Herbert Goldsmith Squiers

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

Army officer and diplomatist; b. at Madoc, Canada, 20 April, 1859; d. at London, 19 Oct., 1911. The son of John I. and Elizabeth Squiers, he was educated at Canandaigua Academy, Minnesota Military Academy, Maryland Agricultural School, and Fordham University (A.M. and LL.D.); in 1877 he became second lieutenant, U.S. Army, and from 1885 to 1890 U.S. military instructor at St. John's College, Fordham; he left to join his regiment, the 7th Cavalry, at the Indian Battle of Wounded Knee, and resigned as first lieutenant, 1891. In 1894 he became second Secretary at the legation at Berlin, and in 1898 first Secretary at the legation at Peking, where he and his family were received into the Church by Archbishop Favier; during the siege of the Legations, 1900, he was chief of staff under Sir Claude Macdonald, the British Minister to China, who with de Giers, the Russian Minister, pronounced "Mr. Squiers's services invaluable in keeping people and things together in the midst of exaggerated racial feelings"; for his "bravery and distinguished services" he was formally thanked by the British Government and by President McKinley. In 1902 he was appointed Minister to Cuba; he resigned in 1905 but was the next year appointed Minister to Panama, in both of which offices his tact and firmness and his Catholic faith were of immense service to all in solving many complicated questions of these early days. He was devoted to his Church, and was very charitable but unostentatiously so. He helped many deserving students to a Catholic education. One of his last acts was to establish at the Catholic University two burses of $250 each for ten years. Broken in health by eight years in the tropics; he spent the last two years of his life cruising in European waters. His last words after receiving the last rites were: "I am alone with God". His wonderful collection of antique Chinese porcelain was purchased for him by Mr. Pethick, the famous connoisseur. Many were bought to assist Chinese friends. His first wife, Helen L. Fargo (m. 1881, d. 1886), left him four children, Gladys (Mrs. Rousseau), Georgia (Mrs. H. Whitman), Fargo (d. 1906), and Helen. In 1889 he married Harriette Bard Woodcock, who survives him, with their sons Herbert G., Bard, and John Astor Squiers.

HOOKER, Behind the Scenes in Peking (New York); MARTIN, Siege of Peking (1900); SMITH, China in Convulsions (1901).

JOHN SCULLY