OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (FORD FRENCH.) 



dusky. Ohio, May 8, 1899. He was a son of 

 Peter Force, the historian, and was graduated at 

 Harvard College in 1845 and at its law school 

 in 1848. In 1801 he entered the National army 

 as major of the 20th Ohio Volunteers, of which 

 he was subsequently made lieutenant colonel and 

 colonel. After taking part in the battles of Fort 

 Donelson and Shiloh, Gen. Grant's campaign in 

 southwestern Tennessee and his expedition into 

 northern Mississippi, and the siege of Yieksburg, 

 lie was promoted brigadier general of volunteers, 

 Aug. 11. 1863. Two years later, after serving 

 with Gen. Sherman in his Atlanta campaign and 

 the march to the sea, he was brevetted major 

 general of volunteers. At the close of the war 

 and on the recommendation of Gen. Sherman he 

 was offered a colonelcy in the regular army, but 

 declined it. From 1867 till 1877 he was judge of 

 the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton County, 

 Ohio, and thence till 1887 judge of the Superior 

 Court of Cincinnati. After leaving the bench he 

 declined all public preferments, excepting the of- 

 fice of commandant of the Ohio Soldiers' Home, 

 which he held at the time of his death. He edited 

 Walker's Introduction to American Law (Bos- 

 ton. 1878) and Harris's Principles of Criminal 

 Law (Cincinnati. 1880). and published From Fort 

 Henry to Corinth (New York, 1881); Marching 

 across Carolina (Cincinnati, 1883) ; and Personal 

 Recollections of the Vicksburg Campaign (1885). 

 His other publications include Prehistoric Man, 

 Darwinism and Deity, The Mound Builders, Some 

 Early Notices of Ohio Indians, To what Race 

 did the Mound Builders Belong? Letters of Ameri- 

 go Vespucci, and Life of Justice John McLean. 

 His last work, General Sherman, in The Great 

 Commanders Series, was published after his death. 

 The failure of his health had prevented the com- 

 pletion of the study, and at his request Gen. 

 Jacob D. Cox finished it. 



Ford, Daniel Sharp, publisher, born in Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., April 5, 1822; died in Boston, 

 Mass., Dec. 24, 1899. He learned the printer's 

 trade, and was at one time a member of the firm 

 of Ol instead & Ford, publishers and editors of 

 the Baptist Weekly, then known as the Christian 

 Watchman and Reflector. In 1857 the firm pur- 

 chased the Youth's Companion, of which Mr. Ford 

 shortly became the sole owner, continuing its 

 publication under the firm name of Perry Mason 

 & Co. He had keen business instincts, editorial 

 ability, and high ideals, and the Companion be- 

 came under his management one of the great 

 publishing successes of the time. His editorial 

 supervision was constantly exercised upon all the 

 departments, but his name never appeared in 

 its columns, and his many charitable and other 

 gifts were made in so quiet a fashion that his 

 name was never published in connection with 

 them. He was a lifelong member of the Baptist 

 denomination, and his philanthropic work was 

 usually performed through its agency. 



Foster. Cassius G., jurist, born in Webster, 

 N. Y., Jan. 22, 18.37; died in Topeka, Kan., June 

 21, 1899. He received a good education, studied 

 law in Rochester, N. Y., and was admitted to the 

 bar in 1859, and the same year settled in Atchison, 

 Kan. In 1863-'64 he served in the State Senate, 

 in 1807 was mayor of the city, and from March 

 10, 1874. till March, 1899. was judge of the United 

 States District Court of Kansas. He was the 

 founder and president of the Foster Humane So- 

 ciety. 



Foster. Joseph Coggin, clergyman, born in 

 Milford, N. H., April 11, 1818; died near Augusta 

 Oa., March 16, 1899. When sixteen years old 

 he was apprenticed to the printer's trade in Am- 



herst, N. H., and in the following year began 

 studying for the ministry. He was graduated 

 at the New Hampton (N. H.) Theological Insti- 

 tution in 1841, was ordained pastor of the Baptist 

 Church in Brattleboro, Vt., in 1843, and in 1856 

 left that charge for the First Baptist Church in 

 Beverly, where he remained till 1872. During the 

 next nine years he held a pastorate in Randolph. 

 For twenty-two years he never attended the meet- 

 ing of the association to which his church be- 

 longed without being elected either clerk or mod- 

 erator. He received the degree of D. D. from 

 Central University, Iowa, in 1883. He was a 

 constant writer for religious periodicals, was as- 

 sistant editor of the Watchman in 1881-'96, and 

 published Baptism and Communion, a tract that 

 was widely distributed, and Responsibilities for 

 Intemperance. 



Fontenelle, Henry, Indian chief, born in what 

 is now Bellevue, Neb., about 1819; died on the 

 Omaha Indian reservation, Nebraska, in July, 1899. 

 It is said that when Napoleon I was rising to 

 power Frangois, Marquis de Fontenelle left France 

 and settled in New Orleans in company with 

 others of the French nobility who sought pro- 

 tection in the United States. His son Lucien, 

 then sixteen years old, ran aw r ay and joined the 

 colony of French trappers and traders at St. 

 Louis. Fascinated by stories of adventure in the 

 Northwest, Lucien made his way to the trading 

 post of the Hudson Bay Company, on the upper 

 Missouri, and settled on the site of the present 

 Bellevue. He speedily made friends with the 

 Omaha Indians, was received into the tribe, and 

 in 1815 married Me-um-ba-ne, daughter of the 

 head chief. Of five children of this marriage, 

 Henry and Logan became eminent in the early 

 history of the West. The brothers were educated 

 in a school where Kansas City now stands, till 

 Henry fought a duel with a fellow-student and 

 ran away through fear of punishment. After long 

 rovings he returned to Bellevue and became a 

 trapper. Here he met Stephen Decatur, who had 

 been educated for the priesthood, and w T ho taught 

 the young half-breed Latin and Greek. In deal- 

 ing with the Indians Decatur represented the 

 trading company and Fontenelle the Indians. 

 Both men became exceedingly wealthy, and with 

 Peter A. Sarpy exerted an influence that restrained 

 the Omahas from attacking the whites. In 1840 

 Henry Fontenelle married Emily Whiteman, sis- 

 ter of the chief of the Pawnees. Soon after his 

 marriage his brother Logan, who had become 

 chief of all the Omahas, w r as killed in battle with 

 the Sioux, and Henry was chosen head chief in 

 his place. For more than half a century Henry 

 had lived in the same house in the southeastern 

 corner of the Omaha reservation. He was always 

 friendly with the whites, a man of wide informa- 

 tion, able to recite freely in the vernacular from 

 the Greek and Latin writers, and a born com- 

 mander. Ex-Secretary J. Sterling Morton pro- 

 nounced him the most wonderful man he had 

 ever seen. 



French, Justus Clement, clergyman, born in 

 Barre, Vt., May 3, 1832: died in Newark, N. J., 

 Feb. 14, 1899. He was graduated at Williams 

 College in 1853, completed the course at Union 

 Theological Seminary, New York, in 1855, and 

 was ordained a Congregational clergyman in 1857. 

 For fourteen years he was pastor of the Cen- 

 tral Congregational Church in Brooklyn. After 

 spending a year in California, he occupied the 

 pulpit of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, 

 Brooklyn, for nearly six years. In 1879 he was 

 called to the Park Presbyterian Church in New- 

 ark, where he remained until his death. He re- 



