vee-lah), first Spanish governor of South America, b. in Segovia about 1460 : d. in Spain about 1530. His real name was Pedro Arias de Avila, but the contracted form is commonly used. He sen'ed with distinction during the Moorish war, and, on account of his ability in tournaments, was named "the jouster." When Enciso (q. v.) appeared in Spain in 1512 to complain that Balboa {q. v.) had taken from him the government of Castilla de Oro, King Ferdinand appointed Pedrarias governor of the colony. Many noblemen and adventurers joined his expedition, which consisted of nearly 2,000 men. and sailed in twenty-two vessels from Seville, arriving in May, 1514, in Santa Maria la Antigua. After the discovery of the Pacific ocean by Balboa, Pedrarias, for the purpose of transferring the seat of government nearer to the isthmus, founded and fortified in 1516 the town of Ada, near the site called, by Nieuesa, Nombre de Dios. When the despatches that appointed Balboa adelantado and governor of the South sea arrived, Pedrarias, envious of his glory, imprisoned the latter on a charge of treason, and executed him in Ada in 1517. This outrage caused great indignation at court, and the young king Charles sent in 1518 Lope de Sosa to relieve Pedrarias, and Judge Alarcon to try him. But Sosa died on the passage, and Alarcon was prevailed upon to postpone the trial, so that Pedrarias remained as governor. In 1518 he founded Panama, and in the next year he transferred the seat of government to that city. He despatched in 1519 an expedition under Caspar de Espinosa (q. v.) from Panama to the northward, which discovered the Gulf of Nicoya, and in 1522 another, under Pascual de Andagoya {q. v.), to the southward, which discovered the river San Juan and brought the first news about Peru. After the discovery of Nicaragua by Gil Gonzalez Davila in 1522, and while the latter" had gone to Hispaniola to seek resources for founding colonies, Pedrarias. wishing to anticipate him, sent, toward the end of 1523, an expedition under Francisco Hernandez de Cordova, who founded the cities of Granada and Leon, and, exploring Lake Nicaragua, discovered San Juan river, which he explored to its mouth in the Atlantic in 1524. Under his government also the first expedition to Peru set out in 1525 under