Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/578

548. He procured from the Texas legislature a grant of state land in the interest of the Memphis and El Paso railway, which was to be part of a proposed trans-continental road from Norfolk to San Diego and San Francisco. The French agents employed to place the land-grant bonds of this road on the market made the false declaration that they were guaranteed by the United States. In 1869 the senate passed a bill giving Frémont's road the right of way through the territories, an attempt to defeat it by fixing on him the onus of the misstatement in Paris having been unsuccessful. In 1873 he was prosecuted by the French government for fraud in connection with this misstatement. He did not appear in person, and was sentenced by default to fine and imprisonment, no judgment being given on the merits of the case. In 1878-'81 Gen. Frémont was governor of Arizona. He has published &ldquo;Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1842, and to Oregon and North California in 1843-'4&rdquo; (Washington, 1845; New York, 1846; London, 1849); &ldquo;Col. J. C. Frémont's Explorations,&rdquo; an account of all five of his expeditions (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1859); and &ldquo;Memoirs of my Life&rdquo; (New York, 1880). See also the campaign biographies by John Bigelow (New York, 1856), and Charles W. Upham (Boston, 1856). His wife, Jessie Benton, b. in Virginia in 1824, has published &ldquo;Story of the Guard; a Chronicle of the War,&rdquo; with a German translation (Boston, 1863); a sketch of her father, Thomas H. Benton, prefixed to her husband's memoirs (1880); and &ldquo;Souvenirs of my Time&rdquo; (Boston, 1887).

FRENCH, Benjamin Franklin, historian, b. in Richmond, Va., 8 June, 1799; d. in New York city, 30 May, 1877. He studied law, but abandoned it on account of failing health. From his early jnanhood he contributed to magazines and news- papers. He removed to Louisiana in 1830, and engaged in planting and commerce, continuing his literary work and collecting an extensive library, which he afterward presented to the Fiske free library of New Orleans. In 1853 he removed to New York, and, retiring from business, devoted himself to historical writing. He published " Bio- graphia Americana" (New York, 1835) ; " Memoirs of Eminent Female Writers " (Philadelphia, 1837) ; " Beauties of Byron, Scott, and Moore " (New York, 1838); " Historical Collections of Louisiana" (1846-'58); "History and Progress of the Iron Trade of the United States" (1858); and "His- torical Annals of North America" (1861).

FRENCH, Daniel Chester, sculptor, b. in Exe- ter, N. 11., 30 April, 1850. He studied under Dr. Will- iam Rimmer in Boston, and in the studio of Thomas Ball, at Florence, Italy, but returned to the United States in 1876 and opened a studio in Washington. He was a member of the art club of that city, and executed a number of small groups in parian and plaster. The most popular of these works are two groups of dogs. " The Owl in Love," and " Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness." In 1878 he re- turned to Florence, and has since resided in that city. His sculptures include "The Minute Man of Concord," an heroic statue in bronze, which was unveiled in Concord in 1875 ; " The May Queen " ; " Elsie Venner " ; " Peace and War," a co- lossal group, which is now in the custom-house in St. Louis ; " The Waking of Endymion " ; and a life-size statue of Gen. Lewis Cass, for the National memorial gallery at Washington.

FRENCH, David, scholar, b. in Delaware in 1700; d. at New Castle, Pa., 33 Aug., 1743. His father, Robert, was a provincial councillor in 1700 and 1707, and became a justice of the provincial court in 1701. Between 1730 and 1730 he wrote poetical translations, which were printed in the works of John Parke, an early poet of Pennsylva- nia (1786). Two of these translations are from the elegies of Ovid and four from the odes of Anacreon. Parke inserts them with the remark : " These poems were consigned to oblivion, through the obliterating medium of rats and moths, under the sequestered canopy of an antiquated trunk." In the records of his death and burial in Chester church he is described as " prothonotary of the court at New Castle."

FRENCH, John William, clergyman, b. in Connecticut about 1810; d. in West Point, N. Y., 8 July, 1871. He was graduated at Trinity in 1833, studied theology in the Protestant Episco- pal seminary in New York city, and was admitted to holy orders in 1835. In i836 he was elected professor of ethics in Bristol college, Pa. This in- stitution soon failed, and after holding pastorates in Portland, Me., and Washington, D. C., he was appointed in August. 1858, chaplain of the mili- tary academy at West Point, and professor of geography, history, and ethics, to which was after- ward added the department of constitutional and international law. In 1860 he received the degree of D. D. from Trinity college.

FRENCH, L. Virginia, poet, b. on the eastern shore of Maryland in 1830 ; d. at McMinnville, Tenn., 31 March, 1881. Her maiden name was Smith. Her maternal grandfather, Capt. Thomas Parker, was an officer in the Revolutionary army. She was educated at Washington female seminary, Pa. In 1848 she removed to Memphis, Tenn., established a school, and under the signature of " Inconnue " contributed to local magazines and newspapers. In 1853 she became an associate editor of the " Southern Lady's Book," a fashion magazine published in New Orleans, and in January. 1853, married John L. French, of McMinnville, Tenn., and for some time edited the " Crusader," a magazine published at Atlanta, Ga. Her collected works are " Wind Whispers," poems (New York, 1856); "Iztalilxo," a tragedv (1859); and "Legends of the South" (Atlanta, 1867).

FRENCH, Mansfleld, clergyman, b. in Manchester, Vt., 31 Feb., 1810; d.'at Pearsall's, L. I., 15 March, 1876. In his youth he studied at the Bennington seminary, and at twenty began theological studies at the divinity-school of Kenyon college, Ohio. He was the founder of Marietta college, Granville female seminary, and principal of Circleville female college, Ohio. In 1845 he united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and entered the itinerant ministry in the North Ohio conference. During the next three years he was president of the Xenia, Ohio, female college, and agent for Wesleyan university. He was afterward agent for Wilberforce university, the first college opened to the negro race in America. In 1858 he removed to New York city with a religious monthly, of which he was editor and proprietor, called "The Beauty of Holiness." There he became a strong