Bahia, on 3 Nov., 1821, and was arrested and sent to Lisbon, but afterward returned and joined the patriot army. After the liberation of Bahia he was promoted by the emperor to the rank of lieu- tenant-colonel, and in command of the artillery in that city he displayed energy in suppressing a mutiny. He took part in the Cisplatine war, and afterward entered the engineer corps, rendering important services in the construction of military works. He also lectured on artillery and field-for- tifications to a class which he opened on 3 May, 1832, and taught chemistry in Bahia. He met his death at the hands of an unknown assassin as he was returning from Bahia to his country residence.
PETER, Robert, chemist, b. in Launceston,
England, 21 Jan., 1805. He received his earliest
education principally in England, and subsequently
by self-instruction. About 1821 he came to the
United States and settled in Pittsburg, where he
learned the drug business. While so engaged he
devoted much attention to botany, and to the con-
chology of the rivers, especially to the unios, also
founding a botanical society, and becoming asso-
ciated in the organization of the Philosophical so-
ciety and the Philological institute of Pittsburg.
At the invitation of Amos Eaton, he studied for a
session at Rensselaer polytechnic institute, Troy,
N. Y., in 1828, where he received the title of lec-
turer on natural and demonstrative science. In
1830-'l he was called to deliver experimental lec-
tures on chemistry at the Western university of
Pennsylvania, and also at the Mechanics' institute
in Pittsburg. In 1832 he delivered a course of
chemical lectures at the Eclectic institute of Lex-
ington, Ky., and was engaged to assist in the
chemical instruction of the medical department
of Transylvania university, also becoming pro-
fessor of chemistry in Morrison college of that uni-
versity. He then entered the medical department,
was graduated in 1834, and in 1838 was appointed
professor of chemistry and pharmacy in that in-
stitution. In 1839 he visited Europe in order to
secure books, anatomical preparations, and appa-
ratus for the university, and at the same time
he attended lectures in Paris and London. He
was associated in founding the Kentucky school
of medicine at Louisville in 1850, but three years
later returned to the Medical school of Lexing-
ton. During the greater part of the civil war he
was employed as acting assistant surgeon in charge
of the U. S. general hospitals in Lexington. In
1865 he was appointed professor of chemistry and
experimental natural philosophy in Kentucky uni-
versity, which in 1866 acquired the Agricultural
and mechanical college of Kentucky, in which he
remanied until 1887, when he was made emeritus.
Dr. Peter was chemist to the Kentucky geological
survey in 1854-'60, and in 1859-'60 conductecT the
chemical department of the geological surveys of
Indiana and Arkansas. This work was interrupted
by the civil war, but resumed in 1875, and since
that year he has again filled the post of chemist to
the Kentucky geological survey. In this capacity
he has accomplished numerous analyses of soils,
ores, waters, and other materials which have been
published in the reports of the surveys. He edited
the " Transylvania Medical Journal " in 1837-'8,
and besides many articles on chemistry, geology,
and medicine, in periodicals and the transactions
of societies of which he is a member, he prepared
the " Geological Formations of Kentucky " for
Collins's " History of Kentucky." His most recent
publications are " A Digest of the Report of the
Geological Survey of Arkansas " and a *' Digest of
the Reports of the First Geological Survey of Ken-
tucky," prepared under the auspices of the U. S.
geological survey.
PETER, Sarah, philanthropist, b. in Valley
Mills. Koss CO., Ohio, 16 May, 1800; d. in Cincin-
nati, Ohio, 6 Feb., 1877. She was the daughter of
Thomas Worthington, governor of Ohio in 1814-'18,
and at the age of sixteen married Edward King,
son of Rufus King. After his death in 1836 she
married in 1844 William Peter, British consul at
Philadelphia. She founded the School of design
for women in that city, which was opened on 2
Dec. 1850, and bestowed her wealth on many
charitable institutions. After Mr. Peter's death
in 1853 she returned to Cincinnati and engaged in
establishing the Ladies' academy of art (now the
Art-school of Cincinnati), for which she bought
pictures and statuary in P]urope. She became a
Roman Catholic in 1856, and has crossed the ocean
nine times on special visits to the pope. She has
established several sisterhoods in Cincinnati, and
founded convents in Philadelphia.
PETERKIN, George William, P. E. bishop,
b. in Clear Spring, Washington co., Md., 21 March,
1841. He studied at the University of Virginia in
1858-'9, enlisted as a private in the Confederate army
in April, 1861, was commissioned 2d lieutenant in
April, 1862, and appointed adjutant of his regiment
in May, 1862, serving until he was paroled at Ap-
pomattox Court-House, 10 April, 1865. He then-
entered the Theological seminary of Virginia, at
Alexandria, and was graduated in June, 1868. He
was ordained deacon in the chapel of the seminary,
24 June, 1868, by Bishop Johns, and priest in the
same place, 25 June, 1869, by Bishop Whittle. He-
passed his diaconate as assistant to his father, the
Rev. Joshua Peterkin, D. D., rector of St. James's
church, Richmond. Va. In June, 1869, he became
rector of St. Stephen's church, Culpepper, Va.,
which post he held for four years. In 1873 he accept-
ed the rectorship of the Memorial church, Baltimore,
Md. He received the degree of D. D. from Kenyon
college, Ohio, in 1878, and from Washington and
Lee University, Va., the same year. When the
diocese of West Virginia was organized in 1877 he
was elected to be its first bishop, and was conse-
crated in St. Matthew's church, Wheeling, Va., 30
May, 1878. Bishop Peterkin has published several
occasional sermons, addresses at the church con-
gress and elsewhere, and has contributed freely
to religious magazines and journals.
PETERS, Absalom, clergyman, b. in Wentworth, N. H., 19 Sept., 1793; d. in New York, city, 18 May. 1869. On his mother's side he was a lineal descendant of John Rogers, the Smithfield martyr. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1816, studied in Princeton theological seminary, and then served as a missionary in northern New Y^ork. From 1820 till 1826 he was pastor of the first church in Bennington, Vt., and he then became secretary of the United domestic missionary society, and aided in forming the American home missionary society, of which he was the first secretary until 1837. He was professor of pastoral theology and homiletics in Union theological seminary, New Y'ork city, in 1842-'4, and then pastor of the first church in Williamstown, Mass., where he remained until 1857. Here he originated and edited the " American Eclectic," and also projected the " American Journal of Education," which was soon merged into Dr. Henry Barnard's journal of the same title. Middlebury gave him the degree of D. D. in 1833. Dr. Peters also edited the •' Home Missionary and American Pastor's Journal " in 1829-37, and the "American Biblical Repository " in 1828-42. He published sermons and polemical treatises, and wrote a vol-
