Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/90

, and at Andover theological seminary in 1814. He was ordained in the Presbyterian church at Newburyport. Mass., in June. 1815, and in the fol- lowing October sailed with his wife and four other missionaries for Ceylon, where he arrived in March. 1816, and organized a mission-school. He went to Matura. southern India, in 1836, organized thirty- seven schools, which he visited in succession, and frequently addressed from horse-back crowds of adult natives. Impaired health compelled his re- turn to the United States in 1849, where he spent two years in addressing meetings on missionary work. Returning to Ceylon in 1851. he settled at Manepy, and labored incessantly until an epidemic of cholera terminated his labors. Dr. Poor took high rank as a scholar, and he was peculiarly quali- fied to labor among the religious sects of India and Ceylon. He was given the degree of D. D. by Dartmouth in 1835. He published numerous re- ligious, temperance, and other tracts in the Tamil and English languages, and was a contributor to the " Bibliotheca Sacra." His son, Daniel War- ren, clergyman, b. in Tillipally, Ceylon, 21 Aug.. 1818; d. ID Newark, N. J.. 11 Act,. 1897. He was graduated at Arnherst and at Andoverseminary,and was pastor of Presbyterian churches at Fairhaveii, Mass.. in 1843-'8, Newark, N. J., in 1849-69. and Oakland, Cal.. in 1869-72. In 1871 he was ap- pointed professorof ecclesiastical history andchurch government in San Francisco theological seminary, and he held the chair until 1876. when he became corresponding secretary of the Presbyterian board of education at Philadelphia. Dr. Poor organized the church of which he was pastor in Newark, and was also instrumental in building up three German churches within the bounds of his presby- tery, and in organizing one in Philadelphia. He was also active in founding the German theologi- cal school at Bloomfield, N. J. He received the de- gree of D. D. from Princeton in 1857. Besides oc- casional sermons and pamphlets, he had published " Select Discourses from the French and German," with Rev. Henry C. Fish (New York. 1858), and, with Rev. Conway P. Wing, " The Epistles t tin Corinthians." from the German of Lange (1868).

POOR. Enoch, soldier, b. in Andover, Mass., 21 June, 1736 ; d. near Hackensack, N. J., 8 Sept., 1780. He was educated in his native place, and removing to Exeter, N. H., engaged in business there until the bat- tle of Lexington, when the New Hampshire assem- bly resolved to raise 2.000 men. Three regiments were formed, and the command of one of them was given to Poor. Af- ter the evacuation of Boston he was sent to New York, and was afterward ordered to join the disastrous Cana- dian expedition with his regiment.

On t he retreat from

Canada the Americans concentrated near Cn >vn Point, and Col. Poor was actively occupied in strengthening the defences of that post until a council of general officers advised its evacuation, which was accordingly ordered by Gen. Philip Schuyler. Against this step twenty-one of the field-officers, headed by Poor. John Stark, and William Maxwell, sent in a written remonstrance. Gen. Washington, on being appealed to, while re- fusing to overrule Gen. Schuyler's action, concurred distinctly in the views of the remonstrants as to the impolicy of the measure. On 21 Feb., 1777, Poor was commissioned brigadier-general, and he held a command in the campaign against Bur- goyne. In the hard-fought but indecisive engage- ment at Stillwater. Gen. Poor's brigade sustained more than two thirds of the whole American loss in killed, wounded, and missing. At the battle of Saratoga, Poor led the attack. The vigor and gal- lantry "of the charge, supported by an adroit and furious onslaught from Col. Daniel Morgan, could not be resisted, and the British line was broken. After the surrender of Burgoyne, Poor joined Washington in Pennsylvania, and subsequently shared in the hardships and sufferings of the army at Valley Forge. During the dreary winter that was spent by the Revolutionary army in that en- campment, no officer exerted himself with greater earnestness to obtain relief. He wrote urgently to the legislature of New Hampshire : " I am every day." lie said, referring to his men, "beholding their sufferings, and am every morning awakened by the lamentable tale of their distresses. ... If they desert, how can I punish them, when they plead in justification that the contract on your part is broken?" Gen. Poor was among the first to set out with his brigade in pursuit of the British across New Jersey in the summer of 177S. and fought gallantly under Lafayette at the battle of Monmouth. In 1779 he commanded the second nr New Hampshire brigade, in the expedition of Gen. John Sullivan against the Indians of the Six Nations. When, in August, 1780, a corps of light infantry was formed composed of two brigades, the command of one of them was given, at the request of Lafayette, to Gen. Poor : but he survived his ap- pointment only a few weeks, being stricken dnvn by fever. In announcing his death. Gen. Washing- ton declared him to be " an officer of distinguished merit, who, as a citizen and a soldier, had every claim to the esteem of his country." In 1824. when Lafayette visited New Hampshire, at a banquet in his honor, he was called upon by a gray-haired veteran for a sentiment. Lifting his glass to his- lips, and after a few explanatory words, he gave : " Light-infantry Poor and Yorktown Scammel." He had seen the latter mortally wounded at the battle of Yorktown. Both men were New Eng- landers. Gen. Poor was buried in Hackensack,. where a fine monument marks his grave.

POOR. John Alfred, journalist, b. in Andover, Oxford co.. Me., 8 Jan., 1808: d. in Portland. Me., 5 Sept., 1871. He studied law. was admitted to the bar, and practised at Bangor. but afterward re- moved to Portland. In the latin- city he was for several years editor of the " State of Maine," a daily paper, and he subsequently served in the legislature. He was the first active promoter of the present railroad system of his native state, originated the European and North American line, and was president of the proposed Portland. Rut- land and Oswego road. He was an active member of the Maine historical society, under whose au- spices he published "A Vindication of the Claims of Sir Ferdinando Gorges as the Founder of English Colonization in America" (New York. 1862). He also delivered the address at the commemoration, on 15 Aug.. 1853, of the founding of the Popham colony at the mouth of the Kennebec (1863).

POORE, Benjamin Perley, journalist, b. near Newburyport. Mass.. 2 Nov.. 1N20; d. in Washing-