Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/188

 FRALEY

FRANCIS

Sent. 8, 1841, he was comiiiissioneil lieutenant, t)ie Potomac and assisted at the siege of Vera Cruz. In 1801 he was promoted commander, and the following year was attaclied to the Quaker City of the South Atlantic squadron. This vessel was attaclied on Jan. 31, 1863, bj' Confederate rams off Charleston, S.C, and almost disabled. In 1864 he was assigned to the Ttiscarora w)iich tooli part in both attaclis upon Fort Fislier near Wilmington, N.C. He was pi-omoted captain Feb. 6, 1866, and commanded the steam sloop Saranac of the North Pacific squadron, 1867-68. He was promoted commodore March 2, 1870, and in April of the same year he was placed in com- mand of the League Island naval station at Phil- adelphia, Pa. On May 6, 1871, he was retired with the rank of rear-admiral. He died in Phil- adelphia, P;i., Sept. 26, 1877.
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FRALEY, Frederick, financier, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., May 28, 1804. He was edu- cated in the best schools of the city, studying law as a part of his mental training, although he was destined to be a merchant. He was an original member of the Franklin institute in 1824, and its treasurer for many years. Mr. Fraley was a member of the Phil- adeljjhia city coun- cils, a select council- man in 1834-37, and in the latter j-ear the city was saved from insolvency by adopt- ing his plan of issuing certificates of indebt- edness, in small de- nominations, readily taken by tbe people. He was a member of the state senate, 1837- 40, and was chairman of the committee of investigation of the " Buckshot war." He was a dii-ector of Girai'd college from the completion of its building in 1847, prepared the plan of its organ- ization and management, was president of the board and as chairman of the education commit- tee, was president of the college for six months in 1849. He was a member of the convention of 1868 at Boston, Mass., which established the National board of trade, and was its first and only president up to December, 1898. He helped to promote and organize the Centennial expo- sition of 1876, being elected treasurer of the Cen- tennial board of finance in 1873, and, with John Welsh, president, signed the bond to the U.S. treasury for the nation's loan of 51, .500 000 to the board. There was great rivalry among leading

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Philadelphians personal friends, to go upon this bond as "sureties," the signers accepted rep- resenting not only admiring fellow citizens but over one hundred milUons of dollars. Mr. Fraley was elected a trustee of the University of Penn- sylvania in 1853; was a member from 1842 and president from 1879 of the American philosophi- cal society; and was a foimder of the Union club and of the Union League of Philadelphia. He received from the University of Pennsylvania the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1880. When the city of Philadelphia was consolidated Frederick Fraley and Eli K. Price, uniting with other prominent citizens, were the active forces in planning the complicated undertaking. Phila- delphia, like London, being made up of various independent governments, their consolidation, which included the "Liberties" districts, and boroughs of the whole county, was accomplished by the legislature in 18o4. Mr. Fraley wrote the preamble of the Act, which required much tact and knovi-ledge; and also was the author of all the financial measures, a difficult work, as unit- ing so many separate systems of actual govern- ments. His ninetieth birthday was celebrated by a dinner given him at the Union League house by the various learned, scientific and commercial societies of Philadelphia of which he liad been long a member. He was married to Jane Chap- man Cresson. who died March 1, 1897. He died in Philadelphia. Pa.. Sept. 23, 1901.

FRANCIS, Convers, clergyman, was born in West Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 9, 1795; son of Con- vers and Susanne (Rand) Francis, brother of the philanthropist, Lydia Maria Child, and a descend ant of Richard Francis, who came from England and settled in Cambridge, Mass., in 1686. He fitted for college at Medford academy, was grad- uated from Harvard college in 1815, and from Harvard divinity school in 1818, and on June 23 of the following year was ordained pastor of the Unitarian church at Watertown, Mass. He re- maineil there until 1842, when he was appointed to the Parkman professorship of pulpit eloquence and pastoral care at Harvard university, which chair he held until his death. He was married in 1822 to Abby Bradford, daughter of the Rev. John AUyn, D.D., of Duxbury, Ma.ss. He vras an overseer of Harvard, 1831-43, and received the degree of S.T.D. in 1837. He was a member of the Massachusetts historical society and author of: Errors of Edncation (1828); Historical Sketch of Watertown (1830): Dudlean Lecture at Cambridge (1833); Lifeof liev. John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, in Sparks's Library of American Bior/raph (1836); memoirs of Her. John Allyn, D.D (1836) Dr. Gamaliel Bradford (1846), and Judge Davis (1849); and Life of Sebastian Sale (1848). He died in Cambridge, Mass., April 7, 1863.