Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/368

 PLEASANTS

PLUMB

the '* Influence of the Blue Ray," which resulted in the short-lived •* blue glass craze." the appli- cation of blue glass liglit being applied to all sorts of infirniitifs and wonderful cures reported. H.' died in Pliiladelphia. Pa., July 20, 1894.

PLEASANTS, James, senator, was born in G.HK-hland county. V;i., Oct. 24, 17G9 ; son of James and Anne (Randolph) Scott Pleasants ; grandson of Jolin and Susjvnna (Woodson) Pleas- ants and of Ishain and Jane (Rogers) Randolph ; great-grandson of Joseph and Martha (Cocke) Pleasants, and great^'-graiulson of John Pleasants of Norwich, England, and of "Curies," Va., who married Jane, widow of Samuel Tucker. His mother Anne Randolph, married (1st) Dan- iel Scott, (2d) John Pleasants, He was instructed by private tutor.-;, stiMii.l law under Juiige Fleming and practised in Goochland county. He was married to Susanna, daugliter of Col. Hugh of '• Geddes" and Caroline Matilda (Jordan) Rose of Bucking- ham county, Va. He was a Republican repre- sentative in the state legislature, 179G-1803 ; clerk of the house, 1803-11 ; a representative in the 12th-l")th congresses, 1811-19, and U.S. senator, 1819-22, resigning his seat to become governor of Virginia, serving 1822-25. He was a delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829- 30, and twice declined high judicial appointments from the governor of Virginia. The county of Pleasants, Va., was named in his honor. He died at liis iiomestea<l in Goonliland. Va., Nov. 9, 1839. PLEASANTS, John Hampden, journalist, was born in Goochland county, Va., Jan. 4, 1797 ; son of James and Susanna (R(jse) Pleasants. He attended the College of William and Mary, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He engaged in journalism and established the Lynch- burg Virginian, which he edited for several years. He was twice married, first to Ann Irving, by whom lie had no issue, and secondly, to Mary, daugliter of Capt. Henry and Susan Pres- ton (Lewis) Massie, l)y whom he liad two children, James and Ann Kliza. He removed to Rich- mond, Va., wiiere in lS'i4 he founded the Con- stitiifionnl ^^^lig and Public Advertiser, of which he was editor-in-ciiief, 1824-40. He became in- volved in a political quarrel with Thomas Ritchie, Jr., editor of the Richmond Enquirer, which resulted in a du<l in which Pleasants was killed. Tlie Virginia Wliigs erected a monument to iiis memory. He die<l in Richmond, Va., Feb. 27, IHJG. PLEHN, Carl Copping, ])olitical economist, was born in Provi.l.-nc,.. I{.1.. Jnne20. 1807 ; son of Julius and Mary(Copping)Plelui; grandson of Mar- tin and Deborah (Averhoff) Plehn(of Schleswig-
 * ind (3d) James Pleasants.

Holstein) and of John and Helen(Wallace) Copping (of London ) . He was graduated from Brown uni- versity, A.B., 1889, and from Gottingen university, Ph.D., 1891. He was professor of history and political science at Middlebury college, 1891-93, and was at the University of California as as- sistant professor of political economy, 1893-96; became associate professor of finance and statis- tics in 1890, and dean of the college of commerce in 1898. He was married May 16, 1894, to Elizabeth, daughter of Ezra Brainard (q.v.). He was supervisor of the census for the first district of California, 1900, and chief statistician of the Philippine IslatUils with the Philippine commis- sion, 1900-01. He was elected a member of the American Economic association, the American Academy of Political and Social Science and the American Statistical association. His published writings, chiefly of a statistical or economic nature, include : Das Kreditwesen der Staaten und Stddte der nordamerikanischen Union (Jena, 1891); Introduction to Public Finance (1896); General Property Tax in California (1897); Taxation of Mortgages in California (1899), and many contributions to periodicals.

PLUMB, Charles Sumner, agriculturist, was born in Westfield, Mass., April 21,1860; son of David Henry and Helen Mar (Wallace) Plumb; grandson of David and Hannah (Doty) Plumb, and a descendant of John Plumbe, who came from Essex county, England, to Hartford, Conn., about 1663. He was graduated from the Massa- chusetts Agricultural college, Amherst, Mass., B.Sc. in 1882 ; was associate editor of the Rural Neio Yorker, 1883-84, and first assistant at the State Agricultural Experiment station, Geneva, N.Y., 1884-87. He was married Oct. 14, 1880, to Helen P., daughter of Llewellyn and Salena Purple (Gates) Gladwin of Westfield, Mass. He was professor of agriculture at the University of Tennessee and assistant director of the Tennes- see Agricultural Experiment station, 1887-90, and in 1890 became connected with Purdue uni- versity, Lafayette, Ind., as professor of agricul- tural science, and with the Indiana Experiment station as vice-director. He founded in 1887 and publislied and edited until 1891, Agricultural Science, a monthly ; and in 1891 he became director of the Indiana Agricultural Experiment station, at Lafayette, Ind. He was elected pres- ident of the American Cheviot Sheep society in 1900, presidentof the Indiana State Dairy associa- tion, 1901 and 1902, and secretary of the Indiana Wool Growers' association in 1900 and 1901 ; was elected a member of the executive committee of the Society for tlie Promotion of Agricultural Science, and its secretary and treasurer for four j-ears. He was also lecturer at the Graduate Summer School of Agriculture, 1902, at Ohio State