SKETCH OF ASAPH HALL. 835 



his work was so changed and broken up that young Hall decided 

 to leave after he had been there but half a year. 



He went with his wife to Shalersville, Ohio, and took charge 

 of the academy there. They conducted it successfully for a year, 

 paying off all their debts and buying themselves new clothes, of 

 which they were much in need. When the school was over they 

 had no idea where to turn next. Hall wanted to go back to Ann 

 Arbor and study again, but there was a great storm on the lakes 

 at that time and his wife would not go. So they started East. He 

 had had an offer from Prof. Bond, who was in charge of the Har- 

 vard College Observatory, of three dollars a week as assistant. 

 Finally, he decided to accept it. He visited his old home in the 

 summer, and in the fall of 1857 he took his wife to Cambridge and 

 began his career as an astronomer. 



Very few young married men of this day would like to start in 

 a profession at the age of twenty-nine on a salary of three dollars 

 a week. But young Hall expected he would be able to pick up 

 outside work. He thought he could pursue his study in mathe- 

 matics under Prof. Benjamin Peirce, then at Harvard. So he 

 entered on his new life full of hope. He took a couple of rooms 

 on Concord Avenue, near the observatory, and began housekeep- 

 ing. He soon found he could not carry out all his plans. There 

 was some quarrel between Prof. Peirce and Prof. Bond, and he 

 could not study with the former without offending his employer. 

 He had to give up that plan. His work at the observatory re- 

 quired long hours, but he managed to study a little by himself. 

 He studied mathematics and German at the same time by trans- 

 lating a German mathematical work. His little income was all 

 eaten up by simply the room rent. In order to live he had to do 

 outside work. By computing, making almanacs, and observing 

 moon culminations he doubled his salary and managed to scrape 

 along. His wife worked by his side faithfully, encouraging him, 

 helping him in his studies, and doing all the housework with her 

 own hands. Hall soon became a rapid, accurate, and skillful com- 

 puter. Soon his employers saw how valuable he was, and they 

 gradually increased his pay, till at last he drew a salary of six 

 hundred dollars a year. 



He stayed in the Cambridge Observatory till the year 1862. At 

 that time the war had been going on for a year. The officers at the 

 Naval Observatory at AVashington had gone off into the service of 

 either the North or the South. Men were needed to fill their places. 

 Hall was recommended to fill a position there. It was a good 

 opening. He went to Washington, passed an examination, and 

 was offered a place. In the fall of 1863 he went down to Wash- 

 ington to begin his work. The city was then in a ferment. Many 

 of the officeholders were from the South. All sorts of jealousies 



