Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/547

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
FOX
FOX
519

FOX, Charles James, lawyer, b. in Antrim, N. H., 11 Oct., 1811; d. in Nashville, N. H., 17 Feb., 1846. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1831, studied law, and in 1884 formed a partnership with Daniel Abbot, of Nashua, N. H., which was continued through his life. He was county solicitor in 1835-'44, a member of the commission to revise the New Hampshire statutes in 1841-'2, travelled in Egypt in 1843, and in the West Indies the following year. With the Rev. Samuel Osgood he compiled "The New Hampshire Book, Specimens of its Literature" (Nashua, 1842). He was the author of "History of Dunstable" (1840), and the "Town Officer" (Concord, 1843).


FOX, Ebenezer, patriot, b. in East Roxbury, Mass., in 1763; d. there in 1843. He served for three years as a seaman, resided in his native town from 1784 till 1837, and was postmaster of Boston in 1831-'6. He wrote the "Revolutionary Adventures of Ebenezer Fox" (Boston, 1848).


FOX, George, founder of the society of Friends, b. at Drayton-in-the-clay, now called Fenny Drayton, Leicestershire, England, in July, 1624; d. in London, 13 Jan., 1691. His father, Christopher Fox, was a weaver. At an early age the boy was placed with a shoemaker who also dealt in wool, and Fox was employed by him for some time as a shepherd.

He kept aloof from the other workmen, and meditated much on Scripture topics, gradually forming the doctrines which he afterward preached. When about nineteen he gave up his occupation, for some years lived a wandering life in woods and solitary places, practising extreme self-denial, and at the age of twenty-three appeared as a preacher at Manchester. The populace crowded to hear him, and he was arrested and imprisoned as a disturber of the peace. When released, he proceeded to travel through England, preaching his doctrines and making many converts. He was many times imprisoned, usually for refusing to make oath or to pay tithes, and in 1663-'6 was confined in different prisons about three years. The term Quakers is said to have been applied to his followers for the first time at Derby in 1650, in consequence of his telling Justice Bennet to "quake at the word of the Lord." In 1669 he married the widow of a Welsh judge who had often befriended him, and whose wife and daughters had become believers in his teachings. In 1671 he sailed for the Barbadoes, where many joined his society. While at this place he drew up a paper setting forth the belief of the Friends as to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. He then visited the colonies of Maryland, New Jersey, and New England, advancing his views wherever he went. A large oak in Flushing, Long Island, under which he preached two centuries before, and which was preserved as an historical monument, was destroyed by fire in October, 1873. After preaching again in England, Holland, and Germany, he finally, a few years before his death, established himself in London. His published works, containing his journal, correspondence, and all his doctrinal writings, are numerous and curious. They were partially collected in three volumes folio (London, 1694-1706). An edition in eight octavo volumes was published in Philadelphia in 1852. For a full account of his various writings and publications, see Joseph Smith's "Catalogue of Friends' Books," vol. i., pp. 644-697.


FOX, George Henry, physician, b. in Ballston Spa, N. Y., 8 Oct., 1846. He was graduated at the University of Rochester in 1867, and two years afterward received the degree of M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania. During 1870-'3 he was a student of medicine in the universities of Berlin, Vienna, Paris, and London, and in 1874 he began practice in New York city, and a year later became surgeon to the New York dispensary. He was appointed clinical professor of diseases of the skin in the Woman's medical college of the New York infirmary in 1877, and clinical professor of dermatology at Starling medical college of Columbus, Ohio, in 1879. In 1880 he was appointed clinical professor of diseases of the skin in the New York college of physicians and surgeons, and in 1885 professor of skin diseases in the Post-graduate medical school in the same city. Dr. Fox has been unusually successful in the adaptation of new photographic processes to the illustration of medical works, and has published "Photographic Illustrations of Skin Diseases" (New York, 1880; 2d ed., 1886); "Photographic Illustrations of Cutaneous Syphilis" (1881); "Illustrated Medicine and Surgery "(1882-'3); and "Electrolysis in the Removal of Superfluous Hair, etc." (Detroit, 1887).


FOX, George L., actor, b. in Boston, Mass., 3 July, 1825; d. in Cambridge, 24 Oct., 1877. He made his first appearance in 1830, in the Tremont theatre, Boston, as one of the children in the "Hunter of the Alps," for the benefit of Charles Kean. At the age of twenty-five he jjlayed in the "Demon of the Desert" at the National theatre in New York. At the beginning of the civil war he went as lieutenant of the 8th New York infantry, and took part in the battle of Bull Run. On 26 July, 1861, he left military life, and appeared on the following evening at the new Bowery theatre. He afterward became manager of the old Bowery, and later was associated with Lingard at the new Bowery. In 1867-'8 he was stage manager of the Olympic, and made an immediate success in the part of the clown in the pantomime "Humpty-Dumpty." During the season of 1876 he was playing at Booth's theatre in New York city, when he was stricken with paralysis. Softening of the brain followed, and he ended his days in an asylum.—His brother, Charles Kemble, actor, b. in Boston, Mass., 15 Aug., 1833; d. 17 Jan., 1875, went on the stage at the age of six years, and played the child in the "Carpenter of Rouen" at the old Eagle theatre in Boston. His first appearance in New York was made at the old National theatre, 18 July, 1853, as Cute in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In 1858 he was a member of the company at the old Bowery, and in 1859 was engaged at the new Bowery. He afterward appeared at the Olympic in pantomimes, and at the Globe theatre in Boston, 16 May, 1874, in "Plumpty-Dumpty at Home," that house being then under the management of his brother. Charles Kemble Fox was the author of the pantomime in which both brothers won popularity and fortune.


FOX, Gustavus Vasa, naval officer, b. in Saugus, Mass., 13 June, 1821; d. in New York city, 29 Oct., 1883. He was appointed midshipman in the U. S. navy, 12 Jan., 1838, and served on various