Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/681

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PALMER
PAXCOAST

tion," held weekly meetings at her home for the advancement of this doctrine for nearly fifty years. They travelled extensively in this country and in Europe in supporting their views. She was an editor of a monthly magazine entitled " The Guide to Holiness," and she was the author of " The Way -of Holiness " (New York, 1845) ; " Entire Devotion " (1845); "Faith and its Effects " (1846) ; "Inciden- tal Hlustrations of the Economy of Salvation" 1852) ; " Promises of the Father " (1850) ; " Four Years in the Old World " (1865) : " Pioneer Expe- riences " (1867) ; and " Sweet Mary ; or A Bride made ready for her Lord" (England, 1862). In 1876 her sister, Mrs. Sarah Lankford, became the second wife of Dr. Palmer, who died in 1883, and subsequently edited " The Guide to Holiness." See "Life and Letters of Mrs. Phoebe Palmer," edited by the Rev. Richard Wheatley (New York, 1876).


PALMER, Thomas Witherell, senator, b. in Detroit, Mich., 25 Jan., 1830. After studying in the University of Michigan he made a pedestrian tour in Spain, travelled in South America, and then engaged in mercantile life in Wisconsin. He entered the real estate business in Detroit in 1853, then became a lumber merchant, and was active in politics of the state, serving as a member of the board of estimates, and as a state senator in 1878. He was defeated for congress in 1876, but was elected a U. S. senator from Michigan for a term of six years, from 4 March, 1883. He was president of the Waterways convention held in Sault Sainte Marie under the auspices of the Duluth chamber of commerce, in August, 1887, to consider the condi- tion of affairs resulting from the increase of com- merce between Lake Superior and the lower lakes.


PALMER, William Adams, senator, b. in Hebron, Conn., 12 Sept., 1791 ; d. in Danville, Vt., 3 Dec, 1860. He was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1817, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began to practise in Vermont. He served for eight years in the legislature, during two of which he was state senator, was clerk of courts, and afterward judge of the probate, of the county court, and of the supreme court in 1816-'18. He was elected a U. S. senator in place of James Fisk, serving from 16 Nov., 1818, till 3 March, 1825. Mr. Palmer was a delegate to the State constitutional conventions of 1828 and 1835, and was governor of Vermont from 1831 till 1835.


PALMER, William Henry, magician, b. in Canterbury, England, in 1828 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 18 Nov., 1878. His father, Henry Palmer, was the organist in Canterbury cathedral, and intended his son, who was a musical prodigy, to succeed him. At the age of twelve the son played the piano before Liszt, by whom he was commended. He received a good education in Kent, and subse- quently became a fellow of the Royal academy in London, and while a student there gave his first magical entertainment. In 1852 he came to this country, assuming the name of Robert Heller, for a time taught music in Washington, D. C, and then adopted the profession of a magician, ac- quiring a fortune by his public performances. His best-known trick, by which he made a wide repu- tation, was called " second sight," and was per- formed in conjunction with an assistant, who cor- rectly and minutely described unseen articles of .all kinds that were handed to Heller as he stood among the audience in the body of the house, while the assistant was on the stage. He directed in his will that all the secret apparatus and me- chanical devices connected with his art, many of which were his own invention, should be destroyed ; but this was not done.


PALMER, William Pitt, poet, b. in Stock- bridge, Mass., 22 Feb., 1805; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 2 May, 1884. He was graduated at Williams in 1828, taught in New York city, studied medicine, and became a journalist. He was president of the Manhattan insurance company, and after its failure, which was owing to the Chicago and Boston fires, he became vice-president of the Irving insurance company. He was the author of numerous poems, several of which, such as the " Ode to Light " and " Orpheus and Eurydice," gained wide reputation.


PALOMINO, Juan Alonso (pah-lo-me'-no), Spanish soldier, b. in Andalusia late in the 15th cen- tury ; d. in Cuzco, 16 Nov., 1553. He went to Peru after the death of Atahualpa, and is first mentioned as fighting in the battle of Salinas on the side of Almagro. After the victory of Gonzalo Pizarrohe was banished by the latter, and took part in the unfortunate expedition of Pedro Candia to the east of the Andes range. When Pizarro pronounced in rebellion against the viceroy Nunez Vela, Palomino followed the former's party and was sent to the fleet of Pedro de Hinojosa, by whom he was com- missioned to capture a brother of the viceroy, who had been sent to Spain with Pizarro's son as pris- oner. He overtook Nunez in Buenaventura and took him captive to Peru, releasing Pizarro's son. When President Pedro de la Gasca arrived, Palo- mino with the fleet went over to the royalist side, and was sent to Callao to gather the fugitives from Pizarro's party, and as captain of infantry he took part in the passage of Apurimac river and the battle of Sacsahuana, where Pizarro was defeated. When Francisco Hernandez Giron (q. v.) made his first attempt at revolution. Palomino fled to Lima, cutting the bridges of Apurimac and Abancay, but after Giron's pardon he returned to Cuzco, and during the second successful revolt, on 12 Nov., was attacked by the rebels during a festivity and dangerously wounded, dying^a few days after.


PANAX, Charles Louis Etienne, Chevalier de, French naval officer, b. in Brest in 1762 ; d. in Paris, 26 Jan., 1834. He was the fourth son of Count de Panat, a " chef d'escadre," who had dis- tinguished himself in Canadian waters. Entering the navy as a midshipman in 1776, the son took part in the war for American independence, and, although only a 2d lieutenant in 1780, he was in- trusted with the command of a brig, and captured many English vessels near Boston. In the combat in Chesapeake bay between the first division of De Grasse's fleet and the British squadron he took an English frigate, and he afterward commanded a company of marines in the two assaults on York- town, where he was severely wounded. After the conclusion of peace in 1783 he was promoted cap- tain, created knight of Saint Louis, and made a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. In 1790 he took part in the first expedition of Santo Do- mingo, but, disapproving the principles of the French revolution, he resigned and emigrated in 1792. He returned to Paris in 1800, and held dur- ing the whole of Napoleon's reign the office of per- manent under-secretary of the navy, which he exchanged at the restoration of Louis XVIII. for that of secretary-general to the board of admiralty, with the rank of rear-admiral. He published " Histoire des operations des armees navales pen- dant la guerre pour I'independance de I'Amerique, de 1778 a 1782, dans le ^golfe du Mexique, aux Antilles, sur les cotes des Etats-Unis, de la Florida a Boston, et dans I'ocean Indien " (Paris, 1813).


PANCOAST, Joseph, surgeon, b. in Burlington county, N. J., in 1805 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 7 March, 1882. He was graduated at the medical