FAIRFIELD, Francis Gerry, journalist, born in Stafford, Connecticut, 18 August, 1844; died in New York City, 4 April, 1887. He was educated at a private school in Massachusetts, at the Pennsylvania College in Gettysburg, and finished his course in a Lutheran theological seminary. When only twenty years of age he was placed in charge of a Lutheran Church in Waterloo, New York After about two years he abandoned his calling and came to New York City, which became his home. Here he was at first employed in the editorial department of the " Home Journal," and later wrote for the "Daily News," the "Herald," and other papers. He then went to Mexico, where he was an eyewitness at the execution of Maximilian, an account of which he furnished to several journals. On his return to New York City he became a space writer for several newspapers, and contributed poems, sketches, short stories, and literary criticisms to various periodicals. Tempted by the prospect of greater emoluments, Fairfield for a brief period followed the pursuit of a veterinary surgeon. Disappointed, he returned to his former occupation, and at the last was employed as an occasional writer for the New York "Sunday Mercury" and Albany "Argus." Fairfield, in the best period of his life, was a forcible and incisive writer, and his signed articles were always read with attention. But he became addicted to the morphine habit, and gave way to mental vagaries and irregularities that eventually reduced him to poverty. He published "The Clubs of New York" (New York, 1873), and "Ten Years with Spiritual Mediums" (1875).