USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 107
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The first political song of that famous campaign was introduced at the suggestion of Mr. Ewer and Mr. Goodrich at a political meeting in the Roxbury town hall, and made such a decided hit that song singing in pol- itical meetings soon became general, and to meet the want thus created Mr. Ewer com- piled and published the first political song book, which was soon after republished and enlarged by the publishers of the New York Tribune.
Mr. Ewer appears to have been a very good judge of character. The writer will give two instances which have an historical as well as personal interest : At the opening of the Harrison campaign, it was suggested that some good and well-known speaker should be secured to canvass the towns throughout the district. Mr. Ewer, on the contrary, thought it best to secure some promising young man direct from the peo- ple, from the shop, as better calculated to arouse enthusiasm, and suggested his friend, Henry Wilson, a shoemaker of Natick, as a man possessing the requisite qualities, al- though he was then unknown out of his own immediate neighborhood. After many ex- cuses and protestations of unfitness for such services Mr. Wilson consented, and was in- troduced through the papers and to his audiences by Mr. Ewer as "Henry Wilson, the Natick cobbler," a sobriquet which fol- lowed him through life. This engagement was Mr. Wilson's first special effort as a pub- lic speaker and it led him finally to national fame, to the Vice-Presidency of the United States, and would probably have given him the presidential chair had his life been spared two years longer.
Another instance of Mr. Ewer's correct judgment of character is of equal historic
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interest, and occurred in the life history of the late John B. Gongh : Mr. Ewer, while publishing a "Washingtonian" temperance paper in Dedham, was anxious to secure the services of a good speaker, who could in- terest that class of people for whose good the "Washingtonian" movement was initiated. He had heard of a reformed man near Wor- cester who was creating some interest in that vicinity. He took his carriage and drove to one of his meetings in a little schoolhouse -- listened to his talk, was profoundly im- pressed with its manner and matter, and after it was over introduced himself to the speaker and finally took him home with him. In the quiet of that home he subsequently persuaded Mr. Gough that he could do a great work if he would make the effort. Mr. Gough at first doubted his fitness or ability, but was finally persuaded, and Mr. Ewer traveled with him for some time, making his appointments and looking after his private wants. Mr. Gough's personal efforts and the notoriety given them through Mr. Ewer's paper, finally attracted the attention of Deacon Moses Grant, at that time one of Boston's most wealthy and earnest philan- thropists. Through Mr. Ewer the Deacon sought an interview, which finally resulted in a year's engagement for free temperance lectures, Deacon Grant to pay him a thous- and dollars and his expenses, with an agent to travel with him. At the expiration of that engagement Mr. Gough found himself fairly launched upon that wonderful career of use- fulness which elicited from Daniel Webster the remark that "John B. Gough had proven himself the greatest natural orator the world has ever produced."
We next find Mr. Ewer in Boston printing a paper devoted to the interests of the Lake Superior copper mines, and edited by a brother of Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine. While thus engaged the wonderful discovery of gold in California was announced to the world. As soon as that discovery was fully verified Mr. Ewer made arrangements for the journey, and the spring of 1849 found him on his way across the plains in the first great company of gold seekers. He reached the mines in October, mined for gold awhile, but soon dropped the pick and shovel to teach others, from his editorial chair, how to mine for the precious. metal. He first established a paper at Ne- vada City, which he soon sold, and went to. Grass Valley, where he purchased the Grass. Valley Telegraph, and also started the Cali- fornia Mining Journal, the first mining paper in California. To secure a larger field for his work, he subsequently went to San Francisco, purchased the Mining and Scientific Press,. and brought out the first number in his own name Nov. 8, 1862. Mr. A. T. Dewey sub --
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sequently became interested in that publica- tion, and continued with him about thirty years, when the business was incorporated.
In 1870, when agriculture began to assume considerable interest in California, Mr. Ewer added an agricultural department to the M. & S. Press, which attracted so much attention that the State Agricultural Board of that year invited him to go to Sacramento and take the editorial charge of an agricul- tural paper which it was proposed to start in that city. He declined the offer, but the matter finally resulted in the establishment by Dewey and Ewer of the Pacific Rural Press in San Francisco, Jan 7, 1871. Both the Mining and Scientific Press and the Pacific Rural Press have been acknowledged from their start as the two leading papers in the United States in their respective fields of labor.
Near the commencement of 1893, Mr. Ewer retired from active editorial labor, having been thus engaged fifty-six years, with only about four years of intermission. It is doubtful if there is any other person living who has been so long and so steadily engaged in active editorial work. Though now in the eightieth year of his age, he is well and hearty and has never experienced sickness. He has left editorial work simply to get more time to attend to his private business, and to give younger men a chance.
Except during the Harrison campaign of 1840, Mr. Ewer has never taken any active
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interest in politics. He has no taste in that direction except as a citizen. In the early fifties he was appointed county school super- intendent for Nevada county, unsolicited. He was also once, without seeking the office, nominated and elected school director for San Francisco. He was appointed by the Legislature of 1867 commissioner to repre- sent California at the Paris International Exposition, but knew nothing of it until he saw the announcement in the papers. Busi- ness compelled him to decline. He was ap- pointed by Governor, now Senator Perkins, to represent the state of California at the first Denver mining exposition.
Mr. Ewer has ever been social in his tastes and belongs to several social and char- itable organizations. He is a member of the California Pioneer Association, a charter member of the Bohemian Club and a mem- ber of the Native Sons of Vermont. The only fraternal association with which he is connected is the Masonic, in which he has taken the Templar degrees.
He has been three times married. His first wife was Miss Hosapher N. Brush, of Vineyard Haven, Mass. His second wife was Martha D. Luce of the same place. He is now living with his third wife, Martha, the widow of Donald McLennan, the projector and for many years superintendent of the Mission and Golden Gate woolen mills of San Francisco.
FAIRCHILD, DAVID S., of Ames, Iowa, son of Eli and Grace D. Fairchild, was born Sept. 16, 1847, at Fairfield.
He was educated at the academies of Franklin and Barre, and during the years 1866 to 1868, attended medical lectures at Ann Arbor, Mich., and graduated from the Albany Medical College in December, 1868. He read medicine in the office of Dr. J. O. Cramton, of Fairfield.
Dr. Fairchild located first in High For- rest, Minn., in May, 1869, but in July, 1872, removed to Ames, Iowa, where he has since been continuously engaged in his practice. In 1873 he was prominent in the organizing of the Story County Medical Society and was its first president. In 1874 he assisted in organizing the Central District Medical Society, which includes the central counties of his state, and was twice elected its presi- dent. He is also a member of the Iowa State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Western Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the National Association of Surgeons. In 1876 he was a delegate to the International Medi-
cal Congress held in Philadelphia. He assisted in organizing the Iowa Academy of Sciences, and was chairman of a committee appointed by the State Medical Society to prepare a history of medicine in Iowa, which was completed. In 1877 he was appointed physician to the Iowa Agricultural College, and in 1879 was elected professor of physi- ology, comparative anatomy, and pathology, of the same college. In 1882 he was elected professor of history and pathology, in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Des Moines, and was transferred in 1885 to the chair of pathology and diseases of the ner- vous system, and in 1887 to the chair of theory and practice of medicine and pathol- ogy. In 1884 he became local surgeon for the Chicago & Northwestern R. R .. and two years later was appointed district sur- geon, and in 1892 consulting surgeon for its Iowa interests extending over 1,300 miles.
For sixteen years Dr. Fairchild was en- gaged in general practice, but for the past eight years his practice has been almost ex- clusively one of consultation, particularly in surgery. Has contributed many articles to
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the medical journals, and to the transactions of various medical societies.
Outside of his profession he has had no time for pohties or other matters except in educational matters and he is at present president of the board of education of his city.
DAVID S. FAIRCHILD.
He is a member of the Arcadia Lodge, three times three (3x3) chapter, and of Excaliber Commandery ; also of the order of Elks.
May 1, 1870, he married Welhelmina C., daughter of Hon. W. K. Tattersall of High Forest, Minn., and has three children : David S., Gertrude M., and Margaret T.
FAULKNER, WILLIAM A., of Boston, Mass., son of Shepherd D. and Miranda (Greene) Faulkner, was born in Whitingham, Sept. 14, 1848.
Educated at the district schools of his na- tive town and Powers Institute, Bernardston, Mass., he prepared himself further for a business career by a course at Eastman Busi- ness College, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
Mr. Faulkner's early life was spent upon the farm ; but not finding that congenial to his taste he decided to enter upon a business career in which he has enjoyed a succession of promotions.
Beginning in April, 1872, with a clerkship in a dry goods establishment in Shelburne Falls, Mass .; in April, 1873, he became bookkeeper in the Shelburne Falls National Bank ; in October of the next year he ac-
cepted the position of teller in the First National Bank of Chicopee, Mass. Upon the organization of the Peoples National Bank of Brattleboro, in October, 1875, he was chosen cashier of that institution, which he successfully conducted until October, 1886, when he was offered and accepted the cash- iership of the National Hide and Leather Bank of Boston ; in this larger field he was always found ready to serve his customers promptly and faithfully, thus making for him- self many warm friends.
Becoming deeply interested, and a large stockholder, in the Traders National Bank of Boston, he was elected its president, in 1890. By his energy and careful, conservative meth- ods the business of the bank was largely in- creased.
WILLIAM A. FAULKNER.
Ill-health compelled him to relinquish the arduous duties of this position in January, 1893. Since which, his time has been spent in travel and in caring for his personal mat- ters and those intrusted to him by others.
Mr. Faulkner was married at Brattleboro, Sept. 21, 1876, to Alice H., daughter of Par- ley and Clara ( Blanchard) Starr. Mrs. Faulk- ner died in March, 1891.
FIELD, ROSWELL MARTIN, late of St. Louis, was born in Newfane, Feb. 22, 1807, and was the son of Gen. Martin Field and Esther S. Kellogg, his wife.
He fitted for college with Rev. Luke Whitcomb of Townshend, and entered Mid-
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dlebury College with his brother, Charles K. Field, late of Brattleboro, graduating at the age of fifteen years in 1822. He studied law with Hon. Daniel Kellogg of Rocking- ham, and was admitted to the bar in 1825, at the age of eighteen years, and practiced in Windham county till 1839. He was elected state's attorney for said county for four years in succession, from 1832 to 1835. He represented the town of Newfane in the Legislature of Vermont for the years 1835 and 1836. The special pleas drawn by him in the libel suit of Torrey vs. Field, reported in Tenth Vermont Reports were declared by Justice Story to be masterpieces of spe- cial pleading.
In 1839 Mr. Field removed to St. Louis, Mo., and continued the practice of his pro- fession ; at first as partner of Miron Leslie, also from Vermont, and a man of splendid talents and great legal attainments. Mr. Field at once took high rank with the oldest members of the St. Louis bar, among whom were Henry S. Geyer, successor of Thomas H. Benton in the U. S. Senate, Edward Bates, attorney-general in the cabinet of President Lincoln during his first term, and Hamilton R. Gamble, provisional Governor of Missouri during the war of the rebellion.
After a few years the partnership of Les- lie & Field was dissolved, and for the re- mainder of his life Mr. Field practiced his profession alone. His practice was large and remunerative. He was engaged es- pecially in numerous and important land suits, growing out of conflicting Spanish and French titles, existing before the United States acquired the territory of Louisiana. Not only was Mr. Field a great lawyer, but he was a fine classical scholar and exten- sively informed in, and familiar with, the best of English literature and general sci- ence. In addition to Greek and Latin, he was well versed in the Spanish, French, and German, and spoke the two latter languages with great facility. He brought and tried in the United States Circuit Court, Missouri, the celebrated case of Dred Scott, which gave him a national reputation. In the war of the rebellion he was a staunch and promi- nent defender of the government and the Union, and co-operated with Generals Lyon and Blair and others in defeating the schemes of the secessionists to attach Missouri to the fortunes of the confederacy, and was largely instrumental in preventing the state from committing the folly and crime of secession. A commission as judge of the state Supreme Court was sent to him by the Governor of the state in 1865, but he declined the position, which he would have adorned and dignified, preferring the quiet of private life.
He was a splendid specimen of physical manhood, being over six feet in height, well
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proportioned and of dignified and imposing presence. In his social relations he was genial and entertaining, unsurpassed in con- versational powers, delighting in witty and epigrammatic sentences, was elegant in his manners, affable and refined in his deport- ment, and to his other accomplishments he added that of the skillful musician.
In 1848 he married Miss Frances Reed, a beautiful, cultured and lovely young lady from Vermont, richly endowed with all the domestic virtues and graces of womanhood. Their married life was relatively short, as Mrs. Field died in 1856, and he himself died in 1869 at the comparatively early age of sixty-two years.
At the time of his death, and for many years before, he was regarded as standing at the head of the bar in the state. He left two sons, both of whom have exhibited in later years eminent ability, though in differ- ent lines from their father, they having selec- ted the field of journalism and authorship. The eldest, Eugene Field, of the Chicago News and Record, has earned and deserves a high reputation, as a wit and humorist, being the author of a prose work entitled "Profitable Tales," and of poems entitled a "Little Book of Western Verse," "A Second Book of Verse," and "Tin Trumpet and Drum," and with his brother, Roswell M. Field, a translation of certain Odes of Hor- ace entitled "Echoes from the Sabine Farm." The younger son is Roswell M. Field, for a number of years employed on the Kansas City Times and Evening Star, of Kansas City, Mo., and latterly . on the New York World. As a journalist he has won a favor- able name and has published a volume of sketches entitled "In the Sun Flower Land" which show marked ability and give prom- ise of still better literary work in the future.
This brief notice of the life and charac- ter of Roswell M. Field, deceased, cannot be better closed than by quoting the re- marks of Judge Wagner, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the state of Missouri, in response to the resolutions of the St. Louis bar, presented to said court. Judge Wag- ner in behalf of the court responded as follows :
" The members of this court have heard with the deepest regret of the death of R. M. Field, and the warm and deserved tribute which has just been paid to his memory receives an assenting response from the hearts of all who knew him. In the decease of our lamented friend and brother, the bar of Missouri has lost one of its brightest orna- ments. To a naturally keen, vigorous and an- alytical mind he added a thorough mastery of legal principles, combined with high scholar- ly attainments. Perhaps no man at the bar of this state ever brought to the consideration
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of any question a greater amount of exact legal learning, or clothed it with a more im pressive and attractive logie. When he gave the great energies and powers of his mind to a cause, he exhausted all the learning to be had on the subject. He studied law as a science, and delighted to examine its har- monious structure and explore its philosophie principles. So deeply was he imbued with it's true spirit, and so great was his reverence for its excellence, that he maintained them with the most jealons regard, and would sooner have failed in success than have won a case by trenching upon a sound legal rule. Ile made no parade of learning, and in his social intercourse he had a childlike sim- plicity. With his professional brethren he was full of courtesy and kindness, and his whole conduct was marked by entire integ- rity and perfect truth. He adorned every circle in which he moved, and so beautiful was his life, in all its relations, that he won and enjoyed the esteem and regard of all who knew him. It is fit and proper that the death of such a man should be marked by all the honors that we can pay to his mem- ory. It is just that we should pay this last tribute as an evidence of our appreciation of his great abilities and exalted virtues. It is therefore ordered, that the report of the proceedings of the bar which have been presented, be entered of record on the minutes of this court, and out of respect for his memory, it will be further ordered that this court do now adjourn."
FIELD, WALBRIDGE ABNER, of Bos- ton, Mass., son of Abner and Louisa (Gris- wold) Field, was born in Springfield, April 26, 1833. His father was a descendant of the Fields of Rhode Island, and his mother's ancestors were from Connecticut.
Mr. Field was educated at private schools and academies until fitted for college, when he entered Dartmouth and graduated in the class of 1855. He was tutor in the college in 1856 and 1857 and again in 1859. He studied law in Boston with Harvey Jewell and at the Harvard Law School ; was ad- mitted to the bar in Boston in 1860, and began practice with Mr. Jewell. In 1865 he was appointed assistant United States attor- ney for Massachusetts under Richard H. Dana, and remained with him and with George S. Hillard until 1869, when he was appointed by President Grant assistant at- torney-general of the United States. This office he resigned in August, 1870, and be- came a partner with Mr. Jewell and William Gaston, under the firm name of Jewell, Gas- ton & Field, and after Mr. Gaston became Governor of Massachusetts, Edward O. Shep- hard was taken into the partnership, and the firm name became Jewell, Field & Shephard
and so remained until Mr. Field became asso- ciate justice of the Supreme Jndical Court in 1881.
Judge Field was a member of the Boston school board in 1863 and 1864 and of the common conneil in :865, 1866 and 1867. In 1876 he was declared elected to the House of Representatives of the Forty-fifth Congress of the United States from the Third District of Massachusetts, but his seat was contested, and after about a year's service he was unscated. He was again a candidate for the House of Representatives, was re- clected, and, taking his seat in the Forty- sixth Congress, served withont contest.
Judge F'icld was married in 1869, to Eliza E. McLoon, who died in March, 1877, and by whom he has two daughters : Eleanor Louise, and Elizabeth Lenthal. In October, 1882, Judge Field was married to Frances E., daughter of the Hon. Nathan A. Farwell of Rockland, Me.
FINNEY, DARWIN A., was born at Shrewsbury, August 11, 1814 ; removed with his family to Meadville, Pa., when a lad ; received a classical education ; graduated at the Meadville College ; studied law, was ad- mitted to the bar, and practiced at Mead- ville ; was twice elected to the state House of Representatives, and once to the state Senate ; was elected a representative from Pennsylvania in the Fortieth Congress as a Republican, and served from March 4, 1867, until his death while traveling in Europe, August 25, 1868.
FISHER, ALONZO G., of Chicago, Ill., son of Samuel G. and Catherine (Parker) Fisher, was born in West Fairlee, Oct. 10, 1839.
Educated in the district schools of his native town and Barre Academy, he found his first employment, in 1861, with Denison Derby, driving a peddling wagon, and seven years later he engaged with N. K. Brown & Co., of Burlington, as a traveling salesman for their manufacture of patent medicines, traveling by team and reaching the wholesale trade of New England and some of the mid- dle states.
Mr. Fisher located in Chicago in 1876 and established himself in the wholesale patent medicine business, being the Western dis- tributing agent for many of the largest con- cerns in the country, and his business has grown to be the largest of its kind in the West. He is still a partner with N. K. Brown & Co., of Burlington, and spends a portion of his time in the East in the inter- est of this connection and at his elegant summer home at Foster's Point, Me.
Besides his regular avocation Mr. Fisher has been a large and successful operator in Chicago real estate.
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Socially he is very prominent in Chicago, being a member of the Citizens' Committee ; a well known member of the Illinois Club, and an enthusiastic attendant in the Union Park Church.
A member of the Illinois Society Sons of Vermont says of him : "For honesty and integrity in business matters, he has few equals ; for his kind and generous impulses he is well known and much admired."
Mr. Fisher has been twice married. He married first, August 1, 1861, Lois, daughter of Horatio Nye, of Barton. Of this union were three children, only one of whom, Arthur N. (in business with his father), is living. He was married a second time, in 1878, to Fannie D., daughter of Moses O. Crafts, of Bath, Me. They have two sons : Theo M., and Alonzo G., Jr.
FLAGG, FRED ALVIN, of Troy, N. Y., youngest surviving son of Gen. Stephen P. and Lucinda (Brown) Flagg, was born in Wilmington, June 19, 1857.
FRED ALVIN FLAGG.
He received a classical education at Wil- liston Seminary, Easthampton, and at Will- iams College, Mass.
In 1877 he was appointed deputy collector of internal revenue for the Tenth Massachu- setts District, with a residence in Greenfield, Mass., and three years subsequently was ap- pointed cashier and home office deputy col- lector of the same district, with residence at North Adams. In 1882 Mr. Flagg resigned
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his position, and for several years thereafter was successfully engaged in the coal trade at North Adams under the firm name of Rich- ardson & Flagg. During his business resi- dence in Massachusetts he was repeatedly urged to become a candidate for political honors, but he uniformly declined such dis- tinction. Retiring from the coal business in 1888, Mr. Flagg, who inherited a fine bass voice, for a time placed himself under the training of his lamented brother, Lyman, whose musical career in Europe is familiar to most Vermonters, and his advancement was such that his merits found ready recog- nition in oratorio and concert music, which made him at once prominent in the musical circles of New England.
Mr. Flagg became connected with the Fidelity and Casualty Co., of New York, in 1890, and was subsequently promoted to the position of superintendent of agencies, and is now manager of all departments of the company for a large territory, including the state of Vermont, with his headquarters and general office at Troy, N. Y.
FLAGG, JOHN HENRY, of New York City, son of Gen. Stephen P. and Lucinda (Brown) Flagg, was born in Wilmington, July 11, 1843.
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