Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/457

 PURVIS

PUTNAM

where he commanded the brig Dolphin and tlae sloop Fairfield, 1837-38, and during this service he relieved an American schooner from the French blockade at Salado, River Platte, for which act he received complimentary recogni- tion from the U.S. government. He was on the Brandyioiiie of the Mediterranean squadron, 1841-

42; in com- of the brig ^ >v^^ Pioneer on

the coast of Africa in 1843,

and of the ^^ U.S. frigate Constitn- ''^'^ lion in the Mexican blockade in 1846. As commander, which rank he attained March 7, 1849, he was on the re- ceiving-ship Consort at Baltimore, Md., 1850-51, and the sloop il/a?'/o?i on thecoastof Africa, 1852- 55. As captain, to which rank he was promoted Jan. 28, 1856, he commanded the frigate St. Laiv- rence in the blockade of Charleston and the south- ern coast in 1861, and captured and sunk the Con- federate privateer Petrel when just twelve hours out. He also captured several other prizes and en- gaged his ship in the fight with the Merrimac, March 9, 1862, and in the attack on Sewall's Point, Hampden Roads. He was retired Dec. 21, 1861; was promoted commodore on the retired list July 16, 1862; served as light-house inspector, 1863-65, and was promoted rear-admiral on the retired list Feb. 25, 1881. He died in Baltimore, Md., Oct. 21. 1882.

PURVIS, Robert, abolitionist, was born in Charleston, S.C. Aug. 4, 1810; son of William and Harriet (Badaracka) Purvis. His father, a native of Northumberland, England, was a cotton broker, and an abolitionist. His niother was the daughter of Baron Judah Badaracka, a German Jew, and his wife Dida, a Moor and East Indian. He received a liberal education in Pennsylvania, completing it at Amherst college. Benjamin Lundy met him in 1830. and the two began an antislavery crusade. He was married in 1831 to Harriet D., daughter of James and Charlotte Foster, He was one of the sixty founders of the American Antislavery society at Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 4, 1833; signed its declaration of senti- ments, and was its vice-president and its last sur- vivor. He was also president of the Pennsylva- nia Antislavery society, and organizer and presi- dent of the so-called " underground railroad " in 1838, of which his home was a station, giving his personal attention to all fugitives en route to Canada, although often at the peril of his life. When John G. Whittier was his guest, the two

were mobbed in Pennsylvania Hall. He was inti- mately associated with William Lloyd Garrison, whom he assisted in establishing and maintain- ing the Liberator, and he labored to have Presi- dent Lincoln place the civil war on an antislavery basis in 1861. After the proclamation of emanci- pation he became the first vice-president of the Woman Suffrage society. He was also identi- fied with the temperance cause, the labor move- ment, and the movement to reform political methods in the city of Philadelphia. He was a speaker of much force and eloquence and presid- ed at the semi-centennial anniversary of the American Antislavery society in 1883. He died in Philadelphia. Pa., April 15, 1898.

PURVEAR, Bennet, educator, was born in Mecklenburg county, Va., July 23, 1826; son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Marshall) Puryear: grand- son of John and Mary (Hubbard) Puryear. and a descendant of John and Anne (Bennet) Goode, who came to Virginia from Berkshire. England, in 1658, and settled at Whitby on the James, naming it after the old home in England. He was graduated with the highest honors at Ran- dolph-Macon college, A.B., 1847. A.M., 1850; taught school in Monroe county, Ala., 1847-48; was tutor in Richmond college, Va., 1850-51; professor of natural sciences, 1851-58, and profes- sor of chemistry and geolog\' at Randolph-Macon college, 1858-66. He returned to the chair of natural sciences at Richmond college in 1866; was chairman of the faculty, 1869-75, with the exception of four years (1885-88), and professor of chemistry, 1873-95. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Georgetown college, Ky., and by Howard college, Ala., in 1878. He was married, first, to Virginia C, daughter of Nathaniel and Sallie (Massie) Ragland; and secondly, to Ella M., daughter of Leroy B. and Elizabeth (Puryear) Wyles. He is the author of many educational and political papers, including those on The Virginia Debt and The Public School in its Relation to the Negro. In December, 1902, he was residing in Orange county, near Orange, C.H.. Virginia.

PUTNAM, Albigence Waldo, author, was born in Belpre, Ohio. March 11, 1799; son of Aaron Waldo and Charlotte (Loring) Putnam; grandson of Israel and Sarah (Waldo) Putnam and of Col. Daniel Loring of Ohio, and great-grandson of Gen. Israel Putnam. He engaged in the practice of law first in Mississippi, and after 1836 in Nash- ville, Tenn. He was president of the Tennessee Historical society, conti'ibuted to its publication, and is the author of: A History of Middle Ten- nessee (1859); Life and Times of Gen. James Rober'tson (1859). and Life of Gen. John Sevier in Wheeler's "History of North Carolina." He died in Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 20, 1869.