American philologist and educationalist, born on the 25th of October 1825 in Millbury, MA. He graduated in 1845 at Amherst, where his attention was turned to the study of Anglo-Saxon by Noah Webster. He was a teacher at Swanzey, NH, and at the Leicester Academy, MA, in 1845–1847, and attempted the philological method of teaching English “like Latin and Greek,” later described in his Method of Philological Study of the English Language (1865); at Amherst in 1847–1849; at Fredericksburg, VA, in 1852–1855; and in 1855 became a tutor at Lafayette College, where he became adjunct professor of belles-lettres and English literature in 1856, and professor of English language and comparative philology—the first chair of the kind established—in 1857. He lectured on constitutional and public law and Roman law in 1875–1877, and also taught subjects as diverse as botany and political economy. In 1907 he became professor emeritus. At Lafayette he introduced the first carefully scientific study of English in any American college, and in 1870 published A Comparative Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Language, in which its Forms are Illustrated by Those of the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Gothic, Old Saxon, Old Friesic, Old Norse and Old High German, and An Anglo-Saxon Reader; he was editor of the “Douglass Series of Christian Greek and Latin Classics,” to which he contributed Latin Hymns (1874); he was chairman of the Commission of the State of Pennsylvania on Amended Orthography; and was consulting editor of the Standard Dictionary, and in 1879–1882 was director of the American readers for the Philological Society’s (New Oxford) Dictionary. He was president of the American Philological Association in 1873–1874 and in 1895–1896, of the Spelling Reform Association after 1876, and of the Modern Language Association in 1891–1893. Among American linguistic scholars March ranks with Whitney, Child and Gildersleeve; and his studies in English, though practically pioneer work in America, are of undoubted value. His article “On Recent Discussions of Grimm’s Law” in the Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association for 1873 in large part anticipated Verner’s law. With his son, Francis Andrew March, jun. (1863–1928), adjunct-professor of modern languages in 1884–1891 and subsequently professor of English literature at Lafayette, he edited A Thesaurus Dictionary of the English Language (1903). He died at Easton, PA, on the 9th of September 1911.
See Addresses in Honor of Professor Francis A. March, LL.D., L.H.D., delivered at Easton, PA, on the 24th of October 1895.
His son, Peyton Conway March (1864–1955), American soldier, was born at Easton, PA, on the 27th of December 1864. He graduated from Lafayette College in 1884 and four years later from the U.S. Military Academy, being commissioned second lieutenant. In 1894 he was appointed first lieutenant. He graduated from the Artillery school in 1898, and on the outbreak of the Spanish-American War went to the Philippines as captain of volunteers, in charge of the Astor battery. He remained there three years, being promoted major of volunteers in 1899 and lieutenant-colonel in 1900. After honourable discharge from volunteer service in 1901 he was appointed captain of artillery in the regular army. From 1903 to 1907 he was a member of the General Staff and in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War was with the Japanese army in Russia as observer. He was promoted major in 1907, lieutenant-colonel in 1912, and colonel in 1916. Soon after America’s entrance into the World War in 1917 he was made a brigadier-general, regular army, and later major-general of the national army, and in September 1917 major-general of the regular army. In 1917 he was with General Pershing in France in charge of the American artillery forces. In March 1918 he was appointed acting chief-of-staff, and the following May chief-of-staff with the rank of general, U.S. army. The same year he was awarded the D.S.M. He also received honours from many foreign powers. In July 1920 his rank reverted to that of major-general and at his own request he was retired from active service on October 31, 1921. See also Cambridge History.
