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Samuel Fallows

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The Right Reverend
Samuel Fallows
D.D.
Fallows in 1922, shortly before his death
9th Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin
In office
July 6, 1870 – January 4, 1874
Appointed byLucius Fairchild
GovernorLucius Fairchild
Cadwallader C. Washburn
Preceded byAlexander J. Craig
Succeeded byEdward Searing
Personal details
Born(1835-12-13)December 13, 1835
Pendleton, England
DiedSeptember 5, 1922(1922-09-05) (aged 86)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting placeForest Home Cemetery, Chicago
Spouse
Lucy Bethia Huntington
​
​
(m. 1860; died 1916)​
Children4
EducationLawrence University (D.D.)
Alma materUniversity of Wisconsin
OccupationClergyman, educator, lecturer, author
Signature
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUnited States Volunteers
Union Army
Years of service1861–1865
Rank
Commands49th Reg. Wis. Vol. Infantry
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Samuel Fallows (December 13, 1835 – September 5, 1922) was an English American immigrant, minister, lecturer, and author. He was the 9th Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin and served as Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church for 30 years between 1877 and 1922. During the American Civil War he served as a chaplain and later as an officer in the Union Army, receiving an honorary brevet to Brigadier General after the war.

Early life

Fallows was born in Pendleton, Greater Manchester, in England, and emigrated to the Wisconsin Territory as a child in 1848.[1] His family settled at Marshall (then called "Bird's Ruins") in eastern Dane County, and established a farm.[2]: 238 [3][4]: 231  He worked as a farm hand to pay for school, becoming a Methodist minister in 1858 and graduating from the University of Wisconsin (now University of Wisconsin–Madison) in 1859. He was elected vice-president and principal of Galesburg University and served there for two years, then became minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.[4]: 231 [note 1][5]

Civil War service

32nd Wisconsin Volunteers

Fallows was ministering to the Oshkosh church at the time of the outbreak of the American Civil War and did not volunteer in the first year of the war. In 1862, however, he resigned his ministry and enlisted for service in the Union Army, becoming chaplain of the 32nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment under Colonel James Henry Howe.[6]: 800  He served for a year with the regiment which mostly performed guard duty during that time to protect supplies and logistics along the Mississippi River in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. He resigned due to poor health on June 29, 1863.[5]

40th Wisconsin Volunteers

He returned to his ministry in Wisconsin, this time at Appleton, Wisconsin, and was also elected professor of natural science at Lawrence University, in Appleton.[5] As his health recovered, so to did his fervor to fight for the Union, and, in early 1864, he helped to raise a number of volunteers for the 40th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment—called the "Normal Regiment" due to the large number of teachers and students in the unit—and was selected as the regiment's lieutenant colonel.[5] The regiment was assigned mostly to the defense of Memphis, Tennessee, and was engaged in the defense of Memphis during the raid known as the Second Battle of Memphis, carried out by Confederate cavalry under General Nathan Bedford Forrest on August 21, 1864.[6]: 856 

49th Wisconsin Volunteers

In January 1865, Lt. Colonel Fallows was promoted to colonel and appointed to the organization of a new regiment in Madison, Wisconsin, which became the 49th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment.[4]: 231 [6]: 866  The 49th Wisconsin mustered into service on March 8, 1865, and proceeded to St. Louis and then to Rolla, Missouri, where they engaged in guard duty through the end of the war.[6]: 867  Colonel Fallows mustered out November 1, 1865.[4]: 231 

Brevet to brigadier general

On January 13, 1866, U.S. President Andrew Johnson nominated Colonel Fallows for a brevet to brigadier general of volunteers in recognition for his service. The United States Senate confirmed the brevet on March 12, 1866, and the rank was made effective retroactive to October 24, 1865.[4]: 745 

Postbellum years

Samuel Fallows's memorial article in The Broad Ax newspaper, September 30, 1922

Colonel Fallows returned to his ministry after the war and was a pastor for two of the largest churches in Milwaukee, including three years (1865–1868) as pastor of Summerfield United Methodist Church.[5] In 1866, Fallows was appointed to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents by Governor Lucius Fairchild, serving until 1874. In 1870, when the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Alexander J. Craig died in office, Fairchild appointed Fallows to fill that position. Fallows was subsequently elected in a special election for the remainder of the term in 1870 and re-elected to a full term in 1871, leaving office in January 1874.[3][7] While serving as Superintendent, Fallows earned his Doctorate of Divinity (D.D.) from Lawrence University in Appleton.[8] Throughout his postwar career, he was a public figure notable for his efforts in public education, prison reform, labor rights, and the temperance movement.[7]

In 1874, he moved to Bloomington, Illinois, and was appointed President of Illinois Wesleyan University.[2]: 239  The following year he joined the newly organized Reformed Episcopal Church and moved to Chicago, where he became Rector of St. Paul's Reformed Episcopal Church. In 1876, he became editor of the Appeal, the magazine of the church, and later that year, on July 15, he was elected Presiding Bishop of the new church.[8] He subsequently served in that role for 30 of the next 50 years.[9][10]

Monument at Forest Home Cemetery

After his service in the war, Colonel Fallows became a companion of the Illinois Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and was the chaplain of the Grand Army of the Republic. He also served as chaplain at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., just months before his own death in 1922.[4]: 231 

Fallows died after a bad case of influenza at his home in Chicago on September 5, 1922, with his daughter Alice at his bedside. He was cremated and his remains were sent to Massachusetts to be interred alongside his wife, Lucy, who had died in 1916.[11] A memorial was erected to Fallows and his wife at Forest Home Cemetery, in Forest Park, Illinois.[4]: 231 [12] At the time of his death, he was the oldest living alumni of the University of Wisconsin.[10]

Personal life and family

In 1860, Reverend Fallows married Lucy Bethia Huntington, a niece of Reverend Frederic Dan Huntington, of Massachusetts.[13] Lucy died in 1916. They had at least four children together:

  • Edward Huntington Fallows, an attorney who lived in New York
  • Major Charles Samuel Fallows, lawyer, Saratoga, California
  • Mrs. Helen Mayer Williams of San Francisco
  • Alice Katherine Fallows

Electoral history

Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction Election, 1870[14]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
General Election, November 8, 1870
Republican Samuel Fallows (incumbent) 77,928 53.07% −0.65%
Democratic Harvey B. Dale 68,903 46.93%
Plurality 9,025 6.15% -1.29%
Total votes 146,831 100.0% +12.49%
Republican hold
Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction Election, 1871[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
General Election, November 7, 1871
Republican Samuel Fallows (incumbent) 78,502 53.36% +0.29%
Democratic Warren D. Parker 68,614 46.64%
Plurality 9,888 6.72% +0.57%
Total votes 147,116 100.0% +0.19%
Republican hold

See also

References

  1. ^ Andreas, Alfred Theodore (1886). History of Chicago: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time. A. T. Andreas Company. p. 696. Retrieved November 12, 2021 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ a b "The Society and the State". Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 6. Wisconsin Historical Society. 1922. pp. 238–239, 464–465. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Turner, A. J., ed. (1873). "Official Directory: The State Officers". The legislative manual of the state of Wisconsin (Report). Madison, Wisconsin: State of Wisconsin. p. 431. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Eicher, John H.; Eicher, David J. (2001). Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press. pp. 231, 656, 745. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Bio: Rev. S. Fallows". Summerfield United Methodist Church. Archived from the original on January 18, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020 – via Wayback Machine.
  6. ^ a b c d Quiner, Edwin Bentley (1866). The Military History of Wisconsin. Chicago: Clark & Co. pp. 800, 855–857, 866–867. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  7. ^ a b "Fallows, Samuel 1835 - 1922". Wisconsin Historical Society. August 8, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  8. ^ a b Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1898). "Fallows, Samuel". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. Vol. 2 (Crane–Grimshaw). New York: D. Appleton and Company. p. 405. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  9. ^ "About the Reformed Episcopal Church". Reformed Episcopal Church. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  10. ^ a b "Bishop Fallows, Oldest Badger Graduate, Dead". Wisconsin State Journal. Chicago. September 5, 1922. p. 1. Retrieved August 10, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Mitchell, G. R. (September 24, 1922). "Comrade tells of Arduous Life led by Bishop Fallows". Wisconsin State Journal. p. 14. Retrieved August 10, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Hunt, Roger D.; Brown, Jack R. (1990). Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue. Olde Soldier Books. p. 199. ISBN 9781560130024. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  13. ^ "Wife of Bishop Fallows, Chicago, dies, aged 76". Wisconsin State Journal. Chicago. July 31, 1916. p. 3. Retrieved August 10, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Turner, A. J., ed. (1871). "Official Directory: The State Officers". The legislative manual of the state of Wisconsin (Report). Madison, Wisconsin: State of Wisconsin. p. 363. Retrieved August 10, 2020.

Notes

  1. ^ Eicher, 2001, p. 231 states that Fallows became a lecturer at and vice president of Galesburg University in 1859. An internet biography of a North Dakota governor from the early 1900s indicates there was a Galesburg University at Galesburg, Wisconsin, a small town now known as Navarino, Wisconsin, from 1853 until 1930, but research for this article yielded no other information about this school.

Further reading

Military offices
Regiment established Command of the 49th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment
January 28, 1865 – November 1, 1865 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Republican nominee for Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin
1870, 1871 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin
July 6, 1870 – January 4, 1874 		Succeeded by
Religious titles
Preceded by Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church
1877–1879 		Succeeded by
William R. Nicholson
Preceded by Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church
1889–1894 		Succeeded by
Thomas W. Campbell
Preceded by
Thomas W. Campbell
 Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church
1897–1900 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church
1902–1922 		Succeeded by
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