and serious illness, abandoned the profession and entered the itinerant ministry in 1818, when he was licensed as a local preacher in the Methodist Epis- copal church. He took high rank as a pulpit orator, was pastor for two years in Craf tsbury, Vt., and in 1819 removed to Charlestown, Mass. At the conference of 1820 he was admitted into full membership, ordained as a deacon in 1822, and from 1823 till 1827 was presiding elder of the Ver- mont district, which then comprised the whole of Vermont east of the Green mountains. He was placed upon the superannuated list, but was re- quested, in so far as health would allow, to act as agent for Newmarket academy, at that time the only Methodist institution in New England. "While here, he was chosen to make the address of welcome to Lafayette in 1824. He was also a delegate to the general conference in that j^ear, and was chosen to write the address to the British conference. He was chaplain of the Vermont legis- lature in 1826, and was one of the founders and principal of the Wesleyan academy in Wilbraham, Mass., 1826-'31, and a delegate to the general con- ference of 1828, wlien he was elected bishop of the Canada conference, but declined. In 1829 he also refused the presidency of La Grange college. Alabama, and a professorship in the University of Alabama. In 1880 he was chosen first president of the Wesleyan university, in whose organization he had materially aided. The duties of that office were entered upon in 1831 ; the institution under his direction became the most influential of any in the Methodist denomination in America. At the general conference of 1832 his appeals in be- half of Indian missions resulted in the organiza- tion of the Oregon mission, and he was at this time instrumental in founding Williamstown acad- emy. For years he was useful to educational inter- ests at large by recommending or furnishing pro- fessors and presidents to the rapidly multiplying colleges of the far west. In search of health, he passed the winter of 1835-'6 in Italy, and the sum- mer of 1836 in England, when he also represented the M. E. church of the Wesleyan conference as a delegate. He was elected bishop of that church in 1836, but declined. In 1839 he became a UK^m- ber of the board of education of Connecticut. He was said to be unsurpassed in eloquence and fervor as a preacher, and was often compared to Fene- lon, being endowed with like moral and mental traits. The degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Augusta college, Kentucky, in 1829, and by Brown in 1835. His published works are : " In- augural Address " (New York, 1831) ; " Calvinistic Controversy " (1837) ; " Travels in Europe " (1838) ; " Sermons and Lectures on Universalism : Reply to Pierpont on the Atonement, and other Theo- logical and Educational Works and Sermons." His account of his European travels had a wide cir- culation and was greatly admired. His " Life and Writings" were published by the Rev. Joseph Holdich, D. D. (New York, 1842).
FISK, Pliny, missionary, b. in Shelburne,
Mass., 24 June, 1792; d. in Beirut, Syria, 23 Oct.,
1825. He was graduated at Middlebury college in
1814, and at Andover theological seminary in 1818.
He was appointed, with Levi Parsons, by the
American board, to the Palestine mission in 1818,
and sailed from Boston for Smyrna, 3 Nov., 1819.
After travelling extensively in Greece, Egypt, Palestine,
and Syria, he joined, in May, 1825, the mission
already established at Beirut, and died there of
fever in the following October. Mr. Fisk was
eminently fitted to be a missionary in the east, as he
preached in Italian, French, Greek, and Arabic. On
the day of his death he completed an “English and
Arabic Dictionary,” and wrote numerous papers
for the “Missionary Herald.” A life of Pliny Fisk
was published by Alvin Bond (Boston, 1828).—His
niece, Fidelia, missionary, b. in Shelburne, Mass.,
1 May, 1816; d. there, 9 Aug., 1864, was graduated
at Mount Holyoke seminary in 1839, and
subsequently taught there. In 1843 she resigned her
post and went to Persia as a missionary among the
Nestorians, where she labored fifteen years, much
of the time as teacher in a female seminary. She
was the first principal of the seminary at Oroomiah.
In 1858 she returned to the United States with
broken health. She published “Memorial of
Mount Holyoke Seminary” and “Woman and her
Saviour in Persia,” and at the time of her death
was engaged in writing “Recollections of Mary
Lyon” (Boston, 1866). See a memoir of Miss
Fisk, by the Rev. Daniel T. Fiske, D. D., entitled
“Faith working by Love” (1868).
FISKE. Samuel, soldier, b. in Shelburne, Mass.,
23 July, 1828 ; d. in Fredericksburg, Va., 22 May,
1864. He was graduated at Amherst in 1848, was
in Andover theological seminary from 1850 till
1852, was tutor at Amherst from 1852 till 1855,
then travelled a year in Europe and the east, and
was pastor of the Congregational church at Madi-
son, Conn., in 1857. He entered the National army
as a private in the 14th Connecticut regiment in
1862, became captain, was for some time a prisoner
in Richmond, distinguished himself in several bat-
tles, and fell at the head of his company on the
second day of the battle of the Wilderness, 6 May,
dying in the hospital. His letters from Europe
and the east, first published in the Springfield
" Republican " imder the pen-name of •' Dunn
Browne," appeared in a volume in 1857. His " Ex-
periences in the Army," under the same assumed
name, were published in 186(i.
FISKE, Daniel Willard, scholar, b. in Ellisburg, Jefferson co., N. Y., 11 Nov., 1831. When very young he disclosed an uncommon aptitude for the acquisition of languages, and a precocious interest in both literature and politics. He pursued his school education at Cazenovia seminary and at Hamilton college, but left that institution in his sophomore year to go abroad and study the Scandinavian languages. At Copenhagen he enjoyed the friendship of Prof. Rafu, the distinguished Danish archæologist. With little aid except some occasional correspondence with the New York “Tribune,” he sustained himself during 1849-'52,
passing two years in the University of Upsala, giving lessons in English and lecturing on American literature, and speaking Swedish so well that he commonly passed with the students for a Swede. In 1852 he returned to New York and took a place in the Astor library, where he remained as assistant until 1859, still pursuing his studies in languages, and in making a collection of Icelandic books, which soon became the most considerable in this country. So enthusiastically had he directed his attention to that enlightened island that it was said that few natives were more familiar with its geography, history, politics, and literature than he. In 1859-'60 he was general secretary of the American geographical society. In 1861-'2 he was again abroad, and attached to the American legation at Vienna under Minister John Lothrop Motley. Returning, he was editor of the daily “Journal” of Syracuse, N. Y., in 1864-'6, and through 1867 had charge of the Hartford, Conn., “Courant,” from which he was called in 1868, after another extensive tour abroad, which embraced Egypt and Palestine, to the professorship of the north European
