Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Powers, Horatio Nelson

POWERS, Horatio Nelson, author, b. in Amenia, N. Y., 30 April, 1826; d. in Piermont, N. Y., 6 Sept., 1890. He was graduated at Union college in 1850, at the General theological seminary of the Protestant Episcopal church, New York city, and was ordained a deacon in Trinity church, New York. He was assistant at Lancaster, Pa., till April, 1857; rector of St. Luke's church, Davenport, Iowa, in 1857-'62; of St. John's church, Chicago, in 1868-'74; of Christ church, Bridgeport, Conn., in 1875-'84; and became rector of Christ church, Piermont, N. Y., in 1886. He was president of Griswold college in 1864-'7, and president of the Foundlings' home, Chicago, in 1872-'4. He received the degree of D. D. from Union college in 1867. Dr. Powers published “Through the Year” (Boston, 1875); “Poems, Early and Late” (Chicago, 1876); and “Ten Years of Song” (Boston, 1887); and was one of the authors of “Homes and Haunts of our Elder Poets” (New York, 1881).—His brother, Edward, civil engineer, b. in Amenia, Dutchess co., N. Y., 1 Sept., 1830, was educated in the public schools. He served as a civilian clerk in the quartermaster's department during the civil war, afterward taught for a time, and then became a civil engineer. In 1872 and 1874 he unsuccessfully petitioned congress that an experiment might be performed with the powder and cannon of the United States to determine the influence of explosions on rainfall, with a view to the prevention of droughts. He has published “War and the Weather, or the Artificial Production of Rain” (Chicago, 1871).