834 ' '^HE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fashion he wanted to know the reasons of things ; so he kept 

 picking up some knowledge of mathematics to help him under- 

 stand his business. In the summer he was busy with carpenter 

 work, but in the winter he generally went home. He did the 

 chores on the farm in the early morning and at night, and went 

 to school besides. As he learned more he decided to study and 

 become an architect. He managed to spend one winter in Nor- 

 folk, Conn., under the instruction of the Principal of the Norfolk 

 Academy. There he went through algebra and six books of 

 geometry. 



When he was twenty-five years old he had saved a little money 

 from his carpenter work. Through the New York Tribune he 

 saw that there was a college at McGrawville, N. Y., where a 

 young man could earn his living and get an education at the same 

 time. He decided to go to this college. So in the summer of 1854 

 he set out for Central College, as it was called. When he got 

 there he found it was a very different place from what he had 

 expected. It was open to both sexes and all colors, and was the 

 gathering place of a queer set of cranks of all sorts. The teach- 

 ing was poor, but still to the green country youth the experience 

 was of immense value. His views were broadened and changed. 

 He stayed at the college only a year and a half. In that time he 

 went through algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, and studied 

 some French and Latin. He soon proved himself to be by far the 

 best mathematician in the college. 



One of the students was a young woman named Angeline 

 Stickney. She was a country girl of great sensibility and of fine 

 mental qualities. She Avas working her way through college, and 

 as a senior she helped in the teaching. Asaph Hall was one of her 

 pupils in mathematics. Many were the problems he and his class- 

 mates contrived to puzzle their teacher, but they never "were suc- 

 cessful. When she was graduated Asaph Hall was engaged to her. 

 He decided that he had stayed long enough at McGrawville. His 

 money was about gone, and the college was poor. So in 1855 they 

 set out together for Wisconsin. Angeline Stickney had a brother 

 there, and she stayed at his house while Asaph tramped about the 

 country in search of a school where they could teach. No school 

 was open for them. They became tired of the flat, sickly country, 

 and when spring came they decided to leave. On the 31st of March, 

 1856, they were married. Then they started for Ann Arbor. 

 Asaph entered the sophomore and junior classes in Ann Arbor 

 University, studying mathematics and astronomy under Prof. 

 Briinnow. He found he could do good work in both these 

 branches. His teacher encouraged him greatly. It was from 

 him that he acquired his taste for astronomy. Prof. Briinnow 

 was an excellent teacher, but he had trouble with his classes, and 



