Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/449

Short People" (New York, 1871); "Purple and Fine Linen," a novel (1873) ; " Ellen Story " (1876) ; " Poems of Fantasy and Passion " (Boston, 1878) ; " A Hopeless Case " (1881) ; '" A Gentleman of Leisure " (1882) ; " An Ambitious Woman " (1883) ; " Song and Story," poems, " Tinkling Cymbals," a tale, and '* The Adventures of a Widow " (1884) ; "Rutherford" (1884): "The Buntling Ball," an anonymous satire in verse, and " The New King Arthur," an opera-libretto (New York, 1884-'5) : "Social Silhouettes" (Boston, 1885); "Romance and Revery" (1886); and "The House at High Bridge" (1887). He has also written successful plavs, including "A False Friend" (1880).

FAXON, Henry Whitman, journalist, b. in Catskill, N. Y., 7 Feb., 1826 ; d. in Washington, D. C, 5 Sept., 1864. He entered the navy as an appren- tice, but left it after two or three years, and after serving as a telegraph clerk in Troy, N. Y., and then as clerk in a candle-factory, became an editor of the Buffalo " Republic " in 1855. He was after- ward on the staff of the Buffalo " Times," and in 1861 became an army correspondent for New York papers. Among his most noted efforts were the " Silver Lake Snake Story " and the " A. P. L. Parin Papers." The snake story, which was the original of the sea-serpent tales that have since become familiar, was published in the Buffalo " Republic," and professed to be a description of a monster seen in Silver Lake, Wyoming co., N. Y.

FAY, Francis Ball, merchant, b. in Southborough, Mass., 12 June, 1793; d. in South Lancaster, Mass., 6 Oct., 1876. His parents were poor, and he had little education. At the age of eighteen he “bought his time” of his father for $80 a year. He attended the public scales in Dock-square, Boston, in 1811-'12, then served as market-man and butcher, and in 1817 became a merchant in Southborough. He was postmaster and town treasurer there in 1817-'21, deputy sheriff of Worcester county in 1824-'30, a member of the legislature in 1830-'1, 1834-'6, and 1840, and of the state senate in 1843-'5 and 1868. He removed to Chelsea in 1831, built one of the first houses there, bought the first ferry-boats running to Boston from that place, and was first president of the Chelsea savings bank. He was elected to congress as a Whig, to fill a vacancy, serving in 1852-'3, and in 1857 was first mayor of Chelsea, but declined a re-election. In 1816-'24 he was an active member of the state militia, reaching the rank of colonel. He endowed the Fay free library at Southborough in 1851, was one of the founders of the State industrial school for girls, and was connected with it as commissioner, trustee, and treasurer in 1854-'64. In 1858 he removed to South Lancaster, that he might be near the institution.

FAY, Jonas, patriot, b. in Hardwick, Mass., 17 Jan., 1737; d. in Bennington, Vt., 6 March, 1818. He received a good education, and became a phy- sician. He was clerk of a Massachusetts company at Fort Edward in 1756, removed to Bennington in 1766, and became prominent among the settlers on the New Hampshire grants, going as their agent to New York in 1772, to lay their grievances before Gov. Tryon. He was clerk of the con- vention of March, 1774, that resolved to defend by force Ethan Allen, and the others who were out- lawed by the legislature of New Y^ork, Dr. Fay was surgeon under Allen at Ticonderoga, and afterward in Col. Warner's regiment. He was a member of the convention of January, 1777, which declared Vermont an independent state, and drew up the declaration and petition to congress an- nouncing the act and the reasons for it. He was secretary of the Constitutional convention of July, 1777, one of the council of safety, a member of the state council in 1778-'85, judge of the supreme court in 1782, and of probate in 1782-7, and agent of the state to congress in January, 1777, October, 1779, June, 1781, and February, 1782. He pub- lished, in connection with Ethan Allen, a pamphlet on the New Hampshire and New Yoi-k contro- versy (Hartford, Conn., 1780). — His son, Heman Allen, b. in Bennington, Vt., in 1778 ; d. there, 20 Aug., 1865, was a cadet in the U. S. military academy from March, 1807, till June, 1808, when he was graduated and assigned to the artillery. During the war of 1812 he did garrison duty at various forts, and was mustered out on 15 June, 1815. He was chief forage-master of the northern division of the army in 1816-'17, and U. S. military store-keeper at Albany, N. Y., from 1818 till 1842. He published an " Official Account of Battles Fought between the Army and Navy of the United States and Great Britain "in 1812-'15 " (1815).

FAY, Theodore Sedgwick, author, b. in New York city, 10 Feb., 1807. He received a liberal education, and studied law, but never practised. In 1828 he became associate editor of the New York " Mirror," under the joint control of himself, George P. Morris, and Nathaniel P. Willis. Soon thereafter Fay trav- elled in Europe, and wrote an ex- tended series of let- ters of travel, which were published in his paper. He con- tinued as co-editor of the " Mirror " for several years, and eventually became secretary of the American legation in Berlin, Germa- ny, remaining at tliat post from 1837 until 1853. From 1853 until 1861 he

was minister-resident in Bern, Switzerland, since which

time he has lived in retirement in Berlin. His publications comprise " Dreams and Reveries of a Quiet Man" (New York, 1832); "The Minute- Book " (1833) ; " Norman Leslie " (1835) ; " Sydney Clifton" (1839); "Countess Ida" (1840): "Hobo- ken, a Romance " (1843) ; " Robert Rueful" (Phila- delphia, 1844) ; " Ulric, or the Voices," poems (New York, 1851); "Views of Christianity" (1856); " History of Switzerland " (1860) ; " Great Outlines of Geography" (1867) ; " First Steps in Geography" (1873); "A History of Germany "(1888); and "Forty Dollars and the Boots, or Shall we not Abolish our Apostles' Creed " (Hartford, 1897). Mr. Fay also published a series of papers on Shakespeare.

FEARING, Albert, philanthropist, b. in Hingham, Mass., 12 March, 1798; d. there, 24 May, 1875. After attending the public school of his native town he became a clerk in Worcester, Mass., and was afterward a ship-chandler in Boston. He retired from this business in 1868, and engaged in manufacturing, accumulating a large fortune, from which he gave liberally. His donations amounted to about $200,000, including $30,000 to the Hingham public library, and an equal sum to the college of Liberia. He was president of the American colonization society and of several charitable organizations, and was