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
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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