Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/85

Rh POMEROY, Seth, soldier, b. in Northampton, Mass., 20 May, 1706; d. in Peekskill. N. Y., 19 Feb., 1777. He was an ingenious and skilful mechanic, and followed the trade of a gunsmith. Early in life he entered the military service of the colony, and in 1744 he held the rank of captain. At the capture of Louisburg in 1745 he was a major, and had charge of more than twenty smiths, who were engaged in drilling captured cannon. In 1755 he was lieutenant - colonel in Ephraim Williams's regiment. On the latter's death he succeeded to the command of the force that defeated the French and Indians under Baron Dieskau, and his regiment was the one that suffered most in gaining the victory of Lake George. Col. Pomeroy was an ardent patriot, and in 1774-'5 served as a delegate to the Provincial congress, by which he was elected a general officer in October, 1774, and brigadier-general on 22 June, 1775. At the beginning of the Revolutionary war he presented himself as a volunteer in the camp of Gen. Artemas Ward at Cambridge, Mass., from whom he borrowed a horse, on hearing the artillery at Bunker Hill, and, taking a musket, set off at full speed for Charlestown. Reaching the Neck, and finding it enfiladed by a heavy fire from the "Glasgow" ship-of-war, he began to be alarmed, not for his own safety, but for that of Gen. Ward's horse. Too honest to expose the borrowed steed to the "pelting of this pitiless storm," and too bold to shrink from it, he delivered the horse to a sentry, shouldered his gun, and marched on foot across the Neck. On reaching the hill, he took a station at the rail-fence in the hottest of the battle. He was soon recognized by the soldiers, and his name rang with shouts along the line. A few days later he received the appointment of senior brigadier-general among the eight that were named by congress, but as this action caused some difficulty in the adjustment of rank, he declined it, and soon afterward retired to his farm. During 1776, when New Jersey was overrun by the British, he headed a force of militia from his neighborhood, and marched to the rescue of Washington. He reached the Hudson river, but never returned.

POMEROY, Theodore Medad, lawyer, b. in Cayuga. N. Y., 31 Dec., 1824. lie was graduated at Hamilton in 1842, and then studied law. Settling in Auburn, he practised his profession in that city, and was in 1850-'6 district attorney for Cayuga county. In 1857 he was elected a member of the Imver branch of the New York legislature. He was then sent to congress as a Republican, and served, with re-elections, from 4 March, 1861. till 3 March, 1869. On the resignation of Schuyler Colfax from the speakership Mr. Pomeroy was elected on 3 March, 1869, to fill the vacancy. "Subsequently he resumed the practice of his profession in Auburn, and engaged in banking business.

POMROY, Rebecca Rossignol, nurse, b. in Boston, Mass., 16 July, 1817; d. in Newton, Mass., 24 Jan., 1884. She was the daughter of Samuel Holliday, and on 12 Sept., 1836, married Daniel F. Pomroy. Sickness in her own family for nearly twenty years made her an accomplished nurse, and when her only surviving son enlisted in the National army she offered her services to Dorothea L. Dix (q. v.). She was at once called to Washington, and in September, 1861, assigned to duty in Georgetown hospital, but was soon transferred to the hospital at Columbian university. Early in 1862 she was called to the White House at the time of the death of Willie Lincoln, and nursed &ldquo;Tad,&rdquo; the youngest son, then very ill, and Mrs. Lincoln, until both were restored to health. President Lincoln

said to her at that time: &ldquo;Tell your grandchildren how indebted the nation was to you in holding up my hands in time of trouble.&rdquo; Mrs. Pomroy returned to the hospital and continued in her work, gaining a high reputation. In 1864, when the president's life was threatened and Mrs. Lincoln was suffering from injuries that she had received in a fall from her carriage, Mrs. Pomroy again went to the White House. Later in the year she spent some time at the West hospital in Baltimore, but ultimately returned to the hospital at Columbian university. Refusing advantageous offers to go elsewhere, she remained at her post until the close of the war, and then, stricken with typhoid fever, was an invalid for several years. She became matron in 1867 of a reformatory home for girls at Newton Centre, Mass., and then of the Newton home for orphans and destitute girls, which, since her death, has become the Rebecca Pomroy home. See &ldquo;Echoes from Hospital and White House,&rdquo; by Anna L. Boyden (Boston, 1884).

PONCE DE LEON, Juan (pon'-thay-day-lay'-one), Spanish o Campos, in 1460; d. in Cuba in July, 1521. He was descended from an ancient family of Aragon, was in his youth page of the infante, afterward Ferdinand VII., and served with credit against the Moors of Granada. According to some authorities, he accompanied Columbus in his second voyage to Hispaniola in 1493, but Washington Irving and other modern historians say that he only sailed in 1502 with Nicolas de Ovando (q. v.), who was appointed governor of that island. He took an active part in the pacification of the country, and became governor of the eastern part, or province of Higuey, where the natives had frequent intercourse with those of the island of Borinquen (Porto Rico). From them he acquired information about that island, and hearing that it contained abundance of gold, he obtained permission to conquer it. In 1508 he sailed with eighty Spanish adventurers and some auxiliary Indians, and in a few days he landed in Borinquen, where he was well received by the natives. The principal cacique, ../Aguainaba/ (q. v.), accompanied him to all parts of the island, and Ponce collected many samples of gold, and was astonished at the fertility of the soil. In 1509 he returned to Hispaniola to report, and in quest of re-enforcements, but the new governor, Diego Columbus, gave the command of the expedition to Diego Ceron, and sent Ponce as his lieutenant. The latter, through his protector, Ovando, in the court of Spain, claimed the appointment of governor of Borinquen, and in 1510 he obtained it. He sent Ceron to Hispaniola, began the construction of the first city, calling it Caparra, and sent his