Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/412

 POTTS

POURTALES

Hughes, who bandaged the eyes of Major Andre at the time of his execution ; secondly, Dec. 19, 1799. to Eleanor Murdock. He received the de- gree LL.l). from the College of New Jersey, 1805. He died in Frederick county, Md.. Nov. 26, 1808.

POTTS, William, author, was born in Phila- delphia, Pa., May 5. 1838 ; son of Joseph Kirk- bride and Sidney (Bonsiill) Potts; grandson of Joseph Potts, and a descendant of Thomas Potts of Coventry. Eng. He studied law for a brief period, removed to New York in 1803, and engaged in the insurance business and in banking. He was secretary of the Brooklyn Civil Service Reform association. 1880-94. save while in tlie public ser- vice ; of the New York and the National Civil Service Reform associations. 1881-94, with the same exception ; was chief examiner of the Civil Service commission for New York state in 1887, and vice-president of the National Civil Service Reform league, 1894-96. He was also a member of numerous social and scientific organizations, and active in movements for improvement in f>olitical methods, and in social settlement work. His published works include : Noblesse Oblige (18.80); Evolution of Vegetable Life {]8S9); Evolu- tion and Social Reform — the Socialistic Method (1890); Form ayid Color in Xature (ISdl); The Morietary Problem {1892) ; From a Neic England Hillside {\S9^>). and Statistics of Societies (com- piled. 1S90).

POTTS, William Stevens, educator, was born at Fishing Creek, Northumberland county. Pa., Oct. 13, 1802 ; son of William and Mary (Gard- ner) Potts. His father was a Quaker, and his mother of Scotch descent. He removed with his parents to Trenton, N.J., in 1810; was educated in the public schools ; in 1818 went to Philadel- phia to learn the printer's trade, and while there, in 1822, studied theology under the Rev. Ezra S. Ely. He attended Princeton Theological seminary, 182.5-J7 ; was licensed by the presbytery of Pliila- delphia, November, 1827; became a mis.sionary in New Jersey and the south, 1827-28. and was ordained \>y the presbytery of Missouri, Oct. 26, 1828. He was pastor of the First Presbyterian church of St. Louis, Mo., 1828-3.5; president of Marion college. Mo., 1835-39, and founder and pastor (1839-52) of the Second Presbyterian church of St. Louis. He received the degree D.D. from Marion coll.-ge in 1841. He was married to Ann, daughter of Samuel Benton. He died in St. Louis. Mo.. March 27. 18.52.

POU, Edward William, representative, was brn in Tuskegee, Macon county, Ala., Sept. 9, 1863; son of Edward William and Anna Maria (Smith) Pou ; grandson of Joseph and Eliza M. (Felder) Pou, and of James H. and Nancy (Bryan) Smith ; and a descendant of Gavin Pou of .South Carolina. He was educated at the school of John

L. Davis at Smithfield, N.C., and at the Univer- sity of North Carolina. 1881-84 ; taught school, 1884-85 ; studied law under his father ; was ad- mitted to the bar in October, 1885, and began practice in Smithfield in partnership with liis brother, James H. Pou, and subsecjuently with Furnifold M. Simmons (q.v.). He was chairman of the executive committee of Johnston county in 1886, and under his administration the county became permanently Democratic. He was mar- ried Oct. 18, 1887, to Carrie, daughter of Ross and Mary Ann (Houghton) Ihrie of Pittsboro, N.C. He was a Democratic presidential elector, 1888 ; and was solicitor of the fourth North Carolina judicial district in 1890, 1894 and 1898. In 1896 he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for representative from the fourth North Carolina district to the 55th congress, and was elected to the 57th and 58th congresses, 1901-05, serving on the committees on reform in the civil service and expenditures in the treasury dedartment.

POULSSON, Anne Emilie, author, was born at Cedar Grove, Essex county, N.J., Sept. 8, 1853 : daughter of Halvor and Ruth Ann (Mitchell) Poulsson ; grand-daughter of Paul and Ingeborg Mathea (Moe) Poulsson of Norway, and of Samuel and Hannah (Thornton) Mitchell of England. She attended the public schools of Newark, N.J.. and was graduated from the Kindergarten Normal school of Misses Garland and AVeston, Boston, Mass., in 1881. Her eye- sight had been impaired from infancy, and fear- ing possible blindness she became a student in the Perkins Institution for the Blind in South Boston, where she afterward taught, 1879-82. Subsequently she entered into private teaching and study and gained a reputation as a lecturer and writer. She became joint editor of the Kindergarten Review in 1897. Her published works include : Nursery Finger Plays (1889); 7n the Child's World (1893); Tlirovgh the Farmyard Gate (1896); Child Stories a7id Rhymes (1898); Kinderwelt, selections from In the Child's World (1898); iMve and Law in Child Training (1899); El Mundo de Niilo, selections from In the Child's World (1900) ; Holiday Songs (1901), and numer- ous articles contributed to periodicals.

POURTALES, Louis Francois de, naturalist, was horn in Neuchatel, Switzerland, March 4, 1824. He was descended from a noble family, and was himself a count. He adopted the pro- fession of engineer, but early became a student of natural history, and accompanied Louis Agassiz. who was his instructor in tlie science, on his glacial explorations among the Alps in 1840, coming with him to the United States in 1847. He was connected with the U.S. coast survey, 1848-73, and while engaged in work on the Florida reef in 1851, was led to studv the ocean