Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/358

 BOATXER.

BOEHLER.

BOATNER, Charles J., represoiUative. was born at ('..lumMa. in tin' jiarish of Caldwill. La., Jan. ■,';5. I^^IO. LosiniL; liis fatlior at an early age, he resided with liis unrli'. and liad the Itenefit of private instruct i."). In ISOG he ob- tained employment in the clerk "s and sheriffs offices, and was admitted to the bar in 1870. In 1876 he wjus elected to the stnte senate and served until 1878, after which he resigned ane, La. He was elected a representative in the .^)lst. 52d, ."v^d and r)-lth congresses, 1889-97. lie die.l in New Orleans. La., March 21, 1903.

BOCOCK. Thomas S., representative, was b »ra in Buckingham county, Va., in 1815. He was graduatetl at Hampden-Sidney college, and after his admission to the Imr i)ractised law at Appomattox court-house. Va. He was a mem- l)er. for several years, of the Virginia house of <ielegates. and attorney for the state in 184.5 and 1*46, being elected in the latter year a repre- sentative in the:30th Congress on the Democratic ticket. He sat for seven successive terms, until the ordinance of secession was enacted. In 1861 he was elected a representative in the Confed- erate congress, and was made speaker of the Con- federate house of representatives on Feb. 18. 1862. He died Aug. 5, 1891.

BODFISH, Joshua P., theologian, was born in Falmouth, Mass., March 29. 1839; son of William and Elizabeth Bodfi.sh. His ancestors were among the first settlers on Cape Cod. Father Bodfish was brought up in the Orthodox church, but studied and took orders in the Episcopal church, officiating for some time as assistant rector at All Saints church, Philadelphia. He was baptized into the Roman Catholic church by Bi.shop Domenec of Pittsburg, Pa., in 1863, pursued his theological course at the semi- nar}- of our Lady of the Angels, Niagara, and at Seton Hall, N. J., joined Father Hecker's Paulist community in New York, and was ordained priest Nov. 30, 1866. For ten j-ears he was occupied with mission work in connection with the Paul- ists, and organized and built up the Young men's Catholic institute in New York. In 1876 he became attached to the cathedral in Boston, first as chan'-ellor of the diocese and secretary to Arch- bi.Hhop Williams and later as rector of the cathe- dral. In 1888 he was appointed rector of St. John's church. Canton, Ma.ss. He was one of the founders of the Bostonian society, a director of the Bunker Hill monument a.s.sociation and a mem- ber of the New England Historical genealogi- cal society, and of the St. Botolph Club and the
 * 'Thursrn at Methuen. Ma.ss., June 18, 1818. His family were in such straitened circumstances that at the age of eight he began to earn liis own

living; thus his education was almost whoUyself- actjuired. He was always scrupulously honest in all his dealings, but was keen, business-like and i>ersevering, and succeeded in acquiring con- siderable wealth. In 1852 he began the business of ([uarrying granite in Penobscot Bay, enlarging his works year by year; in 1870 opening quarries in Hallowell. from which he realized large profits. He was elected to the state legislature a number of terms, ami in 1886 was chosen governor of Maine by the Republican party. It is said that he gave in charity an average of one hundred dollars per day. He died at Hallowell, Me., Dec. 15. 1887.

BOEHLER, Peter, Moravian bishop, was born at Franktortou-tlie-Main, Germany, Dec. 31, 1712; son of John Conrad and Antoinette Eliza- beth Boehler. He studied theologj- at the Uni- A-ersity of Jena. In 1732, Count Zinzendorf, reorganizer of the society of United Brethren (Moravians), visited the university, and Boehler became associated with him in his work. In his junior year he became a tutor, and in 1736 was appointed junior professor in the university. In 1737 he was ordained a minister of the ^Moravian church, and in 1738, by special ap- pointment of Count Zinzendorf, he became pastor of the church at Savannah, Ga., and a missionary to the negroes of Carolina and Georgia. In England, on liis way to his Ameri- can missionary field, he made the acquaintance of John and Charles Wesley. John Wesley writes: " On my return to England, January, 1738, being in imminent danger of death, and very uneasy on that account, I was strongly con- vinced that the cause of that uneasiness was un- belief, and that the gaining a true, living faith was the one thing needful for me. But still I fixed not this faith on its right object. I meant only faith in God, not faith in or through Christ. Again I knew not that I was wholly void of this faith; but only tliought / had not enongh of it. So that when Peter Boehler, whom God prepared for me as soon as I came to London, affirmed of true faith in Christ that it had those two fruits inseparably attending it, ' Dominion over sin and constant peace from a sense of forgiveness," I was quite amazed, and looked uix)n it as a new gospel." The Peter Boehler chapel erected in London by Wesleyans is a memorial of this inci- dent. Peter Boehler arrived at Savannah on Oct. 15, 1738, after a voyage of five months' duration, and found the Moravian settlement reduced to twelve persons. In 1740, in con.se- quence of the war with Sixain, they were obliged to leave the colony, their religious principles precluding them from bearing arms. They set- tled at Bethlehem. Pa., where only Boehler's wise counsel and encouragement held the little