1821-1888
E. G. Squier was born in 1821 in Bethlehem, New York. Squier studied civil engineering, considered education and law, but finally turned to journalism hoping to find fame. He gave up an editing job at the Literary Pearl in Charlton, New York to work for a unionist magazine, the New York State Mechanic in Albany in 1841. When the New York State Mechanic failed in 1843, Squier became editor of the Whig Daily Journal in Hartford, Connecticut. After the candidate he was supporting, Henry Clay, lost the presidential election of 1844 and Squier's paper was sold, he moved to Ohio.
Despite his obligations at the Scioto Gazette in Chillicothe, Ohio, most of his time there was spent researching Indian mounds. This research led to his most famous and influential publication, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Squier's interest grew to include the ancient civilizations of Central America. In order to study the aboriginal ruins there he became the United States Charge d'affaires to Central America in 1849. While there, he not only performed archaeological studies, but also persuaded the British to agree to sign the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. Once back in the United States, he published many works about Central America, such as Nicaragua: Its People, Scenery, Monuments (1852), The States of Central America (1858), Notes on Central America: Particularly the States of Honduras and San Salvador (1855), Honduras: Descriptive Historical and Statistica l(1870), and Travels in Central America, Particularly in Nicaragua (1860).
Until the project failed, Squier worked as Secretary of the Honduras Interoceanic Railway Company. He was married in 1858 to Miriam Florence Folline in New Orleans, but four years later was sent to Peru as United States Commissioner by President Lincoln. This led to another book, Peru; Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas (1877).Squier returned to New York and became the Consul General in 1868. In 1874, a year after his divorce, he was declared insane. E. G. Squier died in Brooklyn in 1888.
Ephraim George Squier Papers/Latin American Library/Tulane University
www.biography.com-Squier, Ephraim George
Written by Andrea Morris