576 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (FEREISS FORD.) 



was unemployed nineteen years and nine months, 

 lie was engaged in the destruction of piratical vil- 

 lages on the coast of Sumatra in 1839; was on the 

 Princeton " when Stockton's " peace-maker " burst 

 in 1844; served on the California station during the 

 Mexican War, and took part in the capture of Mazat- 

 lan and Lower California; assisted in the capture of 

 William Walker, the filibuster, and his command at 

 Greytown, Nicaragua, in 1858; had personal charge 

 of the transfer of Messrs. Mason and Slidell and their 

 secretaries from the British mail packet " Trent " to 

 the " San Jacinto " ; and took part in the principal 

 naval operations at Charleston. After the war, he 

 was for a time on Admiral Farragut's staff; com- 

 manded the naval station at Mew London in 1873-'78; 

 and was governor of the naval asylum in 1879-'81. 



Ferriss, Orange, jurist, born in Glens Falls, N. Y., 

 Nov. 26, 1814; died there, April 11, 1894. He was 

 graduated at the University of Vermont in 1836 ; was 

 admitted to the bar of Warren County, N. Y., in 

 1840; was surrogate in 1841-'45; county judge in 

 1851-'63; and was elected to Congress from the 16th 

 New York District as a Republican in 1866 and 1868. 

 Subsequently he was a judge of the United States 

 Court of Claims and an auditor in the United States 

 Treasury Department. 



Field, 'Cyrus West, 2d, broker, born in New York 

 city, March 15, lb5T; died there, June 9, 1894. He 

 was a son of the projector of the Atlantic telegraph 

 cable ; was privately educated till 1873, and was 

 graduated at Williams College in 1879. Immediately 

 after graduation he married Miss Susan M., a daugh- 

 ter of Reuben R. Andrews, of North Adams, Mass., 

 and engaged in brokerage business in New York 

 city, his father buying him a seat in the Stock Ex- 

 change. In 1891 botli he and his father were finan- 

 cially wrecked in the disaster brought about by his 

 brother, Edward M. Field. He at once sold his seat 

 in the exchange, and applied the proceeds toward 

 paying his liabilities. In 1892 he became United 

 States consul at Brunswick, Germany. While there 

 he applied half of his salary, and h ; s wife a larg^e 

 part of her private income, toward extinguishing his 

 obligations. On his return he was taken ill with 

 hasty consumption and lived but a few weeks. 



Field. David Dudley, lawyer, born in Haddam, Conn., 

 Feb. 13, 1805; died in New York city, April 13, 1894. 

 lie was a son of the Rev. David Dudley Field, D. D., 

 and the eldest of four brothers, each of whom became 

 eminent Stephen Johnson Field, an associate jus- 

 tice of the United States Supreme Court ; Cyrus West 

 Field, of Atlantic telegraph tame ; and the Rev. Henry 

 Martyn Field, D. D., for many years editor of " The 

 Evangelist." His father took charge of his early edu- 

 cation, instructing him in Latin, Greek, and mathe- 

 matics, and on the removal of the family to Stock- 

 bridge, Mass., in 1819, he was sent to an academy, 

 preparatory to entering Williams College, where he 

 was graduated in 1825. He studied law, was admitted 

 to the New York bar in 1828, and began practicing in 

 partnership with Robert Sedgwick. In 1836 he went 

 abroad, and made a study of English and French 

 courts, codes, and civil laws, and on his return he 

 became impressed with the necessity for a codifica- 

 tion of the common law of New York State. In 1839 

 lie embodied his ideas in an open letter to Gulian C. 

 Verplanck, entitled "The Reform of our Judicial 

 System," and appeared before a committee of the 

 Legislature in advocacy of his project. He con- 

 tended that the common law could be compressed 

 into a single volume, while his legal opponents as- 

 serted that such a task was impossible. To promote 

 the reform ho sought election to the Legislature in 

 1841, and on being defeated he sen* to the Assembly 

 the drafts of three bills, which were introduced and 

 referred to the judiciary committee without further 

 action. Mr. Field then sought, election to the Con- 

 stitutional Convention, and was defeated; but he 

 continued his agitation by publishing, previous to 

 the meeting of that body, a series of articles on " The 

 Reorganization of the Judiciary." The convention 



adopted two provisions bearing on law reform, one 

 referring to a general code, the other to a reform in 

 practice. In January, 1847, before the Legislature 

 met, Mr. Field published a treatise on " W T hat shall 

 be done with the Practice of the Courts ? " and fol- 

 lowed it with a memorial to the Legislature asking 

 for the appointment of a commission to provide for 

 the abolition of existing forms of action and pleadings 

 at common law, and for a uniform course of proceed- 

 ing. In April following, a commission was appointed, 

 of which Mr. Field afterward became a member, and 

 in February, 1848, the first installment of the " Code 

 of Civil Procedure" was reported to the Legislature, 

 and soon afterward was adopted. Other reports fol- 

 lowed till Jan. 1, 1850, when the completed codes of 

 civil and criminal procedure were submitted. After 

 their adoption by the Legislature Mr. Field again 

 went abroad, and was warmly received by Lord 

 Brougham in London, and was" given a dinner and 

 reception by the Law Amendment Society. In 1857 

 an act was passed by the Legislature appointing him 

 chairman of a commission to codify the whole body 

 of the law of the State not already codified. This 

 labor was completed in 1865, but the State adopted 

 only the penal code. Within a few years 24 States 

 and Territories adopted his " Code of Civil Proced- 

 ure," and 18 the " Code of Criminal Procedure." In 

 1866 lie proposed to the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science a revision and reform of the 

 laws of all nations similar to his civil and criminal 

 codes. A committee of American and English law- 

 yers was appointed to consider the suggestion, for 

 which he prepared u The Draft Outlines of an Inter- 

 national Code," which was translated into several 

 languages. This task occupied him for seven years. 

 The codification itself remained unfinished a't his 

 death. While engaged in this special line of work, 

 Mr. Field was in active practice for the greater part 

 of the time. He is credited with having been the 

 author of the electoral commission bill enacted by 

 Congress in 1876, and was employed in a number of 

 celebrated causes. His daughter married Sir Anthony 

 Musgrave, Governor of the Island of Jamaica. Mr. 

 Field was a liberal benefactor in life, and bequeathed 

 $5,000 to the town of Stockbridge, Mass., for the care 

 of its cemetery, and $5,000 to the town of Haddam, 

 Conn., for the care of the Field Park there. 



Foote, Caleb, iournalist, born in Salem, Mass., Feb. 

 28,1803; died in Milton, Mass., June 17, 1894. lie 

 was apprenticed to the printer's trade in the office of 

 the Salem " Gazette" in 1817 ; acquired an interest in 

 the paper in 1825, and full control in 1833 ; admitted 

 the late Nathaniel A. Horton to partnership in 185^ 

 and retired from journalism in 1888. Thus he wa 

 in the service of the " Gazette " for seventy-one years, 

 and was an active or controlling factor in its affaire 

 for sixty-three years. As a member of the Salem 

 Light Infantry Company, he was one of the military 

 escort of Lafayette on his visit to Salem in 1824. I l'e 

 was elected to the Legislature in 1832 and 183?., was 

 a member of Gov. Everett's executive council in ls:;s 

 ':'>!. and was postmaster of Salem in 1841-'44. 



Ford, John Bruce, publisher, born in Beethington, 

 Somersetshire, England, Sept. 24, 181G ; died in 

 Brooklyn, N. Y., Oct. 25, 1894. He learned the pub- 

 lishing' business in London, and came to the United 

 States to establish a New York branch of the house 

 of Tallis & Co., in 1850. In 1869 he established 

 the publishing house of J. B. Ford & Co., with 

 which he was actively connected till within a few 

 years of his death. 'Mr. Ford was the founder of 

 "The Christian Union," and his firm were the pub- 

 lishers of many of Henry Ward Beeeher's works, 

 Judge Tourgee's "A Fool's Errand," and Bryant's 

 " Library of Poetry and Song." 



Ford, John Thomson, theatrical manager, born in Bal- 

 timore, Md., April 16, 1829; died there, March 14, 

 1894. He received a public-school education, and 

 first engaged in the theatrical business in 1851 as 

 agent of the " Nightingale Serenaders," a minstrel 

 company with which he made several tours. In 1854 





