Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/250

 PAXSON

PAXTON

on one side the word "Fidelity," and on the other '• Vincit armor patria?." He also oixlered an annuity of §".300 to each, and the government further rewarded each of the tliree men (neither of whom was in active army service at the time) with a farm of 200 acres, Paulding's farm being two miles from Peekskill, N.Y. He was twice married, his children by both marriages number- ing twenty-one. Samuel D. Paulding was the last survivor of the cliildren, and died in New York city, June 8. 1898. A monument to the three captors of Andre was erected on upper Broadway, Tarrytown, at the point where the famous meeting occurred. John Paulding, the patriot, died in Peekskill, N.Y., April 30, 1818.

PAXSON, Edward M., jurist, was born in Buckiiigliam, Bucks county. Pa., Sept. 3. 1824; son of Tliomas and Ann (Johnson) Paxson; grandson of Jacob and JIary (Shaw) Paxson, and a descendant of James Paxson, who emigrated from the parish of Marsh Gibbon, Bucks county, England, and settled in Middletown, Bucks county, Pa., in 1682, and maternally of William Johnson, a native of Ireland, who settled in New Jersey before the Revolution and subsequently was professor in a South Carolina college. He attended the Friends schools, learned the trade of printer, and in 184.3 became editor of the Newton Journal, which he established. He founded and was editor of the Philadelphia Z)ai7?/ iVews, 1847, and after conducting it one year sold it and stud- ied law. He was admitted to the bar of Bucks county. Pa., April 24, 1850, and practised in Phil- adelphia. He was judge of the court of common pleas of Philadelpliia, 1869-74; judge of the su- preme court of the state, 1874-95, and chief jus- tice of the supreme court, 1889-93. He resigned his seat on the bench Feb. 20, 1893, to accept the appointment as one of the receivers of the Phila- delphia and Reading railroad company by order of Judge George M. Dallas. He completed his task as receiver April 20, 1897, when he re- signed. He gave to the committee of the Bucks County Friends Quarterly Meeting on March 3, 1901, deeds for a large and handsome building erected by him in Newton as a memorial to his parents as a home f(r aged and infirm members of the Society of Friends of his native county. In 1902 he erected an infirmary for the "Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons" in Phila- delphia, the building being opened early in Jan- uary, 1903. He was married. April 30, 1846, to Mary C, daughter of Natlianiel Newin of Dela- ware county, and after her death, June 7, 1885, secondly. December 1, 1886, to Mary Martha S., widow of Samuel A. Bridges of AUentovvn, Pa., representative in the 45th congress. He is the author of: Brown's Collection Laws and Me- moirs of the Johnson Family.

PAXTON, Elisha Franklin, soldier, was born in Rockbridge county, Va., March 4, 18','8; son of Elisha and Margaret (McNutt) Paxton; grand- son of William and Ellen (Hay) Paxton, and a descendant of the Paxton family who immigrated to America from the north of Ireland with the Houstons and others in 1730 and settled in Penn- sylvania. He was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1847; attended the Virginia Militarj- institute at Lex- ington, Va., but was not graduated, and was president of a bank in Lynchburg, Va. He en- tered the Confederate army as colonel of a Vir- ginia regiment; was promoted brigadier-general, and commanded the 1st brigade, Jackson's divis- ion, at Fredericksburg, and his brigade in Trim- ble's division, commanded by Gen. R. E. Colston at the battle of Chancellorsville, where he fell, May 3, 1863. He was married to Lizzie White. He died on the battlefield near Chancellor's House, May 3, 18G3.

PAXTON, William Miller, educator, was born at Maria Furnace, Adams county. Pa., June 7, 1824; son of James Dunlop and Jane Maria (Mil- ler) Paxton; grandson of William Paxton and of William Miller, and great-grandson of John Paxton of the Revolutionary army and pastor of Lower Marsh Creek, Adams county, Pa. Another great-grandfatlier, James Dunlop, was an officer in the Revolutionaiy army, and subsequently member of the Pennsylvania legislature for twenty-seven years. After attending school at Millerstown, now Fairfield, and at Gett3'sburg, William M. Paxton was graduated from Penn- sylvania college, Gettysburg, Pa., in 1843; stud- ied law for two years, but decided to enter the ministry, and was graduated from the Princeton Theological seminar}^ in 1848. Ho was ordained by the presbytery of Carlisle, Oct. 4, 1848, was pastor at Greencastle, Pa., 1848-50, and be- came pastor of the First churcli, Pittsburg, Pa., in 1851. He was married, first, in July, 1852, to Hester V.B., daugliter of Colonel Wickes of Chestertown, Md., and, secondly, Nov. 8, 1855, to Caroline Sophia Denny of Pittsburg, Pa.; was professor of sacred rhetoric at the Western Theo- logical seminary, AUeglieny, Pa., 1860-07, and pastor of the First Presbyterian church, New York city, 1866-83. He was instructor in sacred rhetoric at Union Theological seminary, New York, 1872-75; became a member of the board of foreign missions in 1866, and served as its presi- dent, 1881-83; was a member of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, 1866-80, and president, 1876-78. He was chosen professor of ecclesiastical, homiletical and pastoral theology at the Prince- ton Theological seminary in 1883, and became president of the faculty in 1900. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on him by Jefiferson college in 1800 and that of LL.D. by the same in-