"Obituary: Chief Engineer John Faron, U.S.N."
The best information that can be obtained from Rear-Admiral Farragut's fleet in Mobile bay, places it beyond a doubt that all the officers of the ill-fated Tecumseh went down in her; hence her Chief Engineer, John Faron, must be numbered with the noble band of heroes who sacrificed their lives in the defence of the only flag that represents true liberty.
Chief Engineer Faron entered the service in 1849, being appointed from the State of New Jersey, of which he was a native. His first duty was at Norfolk, Va., as assistant superintendent of the machinery of the U.S. steam-frigate Powhatan, under the direction of William Sewell, late Chief Engineer in the Navy. Upon the completion of the vessel, he was attached to her as one of her officers, and served three years and a half in her, making a cruise in the Gulf, thence to China and Japan; the vessel at that time forming a part of the expedition, under the late Commodore Perry. When the Atlantic cable was to be laid, Chief Engineer, was ordered to the Niagara, as Senior Assistant, and preformed valuable service in connection with that enterprise.
Chief Engineer Faron was in charge of the engine department of the San Jacinto when Slidell and Mason were captured, and performed his part of the duty to the entire satisfaction of Captain Wilkes, since which time he has been superintendent of Monitors built at Secor's iron ship-building yard at Jersey City. During the passage of the Monitor Weehawken from New Jersey to Charleston, she encountered a very severe gale, and was near being lost, but the extraordinary skill and exertions of Chief Faron saved her from going down with all on board, which fact is attested in a letter given him by her commander, John Rodgers. Some few weeks before the Tecumseh was ready to be commissioned, Chief Engineer Faron was ordered to the Quintard battery Onondaga, but preferring to go to sea in a vessel of his own construction, he succeeded in getting detached and ordered to the Tecumseh, which has proved to be his coffin, as the saying is. If he had remained in the Onondaga he might still have been enjoying this life, as the Onondaga is still intact; but such is life.
On the morning of the attack, he crawled out of a sick bed at the hospital at Pensacola, and joined his ship, to render what feeble assistance he could, intending to return as soon as the fight was over; "but man proposes, and God 'disposes.'" Few, if any, have ever departed this life leaving such paucity of enemies behind, as the subject of this sketch. He was warm-hearted and generous to a fault. The service has lost a warm friend and an accomplished officer, and the engineer corps one of its brightest jewels.
He leaves a beautiful and accomplished wife and four children to mourn his untimely fate; but they have the consolation that his life was given to the Republic.
