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** RETURN TO BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX ** ** RETURN TO HISTORY CONTENTS **   JEREMIAH PAULIN - Page 619, Wayne Twp.   FRANCIS PEABODY.  Among the many movements looking toward the elevation and better education of the women of America, perhaps none of the special ideas or departures from the old routine, which have assumed form in effort, has attracted more attention or proved more thoroughly practical than that of which Mrs. Mary Lyon became the exponent.  Her ideas took tangible form in the opening of a school at South Hadley, Massachusetts, known as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, from which hundreds of finely educated and accomplished young women have gone forth to take rank among the foremost educators philanthropists, and practical women in all stations in life.  Among the early pupils of this school was Miss Helen Peabody, now the head of the Oxford Female Seminary.      Some time in 1635 Francis Peabody, of Hertfordshire, England, came to America in the ship Planter, and settled in Massachusetts.  As a descendant from this stock, Ammi Peabody is recorded as having been born July 4, 1769, in Boxford, Essex County, in that State.  He was married to Miss Sarah Johnson then a resident of Newport, New Hampshire, to which place the Peabody family had but a short time, before removed.  To Mr. and Mrs. Peabody were born a family of fourteen children, of whom four sons and three daughters are now living.  The father died at Newport, New Hampshire, in 1845, while the mother was spared till March, 1859.      Helen Peabody, the youngest member of their large family, was born May 6, 1826.  Her girlhood was passed in no manner dissimilar to that of other children of her day, her school advantages being those common to the villagers of New England.  When fourteen or fifteen years of age she spent about a year at the Concord Literary Institute, at Concord, New Hampshire, of which school another brother, the Rev. Charles Peabody, was then the honored and successful principal.  After this Miss Helen was engaged for some two years in teaching in district schools in the vicinity of her Newport home.  She then accepted a position in Kimball Union Academy, in Meriden, New Hampshire, where she remained about a year.      In 1845 she entered Mt. Holyoke Seminary as a pupil under Miss Lyon, and pursued the full curriculum of the graduating course, taking her diploma in the Summer of 1848.  Four the four following years Miss Peabody was connected with her alma mater as one of the faculty, and her relations to the school were of the pleasantest character, she proving herself very efficient in the duties and responsibilities here placed upon her.  But in her earnestness and zeal in her work she found her health becoming undermined, and was compelled to relinquish her position, and the following year she took for rest and visitation among her relatives and friends.  In the Summer of 1854 she engaged as a teacher in a private seminary for young ladies, in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, making her home with her brother Charles, who, at the time, was a resident of that city, and district secretary for the American Tract Society.      The corporators of the Western Female Seminary, which had been located at Oxford about this time, had their seminary buildings nearly completed, and the trustees were on the outlook for just the right person in whose hands they might, with confidence, place the affairs of the new educational venture, as its head and principal.  It had been at the outset decided that the plan, both of the edifice and the school itself, should be modeled on the Mt. Holyoke pattern at South Hadley, and with the faculty of that institution the trustees had frequent correspondence, and it was upon their hearty recommendation that the board first had their attention turned toward Miss Peabody.  In the Summer of 1855 a delegation from this body, consisting of the Rev. Mr. Babb, of Cincinnati, and the Rev. Mr. Bonham, of Oxford, went to St. Louis and had a personal conference with this lady, laying their project before her, and in the name of the trustees pressing the position upon her.  Miss Peabody asked for a little time in which to consider the matter, and the following morning, although strongly drawn toward and attached to the family of her brother Charles, who at this time were in deep sorrow from the recent demise of the wife and mother, and feeling it a duty and privilege to remain, and, in so far as her noble womanly heart and effort could try and supply the loss, especially in the care of a sweet, motherless infant, yet urged by the brother to look upon the opening as a providential one, pointing to duty, she decided to give the committee a favorable answer, accepting the position.      Soon after she came to Oxford, and at once entered with zeal and enthusiasm upon the work which was thus committed to her care, and with such success that about the middle of September following the school was thrown open to the public, equipped with a fine corps of teachers and starting off with an introductory class of about one hundred and fifty pupils.      The entire machinery could hardly be expected to work perfectly smooth, and the first few weeks of a new school, conducted as this was proposed to be, naturally was subject to some unpleasant friction.  The immediate wants of this large family were pressing, but the requisite conveniences were not all just in place.  The cooking range was not finished, nor had all its furniture yet arrived, when the one hundred and fifty young ladies, some with their parents, came swooping down upon the faculty.  The young ladies were at once assigned positions in the culinary department as well as elsewhere in the curriculum of the institution, and strange and unexpected perplexities suddenly arose.  One of these nymphs of the kitchen, referring to these early experiences, gives the following as one of the first problems which confronted her as "freshman" in the first class in the Western Female Seminary: "Given two dripping pans and a brass kettle, it is required to cook meats and vegetables for over one hundred and fifty persons:" and in addition facetiously remarks,  "Never before did we appreciate the capabilities of dripping pans."  Of the perplexities and annoyances consequent upon the opening of the new school, Miss Peabody received and bore her full share, and by the effort thus demanded and nobly performed, she was enabled to send the enterprise prosperously along on its course toward the grand success to which it has attained.      Early in life, probably when about fourteen years of age, Miss Peabody became interested in the subject of personal religion, and about this time made a public profession of her faith in Christ, uniting with the Congregational Church of her native place.  But as with every thing else in her life, the profession of a hope in the Savior meant earnest zealous work for the Master whose cause she had thus early in life espoused, and through all of her subsequent career we easily discover a grand Christian substratum underlying her whole educational work, and constantly coming to the surface in her every-day life and intercourse either with the world outside or the hundreds of loving pupils upon whom in the providence of God, it has been her gracious privilege to exert her personal influence.  While the great work of her life thus far has been that of an educator in the popular acceptation of the term, yet to those to whom Miss Peabody is best known, it is acknowledged that it has ever been her great aim to let the thought, which found expression in the class motto in 1878, "Omnia ad Dei Gloriam" (All to the glory of God), be the ruling principle and motive of her lifework.  When she came to reside at Oxford she sought for and found a spiritual home in the Second Presbyterian Church, continuing her membership with it when the two interests were united as the First Presbyterian Church of Oxford.      Probably two of the most trying experiences in her life were the repeated destruction of the seminary buildings by fire, first on the 14th of January, 1860, and again on the 6th of April, 1871.  But the friends of the institution stood nobly by their heroic and devoted principal, and since the last rebuilding the school ahs to pride itself upon having one of the finest and most commodious edifices of which the West can boast, seemingly complete in all its appointments, and over which it is the heartfelt, earnest prayer of every alumna and friend of the school Miss Helen Peabody may long be spared to preside.  - Page 546, Oxford Twp.   FREDERICK C. PETRI was born in Bavaria December 19, 1838, being the son of George C. Petri and Constance Fey.  He same to America May 2, 1855, soon after being in Liberty township, working for John Flenner.  There he stayed for three years and a half.  Mr. Petri was married on the 20th of March, 1862, to Elizabeth Miller, born in Germany in 1837.  Mr. and Mrs. Petri have been granted five children, of whom three survive.  Cora Anna and born January 18, 1870; Fred C., Jr., July 3, 1872, and Edward, November 1, 1874.      Mr. Petrie conducted the Gebhardt farm, in St. Clair Township, for two years, was one year on the Woodmansee, farm in Liberty Township, two years locating on the place where he now lives in the Spring of 1867. It was known as the Mills place.  It consists if two hundred and forty acres.  In 1874, Mr. Petrie made a trip to Germany with his family, and was gone over six months.  He and his wife are members of the Lutheran Church, at Hamilton.  Mr. Petri and served as school director. - Page 589, Union Twp.   JAMES R. C. PHARES - Page 619, Wayne Twp.   W. D. PHARES - Page 619, Wayne Twp.   WILLIAM C. PHARES - Page 619, Wayne Twp.   ADAM PLANNETT - Page 558, St. Clair Twp.   HOMER PHILLIPS - Page 609, Madison Twp.   JOHN POCOCK - Page 589, Union Twp.   JOSEPH POPPEL - Page 558, St. Clair Twp.   DR. S. H. POTTER.  Dr. Stephen H. Potter is one of the senior physicians and surgeons of Hamilton and vicinity.  He was born in Cortland County, New York, November 12, 1812.  His parents were Stephen and Lydia Potter, who were noted among the early pioneer of Central New York for their enterprise, industry, and integrity.  Until his seventeenth year he was occupied on his father's farm, attending the common schools about one-third of the year, his parents then giving him his time, which he employed in improving his education, working in Summers and teaching school during the Winters.      At the age of twenty-one in March, 1833, he was employed as principal of a high school at Canandaigua, New York, with three assistants, remaining there successfully two years and four months.  The next September after engaging in this school, he also commenced the study of medicine with Dr. E. B. Carr, reciting to him an hour daily, Sundays excepted, until July, 1837, when, in order to pursue his studies more favorably, he went to Olean, New York, with his brother-in-law, Dr. E. W. Finn, who owned a large drug store and had an extensive practice.  Here he devoted his time industriously to these pursuits until September, 1837, when with two other medical students he came to Ohio and attended a medical college six months, graduating honorably, March 15, 1838.  He immediately settled at Canal Winchester, in the Scioto valley, where he enjoyed a large practice until December, 1844, when his father was entirely disabled by palsy, which necessitated his return to Cortland, is native place.  Here he soon received a large patronage among his early school companions and friends, until May, 1849, when his father having died and other relatives being provided for, he settled in the city of Syracuse, New York.  Here with others he organized and had incorporated the Syracuse Medical College, and established, edited, and published the Syracuse Medical and Surgical Journal, a monthly.  The first term of the institution opened the next November 5th, with eighty-seven actual matriculants, and continued two terms each year, of four months each, or thirteen terms, until June, 1855.  In February, 1852, to improve his knowledge of surgery, Dr. Potter went to Philadelphia, and attended the clinics in the Pennsylvania hospital and surgical lectures in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, until the latter part of May.      He continued dean of the Syracuse Medical College and in charge of the Journal until September, 1855, when his wife suffered incipient consumption, rendering it necessary to return to this valley, her native place, hoping that the change might restore her health.  He arranged with his partner, Dr. F. W. Walton, now of Piqua, Ohio, to settled their business.  Dr. Potter then went to Cincinnati, where he accepted the position of lecturer on principals and practice, in the American Medical College, where he continued publishing his journal, and attending the clinics, twice weekly in the Commercial Hospital of that city until June, 1856, when he resigned, sold his journal, and settled with his family permanently in this city, where he has ever since been in active practice, with the exception of two brief intervals.  At the urgent solicitation of friends, in May, 1873, he went to St. Louis, Missouri, and assisted in organizing the American Medical College and the American Medical Journal, which have both enjoyed surprising patronage.  The former is now holding its eighteenth term, and has become a leading institution in the West, and the Journal has attained a large circulation.      The doctor was for four consecutive years president of the Ohio State Eclectic Medical Society, and the past two its recording secretary; he was one of the incorporators and first vice-president of the National Eclectic Medical Association at Chicago in 1870, which organization has since grown to thirty State auxiliary societies, with prosperous working members; and has been the president the most of the time for about twenty-two years of the Miami Medical Society.  He has also been for four years a member of the city council, and is at present a member of the board of health.      The doctor has been married four times, each time happily; has reared seven children to adult age, and, unfortunately, lost as many in infancy and childhood.  He is the well-known author of a "Compendium of the Principles and Practice of Medicine," a book of five hundred pages, a work full of research and a marvel of condensation, for ready reference, and invaluable to busy practitioners and medical students.  It has a large demand, having passed two editions, and has been adopted as a text-book in our medical colleges.      Perhaps the most notable incident in the extended and eventful life of Dr. Potter was the rescue of a fugitive slave named Jerry in Syracuse, New York, about 1852.  It occurred soon after the fugitive slave law was passed, and on the occasion of holding a national anti-slavery convention at that place.  Daniel Webster had recently delivered a speech to an immense concourse there, threatening that "when this convention thronged the city, a noted fugitive would be arrested and taken back to slavery.  The United States Government would teach the people that there was potency in law."  Four United States marshals had been detailed from as many adjacent cities, and the whole police force of Syracuse were ready.  Jerry was arrested and placed in chains.  About thirty thousand people were waiting to witness the scene.  The man, with blue eyes, red cheeks, and brown curly hair, with no other semblance of a negro, was taken away from the officers by the mob, and finally placed by Dr. Potter in the grounds of a residence inhabited by a stiff pro-slavery man, where the most active search failed to find him.  After the lapse of a week, and search having been made from house to house, when detection was imminent, the doctor arranged with Jerry's host to drive in with a meat wagon, got Jerry in, and, covered with blankets, he drove before the door of the Syracuse House, hitched, went in with the doctor, took cigars, and drove out through the city about 4 P. M. in beautiful sunshine, no one suspecting the presence of Jerry.  After reaching Brewerton, seventeen miles, Dr. Potter took Jerry in his carriage, sending the team back, and conveyed the fugitive to Mexicoville and by the underground railroad to a small harbor on Lake Ontario, whence he obtained a passage on a small sailing vessel to Canada.  No more noted fugitive slave case ever occurred in the United States, and in it the doctor was the principal agent of success.   JAMES BROOK PUGH - Page 548, Oxford Twp.   F. B. PUTHOFF, mayor of the city of Hamilton, was. born at Cincinnati, April 20, 1843. His parents, John Henry and Mary Elizabeth (Borger) Puthoff, were natives of Osnabrick, in Hanover. Mr. and Mrs. Puthoff came to this country about 1834, settling in Cincinnati, where the father soon built up a prosperous business, and where he still lives, at the age of. seventy-five. Mrs. Puthoff died in 1879: Frederick B. Puthoff attended the schools of Cincinnati, and at the age of eleven was sent to boarding school at Dayton, where he remained for two years, and exhibited marked profi­ciency in his studies. He then returned to Cincinnati, where he entered St. Xavier College, being there for two years more. He then was employed as a clerk in different stores, being in this occupation until he had reached his eighteenth year.      He tried to enlist at the beginning of the war, but on account of his age, and from the fact that he had two older brothers already in the service, they refused to take him. Mr. Puthoff did not take the refusal of the recruiting officers to accept him with resignation. He ran away from home and boarded the boat that took the regiment to Ripley, Ohio, where he found his two older brothers, who informed the officers of the circumstances, and requested them to return him to Cincinnati, which was done. Four months after, he ran away again, joining the commissary department, and acting as one of the clerks. With this department he remained for a year. He then returned home and began learning the cabinet-maker's trade, at which he continued until of age in 1864. One day shortly after, he left the shop with his working cap and apron on, and walked up to the recruiting office, where he enlisted in the Second Ohio Cavalry, returning to his employer's place in uniform. With other recruits he was sent to Harpers Ferry, after being drilled for some time at Columbus, and was placed in the. brigade under command of General Custer. They remained in Virginia until the close of the war, and after the grand review at Washington were sent to Arkansas. Upon his return home to Cincinnati he engaged as a salesman in the furniture business with Duncan & Williams, wholesale dealers, remaining there until 1867. He was married in 1867, and every thing went on well. He was then living in St. Louis, his employers in that place being Corastock & Haywood. After being there some months he was sent by them to Peoria, Illinois, to act as salesman and assistant manager of a branch house. His wife died the year following, on the 14th of May, 1868, one week after giving birth to twins.      Mr. Puthoff remained in Peoria until 1870, when he came to Hamilton, where a brother was engaged in the drug business. Here also was his daughter. With what means he had saved from his salary as salesman he bought a stock of goods and opened a hat store, continuing in that business until May, 1881. A short time after his coming to the town his fellow citizens perceived that he had a natural adaptability to the public service. He was always ready for committee work or for labor at the polls, and spoke readily and effectively. He was elected a member of the city council from the First Ward in 1878, and signalized his term of two years in that capacity by vigorous and successful efforts for sewerage, parks, improvements of streets, and other municipal improvements. He refused a re-election, which was proffered him, but his popularity brought him out as a candidate, against his own wishes, for the State Legis­lature, but he failed to secure the nomination in convention.      In 1881 he was named for the office of mayor, and was triumphantly elected, receiving the largest majority ever given in the city—six hundred. The candidate on the other side was the popular M. N. Maginnis. During his administration of affairs the city has been distinguished by its quiet and the respect paid to law. The death of Garfield happened since he was in office. Every preparation had been made here for celebrating the anniversary of the nation's birth with unusual distinction. Mayor Puthoff issued a manifesto requesting the citizens to desist from the public demonstrations intended. A citizens' meeting was called by him to express sorrow and detestation of the crime, and at this meeting the mayor spoke weightily and with feeling. The proposed celebration was abandoned. He exerted himself at the time of the proposed execution of the new liquor law by his efforts to secure a hearty and free submission to it, and to allay any animosities that might have sprung from this cause. Mayor Puthoff is a member of the Knights of Honor and the Knights and Ladies of Honor, and is a member of the Soldiers and Sailors' Association. He was married to his second and present wife, Helen McCafferty, of Macomb, Illinois, but a native of Nauvoo, in the same State, on the 18th of July, 1870. Three, children by this wife are living. The oldest, Fred. L., is nine years of age; the second, Mary E., died at the age of three; Eva H. is two years of age; and the youngest, a little girl a year old. Anna M., the daughter of the first wife, is fourteen years of age, and attends a boarding school in Cincinnati. Mr. Puthoff has well discharged the duties of the offices confided to him, and has shown by his ability his capacity to take other and larger trusts.                 NOTES: