American author, born in Homer, NY, on the 24th of September 1835. After graduation at Rochester University in 1858, he entered journalism, and worked upon The Daily Ledger of Chicago and the Champaign Central Illinois Gazette. He became interested in politics, and was active in behalf of Abraham Lincoln. After Lincoln’s election to the Presidency in 1861, Stoddard was appointed his private secretary, an office he retained until 1864, when he resigned to become United States marshal for Arkansas. His stories are mostly for boys, and include Saltillo Boys (1882); The Red Beauty (1887); On the Old Frontier (1893); The Captain’s Boat (1894); Chumley’s Post (1895); and The Partners (1895). He is also the author of Table-Talk of Abraham Lincoln (1894). See also “A Picture,” “The Sentinel Year” and “The Prairie Plover.”
