PURCELL
PURINTOX
(^f//;^--^
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,
- who was his
■ vicar - general,
- 'f and also en-
'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
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-
