ii2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Gottingen student of those days. The accounts of Bismarck's career 

 give a good idea of what this life was. Upon one occasion Eugen gave a 

 dinner to some of his student friends. Instead of paying for the score 

 himself, he sent the bill to his father. When his father rebuked him 

 for this, he took violent offence. Without mentioning the matter to 

 either of his parents, he made up his mind to leave home and go to the 

 United States. A day or two after that incident he left for Bremen to 

 take ship for New York. Upon learning of this, the father promptly 

 did his utmost to induce Eugen to return home, and, when failing in 

 his endeavor, offered him money for the journey. Eugen remained in 

 New York until his money was spent. Then he enlisted in the army 

 of the United States as a private soldier. He was transferred with 

 other enlisted men to a post at St. Peters in Minnesota. He had been 

 there but a short time, when the officers of the post discovered that he 

 was an educated man and, desirous of relieving him of the more onerous 

 duties, placed him in charge of a small library at the post. After 

 having served five years in the army, Eugen entered the service of the 

 American Fur Co. and for about four years spent most of his time at 

 Fort Pierre in South Dakota. It was about this time that his brother 

 Joseph Gauss came to the United States to examine American railways. 

 He brought with him letters of introduction to General Scott and other 

 prominent men. He wrote his brother, offering to use his influence to 

 secure him a commission in the army. This offer Eugen declined, as 

 he had other plans laid out for himself. Shortly after a visit in 1840 

 to his brother Wilhelm, who had by this time come to America, Eugen 

 settled in St. Charles, Mo., where he engaged in business. In 1885 he 

 removed to a farm near Columbia, Mo., where he died in 1896. What- 

 ever estrangement may at first have existed between Eugen and his 

 father on account of his departure from home against his father's will 

 wa t noc of long duration. One of the letters received by Eugen from 

 his fisher in Gottingen was written shortly after Eugen informed him 

 of his intention to marry. It was cordial and affectionate. The orig- 

 inal of this letter is now in the Lick Observatory. 2 



The youngest son, Wilhelm, came to America in 1837, with the 

 consent and approval of his father. He went on a sailing vessel to New 

 Orleans and from there traveled up the Mississippi to Missouri. Just 

 before leaving Germany, he had married Louisa Aletta Fallenstein, a 

 niece on her mother's side to the mathematician Bessel. In the pub- 

 lished Gauss-Bessel correspondence mention of the young couple is fre- 

 quently made. In 1855 he located permanently in the city of St. Louis, 

 where he was engaged in the wholesale mercantile business until' the 



2 For a copy of this letter and for additional details relative to the life and 

 intellectual qualities of Eugen Gauss, as well as information relating to other 

 descendants of C. F. Gauss in America, see an article, ' ' Carl Friedrich Gauss 

 and his Children," in Science, N. S., Vol. IX., 1899, pp. 697-704. 



