314 THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 



and was mustered into the service of the United States 

 in October, 1861. He united his company with the Ninety- 

 seventh Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers as Com- 

 pany H. Captain Mcllvaine filled many important staff 

 and military positions, and served his country with distinc- 

 tion and bravery, until compelled to resign on account of 

 ill-health on June 10, 1863. 



His early education was received at the hands of 

 private teachers and at the public schools of Indian Town 

 and Brandywine Manor. He afterwards spent eighteen 

 months at the Northwest Grammar School of Philadelphia, 

 but was compelled to leave there at the age of thirteen 

 because of failing health. Being fond of reading and study, 

 he has been a hard student since that age, and may be 

 called a self-educated man. 



With the exception of letters written upon art matters 

 while in Europe in 1873 and 1874, Captain Mcllvaine pub- 

 lished but little until 1881, when he became a contributor 

 to the Detroit Free Press, in which he has published many 

 humorous poems and prose sketches, in the dialect of the 

 West Virginia mountaineers, under his nom de plume of 

 " Tobe Hodge." The " Tim Price " yarns and " Powerful 

 Temperance," humorous sketches, and the stories of the 

 " The Twins of Weasel Branch," " The Ghost of Aaron's 

 Prong," and " The Waifs of Fighting Rocks," met with 

 great popular favor. Under his nom de plume and proper 

 name he has contributed to nearly all the leading American 

 magazines, and is, under his proper name, a well-known 

 writer upon scientific subjects edible and non-edible fungi 

 being his specialty. Puck, Judge, and Harper's publications 

 and others, published much of his humorous work, signed 



