community in which he lived. He projected the bringing of two new railroads into Jamestown, and was one of the main contributors toward establish- ing there a Swedish orphanage. He also served a term as president of the village. His last public address was made on the occasion of Gen. Grant's funeral, when a memorial service was held in Wal- nut Grove, his place of residence.
FENTON, William Matthew, lawyer, b. in
Norwich, Chenango co._, N. Y., 19 Dec, 1808 ; d.
in Flint, Mich., 18 May, 1871. He was one of the
earliest emigrants to Genesee county, Mich., and,
after taking an active part in founding the village
that bears his name, he resided there and at Flint,
and engaged in the practice of law. In 1848 he
was elected lieutenant-governor of Michigan, and
re-elected in 1850 and 1851. At the beginning
of the civil war he became a member of the state
military board, and was one of the principal or-
ganizers of the 8th Michigan regiment, which he
commanded and which participated in so many
battles in various parts that it became known as
the " wandering regiment."
FENWICK, Cuthbert, b. in England; d. at
Fenwick Manor. Md., in 1655. He was one of the
Roman Catholics that accompanied Leonard Cal-
vert to Maryland in 1634. He found a good and
powerful friend in Capt. Thomas Cornwaleys, for
whom he acted as agent, and was with his patron
in the engagement on the Chesapeake, between a
pinnace commanded by a partisan of Claiborne,
and two armed boats commanded by Cornwaleys
for the government. He sat in the assembly of
1648, and in several others. He was speaker of the
house of burgesses when it sat separate from the
council in 1649, and voted for the toleration act.
FENWICK, Edward D., R. C. bishop, b. in
St. Mary's county, Md., in 1768 ; d. in Wooster,
Ohio, 26 Sept., 1833. He was sent to the College of
Bornheim, near Antwerp, Belgium, in his sixteenth
year. On completing his collegiate course, he joined
the Dominican order, and entered the ecclesiastical
seminary of Bornheim as a theological student.
After his ordination he was appointed professor
and procurator of the Dominican college. On the
invasion of Belgium by the French revolutionists,
he was imprisoned and threatened with death, but,
on proof of his American citizenship, was released
and went to England, where he joined a convent
of his order. Being anxious to introduce the
Dominican order into the United States, he per-
suaded three members to accompany him on his
return home. They were well received by Bishop
Carroll, who suggested that they should devote
themselves to the evangelization of the vast unex-
plored regions in the west. In 1805, Father Fen-
wick traversed the entire valley of the Mississippi
on a tour of observation with the view of finding a
suitable centre for his missionary labors. He se-
lected a farm in Kentucky, paid for it out of his
private fortune, and in the spring of 1806 built on
it the Dominican convent of St. Rose of Lima,
which he made the headquarters of his mission in
Kentucky and Ohio. In order to devote himself
to the duties of his mission, he resigned the office
of provincial, which he held in his order, and lived
almost constantly on horseback, penetrating the
states of Ohio and Kentucky in every direction,
and thus laying the foundation of the Roman
Catholic church in the west. He built ihe first
church in Cincinnati in 1819, after previously
founding eight other churches, and in 1823 became
first bishop of that diocese. He went to Europe in
1833 for pecuniary aid, and returned to Cincinnati
in 1836 with ample resources. He at once began the
erection of a cathedral, built parochial schools, and
founded convents of the Sisters of Charity and of
the Dominican nuns. In 1831 he opened the
Athenaeum, afterward known as the College of St.
Francis Xavier. He next went to visit the Indian
tribes in the Northwestern territory. At Macki-
naw he labored among them for three weeks,
selected two to be trained for the priesthood, and
sent them to Rome. The rest of his life was spent
in missionary work among the Indians, and ex-
hausting labors in every part of his vast diocese.
While on one of his visitations he was attacked by
cholera, which ended fatally after a few days. — His
cousin, Benedict Joseph, R. C. bishop, b. in St.
Mary's county, Md., 3 Sept., 1783; d. in Boston,
Mass., in 1846, entered Georgetown college in 1793,
and in 1805 became a student in the Theological
seminary of St. Sulpice. He was ordained in 1808,
and stationed at St. Peter's church, New York
city. While here he founded the New York lit-
erary institute, and also began St. Patrick's ca-
thedral in Mulberry street, from plans and designs
of his own. He was appointed vicar-general in
1816, and in 1817 became president of Georgetown
college, and pastor of Trinity church, Georgetown.
In 1818 he went to Charlestown, at the request of
his bishop, to compose dissensions which had
sprung up among the French- and the English-
speaking Roman Catholics of that city. He was
completely successful in his efforts, and remained
as vicar-general up to 1833, when he returned to
Georgetown college, and was appointed procurator-
general of the Jesuits in the United States. In
1835 he was consecrated bishop of the diocese of
Boston, which then embraced the whole of New
England, and contained only four churches. He
opened schools in the city of Boston, built in
Charlestown the convent and academy of St. Bene-
dict for young ladies, which became one of the
first institutions of the kind in the country, and
then undertook the task of making a visitation of
his diocese. He travelled through every part of it
in 1837, spending some weeks among the Passa-
maquoddy Indians of Maine, and the remnant of
the Abnakis, organizing congregations and mark-
ing out sites for churches. He procured funds
from the Society for the propagation of the faith,
with which he was enabled to provide missionaries
and churches for the Indians, and when he visited
them again in 1831 he found them making rapid
progress in civilization. About this time he had
erected seventeen new churches. In 1834 the con-
vent of St. Benedict in Charlestown was attacked
by a mob and burned during the night. The nuns,
however, had been warned of the attack, and escaped
without injury. In 1843, Bishop Fenwick founded
the College of the Holy Cross, and placed it in
charge of the Jesuits. At his death there were fifty
churches, an orphan asylum, and numerous Roman
Catholic schools, colleges, and academies in his
diocese. When Bishop Fenwick was a young priest,
he was sent for by Thomas Paine, who was then
suffering from the illness of which he died, and
afterward described the visit in an interesting
letter to his brother. Rev. Enoch Fenwick.
FENWICK, George, b. in England about 1603; d. there, 15 March, 1657. He came in 1636 to take charge of the Saybrook plantation, so named after Lords Say and Brook, who with others procured a patent from Robert, Earl of Warwick, in 1633. After a visit to England he came back in 1639, and henceforth, as patentee and agent for the others, governed and superintended the settlement till 1644, when he sold its jurisdiction and territory to the Connecticut colony for £1,600. His
