Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/431

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FARGO
FARIBAULT
407

in the Hudson valley, from the upper Hudson river water-shed. This project contemplated an aque- duct 225 miles in length, capable of conveying from the Adirondack region 1,000,000,000 gallons of water daily to New York and Brooklyn, at an estimated cost of $60,000,000. In 1885 he pre- pared plans for the further development of the great water-power of St. Anthony's falls on the Slississippi river, at the city of Minneapolis, Minn., and in 1886 constructed new dams on the works. During the same year he was consulting engineer of the upper Red river valley drainage commission, and directed the detailed topographical survey and reported on the drainage of 3,000 square miles of prairie lands in the valley of the Red river of the North at an estimated cost of |3,000,000. Mr. Fan- ning received in 1883 from the New England agri- cultural society its highest prize for architectural and engineering designs, and he has secured pat- ents for a water-wheel, a turbine motor valve, a steam boiler, a steam pum ping-engine, for im- provements in lire-proof building construction, and numerous original designs for hydraulic apparatus. He is a fellow of the American association for the advancement of science, and a member of other scientific associations. Besides a great nximber of reports on technical matters, he has published a " Treatise on Hydraulic and Water-Supply Engi- neering"' (New York, 1877; rev. ed., 1886).


FAROO, William George, expressman, b. in Pompey, N. Y., 20 May, 1818; d. in Buffalo, N. Y., '3 Aug., 1881. He worked for his living from the age of thirteen, attending school for a few winters only. He was engaged for some time in mercantile busi- ness, but in 1841 re- moved to Auburn and became freight agent for the Au- burn and Syracuse railroad company. He left this place in 1842 to become mes- senger for Pomeroy and company's ex- press, running from Buffalo to Albany, and was made resi- dent agent of the company in Buffalo in 1843." Mr. Fargo, in connection with

Henry Wells and

Daniel Dunning, organized in January, 1844, the first express company running west from Buffalo, under the name of Wells and company. At first the line reached only to De- troit, but the business was gradually extended to Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. In 1845 the firm became Livingston and Fargo, and remained thus until 1850, when the American ex- press company, uniting the interests of several firms, was organized. Henry Wells was president and William G. Fargo secretary of this company till its consolidation y'ith the Merchants' union ex- press company in 1868, when Mr. Fargo succeeded to the presidency. At the time of liis death the corporation had a capital of $18,000,000, main- tained 2,700 offices, and gave employment to more than 5,000 men, of whom 600 were messengers. In 1851 he was associated with Henry Wells and others in the organization of a company which un- dertook the transaction of express business between New York and San Francisco by way of the isth- mus, and also operated interior lines on the Pacific coast under the firm name of Wells, Fargo and company. This was continued until the completion of the trans-continental railways, when the man- agement was transferred to western capitalists, but Mr. Fargo remained a director of the company anil its vice-president. Mr. Fargo was a director of various railroads, was largely interested in various Buffalo enterprises, and from 1862 till 1866 was mayor of that city.— His brother, James Cong- del, b. in Pompey, N. Y., 5 May, 1829, entered the employ of Wells and company in 1844 in Buffalo, and remained there until 1848. He was then trans- ferred to Detroit, and a few years later to Chicago, where he became agent and manager of the Ameri- can express company. In 1866 he came to New York city as the general superintendent and man- ager of the company's interests, which office he held until 1881, when he succeeded to the presidency of the company. Mr. Fargo is also president of the Merchants' despatch transportation company, and director of several important railroad and express corporations. — Another brother, Charles, b. in Pompey, N. Y., 15 April, 1881, entered the express business in Detroit in 1851. In 1853 he was made agent of the Toledo office of the American express company, and three years later returned to Detroit to take charge of that office. Much of the devel- opment of Michigan is credited to his energy in pushing the express into remote distincts, making possible the ready transportation of produce to the markets. In 1866 he became assistant general su- perintendent of the company, with general manage- ment of the Chicago office, and after the death of William G. Fargo he became second vice-president and general western manager.


FARGUES, Thomas, physician, b. in Quebec, Canada, in 1780; d. there, 11 Dec, 1847. He was graduated at Harvard in 1797, and soon afterward sailed for Scotland, where he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and obtained a de- gree, after defending a Latin thesis on " Chorea." He subsequently practised for several years in London, and became intimate with the eccentric physician, John Abernethy. Dr. Fargues returned to Quebec in 1811, and soon took a high rank as a medical practitioner. He was a man of extensive reading, keen powers of observation, and unusual strength of intellect, and. owned the best private medical library in the province, which was pur- chased after his death and given to the Laval uni- versity. He was repeatedly solicited to take a seat in the provincial legislature, but preferred to de- vote himself exclusively to professional work.


FARIBAULT, George Bartholomew, Canadian antiquarian, b. in Quebec, 3 Dec, 1789 ; d. there, 21 Dec, 1866. He studied law, and was admitted to the Quebec bar in 1811. During the war of 1812-15 he served as lieutenant in the Canadian militia. In 1822 he was appointed secretary of committees and French translator to the legislature of Lower Canada, and in 1832 promoted to the post of assistant secretary. On the union of the two Canadas in 1841 he was named assistant secretary of the legislative assembly, which office he held until 1855. While fulfilling the duties of these offices he found leisure for the formation of a collection of works and documents relating to the history of Canada. This collection, amounting to 16,000 volumes, was lost in the fire that destroyed the legislative buildings in Montreal in 1849. Faribault at once began to form a second collection, and was sent by the legislature to examine the libraries of Europe. At first he received every aid from the French ministers in his investigations; but the events of 2 Dec, 1852, interfered