Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/527

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
FORBES
FORCE
499

Selkirk " ; " Beware " ; " Sweet Sixteen " ; and " The Lily." He has also painted portraits of Lord Dnfferin, Sir John A. Macdonald, Alexander McKenzie, Edward Blake, Sir Hector Langevin, Sir Charles Tupper, Sir David L. McPherson, and Lady Helen Blackwood, daughter of Lord Duf- ferin. He is a member of the Royal Canadian academy of arts, and resides at Toronto.

FORBES, Samuel Franklin. surgeon, b. in Canton, Hartford co., Conn.. 8 June, 1829. He was graduated in medicine at the University of the city of New York in 1850, and in 1852 settled in Toledo, Ohio, where in 1858-'8 he was U. S. marine surgeon. He was county physician in 1855-61, surgeon of the 67th Ohio regiment in 1861-'3, and city physician in 1867-'9. In 1886 he was mayor of Toledo. Dr. Forbes is the author of a "New Amputation through the Foot," which was described in a paper read by him before the State medical society in 1875, and is now taught in nearly all the medical colleges of the United States.


FORBES, Stephen Alfred, naturalist, b. in Silver Creek. 111., 29 May, 1844. He was educated at Beloit academy and Rush medical college, and received the degree of Ph. D. from the Indiana state university. During the civil war he held the appointment of captain in the Illinois volunteer cavalry. In 1877 he founded the Illinois state laboratory of natural history, and became its di- rector, which office he has since held. Dr. Forbes also instituted the natural history survey of Illi- nois, of which he has charge, and he is likewise professor of zoology and entomology in the uni- versity of Illinois. In 1882 he became state ento- mologist, and is the author of the " Annual Re- ports of the State Entomologist on the Noxious and Beneficial Insects of the State of Illinois" (Springfield, 1882-'5). Beside many zoological and educational papers contributed to various journals, he has published " Studies of the Food of Birds, Fishes, and Insects " (Peoria. 1883) ; " Studies of the Contagious Diseases of Insects" (1886); and has edited the " Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History " (vols. i. and ii.), and " Report on the Natural History Survey of Illinois " (vol. i.. Ornithology, Springfield, 1887).


FORCE, Peter, historian, b. near Little Falls, Essex CO., N. J., 26 Nov., 1790 ; d. in Washington, D. C, 23 Jan., 1868. His father, William Force, was a veteran of the Revolution, and in talking with him the boy acquired a fondness for the his- tory of that period. He removed with his parents to New Paltz, Ulster co., N. Y., and afterward to New York city, where, on leaving school at the age of sixteen, he was apprenticed to a printer. While foreman of an office in Bloomingdale, he printed the second edition of Irving's " Knickerbocker's History of New York," and in 1812 was president of the New York typographical society. He re- moved to Washington in iSTovember, 1815, under an arrangement with his employer, W. A. Davis, who had obtained a contract for the government printing, and in 1820-'8 compiled and printed the "Biennial Register," which had been begun under an act of congress in 1816. The name of "Blue Book," suggested by Mr. Force, was officially recognized in 1820 and the title has since been adopted by the English government for a different kind of publication]. He also published an annual " National Calendar " in 1820-36, and in 1823 established the " National Journal," which he edited and published till 1830, supporting the administration of John Quincy Adams. Many years before this he had begun to collect books and papers on American history and antiquities, and in 1833 he was authorized by act of congress to compile a vast work, to be known as the "'Ameri- can Archives, a Documentary History of the English Colonies in North America." The plan embraced six series of six or more volumes each, covering the period from the discovery of America to the final ratification of the constitution of the United States. Mr. Force at once began a personal examination of the public archives in the thirteen original states, and by means of his agents ran- sacked the country for pamphlets, rare books, letters, newspaper files, and maps bearing on the history of the colonies.. These he gathered in seven rooms adjoining his residence in Washington. One who knew him says of this library : " Except- ing when visited by the friends of its proprietor, members of congress addicted to historical pursuits, or literary pilgrims from abroad, its silence was only broken by the presence of an assortment of dogs and cats, which enjoyed the full range of the establishment, and whose characters seemed to have been influenced by the solemn wisdom of the tomes among whom they lived." Between 1837 and 1853, in conjunction with Matthew St. Clair Clarke, he had issued the whole of the fourth series of his work and part of the fifth, comprising nine folio volumes, and covering the years from 1765 to 1776 ; but in 1853. owing to a misunderstanding about the law authorizing the publication, it was discontinued by Sec. Marcy. Mr. Force, though cruelly disappointed, continued to increase his collection of material, even mortgaging his real estate for means to do so, and in 1867 it was bought by the government for ,f 100,000 and placed in the library of congress. It contains 22,000 books and 40,000 pamphlets, most of them rare, and is considered by some the most valuable col- lection of its kind in existence. Mr. Force held various civil and military offices in Washington, rising to the rank of major-general of militia, and being mayor of the city in 1836-'40. In the latter year he was the first president of the " National institute for the promotion of science." Beside the volumes that constitute his life-work, he published " Tracts and other Papers relating principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colo- nies in North America " (4 vols., Washington, 1836-'46) ; " Grinnell Land : Remarks on the Eng- lish Maps of Arctic Discoveries in 1850-'l " (1852) ; " Notes on Lord Mahon's History of the American Declaration of Independence " (London, 1855) ; and a paper in the Smithsonian contributions to knowl- edge, entitled " Record of Auroral Phenomena " (Washington, 1856). — His son, William Quereau, scholar, b. in Washington, D. C, 7 March, 1820 ; d. there, 15 Dec, 1880, was graduated at Columbian college in 1839. From January, 1843, till July, 1845, he edited and published the " Army and Navy Chronicle and Scientific Repository." From 1857 till 1868 he had charge of the department of meteo- rology in the Smithsonian institution. Mr. Force was a trustee of Columbian college in 1851-62, and was for several years its secretary and treasurer. He published " Builders' Guide " (Washington, 1842) and "The Picture of Washington" (1848), and in 1845-57 aided his father in preparing the "American Archives." — Another son. Manning' Ferguson, soldier, b. in Washington, D. C, 17 Dec, 1824, was graduated at Harvard in 1845, and at the law-school in 1848. He was appointed major of the 20th Ohio regiment in 1861, promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and engaged at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. He was then made colonel, was with Gen. Grant in his campaign in southwestern Ten- nessee and his expedition into northern Mississippi