Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/120

 FISK

FISK

gresses, and was president of the Pan-American bimetallic association. He is the author of nu- merous contributions to the press on economic subjects. In 1895 he removed to New York city. FISK, Clinton Bowen, philanthropist, was born near Greensville. N.Y., Dec. 8, 1838; son of Benjamin and Lydia (Aldricli) Fisk. The first of the name in America, John and William Fiske, with two unmarried sisters, immigrated from Suffolk county, England, to the Mas.sachusetts colony in 16:^7. William settled in Wenham, Mass., in 1640, and was a representative to the general court, and the Rev. John settled in the same place in 1643 where he was minister of the first church of Wenliam. Clinton's jjarents removed to Michigan while he was an infant, and settled in Lenawee count\'. The boy worked on a farm from the time he was nine years old. His father died, and in 1841 his mother was married again. This change in the domestic arrangement of the family enabled him to attend the Albion academy to prepare for admission to the Univer- sity of Michigan. His partial loss of eyesight prevented his completing his prejiaratory course and he engaged as clerk in a mercantile and banking house at Coldwater, Mich. He married his employer's daughter in 1850, and became a partner in the business. He removed to St. Louis, Mo., in 1858, where he became western financial nianager of the ^tna insurance com- pany, Hartford, Conn. He organized the Union merchants exchange of St. Louis, and on the out- break of the civil war in 1861 served for three months as a private in the Missouri home guards. He recruited the 33d Missouri regiment in Julj', 1862, and as its colonel led it to the front. He was ordered to St. Louis in September to form a brigade, and on its organization he was commis- sioned brigadier-general, Nov. 24, 1863, and served with the army of Tennessee. In June, 1863, he was made commander of the military district of southeast Missouri, being transferred in March, 1864, to the command of the department of North Missouri. He defended the state cajjital against the attacks of the Confederate troops led by Gen- erals Marmaduke, Price and Shelby. For this action he was made major-general of state militia by the legislature of Missouri. He was brevetted major-general of U.S. volunteers March 13, 1865, but was not allowed to resign, being appointed assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's bureau for Kentucky and Tennessee. This position gave him an intimate knowledge of the needs of the Freedmen and resulted in the American mission- ary association. New York city, founding the Fisk school. Jan. 9, 1866. incorporated as Fisk imiver.sity at Nashville. Tenn., Aug. 23, 1867, he serving as president of its board of trustees, 1867- 90. Upon the absorption of the Freedmen's

bureau by the common system of government of the separate states, he returned to the insurance business and also engaged in railroading. He was a tiustee of Drew theological seminary, Mad-

ison, N.J.; of Dickinson college, Carlisle, Pa.; of Albion college, Albion, Mich.; and of the Ameri- can missionary association. He was also a mem- ber of the Metliodist book concern, and of other institutions of the Jlethodist Episcopal church, and was president of the U.S. Indian commission, 1873-90. He was candidate of the Prohibition party of New Jersey for governor in 1886, receiv- ing 19,500 votes; and as Prohibition candidate for president of the United States in 1888, he received 251,147 of the popular votes. He left to the Fisk university $25,000 in railroad bonds, netting nearly 530,000, which was devoted to the erec- tion of the Fisk memorial chapel. He published Plain Counsels for Freedmen (1866). He died in New Y^ork city, July 9, 1890.

FISK, James, senator, was born in Green- wich, Mass., Oct. 4, 1763. He was descended from John and William Fisk, who came to Massachusetts from Laxfield, Sussex, England, in 1637 or from relatives of these pioneers who fol- lowed soon after and settled near Boston. He was self-educated, his father having died when he was two years old. He enlisted in the Amer- ican army in 1779 and served three years. Re- turning to Greenwich he worked on a farm and in 1785 was a representative in the general assem- bly of Massachusetts, and soon after preached as a Universalist minister. He removed to Barre, Vt., in 1798, cleared a farm, continued to preach, and studied law. He represented Barre in the Vermont legislature, 1800-05, 1809-10 and 1815. He was a judge of the Orange county court, 1802- 09; a representative from Vermont in the 9th and 10th congresses, 1805-09, and in the 13th and 13th congresses, 1811-15; judge of the supreme court, 1815-16, and U.S. senator 1817-18, suc- ceeding Dudley Chase, resigned. In congress be was a friend and adviser of President Madison, and a supporter of the war of 1813. In the con- spiracy carried on between John Henry employed by the governor of Canada, and the leaders of the