American author and archæologist; born in Bethlehem, Albany County, NY, June 17, 1821. He first devoted himself to teaching for a livelihood and then studied civil engineering. In 1841 he went to Albany and became connected with the daily press of that city. In 1845 he accepted the editorship of the Scioto Gazette, published at Chillicothe, OH. He here began investigating the antiquities of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, the results of which were published under the title of Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. In 1846 he was elected clerk of the Ohio house of representatives. After the election of President Taylor, Mr. Squier was appointed chargé d’affaires to Central America. He was Honduras Consul in New York in 1868. He made extensive contributions to the Encyclopædia Britannica, and published The States of Central America (1857 and 1870); Tropical Fibres and Their Economic Extraction (1861); and Peru, Incidents and Explorations in the Land of the Incas (1877). He died in Brooklyn, NY, on the 17th of April 1888.
