Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/351

 PIERPONT

PIERPONT

1884-87. He wrote numerous hymns, including : " The Banner of Beauty and Glory," national hymn of the Sons of Veterans, U.S.A. (1894); "Lincoln's Prayer " (1895); "The Flag of the Rising Sun," Japanese national hymn (1896), and " No More Marching through Georgia" (1896). He is also the author of : The Church Rejyublic, a Romance of Methodism (1892); On to Louisville (1895); De Tos'le Petah ub Kentucky, a Series of Sketches in the Darky Dialect (1902).

PIERPONT, Francis Harrison, governor of Virginia, was born in Monongahela county, Va., Jan. 25, 1814 ; son of Francis and Catherine (Weaver) Pierpont ; grandson of John and Anne (Morgan) Pierpont ; great-grandson of Zaquil Morgan ; greats-grandson of Col. Morgan, who came from London to Delaware, and was an Episcopal clergyman as well as a soldier : and a descendant of William Pierrepont, one of the chief men- at-arms of William the Norman, through John Pierpont (Bos- ton, 1640 ; Roxbury, 1656), founder of the name in America. Francis Harrison

Pierpont removed to Fairmont, Va., with his parents in 1827, at- tended the public schools and assisted his father on the farm and in his tan-yard until 1835. He was graduated at Allegheny college, Meadville, Pa., in 1839 ; taught school in Mississippi, 1841-42 ; was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1842 ; settled in practice in Fairmont ; was a presidential elector on the Taylor ticket in 1848, and served as local council of the Baltimore and Ohio raUroad com- pany for Marion and Taylor counties, 1848-56. He engaged in mining and shipping coal by rail in 1858, and later in the manufacture of fire bricks. He became prominent as an uncom- promising Union man, and at the convention at Wheeling, Va., in 1861, was foremost in organiz- ing a provisional state government with Wheel- ing as the capital, and was chosen provisional governor of Virginia, holding this oflace for one year. He immediately organized twelve regi- ments of militia for service in the U.S. army ; was governor of the loyal portion of Virginia with the capitol at Wheeling, 1861-63, and during this time put more than 40,000 Union troops in the field. West Virginia was admitted to the Union as a separate state largely through his influence, June 19, 1863. He was governor of Virginia, 1863-68, and called the convention in

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February, 1864, which abolished slavery in the state, and at the fall of Richmond in May, 1865, removed the seat of government from Alexandria to that city, and soon had the state reorganized. He continued in office until April, 1868, his term having expired in January. He resumed the practice of law in Fairmont in 1868 ; represented Marion county in the West Virginia legislature in 1870, and served as U.S. collector of internal revenue under President Garfield. The legisla- ture of West Virginia caused his statue to be placed in Statuary Hall, Washington, D.C. He was married, Dec. 26, 1854, to Julia, daugliter of the Rev. Samuel and Dorcas (Piatt) Robertson of New York, and their daughter Anna (Pier- pont) Siviter, became an Oriental scholar and the author of Nelie, a picture of Persian court life during the reign of Artaxerxes. During the last years of his life, he resided with his daughter in Pittsburg, Pa., where he died March 24, 1899. PIERPONT, James, clergyman, was born in Roxbury, Mass., Jan. 4, 1659; son of John and Thankful (Stow) Pierpont. John Pierpont emi- grated from London, England, to Boston, Mass.,. in 1640, became a freeman in 1652 ; settled on an estate of 300 acres in Roxbury, Mass., in 1656; was a representative in the General Court in 1672, and died in Ipswich, Mass. , 1682. James was grad- uatedat Harvard, A.B., 1681, A.M., 1684 ; became pastor of the church at New Haven, Conn., in September, 1684, and was ordained July 2, 1685. He was associated with the Rev. Samuel Andrew and the Rev. Samuel Russell, in 1698, in laying^ plans which led to the founding of Yale college in 1701, and his representation of the needs for higher education in the colonies induced Elihu Yale to become its first benefactor. He was a fellow of Yale, 1701-14, and it is also stated that he read lectures to the students at Yale as pro- fessor of moral philosophy. He was a member of the committee that considered the complaints of England against the colony in 1705, and fur- nished the agent there with directions and answers. He also drew up what became known as the Saybrook platform, adopted by the synod for the administration of church discipline in 1708. He was married, first, Oct. 27, 1691, to Abigail, daughter of John and Abigail (Pierson) Davenport of New Haven ; secondly. May 30, 1694, to Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Joseph and Sarah (Lord) Haynes ; and thirdly, July 26, 1698, to Mary, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Hooker of Hartford, Conn. His portrait, painted in 1711, was presented to Yale by his descendant, Edwards Pierrepont, in 1887. His son John removed to Paulus Hook, N.J., about 1770, and from there to Virginia, built a fort near Morgantown, married Anne Morgan, and was the grandfather of Francis Harrison Pier-