Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/617

Rh "Recollections of a Congressional Life " (Cincin- nati, 1834), and " Early Indiana Trials, Sketches, and Reminiscences " (1857).

SMITH, Persifer Frazer, soldier, b. in Phila- delphia, Pa., in November, IT'.IS; d. in Fort Leav- onworth, Kan., 17 May, 1858. His grandfather, Col. Robert Smith, was an nflicer in the Revolu- tion, and his maternal grandfather, 1'ersil'or Frazer, was a lieutenant-colonel in the same army. Persifor was graduated at Princeton in 1815, studied law under Charles Chauneey, and set tied in New Orleans, La. At the beginning of the Florida war. I leing ad- jutant-general of the state, he volunteered under Gen. Edmund P. Gaines as colonel of Louisiana v. >1- unteers and served in the campaigns of 1830 and 1838. He was appointed colonel of a rifle regi- ment in May, 1846, commanded a brigade of in- fantry from September of that year till the close of the war with Mexico, and received the brevet of brigadier-general, U. S. army, for his service at Monterey, and major-general in the same for Churubusco and Contreras, 20 Aug., 1847. The official report of the latter battle records " that he closely directed the whole attack in front with his habitual coolness and ability." He also fought at Chapultepec and at the Belen gate, and in the latter battle is described by Gen. Winfield Scott as " cool, unembarrassed, and ready." He was commissioner of armistice with Mexico in October, 1847, afterward commanded the 2d division of the U. S. army, became military and civil governor of Vera Cruz in Mav, 1848, "and subsequently had charge of the departments of California and Texas. He was brevetted major-general, U. S. army, in 1849, appointed to the full rank of brigadier-gen- eral, 30 Dec., 1856, and ordered to Kansas. Just before his death he was placed in command of the Utah expedition. His cousin, Persifor Frazer, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1808 ; d. in West Chester, Pa., 17 May, 1882, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1823, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1829, became clerk of the orphan's court of Chester county. Pa., in 1835, prosecuting attorney for Delaware county in 1839, served in the Pennsylvania legislature in 1862-'4, and became state reporter in 1865. He published " Forms of Procedure " (Philadelphia, 1862). and " Reports of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania " <32 vols., 1865-'82).

SMITH, Peter, merchant, b. in Greenbush, Rockland oo., N. Y.. 15 Nov., 1768; d. in Schenec- tady, N. Y., 13 April, 1837. His ancestors came from Holland. At the age of sixteen he became a clerk in an importing-house in New York city, and afterward he was a partner of John Jacob Astor in the fur business. Th'ey bought the furs of Indians in the northern part of the state, and Smith, who spoke the Indian language, established a trading- post on what is known as the Bleecker property at Utiea. When the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Astor bought real estate in New York city. Mr. Smith purchased large tracts in Oneida, Che- nango, Madison, and other counties. In some cases these included whole townships, and the total amount was nearly a million acres. His first wife, whom he married in 1792, was Elizabeth, daughter of Col. James Livingston. His manu- script journals, still in existence, contain interest- ing descriptions of his journeys among the In- dians. In his later years he was deeply interested in religion, and spent considerable sums for the distribution of tracts. His son, Gerrit, philan- thropist, b. in Utica, N. Y., 6 March, 1797; d. in New York city, 28 Dec., 1874, was graduated at Hamilton college in 1818, and devoted himself to the care of his father's estate, a large part of which was given to him when he attained his majority. At tiie age of fifty-six he studied law, and was ad- mitted t" the bar. lie was elected to congress as an in- dependent candi- date in 1852, but resigned after serving through one session. Dur- ing his boyhood slavery still exist- ed in the state of New York, and his father was a slave-holder. One of the earliest forms of the phi- lanthropy that marked his long life appeared in his opposition to the institution of slavery, and his friendship for the oppressed race. He acted for ten years with the American colonization society, contributing largely to its funds, until he became convinced that it was merely a scheme of the slave-holders for getting the free colored people out of the country. Thenceforth he gave his support to the Anti-slavery society, not only writing for the cause and contributing money, but taking part in conventions, and personally assisting fugitives. He was temperate in all the discussion, holding that the north was a partner in the guilt, and in the event of emancipation without war should bear a portion of the expense; but the attempt to force slavery upon Kansas convinced him that the day for peaceful emancipation was past, and he then advocated whatever measure of force might be necessary. He gave large sums of money to send free-soil settlers to Kansas, and was a personal friend of John Brown, to whom he had given a farm in Essex county, N. Y.. that he might instruct a colony of colored people, to whom Mr. Smith had given farms in the same neighborhood. He was supposed to be implicated in the Harper's Ferry affair, but it was shown that he had only given pecuniary aid to Brown as he had to scores of other men, and so far as he knew Brown's plans had tried to dissuade him from them. Mr. Smith was deeply interested in the cause of temperance, and organized an anti-dramshop party in February, 1842. In the village of Peterboro, Madison co., where he had his home, he built a good hotel, and gave it rent-free to a tenant who agreed that no liquor should be sold there. This is believed to have been the first temperance hotel ever established. But it was not pecuniarily successful. He had been nominated for president by an industrial congress at Philadelphia in 1848, and by the land-reformers in 1856. but declined. In 1840. and again in 1858. he was nominated for governor of New York. The last nomination, on a platform of abolition and prohibition, he accepted, and can- vassed the state. In the election he received 5,446 votes. Among the other reforms in which he was interested were those relating to the property-rights of married women and female suffrage aiid abstention from tobacco. In religion he was originally a Presbyterian, but became very liberal in his views, and built a non-sectarian church in Peterboro, in which he often occupied the pulpit himself. He could not conceive of religion as anything apart