Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/455

 PURCELL

PURINTOX

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property of the diocese consisted of sixteen churclies valued at only $12,000. He was obliged to borrow $300 to procure an outfit and pay traveling expenses to Cincinnati. He set about establishing parish schools and acade- mies; organized Ger- man congregations, and built a convent for the Ursulines. During the first de- cade of his adminis- tration the Roman Catholic population of the diocese in- creased from 6000 to 70,000; the churches from sixteen to seventy-six, and the priests to seventy- three. The diocese of Detroit was set off in 1834, and that of Cleveland in 1847. He attended the third council of Baltimore in April, 1837; visited Europe in 1838, and was promoted archbishop of Cincinnati, July 19, 18o0, with four suffragan bishops. He received the pallium from the liands of Pius IX in the private chapel in Rome in 1851; presided over his first provincial council in 1855, and the second in 1858; attended the Vatican council in 1869, where lie opposed the declaration of the infallibility of the pope, but subscribed to the doctrine on its definition, and in 1876 celebrated his golden jubilee in Cincinnati. He founded the theolo- gical seminary of Mount St. Mary's of the West, built St. Peter's cathedral, and established The Catholic Tele- graph, to which he contributed. He placed the financial affairs of the diocese in the hands of his brother, the - "' Very Rev. Ed- ward Purcell, ■ vicar - general, 'l trusted him ,, with the funds of his diocesans, who brought '■ their savings to him for safe keeping and investment, never questioning his ability as a financier. In 1879 it was discovered that the indebtedness of the Vm.— 28
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ST. PETER'5 CATHEDRAL. CIN.

archbishop had reached nearly $4,000,000; the property in which the investments were made had rapidly declined in market value, and could not be sold, and insolvency followed. Vicar-General Purcell died heartbroken, and although the matter was widely commented on, no charge of dishonesty was made against the archbishop, the fact that he had been twenty- five years bishop of the diocese before lie ac- cepted any part of his annual salary of $5000, satisfying his creditors as to his personal disregard of the use of money. He offered his resignation in 1880, which was not accepted. He was, how- ever, given a coadjutor in the person of the Rt. Rev. "William Henry Elder (q.v.), bishop of Natcliez, and he retired to Brown county, Ohio, where he sjjent the rest of his life. The Roman Catholics in his diocese numbered more than 500,000, the priests 480, and the churches 500 at his death. He published: The Roman Clergy and Free Tliought (1870); Lectures and Pastoral Letters; Diocesan Statutes, Acts and Decrees of Three Provincial Councils held in Cincinnati, and a series of school-books for parochial schools. He died in Brown county, Ohio, July 4, 1883.

PURINTON, Daniel Boardman, educator, was born in Preston county, Va., Feb. 15, 1850; son of the Rev. Dr. Jesse M. and Nancy Alden (Lyon) Purinton; grandson of the Rev. Thomas and Sabrina (Boardman) Purinton, and of Aaron and Armilla (Alden) Lyon, and a descendant of John Alden of the Mayflower. He prepared for college at George's Creek academy. Pa., and was graduated from the University of West Virginia in 1873, where he was an instructor and professor, 1873-89, filling successively the chairs of logic, mathematics and metaphysics. He was married, July 6, 1876, to Florence A., daughter of Prof. F. S. and Harriet (Johnson) Lyon of Morgantown, W. Va. He was vice-president of the university and served as acting president, 1881-83. In 1890 he entered upon his duties as president and pro- fessor of intellectual and moral philosophy in Denison university, Granville, Oliio, which in- cluded the presidency of Doane academy and Shepardston college. In June, 1902, he accepted the presidency of the West Virginia university. He took the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Nashville in 1891, and the honorary degree of LL.D. from Denison university in 1887. He is the author of: Contest of the Frogs, an extended poem (1888); Christian Theism: Its Claims and Sanctions (1889); and a number of songs for which he composed music.

PURINTON, George Dana, biologist, was born in Preston county, Va., Oct. 1, 1856; son of the Rev. J. M. and Nancy Alden (Lyon) Purinton; grandson of the Rev. Thomas Purinton, lawyer and physician, of Coleraine, Mass., and subse-