844 FRANCIS AMASA WALKER. 



has afforded the writer more pleasure than the privilege, in association 



with Mr. A. W. Grabau, of giving the name of our friend to the glacial 



lake which once adorned that region, and was a controlling factor in the 



development of the surface geology. Mr. Bouve lived long enough to 



note the general and cordial acceptance of this name ; and I venture to 



hope that it may long endure as a fitting memorial of this earliest and 



most devoted student of the geology of the district which embraces Lake 



Bouve. 



W. 0. Crosby. 



FRANCIS AMASA WALKER. 



Francis Amasa Walker, late President of the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology, and a Fellow of this Academy from October, 1882, 

 was born in Boston, July 2, 1840, and died of apoplexy in that city, 

 January 5, 1897. 



His father, the late Araasa Walker of North Brookfield, was a well 

 known figure in the political life of Massachusetts for many years. He 

 was a leader in the Free Soil movement of 1848, and in the subsequently 

 combiued opposition to the Whig party. He served in each branch of the 

 Legislature, was for two years Secretary of the Commonwealth, was a Pres- 

 idential Elector in 1860, and a member of the lower House of Congress 

 for the session of 1862-63. From 1842 to 1848 he lectured on pohti- 

 cal economy in Oberlin College, and was afterwards a frequent wi-iter for 

 periodicals, especially upon topics connected with finance and banking, in 

 which he also showed special interest when in Congress. From 1859 to 

 1869 he was Lecturer upon Political Economy in Amherst College, pub- 

 lishing during that time his well known book, the " Science of Wealth," 

 and died in 1875. 



Francis Amasa Walker, the son, thus grew up with an inherited predilec- 

 tion and aptitude for economic study, strengthened by the associations of 

 boyhood and youth. When he graduated from Amherst College in 1860, 

 however, his first step was to enter as a student of law the office of 

 Charles Devens and George F. Hoar of Worcester, — both gentlemen des- 

 tined, like himself, soon to attain national reputation. On the breaking 

 out of the Civil War in 1861, Mr. Devens at first took the field as 

 an officer of militia, and, when later he raised the Fifteenth Regiment 

 of Massachusetts Infantry in Worcester County, young Walker en- 

 listed and was mustered into the service as Sergeant Major, August 1, 

 1861. Ten days later, he was commissioned and assigned to the staff of 



