Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/121

 FISK

FISK

Federal partj" in Xew England, he arraigned the conspirators and exposed their duplicity and Avas a large factor in destroying the political jiower of the Federal party. In 1813 he was nominated by President Madison and was con- lirnied by the senate as judge of the territory of Indiana, but he declined the office. He resigned his seat in the U.S. senate in 1818toaccept the ap- pointment of collector of customs for the district of Vermont. He removed to Swanton. where he resided during the remainder of his life. He was displaced from ofl^ioe in 182.') by President J. Q. Adams and became a follower of Henry Clay and as earnest a Whig as he had been a Democrat. He was a member of the board of trustees of the University of Vermont, 1810-13, and received the honorary degree of A.M. from that institution in 1813. He was married about 17S4 to Priscilla West of Greenwich, Mass., who died Aug. 19, 1840. They had three daughters and three sons. Their son Willbur became pi'esi- dent of Wesleyan universitj'. Judge Fisk died in Swanton. Vt., Dec. 1. 1844.

FISK, Photius Kavasales, philanthropist, was born in the Grecian Archijielago about 1807. He attended a Jesuit college in Malta and there at- tracted the attention of an American missionarj-, the Rev. Photius Fisk. by whose advice he re- moved to the United States. He studied at Amherst college and in 1827 returned to his na- tive country where he engaged in missionary work and was also private secretary to President CajK)distrias until the assassination of the latter in October, 1831. In 1838 he was graduated from Auburn theological seminary, and was ordained to the Congregational ministry at Halifax, Vt., March 14, 1839. In 1840 his name was changed by act of congress from Kavasales to Photius Fisk. In 1843 he was appointed a chaplain in the U.S. uavy and served on the frigates Columbia, 1843-4.5. and llarUan. 184.5-48. He was then or- dered to the Charlestown, Ma.ss., navy yard, and while serving there became prominent among the aliolitionists of Boston. He was retired with the i-ank of captain in 1868. He accumulated a large fortune and for several years before his death was accustomed to distribute among the deserving jkxjv, thousands of dollars annually, usually placing their names upon his books and allowing them ten dollars monthly. His entire estate he bequeathed to the poor of Boston. He died m Boston. :Mass, Feb. 7, 1890.

FISK, Willbur, educator, was born in Brattle- boro, Vt., Aug. 31. 1792; son of the HoiL James and Priscilla (West) Fisk. He worked on his father's farm attending the district school a short time each winter \mtil he was sixteen years old. He then attended Peacham academy, the Univer- sity of Vermont, 1813-13, and was graduated at

Brown imiversity A.B., 181.5, A.M., 1818. He studied law in Lyndon, Vt., 1815-16, was a teacher near Baltimore, Md., 1816-17, and became a local preacher in the Methodist church at Lyn- don, Vt., March 14, 1818. He joined the New Eng- land conference in June, 1818, as probationer, and was appointed to the Craftsbury circuit, Vt. He was stationed at Charlestown, Mass., 1819-30, when at a camp-meeting held at Wellfleet, Cape Ann, he experienced what he described as " a supernatural work of grace leading him into a higher Christian life." Under the excessive ex- citement incident to this experience his health gave way and he was supei'annuated, 1831-33. He was married in 1833 to Ruth Peck of Providence. R.I. He was presiding elder, Vermont district, 1833-37; chaplain of the Vermont legislature, 1826; founder and principal of Wesleyan academy and pastor of the local church, Wilbraham, Mass.. 1836-31; and delegate to Metlwdist gen- eral conference, 1834-38 and 1833. In 1838 he was elected bishop of the Canada conference but declined. He urged before the conference of 1828 the establishment of denominational academies throughout the countiy, and his subsequent agi- tation of the subject resulted in the founding at Middletown, Conn., of the Wesleyan university, of which he was elected the first president, Aug. 34, 18.30, and opened the halls to students Sept. 21,

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1831. He was visitor to the U.S. military acad. emy. West Point, N.Y., 1833; was a foremost ad- vocate of temperance reform ; of the colonization of free colored families in Africa, and of the improvement of the condition of the American Indians. He was a member of the general con- ference of 1833 and there .secured the establish- ment of a Methodist mission in Oi-egon for the education of the Flathead Indians and induced the Young men's missionary society of New York to support a missionary to Liberia, Africa, and but for the protests of friends would have re- signed the presidency of the university to go there himself. He was a delegate to the Wes- leyan conference, London, England, 1835, and