ACADEMY F SCENCES] WASHINGTON 69 



an unwise passion, not only unscientific and useless but detrimental; and he therefore did not 

 allow himself to be angered. His power of will, thus shown in a small way, was hardly called 

 upon to resist the greater temptations which beset many mortals, for they did not assail him. 

 His was one of those happy dispositions that was pure-minded and honorable by nature. His 

 good sense early ripened to wisdom and showed him the better paths of life, from which he 

 never departed. 



MARRIAGE AND HOME MAKING 



It was probably not Gilbert's scientific acumen so much as the other side of his nature 

 that made him an engaging companion in the social circles he frequented; unconventional 

 circles, that had, be it noted, no relation to what even the Washington of those simpler days 

 would have called "Society" with a large S. In any case he does not seem to have lacked 

 agreeable partners at evening dances or on Sunday walks. His diary for 1874 contains the 

 following brief entry among many others of less significance; January 10: "Met Fannie Porter"; 

 and according to the best judgment of the few survivors of those years, this meeting probably 

 took place at a dance at Powell's house, for the " Major, " an experienced ethnologist, regarded 

 dancing a proper pastime for the human young, and dances at his house were not infrequent. 

 Three other entries are correspondingly suggestive in view of subsequent events. Sunday 

 January 25: "A long walk to Soldiers Home &c. with Miss Fannie Porter"; Sunday, February 

 1: "P. M. with Miss Porter crossed the Long Bridge and returned via Arlington & George- 

 town," Wednesday, February 4: "Called (PPC) on Miss Porter." The Long Bridge that 

 was crossed over the Potomac would seem to have run in about the same direction as the Long 

 Walk on Boston Common that was followed in equally acceptable, indeed accepting, company 

 by Holmes's Autocrat of the Breakfast Table; for 10 months later, when Gilbert was in his 

 thirty-first year, his associates in Washington, even the most intimate of them, were surprised 

 by the announcement of Ins marriage to Fannie Porter at her home in Cambridge, Mass. 



Miss Porter was the younger sister of the wife of Gilbert's friend, Archibald Marvine, 

 who was then a member of the Hayden survey and "resident in Washington ; and it must have 

 been on the occasion of a visit of the younger sister to the elder that the meeting briefly recorded 

 on January 10, the Sunday walks, and the leave-taking call on February 4 took place. Although 

 Gilbert did not spend the Sundays of February and later months in solitude, he visited New 

 England in the following summer; and on August 4 noted in his diary: "A search for Winthrop 

 Sq. Hippodrome &c. Barnum. " The interpretation of the first entry is that Winthrop Square 

 was the residence of Mrs. Porter and her daughter in Cambridge; and after that is known the 

 second entry hardly needs elucidation. The next day's record is : " Phaeton AM. Fresh Pond 

 PM. ", and between the leaves of the diary which inclose these dates there is still pressed a 

 little three-leaved maple seedling, such as may to-day be gathered on the wooded slopes which 

 border Fresh Pond on one side. Four days later the two young persons, not so very young 

 either, but apparently suitor and suited, went to Winchendon, near the New Hampshire border, 

 to visit Miss Porter's eldest sister, Mrs. James A. Whitman, there resident; and while still in 

 that pleasant town the diary records on August 10: "A drive past the springs. Croquet. 

 Under the Trees. A boat ride. " The next day return was made to Cambridge. Several 

 days following were spent by the suitor alone in a gathering of scientists at Hartford, where 

 the summer meeting of the American Association was held, as already told; and after that 

 a fortnight was given to Rochester, when "Writing for the Tribune" on subjects unknown, 

 took some of the mornings. Sunday, August 30, was enjoyed playing with the "Full Family 

 at the Nutshell, The Intellectual Game," whatever that may have been; and the next day 

 contains the entry: " Loomis-Gilbert. No Cards." Thus the brother briefly records the 

 marriage of his sister. Washington was reached a few days later; and if questions arose there 

 as to the cause of the month's absence, Hartford and Rochester must have fully answered 

 them. 



Two months later, on Tuesday, November 10, 1874, Grove Karl Gilbert and Fanny 

 Loretta Porter were married in Cambridge. The bride was the third daughter of Joseph Porter, 

 jr., who had died 15 years before, and Susan Maria (Bent) Porter, who died December 21, 

 1874, six weeks after her daughter's departure. The Porter family was well represented at 



