Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/764

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PENNINGTON
PENNOCK

when six members were to be chosen by a general ticket in New Jersey. In two of the counties the clerks had rejected "some of the township returns for real or alleged irregularities, and thus five of the Whig candidates received majorities which they would not have obtained had all the votes been counted. The sixth, having run ahead of his ticket, was elected beyond dispute. The governor and his council, in accordance with the law then in force, canvassed the votes, and to the six persons who had re- ceived the highest num- ber, issued commissions under the great seal of the state. Congress, on convening, found that the five votes from New Jersey must decide the speakership, and this

gave rise to a stormy

debate, which lasted several days, and finally ended in the choice of John Quincy Adams as temporary chairman. He decided thai: all members holding commissions could vote ; but the decision, being appealed from, was reversed and a resolution adopted that only the names of members holding uncontested seats should be called. On the twelfth day of the session Robert M. T. Hunter was chosen speaker, and on 28 Feb. the five Democratic members were admitted to their seats. The sub- ject was referred to a committee, which reported tliat the sitting members were elected. It was gen- erally admitted that the governor had no option but to fill the commissions as he did. He was clerk of the U. S. district court in 1815-26, and afterward declined appointments as governor of Minnesota territory, and as one of the judges to settle claims under the Mexican treaty. He was elected to congress as a Republican, served in 1859- '61, and was chosen speaker in February, 1860, after a contest that lasted over eight weeks. — Another son, Aaron S., b. in Newark, N. J., 17 Jan., 1800 ; d. in Paterson, N. J., 25 Aug., 1869, attained repu- tation as a chancery lawyer, and was state senator and prosecutor of the pleas for Passaic county, and acting governor of the Society for establishing use- ful manufactures. — William Sanford's brother, Samuel, editor, b. in Newark, N. J., 8 March, 1765 ; d. there, 6 March, 1835, became in 1799 editor and one of the proprietors of the " Sentinel of Free- dom " in Newark, N.J. Between 1810 and 1825 he was elected eleven times a member of the legis- lature, and was once speaker of the house. In 1827 he was a member of the state council. — Samuel's second son, Samuel Hayes, physician, b. in New- ark, N. J., 16 Oct., 1806, was graduated at Prince- ton in 1825, and has been since 1856 a trustee of that institution. In 1876 he was made president of the board of trustees of the theological seminary in the same place. He is the author of many con- tributions to medical science as well as of numerous addresses and papers on the subject of education and kindred topics. — Another son, Alexauder Cummings Macwhorter, lawver, b. in Newark, N. J., 2 July, 1810 ; d. in New York city, 25 Jan., 1867, entered the U. S. military academy, but after the expiration of two years he resigned his cadet- ship, studied law, and practised in Newark, N. J. In 1837-'8 he was a member of the general assembly of New Jersey. In 1852 he was elected to congress as a Whig, serving two terms. For many years he was brigadier-general of New Jersey militia.


PENNOCK. Alexander Mosely, naval officer, b. in Norfolk, Va., 1 Nov., 1813 ; d. in Portsmouth, N. H., 20 Sept., 1876. He was appointed to the navy from Tennessee on 1 April, 1828, served on the frigate " Guerriere," in the Pacific squadron, in 1829-30, and on the sloop " Natchez," in the Bra- zil squadron, in 1834. He was promoted lieutenant, 25 March, 1839, was light-house inspector in 1853-'6, and on 15 Dec, 1855, was commissioned commander. He was on special duty connected with the steam frigate " Niagara " in 1857, com- manded the steamer " Southern Star," of the Bra- zil squadron, and in the Paraguay expedition in 1859-'60, and was again detailed as light-house in- spector in 1861. In the last-named year Com- mander Pennock was ordered to duty as fleet cap- tain of the Mississippi squadron, where he remained till the autumn of 1864, gaining a reputation for executive ability of a high order. He was com- missioned captain, 2 Jan., 1863, in 1866-'7 was on duty at the Brooklyn navy-yard, and in 1868 was appointed to the frigate " Franklin," then Farra- gut's fiag-ship, of the European squadron. He was commissioned commodore, 6 May, 1868, and in 1869 was in charge of the European squadron. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1872.


PENNOCK, Barclay, author, b. in East Marl- borough, Chester co., Pa., 26 Jan., 1821 : d. there, 9 March, 1859. He received a classical education, then went to Europe and spent two years in the study of the language and literature of Germany, France, and Italy. While abroad he was one of the travelling party that was led by Bayard Taylor, the story of which tour is told in the latter's " Views Afoot." In 1851 he made a second trip to Europe, where he passed several years, much of his time being spent in Norway and "Sweden study- ing the language of those countries. On his re- turn to the United States he engaged in literary pursuits, and translated Keyser's " Religion of the Northmen," with additions (New York, 1857). At his death he left ready for the press two other translations, one a romance of Iceland about the time of the introduction of Christianity there, and a volume of Scandinavian folk-lore.


PENNOCK, Casper Wistar, physician, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 2 July, 1799; d. in Howellsville, Chester co.. Pa., 16 April, 1867. He became a farmer, and opened an evening-school for negroes in his neighborhood, teaching it himself after the labors of the day. He then entered on the study of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and after graduation in 1828 spent some time in the almshouse hospital, and then went to Paris, where he remained for two years. In 1835 he be- came an attending physician at the Philadelphia hospital, where he and Dr. William W. Gerhard, his colleague, studied the symptoms and pathologi- cal anatomy of typhus fever. The results of their joint study, which were published by Dr. Gerhard, have been of great value. He also entered on a course of investigation on the play of the heart in animals, but soon afterward he was prostrated by disease, and for more than twenty years before his death labored under an unusual form of paralysis. In accordance with directions that he had given some years before his death, a post-mortem was held by several eminent physicians, and a report of the case, the first of the kind that had been noted in this country, by Dr. J. C. Morris, was published in the " Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia" (4 Dec, 1867), and afterward