OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



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was elected intendant on the incorporation of 

 the village, and Mayor on the incorporation of 

 the city, holding the latter office through five 

 terms. He served one term as a member of 

 Congress. "While in Washington he frequently 

 appeared before the Supreme Court of the 

 United States in important suits, being asso- 

 ciated in several with Daniel Webster and 

 Henry Clay, by both of whom he was spoken 

 of as one of the most promising lawyers in the 

 country. At the close of his congressional 

 service he returned to Atlanta, and was elected 

 Judge of the Superior Court, occupying his 

 seat on the bench for ten years, and then re- 

 suming practice, to which he applied himself, 

 with the exception of a term in the State 

 Senate, till 1877. 



Fairfield, Francis Gerry, an American clergy- 

 man, physician, and author, born in Stamford, 

 Conn., Aug. 18, 1844; died in New York city, 

 April 4, 1887. He was graduated at Gettys- 

 burg at an early age, and, after spending some 

 time in scientific researches, entered Hartwick 

 Theological Seminary, where he astonished his 

 teachers by his remarkable aptitude for re- 

 ligious study and investigation. On receiving 

 his degree of D. D. from the Lutheran Church, 

 he was assigned to a mission in Waterloo, 

 N. Y. Removing to New York city to avail 

 himself of larger facilities for scientific study, 

 he relinquished preaching, and applied himself 

 to the study of medicine and surgery in the 

 office of Dr. Worcester. The natural rapidity 

 with which he acquired information, especially 

 of a complex character, enabled him to com- 

 plete his course in half the usual time. He was 

 graduated at the New York College of Phy- 

 sicians and Surgeons with a distinguished 

 record, but never practiced this profession to 

 any extent. In 1867 he married Josephine 

 Griswold, who had already won a reputation 

 by her literary work. After this Mr. and Mrs. 

 Fairfield devoted themselves to literature, con- 

 tributing to newspapers, magazines, and re- 

 views. Mr. Fairfield's articles inclined to the 

 discussion of scientific and other questions of 

 current interest, displaying the evidences of a 

 scholarship far beyond his years. For ten 

 or twelve years they worked with much in- 

 dustry, and their joint income enabled them to 

 live in circumstances of affluence. They were 

 familiar figures at the various publishing-houses, 

 always arm-in-arm. Then a cloud began to 

 creep over their lives, talent and intellect slow- 

 ly gave way in husband and wife before the 

 opium-habit, and both were reduced to phys- 

 ical and mental wrecks. For several months 

 nothing had been seen of them on their ac- 

 customed routes. A messenger notifying Cor- 

 oner Levy on the night of March 31, 1887. that 

 the body of a dead woman had just been found 

 in a designated house, led to the discovery of 

 all that was mortal of the accomplished and 

 once beautiful Mrs. Fairfield. Four days later 

 her husband was found dead in another part of 

 the city. Mr. Fairfield received the degrees of 



A. M. and Ph. D. from Gettysburg, that of D. D. 

 from the Lutheran Theological Seminary, and 

 M. D. from the New York College of Phy- 

 sicians and Surgeons. He published in book- 

 form "The Clubs of New York" (1873) and 

 " Ten Years with Spiritual Mediums " (1875). 



Fellows, John F., an American banker, born in 

 Salem, Mass., in 1815 ; died in Chelsea, Mass., 

 July 6, 1887. In early life he removed to 

 Boston, hecame financial manager of the daily 

 "Atlas," and subsequently publisher and pro- 

 prietor of the u Courier." At the outbreak of 

 the civil war he sold out his newspaper inter- 

 ests, and went to the front as lieutenant-colo- 

 nel of the Seventeenth Regiment of Massachu- 

 setts Volunteers. He performed meritorious 

 services in North Carolina, being in command 

 of his regiment most of the time. He was 

 taken prisoner in action, sent to Libby Prison in 

 Richmond, and kept in close confinement there 

 till he was selected as one of the company of 

 100 Union soldiers to be placed in Charleston, 

 S. C., within range of the guns of Fort Wagner 

 during the bombardment of that city. At the 

 end of the siege he procured an exchange, and 

 returned home. He was shortly afterward ap- 

 pointed Superintendent of the Chelsea Savings- 

 Bank, which office he retained till within two 

 months of his death. Mr. Fellows was a mem- 

 ber of the Salem Glee Club, famous many years 

 ago, and for a long time captain of the Chelsea 

 Light Infantry, which he brought up to a high 

 standard of military perfection. 



Foster, Abby Kelly, an American reformer, 

 born in Pelham, Mass., Jan. 15, 1811 ; died in 

 Worcester, Mass., Jan. 14, 1887. She was of 

 Quaker parentage, and received her chief edu- 

 cation in a Sunday-school in Providence, R. I. 

 She taught for several years in Worcester and 

 Millbury, but in 1837 became interested in 

 the anti-slavery movement, and thenceforward 

 gave her time and energy to the advancement 

 of that cause. She was reputed to have been 

 the first woman that addressed a mixed au- 

 dience on the subject, and suffered many in- 

 dignities because of her freedom of speech. 

 On Dec. 21, 1845, she married Stephen S. Fos- 

 ter, an equally vigorous laborer in the cause, 

 after which they continued their work to- 

 gether. In 1850 they began speaking in advo- 

 cacy of woman suffrage, Mrs. Foster partici- 

 pating in the agitation till her health com- 

 pelled her to cease from public speaking. She 

 was also an earnest worker in the cause of 

 prohibition, and a sturdy opponent of the prac- 

 tice of taxation without representation, carry- 

 ing her views to such an extreme that she al- 

 lowed her cows to be levied upon and sold, 

 and her farm to be seized and offered for sale 

 rather than pay her taxes without being per- 

 mitted to vote or hold public office. 



Fowler, Orson Squire, an American phrenolo- 

 gist, born in Cohocton, Steuben County, N. Y., 

 Oct. 11, 1809; d. in Sharon Station, N. Y., 

 Aug. 18, 1887. He was graduated at Ainlu-rst 

 in 1834, in the class with Henry Ward Beecher. 



