Peru Italian Blackerby Ping (1842-1890)

                                                 Portrait courtesy of Mr. Lynn Summers.

   As we say goodbye to 2015 and hello to the new year it's time to devote 2015's final posting to a man who has duly earned the title of  "Strangest Name of the Year". Following in the stead of Omicron Pi Lockhart in 2013 and Uno Sylvanus Augustus Heggblom last December, this year's honoree hails from Kansas, where he served two terms in the state senate from Crawford County. His name? Peru Italian Blackerby Ping! If you were like me, your jaw literally dropped to the floor when the sight of that impressive name caught your eye, and hiding behind that unique, lengthy name is the story of a man who imbued the pioneer spirit of the mid-19th century, being a resident of Iowa, Kansas, and Oregon during his short life of just 47 years. 

   I'd like to begin with a small bit of background as to how this particular article came into being. In October of last year, I located the name of "P.I.B. Ping" listed amongst a number of other prominent Kansans in a work entitled "The United States Biographical Dictionary: Kansas Volume", published in 1879. After this initial discovery, I had an inkling that I was about to uncover a highly unusual name. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. A Find-a-Grave listing for "Peru Italian Blackerby Ping" soon revealed his full name, and I soon set to work finding out more about the man who is in all likelihood the oddest named individual ever to be elected to public office in Kansas. Sadly, following my initial discovery of Ping in the aforementioned work, little else could be located on him. A Facebook message to the Crawford County, Kansas Historical Society requesting a portrait and further information on Ping went unanswered, and after several months I was beginning to think that Mr. Ping would forever remain that "faceless" Kansas senator with an unbelievably unique name. 

   All of that changed in November of this year when I discovered a link to a portrait of Mr. Ping via ancestry.com, and after leaving a short message there requesting information I began a fruitful correspondence with one Lynn Summers, who, as it so happens, is the great-grandson of Peru I.B. Ping. Besides allowing the use of the rare portrait of Ping featured above, Lynn was also kind enough to send along several pertinent details on his great-grandfather's life, including ample information on Ping's stay in Oregon (which I'd previously been unaware of), as well as excerpts of newspaper articles written by him for the Girard Press. I am forever grateful to Lynn for sharing his wealth of knowledge on his great-grandfather, and this article would not have been possible without his help! 

    An Iowan by birth, Peru Italian Blackerby Ping was born in the Des Moines County town of Burlington on September 4, 1842. The son of Thomas (1815-1885) and Sarah Wright Ping (1818-1890), PIB Ping was the eldest of eight children.  The exact reasons behind Ping being bestowed the name "Peru Italian Blackerby" have unfortunately been lost to history, but one can see that both his parents were certainly "geographically inclined" in regards to the naming of their son! The Ping family moved to neighboring Wapello County when their son was an infant, and in the succeeding years, Thomas Ping would become a leading figure in the town of Ashland, where he is recorded as owning several businesses. PIB Ping was educated at the Ashland Seminary in that county, and is recorded as having attained high marks in the "study of higher mathematics".  

    At the dawn of the Civil War PIB Ping enlisted in Co. I, 1st Iowa Calvary, U.S. Volunteers, serving with that regiment until being honorably discharged in 1864. His service receives prominent mention in the United States Biographical Dictionary, which notes that Ping "was with Fremont during his Missouri campaign" and in 1863 was one of the first Union soldiers to enter Little Rock, Arkansas after it was captured. Ping's father Thomas also served the Union during wartime, being Captain of Co. E. in the 17h Iowa Regiment. Unlike his son, Thomas didn't escape the war unscathed, as he was captured by the Confederates and held prisoner at Columbia, South Carolina for a few months.  

   At the conclusion of his service, PIB Ping returned to Iowa and shortly thereafter began reading law in Ottumwa, studying under state representative and senator Edward Holcomb Stiles. He would continue his study there for about a year, and in 1866 arrived in Douglas County, Kansas, where he recommenced with reading law. Ping was admitted to the Kansas bar in 1868 and in that year entered political life for the first time, being elected as County Attorney for Wilson County, Kansas. His time as county attorney extended until 1870, and two years later moved to the town of Girard in Crawford County, his father Thomas Ping having resettled there a few years previously. After reconnecting with his family, PIB, and his father established the law practice of "Thomas Ping & Son", which would continue for a number of years afterward.

                               A small picture of PIB Ping that appeared on the 1877 Kansas legislative composite.

   Within a few years of his resettlement in the Sunflower State PIB Ping had established himself as a prominent figure in the Girard community, and in 1875 reentered political life when he was selected as assistant secretary of the Kansas State Senate. Further political honors came his way the following year when he served as a delegate and secretary to the Kansas Republican State Convention that would nominate delegates for the upcoming Republican National Convention that would be held in Cincinnati. 

   In 1876 PIB Ping received the Republican nomination for state senator from Kansas' 13th district. He would be elected to that office with "the largest majority given any candidate upon the ticket" and entered into a four-year term at the start of 1877. Ping proved to be busy as a freshman senator, and his tenure in that body saw him hold a seat on several committees, including Counties and County Lines, Corporations, Education, Engrossed Bills, and Roads and Bridges. He would serve as chairman of the committee on Mines and Mining and was acknowledged as having been:

"An active laborious member of the Senate, served his constituency faithfully, securing the passage of several important measures in their interest, and approved himself in the Legislation of that session a man of sound practical wisdom and superior ability."

   As a rising young Republican amongst the ranks of the state senate, PIB Ping worked closely with John James "J.J." Ingalls (1833-1900), the U.S. Senator from Kansas for nearly two decades. Through information provided by Lynn Summers, it is interesting to note that during the latter portion of his senate term, Ping was inadvertently caught up in a vote-buying scandal involving Ingall's 1879 bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate. Lynn relates that Ping testified in front of a U.S. Senate subcommittee that had been investigating the matter, and in the 1880 election year saw his reelection hopes dashed when the editor of the Girard Press newspaper received the Republication nomination for the state senate. 
  After leaving the senate Ping continued to be active in Republican circles in Girard and in 188o traveled to Middleport, Ohio. On September 4th of that year, he married in the neighboring village of McArthur to Viola Morrison (1857-1905), a former resident of Girard. Their union would see the birth of one daughter, Ethel Kate May Ping (1881-1916). 

                                    Viola Morrison Ping (1857-1905), portrait courtesy of Lynn Summers.

   Following his marriage Ping and his wife returned to Girard where PIB continued practicing law. In 1882 he was appointed to the post of "special agent for swamp lands" under the auspice of General Land Office, work that would require his removing to Oregon for three years. Ping's three-year sojourn through Oregon and the neighboring states was profiled by Lynn Summers earlier this year in an intriguing write-up published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly. While Ping may have been hundreds of miles away from his family in Girard, he kept in contact with them and his community through a series of letters published in the Girard Press. These "travelogues" amounted to 68,010 words, excerpts of which were collected by Lynn and published in his earlier-mentioned article. 
   Based in Portland, Oregon during his first two years as a land agent, Ping's letters back home give the insight of a mid-westerner on life in the Pacific Northwest, with the author commenting on pertinent topics relating to his life in an unfamiliar territory, including travel, the weather, business life, the political climate, as well as the people he encountered. Through his work as a swamp land agent, Ping traveled throughout Oregon's frontier, visiting settlements in Yaquina Bay, Meacham, La Grande, and Tillamook Bay. In May 1884 he returned to Girard, Kansas for a two-month leave, and during his time home attended a political convention. He would resume his duties in Oregon sometime later, this time returning with his wife and daughter. 
    Ping's remaining months in the Pacific Northwest saw him visit Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and by June 1885 had returned home to Girard, Kansas. He resumed his earlier law practice and real estate dealings and from 1888-1889 served a term as Mayor of Girard. Active in a number of fraternal groups in Crawford County, Ping was a member of the local Odd Fellows Lodge, the Knights of Honor, the Sons of Veterans, and the Gen. Bailey Post No. 49 of the Grand Army of the Republic. In May 1890 he undertook a trip to the Tennessee mountains to better his health, remaining there for several weeks time. Peru Italian Blackerby Ping later returned to Girard, where he died on August 22, 1890, a few days short of his 48th birthday. His Girard Press obituary records "consumption' (tuberculosis) as his cause of death and he was later interred under a modest headstone at the Girard Cemetery. 
  Following PIB's death, his wife Viola and daughter Ethel relocated to Middleport, Ohio, where they would reside with Viola's mother and father. Following Viola Ping's death in 1905, Ethel Kate May Ping worked as a bank teller in West Virginia and became a pianist of some note, even attending the Sherwood Music School in Chicago. She would later teach at the Kansas State Agricultural College and married in 1913 to Carl Shafer. The couple would later have two children, John and Mary (born 1916), the latter being the mother of Mr. Lynn Summers.
   In regards to the help and support I've received in compiling this article, I'd like to state how amazing it is that history (however obscure or forgotten) can connect people, even ones that are thousands of miles away from one another! The appreciation that I have regarding the help Lynn has given me can't be measured in words! Rarely have I been given such a wealth of information on a politician that I'm writing about, and I'm forever grateful to Lynn for his permission to use some of the photos featured in this article, as well as for his sending along new information on his great-grandfather and extended family. Many thanks once again for your help!

P.I.B. Ping's obituary from the Girard Press (courtesy of Lynn Summers).

Piamus (Primus) Walter Jones (1844-1890)

  Hailing from the county of Baker in Georgia, the obscure Piamus Walter Jones is profiled today, and his rather odd first name is worth mentioning, as there are a total of three variations in its spelling floating around online! While the rare portrait of him above (located in the 1882 work entitled Georgia's General Assembly of 1880-81) has his first name listed as "Primus", his gravestone in Baker County denotes it as "Piamus". The spelling is further complicated by a listing for a "Priamus Walter Jones" on Rootsweb genealogical-related websites. Despite all of these spelling variations floating around, I usually consider a person's gravestone to be the final arbiter in such matters, hence why Jones is listed as "Piamus (Primus) Walter Jones in the title of his article here. 

   A lifelong resident of the Peach State, Piamus/Primus W. Jones was born in Meriwether County on May 10, 1844, the thirteenth of fifteen children born to John Jones (1802-1874) and his wife Elizabeth Strozier (1807-1892). The Jones siblings are listed as follows in order of their birth: Anne V. (1826-1920), John W. (1828-1849), Reuben (1829-1874), Franklin Chandler (1830-1891), Willis (1831-1843), Louisa (1832-1916), Orrie (1832-unknown), Emily (1833-1861), Chandler (1834-1899), Enoch Callaway (1837-1916), Desdemona (1838-1841), Morgiana (1840-1915), Piamus (1844-1890), Otis Smith (1845-1880) and Montgomery (born 1848). John Jones was a prominent planter, and was "in his time the leading cotton planter of Georgia." Piamus/Primus is remarked by Georgia's General Assembly as "enjoying a happy boyhood, mixing hunting, fishing and outdoor sports with work and study" but no mention is given as to where he received his schooling.

  Engaged in farm work while still a young man, Jones learned the cotton planting trade from his father and became very successful, eventually becoming the owner of a 2,500-acre cotton plantation in Baker County. Jones is remarked by more than one source as being a veritable king of the cotton industry, and was noted as having "carried his name into every cotton mart in the world by yearly bringing in for sale the first new bale of cotton for the season."  In addition to cotton, Jones is mentioned as raising a large vegetable crop at his residence. Because he was the producer of the first new bale of cotton every year, Jones was labeled in his death notice as the "first bale man", a fitting tribute for a man so involved with the cotton industry.  

   A lifelong bachelor, Jones is recorded as "growing more cotton to the plow than any other man in Georgia" and with his statewide reputation as a farmer and grower, came calls for him to run for public office. In 1880 he won election to the Georgia State House of Representatives from Baker County and served in the legislative sessions of 1880-1881, 1886-1887, 1888-1889. During the 1886 session Jones introduced legislation advocating the construction of an experimental agricultural station in Georgia, and his advocacy of this idea received a write-up in the January 1886 edition of the Southern Cultivator, Volume 44, posted below.

  Jones's tenure in the state legislature was marked as one of "zeal and faithfulness unbiased by partisan feeling", and was well respected by his Baker County constituency. Jones died at the age of 45 on February 9, 1890, in Atlanta and was memorialized in his Calhoun Times death notice as "being one of the most advanced farmers in the state." He was interred in the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta and his stone (shown below) bears the inscription "First Bag Man" which this author found quite perplexing. Not knowing of his cotton-planting activities at the time I wondered if Jones was indeed a "bag-man" (a collector/distributor for racketeers). While this proved not to be the case, the "bag-man" inscription is actually a lasting testament to his bringing in the first cotton bale at the beginning of the season. A portrait of his gravestone (found via the billiongraves.com website) is shown below.

Jones' death notice from the February 13, 1890 edition of the Calhoun Times.

Courtesy of the Billiongraves.com website.

Naaman Loud White (1813-1890)

    Sporting a rather interesting coiffure and sideburns, Naaman Loud White was a descendant of a family prominent in Massachusetts affairs dating back to the 17th century. A lifelong resident of the city of Braintree, Massachusetts (which received a brief mention in Cranmore N. Wallace's article back on January 21st), Naaman L. White was bestowed his unusual first name in honor of Naaman, a figure in the Hebrew Bible who is remarked as suffering from leprosy, as well as being a commander of the army of the King of Aram (Syria). White's middle name Loud stems from it being his mother's maiden name.

   Born on June 24, 1813, in Braintree, Naaman Loud White was one of nine children born to Elihu (1753-1836) and Sarah Loud White (1771-1860). Naaman's father Elihu was a man of means in Braintree, being listed by the History of Norfolk, County, Massachusetts, Vol. I as a former captain in the Massachusetts State Militia as well as a past "deputy fish commissioner of the state". 

   Naaman White had the benefit of an excellent education, attending both the Amherst and Phillips Academies in his native state. White enrolled at Harvard University in 1831 and during his four years at this school proved to be a student of achievement, being remarked by the History of Norfolk County as having a particular aptitude for the "ancient classics and in the modern languages and literature." While well-rounded academically, White also took part in several Harvard student organizations, including the Harvard Union, the Institute of '76, and was a member (as well as President) of the famed Hasty Pudding Club. 

   White graduated from Harvard in the class of 1835 and shortly thereafter became engaged as a principal at the Weld boarding school in the Boston suburb of Roxbury. After a year in this position, White left to pursue a law degree, studying under Judge Sherman Leland (a former Speaker of the Massachusetts Senate) and Rufus Choate (later a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts). After being admitted to practice in 1839, White returned to Braintree to open a law practice, which he managed with success for over three decades.

   The History of Norfolk County notes that as an attorney, White was of sterling character and sound judgment, later mentioning that "many a client gratefully remembers that he was rescued from the perilous edge of a suit, which might have proved vexatious and costly, and probably unsatisfactory and unprofitable as a result." This same work also relates that White wasn't opposed to holding public office, but that he "held that the office should seek the man, not the man the office."

   Public office did indeed beckon to Naaman White, and in November 1844 was nominated by the citizens of Braintree to be their representative in the Massachusetts General Court. White won the election and took his seat in January 1845, and during his term sat on the house committee on Public Charitable Institutions. In November 1846 White was reelected to the Massachusetts State House for the 1847 legislative term and held a seat on the committee on Bills In the Third Reading. 

   In addition to his two terms in the legislature, White is also recorded as holding numerous local offices in Braintree, including those of town selectman, assessor, overseer of the poor, and supervisor of highways. White also took an interest in educational matters in his native town, serving as a member of the school committee for fifteen years whilst also holding the office of President of the Braintree School Fund Corporation.

   Naaman White continued in the practice of law until putting aside his practice in the early 1870s, whereafter he "devoted himself principally to the care and arrangement of his own ample estate and of the estates in trust of his friends who availed themselves of his services." White also led various institutions in Norfolk County, including services as President of the Weymouth and Braintree Mutual Fire Insurance Company and director and vice president of the Weymouth Savings Bank.  

  Naaman White remained active in public affairs in Norfolk County well into the 1880s, continuing as the vice president of the Weymouth Savings Bank until shortly before his death. He died in Braintree on January 14, 1890, at age 76 and is recorded as being a lifelong bachelor. A burial location for White is unknown at this time, although one has been found for his father Elihu at the Ashwood Cemetery in Weymouth Landing, Massachusetts.

  The portrait of Naaman Loud White that adorns the top of his article here was featured in Duane Hamilton Hurd's History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I, originally published in 1883.

Vitruvius Jackson Kennedy (1841-1890)

From the Tennessee legislative composite, 1882.

  This bearded gentleman is Vitruvius Jackson Kennedy of Tennessee, a physician who served in both houses of the Tennessee State Legislature. Details on Kennedy's life are noticeably absent from the internet and very few sources mention him at great length, with the exception being his service during the Civil War.

   Vitruvius J. Kennedy (most sources list him under the initials "V.J.") was born on July 9, 1840, in Clinton, Tennessee. His father, Jackson J. Kennedy, is mentioned as being a cabinet maker by trade, and when Kennedy enlisted for military service during the early months of the Civil War, he listed this as his primary occupation. Genealogical websites have been quite a blessing when it comes to finding any information on Kennedy. A statute book also contains Kennedy's name and lists him as a member of the First Regiment of the Tennessee Volunteer Light Artillery. 

  At some point in the years following the war, Kennedy earned a degree to practice medicine (several sources list him with the title of "Dr.") but no available source states what school he attended or what year he graduated. 

  Following his service in the Civil War, Kennedy entered politics, hence his inclusion here. He was elected to the Tennessee State House of Representatives in 1880 and served in the legislative session of 1881-1882. The portrait of him shown above was found on the House of Representatives composite picture taken during his service. During this term, he chaired the committee on Public Printing and was a member of the committees on Banks, Charitable Institutions, and Sanitation. Kennedy was later elected to the Tennessee State Senate, and served from 1887-1889, representing both Hamilton and Marion County.

Portrait from the Tennessee senate composite photo, 1887-88.

   A death date originally couldn't be found for Vitruvius Kennedy, until a useful book entitled the Congressional Serial Set (1912) gave a passage on his widow applying for a pension. The book lists him as dying on July 7, 1890, of "cancer of the larger intestine", two days before his 49th birthday. He was later interred at the Welsh-Rogers Cemetery in Sale Creek, Tennessee. A small obituary for Kennedy (published in the July 9, 1890 edition of the Nashville Tennessean) denotes his traveling to Nashville for surgery stemming from his stomach and bowel issues. This surgery was performed, but Kennedy died "of secondary shock" a few days later. This same obituary details his being a leading Mason in his area, and in January 1890 had represented his local lodge in the Grand Lodge of Tennessee.

  In an aside note, Kennedy's first name "Vitruvius" stems from a Roman architect, writer, and engineer named Vitruvius. This obscure Roman figure has been called by some sources as the "world's first known engineer", but it is unknown as to why V.J. Kennedy was endowed with this highly unusual first name. 

From the Nashville Tennessean, July 9, 1890.