Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/336

 PICKERING

PICKERING

Mary (Lunt) Wingate. and a descendant of John Pickering (born 1615), who emigrated from Eng- land and settled in Ipswicli. Mass., in 1634,

was made to Salem,

an inhabitant Mass., ia 1637.

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in 1636, and removed Timothy Pickering was graduated from Harvard. A.B.. 1763, A.M., 1766, and was admitted to the bar in 1768. He was regis- ter of deeds for Essex county ; lieutenant of militia, 1766-75. and colonel, 1775-76. He led the Continen- tal force in the pur- suit of the British through Charlestown, but arrived too late to effect a capture. He was elected jus- tice of the peace in 1775 ; justice of the superior court of common pleas ; judge of the maritime court in Decem- ber, 1775, and a representative in the general court in 1776. He was married, April 8, 1776, to Rebecca White of Bristol, England, who died in Salem, Mass., Aug. 14, 1828. He joined the Continental army at the head of a regiment of 700 men ; was promoted adjutant-general. June, 1777 ; was a member of the board of war, Nov. 7, 1777 ; was appointed quartermaster- general of the army, Aug. 5, 1780, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at York- town. In July, 1785, the quartermaster's de- partment was abolished, and he went into the commission business in Philadelphia, but in 1787 he removed to the Wyoming valley, Pa, He op- posed the insurgent Connecticut settlers and on the imprisonment of John Franklin, the insurg- ent leader, his house was attacked by the rioters and he escaped to Pliiladelphia. He was a mem- ber of the convention for ratifying the U.S. con- stitution, and on his return to Wyoming he was taken prisoner by tlie rioters and confined for three weeks, his captors wishing him to intercede in behalf of Franklin. He was finally released and engaged in putting down the lawlessness in the state. He was a member of the state conven- tion of 1789, tliat framed the constitution of Pennsylvania ; was sent on a mission to pacify the Seneca Indians, who were aroased by the murder of two of their tribe in 1790, and com- pleted negotiations in 1791 with a treaty between the United States and the Six Nations. He was postmaster-general, 1791-95, and was appointed secretary of war to succeed Gen. Henry Knox, Jan. 2, 1795, controlhng the In<han affairs and the navy administration. During his term of

service in that department, the military academy at West Point was founded, and the U.S. frigates Constitution, Constellation, and United States were built. He served as secretary of state on the resignation of Edmund Randolph in 1795, and was later appointed to the office, serving till May 12, 1800, wlien, owing to a disagreement be- tween President John Adams and liis cabinet, he was discharged. Embarrassed by debt, he re- moved to Susquehanna county, Pa., where he lived in a log cabin and engaged in farming. A subscription was taken by a number of Boston citizens amounting to $25,000, and after liis debts were paid he was induced to remove to Danvers, Mass. He was chief justice of the court of com- mon pleas, 1802-03 ; was appointed U.S. senator to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Dwight Foster in 1803, and elected for the full term of six years in 1805. By his opposition to the Ijouisiana purciiase and the embargo act he became extremely unpopular. He removed to Wenham, Mass., in 1812, and was a Federalist representative in the l?th and 14th congresses, 1813-17. He was a member of the executive council of Massachusetts in 1817, president of Essex Agricultural society in 1818, and retired to Salem, Mass., where he died. Jan. 29, 1829.

PICKERINa, William Henry, astronomer, was born in Boston, Mass., Feb. 15, 1858 ; son of Edward and Charlotte (Hammond) Pickering ; grandson of Timothy and Lurena (Cole) Picker- ing and of Daniel and Sally (Stoddard) Hammond, and great-grandson of Timothy Pickering, (q.v.). He was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1879 ; was instructor in physics there, 1880-87 ; assistant in the Harvard observatory, 1887-89, and assistant professor in 1889. He was married, June 11, 1884, to Anne Atwood, daughter of Isaac Butts of Boston, Mass. He led the expedition to observe total solar eclipses at Colorado, 187S ; Grenada, West Indies, 1886; California, 1889; Chili, 1893, and Georgia, 1900. He establislied a temporary observatory in Southern California in 1889 ; the Arequipa station of Harvard observatory in 1891 ; tiie astronomical station at Mandeville, Jamaica, W.I., in 1900, and erected the observatory and telescope for Mr. Lowell at Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1894. He ascended the Half-dome in Yosemite Valley, and El Misti in Peru, where he gained an altitude of 19,500 feet and made valuable notes on atmosplieric conditions at different altitudes. He also made observations from over 100 other mountain peaks. He is the author of : Walkiiig Guide to Mt. Washington Range (1882); Investi- gations in Astronomical Photography (1895) ; Visiial Observations of the Moon and Planets (Harvard College Annals, 1900); Lunar Atlas (1903).