Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/446

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PKOCTEii


PROCTOR


was appointed superintendent of awards at the Pan-American exposition of 1901. The degree of Pli.D. wivs conferred on him by the University of Munich in 1894 ; and tliat of LL.D. by Haniil- tou in 1900 ; Harvard in 1901 ; Yale in 1901 ; the University of Pennsylvania in 1901. and Jolnis Hopkins in 190'3. He is the author of many valuable paj>ers on astronomy.

PROCTER, John Robert, geologist and civil service reformer, was born in Mason county, Kentucky. March 16, 1844 ; son of George Morton and Anna Maria (Young) Procter : grandson of Abram Buford and Mary (Lurty) Procter, and of Wilioushby Tibbs andJuditii (Cook) Young, and a de- scendant on botli sides from soldiers of Virginia in the Revo- lution. He received liis primary education in his native county ; took the scientific course in the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, 1863-64. and left to join the Confederate

JUvw\X\ mCT "™':/° 1864 serving ji^ m the artillery as

^— ^ lieutenant, October,

1864-April. 1865. He was married in 1869. to Julia Leslie, daughter of John Porter and Eliza- beth (Andrews) Dobyns, and had three sons ; one of whom, Andre Morton, became lieutenant in the U.S. navy ; another, JohnR., Jr., lieutenant in the artillery, U.S.A., both serving in the Spanish-American war, 1898. Mr. Procter made his home on his farm in Mason county, 1865-73 ; was assistant on the state geological survey, 1873-80, and head of the survey from 18S0 until its close in 1893, succeeding Professor Shaler. During his service he refused to make appoint- ments as awards for ixjlitical services, or to re- move competent assistants who happened to be of opposite political party, being sustained in this course by the governors of the state until 1893. In that N'ear the governor advocated the claims of certain of his political friends to appointment, and Mr. Procter advised that the survey be closed rather than used for advancing political in- terests. He served on the jury of awards on mines and mining during the Columbian exposi- tion at Chicago, 1893, and on Dec. 2, 1893, was appointed president of the U.S. civil service commission, which office he still held in 1903. He was elected a member of the Geological Society of America ; a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; president of the Cosmos club of Washington, and


Ji member of the Century association of New York. His publications include reports on his work on the geological survey of Kentucky, and contributions to magazines on civil service, economic and international subjects.

PROCTOR, Edna Dean, poet, was born in Hen- niktr, N.H.. Sept. 18, 1829 ; daughter of John and Lucinda (Gould) Proctor ; granddaughter of John and Hannah (Cogswell) Proctor and of Elias and Sally (Hilton) Gould, and a descendant of John Proctor of England (born 1595), who came to Ipswich, Mass.. in 1635. and afterward removed to Salem. She entered Mount Holyoke seminary with the class of 1845 ; continued her education in Concord, N.H., and subsequently resided in Brooklyn, N.Y. She contributed to the New York Independent prose and verse, Including The IVhite Slaves, which interested the poet John G. Whittier, and resulted in a life-long friend- ship. She traveled extensively in foreign coun- tries ; edited Extracts from Henry Ward Beecher's Sermo7is (1858), and is the author of: Poems (1866 and 1890); .4 Russian Journey (1872 and 1890) : TJie Song of the A7icient People (1893), and Tlie Mountain Maid and other Poems of Neio Hampshire (1900). It was the chapter on Sevas- topol in A Russian Journey that moved the Eng- lish to put their Crimean cemetery into proper condition and place a fitting monument therein. Among her best known poems are : TI7(o"s Ready?; The Grave of Lincoln; Heroes; By the Shenandoah; El Mahdi to the Tribes of the Sou- dan; Columbia's Emblem, celebrating the maize, and widely copied and praised ; Columbia's Ban- ner, read in the public schools throughout the country on Columbus day of the Columbian year; The Doom of the Wliite Jfi7/s, influential in the movement to save the New Hampshire forests ; and New Hampshire.

PROCTOR, Lucien Brock, author, was born in Hanover, N.H., March 6. 1826 ; son of Jonathan and Ruth (Carter) Proctor : grandson of Jonathan and Martha (Graves) Proctor, and a descendant of Robert (who settled in Concord, Mass., about 1643, and in Chelmsford, Mass., in 1654) and Jane (Hildreth) Proctor. He was graduated at Hamil- ton college, A.B., 1844, A.M., 1847 ; was admitted to the bar, and practised at Port Byron. N.Y. , 1847-49, and at Dansville, N.Y., 1849-63. In 1863 he abandoned the practice of law to devote him- self to literature, becoming a regular contributor to the Albany Laio Journal in 1869. He is the author of: The Bench and Bar of the State of Neiv York (1870); Lives of the New Yoi-k State Chancellors ( 1875) ; The Life and Times of Thomas Addis Emmet (1876); Lawyer and Client (1879); The Bench and Bar of King's County (1883) : The L,egal History of Albany and Schenectady Coun- ties (1884); and Early History of the Board of