Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/416

 POWEK

POWERS

W. H. F. Lee. February, 1864, and commanded the 2d division. Slieridan's cavalry corps, in the Shenandoah Valley, 18G4-G5, being promoted brigadier-goneral of volunteers in October, 1864, and brevetted major-general of volunteers. March 13, 1865. He declined a nomination for repre- sentative from the eleventh district of Oliio to the 40th congress in 1866. He superintended the building and was the general manager of the Clifton Nail works in Mason county, W. Va., 1867-70: declined the Republican nomination as represent.itive from the third district of West Virginia to the 41st congress in 1868, and was made a Grant and Colfax elector the same year. He was general manager of the Belleville Nail company, Belleville, 111.. 1876-80, and in 1883 organized the Western Nail company of Belle- ville, of which he was made president and general manager. He was department commander of the G.A.R. of Illinois in 1895-96, and in 1898 was appointed internal revenue collector for the lotli revenue district of Illinois.

POWER, Thomas Charles, senator, was born on a farm near l)ul)U(iue. Iowa, May 22, 1839. He attended the public school, studied civil engineering at Sinsiniwa college, Wis., 1854-57, and engaged in his profession and in that of teaching school, 1857-60. He was employed on a survey in Dakota in 1860, engaged in trade on the Missouri river in 1861, and in 1867 settled at Fort Benton, Mont., where he served as president of a line of steamers and of the Power Mercantile company. He was also interested in the deve- lopment of mines and in cattle raising, and removed to Helena, Mont., in 1876. He was a member of the first constitutional convention held in Montana in 1883, a delegate to the Repub- lican national convention in 1889, and in the first state election was defeated for governor, Oct. 1, 1889, by Joseph K. Toole, Democrat, by 576 votes. He was elected to the U.S. senate, Jan. 2, 1890, by the Republican members of the legis- lature, the Democrats not joining in liie election, but holding a separate session, and electing Martin Maginnis, Jan. 7, 1890. He took his seat April 16, 1890, and although it was contested by Mr. Maginnis he completed the term, March 3.' I'=l95.

POWERS, Hiram, sculptor, was born in Wood- st<jck. Vt., July 29. 1805; son of Stepli(-n and Sarah (Perry) Powers; grandson of Dr. Stephen and Lydia (Drew) Powers, and a descendant of Wal- ter Powers of Littleton, Mass. He was brought up on his father's farm, and in 1819 removed with his parents to Cincinnati. Ohio, where his brother Benjamin edited a newspaper, and where he engaged first as a clerk, and subsequently as foreman in Watson's clork factory. lS2:{-29. His first professional work was in Dorfeuille's museum

modeling wax figures, 1829-35, In 1832 he saw Canova's marble bust of Washington, the first work of the kind he had ever seen. He was married. May 1, 1832, to Elizabeth, daughter of James Gibson of Cincinnati. He received some instruction in model- ing from a German .-t^ '. sculptor in Cincin- nati, 1832-35; re- moved to Washing- ton, D.C., in 1835, where he modeled busts of President Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Joliii C. Cal- houn, Daniel Web- ster and others, and constructed a jet d'eau for the capitol grounds. Tiirough the financial assist- ance of William C.

Preston and Nicholas Longworth, he went to Flor- ence, Italy, in 1837, where he continued to reside permanently. Among his most noted works are his statues, Eve Tempted, in 1838, and The Greek Slave, in 1843, for the original of which he received $7,000. He invented several useful devices, among them a process of modeling in plaster, without the use of a clay model. In addition to the statues mentioned he executed: T7ie Fisher-Boy (1846); America (1854), designed for the top of the capi- tol at Wasliington and destroyed by fire in 1866; ir Penseroso (1856); California (1858); Eve Dis- consolate (1869) The Last of the Tribe (1872); General Washington, for Louisiana; Webster,

BIRTHPLACt OF HIRAM POWEPS

for Massachusetts; Calhnnn, for South Carolina (1850); Franklin (1862). and Jefferson for the Capi- tol at Washington (1863). His portrait busts in- clude those of several distinguished men. and among his ideal busts are: Ginevra (1H40. 1865); Proserpine (1815); Psyche (1849); Dinnn (1S52); Christ (1866); Faith (1867); Clytie (1868); Hojje